Category: on my work table

October is for sewing

October 5, 2016

by annwood

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Maybe it’s my favorite – or maybe tied with March – I like the blustery months. It is just so extraordinarily pleasant – perfect days. And I’m sewing a ton – hours and hours of hand sewing every day after a longer than usual phase of other things – planning workshops for next year, teaching, making sewing patterns etc. – there was a lot to swim through so I could sit and sew again.

I’m making lots of songbirds- some Fortuny – like the birds above and some from antique garments.

I’m also making owls, and rats, building ships and working on a new shape – a new creature.

make this songbird

Most of the finished things above are headed off on a special mission in the UK but I do plan to have lots of things in my shop soon and will be sending creatures to the Fortuny showroom in Manhattan next week.

And check back for progress on the new shape I’m working on – it is another of the often less loved creatures and one I have a complicated relationship with…….

handmade postcards and a sneak peek: the first print pattern

September 21, 2016

by annwood

For a brief moment – a while back – I was making hand drawn postcards to include in packages. Lovely to do and they made packing and shipping more fun but not a super rational or realistic time management decision. A good exercise though – it woke up a drawing muscle I don’t use often – simple line drawings. They are quick and definite and it’s a kind of drawing that is peaceful for me and I can get deeply focused pretty quickly.

It started wheels turning in my head about making illustrations for my patterns and getting them in print. The wheels started turning and that was pretty much it – one of those things that felt too big and scary to start – I sat on the idea for a few more weeks. I could and maybe should out- source the illustrations but I wanted to do at least one pattern myself. I have illustrated in an official capacity before – it is a little known fact that I illustrated a cook book – Jasper White’s Summer Shack Cook Book – A Complete Guide To Shore Food. All Jasper’s cookbooks are great and this one is my favorite – it has a gazillion illustrations – all pen and ink – I did the “how to” technical stuff as well as the fun stuff. I ate so much lobster I couldn’t be near it for two years.

Since there is nothing like a credible threat for productivity I decided to take tiny rag doll kits – with full printed instructions – to my doll workshop at Squam last week as an extra for my students (more on that soon). It is amazing how quickly you can figure things out when it has got to get done. I decided very late the Friday before my Wednesday departure and started drawing like a madman – all day – everyday and usually into the night. I formatted the pages in photoshop and figured out how to turn it into a booklet – quickly. The deadline was magic – I brought it to the retreat (so glad I did – it’s a fun travel project) and had a chance to tidy it up and make some adjustments when I got home. It is done. And I am happy with it. There may be a fancier iteration in the future but I kind of love this hand drawn version – hoping to have it available in the shop tomorrow. I don’t have a clear idea what the appetite for printed patterns is – if it’s significant I’ll do them all – probably starting with the mushroom pattern. What do you think – do you prefer PDF or printed patterns?

mosquitos on my work table and a pattern sneak peek : turning tiny doll parts

August 18, 2016

by annwood

*update – the tiny doll sewing pattern is in the shop.

The tiny rag doll sewing pattern is pretty much ready to go but I’m waiting until next week to release it – just to make extra sure it is all I want it to be. I’ve looked at it so long and so hard I can’t see it any more – you know? I’ll review it with fresh eyes in a day or two. The big challenge of the pattern was the littleness and looking for the easiest and most effective ways to deal with tiny sewing – like turning the little arms and legs right side out after sewing. I included the simple method below in the pattern. Maybe everybody already knows this trick but I didn’t until a couple years ago and it works fabulously well – so just in case you haven’t tried it:

Besides pattern and workshop making work I have some mosquitos on my worktable. Mosquitos are slow, detailed work that involves lots of pins and stabbing myself repeatedly with various instruments – the five below have been in progress forever and are finally in the homestretch.

They suffer such indignities – this poor girl is having her proboscis hammered. I hammer the wire parts on a tiny anvil to stiffen them after shaping and make them a little textured and sparkly. Three of these Edwardian pests will end up in the shop sometime in the near future and the other two are going on special missions. If you’d like to be notified when I have new pieces available you can sign up here.

experimenting with dolls : meet mr. socks

August 11, 2016

by annwood

Sometimes it’s hard to shift out of production work and into true experimenting – really letting go of outcome. Production work is predictable – there is a definite beginning and end and the repetition and familiarity can be kind of comforting. I love to play and experiment, I love the adventure of something new but it takes effort, patience and practice to be able to get my head in that place when I need to. Part of it is the anxiety of all that isn’t done – it interferes with the meandering quality of experimenting. The anxious part of my mind protest the gentle open ended nature of the experimenting.

My sketchbook practice helps – I try to spend my sketchbook time in that place – sometimes I get there and sometimes I don’t but it is always good practice to try – especially in a very unideal moment. I gain more skill all the time at quieting the call of pressing tasks and worries that will absolutely always be there – the perfect moment for experimenting will not ever appear.

