Indrani Perera

poet, publisher & mentor

Category: Sewing, Knitting & Crochet

Little Felt Friends

Here's some more felt friends finger puppets inspired by the book, Mrs Echidna's Dilemma, by Betty Johnston. I've had so much fun sewing these little creatures.

When my first daughter was two we were living in Sydney and joined a wonderful playgroup where the mamas and papas did craft while their children played and listened to stories. She's now 14 years old and I haven't done any hand sewing for years.

I'm really enjoying getting back into the groove of blanket stitch and sewing with wool felt. I love how it feels under my fingertips and the way the puppets come to life as I am making them. I'm even overcoming my aversion to sewing on eyes – lots of my girls' felt toys don't have eyes on them because they're fiddly and impossible to get exactly the same as each other.

I'm letting go of that perfectionist streak and embracing the slightly wonky eyes and the charm of handmade.

The blue tongue lizard is my current favourite. What's yours?

August 26, 2020
Unravelling

In the last few weeks I've picked up a crochet hook again. It's been a while, a couple of years in fact since my last crochet project. So long that I've had to relearn the basic stitches and find myself fumbling through the motions once more. Perhaps not quite a beginner – there is some memory left in my muscles but not a lot!

I'm attempting to make the merfolk bag from Relish, issue 34 of Taproot magazine. The pattern uses a size 4 hook and a gorgeous organic linen from Quince & Co which i bought with some birthday money I received last year. It's been sitting in the craft cupboard waiting for me to find someone to help me read the pattern or find the time to figure it out myself.

Luckily I now find myself with plenty of time on my hands again. Lockdown has been very good for all the craft projects I've piled up over the years!

One of the things I love the most about crochet is how easy it is to un-do. When you make a mistake the stitches unravel with ease and you can start all over again. Which is a very good thing because I have been making a lot of mistakes!

What are you relearning or finding the time to do?

August 12, 2020
Finger Puppets

These furry fellas are winging their way to some little friends of mine.

I got the pattern for the puppets from the wonderful book Mrs Echidna's Dilemma by Betty Johnston. The book is based on a beautiful quilt Betty sewed. On the right hand side pages of the book are the story and on the left hand side facts bout echidnas. At the end of the book are finger puppet patterns for all the animals in the story as well as a DVD.

I've had so much fun sewing them together and each puppet I made became my new favourite. I even learnt a new stitch – chain stitch for the kookaburra's wings. I got so inspired making the puppets in the book I'm planning to add some animals and do extra birds with different beak shapes as suggested in the book.

June 16, 2020
Books Within Books

I've recently become obsessed with making leather journals. Since we've been self-isolating I've had a lot more time on my hands to make and also to write. And if you're going to be writing stuff down you definitely need more notebooks to write things in.

Of course once you've made a notebook you then need, ahem, a leather journal to carry it around in. One with compartments for the notebooks plus a little slot for your pens so you can be all neat and organised.

I made this cute little leather journal from vegetable-tanned kangaroo skin I got from Greenhalgh's Tannery about a million years ago (right now I'm feeling super grateful to past me for her most excellent taste in craft materials and good sense in buying up big when she had the time and money). It's to store the sketchfolio I made to store the zen tangles I'm going to draw. I know, nuts. But then I've always loved having lots of little bags which go in a bigger bag and then get put into an even bigger bag. This is just the book version of my bag obsession (hmmm, I'm spotting a theme here. I seem to be quite obsessive lately…)

I love it so much I think I'm going to have to make a brown leather journal to go with the eco-dyed notebook I made a while back. And perhaps some notebooks with blue/grey eco-dyed paper to go in this blue leather journal. After all, a gal's gotta be colour co-ordinated, right?

Like I said, obsessed.

