[Guide] Witches Stitches : using textiles in the craft

[I-onishi]

Well I am more than glad to see you all here. Welcome SwirlinDark. It'll only be a couple more days until I post the first lesson on how to make your own mojo bag (or spell sachet). I suggest going over the basics of drawing your circle and calling the elements. Also finishing the first assignment and reading my first posts.  

[Thirrin Lindenshield]

I would like to join this class!

First Assignment:
1. You can call me by my username or Holly, whatever you prefer. I expect to gain new sewing and magic skills and a selection of beautifully handmade items after completing this class. I don't know how to work a sewing machine without being temped to throw it at the nearest wall, but I can embroider, knit, chrochet, and sew by hand with varying degrees of sucess. This looks like it will be a fun and informative class.
2. Bamboo and velvet felt the best. The velvet was warm and heavy in my hands. When I closed my eyes with it in my hands, I got the picture of a warm traveler's cloak in my mind, embroidered with gold on the edges. I could not find bamboo fabric at the store, so I subsituted with bamboo yarn. It was soft and reminded me of a cloud spun into yarn, yet when I rubbed the yarn between my fingers it felt a little grainy.  

[I-onishi]

That's great! Welcome Holly. I am excited to hear about your experience. It sounds like it will be a great cloak, and since that's one of the final projects hopefully I can help you make it.
That is very good. So the question is do you like the bamboo more ? Also have you gotten your hands on some cotton to try working with? I'd love to hear more.  

[I-onishi]

Today we will be making a magical sachet/baggie know more commonly as a mojo bag. The spells used for a magic sachet/baggie are limitless , however seeing as there are only so many pages I have available I will be showing four different uses for this bag , or spells . the assembly for the bags are virtually identical , there are a few differences. The four varieties of spell will be as follows Wealth (of all kinds , great for job hunting) , Protection , Love ( to help you attract the best kind of love) and Remembrance (to honor those who have go ahead and give them luck in their next steps).
First an foremost you will wish to gather your materials. There will be minor differences in some of these for the different spells.
1. Simple weave fabric ( Green , Blue , Red , and White) you need 1/8 yard.
2. Needles
3. Scissors
4. Pins
5. Thread 100% natural fibers
6. Candle (with lighter and holder) ( Green , Blue , Red , and White)
7. Measuring device (ruler or tape)
8. Herbs
9. Oil
10. Incense
11. Stones
12. something to carry your materials in (basket , box something)

As for choosing your fabric , I would work with the source you like best (covered in lesson one) you like best. Also I would use a small plain weave fabric. For Clarity I would like to say you will be using Green fabric candles and incense for Wealth , Red for Love , Blue for Protection , and White for Peace.

Step 2 find a space for you and your things , Call you circle and the elements/corners as you like. Set up your space putting up and lighting candle and incense saying phase one in individual spell.
Step 3 taking your fabric in hand you will now cut two rectangles of 3 by 4 inches each. Pin these together at the corners and set aside (pin them one on top of the other all corners matching appropriately).
Step 4 You will now thread you needle (a regular sewing needle will work just fine) if you have little experience I would use approximately 32in of thread , put one end of your thread through the eye (hole ) of the needle and double it over , sliding the needle to the middle of the thread and having the ends meet. Tie in a simple knot.
Step 5 lift the two pieces of fabric pinned together , put the needle through one corner approximately ¼ inch from the edge. Personally at this point I tie the thread in a knot around the fabric , saying I star this spell to bring me ( wealth , love , protection or peace for [name of the departed]). Making your first whip stitch , which is essentially looping the thread around the outer edge of the fabric and sticking the needle through the same direction , say ( wealth , love . protection, or peace) with each stitch you make. Sew along the 4 inch side first . Replace the thread as needed by tying a knot , cutting the needle free then re-threading it. Now round the corner and sew one of the 3 inch sides , then sew the second 4 inch side. Turn the bag inside out. This part of the bag is done , you will do more sewing however , complete the bag as follows for the individual spells.  