A lot of my experimenting lately is around dolls and figures – preparing for my workshop at Squam this September. I want to bring a few things that demonstrate different techniques – like building from the inside out. I began without much of a plan – I had a vague idea of maybe trying to make something similar to an odd figure I like that appeared in last week’s sketchbook.

I started playing and trying things, building a little shape by winding batting over a simple wire form and then stitching fabric on top. I love the spontaneity of this method – one thought builds on another and interesting things happen.

By the time the shape was halfway covered I had shifted direction – the little shape had it’s own idea what it wanted to be and mr. socks began to appear. He is not what I planned on at all – I think my tiny rag doll brain crept in – but I was happy to meet him.

Hello Mr. Socks!

And his posterior. I’ve also been making lots of tiny rag dolls and seedpods while working on sewing patterns for each ( at least one of those patterns will be out next week) and I put a couple tiny rag dolls and seedpods in the shop today.

stripes make a sailor and the easy way to make sails

August 4, 2016

by annwood

When I first started making ships I was doing little handkerchief rolled hems on the sails. They were pretty but drove me crazy and took forever. When I put together the paper mache ship pattern I wanted something easier and I found it. It’s super simple and has other benefits too.

I cut two pieces of fabric for each sail (not usually the same fabric – I like the front and back to be different – even just subtly), pin them right sides together and stitch around – leaving one little section open. Trim the excess off the corners, turn it right side out, press and stitch closed. I add a whip or blanket stitch around the edge and layers of patches and lace. You can click here to download the sail pattern below if you’d like to give it a try.

This method is much quicker than the tiny hems and makes a very tidy sail. Also the double fabric helps the sails hold their shape when you fill them with wind.

I’m making an owl to captain the ship I’m working on and used my favorite piece of antique ticking for his front. Putting a horizontal stripe on an owl transforms him instantly into a gentleman sailor. The owl below is the medium size from the little owl pattern.

And ticking stripes are nice for sailing mice too.

indigo owl, the may forest and songbirds

May 5, 2016

by annwood

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.

songbird work

April 28, 2016

by annwood

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.

get the songbird sewing pattern

suddenly a swan appeared

April 14, 2016

by annwood

Swans. They’ve been on my mind and while I was working out the steps for the flamingo kit a swan turned up. And then another and another. I love them. LOVE them – so I took a ton of photos.

Of course there is a black swan and babies too- a whole family. My first thought was cake toppers and they will be in the shop very soon – ready made and probably kits I think too (sign up here to be notified when they are available).

But there is something else – probably most important of all – they bring me back around to the place I always end up. I think that everything I make has a foot in story but I have not very often explored that as fully or intentionally as I would like to and maybe paper swans are something to experiment with, a good place to play with the idea of illustrations – the setting of a tiny stage.

a lovely old quilt and freestyle piecing

March 24, 2016

by annwood

Quilt is a generous description – it was really more of a duvet and it has come all undone. I made it 20 years ago – the year I moved to Brooklyn. I love quilts and live with lots of them in various states of disrepair. This one has been at the bottom of a trunk for the last ten years. I’m not sure what made me think of it – I’ve been looking at quilts a lot lately – I have some collected on Pinterest and I’ve been making boats with some pieces of old quilt tops. The boat below is made from a tattered top with hundreds of different little pieces – it’s like a library of fabulous depression era small prints.

My old quilt top is missing huge sections so I’m going to take it apart and rearrange everything in a new way and add some sections of pieced scraps. I did some tests and found the freestyle piecing to be way more difficult than I had imagined. I do love the idea though of turning my giant supply of beloved little scraps into something I use everyday. The little and more subdued sample on the right is the beginning of something that might make it into my repair. The kookier experiment on the left might become a doll. It will be a slow summer project and maybe by next winter I’ll be ready to turn it into an official quilt.

In other news – the boat pattern is finished and in the shop. Make a sweet spring regatta!

progress on the little fabric boat pattern : removing the nuts

March 3, 2016

by annwood

One of the many unexpected benefits of designing craft and sewing patterns is that I end up questioning why I do things the way I do and pushing for better, clearer, simpler and cleaner solutions. The exercise of explaining a process to someone else, breaking it down into steps, highlights all sorts of imperfections, inefficiencies and details that complicate and don’t enhance significantly.

The little fabric boats had a detail like that – a detail I was very attached to, a detail that was difficult and time consuming to execute with consistency. I love these little boats and I’ve made tons of them over the years – it was nutty of me to put up with that sticky point for as long as I did.

