Fabric Christmas gift bags

27 Dec

The last couple of Christmasses, everyone here has started noticing that most wrapping paper and cards (especially with shiny bits) are not recyclable. We started promising to reuse more including those paper gift bags. I thought I’d try and add some washable fabric bags to the set of gift bags we’ll just be passing back and forth for years to come, starting with some red and green bags

The lighting isn’t generous here!

All these fabrics are Billie and blossom (my favourite craft cotton!). The bigger bags each used about 1m by 30cm of fabric and 2m of 25mm bias binding. The smaller bags were half a fat quarter each and 1m bias binding. I might make an in-between size for next year too.

I didn’t use a tutorial this time but I learned how to make drawstring bags from this All About Sprout tutorial. I used French seams to try and make it more durable!

To get that fluffed up top part, on the bigger ones I turned over however much I wanted for the drawstring channel (2cm) plus 10cm to be the gathered fabric at the top. Rather than just sewing one line to create the drawstring channel, I sewed another line 2cm above that – so the drawstring stays close to the bottom of the 12cm turned over and the top 10cm makes a nice gather.

I’m tempted to try and find some Christmas fabrics in the sale for next year! And to work out a better way of attaching names than just folding stickers over the drawstring…

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Luna (and Alfie) Lapin – felt bunnies

26 Dec
All dressed up and ready to be gifted

Last December I found the Luna Lapin book in my local “The Works” for £5 – a bargain, as it has patterns for clothes and even an armchair alongside the bunnies! So I picked it up and have been slowly working through it this year to make a bunny plus an outfit for each of my niece and nephew – just in time for Christmas 🎄

There was a lot more hand sewing in the actual bunnies themselves than I expected (pretty much only the floral fabric sections were sewn using the machine) but it became a very peaceful activity – I was glad I went for a 40% wool felt, as I think it was more forgiving of mistakes than a pure polyester would have been. I used a Liberty lawn scrap for Alfie and vintage pink cotton scraps for Luna

I have to say in making the rabbits it was frustrating that they don’t tell you what size buttons to use for everything. I ended up buying the buttons for the eyes and arms from the official website/supplier to save my sanity, but if you’re better at eyeballing these things than me you’ll be fine! I forgot to measure before wrapping but the eyes were dark brown 10-12mm and the shoulder buttons were bigger maybe 14mm and marbled grey. And you definitely need a darning needle to see these buttons on using the given method! I thought I’d get by without and ended up having to wait a week for needles to arrive in the post…

Now onto their outfits! The coats were a stress to sew but so satisfying once done – each pattern calls for 8 buttons (I used 6mm dolls buttons! The buttonholes were a challenge that small) and some bias binding. I forgot to take a proper picture of the inside but here is a sneak at the binding

Also can we talk about that pattern matching on the waistcoat?!

And next came the outfits! It was quite hard to find the tweed offcut for the little waistcoat but I loved the look once it was done – plus look at that matching on the pattern! Very proud of myself. I used 8mm metal Prym snaps instead of buttons on the waistcoat – much neater and quicker and I think works with the waistcoat ok :)

The trousers were pretty easy! The shirt was incredibly tricky though, especially the tiny collar (please don’t zoom in!) but I think looked pretty good in the end – I got a gingham fat quarter and used the 6mm buttons again. Maybe one day I’ll attempt a human sized shirt, but this was so tricky in ways I don’t think I can blame on it being tiny…

As Alfie got a waistcoat and shirt and trousers i decided to make two dresses for Luna (plus some knickers, not pictured…). Again I used the 8mm snaps on the back of the pink and blue dresses to make them easy to get on and off – the arms are a bit tight though, not sure if my seams were too big

And then as a little bonus, the kids got really interested in their nan’s job as a nurse since it came up quite a lot this year… and I had some spare fabric from making scrubs for her earlier this year so I made a little scrubs set for them! (There wasn’t at shirt pattern so I shortened the above dress pattern and added a v neck instead of a bow..)

And to give them somewhere to keep clothes not being worn… I made these little drawstring bags using leftover fabric (if you haven’t made the pattern in the Luna Lapin book, be warned that the fabric lists are very generous, so if you have less than they recommend, give it a go anyway…)

The little blue and pink bags – currently full of chocolate as an extra little gift

It has been a big project to keep me company during varying stages of ‘lockdown’ here in London over the last few months- I felt a little sad wrapping them up!

That said, I’ll be glad to get around to sewing other things… maybe I’ll get back to this for their next birthdays or even Easter- fancy making shoes, bags, and maybe even an armchair or two… watch this space!

I’d LOVE to see your Luna(s) if you’ve given it a go?!

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Tooth fairy pouches!

27 Apr

My nephew just lost his first tooth! In anticipation of all the other teeth following suit, I whipped him up a mini pouch to go under his pillow. I also made one for his little sister because I can’t bear to treat them differently

Since we’re on lockdown I haven’t seen them since mid March, so I wrote them each a little card and popped them in the post (with at-home printed postage labels).

I used prym snaps, scrap fabric from some Hobbycraft fat quarters, and the excellent tutorial from Applegreen Cottage. I strongly recommend it, you can also size it up to make other things – like these pouches for reusable cotton wool pads

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Joining in with… scrubs for the NHS

26 Apr

Shortly after the lockdown I was telling a friend I wished there was something I could do to help – but with no car, and with a health condition that covid could complicate, I was struggling to find something. Well, scrolling through Facebook I happened upon the “for the love of scrubs – our NHS needs you” Facebook group.

It has a free scrubs pattern, with lots of advice and heartwarming updates.

A (wider) family member is a nurse at the local hospital so I offered to make her some scrubs – it took her a while to accept but eventually she did… And two weeks later here we are!

You can see the one on the right is less slick – that was my first attempt! I’m proud of how much better I got by the second and third :)

I made three bags with fabric about 20″ tall and 15″ wide, for keeping dirty scrubs before washing! Tutorial from All About Sprout

Scrubs tops, trousers, and bags all ready for the contact-free delivery this morning

I think I learned a lot making these

  • The importance of pressing as you go!
  • It’s frustrating to cut threads as you go but more frustrating to cut them all at the end, so I should suck it up and do it as I go…
  • How to add in-seam pockets! The video tutorial by Nimble Thimbles was sooo helpful and excellent for this.
  • I thought it was genius that th instructions from Patterns Boutique said to add the sleeve before you sew up the sleeve/side seam – then you can see them both together in one big neat line!
  • It is soooo hard to get patch pockets in line – so hard. So much respect for people adding contrast patch pockets.
  • I really need to get an overlocker if I’m ever going to make lots of garments
  • I never knew how trousers go together, I’ve always been scared of sewing the crotch up. I at least feel capable of making PJ bottoms now :)

I also used over 1000m of thread in making these three sets! So glad I bought gutermann mara thread at £30 for ten a while back.

