Random Sewing and Embroidery Projects…

February 2, 2009 at 11:07 am (Crocheting, Handmade Products, Product Review, Sewing, Sprouting, Vegan)
Tags: embroidery, hemp bags, organic yarn, Sewing, sprout bags, vegan embroidery floss, vegan yarn

I’ve discovered that storing sprouts (and produce in general) in my hempbags works great.

Yes, that’s a (quasi)French Seam on a sprout bag! What can I say? Haha, I love me, my Frenchies. They won’t be breaking out of that bag anytime soon!

These are really good for keeping the sprouts from both drying out and getting wet and moldy. Is there anything hemp can’t do?!

Anyway, my Ooh-la-la sprout bag is full of sprouts 😀

I do a little embroidery on my hempbags, haha. Of course a little birdie is my favorite:

Closer look at the little chirpie:

Another hempbag for storing sprouts

This is embroidery I did on another hempbag for storing my sprouty-sprouts 😀

Yes, it’s missing something, ha!

Ah, here we go :D:

Fini!

Just simple stuff. I’m nowhere near an expert on embroidery — obviously! There are some beautiful stitches, most of which I’ve not learned, lol. Some day, some day…

Here is a simple tote bag I made for shopping (it’s unlined), out of some lovely plain hemp fabric:

This is a dress I made for this past hot summer. I love this Japanese fabric! I screwed up on the straps, which you can’t see in this photo ;).  But it’s comfy and cool. I need to fix it, though (!)

Herr are some closeups of this fabric:

Ah, l love it:

Last year, I needed some new pin cushions, so I made this mega-mama globe one and two mediums out of scrap fabric:

I had leftover fabric so made some summer hair bands (NOT head bands!)

Front/Top of head

Back/at the nape

Scrap fabric is great, by the way. When I go to a fabric shop, I  head toward the scrap bin and can find very good-quality expensive pieces marked down to 90%!  Of course, the pieces are cut and you need to consider that; but they are great for small projects. If lucky, you can find large pieces and make some  great things out of fabric you’d never pay for at regular price! Bargain bins are awesome 🙂

Pj shorts for hot summer nights. Kinda sloppy sewing job…but these are one of my favorites and most comfy

And speaking of scrap fabric…I got both these pink fabrics from the scrap bin. The lining was a real bargain. This bag holds some of my crocheting and embroidery tools and yarns, etc. I made this tote, lined with solid pink fabric; and a nice large pocket; a little embroidery; and used easy-peasy sew-on velcro for the closure… in retrospect, not the best choice! Ummm, yarns and embroidery floss sticks to it? HellO?!  lol. Oh, well, it works just great anyway 😉

One side:

The 0ther

My artistic genius! …NOT

Speaking of not the best choice, Lol. I made this muslin (thank Goodness!) of a Simplicity pattern. Simplicity is anything but! I redeemed myself by being smart enough to make a muslin first and not waste good fabric. I liked the pattern, but Simplicity sizes really suck…for me, anyway. They don’t fit right. This dress design also didn’t look right on me. Perhaps, if I were a REAL seamstress, I could have fixed it; but I really didn’t like the empire band — or, I did like the band, just not the way it is sewn on to the dress. Hard to explain, but it just didn’t look right, once worn. It should be form-fitting in that area; but the band sort of hangs and is loose…

Anyway, I always make a muslin first! That’s the best lesson I ever learned about sewing, lol.

Oh, more jammies…one of my Halloween drawstring pants! Haha. Yes, I wore these around the house and to bed, of course. My kinda lingerie!

I love these comfy ones. They are thin flannel, which is perfect for California “winters.” It has just has a comfy simple elastic band — oh,and great color! 😀

One thing that is difficult to find is organic, environmentally friendly embroidery floss! It’s just not available, actually. I did a lot of research and contacted many manufacturers and there is no demand at this time — sadly 😦 There are, however LOTS of organic yarns! So for crocheting and knitting projects, it’s great (but expensive, of course).

What I did find which was AWESOME-awesome-awesome (!) was that NearSea Naturals sells a line of very thin “fingerling” hemp yarn.  They are all really gorgeous. I thought (hoped) that just maybe they’d be thin enough to use as embroidery…So, I ordered some samples of various vegan yarns…

samples of the hemp yarn:

Handspun Sari recycled yarns:

This is banana “silk,” which is also vegan:

Unfortunately the banana and sari don’t work well for embroidery! lol. But the fingerling hemp yarns were a score! They are, of course, a bit rougher; but that rustic feel and look is just fine, and not really noticeable unless you’re really looking close. They lack the shine of regular floss, but that’s not a big deal to me. I think my embroidery above looks just great and doesn’t need to be flossy 🙂

I’ve not worked with the Sari or banana “silk,” but would like to get to it someday. All of them are just beautiful.

NearSea also has beautiful organic cotton yarns. I got the golden to crochet a throw blanket. It’s gorgeous yarn:

Much thicker than I anticipated:

Unfortunately, lots of unevenness:

and knots, Ugh!

Still, I’m planning on ordering more in the other colors :). I believe I may have found them at a lower price; I’m sure I bookmarked it somewhere. The colors are stunning. Nothing beats the beauty of natural and organic wares 🙂

Strix