Craft fair and Morsbags

Well, my posts are getting more regular. What have I been doing in the last 2 weeks?

I did a craft fair with my daughter Sarah, down in London. It was a nice venue, a community gardens, it was well organised, lots of nice stalls , but there were very few buyers. The weather wasn't that bad, so we concluded it was the fact that the area wasn't very wealthy. We only sold 2 of Sarah's bags, a jeans bag and a vintage fabric knitting bag with wood effect round handles, 2 pairs of oven gloves and a felt brooch I had made about 10 minutes before it sold. We kept ourselves amused with hand sewing while we chatted and we had quite a nice day.

Thursday the 26th August our local Morsbag pod - LIT bags had a meeting in the evening. They will be holding that monthly. I cut the hems and tops off the donated curtains which needs doing before they can be made into bags. Morsbags are a charity which makes cloth shopping bags which are then handed out on the street and swapped for plastic carrier bags. The fabric and thread are all donated, mostly curtains and bedlinen. The volunteers make the bags. They also go to fetes and fairs with hand crank and treadle sewing machines and get the public to make their own bags.

I was talking to Rosie from Morsbags about the felt needles Sarah and I bought at the Weaving Studio in North London. She said she had an embellisher (a machine which felts and attaches wool or ribbon, etc to fabric, using a five needle unit attached in the same way as a normal sewing machine needle but with no thread or bobbin), and she didn't use it any more but would be willing to swap it for a treadle.

So we made a deal and I am now restoring a treadle for her. I am even repainting the irons as this was stored somewhere damp and the woodwork and metal have both suffered. The woodwork has to be stripped right back , bleached to remove black marks, sanded, restained and repolished. The irons will be wire brushed, cleaned, derusted and repainted gloss black with gold on the Singer logos on the centre and either leg. The orignal machine was a Singer 27 with Sphinx decals but that is very worn so I will be dropping either a 15, 66 or 201 into the table. Rosie will need the extra yardage of thread on the round bobbins for making the Morsbags.

You can look them up at www.morsbags.com. They are pretty much worldwide now.

That's about it for today, we were up very late last night as we went down to see Sarah in London and the car broke down so we didn't get to bed until 4am. Although we slept in a bit, I am still very tired.

Eco-stitching

Hi

I have set up this blog to show my journey into what I am calling eco stitching. Eco stitching I would define as trying to sew/knit/crochet in the most environmentally friendly way possible.

I have a collection of antique sewing machines, about 20 in number at present. I am planning on getting all of these working so I can use them to sew actual garments and soft furnishings. I have 3 domestic treadle machines, 1 industrial treadle and the rest are hand operated (hand cranks). There are at least 5 which work well already, after basic oiling and cleaning. Some of the hand cranks I have had for a while are being sold on eBay, that way I can pass on the eco stitching to other people, and help buy more old machines to be refurbished.

I also run a Yahoo group with my daughter. This is called Eco-sew and is run along the same principles.

Another thing I do is refurbish hand operated sewing machines for a charity called Tools For Self Reliance. They send the machines out to Africa where they are used by local people to earn a living and also to make clothes for themselves and their families.

I am learning to spin as well. I bought about 6 fleeces at a rare breed fair in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, ready for spinning, this should keep me going for a few years. My partner bought me a brand new Ashford Traveller spinning wheel, so I am all ready to roll. I have done a smallamount of spinning, but I find the carding part of the preparation both boring and hard on my hands. Much as I would love to buy a drum carder, I can't afford the £200 that they cost.
so, I am attempting to make my own using some rough plans I found on the internet some years ago. I have got to the stage where I have made the large and small drums and ordered the carding cloth. When I get the cloth I have to attach it to the drums, after that build the box it all sits in. I have taken some photos so I will post them when it is complete. If it works when finished, I will also write out a blow by blow description of the whole process so that other people can also try making their own.

I think this is about enough to start me off.