Anna’s Favorite Topics | If I Had My Own Blue Box:

Did You Know?

Did you know the techniques in Fanciful Utility: Victorian Sewing Cases and Needle-books can also be used for a variety of other 19th century projects?

They can!

The stitches and assemble techniques can be used for making many of the items found in Godey’s Lady’s Book, Peterson’s Magazine, Workwomen’s Guide, and A Girl’s Own Book just to name a few.

This leather, cotton and silk market wallet was made using the pasteboard and binding techniques outlined in the book.

You can make travel cases such as this one using the skill you learn from FanU.

I enjoy making both 19th and 21st century Christmas decorations. You can make some of those seen here. Also, the templates for the shaped in FanU can also make great ornaments.

I used the same techniques when I made the soles for these quilted silk slippers.

Other items found in period publication you can make using the same skills and techniques can include:

Watch pockets
Pen wipes
Children’s toys
Small books
Work baskets
Pasteboard doll furniture
Card cases
and so many more……

If you don’t already have your copy of Fanciful Utility: Victorian Sewing Cases and Needle-books, purchase your copy directly from ESC Publishing.

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on October 18, 2013 at 6:15 am Leave a Comment

Ideas, Ideas…. What Shall the Next FanU Swaps Be?

It sounds like the participants in the first set of Fanciful Utility Fabric Swaps have been enjoying the swaps. This summer and fall we did three swaps, a Cotton Swap, a Silk Swap and a Crazy Swap. The Crazy Swap is currently underway. It is so very nice to get a fun piece of fabric in the mailbox rather than the usual bills and spam. I know I get excited each time I see one of those envelops.

We’ve had a few people share their projects so far. I look forward to seeing more of the projects. So, please continue to share what you make.

You know me, my mind is always wandering and looking ahead. So, of course, I am pondering what themes to do in our next set of swaps. I think January would be a good time to begin another trio of swaps. That would give us one each in January, February and March to help us through those winter months. I’ve had a few different theme ideas floating around in my head. I would love to hear what you think; what themes you like and any theme ideas I haven’t thought of yet.

Here are a few….

First up, the “Romantic Swap”. This would include reproduction cotton prints from the Romantic Era, 1820s through 1840s. This era is full of fun, wild even, colorful prints.

Next idea has a motif I love. The “Paisley Swap” would include 19th century appropriate Paisley motifs. These could be an organized, all over print usually accomplished with a block, or Paisley’s set into a strip design. Lots of options here. New ideas 2b

Looking at a silk option, we could do a “Silk Jacquard Swap”. Oh, what delicious fabrics this could include. This would be one of the more pricey swaps for those that don’t already have a silk jacquard on hand.

As I was looking through fabrics, one theme that wanted attention suggested a “Mini-Swap”. This wouldn’t be mini-fabric. This would be for mini-prints. While tiny prints weren’t usually the showcase of sewing cases, an assortment of mini-prints could make for some fun cases. Doll lovers may particularly like this swap because the scale could easily be used with the doll size sewing cases and needle-books in Fanciful Utility.

This next theme is inspired by my Grandma. While using some of her fabric pieces, I notices she had a leaf theme going on for a little while. I made my little sister a rolled case with Grandma’s leaf prints. It came out so cute, I have to consider it for a swap. Thus, the “Leaf Swap”. Now, the question is… Spring leaves or fall leaves???

While looking at reproduction fabrics and original swatch books, a “Geometric Swap” stood out. I don’t think many of us think about geometrics showing up in prints from the 19th century. This could be a good way to look at them. I had been thinking about a “Patriotic Swap” or a “Centennial Swap”. I have to admit now… that one is hard. I need to know what you think about this one.

An idea stuck in the “I wonder” stage is Toiles. These don’t show up much in sewing cases of the mid-century. They would look so very cool if they did. Two other challenges are the scale of most toiles and the cost. I think some of us may get frustrated with cutting the prints evenly.

Whether you have already participated in a FanU Swap or are considering joining in, I would love to hear from you on ideas for the next swaps.

If you want to pick up a copy of Fanciful Utility (or give some as gifts), hop over to www.thesewingacademy.com to order directly from the publisher.

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Favorite Topics - Sewing Cases

on October 16, 2013 at 7:37 pm Comments (6)
Tags: FanU Swaps

Peppermint – Full Size, Mini Size

I have waited so patiently to share the photos of this project. Now that the Agricultural Society Fair at the Genesee Country Village is underway and judging has taken place, I can share. Yeah!

This bonnet is called “Peppermint”. The striped pale red and creamy white just begged to be made into a bonnet. (This is one of the silks that was swapped in the FanU Silk Swap). The bonnet is drawn on canes over a buckram base. The flowers are paper in blues and rosey reds.

