Rose Mille

Pin Cushion with Simplicity's Felting Machine

I am a natural fiber snob. Some people have annoyingly called me a purist. Ninety nine percent of the time I am using cotton, silk, wool or linen. I prefer stitching over gluing, and I have a hard time with printed fabric trying to look as if it were woven.

I recently discovered a machine that works with wool's natural ability of "felting" to itself. Since I love to work with wool felt in hat making; steaming, stretching and smoothing the fibers into shape is quite gratifying. Wool blankets as felt material is also a lot of fun for me. Hence my wool flower pins and kit. So when I first saw this machine that actually uses just the needles action, without thread or glue, I was intrigued so say the least. 

My first project, (that I am going to actually write about) is making a pin cushion out of wool blankets that have already been "felted" and an old canning jar lid.

First I cut out a circle, 5 leaf shapes and a 5 petal flower out of blankets.

Without pinning, the leaves are "felted" onto the blue circle. There are 12 needles poking through all layers, causing the wool fibers to "felt" together.

All the leaves are now attached to the circle.

This is what it looks like on the back, see the green fibers coming through!  This gives me an idea.

But first, I attached the white flower, but "felting" only the center. I want the petals to be loose.

Great, it worked!

Now back to that idea; I flipped the circle over and felted the leaves from the back side and look what happens!

{so exciting!}

Darn, I wish I would have done the back felting before I attached the flower, but I worked around it and it came out great. 

I wonder..........

Wow!  Look what happened when I felted the flower from the back.  A blue center! Next time I will take pictures while felting the back , yes - I have three hands.

{so easily amused}

Now, make a running stitch all around the edge of the circle with strong thread, gather up, stuff and stitch closed. Grab the canning jar lid and apply some Fabri-Tac, by Beacon and insert into the lid.

Stitch on a pearl button, tie a bow with some of the french ribbon you have laying around and poke in some corsage pins. Wala!!

I'm thinking about putting some embellishments on some sweaters with this nifty machine.

xo

mi

 

Pretty Straw Hat Workshop!

Spring always comes early in California, so my first hat workshop of the year is going to be held at my dear friend Cathy Mogull's casa in Carpenteria,  Summerland Mercantile. February 4th, 2012.

This is my uber popular, basic blocking millinery class for everyone. We will block the crown on a mold that fits your head, stitch in an inner ribbon to keep the size, slip a wire in the brim and trim with ribbon and vintage flowers. Everything is included in the class price to finish your hat.

I've heard rumors we may have some surprise students showing up....

Please join us!

xo

mi

 

Skirt Transformation

We got these rather plain, and too short if you ask me, skirts in. But i kept thinking, maybe if I sewed some trim on them they would be much cuter.

 I found some Ethnic Euro (my term) striped fabric in my stash and cut and sewed some on the hem, or lack of.

{What's with this manufacturing trend of just cutting off the edge and calling it a hem?}

MUCH cuter! 

And 3" longer.

I happened to have purchased a tray of vintage Millinery flowers at Junk Bonanza, and will pin these to the new "hem". I had just the right amount for the 5 sizes of skirts.

{Told you I would share some of my Junk Bonanza purchases!}

We have the skirts like this in XS, S, M, L & XL, but not for long!

xo

mi

Finding Yarna

Was I 5 or 6 when I made Yarna? I cannot remember. But I do remember seeing other little girls with dolls made out of yarn, and I do remember thinking "I could make that". Even at a very early age, I had the idea that I could make it, instead of bugging my parents for the money to buy it.

Apparently my color options were limited, obviously that was not my concern here. I was more interested in the technique, which, as you can see, I improved upon as I went.

From what I remember, Yarna even had furniture made from cut up shoe boxes and scotch tape, which did not hold up as well as she did over the years. Hmmm....evident in how well we survive natural disasters better that houses and furniture sometimes, because we are more flexible? But of course under normal circumstances, usually houses and furniture out-last us.

Last year, when my sister's visited me they wanted to know if I still had Yarna, which began a year long search. But alas....she is found and captured in film no less.

{okay electrons}

 

xo

 

mi

 

Happy Happy Day!

{September 5}

My day started out with taking a chance on the scale and winning! By making some easy changes the pounds are slowly falling off.

Then a surprise brunch guest bearing gifts stopped by, it was great to visit with Megan, especially now that she spends her days else ware........

