Sprigged & Spotted

Category: Crafts & Making

  • A Crochet Journey: A Lifetime of Crafting

    A Crochet Journey: A Lifetime of Crafting

    Of all of the domestic arts I have cultivated as a hobby, my crochet journey spans the most years.

    I learned to create textiles with so many twists of a hook when I was in elementary school. My mother showed me the basic stitches, and then I used my interpretation of them to make a “scarf” of rainbow variegated cotton yarn, which I bestowed upon my dad for Christmas. (He re-gifted it to me as an adult, and I will post photos of it whenever I have a chance to dig it out of my archives.) As I remember, I didn’t stitch in the most efficient way and had to physically lift the yarn over the end of the hook for each double-crochet-like stitch.

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  • Mindful Mending: Repairing a Vintage Cotton Apron

    Mindful Mending: Repairing a Vintage Cotton Apron

    What is it with the 1950’s and poodles?

    For some reason, poodles seem to be the decade-defining embellishment in our collective cultural memory of the post-war, pre-hippie decade. However, I have never before handled a genuine mid-century garment adorned with the famous silhouette of a well-groomed poodle.

    In a jumble of aprons my grandmother had acquired over the years, I found just such a treasure: a home-sewn cotton apron with a repeating red and blue poodle design. Closer inspection revealed the apron had sustained some minor damage in its previous life. The most obvious issue was a small L-shaped tear in center near the waistband.

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