all I want....

The Wednesday Group, my pals from the machine embroidery City & Guild's course at Malvern, are making a postcard sized work each month,  This month the topic is 'Christmas'.

It is a lovely frosty day outside, and a good day to start a new project.


I haven't sewn anything much for ages and so I wanted an easy project to start with.  I began with needing to find a long extension lead, as the whole electrical circuit in the room I sew in have stopped working.  We suspect that mice have chewed through a cable but we haven't yet figured out where.

I decided to take the 'All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth' song as my inspiration.  I considered which materials to use for each layer, but decided to try felt as I had sufficient and its lack of fraying was attractive.

I got together materials, then tried to thread my sewing machine.  After a few goes I triumphantly got the needle threaded, only to realise that I had threaded the bobbin thread through the eye of the needle.  Hey Ho...

I wrote the postcard to Santa saying what I wanted.  I had decided not to make any 'cutesy' spelling errors but spelled 'Dear' wrong without meaning to.  I had put out a note from a then six year old friend of mine to get the feeling of the writing, and it obviously worked.

I stitched ribbon to red felt for the wrapping, organised so that undoing the bow allowed access to the inside of the present.

The inside is lined with violet/blue velvet.  Sewn onto the velvet are two incisors, complete with root.  I made them out of white and flesh coloured ribbon.  I would have liked to make teeth that were more beautifully crafted, especially after seeing Annie's exquisite apples with pips last week, but couldn't manage that.  I think they do, at least, look like teeth enough for the story to work.  I had hoped they would seem like jewels set in a box.

So, not great, and I had to relearn things like changing machine feet and tensions and threads...but at least it is done.