This is the bonnet that made me a little ribbon nutty for a few days. I just could not decide which ribbon to go with. There were several ribbon colors that would contrast so nicely with the stripes, a royal blue, a blue-lilac, even a warm brown. But, the more I looked at original drawn bonnet, I saw most of them went with a matching or nearly matching ribbon. With this in mind, I opted for a four inch wide ivory satin from The Ribbon Store, which is much more ivory than the cream of the photo.

I did say “full size, mini size”. So, here is the mini-size:

A bonnet Mea and Jo to share.

In this miniature version, made from the left-overs from the full-size version, the silk is drawn on wire over a small buckram frame. The lining and frill are of the same materials. The flowers are tiny blue paper from the larger roses in the full size bonnet. The ribbon ties are the same as the narrower ties above.

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on October 5, 2013 at 11:00 am Comments (1)
Tags: Anna's Millinery

FanU Crazy Swap – Sign-up Day

Today is the day to sign-up for the FanU Crazy Swap!

To Sign-up, simply comment below with your email and mailing address. (I’ll erase those before approving your comment, so the whole world doesn’t have that info.) You can also email me or send me a message on Facebook.

What is a Swap?

This is a chance for to exchange fabric with a small group of people. Each group will have 8 people exchanging pieces of fabric. All you need is a half yard of fabric and envelops along with your copy of Fanciful Utility.

To Participate:

1: Sign Up Day! On sign-up day, groups will be assigned on a first-in basis; the first eight will be the first swap group, second eight in the second group, etc.

Crazy Sign-Up Day: September 30

2: Mail-Out Day: Place a 9×9″ piece of fabric suited to the mid-19th century in envelopes for each of the 7 other people in your swap group, stamp them (be sure to double check at the post office, but the small 9×9″ pieces should mail in a regular envelope with a normal stamp), and send them off no later than the Mail-Out Day. Crazy Mail-Out Day: October 8th.

3: Get Fanciful! Use your Fanciful Utility templates and techniques to make a project from the book, or copy your own from 19th century sources. We’ll all look forward to seeing your projects! You don’t have to sew right away, but don’t keep us waiting forever to see all the fun things!

(If you need a copy of Fanciful Utility, you can purchase them from the publisher at www.thesewingacademy.com

Fabric Guidelines:

For the cotton and silk categories, your fabric should be mid-nineteenth century appropriate. (If there is a want for an earlier or later group, we can do that.) Prints and motifs should reflect those available in the 1840s, 50s and 60s. Cotton should be 100% cotton. Silk should be 100% silk.
To keep the swap and sewing possibilities interesting, please avoid solids as best we can.
Fabrics that do not work well for sewing cases should not be swapped. These include sheers, gauzes, heavy, thick, easy-to-fray, slippery and stretch fabrics.
For the “crazy swap” category, think crazy quilt in a sewing case. This could include satins, velvets, textured fabrics. Quality synthetic fabrics are invited.

Q&A

Yes, you can participate in 1, 2 or 3 of the swaps.

Yes, if we end up with multiple groups, you can participate in more than one group to swap more fabric. If you participate in 2 groups, you should swap 2 fabrics.

Yes, you can swap large and small scale prints.

Yes, you can swap now and sew later.

Yes, we would love to see what you’ve made with the swapped fabric.

Yes, you can use your own fabric in your swapped project.

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Favorite Topics - Sewing Cases

on September 30, 2013 at 6:00 am Comments (11)

Doll Millinery

For quite some time now, I have wanted to do a line of millinery for dolls. I finally have a set of patterns for hoods and bonnets drafted for a couple different size dolls including collectable china dolls, like my Mae, fashion dolls and 18″ character dolls.
As the weather has already turned cool (or cold) here, I started with some snuggly warm quilted hoods. Both of these are black silk entirely sewn and quilted by hand.

This is Jo in her 1850-1865 silk hood. (She needs clothes made for her and a chair to sit In.) Her hood ties below her chin with a black silk ribbon. The inside is silk with the edges whipped for finish.

Here is Jo with the same style hood done in a dark blueish grey silk quilted in black.

Here is the larger hood in the same style that will nicely fit a doll with a 9″ circ head as most 18″ character dolls have. This hood is also black silk with a period cotton lining. The interior seam are turned under for durability. The future wearer, or her dresser, will need to pick the perfect ribbon and best placement.

I’ll have a section of doll millinery up on Etsy soon.

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on September 21, 2013 at 2:30 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Anna's Millinery, Dolls

Yellow Silk Sewing Case

I have to admit, when I opened the envelope from this month’s Fanciful Utility Silk Swap with the bright yellow silk, I thought “Wow, Bright!”. This bright yellow silk puzzled me. I was worried I would not find a sewing case project for it.

