The Good, the Bad & the Handmade

The perfect corners

Take wall hangings and quilts, for example.

Getting those corners just right can be a real battle. The fabrics have to meet perfectly, the frame has to be straight and the layers have to behave themselves.

And fabrics have personalities.

Some fabrics stretch. Some do not. Some move when you really wish they would stay exactly where you put them.

You measure everything twice, pin carefully and sew slowly.

And then you look at the corner.

Hmm.

Not quite perfect.

So you take it apart and try again.

That is handmade.

One cup warmer… or ten?

When I first started making my one-cup warmers, I had another little problem.

My first version was enormous.

It was supposed to be a one-cup warmer.

It was probably big enough for ten cups.

Not exactly what I had in mind!

So I went back to the drawing board, reduced the size and tried again.

Much better.

Embroidery: beautiful… and sometimes a test of patience

I love machine embroidery, and my BERNINA embroidery machine is an amazing tool.

But even the best machine cannot completely remove the human element.

Sometimes the embroidery frame is just slightly crooked.

Sometimes you buy thread because it is inexpensive, thinking you have found a bargain.

And then it keeps breaking.

Again.

And again.

And again.

At some point you start wondering if the machine has developed a personal dislike for you.

Then there are power cuts.

Thankfully, modern sewing and embroidery machines can remember a lot. But sometimes even the clever machine says:

“No. We are starting again.”

And you sigh.

Then you start again.

How big can you make an embroidery?

Another challenge is enlarging or reducing an embroidery design.

How much can you change it before the stitches no longer behave properly?

Make it too small and the details can disappear.

Make it too large and the stitches can become too dense or lose their shape.

So there is always a little bit of testing, adjusting and sometimes… starting over.

And that is why every piece is unique

At HandmadeLuxuryHome, every item is handmade.

And every item is unique.

Of course, sometimes someone asks us to make a small series of the same design. We try.

But strangely enough, making the exact same handmade item again and again is often harder than you might think.

The fabric behaves differently.

The embroidery may not land in exactly the same place.

The maker has a new idea.

Or perhaps the second version simply decides it wants to be different.

That is the nature of artistic work.

A handmade item is not made by a factory following the same process thousands of times.

It is made by a person.

And sometimes that person has an idea.

Sometimes that idea works beautifully.

Sometimes it does not.

And sometimes, after three attempts, a broken thread, a power cut and one slightly crooked frame…

Bingo!

You have something wonderful.

So yes, HandmadeLuxuryHome is about beautiful handmade things.

But it is also about the people who make them.

The patience.

The mistakes.

The laughter.

The occasional frustration and the little moments when everything finally comes together.

The good, the bad & the handmade.

Because honestly, if everything went perfectly every time…

it probably wouldn't be handmade.

Marga van der Vet, always patience... uhh... not!