WW1 gas mask, scarves and sad news

 

Am back to work at last after having a lengthy cold and my eyes are almost back to normal after the secondary conjunctivitus, so am able to get stuck into the Topic Boxes again. This gasmask outline above is a freebie online pattern  with instructions to make it in card. But Id seen a photograph of what WW1 soldiers were issued with first off, and they were basically this design face mask, set within a hood that fit over the head and shoulders.

It cant have offered very much protection from the gasses and it would have been difficult to have any useful field of vision from within it.

But it would be ideal for a VI child to place over the head, if they are willing to!...to recreate the wearing of such a mask.

And as such it would go well with the trenches model Ive made and psoted about previously.

 Ive made the mask out of fun foam though and used a cut down thick cardboard carpet roll inner for the mouth bit.

That's been covered as in the original insts. with (I used several) layers of bubble wrap at both ends and around, the cardboard tube.

Its then been set into the mouth opening from behind and secured in position with double sided and sellotape.

Will take a pic of the inside so you can see that I have overlapped the last layer of bubble wrap, so there is means to secure it in place.

It yet needs see thru plastic set in the eye areas and then stitching into position in a fabric hood. I'm going to hand stitch the fun foam mask in place though, because I suspect machining it, might enable the fun foam to tear away? Its a prototype so if it doesnt appear to work I will rethink that as and when though.

The other two pics are of some fulled scarves Ive made, with holes in them and oddly sliced out areas. so you can tuck the ends of the scarves in much like a cravat.

It was vintage wool felt and has fulled beautifully, though the greyish one is thinner and as you can see I didnt iron it very well lol but thats going in for another felting, so the crumplyness of it is more even.

Now I have to say I read the  http://red2white.wordpress.com/author/red2white/ blog post the other day and there were these stunning scarves with holes in them, in sumptious colourways, felted from scratch.

And I had been sat there for a several nights already cutting away at this vintage felt I had, to make much the same kind of thing, but by cheating!

I left a comment saying that mine would never be a match for hers but wasnt it funny the way we Creatives have similar ideas, wherever we are in the world BUt thats oem of us are just MUCH cleverer at it than the rest of us lol

Youve seen mine, now see some perfect examples at the link above!

Thats one of the last wreaths I made, think thats been posted previously.

Lovely pal Mary from Oz told me to expect a cheesy book for my birthday which was ordered in Oz but shipped from the USA.......and it had arrived on saturday when I got home laden with the K&S goods.
So there am I unwrapping it, expecting a cookery book about cheese.... but...it wasnt! lol
But this is a lovely surprise, it has short essays for each day of the year and quotes and snippets of poems too. The idea being that you read an essay a day over the year and presumably find a peaceful thought and place at least that once each day.
Since my birthday was last month, not sure if I should hang fire and start it on january 1st or try and read back and catch up till today............but then I wont have that simple pleasure of reading the one piece each day, if that makes sense?! So thankyou Mary. I love it xx

I had sad news last week, my sons godfather had died after a 6 month battle with cancer. 6 months to the day they had told him he probably only had 6 months to live.
Drew was a simply lovely man who adored his wife and kids and grandchild, something I so admired in him, throughout the years.
A chap with a lilting scots brogue to his speech and the most infectious laughter of any man I've ever met. A smoker all his life sadly.


We flew together now and then when both on10 SQN in the RAF, before he was posted onto The Queens Flight and galavanted about places with members of our Royal Family.

Drew and I once went to Hanover as part of an RAF crew and had several days there till the flight home. So I had intended to take the opportunity to sample German white wines, which at the time I needed for my upcoming wedding ( back in 1981).
Drew being a helpful soul, staight way offered to assist me in this.
He was a canny shopper and Maz his wife, says they had the best loft insulation in the world, cos he would buy "bargains" from overseas and she would stuff most of it in the loft, till when it was ever needed.
If they were ever short of anything, there would be another, in the loft!

So we went off shopping for various labelled bottles, pricing and fathoming what was the better deal and taste.
I dont think we were sober for 3 or 4 days and we laughed so much that we cried buckets. 
  Fortuneatly we were sober by the time we had to return the aircraft to UK lol
But we had managed to select both a white German wine and a sparkling wine, so I came back laden with a small cargo of 'crew baggage' wine cases.
Even with a customs payment at this end, I was still quids in!
So Maz, Leanne and Ashley have lost a Treasure and the world is very much the poorer.
Whilst I dread his funeral on 9th December, I cant miss it and wish to goodness I had seen him before he left us.
However, we did once agree that whoever went first, we'd keep a stool for the other at The Bar................so hope he remembers!