Then I was flipping through the photo files I’ve stacked up in my phone. There they were. Not one, but two sewing cases made with bright yellow silk! I remember saving these from an auction of Shaker items. Here they are cropped together:

Now, which to make? The on the right is fairly straight forward. The one on the left is very similar to one of the cases in Fanciful Utility. But, I’m not too keen on the closing case inside. Okay, I really think they, the auctioneer’s photographer, took a photo of the cases open and a photo of the cases closed, then layered the closed on top of the open. If I make the case on the right, I far prefer something like this:

This is the same case as above with the center piece from another case replacing the center. This structured center has a compartment and a pincushion. You can see the pincushion was well used. Actually, the light blue case shows far, far more wear than the other silk and leather cases in the lot.

Now, the problem… I have black leather rather than brown at the moment. So, I must decide whether to wait for super thin brown leather or use the black I have……

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on September 19, 2013 at 4:38 pm Comments (2)

A Modern Needle-book

Tonight we have a little modern sewing tangent – A coworker has been making little coffins for her Death and Dying health class this week. When I saw those little coffins, they scream “needle-book”.

Here is version 1 of my take on a Halloween Coffin Needle-book:

This fun case is made using the techniques in Fanciful Utility.The exterior is a silk I had stashed away with a bit of padding for the front. Inside, the pair of white wool needle pages are placed like a pillow at the top of the coffin, while a black wool pocket is at the bottom for a small pair of scissors. It closes with a silk ribbon. All the embroidery is cotton. I do have another sewing case version in mind as well. This would be a multi-sided case with a pillow-pincushion inside. I’ll add that to my project list.

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on September 18, 2013 at 8:01 pm Comments (2)

FanU Silk Swap

This month was our second Fanciful Utility Fabric Swap, the Silk Swap.

We had two groups of silk swappers, each swapping with 7 other people in their groups. This means a total of 16 pieces of silk were swapped!

We had an assortment of stripes, plaids, jacquards and solids greeting us in our mailboxes. This swap truly involved fabrics from around the world, as one silk was brought home from China by the swapper and another that is a Tartan plaid. We had two nearly identical silks in slightly different color sets. (I sent one of those.) There is a bright yellow nearly identical to the yellow in three Shaker attributed cases I happen to have saved in my phone.

I look forward to seeing what participants do with their new assortment of silks. Please share your photos as you complete your projects!

Published in:

Favorite Topics - Sewing Cases

on September 10, 2013 at 4:08 pm Leave a Comment

FanU Cotton Swap – Sewing Cases

In July, we did the very first of our Fanciful Utility fabric swaps, the Cotton Swap. We had two groups of 8 people each, who swapped 9″ squares of mid-nineteenth century appropriate cotton fabrics. These are the fabrics we swapped:

Plus these:

Some of the participants went right to work making their sewing cases. (I am remiss to say my pieces are still neatly stacked as I’ve been so focused on millinery.)

These pretty blue needle-books were made by Deborah in a sewing group that focused on making needle-books. I love the blues together.

This pocket filled sewing case is very worthy of being called a work pocket. This is made by Eileen.

Nicely done ladies. I look forward to adding more photos as more participants finish their projects.

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Favorite Topics - Sewing Cases

on August 25, 2013 at 7:48 pm Leave a Comment

FanU Silk Swap – Sign-up Day

Today is the day to sign-up for the FanU Silk Swap!

What is a Swap?

To Participate:

1: Sign Up Day! On sign-up day, groups will be assigned on a first-in basis; the first eight will be the first swap group, second eight in the second group, etc.

Cotton Sign-Up Day: July 15 Silk Sign-Up Day: August 19 Crazy Sign-Up Day: September 30

(If you need a copy of Fanciful Utility, you can purchase them from the publisher at www.thesewingacademy.com

Fabric Guidelines:

For the cotton and silk categories, your fabric should be mid-nineteenth century appropriate. (If there is a want for an earlier or later group, we can do that.) Prints and motifs should reflect those available in the 1840s, 50s and 60s. Cotton should be 100% cotton. Silk should be 100% silk.
To keep the swap and sewing possibilities interesting, please avoid solids as best we can.
Fabrics that do not work well for sewing cases should not be swapped. These include sheers, gauzes, heavy, thick, easy-to-fray, slippery and stretch fabrics.
For the “crazy swap” category, think crazy quilt in a sewing case. This could include satins, velvets, textured fabrics. Quality synthetic fabrics are invited.

Q&A

Yes, you can participate in 1, 2 or 3 of the swaps.

Yes, if we end up with multiple groups, you can participate in more than one group to swap more fabric. If you participate in 2 groups, you should swap 2 fabrics.

Yes, you can swap large and small scale prints.

Yes, you can swap now and sew later.

Yes, we would love to see what you’ve made with the swapped fabric.

Yes, you can use your own fabric in your swapped project.

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