Fair Isle and Intarsia Workshop at Make Do and Mend, Chelmsford

Make Do and Mend is a fabulous creative space in Chelmsford, Essex. They have an extensive creative workshop programme offering classes in everything from dress making, crochet, knitting, jewellery making and much more in between! I've been wanting to go along to a workshop for some time so when I heard about the Intarsia and Fair Isle Knitting workshop I took the plunge! 

If you're a regular reader you will know that I'm obsessed with all things Fair Isle at the moment! Having created a hand knitted fair isle jewellery collection and now working on adding to this range I wanted to brush up on my fair isle skills. I have taught myself what I know about fair isle knitting from books but jumped at the chance of the workshop to pick up more knowledge from workshop leader and Make Do and Mend founder Hannah.

We were made at home with coffee, tea (Earl Grey, my favourite!) and biscuits! Hannah told us that the super cute mouse tea cosy was a handmade gift to Make Do and Mend from a lady who learnt to knit there- so lovely!

How cute is the shop front?!

Hannah supplied us with yarn, needles, a fair isle chart to follow and a worksheet to take home

We knitted this Fair Isle sample and I picked up lots of tips that I can apply to my jewellery work. I was heartened to find I haven't been going terribly wrong with the fair isle I've knitted so far and it's given me the confidence to feel I can knit more complex designs

For the other half of the workshop we focused on intarsia knitting, which I haven't tried before. Here we used separate balls of yarn to knit blocks of colour, twisting the yarn together in between to prevent holes

I'd now love to try knitting a picture jumper to these intarsia skills into practice!

The space at Make Do and Mend is well equipped and large enough to cater for groups and even crafty Hen Parties- right up my street!

I came away feeling like I'd really achieved something after a very fun and relaxing morning. Thank you to Hannah for being such a patient tutor, I can't wait to go back and do some more workshops! Check out the Make Do and Mend website here and go and be inspired!

The Art Chain

Last week over on Facebook a friend nominated me to take part in the Facebook Art Chain and post an image of my work everyday for 5 days. I enjoyed taking part and looking back on previous work (especially looking back to college days) so I thought I'd share it here too! So this is the journey of my work from 2008 to today!

Day 1

I graduated from Colchester back in 2008 with a degree in fashion and textiles. Since starting to make things when I was little I've always loved to recycle, using all sorts of bits and pieces my Gran used to give me, and my work at college really cemented my Make Do and Mend philosophy. 

For my Graduate Collection I created an installation of three, three metre long cream knitted hangings. They hung from floor to ceiling and were embellished with all sorts of recycled and found objects, from meat hooks, to nuts and bolts, plastic packaging and broken glass, all of which I spray painted white. I really enjoyed looking back on this, it was stressful but such a great time! 

Day 2

When I left college I was lucky enough to win a studio space for a year at Cuckoo Farm Studios in Colchester. I stayed on there after the year was up and in 2010 I had a solo exhibition in the gallery there. This piece is a detail from the installation of knitted hangings, which hung on the ceiling like light fixtures. I was exploring light and texture and for this piece explored the Shibori felting process to create a really unusually textured piece

Day 3

When I finished college I started making jewellery, like this knitted necklace embellished with found objects and spray paint, straight away. I wanted to capture the ideas from my Graduate Collection but in a wearable form. Louise Dawson Design jewellery was born!

Day 4

This is a selection of my knitted and Harris Tweed Button Brooches, embellished with a scattering of recycled materials. I first started making these because I didn't want to throw away leftover scraps of fabric, so I decided to make something with them!

Day 5

At the end of 2014 I was super chuffed to have an article about my work published in Green Craft Magazine. Here are my Knitted Button Rings, embellished with recycled fabrics

Thanks for indulging me on a little look back. I nominate you all to take part in The Art Chain and share your work too!

Thank you and wishing you a very Happy New Year

Wow, Happy New Year! Hands up if 2014 flew by for you too!

What a year it's been...

Exhibiting at The Renegade Craft Fair

My work was featured in Green Craft Magazine

I launched a Fair Isle jewellery collection

I added extra colours to my Harris Tweed collection

How Tos are now a regular blog feature

My big goal for the year was to really develop the Make Do and Mend/Recycling ethos of the blog and I'm now using British made materials alongside too.

I'm so enjoying working on the blog, thank you for reading! I'm having a bit of a blog revamp in early 2015 and I've got lots of craftyness planned to share with you throughout the year, so lots to look forward to coming up!

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and crafty 2015, here's to making it a great year!

Feeling nostalgic

I actually posted this same post about a year ago, but it's now six years since I graduated and I'm looking back at where it all began. My jewellery collections evolved from these pieces... it's scary how time has flown by!

For my graduate collection I created an installation of three knitted hangings (each about three metres long) based on the theme of Make Do and Mend, combining knit with unexpected recycled materials, including glass, meat hooks, plastic food packaging and household paint, to name just a few. My aim was to utilise these unwanted materials and re-purpose them into something beautiful, and this is a philosophy I still work to now.

Knitted hanging embellished with recycled materials

This may look familiar- I embellished one hanging with strings of knit covered beads
embellished with recycled materials. I took this idea forward and developed my first collection of necklaces!

I collected glass bowls, jugs etc from charity shops and broke them into pieces with a hammer 

(very therapeutic!) I attached washers and wool and then hooked these onto my knitting machine, actually knitting them into the piece 

I'll share more images from my creative journey with you as I continue in my retrospective endeavor! 

How To... Make a fabric remnant Tote Bag

Welcome to my latest  How to..." How to make a fabric remnant Tote Bag! 

