Meet Miss Piggy

I finally got around to making this yesterday:

Tailor’s Ham

Date:  March 28, 2012

Pattern:  PDF here; tutorial here; by Chance of Rain (aka Sai in Madrid).

Fabrics:  scrap of vintage cotton sheet, dyed in Procion MX; scrap of handwoven wool fabric; scraps of lightweight unbleached muslin.

Notions:  sewing thread; sawdust (cherry wood) from T-Man’s wood studio.

Comments:  I couldn’t find any suitable wool plaid in deep stash so I pulled out a piece of fabric that I wove sometime in the 1990’s in shadow weave, hence the cool effect. I also found a large enough piece left over from the vintage sheets that I dyed for the Rag Quilt. They actually coordinate better than the photos might suggest! I only used one layer of muslin under each of the outer fabrics thinking that would be enough to keep the sawdust from leaking out.

Putting in the sawdust took much longer than cutting and sewing the pieces for the ham. I was a little disappointed that the cotton side has some wrinkles at the seam despite my best packing and pounding and repacking efforts. It takes an amazing amount to fill even a small ham like this one and I got sawdust and shavings stuck everywhere. Luckily I was smart enough to work on it in T’s studio which of course already has sawdust everywhere and the shop vacuum right there.

I’ve been meaning to make one of these for quite awhile, actually years! This is the small 9” x 6” one from Sai’s pattern and it’s pretty little. If I get around to it I might like to make a larger version too, though not perhaps as large as her large one, maybe 9” x 12”? I’ll use this one first for awhile and then see if I think a larger one would be useful as well.

This is a just a quick post because I’m off to finally get my hair cut. Yippee! It’s been driving me batty because it needed cutting about 2 weeks ago but I haven’t been feeling up to trotting on down to my hairdresser’s. Today I’m going rain or shine – or both since it keeps alternating out there. Regardless, I’ll wear my Minoru Jacket and bring my umbrella.