She was so happy to have these when I dropped them off this morning, I really hope they give her more peace of mind and less laundry over the coming weeks!

Next up I’m making a few scrubs trousers for the local hospital campaign. But I’ll try and fit some selfish sewing/stuff for the niece and nephew in between!

Have you been getting involved helping out?

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Garden umbrella cover

8 Mar

My parents wanted a cover for their garden umbrella. I had about 45 by 26″ of upholstery fabric left over from when I redid my desk chair. Excuse the neglected winter garden..!

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It was an interesting exercise working out the right geometry but in the end I used paper to mock it up – I ended up making the diagonal bits only about the top 20″ rather than 35″ – pretty much purely because I only have a 24″ ruler!!

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I then used a square scrap to make the top, an old backpack zip (that is about 20″ long) to make it easier to take off/put on, and some twill tape in a channel at the hem to keep it on nice and tight.

It wasn’t the easiest to figure out but it worked and I think it looks really nice!

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Dog bag holder

8 Mar

My parents’ dog recently had an overenthusiastic shake and broke the plastic container that we use to keep the dog’s poo bags on his lead. Rather than buying yet more plastic, I figured I could make something simple – ta-da!

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I tried finding an online tutorial without much luck as I wanted one with both a zip to put the bags in and a buttonhole opening to take the bags out, so this was a bit of a muddle… I didn’t take any photos but for when I inevitably have to make this again:

  • A piece of fabrc 6.5×3.5 inches, matching thread, a 4 inch zip, a metal clip, and some twill tape to attach the clip.
  • Put a buttonhole in the centre about 1.25 inches long (parallel with the short edges of the fabric).
  • Attach the zip along the short edges of the fabric.
  • Sew along the long edges to close the bag – remembering to use the twill tape to attach the clip to one of the long edges.
  • Zig zag stitch all the inside edges to keep it from fraying too much.

It’s not super neat but it works! I might use a more exciting fabric next time.

If you have a tutorial for this that you love, please do share it – I’ll definitely be making this again sometime!

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Kindle/Kobo ereader covers

8 Mar

I recently visited my cousin and she was complaining that she couldn’t find a cover for her Kindle paperwhite – because it’s a little smaller than the standard Kindle. I’d actually been planning to make one for my Kobo around the same time – so I figured I could make two at once and get her one too!

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The blue one is for my Kobo (using a fat quarter from the “Kimono” range from Stuart Hillard) leftover from when I made some re-usable cotton rounds for my sister-in-law – I love this fabric range so much and now have a reason to carry it around with me every day! I actually switch between my Kindle (which I made a cover for as one of my very first projects) and my Kobo depending on whether I am reading books from Amazon or my local library.

The wine/beige one is using a rose and hubble cotton leftover from when I made my placemats – that’s for my cousin. It is a little big for the Kobo which means it fits the Kindle Paperwhite quite well.

I used the tutorial from whipstitch – it’s a really easy to follow tutorial (so so good) and makes this neat Kindle cover with a nice little pouch to put it in when you’re not using it. For the Kindle Paperwhite I made it just under 1/4 inch shorter, and for the Kobo made it exactly 1/4 inch shorter.

The thing I love most about these is that when you’re reading at a bus stop in the cold, you can hold it with both hands hidden in the cosy cotton keeping them nice and warm but you can still get to the touchscreen. Perfect :)

 

 

 

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Reupholstered desk chair

6 Nov

This is an *old* chair – my mum reckons it’s about 30 years old, it belonged to my grandpa and then my brother and now me! It’s been looking a bit tired, and when I happened on this fabric in the remnants pile at John Lewis (ex display curtain) I knew it was perfect. 😍

Full disclaimer – this was a simple project! But I have never attempted or researched reupholstery so it was a challenge… I’m no sure what made me decide to do it but I am glad I did.

I got new foam ( standard sizes, 2 inch thick for the seat and 1 inch thick for the back), UHU glue (to attach the foam to the wooden panels before covering), and borrowed a staple gun. The hardest part was taking out all the staples from the old chair!

I am really pleased with the result – especially considering I didn’t use any online instructions etc – I spent about four evenings (no more than an hour or two each) in total, taking it slow as I tried to think two steps ahead so I wouldn’t make any mistakes.

The lighting is weird but the photo on the right (the after) is closer to reality. Bye bye vinyl, hello pretty cotton!

Inside I went for the most firm foam (blue) and was a bit worried it might be less comfortable but it is actually lovely to sit on – I’d definitely recommend it. And the chair is now a nice bright feature in my tiny bedroom 😍

It was quite a physical challenge though – I might stick to sewing toys and skirts in future…

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Prym iron cleaner – what a lifesaver 😍

20 Oct

I saw this when browsing the Jaycotts website, and for only £3.25 I figured it was worth a shot rather than binning my iron that has some melted polycotton and interfacing on it. I absolutely LOVE it, so much 😍

I actually bought this a few weeks ago so have now had to use it *three* times (I’m honestly a liability) and I’m maybe 20-25% of the way through it as you can see in the photo below… the first time was really hard so used a lot on its own. I might get 10-15 uses out of it! My only tips are to stick to setting 2 on your iron or it smells bad, and have some tissues underneath to catch any wax that drips off. And use the steam function to clean out any stray wax before using the iron again!

That blinding background is my newish ironing board, it’s a little tabletop one and I had to make a new one after getting lots of melted fabric/interfacing on the old one of these too… I didn’t use a pattern, just some pure cotton batting, this fabric (double sided on the batting) and some elastic to make it fit.

When I move into my next place I’ll buy a nice iron safe in the knowledge that this cheap little block can rescue me from my own disasters!

I wish I’d known about this before! Doesanyone have any tips for any similarly less common but brilliantly useful tools or tip? :)

Silk eye mask

14 Sep

I needed a quick win, so figured I’d make something simple for a boost:)

Years and years ago, long before I got a sewing machine, I had a lovely silk dress from Monsoon (UK) and it was about half a foot too long, so I hemmed it by hand. What a long evening that was..!

I kept the scraps and apparently completely forgot about them. I found them recently and decided it would make a lovely backing for an eye mask :) I lost my last two eye masks in the move, so need a new one! My backup is ok but RTW and a bit too big…

I’ve used the tutorial from the red kitchen, which has a great template (I add a second strap though to go under my ears to keep it in place).

So here it is! Liberty lawn, fleece, and a layer of well washed silk – with some soft lingerie elastic to finish it off. The photo makes it look much brighter than it is…

It is weirdly not as neat as usual but I think contrasting the white thread with the dark blue silk didn’t help – but it’s only for me to see!

The silk does feel so much nicer on my skin and the fleece gives it a nice weight and blocks out the light – perfect!

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Mini box cosmetics bag

7 Sep

For my sister’s birthday, she asked for a kit for taking care of her hands and nails.

