BATB - Toy Chest Etui

view from the classroom window

It's nearly six months since my Beating Around the Bush class with Betsy Morgan, for her Toy Chest Etui. I didn't write about the class at the time (big mistake!) but I did write about the preparation. I now need to catch up, so I can write about my progress.

The class was quite different to the Alison Snepp hussif class. To start with, the class concentrated on the techniques of construction, rather than the embroidery techniques, so we had prepared one piece of embroidery for the class.




As well as constructing that piece (the thimble keep in the form of a child's ball-cup) we learned construction techniques for other pieces.

We had quite a lot of fun making a model magic wallet from skirtex and paper strips, ready for the real thing on the needlebook.

We spent the best part of an afternoon going through the construction notes for all the various bits of the chest and its contents.

The time was, I thought, pretty well paced. Our work in constructing the thimble keep, using the piece we had embroidered in preparation, was quite detailed, including practising the joining stitch, cutting skirtex circles for the ends of the thimble cup and learning to roll the silk lining around the plastic spools that form the inside shaping. The same technique applies to the drum (which holds wax).

We finished our thimble keep by the end of the two day class and went away armed with a lot of linen, silks, charts and instructions for the rest of the etui and its contents. It has taken me several months to get organised and prepared to continue the work - but it is underway and will provide quite a few more blogs soon!