[I-onishi]

Wealth
Herbs : Acorn , Ash, Clover , Oak
Oils : Sandal wood , Frankincense
Stones: Jade , Tigers Eye
First double check you have all of your herbs , oils, and stones . As well as a threaded needle. Next lay them out in front of you and say
“ I dedicate this and all its makings to the power of the Earth and its mighty bountiful trees , May the green goodness of the earth be shared with me at my need , O gods of green bring to me prosperity , these things (pass your hand over your gathered items ) I devote to thee”
Now pickup your baggie and place one by one your items inside ( or on in the case of the oils ) saying with each item “ I devote to my prosperity this _____ .”
When this is done you will take your bag m turning under the edges so the two folds meet on top and pin the bag closed this way. Now pick up your threaded needle . Taking this you will now begin to finish the spell. Begin sewing the top closed just as you sewed all the sides. With each stitch say “ bring to me prosperity “ and on the last stitch as you tie the thread say “ With this knot the spell is done and now my magic begun , and it harm none , so mote it be “ At this time your baggie is done and you may dismiss the circle/elements and corners . Now take the baggie with you on interviews or keep it near your wallet of piggy bank .



Protection
Herbs : Basil , Carnation , Hyssop , Dill
Oils : Sandal wood , Dragons Blood
Stones: Clear Quartz , Hematite
First double check you have all of your herbs , oils, and stones . As well as a threaded needle. Next lay them out in front of you and say
“ I dedicate this and all its makings to the power of Fire and its ever burning light , May the strength of the magnificent flames shield me , O gods of light bring to me protection , these things (pass your hand over your gathered items ) I devote to thee”
Now pickup your baggie and place one by one your items inside ( or on in the case of the oils ) saying with each item “ I devote to my protection this _____ .”
When this is done you will take your bag m turning under the edges so the two folds meet on top and pin the bag closed this way. Now pick up your threaded needle . Taking this you will now begin to finish the spell. Begin sewing the top closed just as you sewed all the sides. With each stitch say “ bring to me protection “ and on the last stitch as you tie the thread say “ With this knot the spell is done and now my magic begun , and it harm none , so mote it be “ At this time your baggie is done and you may dismiss the circle/elements and corners . Now take the baggie with you when ever you don’t feel safe or when these some sort of problem ahead.  

[I-onishi]

Love
Herbs : Geranium , Rose , Apple (seeds) , and Patchouli
Oils : Lavender , Jasmine
Stones: Rose Quarts , Carnelian
First double check you have all of your herbs , oils, and stones . As well as a threaded needle. Next lay them out in front of you and say
“ I dedicate this and all its makings to the power of the water and its ever flowing streams , May the living waters or the world send love my way , O gods of rain bring to me love, these things (pass your hand over your gathered items ) I devote to thee”
Now pickup your baggie and place one by one your items inside ( or on in the case of the oils ) saying with each item “ I devote to love this _____ .”
When this is done you will take your bag m turning under the edges so the two folds meet on top and pin the bag closed this way. Now pick up your threaded needle . Taking this you will now begin to finish the spell. Begin sewing the top closed just as you sewed all the sides. With each stitch say “ bring to me love“ and on the last stitch as you tie the thread say “ With this knot the spell is done and now my magic begun , and it harm none , so mote it be “ At this time your baggie is done and you may dismiss the circle/elements and corners . Now take the baggie with you on interviews or keep it near your wallet of piggy bank .