I got her some nice classic nail varnish shades, strengthening products, creams, and a manicure kit with cuticle tools. And I figured she needed a cute little bag for them to go in!

This is about 4x2x2″ – so cute and dinky! WhatsApp Image 2019-09-07 at 17.26.20

I used the Truly Myrtle box bg tutorial which I’ve used about five times before (first when making a sewing kit to leave with my old sewing machine at my parents’ house for my family to use and a sewing kit for my sister, and two others to keep my fabric scraps in!)

To make this size, I used:

  • Fabric 8″ and 9″
  • An 8″ zip
  • I cut the squares for the corners at 1″ instead of 1.5″ (I’d have made it smaller but I was worried I wouldn’t have been able to turn it inside out through a hole!)

I always find making smaller versions of things harder, as there’s often less space for things like turning it inside out, and it’s easier to accidentally sew extra layers in and then have to unpick it… somehow I avoided that here!

These fabric are from a kimono Fat Quarter set, which I absolutely love – they are soft and wash really well :)

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Scrappy bunting!

5 Sep

My sister-in-law asked me for some bunting for the church’s small hall for kids’ parties – a great opportunity to delve into my fabric stash!!

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The church hall is 5-6m wide, so I made the bunting about 8m (for the string I took 8 strips of 2″ wide fabric, the width of the fabric, so it’s probably a bit longer than 8m) so it will have a nice amount left over for the drapey look. It took the equivalent of 5 fat quarters plus 8m*5cm for the ‘string’ (I turned it into bias binding).

I love that it’s made with all the leftover fabrics from my previous projects for the family – aprons, hooded towels, beanbags (2), and not for them but my very first sewing project, a purse I gave my mum! It brings back lovely memories of making and giving those gifts as well as being a fun sewing project by itself :)

Then as a little extra gift, I made her a set of reusable cotton wool pads, with a fat quarter by ‘kimono’  (it’s such gooooorgeous fabric) and some leftover fleece. I’ve been using mine for a while and she seemed interested in some, so I hope she likes them! I also made this little envelope pouches to keep/wash them in.

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I wouldn’t normally have given her the ‘botched’ ones but here I figured they are fine as ones to use with anything that will stain (i.e. nail varnish remover!)

This was my first sewing project after a rough summer (a break up after 8 years, so I am back living with my parents and less space to sew!) so it was lovely to start with a simple but really satisfying project that will get plenty of use :)

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New passport cover

1 Apr

Ten years ago, my mum bought me a pink leather travel set for my first ever trip abroad (New York!). It’s high quality, which meant that even though I am not a fan of pink, I’ve been using it ever since. I was doing a mini clear out and decided that it’s been well used and valued, so since it’s still in great condition I donated it to a charity shop.

And I made myself a new one!

I used the same tutorial as I used for my second ever machine sewing project, back in 2014. The tutorial from Unify handmade does not seem to state the seam allowance – I mentioned in my blog that the pattern pieces they give are far too large, but I actually think I was working with 1/4″ or 1/8″ seams instead of 5/8″ – I now know that 5/8″ is standard, but back then I clearly thought that was excessive! I sewed this up initially with my smaller pattern pieces and a 5/8″ seam, and had to unpick the whole thing. Without that step, I think this would have been completed in less than an hour.

I got this gorgeous fabric from Hobbycraft, it’s a fat quarter set from “Kimono” sold by the craft cotton company. It’s gorgeous and sooo soft. I can’t wait to find a use for the other almost-three fat quarters!

I also had an old luggage tag that had broken, so I took an old fake leather strap and made myself a matching new one :-) I didn’t use a tutorial because all of them seemed to use vinyl (which I didn’t have, and I didn’t want to wait to get some).

I made a pattern template starting from a business card. It seemed sensible to use that, then I can just slot it in and don’t have to worry about a stranger potentially having my keys and address in the same place… I would scan and share the template but I think I made it a little bit too small, so would want to add another 1/8″ in most directions before sharing it!

This was the first time I ever made buttonhole, and I used the one-step button hole on my new ish Singer 4423… I love it! I’ve always been scared of making button holes but this was great. I used the manual and the YouTube video, to make sure it went well, but I was pleasantly surprised :-)

New skills

  • Creating a fairly basic template that requires some maths/thinking of the structure.
  • Making a button hole!

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Scrapbusting – reusable “cotton wool pad” substitutes

1 Mar

As I neared the end of my pack of cotton wool pads, which I use for my face cleanser each day and also for Dettol or nail varnish remover occasionally, I started to wonder whether I could make some reusable ones.

I looked on Etsy and saw that there’s loads on sale there, so I figured it would be pretty simple to make some! I had some cotton fabric scraps, and some leftover fleece from making a quilt (which I’ve also used for eye masks). I managed to make fifteen!

I made fifteen…

It was pretty easy

  1. Cut out a 2.5″ circle template (I traced it around the top of a jam jar) and use it it draw circles on your scrap fabric.
  2. Pin the fabric (uncut) to the fleece, keeping the pins within the circle so they won’t get in the way of the scissors – you can also use jersey, Terry cloth, etc, but I had this on hand and it was nice and soft :-)
  3. Cut the circles out, add new pins pointing into the centre, and reposition the original pins to also point into the centre.
  4. Sew around the edges to keep the seams in – overedge stitch, zig zag stitch, or if you have an overlocker that would be ideal…

I couldn’t get my overedge stitch to work – the tension seemed off, the join between top and bottom threads were meeting at the bottom side on the fabric rather than at the edge, and it was a bit loose too. I turned up the tension to 8, from the usual 4, but it didn’t seem to work! It’s ok, zig zag stitch worked ok :-)

They aren’t the neatest but they’ll work! I might not use them for nail varnish remover as that might ruin them, but I’ve already started using them for face cleanser and I’m happy ☺️

Next, I figured I’d need a bag to keep the clean ones and another for the dirty ones. So I used an old tutorial and some scrap fabric and ribbon to make two 17*10cm bags with some scrap fabric.

This is the same fabric I mentioned in my January UFOs post. One of my UFOs was a pencil case made out of this fabric, and I said that I had no idea why I stopped making it when all I had left to do was sew the lining in. Well… I discovered why. This fabric is hell to sew. It is a stretchy, slidey viscose. It used to be a super short skirt (modified from culottes bought on sale) and I loved the fabric.

Great to wear.

Delightful to look at.

A nice wash, not holding creases.

And a complete pain to sew. I have now binned all the remaining bits of this fabric as I simply cannot bear to make anything else with it ever again. It’s a relief to let it go!

Are all viscose fabrics like that?! Should I avoid it in future or are there nicer (easier handle) ones out there?

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Starting my 2019 “Make Nine”

17 Feb

At the very start of the year I went through my clothes patterns to think about why I haven’t used most of them yet, and to plan whether and how to use them this year. I picked out nine that I wanted to try to use this year – inadvertently setting my own Make Nine challenge! I think that it was started by Lucky Lucille setting herself the challenge back in 2015. Here was mine, with the first one completed today!

