An African bush wedding

So my little sister’s wedding has come and gone. It still feels rather surreal to think about how this cute little kid has grown into the most beautiful young woman – inside and out – and that she’s now married to a really good guy who makes her extremely happy. Surreal, but real.


My talented mom (MTM) made her wedding dress, as well as my maid of honour dress. I was told that officially it was matron of honour as I’m married, but that made me feel too old and what-have-I-done-with-my-life. It also reminded me of my old matron at boarding school, so I’m sticking with maid. But back to my sister’s dress.

Strapless, white silk over layers of petticoats, with clear beads dotted between white chain stitch whipped with silver and finished off with pleated detailing. And two red roses in her hair. Unfortunately, between my dress and flowers, there was nowhere to stash a camera. So I’ll have to post close-ups of her dress when I get the official photographer’s versions, which will no doubt be better than these snapshots. But at least they give an idea of the overall effect:



That’s me, second in red (okay, the vertically challenged one) and MTM giving my sister away. After a deluge the day before, the weather came to the party and my sister and brand new brother-in-law were able to get married under their Marula tree, under the African sun:


With weddings come hen parties, which in this case was a cocktails and canapés affair that straddled the line between pamper party and kitchen tea. The reason I mention this aspect of the wedding is because my fellow bridesmaid, the groom’s sister, was in charge of entertainment. And one of the games she came up with was to divide everyone into teams and get them to create a wedding dress for one team member – out of toilet paper and in 12 minutes. I guess having MTM and her seamstress friend in one team and a young fashion designer in another was always going to result in something good. Please do note their “ribbon roses”, although the younger team was eventually deemed the winner:



I haven’t included the third team for reasons of decency, as their “bride” looked more like a scantily clad mummy…

And so months of lists and discussions and planning and making are over. The honeymoon is almost in the past and life goes on. With second to none memories of extended families gathered in the bushveld to look back on with a smile.

Jacobean leaves embroidery pattern: 1 of 8

I’ve been meaning to share my Jacobean leaf designs for a while now. Judging by the positive response I got, I thought there might be a few stitchers out there who would like to give them a try.

It takes me a little while to draw up patterns as I have a bit of a perfectionist streak. And I doubt many of you would be able to decipher the working pattern – it’s full of sketching and notes and crossed out bits and so on. So I’ll post the pattern for each leaf separately, as I get them done. You should be able to just click on the image and save or print the design.

Update: Download the pattern here.

I find it easier to work from diagrams than from written instructions, so have gone this route when drawing up the patterns. I’ve used a simple key, so all you need to do is trace the design on to your fabric, thread a needle and start stitching. Each leaf is roughly the same size, so you can use this one as a guide to work out how much cloth you’ll need if you want to use all eight in one project.


As far as the stitches are concerned, they can all be found in Country Bumpkin’s A-Z of Embroidery Stitches and/or A-Z of Crewel Embroidery. But I’m sure you could find instructions easily enough online or in other books.

If you followed my progress, you’ll know I positioned my leaves in a vertical strip and used various colours. But these designs are versatile, so you could work them in almost any way on to almost anything – redwork, wool, metallic threads…

If you decide to give them a go, please remember that I hold the copyright and that these patterns can’t be used for financial gain. That said, I’d love to see your finished work, so please send me a link when you’re done.

Mulberry melange

Despite good intentions, I haven’t had much time for stitching this year. Life keeps getting in the way.

I have, however, stolen a few moments here and there to crochet a block from my new mulberry wool for our long-time-coming blanket. It’s a bit tricky to work with as it’s “space dyed roving yarn wrapped with a fine boucle”, so two strands bound together and the thicker one differs in width throughout. But with a little extra care I’ve ended up with the most gorgeously soft and sumptuous square.


And the colours are even better once crocheted. The sky is rather grey today, which is bad for photos. But it makes a good, moody backdrop for the deep, rich tones of the wool.