Wednesday 30 May 2012

Liberty Tea Cup

I recently had the chance to test a pattern for Laurraine at Patchwork Pottery.  She pattern tested for me with the Sew-Ichigo patterns, her proof reading and attention to detail was amazing, so I was happy to return the favour.   Regular readers here know my love affair with tea and tea imagery so I feel a kinship with Laurraine who is similarly inspired by tea and all that relates to it.  I followed her Quilted Teacup pattern  and made a Liberty lawn and linen tea cup.  
Liberty lawn is the perfect match for a teacup pattern, so English, delicate and small prints- just like floral china.  Ali at veryberryhandmade has started selling Liberty charm packs in a range of sizes at The Fabric Market Place.  I bought a pack of 15 x 4" squares and dug into my little Liberty stash making this a scrappy project, just as Laurraine intended.
The linen is Kaufman Essex linen in bleached white.  I had a selection of this sent to me when I did the Zakka Style Sew a long.  I first came across Essex in a quilting bee when it was part of a fabric selection.  It is linen/cotton blend, but it cuts like a heavy cotton- it doesn't slip and slide or even fray in the nightmarish way that 100% linen does.  The yarn dyed variations are incredible- I will show you more soon, but I always like to have a few colours of the standard Essex in stock and I have always bought from Simply Solids.

 To make this a truly scrappy project, I even pieced my binding.   Liberty lawn is thin enough and strong enough to make a great binding without significant seam bulk.  Laurraine's pattern prints as a booklet so there are illustrations and words for each stage so I was clear on what I was doing at all times.  I especially like pictures when I am following instructions and Laurraine has tweaked all the illustrations to make sure they accurately represent each stage of the process.

It is quite a fiddly pattern as all 3D sewing tends to be but it is not hard.   The skills covered are bias binding- making and attaching and then just standard sewing.     There is a balance of hand sewing and machine stitching and she includes a glossary and diagrams of all hand stitches involved.
The pattern comes out at around the size of a medium china tea cup- so delightful!  Now all I need is for Liberty to do a mix and match china tea set using their classic pattern archives!
You can find Laurraine's pattern here along with other equally detailed and cute projects.

sib blog


15 comments:

  1. I absolutely love this Kerry! I have one that was bought for me from Liberty years ago, it has a padded cup so you can use it as a pincushion and the cup attaches to the saucer with velcro. Otherwise it looks very similar. Years ago Liberty used to sell all sorts of lovely gifts made from their Tana Lawns (and have branches all over the country). Also thanks for the linen tip, I must get some linen to sel in my shop and I have an account with Robert's Kaufman's UK wholesaler - so job done!

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  2. Oh, it is so sweet! All of her patterns are though aren't they? I love your version.

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  3. Very lovely - but simple laws of physics tells me it'll never work!

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  4. Lovely! Have some blue and white fabric that would look fab. Couldn't get the link for the pattern to open.

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  5. Oh Kerry! What a wonderful post and such a beautiful patchy Teacup! I love it!! You did a fabulous job Tea Sister! Hugs, L

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  6. Hi Kerry! This is just so You and so amazing and beautiful! I love also your house blocks and today happened to by the same Marie Clair. Yesterday I made my first try with cross stitching! Yours looks so beautiful! I'm not sure if I shall have patient enough for that - especially to follow the pattern. x Teje

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  7. My oh my this is simply fab and I just have to make one of these pronto. Thank you for the links to the site. Hugs mrs A.

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  8. Utterly gorgeous - and thanks so much for the mention. :-)

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  9. If I know you, there will be a matching teapot and spoon here soon!

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  10. .................me encantan...............son tan adorables, me provocan jugar a tomar el té como cuando era pequeña.
    Saludos
    Carina, desde Argentina

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  11. That is soooo beautiful!
    Judith. (Ivybridge)

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  12. so pretty!I love how you did the mix and match prints :-)

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    Replies
    1. A little charm pack was just perfect for that mix and match look

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  13. Dido on loving your 3-D tea cup and saucer! What a creative idea! ♥♥♥

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