Velvety musicy things

In my last post I showed you all the lovely sewing-themed presents that my husband, Ian, had given me for Christmas....well, here are a couple of the things that I'd made for him to give in return. Above is a close-up of an A4 cloth book-cover that I made. Ian's passion (as I'm sure I've mentioned before) is playing the guitar, and he always uses the same rather utilitarian-looking hardback books as his 'lyrical pads'...sometimes having to trade one in before it's come quite to the end of its useful life if its use has been plagued by a lack of inspiration...but always for an identical twin, just with hopefully more good luck in its pages. Anyway, I thought I'd make him a re-usable cover that he could put over each new pad. I had lots of fun doing this...sneaking his guitar out of its case to look at all the little details and then trying to find the right fabrics, threads and beads for it to recreate it.

The top and bottom are edged with a strip of brown velvet. I love the effect of the guitar...but unfortunately the actual cover is a little loose and so doesn't stay quite as taut as I'd like...and actually the velvet was a bit bulky. I may rework it for him at some point.

Ever since Ian bought his vintage guitar he's been rumbling about needing a special cloth to wipe the dust off it (this is not a man who normally worries about dust!)...but one that actually looks and feels as special as the guitar (said in response to my offering him an e-cloth!)....so here's what I made him. It's brown quilted velvet that is quite one of the softest, most luxurious fabrics that I have ever touched, and I put a teal coloured silk on the reverse side. I am planning to buy a larger piece of this fabric in the new year to make some cushions with.

This should have taken only minutes to sew...but somehow it ended up taking forever as the material kept slipping and the thread broke every couple of stitches...I tried new needles, special slippery-eel-material needles, different tensions, sewing the other way up, taking the machine apart, swearing...but actually the culprit ended up being the shiny Gutterman thread that I was using....I'm not going near that again!

And finally, I bought for him this 1930s musical box. It is a little battered, but I think that only adds to its charm. Inside I lined it with some brown velvet (there's a theme here) and put inside a poem that I'd copied out, that reminded me of him.

I don't really know why I bought him this last thing...apart from that we both love old boxes...the tune it plays is completely manic, but hauntingly lovely all the same - and we both love that noise that the mechanism makes just at the point when you close the lid and the music stops. I remember opening and closing my own musical box as a child just to hear that noise over and over.

Anyway, Ian has entertained our family all Christmas by providing the music for our drunken sing-alongs...but tonight he's out playing some of his own music, so my sister and me are going along to watch (but will hopefully refrain from singing along!).