May 26, 2020
It’s Beanie Time

I can't remember when I dyed these balls of wool. It was at least a couple of years ago in the midst of my eco dyeing frenzy. At the time I was dyeing anything and everything I could get my hands on. I was also doing straight up dyeing. Most of these balls of wall have been dyed with plants stuck in a pot but there is a ball which I used to wrap around an eco-dyed bundled of something or other. It's my favourite.

I'm pretty sure the dark brown is from walnut shells. The multi-coloured ball has some orange from cinerea and then whatever else was in the pot with the wool. The ball was originally tied around an eco-dyed bundle. Any string (or wool) you use to bind your bundles gets dyed in the pot. It's a beautiful example of accidental or incidental art.

I've been wanting to make a beanie to match the eco-dyed scarf you can see in the pictures. The merino wool scarf was my first ever successful attempt at eco-dyeding after many failures. The beautiful fingerless gloves were a birthday present from a very dear friend. She hand-spun the wool and then knitted the gloves. With a scarf and gloves all I was missing was a beanie. With winter coming, it's time to do something about my lack of beanie situation. Luckily for me, I had thoughtfully dyed these balls of wool on a previous occasion.

For some reason when I first dyed these balls, I didn't like the results. Crazy, right? They look incredible even if I do say so myself. I think at the time they didn't turn out how I was expecting which blinded me to their beauty. With the passing of time, I've forgotten my original expectation and can finally see them in their true glory. Sometimes the only difference between success and failure is time.

May 8, 2020
Leather Journal

When I make things, they need to have a purpose. I might want a leather pouch to store an almanack for example. Or else I get consumed with the desire to possess something beautiful and feel compelled to make it myself.

The latter was the case with this beautiful hand bound journal. My friend Kate came over to visit recently and she was sewing a journal to use at Uni. I fell in love immediately. The veg tanned cow hide was beautiful as was the stitch on the spine binding the pages to the cover. I was filled with must make!

Luckily for me Kate was happy to barter some leather for an avocado button I had made. You can turn avocado pips into pendants, buttons and earrings with a small knife and a bit of imagination.

When I first started making the journal I got very excited. I was having so much fun and it was so easy. I'd already ear marked money from next pay to buy some leather and was trying to figure out which paper would be the best to use for the pages. Not too heavy and not too light. Something with texture and durability. I imagines making lots of journals and selling them.

And then it took longer than I anticipated. And it got trickier that I first thought. And after that I decided maybe one was enough after all 🙂

April 7, 2020
Sew Slow

I've been spending a lot of time lately creating in the digital space using my thoughts and ideas. If I'm honest I have to admit I'm a bit burnt out. There's only so much staring at a screen (no matter how creative I'm being) I can tolerate before my brain starts to turn to mush.

In the last couple of weeks I've been making a tentative return to hand crafts. It's a strange process. Because it's been so long since I've made anything I feel a bit like a rusty old motor that's finding it hard to kick over. Sure I can produce a spark but getting the engine to rev and catch hold has been more challenging. At first I was feeling frustrated with myself for not being able to dive straight back in. Now that I've realised what's happening I can be easier with myself and take it slowly.

The wonderful things with craft is you can take it with you wherever you go. I did just that with this leather pouch I'm hand sewing. I have a thing for bags and pouches. Especially custom made ones with hidden inner pockets. I'm making this pouch to store copies of the Pocktery Almanack. Next up is a pouch to store my leather tools so I can take them anywhere I need to go. An awl, overstitch wheel, divider, ruler, needle, thread and scissors are all in my basic kit.

What are you making?

March 27, 2020
Sewing the Sacred

I often have half finished projects lying around the house. I start them with great enthusiasm and then for some reason or another (life gets busy or I get distracted by another exciting project) I don't get around to fishing them. Last year I was making hand-bound books using eco-dyed silk. I made one as a farewell gift for a good friend. Since then the others have lain in a box in various stages of completion.

