Medieval re-enactment, my other obsession

I have been a member of the society for medieval re-enactment (SCA) for quite a few years now. I have to confess to knowing bugger all about history but I do love sewing, I particularly love making lots of elaborate garb. I made this tabard for a friend of mine, its mostly made in velvet with the images appliqued on. It took more time than I care to remember but it looks fab on him!

cheats wristlets

A swap partner wanted a pair of knitted wristlets, but since the nuns at school, beat all the love of knitting out of me, I wasnt game to pick up a pair of pointy objects again, so I cheated, an old cable knit sweater was chopped up. stitched to stabilise the knitting and voila!

sewing

I have also been working a lot with fabric lately, lots of swaps, lots of bags, lots of sewing.

here are some of the random bags that I have made for swaps for other people in the last few months.

This bag was made from vintage fabric and has a winged heart on the front.

I went a little mad on the embellishment of this one, the dragon fly is hand embroidered and beaded onto an iridescent fabric, to try and capture the beauty of the wings of dragonflies,

The back of the bag has two smaller dragonflies, also embroidered and beaded in the same way, the fabric is also vintage.

jewellery making

my recent attempt at jewellery, Silver and glass bead earrings.
a bracelet made by my daughter. Good eh? (lousy picture though!)

recent random craft projects, cushion covers, needle roll, etc

More recent projects, all of these were made for craft swaps, I really enjoy the process of craft swapping as it sets limits on what can be done, defines a theme and sets a time limit, which gets me off my ass and working! Has to be a good thing. This is a crochet needle roll and craft apron for a swap (I really should start making stuff to keep!)
And some cushion covers, the recipient of these had a thing for crows and also wanted some little stone from Ireland, the crow cover is obvious, I really wanted crow feathers for the top cover, but I couldnt find any, went wandering about old churches and tall trees looking for a rookery but no joy, all the crows were hanging on tightly to their feathers. For the last pillow case, I sewed in some little stones and shells into pockets created by the gauze ribbon (not very comfortable admittedly! but its her favourite)

More Artist Trading Cards, kittens this time

I really love the size of Artist trading cards, you can produce a mini work of art very quickly, it gives me a chance to get something completed in one session, I have very little patience, and I like to get a project finished in one sitting. These cards are for a swap for someone who likes kittens,






And my first attempt at ATC envelopes, these are made from magazine pages and I am very happy with how they turned out.

spring craft bags and purses

well I've been having major attacks of craftiness lately, the weather has been unseasonably beautiful here in Ireland all the flowers are blooming, I took some nice photographs, and interestingly when I took this one and looked at it closely I noticed two aphids trysting in the centre, what a place for a date!



with sunshine it seemed a shame not to do some tie dying , here's a photo trying to catch the colours of the sunset with the colours of the tie dye.

I have been making a lot of bags lately, but they have all been for swaps on craftster.org, so I decided it was time to make myself some, this one was made out of fabric that I received in a swap package, it was only 1/4 yard but I just managed to squeeze this little bag out of it.

This bag is for a swap, the fabric is reversible so I swapped around the central panel for contrast and added the riveted and bead detail to the front

This is more fabric I got in a swap, I love it! My girly pin-up bag!




I was looking in the Avoca handweavers shop fell in love with a very pretty skirt, but an insane price, so I made myself this version, with a matching bag.