Peace
Herbs : Hops , Lavender , Mistletoe , Thyme
Oils : Copal , Frankincense
Stones: Moon stone , Lapis Lazuli
First double check you have all of your herbs , oils, and stones . As well as a threaded needle. Next lay them out in front of you and say
“ I dedicate this and all its makings to the power of the air and its moving wind , May the wisdom of the breeze impart peace to _____ , O gods of air bring to _____ peace , these things (pass your hand over your gathered items ) I devote to thee”
Now pickup your baggie and place one by one your items inside ( or on in the case of the oils ) saying with each item “ I devote to _____’s peace this _____ .”
When this is done you will take your bag m turning under the edges so the two folds meet on top and pin the bag closed this way. Now pick up your threaded needle . Taking this you will now begin to finish the spell. Begin sewing the top closed just as you sewed all the sides. With each stitch say “ bring to ____ peace “ and on the last stitch as you tie the thread say “ With this knot the spell is done and now my magic begun , and it harm none , so mote it be “ At this time your baggie is done and you may dismiss the circle/elements and corners . Now take the baggie and put in a place they loved , or hang it from a tree , or even bury it outside where you think its peaceful and quiet.  

[Sky Raven Moon]

On the first assignment, I went and gathered different types of fabric. The fabrics with the brighter light was cotton, velvet, silk and leather.  

[I-onishi]

These are all great fabrics and will provide you with a great base for making many different projects. Hopefully you can learn to use these items well. Gaia mail me if you have any questions. Personally I love leather but sadly for the purpose of this course we will not be using any as the techniques to create items out of it are very different than using most textiles.  

[SwirlingDark]

All that we see or seem...
For the rest of the first assignment, I found I was more drawn to linen. I tried the light visualization exercise, but I'm having problems with my visualization at the moment, so it didn't work so well.

After linen, I was drawn to the cotton most.

...is but a dream within a dream

 

[I-onishi]

Very good. That's great for you since both aren't too expensive cotton being one of the cheapest fabrics. I am sorry your visualization is'nt doing so good. I wish you the best. Linen work just fine for most projects Ill be going over in the class (except for the cloak).  

[Priestess of Sekhmet]

Merry Meet. I'm Bella, and I'd love to join this class.  

[I-onishi]

I would love to have you. The new lesson will be up in another day or so.
Go ahead and go through the first two and tell me what you find.  

[Stark Raveling Mad]

Hullo! I'm Jasmine. I'm interested in taking this class, as I like to sew (though I'm not exactly and expert) and I sachets, altar cloths, and things like that just feel better handmade to me. I'll be starting on the first lesson whenever I get to a store. :3  

[I-onishi]

Hurray very good . I am happy to have you . I will be posting the next lesson very soon but Im still working on getting the pictures of it all done. I would love to see what you come up with.  

[I-onishi]

Lesson 3 : Alter Cloth
This is the stage in your learning where you will now start to work with embroidery . The materials you will need are as follows
Cloth measuring about 18 x 18 inches (in your preferred source [ref. to lesson 1])
2 needles (1 regular hand sewing , 1 hand embroidery)
Embroidery floss or thread ( floss is thicker and will look better in the end)
Embroidery hoop 4.50 -10 inches (anything bigger or smaller will make things difficult)
Paper (hopefully a printer but its not essential)
Chalk meant for sewing
Tracing wheel ( a small tool with a metal wheel on one side that had spikes all along the outside)

Now once you have gathered together your materials you’ll want to chose which design you’ll want to embroider on the cloth. After that of course you’ll want to set up your time and space to make your cloth . Included in the latter posts of this lesson will be the pictures for you to copy if you want , or you can come up with whatever you want to embroider on you cloth, as long as it has meaning to you. I will be using some basic symbols found in wicca . Among them will be runes and the pentacle.

First gather materials and lets start with a few things outside of the circle. Taking the fabrics that you chose cut it into a square. I recommend 18 by 18 inch for starters anything larger can be too much at first and anything smaller may be a little hard to work with. Then chose your pattern and print it out or draw it onto some paper. Now , on a harder surface that can be damaged (its ok to have a marks on) take out your tracing wheel and run it over the lines of the design twice. Now position the paper on the fabric right where you want the design to end up , and pin very securely. Once this is done you will take out your chalk ( dark for light colors and vice versa) the chalk will be draw over your lines of your design on the paper. If all is well when you move the paper the fabric will have little lines of chalk marks. Its ok these will come out. Go ahead and draw all of the lines you intend to embroider. Grab your scissors , threads , hoop and needles . You are ready to cast your circle.