sketchbook : week 63
All posts by annwood
very small doll work
Please meet miss thistle and miss laurel – tiny rag dolls #1 and #2. Little ladies in fancy underwear. They have dresses too and wool shawls for chilly nights.
They were such fun to make – I’ve been working on the design for a while – working out details like tiny dresses that can come off and on without being too fiddly. Tiny is difficult – they would be easier to make if they were larger but I particularly love their size. I’m thinking of creating a sewing pattern – what do you think? Are you for or against very tiny sewing?
Miss thistle and miss laurel are in the shop now along with lots of mini toadstool specimens and an indigo owl and large mushroom.
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Find patterns to make your own tiny dolls and toadstools here:
pixie toadstools and mr. cups
Meet Mr. Cups! My new helper – I found him upstate in a fabulously junky junk shop – he makes a very cheery pin holder. I love the way his details are painted – I looked him up and found out he was made in Japan in the forties and there is a Mrs. – I’m on the look out. He helped me make lots of mini toadstools – pixie size fungi made from little scraps.
I used the mini size from the little mushroom sewing pattern – just big enough for someone’s pocket.
They’re fun to make in a batch and easy to travel with – just a little bag of scraps and a few supplies. I always use wool stuffing – it gives them a nice sponginess and you can fine tune the shape.
PS -There’s a print version of the sewing pattern too – a 16 page booklet.
I hope you make a batch of sweet mini fungi! Use #annwoodpattern on instagram to share.
Do you get my free weekly-ish newsletter? There are tips and tricks, ideas, stuff to try, all the latest news and blogposts and extra stuff, just for subscribers, delivered mostly on Friday. Pretty much.
sketchbook : week 62
Week 62 in my sketchbook practice.
what’s in my drawers
You know – the good ones- not the messy ones overstuffed with un-filed receipts and mail and pens that don’t work (I have those too). The drawers with good messes – those are the ones I want to show you – jumbles of stuff I use everyday mixed with stuff I like to look at, the things that are part of my process and inspiration – things I love and things I’m thinking about.
For someone who is quite tight on space I am pretty frivolous with easy access storage – for example I keep my paper snowflakes in a drawer right under my sewing machine. It’s not the most practical use of that prime space but there is the significant spiritual benefit of seeing paper snow flakes cut by a friend everyday to consider. And – although it is unlikely – if there ever is some sort of paper snowflake emergency I am ready.
I like looking at peoples stuff – their treasures -what they choose – what they hold onto. If you feel like showing me what’s in your drawers – please use #whatsinmydrawers on instagram – (I’m @annwood there).
Do you get my free weekly-ish newsletter? There are tips and tricks, ideas, stuff to try, all the latest news and blogposts and extra stuff, just for subscribers, delivered mostly on Friday. Pretty much.
sketchbook week 61
Week 61 in my sketchbook practice.
edwardian mosquitos
Mosquitos! Delicate mosquitos, hand stitched from Edwardian garments. I wonder what she would think, the 19th century girl who floated across lawns in the gown their wings are made from. They are mischievous ladies who will bite! But they will be so gentle you won’t feel a thing. There is a special place in my heart for the less sympathetic creatures – the rats and bats and spiders and who is less loved than mosquitos?
“It is your hateful little trump
You pointed fiend,
Which shakes my sudden blood to hatred of you:
It is your small, high, hateful bugle in my ear.”
The Mosquito
BY D. H. LAWRENCE
I made 6 – I had a truly marvelous time – completely lost in them for days. They are all in the shop (there are some songbirds too).
sketchbook : week 60
Week 60 in my sketchbook practice.
indigo owl, the may forest and songbirds
I packed up some sewing (including the Sri Threads indigo owl above) this past weekend and headed into the Adirondacks – it was cold and quiet and wet and lovely. More and more lately I appreciate a vacation from the interwebs and it was my first walk in the big, wild woods since last year.
get the owl sewing pattern
I needed the break – the air and the quiet badly – my pace has been frantic for weeks – not a very nice thing to do to myself. I should stop it. It was perfect- everything there is just waking up – little bits of new green beginning and birds are returning.
You may recall that last year I discovered that Eastern Phoebes collected my little scraps and threads and bits of stuffing for their nest. I did my little bird friends a solid and left out some extra this time – they liked the wool especially!
get the songbird sewing pattern
I brought my songbirds to finish and photograph too. The grey, misty day and evergreens made a perfect backdrop.
sketchbook : week 59
Week 59 in my sketchbook practice.
paper swans – new in the cake topper department
Paper swans are in the shop! (A kit is coming later this spring – i just got a big crate of supplies). I had such a good time photographing them. I think I made them mostly because I wanted to photograph them – I have lots of plans for more. I bought the blue velvet box above 20 years ago – my first year in NY and it’s been on my mind lately. I love that peacock blue, the patina and the little silver latch- it looks like it has a marvelous story. It’s one of those things I love so much just as it is I couldn’t make anything with it. It was perfect for this photo – the color combination surprised me and I love it. Lot’s more swan photos below and if you have questions please get in touch.
And P. S. – the cake toppers have their own instagram account now – you can find it here.
(spying on swans)
songbird work
I can never remember where I parked my car or what I had for lunch but I have an excellent fabric memory – sort of. I have clear and very distinct memories of the fabrics of my childhood – my whole life really. I think I could draw them all – maybe I’ll try. And now, even if a tiny scrap has bee tucked away for years, it’s cataloged in my head, just not very specifically……. I was absolutely positive that the fabulous little blue scrap in the photo below was here somewhere. Positive. And positive that that blue songbird had to have it. Had to. And it was – that one little piece – in the only place it could be – at the very bottom of the very last box I looked in.
I’ve been working on this group of Sri Threads songbirds for weeks and they are just about ready. I was hoping for this week but I’m still climbing out of a crappy spring cold and everything is in slow motion. Some of these and a few other things will be in the shop next week sometime (sign up here to be notified by email if you like).
You can find the sewing pattern to make this bird in the shop, there is a print and pdf version and there is a free tutorial on how to make a realistic bird foot right here.
And when you join the mailing list you get a coupon code for 20% off your pattern purchase.