The boats originally had a curve in the back – you can see it on the green boat above. I experimented with a bunch of adjustments to try to make it easier but nothing worked. As much as I liked that curve the difficulty did seem unreasonable. These boats are so sweet and fun, perfect unexpected presents and lovely as a group so I am determined that they be easy to make. And now they are. In the end I tried a simpler piece for the back you can see on the brown boat – no bend or curve. I ended up liking the simple shape better – much better. The more complicated back was nice and clever but didn’t REALLY add any charm to the design after all – I was just attached to it.

Look for the pattern in about a week – just in time for a spring regatta. And there will be a sample sale too – I’ve made a bunch of these little boats while working it all out. If you’d like to be notified by email when the pattern and boats are in the shop you can sign up here.

cloth, a podcast interview and spheres – a free template to experiment with

February 25, 2016

by annwood

I love cloth.
I always have – as a child it was something I had in abundance and I learned to think well in stitches. I especially love old cloth. Lovely old cloth. I love it for it’s simplicity, it’s commonness, it’s possibilities and meaning.

I spend happy hours considering and choosing – today I’m gathering bits of indigo for an owl. I love the textures and patinas that comes from decades or centuries of life and use and I make things that celebrate it as I find it – all it’s scars and mending apparent. And I add my own patches and mends and visible stitching – I love the sewness, the make believe. The fragility and other unexpected qualities of very old cloth send me in new directions, new ways of doing things. I used some of my most treasured scraps from Sri Threads to make these toadstools.

I love the little guy. You can find all three in the shop today.

As I was working on them I was thinking about constructing shapes in cloth and what a fascinating process that is. If you’re experimenting with that kind of sewing, especially if you’re just beginning to play with three dimensional sewing – spheres are a great place to start. When I teach a workshop I almost always give away a pattern for three and four part spheres. You can download that pattern here if you like.

And speaking of patterns – more are coming soon – fabric boats, tiny dolls and the flamingo kit. I’ve hit a lot of snags and complications putting that together, it’s been a bigger mountain to climb than I expected but it’s almost there.

And in other news:

A new podcast interview! My second ever. Find my conversation with my good friend Elizabeth Duvivier (founder and director of Squam Art Retreats) here. I loved our chat – Elizabeth is a smart cookie, a truly curious person and I love her new podacast. Two of my favorite episodes are with Suzan Mischer and Kerry Lemon. I hope you check it out.

building the focus muscle

February 10, 2016

by annwood

I’m working on a large project for Fortuny – I can’t show it to you for a couple more weeks but I can show you some of the fabrics I’m working with – their new cashmere velvets – I wish you could feel them – and the colors are glorious.

It’s a project I love and one that makes me wish for more hours in the day which of course I can’t have. But maybe I can increase the depth of my focus and attention to make the absolute most of the time I do have. I know the sensation of deep focus but it’s a place that has become increasingly difficult to get to.

I think of my creativity, my imagination, as a muscle – something to be cared for, fed nurtured and exercised.

I think of time as a precious and finite commodity and I manage and protect it thoughtfully and carefully.

I am realizing that my ability to focus needs to be cared for, exercised, managed and protected too. I know it has been diminished by constant connectedness, the myriad of small grabs for my attention that were not there 20 years ago. So I work at it, plan for it and block out chunks of time away from distractions – internet and phone free time to sink into deep focus. I thought that was enough until I listened to this episode of The Unmistakable Creative Podcast :

Rules For Focused Success in a Distracted World with Cal Newport

It’s a great episode and I hope you’ll listen. What struck me most was the idea that some habits and behaviors outside of those chunks of protected time have undermining, damaging effects on my ability to focus deeply, to manage my attention.

Newport offered the example of waiting in line at a grocery store – I pull out my phone – and so does almost everybody else. I notice the same on the subway – the train comes out of a tunnel and everybody pulls out their phone. It’s a habit and such a small thing – what harm could it do? Why not fill that little bubble of grocery line time with instagram or email etc.?

“Both our personal and professional lives are increasingly built around these sources of distraction. From a cognitive perspective, that’s like being an athlete who smokes.”

Cal Newport

It’s teaching my mind to run away from boredom – to fill gaps with novel stimulation from a never ending source, It weakens the muscle that resists distraction, the muscle that helps me stay truly present in the moment, the stitch.

Since I first listened a couple weeks ago I stopped pulling out my phone in little downtime moments like waiting in the grocery or post office line and it’s uncomfortable – alarmingly uncomfortable. In fact it’s easier not to bring it. I think it’s good practice for pulling my attention back to the present or an opportunity to daydream – that little device steals so much daydreaming time. I am far more likely to have an idea while day dreaming than I am while looking at twitter.

I’m not giving up my phone or the internet – but I am working harder to put them in their place. And I do feel a strong nostalgia for the pre- connected life.

* Further – If you’re interested in this sort of thing you might enjoy another Unmistakable Creative episode on focus and productivity too.