Millie Mouse and Friends

..... a recurring theme!

I have revisited my poppy designs many times - using different materials and techniques. Equally, the cheerful daisy motifs which I embroider have appeared on many different items in a myriad of colours. The  next theme to be re-visited is ....... mice.

As a young child, an elderly friend of may parents, who called on us once or twice a year, once came with a lovely little gift from the church fete - two little mice! About three inches tall, beautifully dressed, with little felt heads and tiny leather hands and feet, they were treasured. My father used to come in for lunch ( we lived next door to his business). He used my building bricks (a fore-runner of 'Duplo') to build houses - the mice were dropped in before the last roof brick was put in place. I would then peer at them through the windows. Some years later I looked for them to no avail - they seemed to be lost!

I played about with scraps of felt and fabric and made a pattern for my own version. A felt head and a little cylindrical body, male and female mice (including a bride and groom) were carefully dressed and given little accessories - baskets of flowers etc. They sold well as a fund-raiser at the school fair. This success in spite of their 'arms'. Now called 'chenille strips' - in my day, 'pipe cleaners'. I was unable to find suitable grey ones and my poor little mice had rather strange anaemic-looking white arms. Some were fortunate to have sleeves - fiddly to sew but they looked much better!

A few years ago I had the task of clearing my mother's house. A joyous discovery was made! In the dresser  was a collection of novelty egg cups - Noddy and Big Ears (complete with hats), a panda, some strange looking chickens... I remembered all of these and finding them was quite a reward for plodding through a tedious task. Next to them on the shelf, some coloured felt items turned out to be egg cosies - several made by my sister as a child. One of the cosies seemed a little 'rounded'. Too large a 'bump' for a spider, but, unable to imagine what might lurk inside, I peered in cautiously to find...two lovely little mice. Missing for more than forty years - but perfectly safe.

Millie Mouse and her friends are the products of my fabric store, nimble fingers and an imagination coloured at an early age by two little mice! I hope you enjoy them.