HairBow -tutorial

I was asked to make pretty hair bow from a fabric we found when going through some old stuff with my mom. I used my serger to neaten up the edges. Then I tied up the bow to simple elastic hair band. Very easy, fast, cheap and practical to make hair decoration to match your dress!

(I used pink elastic hair band only because this is for tiny princess who thinks there is no other color than pink in the world. Otherwise I had chosen white!)

AAW

The Fresh Green really tastes soooo good!

Yesterday was again a big day in my Angora Rabbit World. After full 16 weeks it had come time to shear the wool again. We have had the angoras now for over 2 years. It needed a lot of work even to get them here. But these two years have been fun, interesting, educating and really; worth of it despite I start every single morning by cleaning the rabbit waste. No matter was it -20 or + 20 Celsius degrees. But it is a job I want to do to be able to allow my rabbits happy life. You know animal rights are one of those things that are important to me.

Finally today I can reveal another secret. I have been holding on it since leap day 2016. We sent our own angora wool to a mill on the 29th of February 2016. At this time we used another mill than Salo-Angora because they were  not able to spin the yarn we wanted. But I really like their eco-friendly way of running the mill. Now we needed to use Pirtin Kehräämö because it was able to include 10% of nylon with the wool. This mill promised the yarn to be ready before summer but it was not. Officially it has been summer for few days.  Despite their custom service was not so good we are satisfied to their work with our wool. (We needed to contact few times to get what they promised few days late from the dead line.)

So, here it finally is!

AAW

ArcticAngoraWool

It consists of 

50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool

40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool

10% nylon

(10% of nylon to make it to be stronger; durable and lasting. Over 33% of angora wool to get its quality and features be shown up. Local FinnSheep because that was sheep wool quality I got and was sure no animals were suffering. Factory spinning to make the yarn better quality and not so fragile.)

Its natural shade is something we could call pale fog blue.

It feels silky and soft.

100g = 238m

And don't even ask how much one 100g floss would cost if it would be for sale! Simply too much to be sold. It is for our own use. My share of it is 5kg. It is my 2 years work with the angora rabbits. Worth of doing when you know from where you wool comes from and no rabbit has suffered because of the wool production. Vice versa; it is me who has been suffering most cleaning their waste when allowing rabbit life to them; me shearing their wool without hurting them. Me! And I am so happy I did it all to get this fabulous  AAW Arctic Angora Wool. Thank you so much my cute little rabbits!

PS. Don't forget OOW!

Summer has arrived

 All the snow, even the tiniest spot, melt away at the end of May. Now it is green everywhere.

The rabbits love green. Slowly I started to feed them with fresh green stuff. Rabbits have very sensitive stomach that can get upset easily.

On the other day I was encouraged to go shopping in Oulu where I was left alone for few hours. I know many women are ashamed of me but this was all  found in two hours.

HomeMade BiasTape -tutorial

BiasTape is very practical help in sewing. Far too often it happens that you don't have it at the moment you need it... or there is no exact the one at the shop you were thinking about. That's why I have made my own BiasTape far too often.

First of all you need to decide how wide you need it to be. If you use just pen, ruler and sewing machine; the width can be anything. The most important thing is to cut it in 45 degree angle. It is possible to cut it in crosswise or lengthwise grain but sewing will be more challenging and the BiasTape won't be so stretching and malleable then. I cut crosswise or lengthwise grain only then when I don't have enough fabric to cut in 45 degree angle.

I recently bought Bias Tape Maker Set. It includes an awl which helps you to pull fabric through tape maker. My set includes four different size of tape makers.

Feed the bias strip wrong side up into the wide end of the tape maker. You can see the hole in the maker. The awl fits in that hole and through it you can feed the bias strip further into the other end of the maker. Bias strip comes out as folded from the maker. If you don't have an awl you can try out for example tapestry needle or small knitting needle.

My set included pins too. They are there to pin the folded bias strip on the ironing board. I found that pinning difficult because then I am not able to work with "free" material. I don't use the pin. The iron holds it as much as needed. But try out pins; it might be easier for you. I just am awful with pins. I survive better without. I use them very rare.

Remember to keep iron close to the tape maker when working.

When you iron the folded bias strip it turns out BiasTape and is ready for use. It is pretty fast. In my case it is also fastest way to get BiasTape. It takes more time to go to the BiasTape shop than make enough of it.

Andalusian Dream

 I have already finished my secret stitching project. Now I can tell it was up to Manic Street Preachers Forever Delayed album cover. Because I do know copy rights and respect them I can not show the pic of the finished project. We did it for our own purposes and Dear E loves her gift very much. It is on her wall now. BUT I have been designing and stitching something else too whilst you were enjoying my freebie week last week. :)

It is BlackWork but is not. It includes double running stitches, back stitches and cross stitches. I used Madeira Lana too.

It for sure has four legs!

It was going to be beautiful Andalusian Horse. 

There you go! See, I told you, four legs!

But it got something else too...

It got even lining...

...and zipper!

It all turned out to be a pretty bag...

... which you can open, put thing is and take out and close up!

It is my own design. I used 14 Count Aida (terracotta shade). The white fabric is raw silk (noil). 

It is a graduation gift for another special high school girl who used to help a lot YougLady on the past times when she still was LittleLady and a beginner with horses.

Because this special high school girl visited Spain this spring and had a lot horse fun there I decided to create something connected to it too. I designed the Andalusian horse and added some lace of which Spain is also known.