Thursday 19 July 2012

Finally!

Finally things are beginning to happen here - Magatha Bagatha is more of a name than a business at the moment but there's a lot happening.

Everything is very much in the planning, research and development mode - I'm planning the products I want to make, researching the market and developing how I want to do things.

I've made a few things and tested them on friends and relatives and the prototypes have been well received.

My main plan is to find a use for the wool from our 20 Lleyn cross ewes so we've been researching wool processing and waiting for it to stop raining long enough for the shearer to come and take the fleeces off.

The girls don't think much to this but they feel better afterwards.
This week the rain did stop and the shearer arrived. The job doesn't take long when there are only 20 sheep to do!

Twenty organic fleeces, picked, rolled and sorted.
With 20 different sheep you get 20 different fleeces. We lined them up in the sunshine in order of quality - softest on the left, coarsest on the right. The top right is from our pet sheep Chops who has such a lovely long staple to his fleece and his now quite a big chap so there's a lot of it! Samples have now gone off to a mill in Yorkshire for assessment and advice.

The initial plan is to use the carded wool to stuff cushions and pillows but the future perhaps holds yarn and felt - watch this space!

In the meantime I've been sewing cushion covers so I'll have some ready for filling once the wool is done. I'm using some lovely organic cross weave cottons and appliqués made from leftover fabric scraps and adding a little hand embroidery to some of them.

Wellington boots.
One of my main objectives with Magatha Bagatha is to reduce waste and to use organic materials wherever possible. I reuse things where I can and some of my other items have been made from preloved clothes and curtains. It's also a way to use up the scraps, buttons, beads and other lovely things I've rescued over the years.

There are four of these cushion covers so far - two 18" x 18" and two 10" x 10".  They now need sewing to their backs (envelope style with two heart-shaped buttons) and then I need to make the woolly inner pads.


I've also been working on a book-style Kindle cover this week. This one's for mum who road tests so many of my sewing projects. At the moment this design is padded with polyester wadding - I can't help but think that lovely soft organic Welsh wool would be so much better...

5 comments:

  1. Good luck with your new venture. Everything you've made so far is fab. Love to get my mitts on some of that lovely fleece. Just a thought - would stuffing for cushions have to be fireproofed? When I used to make them I only used bought in stuffers which carried their own label.

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    1. Wool is naturally fire retardant, so it doesn't need to be fire proofed. That's one of the lovely things about pure wool as a filler - no nasty chemicals required.

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  2. Stunning. Christmas is only 155 days away, saving now so I can buy some gorgeous presents for friends and family.

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  3. Congratulations on the good start.

    Having been a weaver in a past (part of my) life, I appreciate the thoroughness with which you are assessing the material in the fleeces. Are your going to weave some of the material yourself? I trust you will, even with a small-ish table-top loom, as the weaving is a good experience in itself. My father-in-law wove himself enough material to have a suit made; it lasted forever (more or less).

    Best wishes in the MB scheme!

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  4. My very best wishes for your success. Pat

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