Christmas Wreath and Tree

G doesn't like buying Christmas trees and stuff, and last year we didn't have one. It was very sad. So this year, we didn't go and buy one early enough, and I didn't want to wait any longer so on Tuesday evening I made one out of three small branches from a tree in the yard. It is very sad looking. It is about as high as the mantle piece. The cat was initially scared of it, but now she likes getting the decorations out of the bucket holding the tree. I need some lights for it because I love the lights.
A few years ago I made something better. A wreath. I seem to be completely incapable of using any medium other than fabric for any activity, and it took me a long time to get even remotely good at that. I had tried to make wreaths out of branches, etc, but it didn't work (and the bases you can buy are ridiculously expensive) and I found inspiration and instructions for one of fabric. One doesn't really need instructions, which is good because they were either wrong or impossible to understand; they required you to turn inside-out a shape which was topologically impossible to turn inside-out without resorting to the use of at least four dimensions instead of the measly three.
Since Christmas is in summer here I wanted it to be kind of summery and thus cheerful and reminding of life. The colours I associate with summer are yellow, red, orange and a dark, healthy green; light green is more spring, whereas mature leaves are darker. Then it's got ribbons, fake roses, old buttons, buttons shaped like summery things, and a random piece of jewellery I bought from an op shop: I think it's a broach with two parts and a chain between.

Comments

aynz said…
You need to tell that man of yours that he can be as ba-humbug as he likes as long as you're allowed a tree. You HAVE to have a tree. Next year just go all out. Remind him that with Xmas less is not more. ;-)
Thursday, 03 January, 2008
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Polish Jacket, Zupan, The Second Post

Image
I think the last time I posted about this was quite a while ago, but I thought I should do some more actual sewing posts. Pattern Last time I talked about the pattern, but I thought I would add a bit more. Here is the pattern: Here is a bit of a glossary: LEWY - left PRAWY - right PRZÓD - front TYŁ - back KOŁNIERZ - collar RĘKAW - sleeve KIESZEŃ - pocket Isn't Polish beautiful? Unless the person you want to make this pattern for is pretty much the correct proportions, if not the correct size, I think it would be easier to simply make a pattern to their measurements in this shape rather than copying and then modifying the pattern. Unless you have made quite a few men's clothes before, because it is a pain. Front Closure The Polish jackets overlap right-over-left, unlike men's jackets from Western Europe (although in Poland now they will wear it Western style, but I mean at the time, they did it Eastern style). Sleeves and Cuffs The sleeve seems to have t
Read more

Polish Jacket, The First Post

Image
In the weekend before Waitangi Day, I spent a lot of time trying to get the pattern right for a Polish jacket I am making for G, based on those worn in the 17th Century, I think. It is a zupan. Or a kontusz. It is hard to decide as it has elements of both, so it kind of depends on when the pattern was from. But I say it is a zupan - an under jacket rather than an over one, because the sleeves are closed and the neckline high. But many jackets of that type are also labeled kontusz, so who really knows. I had already made the pattern and made and modified the mock-up a couple of times, and I did several more mock-ups and alterations and eventually I think it is mostly right!! If I had started off with the pattern as it is now I would probably have tried to make it better, but I think it is good enough and both of us are sick of it. The problems came that I had to scale up a pattern from a picture on the computer which was not the right size and proportions for Gary anyway. This picture:
Read more

Zupan, Post 3 - Construction

Image
I can't really remember what I wrote in my previous posts, but here goes anyway. I did material, I did the pattern, I talked about the weirdness of it and Polish words.... So today we shall talk about construction or something. In fact, I think I shall change the title. There. So, I can't really remember much about making it that is interesting, but you know that the pattern was a pain to make and that it has a lining. The main part of the garment - minus the sleeves and collar I mean - was sewn separately in outer and lining fabrics to hide the seams. To make things a bit easier, I didn't sew the sleeves on at this stage, because sleeves can be tricky to sew on and might not end up eased and adjusted the same on the outer and inner layers - because I don't notch the sleeves and arm scye because I don't really understand it so I just put the sleeve in and make it work. So I put the inner and outer layers together and first sewed one of the front opening edges toget
Read more