First up, Matryoshka cushions…

Mini matryoshka key rings / bag ornaments…

Mini matryoskhkas on strings of beads….

Matryoshka postcards and vintage kimono cards…

Purses / make-up bags made from fabric printed with my own designs…

Kimono Felt Craft kits…

Individual packs of kimono felt…

Kimono Paper Craft kits…

Kimono Bunting Flags…

Crafty sewing kits…

Needle cases…

Strings of birds and beads…

And stamped brown paper bags ready to be filled….!

Hello again blogland! It’s good to be back.
Lucy x

1. Matryoshka Kimono Dolls, 2. Colour palette: Green, 3. Tamarillo chutney, 4. Cutest of cute hats!, 5. West Coast adventure, 6. Hands-on dog food!, 7. Pirates treasure bag PART TWO, 8. Autumn, 9. My new crafting space, 10. Friendly cat toys, 11. Birthday pancakes, 12. Magical toadstools, 13. Bush bath bliss, 14. Coral, shell and bone, 15. Autumn Blues, 16. Big skies, 17. Garden meditation, 18. The joy of wood, 19. Gratitude, 20. Birthday bunny

 1. My shop is now open!, 2. Cosy Friday evening, 3. Kimono paper tape PREVIEW!, 4. Happy weekend papercut, 5. Colour palette: Red, 6. Tin can lanterns, 7. Shop update: Tom Cats, 8. Spring love: magnolia blossoms, 9. Poultry PS, 10. …and the winner is…, 11. Display jars for treasures, 12. Pin board inspiration, 13. Monday’s inspiration: Honour, 14. Happy Equinox!, 15. Fresh start and a GIVEAWAY!, 16. Paper Fan Inspiration Cards, 17. Morocco on my mind, 18. Midwinter mandarin lanterns, 19. Rainbow eggs and a basket of flowers, 20. Vintage kimono palette

1. London by night, 2. Travelling feet, 3. Poultry Show, 4. Kimono paper tape PREVIEW!, 5. New things, 6. A new season…, 7. Hand carved stamps: lanterns and blossoms, 8. Monday’s Inspiration: Creativity, 9. Rob Ryan’s shop on Columbia Road, 10. Happy Christmas!, 11. Happy New Year!, 12. Plant skeletons, 13. Header artwork, 14. Paper Fan Inspiration Cards, 15. Earth Hour 2010, 16. Contact me, 17. Monday’s inspiration: Communication, 18. Pirate’s treasure bag, 19. More gratitude, 20. Olive Harvesting

Tom Cat’s are cool cats. They might act a little bit superior at times but they’re really just pussycats with big hearts (which they wear embroidered on their tummies!). They’ve got gorgeous, striking eyes (and fabulous eyelashes), and pink tongues, which poke out when they’re concentrating (which is actually all of the time!).

Tom Cats are made out of Japanese blue and white printed 100% cotton. Their faces are hand embroidered, as are the heart patches on their tummies. 

Tom Cats would love to cuddle up with special little human friends, or lounge on someone’s bed in the sun and look fabulous all day long! : )

Old red stamps: cherries and ping pong; Christmas prayers and Communist workers; a dragon, a lion, a horse and an ox.

Red toy vehicles from our childhood: Toy trains powered by steam, electricity and small hands; a double decker London bus with most of its paint worn off; a digger, with dirt still in its caterpillar treads; and a battered, repainted truck.

Origami paper, a Chinese paper cut, vintage kimono badges and a geisha coaster.

Games pieces: Various counters and dice, a Rummy number 7, a Mastermind peg, a tiddlywinks wink, a carrom puck, a battleship and a biplane.

Red heads.  Royalty, politics and history.

Vintage buttons, a crochet hook, a 1950s (or maybe ’80s?) buckle, and a spool of thread.

A handmade book from Udaipur, Rajasthan which my mother kept as a diary in 1990 during the 8 months my family and I spent in India; an old book about the artist Albrecht Dürer, a small Japanese notebook covered in washi paper, coloured pencils and a letter A.

Red odds and ends: a ball of cotton; a plastic bangle that looks like carved coral at a glance; an old pendant made from coins and beads that my father picked up in Morocco in the early ’70s; a small German glass jar with roses painted on its lid and old glass buttons inside; a vintage brooch bought at Spitalfields market in London; a paper mache toadstool and a vintage buckle.

Thanks to Amy and Tipsy for the feedback on my original post and for their helpful suggestions of ways to do the skull’s face.

I followed Amy’s suggestion of embroidering the teeth with one long horizontal line and then several vertical lines, and I did Tipsy’s suggestion of doing the skull’s eyes in reverse applique: sewing an outline around the eyes and then cutting the felt away within the outline (very carefully, while not breathing!), so that the fabric underneath shows through. I have to admit I was a bit nervous about doing this. What if I cut a hole right through the bag?! But it was actually much easier than I thought – using very fine and pointy scissors – and I’m really happy with the result. Thanks, girls!

Now onto the treasures inside the bag!