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I really loved having this little square (/rectangle) of projects to choose from! I was a little worried that I would feel stressed to do it since I “commited”, but actually, having the list just meant I reserved some time for myself instead of trying to find more things to make for others!

So… onto my making this dress!

I got this pattern from a charity shop (in Halstead, Essex) for just £1! I felt very lucky. And the black fabric is a cotton crepe from a shop on Goldhawk Road in London (the one nearest the market, but I can’t remember it’s name…maybe A-one?), just £10 for 2.5 yards! Plenty for a dress ☺️

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For the first time, I paid close attention to what fabric the pattern recommended. The two times I made dresses previously, my lack of planning had mixed results – the basic stretch cotton worked well on my New Look 6495, but I think the New Look 6431 needed a fabric with much more drape. The pattern calls for “medium weight knits and wovens”, and I thought this black crepe would work perfectly for View B.

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Yes, I am actually that pale…! It’s a shame you can’t see the pattern on the fabric from here, but it makes a simple black dress look so nice. I am not a big fan of this neckline, it looks like it’s trying to be a bit of a halter neck.

Unfortunately, like with my previous two dresses, I still couldn’t get the back to fit nicely. I am pleased with waist/hip fit at the front though!

I spent two Saturdays sewing (last weekend and this weekend), I had the zip in and ready to try on. I’d worked hard, for the first time, to make sure that the inside was neat and that the very, very fraying fabric would not come undone in the wash. I even bought an overcast foot and found out that my sewing machine (Singer 4423) has an overcast stitch!!

I still haven’t decided whether I prefer the overcast stitch or the zig zag for enclosing seams. The overcast stitch looks neater but I’m struggling to believe it will hold in the wash. Time will tell, I guess! Do you have any tips for how to use the overcast foot and stitch?

Even if I don’t use it with the overcast stitch, the overcast foot makes zig zag edging SO MUCH neater – I’m not going back!

So, I now had a nice, neat dress, just waiting to be hemmed and pressed. And it was not good.

The waist was too big.

The shoulders were falling off.

The chest was gaping SO much.

There was a LOT of bunching at the back.

I didn’t understand, as I’d thought carefully about the sizing. With my measurements (B 37, W 32, H 45), my bust was at the bottom end of M, waist in the middle of L, and hips at the lower end of XL. I don’t mind a closely fitting hip so went for a M bodice, and the skirt was a M at the top but graded to a L a few inches down.

So, I made some changes.

First I took 2.5″ out of each side at the neck back, with two darts reaching down to meet the original darts that reach up from the waist (if that makes sense?). I also took another 1″ out from each side at the waist.

The waist fit a bit better, but the neck seemed too squeezed, and the back started gaping. Forget the neatness of darts (I think it was at this point that I declared to my boyfriend that this dress shall henceforth be known as a wearable muslin…), I reduced the dart at the neck to about 1.5″, increased the waist reduction to 1.5″ (so it was less a dart and now just taking out a chunk, I guess a bit like a princess seam), and took out 2″ from the in between bits (all from each side, so 3″, 3″, and 4″ overall).

I think it now looks nice from the front – not perfect, but nice enough to wear out… If I have a cardigan hiding the back. Plus I’m not a big fan of the sleeves – they are much bigger than I thought they would be.

What do you do if the front fits well, but the back is far too large throughout?

I thought an FBA could be the answer to my problems but when I tried it on the New Look 6431 pattern (which I didn’t write about on this blog because it went so badly) it just didn’t seem to work. As I seemed to fit this pattern’s stated measurements well I thought I’d be safe but clearly this will haunt me if I don’t sort it out before I try another dress or top…

So I am happy with it, especially as this fabric is so comfy to wear, and think I’ll wear it when I’m out and about but not to work or “out out”. I am really proud of how neat I made the insides, and that I learned a few things:

  • How to insert sleeves, including ease gathering.
  • How to use an overcast stitch and an overcast foot.
  • How to make a double lapped zipper (this might not be the right name? There’s two vertical flaps which open in the middle to reveal the zip).
  • I learned how to do a machine blind hem – in future I might try to hand sew it, but by the time I got there I had decided it was a wearable muslin so was much less bothered about the finish.

I’m looking forward to getting on with the rest of my nine items for 2019!

Maybe I should think about attending a sewing fitting class? Has anyone attended one and found it useful?

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First project of 2019 – starting small with a cushion cover :-)

3 Feb

After organising my stash, I could see all my fabrics and easily pick a project – and found two fabrics that I thought would go really well together for this lovely cushion cover.

I got this owl fabric from The Works, £3 for 0.5 yards. It’s quite thick and rough, almost like a potato sack, but was listed as 100% cotton so I think I bought it for oven gloves. But I think it makes a lovely cushion! I got the backing cotton from the remnants pile at John Lewis, it was about a fat quarter and a lovely colour so I am so glad I found a way to use it so it could be displayed in my flat :-)

I used the tutorial from Little Black Duck, which I used to make my sister’s Christmas present. My boyfriend has decided it is perfect for his desk chair, and he works from home a lot so it’ll get lots of use!

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UFO progress – eight (small) projects down, it’s so satisfying!

27 Jan

Since my last post I have been working on my UFOs pile…

I have never tackled my UFO pile before this week, so there were about a dozen items in there. I did all the non-clothes ones (eight) which I think is pretty good going!

Mostly I was surprised at how simple all of these were – I basically spent all week wondering why on earth I ever abandoned these instead of finishing them. I won’t be too hard on myself as it’s possible my fluctuating illness played a part, but it was so satisfying to finish these all off that I might now try to have an annual (or twice-annual) UFO session – maybe January and July?

1. Minion finger puppets!

My niece and nephew love the minions, so to go with the Doorway Puppet Theatre that I made for them a while back, I made a couple of minion finger puppets at the same time – but my 2 yo niece broke the hand-sewn seams quickly. Lesson learned! I cut out some new yellow and blue bits, but they soon got lost in my WIP pile… I’m going to say its while I was waiting for more googly eyes to arrive… yeah…

So I came back to them this week! And I used the machine for the yellow bits, and glue for the rest – nice and strong!

When I started cutting out these pieces, I wanted to use the tutorial from sustain my craft habit, but the PDF wasn’t working. Instead, I made them using the pictures in her post plus the pictures in crafts on sea. I recommend both, for some useful tips, but I think the PDF templates would make life a lot easier so would definitely recommend using that if you can!

2. Hot water bottle

A while back I asked for advice on what to do with this thick wintry woven fabric. I think I will use the bulk of it to make a quillow as suggested in the comments by Rosie House, but for a quick win I decided to make a hot water bottle. I started it before Christmas, to prepare for the cold spell, trying to quilt it first to make it look more interesting. My sewing machine HATED the combination of this fabric with the batting, and just would not sew a stable stitch. It drove me insane, and went into the WIP/UFO pile.

