Crafty Musings

It is too cold to be out in the garden for very long. Yesterday we cut our visit to Freshwinds short, as we just wanted to get home and light the fire.

Today I just about managed to sow more sweetpeas but only because it was in the greenhouse.

I have been marveling lately about my crafting hobby and how far it has come in nearly 40 years.

And I`m not talking about how I have improved!!

As a little girl, I learnt to sew at 2 years old. 

Here I am on my Granny`s front doorstep, sewing.

As I grew older, I raided the ragbag to make dolls clothes etc but was usually frustrated by lack of skills and lack of the right fabrics.

This may be the reason I have sooooo much fabric now.

The first patterns I remember were the ones that came free in magazines such as Womans Weekly. Jean Greenhowe regularly appeared, with tiny toys which delighted the children in the family.....tiny mice, hamsters, little cows, puppies in slippers etc.

Armed with tracing paper, ruler, pencils, scissors I carefully traced and cut out the patterns storing them in old recycled envelopes.

For bigger patterns I enlisted the help of Steve who was very good at enlarging patterns using a grid, usually hand drawn. It was a very long winded process.

Here are some of my books.

And here is a sample of the grid system.

With this system I managed very well and made many many toys and presents, 

usually from recycled fabrics.

Here is a selection from 1979 for a toy sale.

(Note my two Singer machines.)

Whoever would have thought that I would have a photocopier at home, let alone a computer and printer, with the world at my fingertips, a camera to take photos that I can store myself, an electric sewing machine and as much fabric as I care to buy.

How times have changed!

More about how I do things now, in my next blog entry.