Lavender Love

I have finally got around to using the rest of the lavender from my mum's communal garden. You can see the first batch of lavender bags here. I started with a nice piece of natural looking linen, and the first attempt above was OK, but not very inspired. So I then decided to go for a leaf shape, and add a ribbon. This way they can be hung on a coat hanger to keep clothes fresh. I have kept the stitching quite simple, and the cream seemed to show up best.

For the last few I thought I would go for something a bit more unusual, and these are the ones I like the best. It is just a line of backstitching up the centre, and some big random spaced stitches to the side. So I hope I will be smelling nice this year.

Lavender Pyramids

I have finally got going on my big bowl of lavender, from my mum's communal garden. I decided to keep it fairly simple, and have been making these little pyramids out of some white linen. I found instructions on how to do this on Chick Chick sewing. 

I decided not to worry about string or ribbon to hang them, and to just do some very simple embroidery (actually it is the only sort that I can do). It took a little bit of trial and error to get the embroidery in the right place, as it is done before the pyramid is sewn. The design of the embroidery has sort of evolved along the way. My husband says they look like rather upmarket teabags. I still have half a bowl of lavender left, so am thinking of another design.
 

Lavender and Crochet Bunting

That time of year has come again when lavender has been picked. I had a tiny amount from my own garden, but this was added to by the lavender from the communal gardens of the sheltered flats where my mum lives. As no one else seemed to want it she claimed the whole lot.

Both these sets of bag were made from old blouse material. The bird blouse was a favourite, although I think I prefer the traditional little pink bags.  I will explain below the reason for the rather curiously shape triangular bags.

You may have been wondering if I was going to continue with my Crochet Diary. It has been a few weeks since I did any crochet. So much crafting to do, and so little time.

I was shopping with my daughter when we saw some lovely bunting, with was made of little triangular lavender bags. It was quite expensive, and as I knew I had quite a lot of lavender this year, said I would have a go at making one. So that is the reason for the bags being triangles. The extra bags were just the ones we had left over.

But to add a bit more colour I decided to alternate with some crochet granny triangles. Not the granny squares on my to do list, I know, but I think I am confident enough now to go on to some squares.
 

The garden fence was not the final display place, and the bunting is now in my daughter's bedroom. It just never seems light enough these days to get a good photo indoors.

Crochet Diary One - First Steps

Crochet Diary Two - Teddy Puppet

Crochet Diary Three - Country Flowers 
Crochet Diary Four - Bowl or Hat?

Lavender's Blue Dilly Dilly

The lavender in my back garden

 Lavender's blue, dilly, dilly, lavender's green,

When I am king, dilly, dilly, you shall be queen.

Who told you so, dilly, dilly, who told you so?

'Twas my own heart, dilly, dilly, that told me so.

Call up your men, dilly, dilly, set them to work
Some to the plough, dilly, dilly, some to the fork,
Some to make hay, dilly, dilly, some to cut corn,
While you and I, dilly, dilly, keep ourselves warm.

Lavender's green, dilly, dilly, Lavender's blue, 

If you love me, dilly, dilly, I will love you. 

Let the birds sing, dilly, dilly, And the lambs play; 

We shall be safe, dilly, dilly, out of harm's way.

I love to dance, dilly, dilly, I love to sing; 

When I am queen, dilly, dilly, You'll be my king. 

Who told me so, dilly, dilly, Who told me so? 

I told myself, dilly, dilly, I told me so.

I am very fond of this nursery rhyme. It always seems so romantic. Also the only thing I remember of my very first day at school, was standing in a circle with other children singing this song.

But did you know that the earliest surviving version of the song was printed in England between 1672 and 1685, under the name Diddle Diddle, Or The Kind Country Lovers?  The lyrics printed in this version are not so romantic but quite bawdy.  

I have been making lavender bags, mainly because my mum supplied me with an enormous bag of lavender. She lives in sheltered housing with a communal garden, so having checked that no one else wanted the lavender she went out and picked it, dried it, and stripped it from the stems. So my work room has the delicious smell of lavender at the moment.

The first bags I made were not my own design, but from this book. I used silk for the main fabric, as I didn't have the linen that was suggested. Very handy to keep your undies smelling nice! 

I thought about the song, and how all the lavender I see is not blue, but lilac or deep purple. But a bit of research and I have found white, pink and blue lavender. To my surprise there is even a yellow variety of lavender!

I then had still more lavender, so decided to make some from my own design. First I appliqued felt on to hessian for the plant pots. (I still haven't mastered the free motion sewing, so these are edged neatly with my feed dogs up.) Then I embroidered the lavender plants using wool. I made little bags of muslin for the lavender, as I thought it might work its way out through the hessian. 

My first idea was to sew little bags and turn them out, but the hessian was just too stiff for this. So instead I simple pinned the front and back of the bags together, and sewed round the edge. I had to use my zipper foot for this, so I could get nice and close in to the muslin bag. I think the rustic look is rather nice. They have a ribbon in case you want to hang them in your wardrobe. Despite saying I wasn't going to do any more craft fairs, I have one coming up next weekend, and am hoping these might sell well. After that they may end up in my Etsy shop, and I guess the postage will be very low.