This week I wanted to get back into using my hands to create (off the screen that is. There's been far too much of that and square eyes lately). I laid out all the paper, thread, scissors and silk on top of the blanket box in the snug where I craft. And then just didn't feel like doing it. I'm tired after a week of camping and not sleeping very well. I found it hard to muster the energy.

I finally told myself to just go ahead and do it anyway. There was never going to be a perfect time to start so I may as well jump in. Slowly, slowly I got back into the groove. And as I was sewing the pamphlets together to create the text block I had a realisation. I had been wanting to go straight from housework to a state of flow. Straight from mundane tasks to being fully absorbed in my project. Straight to the feeling of ease and the hours slipping away. Of course, flow comes when it wills and sometimes not at all. You can't force it or flog it into submission. It must be coaxed gently by doing, one step at a time. And then if you're lucky, you'll look up to find that hours have passed and you are feeling fulfilled.

January 27, 2020
The First Time

There is great pleasure in making something for the first time. In discovering how all the parts of the process fit together to create a new masterpiece. There can also be a lot of frustration as you try to get materials and hands to work together in co-operation!

My latest adventure saw my dusting off the bookbinding tools to make some hand bound books from a tutorial in the Grain issue of Taproot magazine. I did a bookbinding class with the incredible Rose-Marie Jeffers Palmer of Amazing Paper when I lived in Sydney. Since then I've made a book or two but my tools have mostly gathered dust. After reading the article I fell completely in love with the fabric covered notebooks in the magazine. I desperately wanted one!

When I was a kid I would make, write and illustrate my own stories and always wanted to know how to make books so they looked like the ones I bought in the shops. Instead of like my homemade stapled together at the kitchen table versions. Although thirty-five years later those books of my childhood do have a certain charm. Especially the Adventures of the Piffle Poffle which unfortunately I never finished illustrating.

The books in the tutorial were covered with plant dyed fabric and embroidered with illustrations of plants. I didn't have the patience to wait until I had dyed my own fabric and instead rushed out to the paper shop to buy some lovey papers including one made out of cork!

I'm starting to revel in my nature as a craft dabbler, flitting from craft to craft. My sewing skills came in very handy for sewing together the pamphlets in this book. For me sewing is a foundational skill which I use in many other craft projects. It's very handy for sewing on the wooden buttons I make and sewing together the fabric I eco-dye.

I'm very pleased with my notebooks and can't wait to make more. Next time with avocado dyed fabric!

October 11, 2018
The First Time

There is great pleasure in making something for the first time. In discovering how all the parts of the process fit together to create a new masterpiece. There can also be a lot of frustration as you try to get materials and hands to work together in co-operation!

My latest adventure saw my dusting off the bookbinding tools to make some hand bound books from a tutorial in the Grain issue of Taproot magazine. I did a bookbinding class with the incredible Rose-Marie Jeffers Palmer of Amazing Paper when I lived in Sydney. Since then I've made a book or two but my tools have mostly gathered dust. After reading the article I fell completely in love with the fabric covered notebooks in the magazine. I desperately wanted one!

When I was a kid I would make, write and illustrate my own stories and always wanted to know how to make books so they looked like the ones I bought in the shops. Instead of like my homemade stapled together at the kitchen table versions. Although thirty-five years later those books of my childhood do have a certain charm. Especially the Adventures of the Piffle Poffle which unfortunately I never finished illustrating.

The books in the tutorial were covered with plant dyed fabric and embroidered with illustrations of plants. I didn't have the patience to wait until I had dyed my own fabric and instead rushed out to the paper shop to buy some lovey papers including one made out of cork!

I'm starting to revel in my nature as a craft dabbler, flitting from craft to craft. My sewing skills came in very handy for sewing together the pamphlets in this book. For me sewing is a foundational skill which I use in many other craft projects. It's very handy for sewing on the wooden buttons I make and sewing together the fabric I eco-dye.

I'm very pleased with my notebooks and can't wait to make more. Next time with avocado dyed fabric!

October 11, 2018