So this week, when working through my UFOs, I fished it out again and finished it off, using washi tape to stabilise the fabric so the machine would accept it…. only to find that the cover was a liiiitle bit too small, and I’d put the overlap at the back far too low down so I was going to have to peel off a lot of that super snug cover every time I wanted to refill it.

Or, to save myself that hassle, I could just make another. So I did. I left off the batting, instead making it just the outer fabric lined with some leftover grey fleece (which used to be a blanket until about five years a go my then-puppy chewed it to bits and I salvaged what I could and added it to my stash). I made it much wider than needed, and made the gap for refilling just three inches from the top.

It’s so much better and I have already consigned the too-small one to the fabric scrap recycling.

Maybe this was a cheat in my UFO week, since technically I cut out a new project, but I reckon I was just salvaging a UFO to make sure my efforts weren’t wasted, and to make sure I got what I wanted (I.e. a hot water bottle!) so I am happy :)

I do need to put some snaps on the back closure to keep it more closed, I’ll order some online. I could use velcro, or metal snaps, but I’d really like some black plastic snaps. It’s usable now anyway so it doesn’t matter how long they take to arrive in the post.

3. Hemming a towel scrap to use as a face towel

Back in late 2017 (can you tell this is my first every UFO-busting attempt?!) I made this fun hooded and appliqued towel for my niece, and it leaves you with half a towel left over.

I bought some binding to finish the raw edge so it could become a face towel, but I didn’t like it when it arrived (in the post) so left it, pinned, in my WIP bag for two years, apparently.

Today I finally just did a double rolled hem with a zip zag stitch, then attached some 3/4 inch wide white twill tape to it so it can be hung up in the bathroom.

It took five to ten minutes, and was equally embarrassing and satisfying to FINALLY have it done!

4. Pencil case

I started this pencil case two, maybe three, years ago. The fabric is from an old skirt (which itself was made out of some short culottes that I thought would look better as a skirt), so I was initially chuffed to give it a new life.

Once I had sewn the outside together (including the zip), and sewn the lining together, the tutorial said to hand sew the lining to the outside fabric. For some reason, this seemed like an impossible task at the time, and it sat in my WIP pile since. Last night, I finally sat down and just did it. I popped Netflix on, got a cup of tea and a nice strong light, and just did it. What was all the fuss about?! It looks great, and I now have a place to store my washable colour markers (that I use to copy patterns, or when I know I’ll be washing the finished product so don’t worry about the ink).

Now that I am feeling a bit less dramatic about the hand sewing (honestly, I have no idea what that was about, I used to hand sew everything) I recommend this as it’s a great shape and super quick and easy. The tutorial was from A Spoonful of Sugar Designs.

5. Unpicking an attempt at quilted placemats

I previously mentioned that I had tried to make quilted placemats but they just didn’t work with my chosen fabrics, so I made some plain ones. No regrets, it was a nice idea but I love the plainer ones I made, and we use them daily.

But I had all these sewn together tops stuffed into my WIP bag, waiting for me to unpick them to turn them into something else later. I FINALLY unpicked them today – and added them to my stash pile to be re-used another day. I love the fabrics so have no doubt I will use them soon :D

I also had one placemat all quilted together with the fusible interfacing on the backing (thankfully NOT onto the tops) so I will use that to make a little zipped pouch :)

6. Correcting an upside-down Christmas decoration

I think this is a great tutorial, from The Sewing Directory. It was easy and quick BUT I put the gold strap at the bottom instead of the top, so the reindeer and tree were upside down – whoops!

It looked nice enough so I displayed it anyway, hiding the white side, but instead of packing it away with the other decorations I added it to my WIP pile, fully expecting it to still be there next Christmas… but I did it!

Again, this took about twenty minutes. I have no idea why I didn’t just do it at the time…

7. Making cushion inserts

A while back, I bought 1kg of stuffing. I only wanted to make one or two of those christmas stars above, but ordering online I apparently completely failed to comprehend the volume that would be required to get 1kg of the stuff (and also assumed that £5.99 wouldn’t get me a very big package). Obviously, a huge packet arrived and I picked out some scrap white fabric (from toiles) and an old pillowcase to make 17″ cushion inserts.

Well, finally today I used those scraps, and the pillowcase, to make the two cushion inserts (and salvaged a zip from the pillowcase). One is already in a 17″ cushion cover that a friend bought me (from Senegal! I should have photographed it, it’s beautiful), and I will make another one soon (with a lapped zipper like I made for my sister)

8. Fixing a too-big kindle case, and making a matching eye mask

I made a kindle case for my boyfriend to thank him for letting me use his kindle while I had lent mine to my sister (she was recovering from eye surgery, so this was easier on her eyes than using a tablet/phone for reading books and the news). But, it was about a quarter of an inch too tall, and the elastic closing needed about an inch taken off. That’s it. A fifteen minute job. Done. The tutorial is from Whip Stitch and is perfect (I just made my seams slightly too small this time) – I’ve used it twice before, once for me and once I shortened it a bit for a friend’s kobo. [I’ll add photo later – I thought I had one!]

I wanted him to have a matching eye mask, he borrows mine but I thought it could be nice for him to have one that is made to fit his head exactly. I pinned this together maybe eight months ago, and only this weekend finally sewed it together, and made him try it on so I could adjust it, then finished it off. Ta-da! As with all the others I made, this used the tutorial and template from The Red Kitchen.

The remainders….

That wasn’t bad for a week, especially as I was away from my machine for a couple of nights! But there’s a few bigger WIPs left over:

  • Elastic-waisted skirts. In spring 2017, to prepare for a trip to Taiwan when it would be very hot, I bought these fabrics, with linings and elastic, to make some skirts without a pattern. The fabric didn’t work with my rolled hem foot, I got frustrated, and left them. I think it’s about time I tried again, with this pattern I got for £1 in my local charity shop…
  • Sewaholic Cambie. I cut out this toile back when I was about 25lb lighter, so I will look at the sizes and ease to determine if there is any point in trying to put this together as a toile, or if I should recycle the fabric (a basic but lovely-feeling cotton, plus lining) and cut a new one in a different fabric in my new size.
  • Black work dress. You can’t see in this photo but there’s a lovely subtle pattern on that black cotton fabric, which I think will suit View B of that pattern (again £1 from a charity shop). The fabric was £4/m so I won’t worry too much – it can be a (hopefully wearable) toile! I guess this isn’t a real UFO as it isn’t even started, but I’m amazed by how many times I picked up this fabric to use it…

I’ll make it my target to have done any two of these five in February… wish me luck!

I now feel all ready to start my 2019 sewing! :D

When did you last try to clear your UFO pile? Is it normal for it to be SO FULL of easy (if slightly dull) tasks? Please help vindicate me if you can …!

