Lark's Workroom

Most of my fabric is secondhand, and I've gotten a lot of sewing supplies from thrift stores and estate sales. I know not everyone lives somewhere that has those things, but there are still budget options to look into. There are a lot of things that are nice to have but not strictly necessary.

Frieda Leopold did an experiment earlier this year where she bought the minimum sewing supplies necessary for a dress, and kept to a budget of 150 euros for all the tools including the sewing machine.

And this Morning Mercury video about trying to learn weaving without spending any money also feels relevant.

Also I just found the full length video that was mentioned at the end of the tiktok. I haven't watched it yet because it's late and I should go to bed, but there are a lot of comments saying it's clear and easy to understand.

It’s done! This is my first quilt of my own that I hand quilted and I quite enjoyed it. I chose a variegated thread going in one big spiral and then I went back and did a stitch-in-the ditch to break it up along the eight sections. To save my elbow I only worked for an hour or so at a time but it only took 2-3 weeks of working. Time to wash out the last of the marking lines and then the recipient better be as excited about this one as I am.

See here for the post about the piecing and wonderful pattern.

It also has a lot of different kinds of stitches you can do that make different densities of fabric.

I was surprised that I’d never heard of it though. It’s older than knitting and crocheting and even though it’s been done all over the world it’s super relevant to Nordic culture and my grandmother and I are both into keeping in touch with our roots a bit so I’m surprised I’ve never heard of it.

It’s also a lot easier to freehand and adjust as you go than crochet or knitting and you mostly go by inches instead of rows and number of stitches so a large number of accessories like stitch markers or whatever isn’t really necessary.