:-(( 

After we dined on the amazing omelet that Bob made for us, I got to do my favorite thing. . .

{create in my studio}

But only for an hour before I dashed downtown to Rose Mille, bringing in my latest creations.

 



Only to return home for BBQ Salmon, and chocolate cake.

{yum}

This morning, (not my birthday) started out a little different. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But in my case "sometimes you lose, sometimes you ...

{GAIN}

It was worth it Mom - great chocolate cake and ice cream!

xo

mi

 

Shasta Feltman - Artist

It has come to my attention that there are artists making amazing things with materials they purchased from Rose Mille. Yes, I suspected that this was going on many times as I measured out yards and yards of silk ribbons and vintage trims, I might even ask;"So what are you making?". With oooh's and aaaah's and a promise to share pictures, it is rare that I actually get to see these works of art.

{Until now}

One such conversation was with an adorable artist; Shasta Feltman, who has a wonderful blog called the Traveling Cabinet. You see she often goes to amazing places, that I haven't even dreamed of going to and she writes about it. Some are near and some are far.

{One thing I noticed about Minnesotans is that they travel.}

And while she is at home, she makes things.

{Of course}

She makes simple yet elegant vintage inspired clutch bags with a light modern touch.

Shasta often uses materials and trims she gets from my shop Rose Mille, such as a vintage hankie, a length of grosgrain ribbon, millinery flower or button.

{LOVE it}

To read more about Shasta visit her blog; The Traveling Cabinet, and purchase a clutch or two at her Etsy shop.

xo

mi

 

The Straw Hat Workshop - Bloom 2

Such talent, such skill! Watch out world a new batch of Milliners is upon you.

A dozen women spent a perfect Saturday afternoon making hats, while the sky's were raining out-doors. But as they made their way home, the sun shone on their new chapeaus.

We sprayed, we shaped, we stitched and we trimmed. Everyone started out making the same hat, but no two were alike in the end.

 

 

 

I love it when women get together to create, (men are welcome too)! I have found that no matter where you go in this small world, that when we get together to create, we are all at our best and everything is right in the world.

For a few hours anyway. 

And we all lived to see the sun rise another day.

{Yes, I am looking at the calendar to schedule another workshop, stay tuned.}

xo

mi

Dying Hat Materials

Today I am getting ready for my basic hat blocking class, by dying natural color hat bodies into an array of colors!  I am appreciative of this sunny "what happened to Spring" summer day. {It's over 80 degrees!}

The bodies, also known as "hoods", "cones" and "capelines", all start out in a "natural" color and take to the dye process very well. You just never know the color they will produce.  When choosing the color, the warm ivory color of the hoods must be kept in mind, because it will affect the end result. 

I am not a very experienced dyer, and doing many colors at once I am not recommending, unless there is more than one person.  The wind blew some blue and pink dry dye, {okay maybe I was splashing too much} on some of them while they were in the dye causing some spots. Aarrgghh, And because I could not constantly stir each one, the colors are spotty. 

But they are still pretty and very interesting.  I even dyed some white grosgrain ribbon to match, but.... of course they don't match!

Not to worry, I have lots and lots of colors of grosgrain ribbon we can use.

There is still room in the hat class, to be held on Saturday, May 21st from 10-2. Check it out.

This is a sample of what you can make! {But in a different color perhaps?}

xo

mi

Straw Hat Class

The date has been set for you to learn to make a custom fit hat like these in just a few hours.

You will learn basic blocking and stitching techniques in hat making.

Saturday, May 21st 10:00 to 2:00 {with a break for lunch}

$75.00 {which includes everything but the flower}

Sign me up!

 

 

Bravo Dana and Megan! 

xo

mi

 

Vintage Velvet Quilt Repair

I am looking for someone who can help me with this gorgeous, very old as far as I can tell, antique quilt. It is made out of squares of various velvet prints and solids, mostly cotton and mohair, but all natural fibers.  The backing is faded and badly torn on one corner, but wonderful none the less.

I love the hand done blanket stitch all around, and realize that it will need to be entirely re-done, along with the ties. The batting obviously need to be replaced as well.

Maybe I should just attempt this myself, I have never made a quilt before let alone repair one.  I have had this for years and I just don't want to make it worse.

Can you help?

xo

mi