I made a Housewife

I did it!! Yes ..... Finally!

I have wanted to make one ever since I know about it from Georgia Seitz’s Online Tatting Class. In case you are not familiar with this, a housewife, or the correct term a hussif, is a purse/bag/pouch or whatever that you call it, that is used to carry needlework stuff. Here’s what my housewife looks like.

The fabric that I used is songket. It is a traditional fabric of Malaysia spun from cotton and interwoven with gold or silver thread to create beautiful motifs. The motifs are mostly inspired from the flora of the country. In the past songket was used mostly by the royals but has become more common now. But because of its rich and heavy texture, it is not a common daily wear. Garments made from songket are worn on special occassions and for very formal functions. It is a favorite fabric to be made into wedding attire by newlyweds to wear during their wedding reception.
Hmmm.... looking at it now, I just realised that the motifs of the fabric is perfectly centred. That is a lucky chance because I wasn't really paying attention when I cut the fabric.
In fact, this particular piece that I used was from the remnants of the fabric that was used for my wedding dress. It has kept well over the years, considering that I will be celebrating my silver anniversary this year!
I started with these – fabric for the outside and the pocket, 2 other fabrics of different colours for the inside and the pocket, interfacing material and some batting. Oh! the Il Divo CD? It is providing the background music while I sew.

I love Il Divo. I heard them once on the radio when they were promoting their first album a few years back and went to get the CD straightaway. Beautiful voices. They had a concert here in Malaysia early this year to kick off their Asian tour, but I didn’t go. How I wish ……. Well forget about what I wish.

Okay …. Back to the housewife.

I took that pic because I thought I wanted to show the step by step of how I made the housewife. But … reality check …. why re-invent the wheel …. I was following someone else’s instructions anyway, so credit should be given to the right person. So here it is – the tutorial for the Housewife prepared by Hope Green, which to me, was very well done - and Hope is a wonderful lady too. Or you can view it as a slide show.

My housewife has one large pocket and four smaller ones. Because of another ‘lucky’ mistake, I had two additional slim pockets (which shouldn’t be there actually) by the sides. They are just nice for my crochet hooks. Hmmm…. Sometimes mistakes are not bad at all. And I attached a felt fabric to keep my needles.

I have added some tatted embelishments. The one above, over the felt was a design that I picked from one of Mlle Riego tatting books, which was obtained from the public domain archives. The original instruction was to tat with four shuttles. Now you know that is really old … the split ring was not invented yet at that time! Thankfully, with the split ring technique, I did it with two shuttles. The one on the pocket was an antique design from a pattern provided by Georgia Seitz for the Online Class.

When filled, the housewife looks like this. 

The shuttles fit prefectly into the smaller pockets and so does the small pair of scissors. And the WIP goes into the big pocket.

Perfect to carry around for doing tatting on the go.