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Update on the clear out – all my fabric in one small box. Next up – UFOs!

20 Jan

I can now fit all my fabric stash into a single 32l box!

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I have arranged it by:

  • Wide section (in left and right photos): pieces of fabric about 1 yard or longer, arranged by colour and facing up.
  • Narrow section (in left photo): pieces of fabric about 1 fat quarter, arranged by colour.
  • Narrow section (in right photo): any potentially useful scraps, in two box bags – blues and blacks in one, red pink and whites in the other.

Now my fabrics are all in one place, and organised by size and colour! I already feel like I can go into future projects without spending so long on finding fabrics. 😊😊😊

For the scraps I made two new box bags using the tutorial from Truly Myrtle. I made them 7.5″ long and 4″ tall and wide. This used up four fat quarters from the pile too 😊

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I also put together a pile of “pretty” or “interesting” small scraps, which I will cut around with the pinking shears to give some shaped fabrics (that won’t fray) for my niece and nephew to use in gluing with paper glitter stickers etc.

I did give a few bits to the charity shop, which I bought with something in mind (e.g. for when my niece and nephew were babies) but either didn’t get around to making or didn’t use up all the fabric on whatever I made. I had also held onto a grocryg bag worth of scraps that I definitely won’t use, so they are going to the local fabric recycling (to make insulation etc).

This felt like a huge step! It’s a weight off my mind to know I now only have the fabric I love and that I can find it all easily.

Here is what else I have done in organising my sewing stuff:

  • Allocated one box for patterns.
  • Assisted one box for measuring, marking, and cutting tools. It also contains my sewing machine tools.
  • One bag contains all fasteners (zips etc) and ribbons.
  • One bag contains all interfacing and wadding.
  • I’ve got rid of my old sewing box, giving it to a charity shop. It’s small and anything I kept in there was split with being kept somewhere else, which was inefficient. I got it from eBay for £2.50 in 2010 so it’s done it’s time! It’s still in excellent condition so someone else can love it now.
  • Organised my threads. They don’t yet fit into one box but I am closer than I was :-)

Next up is to tackle my UFOs… So I won’t be taking any new fabrics out of that box for a while. Wish me luck…!

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All my sewing stuff laid out on one rug… Now to organise it!

12 Jan

This rug is 1.6*2.3m (5’3″x7’6″) – showing just how much of my 44 square metre (475 square foot) flat is taken up with my sewing stuff 😮 the only things missing are the sewing machine and the lamp I use with it.

Lately when sewing I have been trying to find something without any idea where it is – my sewing stuff started very organised, but as I accumulated more and more tools, accessories, and fabric, it’s become a bit muddled as the categories overflowed into each other. The two safe areas were my 32l fabric box (top right) and the patterns box (just below the fabric box). Thread was *mostly* all in one place.. as for everything else, it was a challenge to find what I wanted.

For context, my first sewing box was a little wicker basket maybe 20*30*40cm

And then I kept everything in that 32l box – all fabric, thread, and tools. Nice and neat!

Inspired by KonMari on Netflix, although my flat is generally tidy with well-organised books, linens, kitchen, papers, and clothes, my sewing is the one area that I’ve let become a mess. I used to move a lot (at uni we had to pack up our room at the end of every term, then I moved once a year) so living in one place for three years has allowed the stuff to accumulate.

So, my plan….

  1. A lot of those UFOs have been there for a while. I will go through them and think properly about which I want to finish, and which I should let go of. Those that I let go of, I will work out whether to salvage the fabric and add it to my box or whether it should be donated or recycled.
  2. Some of the fabrics have been in that box for a while. I’ll go through and work out if I am still waiting for the perfect project for a fabric I’m too scared to use (in which case I’ll commit to making a toile then take the plunge), or if I’m just not excited about the fabric (in which case I’ll work out if I can commit it to something for someone else, or if I should donate or recycle it).
  3. Everything else needs to be organised in a way that makes it easy to know where things will be and to see when I look (i.e. no need for rummaging). I also need a safe way to store my blunt rotary blades (which are good for paper).

It will all have to be stored on shelves (except the fabric box which goes under my bed) so will need to be creative!

I am super excited but also scared to get started! It will be so good when it’s finished so that will motivate me…. I will post an update when it’s done..!

If you have any tips for how to get through this I’d love to hear them 😊

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I acquired lots of patterns in 2018… In 2019 I’ll try to actually use them!

5 Jan

I’ve loved reading all the 2018 reviews and plans for 2019, and it has inspired me to try to have a 2019 that I’m proud of :-)

2018 has been a mixed year for me – I had some health issues that meant I had less energy for sewing (and also had to go part-time at work), and some family issues alongside it. But, I bought a new sewing machine (Singer 4423) to cheer myself up and made some of my favourite items ever. It was mostly non-clothes though:

There’s the doorway puppet theatre that my niece and nephew absolutely loved

And finally working on lapped cushion zippers, that went so well I can’t wait to make another!

And a dress that, while I may replace the top half with a slightly smaller version from the same fabric, and redo the hem, I have worn it loads and absolutely love it.

So…. What for 2019? I have got more into expanding my wardrobe in the last few months, so feel I ready to start trying in earnest to create a me-made wardrobe. I recently bought some new patterns – some from charity shops, some because they were on sale and I neeready Ied to spend another few quid to reach “free delivery”. Which means that, despite only completing two, I now have 11, nine of which I have my eye on for this year…

  • 1. Dress – New Look 6495: this is the one I made and loved. I bought it without much thought while in Hobbycraft with my mum, and was so surprised to love it! I’d love to try and work out how to make short sleeves to make it more work appropriate. Any suggestions?
  • 2. Dress – Sewaholic Cambie: I got this a couple of years ago, cut out a toile, got a bit ill and put on weight, then realised the toile wouldn’t fit any more and lost motivation. But this is so popular that I should come back to it in 2019!
  • 3. Dress – New Look 6431: I made this but it was far too large. I tried to make a toile of the torso but it wasn’t quite right so I need to try again. Something from 2019!
  • 4. Dress – Kwik Sew k4123: this is a nice dress that I hope I can make to fit my odd curves! I love the short sleeves and have a fabric in mind…
  • 5. Dress – Simplicity 4070: this is a more formal dress, I think I bought it to make something to wear to a friend’s wedding but didn’t have the energy to make something in the end. I’m attending another wedding in 2019 so I might make this – I’d like the version with the straps, and not too formal, so let’s see what I manage to find. I might have to look up examples that others have made!
  • 6. Dress – Simplify k8292: a charity shop find, I loved the sleeves on this! View B (or D) seems more my style and I’d have to be careful to fit it well to my waist, or my bust and hips could take over – I’ll have to try a toile first!
  • 7. Dress – Simplicity k8543: as my size varies across my shoulders/chest/waist/hips, I have been intrigued by the “Amazing Fit” patterns for a while. I think View C could look nice on me so I’m excited to try it!
  • 8. Top – Simplicity 1280: another one I cut out a toile for before putting on weight, I lost motivation on this one. But I love the design and hope to get back motivation to try it properly in 2019 :-)
  • 9. Skirt – Kwik sew k3637: I couldn’t find a stretch pattern for a circle type skirt (I asked here and noone could think of any either) so I bought this to try with my gorgeous blue stretch crepe. The fabric was about £4/m so it’s not too bad if it goes wrong.
  • Skirt – New Look k6327: I bought this from a charity shop without realising it’s an elastic waist – so I may never use it, if I don’t use it in 2019 I’ll re donate it…
  • PJs – McCall’s 3434: I saw this in a charity shop and figured I might want to make my own dressing gown to replace my current one that’s falling to bits, but won’t pressure myself to!