The inspiration behind creating this "How to..." has come through having numerous crafty projects on the go and carting them to and from work in various bags, ready to work on in my lunch hour. I thought how much more organised it would be to have a little cotton Tote bag to house each project and to keep them a little more stylishly than in the current bags for life!!! 

Also, one of my aims through this series is to show you how you can create something handmade and unique without having to spend much, placing emphasis on using what you have and Make Do and Mend. I had this fabric left over from when I made a rag doll for my niece, but this could also easily be made from an old top, dress, pillow case, etc. Think of it as a recipe that you can tweak according to the ingredients you have in the cupboard! So without further ado, let us begin...

1). You will need

A fabric remnant, fabric scissors, pins, sew-all thread to match your fabric, sheets of newspaper, sewing machine. 

2) Fold your fabric in half

Fold your fabric in half to give you a bottom edge and two layers of fabric

3) Pin newspaper pattern to your fabric

Using a single sheet of newspaper as your pattern, place the paper on the fold of your fabric in the bottom corner and pin this to your fabric, ensuring you pin through both layers of fabric. My newspaper pattern measures 47cmx31cm. You could make it bigger or smaller if you prefer

4) Cut around your newspaper pattern

5) Remove newspaper and pins to leave your basic bag shape

6) Create your top edge

Create a neat top edge for your bag by folding over one inch at the top of your fabric and pressing with an iron

Fold over by another inch and press again. Repeat these steps for the other side of your fabric

7) Tack along your top edge

8) Machine stitch your top edges

Using a straight stitch and the wrong side of your bag facing you (so you can follow the visible edge) machine two vertical rows of stitching to secure the turn over. The first should be aprox 1cm away from the edge, with the second row as close as possible to the edge. Repeat this for the other side of your bag and sew in your ends. Remove the tacking

9) Cut the bag handles

Cut a piece of newspaper (mine measures 52cm x 4cm) to use as your template and then pin this to your left over fabric. Cut four pieces

10) Turn over the ends

Turn up each end of the four fabric strips by 1cm. Press with the iron- this will give you a neat finish

11) Sew the handles

Pair up your fabric strips and with right sides together, tack and then machine a straight stitch down each long side, leaving a 5mm seam allowance and creating a tube. Repeat for the other strap. Remove the tacking

12) Turn straps through

Turn the fabric tubes back the right way (a knitting needle comes in really handy for this, or a Bodkin if you have one) to give you two handles. If you would prefer you could use webbing or ribbon for straps, if you have some to hand

13) Stitch your straps to the bag

Pin and tack your handles to your bag, lining them up with your top edge. Stitch a long rectangle to secure the handle. If, like me, you're not that neat on the sewing machine, you could always cover this stitching with buttons, beads or decorative stitching. Likewise you could cover your top edge stitching with ribbon or rick rack, which you could applique or use Bondaweb to hold in place

14) Almost finished! Stitch the side seams using a French Seam

Now all you need to do is sew up the sides of your bag. There are some options here- you could simply place the right sides of your fabric together and stitch a straight seam up each side, allowing a 1cm seam allowance. This would, however, leave you with raw edges to your seams.

The other option is to create a French Seam, which is great as it encloses your raw edges and is really simple (promise!)

To create a French Seam you will need to place your fabric with wrong sides together and stitch a straight seam down each side, allowing a 5mm seam allowance.

Next, trim away a couple of millimeteres from the seam allowance (see below). Press this seam open

Next, turn your bag through so the right sides of your fabric are together and press along the seam line.

Stitch a row of tacking very close to your first seam. 

Next, machine stitch 1cm in from your seamed edge- this encloses the raw seam

Remove the tacking and press the seam to one side. Turn through the right way and press again. Check out You Tube for some really helpful tutorials on this here

15) It's finished!

All ready to take my knitting project to work in! If you make one I'd love if if you could link a pic of it in the comments box!

Happy making!

This week in photo form...

A few things I've been up to this week!

Making (and eating!) chocolate cake! 

Making chicken, leek and mushroom soup

Making new brooches and rings in the studio

Restocking my shelf at Make Do and Mend, Chelmsford

Experimenting with punch cards on my knitting machine as part of my Fair Isle project. More on this in the coming weeks

Knitting a ladder stitch cardigan in beautiful Rowan Drift

What have you been up to this week?

Happy 2014!

For my last blog post of 2013 I want to say thank you to all of you who have supported me throughout the year, I love being able to meet so many lovely people doing this. Hearing your comments and feedback is very helpful to me and it's much appreciated.

Harris Tweed Brooch from the 2013 collection

To give you an insight into what's to come, there'll be some new products and themes to my work in 2014. I'm currently just starting work on a new collection, the first experiments for which I hope to share with you very soon! I don't believe that you ever stop learning in craft, as in life, and I'd like 2014 to be a year of learning, and challenge- the theme of the new collection certainly offers both, I'll keep you posted!

I am also aiming to develop my Etsy shop in 2014- I'd like this to be a major focus, to get Louise Dawson Design out there and introduce handmade craft into peoples lives!

A big goal is to develop the Make Do and Mend/recycling themes within the work I'm making and to reflect this ethos much more strongly through my blog. Working as a Designer/Maker, by the very nature of my work I'm always creating new objects, but I don't want this to be at the expense of the planet! I'm currently sourcing more pieces to up-cycle and re-purpose into my work.

Another aim of 2014 is to get you more involved- I'm excited about the idea of developing tutorials for the blog based on the Make Do and Mend/recycled textile theme- watch this space! If there's anything you'd like to see, do let me know!

So there we have it, I've put it into writing now so I had better get cracking!

Wishing you all a very happy and creative 2014!