I cut out a square from some Japanese-Hawai’ian rayon print fabric that I have, and hemmed it to make a headscarf. To that I added a bought eye patch and clip-on pirate’s earring. Arrr!

I then made two little pouches out of the same fabric as the headscarf, sewed simple ties on the sides, and filled them with “pieces of eight.” In one of the pouches I put a collection of cool foreign coins (picked up on the pirate’s various voyages, of course!), and in the other pouch I put a few chocolate coins. Once the chocolate’s been eaten, the empty pouch can be filled with whatever treasures the little boy finds to put in there himself.

Time for a sea shanty, me pretties!

This afternoon I grabbed some time to make a present for a little boy whose 5th birthday party we’re going to tomorrow. Mum had the idea of making him some kind of treasure bag that he could put small, precious things into. I developed the idea further into a pirate’s treasure bag. We’ll put some old, foreign coins into it -”pieces of eight” if you like – and he can add his own treasures after that.

I started by creating a skull and crossbones pattern from a piece of scrap paper, which I then cut out of dark blue felt. I then gathered together various fabric scraps: denim, vintage kimono silk, indigo Japanese print, some red and white linen upholstery fabric… The idea was for the bag to look like it was made out of various bits of old flags. I then sorted through my metal buttons and mother of pearl buttons for added embellishments.

I wanted it all to look like it had been roughly patched together so I sewed everything a bit wonkily with stitches showing in contrasting colours. I sewed a little hidden patch pocket inside. The skull and crossbones I sewed on by hand with small red backstitches. I then added little brass beads from India, vintage mother of pearl buttons, and three old metal buttons. The bag closes with a blue zip, and has a long strap so he can wear in slung diagonally across his body.

Here’s the (almost) finished bag, front and back. The strap is actually only held on by pins but the light was fading and I wanted to photograph it in natural light! I’m still undecided whether the skull needs eyes or not. I’m thinking of maybe embroidering them on in red. What do you think?

I love the colours – scarlet, yellow and jade, pale pink, florescent orange and green, all on that brilliant blue satin. And how great is the tail?!

Look at those eyebrows and the three little teeth! Not forgetting lovely Arlo inside the hat, of course! : ) All together now: Ohhhhhh!

I made a very simple pattern from scrap paper (uneven peanut shape for the body and long ovals for the ears), and chose two different green polka dot fabrics. 

While I cut the fabrics out and sewed the ears, Mum embroidered some green felt with a. bunny to go on the front. Then, while she turned the ears right way out, I zigzag stitched the felt onto the bunny’s tummy.

I then sewed the front and back together (with the ears pinned inside), turned everything right way out and pressed it all.

The ears somehow ended up a little wide and just needed a couple of stitches to give them more shape and reposition them.

Then stuffing and sewing closed, button eyes, embroidered mouth and a jaunty little rick rack scarf… 

…and voila! One cute little bunny.

A bunny for A. Bunny! Happy birthday, little man.

Bamboo bangles, calligraphy brush and clothes pegs. Gourds intricately etched with fabulous tales: Monkey flying through the clouds with his sword, and an ethereal lady poised in front of a mountain.

Practical kitchen items. Some, sadly not so common any more. A butter pat (one of a pair), bamboo tongs, a salt spoon, large multi-purpose wooden spoon, an Indian pastry brush, a Japanese polished spoon, one of a pair of salad servers bought in a flea market, and my child-sized rolling pin from when I was little. 

Wooden buttons and toggles. So many colours, textures, shapes and uses. And a wooden thimble to save fingers from getting pricked.

Wooden animals from my childhood. Some of them given to us as hand-ons from other families. Many made in Camphill Communities by intellectually disabled people, others bought in a Steiner shop in Germany when I was five. Foxes sitting and on the move, a hippo, a chicken, a donkey, two bear cubs, a camel, a rhino, horses, leaping squirrels, pigs and a curly horned ram.

Wooden pencils for colouring and sketching, bamboo paint brushes, an elephant bookmark and a giraffe that belonged to my grandfather that lives on my desk.

Pattern makers. A block for printing Tibetan prayer flags. Smaller block prints from Rajasthan. A rolling pin and square, both carved with birds, flowers, fruit and animals, used for making German Springerle cookies. Two bamboos pierced with a pattern of holes, used for making the elaborate kolam designs outside of South Indian homes (although in reality they’re mostly done precisely by hand). And an old Tibetan press, perhaps for decorating butter torma sculptures.

Prayer beads from India. Carved sandalwood separated with orange knots, rudraksha malas, and polished rosewood-coloured beads.

I also love vintage kimono fabrics (as you may have gathered!), and had the idea a while ago to combine these two loves of mine together into Matryoshka doll cushions. 

The dolls below are ones I made for Christmas presents a year ago for my closest friends. The faces were simply hand drawn, then scanned into Photoshop and finished there. They’re then printed onto transfer paper and ironed onto white cotton fabric.

Most of the kimono pieces are from the 1930s. Probably the most time consuming part of making these dolls is choosing the fabrics and cutting them out. The kimono is then appliqued onto a cotton background.