Last week, my friend Kirsty and I went to see the French film Coco Avant Chanel and I completely fell in love with it- the 'look and feel' of it mostly. And all the clothes! I thought it was truly beautiful. In a couple of fleeting scenes, I saw Coco using a housewife needlecase- a bit like these but bigger, folding up more like a book. Her housewife (in the film, at least), looked as though it was made from a piece of grey wool suiting fabric, and had two big pockets and another piece of wool for her pins and needles. (Yes, I really paid attention to all the sewing details.)
Even though I'm doing pretty well for needlebooks, I couldn't resist making my own Coco-inspired housewife. I used a piece of recycled grey wool, lined it in a grey Japanese-print cotton, and added a few pockets for threads, a thimble, small tape measure, etc. Also some black velvet ribbon for holding my scissors and random bits of paper with inspiring pictures/patterns.
I also, rather fancifully, embroidered her name on the front of the case. Just because I don't want to forget the spirit of her when I'm sewing.
tiny happy 
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