work in progress

apologies first for the silence on my part. Somebody bored through a cable at Olympic Village at the weekend and apparently that has meant no broadband for me in rural gloucestershire!!!! something to do with the service provider, anyway very frustrating. I have got a weeks worth of things to post so there will be plenty for you over the Easter weekend!
This is something i have been working on as part of a birthday present for the daughter of a good friend. She is having a gardening themed birthday party, so this is going to be a little gardening apron, with pretty plant pots as pockets and applique flowers and leaves. I am posting it as a WIP (work in progress) so you can see how I make things. Because I do this kind of thing for a living it didn't really occur to me that people don't always know 'how to do it' till the other day when Jo said 'aahh that's how you do that' (i was putting an inserted ric rac trim in a cushion!!). Anyway here are a few tricks of the trade from me to you.
1. the joy of bondaweb - it is basically like iron on hemming tape in a sheet with paper on 1 side, you can iron it to the reverse of a piece of fabric (or fairly much anything else) draw a shape on the paper side, cut it out and iron it on another bit of fabric. I then usually stitch it on too for a bit of decoration and some extra strength.
2. spring loaded embroidery hoops. these are great for impatient people like me! they hold the fabric tight and still while you do a bit of creative free stitch.
3.free stitch - on most sewing machines you can drop the feed (they are those little teeth that stick up under the needle plate.) if you drop them you can effectively draw with the sewing machine - i does take practice and you need a hoop.

i will post the finished gift for you to see later