CrissCrossSerenity

This will be a somewhat brief introductory post to flat reed basket weaving, these two patterns are provided. Below are SOME websites you can buy supplies at:

Basketweaving.com

Peerlessratten.com

Thecountryseat.com

Explore these websites, as you learn basket weaving there's different materials you can learn to use and replace others and these websites will often provide the tools you will need too. You can use dyes or stain for flat reed, I have more experience with dyeing which basically involves boiling the color and then dunking the reeds in it.

Flat reed is literally that, flat reeds. Many flat reeds used are commercial but some traditional ones will be made of splints from trees such as Ash or White Oak. They are soaked in water and then shaped and woven into the craft desired.

Source

These patterns will tell you how you will need to cut your reeds. You will need a water source, preferably a tub of some kind, an awl, measuring tool, and a flat workspace.

Tips:

Do not let your flat reeds stay wet for too long! Let it dry in an open air space when you are not working on it or when it is complete, FLAT REED CAN MOLD.

If you soak flat reed for too long it can become mushy and unusable, at the very least if you soak it for extended periods be careful with how you bend it.

Flat reed tends to (not always) have a 'rough' and 'smooth' side, you want the rough side to be on the inside of your basket.

If you're a flat reed has started to split trim it as close to the split as you can as quickly as you can or it spreads.

Starting is the most difficult part and no basket will look like the end result in the beginning. Getting overwhelmed is normal, come back to it, these are not projects you do in one sitting.

☀ cross stitch of a cat , which is about 1000 years old !

Here is what the backside looks like. OP notes this takes more fabric than paper piecing, but that excess fabric makes it already triple-layered. Besides not needing backing fabric, I don't think you'd need batting for this quilt at all. It's already thick and soft just from folding all that fabric into a hexagon.

Each hexagon begins as a 6" circle. camelscrafts does this by creating a paper template using a compass. According to the video, a 6" circle will create a hexagon that is 2.5 inches tall.

These hexagons are hand-sewn. Thread the needle.

With the fabric right side facing, find the center of the circle by folding it in half right sides together, then folding it in half again (wrong sides are facing). The top of the triangle shape is the center of the fabric circle.

Make a small stitch into the center of the fabric. The wrong side is still facing.

Unfold the circle. There will be a small stitch in the center.

Now the hexagon is created by folding the circle into itself: Take the needle to one of the edges of the fabric (it doesn't matter which one). Pull the needle through and pull the thread tight. This will fold down the fabric and create an edge of the hexagon. Crease the fold with your finger.

This fold has two corners, one at the top and one at the bottom. Put the needle into one of the corners and pull the thread taut. This will create another fold.

Continue this going around the circle until all of it is folded down, creating the hexagon. camelscrafts notes that the last corner pulled in may be a little bit "wonky" (no precise point in the corner) if the corners were not done precisely. However, that corner is pulled into the back, so is not visible from the front.

The hexagon is now formed. Sew around the folds in the middle of the circle to hold the folds in place. Tie off and cut the thread.

Starry Night Microsweater

She does, however, work even smaller.

I still get emails asking for patterns since I broke up with etsy a few years ago, and while I don't really want to get back into making patterns, I still like the ones I've made. So, I've put them all (16 of them) up on my ko-fi, for free.

This set of patterns includes some ~rare~ ones!

This wasn't on etsy for long - but it's one of my very favs.

and not just the return of the Avatar map (designed in 2012), but finally the updated version.

If it is fanart - Absolutely free (in the hopes they get to stay up). If not, it's free/pay what you want.

I thought I might share one of my new tattoos. A couple years ago, a dear friend and I coined the term “fish bag moment”

A fish bag moment might be sitting all alone in an empty new apartment after coming out and upending your life, or starting a new job in a brand new line of work because it’s closer to your dreams

It’s what happens when you take a leap of faith or make a hard decision for yourself, when the future is so hard to visualize and everything feels scary. You’re just a fish in a bag and you can’t see where you’re going

…oh wait no I went one further than considering it I did do it…

I ended up not going with the front fly closure, in part because the shortest opened ended metal zipper I could get was 40cm long and also TWELVE DOLLARS(!) but also because I got annoyed with trying to work out the equivalent of a waistband for the bust curve - this one has a button closure at the centre back but I think next time I would go to the effort of sewing a proper bra hook-and-eye closure because it is a bit hard to wrangle on and off.

☀ cross stitch of a cat , which is about 1000 years old !

(Close ups under the cut)