Silk and Cashmere....Mmmmmmmmm...

It's cold outdoors today, and getting dim and dampish, and the forecasters are predicting a wintry mix late tonight. Better snuggle in and find warm, soft things to cuddle with.

I can look forward to two small boys in their footie pajamas, leaning in to each side while I read to them, and occasionally read to me, and later read with my husband nearby after the boys have gone to bed, while ueber-fluffy Muffin finds a spot on my lap. Those are all very good things to think about.

There are other soft and fluffy things though, less meaningful, but nice to handle and to look at. Take this little cashmere bag, made last evening and rapidly embroidered in 1950s-style lazy daisy stitches with silk filament and silk chenille, then closed with a silk ribbon run through the top.

It's out-and-out luxury, the gleam of the silk on the pettable fluff of the bag's sides. I'll put a little cotton bag of lavender inside and there we have a pretty little gift for someone to slide into a chest of drawers, or in among the sheets in the linen closet. So long as the moths don't get to it!

How It Was Made

I've had an old cashmere sweater I could no longer wear that wasn't in good enough condition to give away. I tried to unravel it but that didn't work well either...I can't seem to follow unravelling tutorials well enough.  In frustration, I looked at the end of a cut-open sleeve, and saw the shape of a little bag looking back at me.

Out with the fabric shears, and I cut the sleeve into three parts. The end with the cuff went into this bag. Then it was but a matter of turning it inside out, blanket-stitching up a side seam and bottom seam, and in a fit of fun, pulling out my best embroidery threads for a few minutes of on-the fly embroidery. I started embroidering little flowers with lazy-daisy stitches and knots in the centers, and when there seemed to be enough of them, scattered a few leaves around.

Then I took a needle with a big eye, threaded silk ribbon embroidery ribbon in it, and made a running stitch around the top, for a closure. That's it.

It's not perfect, naturally, and it looks very homemade, but that's the point. It's just a little loving hug to pass on to a friend.

Today I leave you with Noah and Christopher and their airplane on wheels. They took our dolley, plopped a box on it, and the driveway became the runway. Christopher is en route, below.