I also have a toile for Marfy 1913 and hope I’ll get around to making a proper one this year but only if I can adjust the toile to fit well.

So my clothes target for this year is summarised in a picture:

Aside from clothes, a few things I’d like to achieve sewing-wise this year are:

  • Get my old singer machine serviced
  • Sort out my sewing stuff and use up some of my stash to make a potential move later in 2019 easier.
  • Make a purse with a coin slot, card slots, and a notes pouch.
  • Make a weighted pin cushion
  • Finish off as many UFOs as I can, so they aren’t being transported with pins etc when I move.
  • Mend the zip on my boots, that broke three years ago…

So I’m ambitious but I won’t be hard on myself if I don’t manage it, as it’s a busy year and I’m still not back to perfect health. But now I have lots of great targets to aim for to keep me focused and give me a wardrobe I really want – RTW isn’t working for my newer shape very well so I’d love to learn to make things that really flatter it.

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Teaching my sister to sew: another zipped purse/small bag attempt!

29 Dec

Every time I show my sister something I made, after her initial response (usually a compliment thankfully!!), she normally tells me that she wishes that she was able to sew. I think she did a little bit with a machine when she was a kid in primary school (up to 11 years old) but not since.

As we are both at our parents’ home for the break between Christmas and New Year, and I recently put my old sewing machine there, I decided to bring done fabric and show her how to make a small zipped bag.

I showed her the three tutorials to choose from (Melly Sews, Sew Me Happy, or Crazy Little Projects) and she chose Melly Sews, which is the one I used when I made a bag for my sister in law for Christmas (blog post here).

And it went much better than my last one did!

I think it helped that I used the zip that was the right length to begin with rather than shortening a longer one, so it had the softer ends.

I walked her through the tutorial, and helped her work out which bits to pin together and in which directions, but made her do the sewing machine bits all herself including reverse stitching and eventually turning corners. She did so well, and she loves it!

It took about an hour and a half including picking and cutting fabric, it went well :-)

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Last bit of Christmas sewing: family aprons

24 Dec

I decided a while back to make matching aprons for my brother and sister-in-law and their kids. I finally got around to buying some fun cottons from Abakhan (as I couldn’t get into Goldhawk Road as I’ve not been too well) but unfortunately in between me placing the order and them dispatching it, they sold out of the apron pattern Kwik Sew K0255.

Stuck and with no idea how big to make an apron, I started searching for tutorials. I found the Sugar Bee Crafts adult tutorial, and shrunk it a lot for the kids. I didn’t follow the instructions for construction, and mine are less polished as a result, but I was too tired to follow them properly anyway. Maybe next time – hers do look much nicer!

They are much brighter than they look in these photos…

I really like them, modelled here by my sister. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to give them tomorrow :-)

[[Edit to add: I gave them to them all yesterday and despite an initial confused look, they seemed to love them. The kids instantly put them on and went to play with their toy kitchen 😍]]

I managed to cut my finger right where the nail meets the skin on my left index finger. I’m gutted as I think it means no sewing for a bit til my finger recovers! It’s my first ever proper sewing machine injury – ignoring occasional pin pricks and sore shoulders (one day I’ll improve my sewing posture…) I’m grateful it has taken this long and it isn’t too bad :-)

Merry Christmas!!

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Liberty cushion covers – my first time making a lapped zipper

24 Dec

My sister wanted some green, brown, or blue cushion covers for her living room. To make it a nice treat as a gift, I decided to use nice weight liberty fabric (150gsm): I chose the English garden green dot, and the English garden blue leafy trail.

Next, I decided to try a lapped zip. I was terrible at this when I did it on a dress, so I sought a tutorial. This one from the little black duck is perfect – I cannot recommend it enough.

She already has the cushions so I can only give a flat photo got now till she receives them and gets them home and on the cushions.

This photo is of the side with the lapped zippers! I’m so happy with the finish

This fabric was so so so nice to work with – I should treat myself to it sometime!

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Zippered pouch – I still can’t get a neat top!

15 Dec

I thought I’d make a little zippered pouch to put my sister in law’s Christmas present in, and so followed the tutorial by Melly Sews – loads of people seem to have found it gives them a nice neat top but even though I unpicked it three times I still got this big curve instead of a nice straight top. I watched the video and used the written tutorial but think I’m misunderstanding something :|

Still, I think she’ll like it, I love the colours and the contrast zip

But… How do you get neat tops?!

Box bag, needle book, and trying to find a knit circle skirt pattern (!!)

28 Oct

It’s been a slow few weeks sewing for me, as work has been busy and I’ve been engrossed in a few books (my favourite was We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson, I didn’t find out til after finishing that there’s a film of it out this year! Odd that I picked it up from deep in the fiction section of the library)

But I got the sewing machine back out this weekend, for a little bit of sewing therapy using only my stash for maximum satisfaction!

First I made a box bag, using the tutorial from Truly Myrtle. It’s a great tutorial and I’d recommend it! I admit that I can’t quite figure out the maths of it, so I made it exactly the same depth and width as the tutorial, but my fabric wasn’t wide enough so I used pieces about 10*17 inches. All the pieces were from my stash, the pink was from a FQ bundle and the blue was a half FQ from a charity shop ☺️

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Last time I made this (for a sewing kit for uni my sister) I was too scared to add the handle, so I thought I’d try it this time. It was really easy to add but I think next time I’d try to make it half as thick as it’s difficult to hold it.

Next, I made myself a needle book for my hand sewing needles. I used four of these small rectangles I got in assorted packs from Durham market, some Vilene H630 for a little body to it, and some leftover white felt.

I didn’t add a closure as I’ve decided to invest in some Prym pliers and some non-sew snaps, so I want to add one of those when they arrive. I love this fabric so much, I am really glad that I found a way to use it!

I am slightly baffled by all the available fasteners and tools, but I am going to get the Prym love vilio pliers, some colour snaps, and a mini metal snap set including the tool. That should cover all my needs in the near future!

