"Sewing Freestyle Friday"

I love days like today... Spending time with a great friend, chatting, sewing and learning new techniques at the same time.... bliss!!! Today I visited my friend Sarah to discover the art of Freestyle Sewing, a la Poppy Treffry style. I don't use my sewing machine regularly, I pick it up now and then for the odd project, so I expected today to be a bit of a challenge, but I was pleasantly surprised!
On arrival at Sarah's I was welcomed with a warm cup of coffee and then we set up my sewing machine in her sewing room...... I just love this room, especially the gorgeous storage cupboard at the end, just look at all those little drawers, they were full of sewing bits and bobs, fabric, cotton, craft bits etc... a real treasure trove!

Freestyle sewing involves completely removing the pressure foot from the machine and dropping the dog feed so that you can control the movement of the fabric freely. You then need to place an embroidery ring around the fabric to get some tension and then work the material with your hands to create shapes, words and patterns. It feels really strange and at first I was all over the place, but gradually I started to write, you can see above I've written my name "Mandy" and drawn squiggles, flowers and hearts, this was a kind of warm up session before we began the applique below.....

Here I started to create an applique cupcake with freestyle sewn edges, very "Shabby Chic" in style don't you think! Creating the paper cup that the cake sits in (below) required alot of concentration, continuously moving the fabric up down and around to create the paper folds.

I was thrilled with the end result, I still need lots of practice, but it wasn't a bad first attempt. After a few more goes we then retired to the kitchen/diner for lunch. Sarah made a tasty Leek and Potato Soup with bread for lunch........

.......followed by the most gorgeous Plum Tart, below, this was sooooo delicious, served up with Creme Fraiche.

After lunch we made our way back to the sewing room, via Sarah beautiful front porch, she has the most stunning home with beautiful style.

For the afternoon sewing session we decided to work a little on writing freestyle, I must say this was REALLY tricky and is going to need lots and lots of practice, but below is my first few attempts.

After a late afternoon cuppa and some handmade Lemon Drizzle Cake we finished off our lovely day with more applique practice, turning our hand to cupcakes, flowers and hearts. If you fancy having a go yourself, check out Poppy's book; Free & Easy Stitch Style, you can purchase it on Amazon, it has really clear step by step instructions and patterns that are so easy to follow.

Thank you Sarah for a wonderful day xx