Then I made the second one of the circular pot holders that I made a few years ago (I cut out the fabric for two but only made one), but added a much longer strap this time so I can hang it up easily.

Now, I think I am ready for some garment sewing next! I have this stretch crepe – this shade of blue is exactly right for a half circle skirt to coordinate with some of my favourite tops (the black is a woven crepe that I plan to use for a skirt or dress)

My problem is that I can’t find a pattern for a skirt like this that seems like it would be ok for knits. I like Simplicity 1200:

When I read an article about things to sew with knits, it suggested the hollyburn skirt, but it only recommends wovens and all the reviewers online seem to have used wovens.

So, I would love some help to help me make this perfect blue skirt!

  • Has anyone used a knit fabric for a pattern intended for wovens? Did you have to make any changes?
  • Can you recommend a knit skirt pattern that is like (but not necessarily exactly like) a circle skirt? I’m terrible with self drafted patterns but that’s all Google will give me.

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Ideas for a wintry woven fabric

29 Sep

I can’t properly remember where I got this – it was either Goldhawk road in London or Abakhan in Manchester.

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It’s woven, I’d say medium-heavy and super soft/cosy feeling. Plus I love the colour and design! My only problem is knowing what to do with it. If it were a knit, I think it’d make a lovely Christmas jumper or skirt (as much as the matching would be stressful!!) But as a woven I am not so sure what to do with it.

It’s 60″ wide, and I have about 1.5 yards.

I thought about making a cardigan, which may be more forgiving with it being a woven, and also have fewer places for matching? I initially liked the look of view B of New Look 6397, but the reviews say it comes up large and I already thought it looked a bit blocky (huge sleeves!)6397.jpg

I think some of the leftovers from whatever I make will be really good for a hot water bottle cover, but I just can’t work out what to use it for! I would love to find a garment for it, as it feels so nice it would be a shame not to use it for that, but  I guess anything snuggly would be nice if I can’t find anything – some pillows, maybe.

 

I’ve had this in my stash for two years now, so I am hoping this will be the year I actually use it!! I’d love any ideas you have :-)

New sewing machine – Singer 4423 (heavy duty)

26 Sep

I got myself a new sewing machine last month. I am still a fairly light sewer but I had a few reasons for wanting a new machine.

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First, I had been thinking for a while about buying a second, cheaper machine to leave at my parents’ house so that my parents and my sister in law (who lives bearby) can use it, and I can have one for when I am home for Christmas etc. since I don’t drive. But, I figured rather than spending money on a cheap and low quality new one for that purpose, maybe I could buy a new one for ME and retire my Singer Tradition 2250 into that role?

Second, even though my Singer 2250 still works ok, I got it five years ago when I didn’t want to spend too much as I wanted to see if I liked sewing. After five years, it’s fair to say this hobby is worth the money! So I feel I can justify a machine with a few more features, like:

  • A top-loaded bobbin (it’s so good to be able to see the bobbin emptying!)
  • A sturdier construction – my old one bounced about the table so much things would fall off the table in the vibrations.
  • Three needle positions
  • Space for a second spool of thread
  • A bunch of stretch stitches
  • One step button hole
  • Super fast stitching for using the zig zag stitch to enclose seams

None of these are drastic, but together make for a more pleasant experience!

And finally, I had a tough month with stress, illness, and bereavement, so felt an urge to splurge on something to cheer me up a bit!

I found that learning to use my singer 4423 helped to keep my mind off everything that was going on, and meant I got lots of birthday presents sewn up!

I got an ex-showroom model from singerdirect.co.uk so it only ended up costing about £200, and I am so happy! 😊

How did you decide when to upgrade, and what were your main desires in your upgrade machine? I am fully aware that this will not be my final machine purchase…

 

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Peg holder

9 Sep

My sister in law asked me for a peg holder for her birthday. I had bought this fabric a while back without a clear idea for it, it’s a light upholstery style fabric but frays a lot!

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Here’s how I made it:

  • I bought a wooden adult-sized hanger, and drew around it onto a piece of paper.
  • I added 2.5cm of seam allowance, and 35cm in length.
  • I cut out one piece of fabric exactly like the drawn shape, and another 10cm longer.
  • Cut the longer piece horizontally a little bit below the bottom of the hanger – a bit above halfway up the hanger. If the fabric isn’t very rigid, add some interfacing here. Then along the edge I just cut, enclose the two new raw edges using double-folded hems (as narrow as you can deal with).
  • Also add double-folded hems to the top (where the metal bit of the hanger goes).
  • Then I sewed together the three pieces, slightly overlapping the two front pieces.
  • It was gaping a little, so I added a couple of poppers at the opening, about 6cm in from the two sides. I have no idea why poppers are so hard to undo but I figure it is only necessary infrequently when wanting to wash it.

And it’s done!

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Silk pillowcases and a liberty eye mask

8 Sep

For my sister’s birthday, I made her a couple of silk pillowcases using two pieces of 150*50cm purple silk and some matching invisible 50cm zips.

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I love silk pillowcases – I bought one last year, then sewed one for my boyfriend, and the silk (from Goldhawk Road) actually feels nicer than the one I bought ready made!

I decided to add on an eye mask, using the tutorial from the red kitchen, but:

  • I used three klayer: liberty cotton, a black polycotton layer inside to block more light, and a fleece layer.
  • I added a second strap to go under the ears to help it stay on in the nught.
  • I added a second line of topstitching.

I do struggle to work out the logistics of the pillowcase, I put the zip in first on the short ends of the 150*50cm pieces, then use french seams on the other two edges – but the ends of the zips are always a little messy. Hmm. Any tips are very welcome! I also panic because the silk frays so much.

I’ll be giving it to her tomorrow, fingers crossed she likes them :-)

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Doorway puppet theatre!

5 Sep

I made this doorway puppet theatre as a joint gift for my niece (2) and nephew (4). They already have a few hand puppets so I hope they will enjoy playing with this!

I used the tutorial from Crafty Cupboard but published on Skip To My Lou. I thought it looked so good that I stuck as closely to the original design as I could – unfortunately a little while ago I gave away a couple of fat quarters of a very similar to the red curtains, but I recently bought this black crepe with a nice subtle textured pattern that is a nice substitute. All the fabric is from Goldhawk Road, and the trimmings are from eBay. My only changes were that I used lots of velcro. First I made the curtain ties velcro.

I then made the stripy fabric much longer than the trialtut suggests (using the full yard I bought). Then I added a strip of the rough side of velcro close to the hem. I added a strip of the soft side of velcro just under the stage opening, and another two evenly spaced between that and the bottom (about 13″ spaces) so that the kids can choose which height they want it at. This is on the middle soft strip of velcro. At full length the whole thing is almost the full height of a doorway.

I really hope they enjoy it! It was very fiddly to make and with all the stripes and dots my eyes struggled a bit at the start when measuring, but it was all ok once I started doing hems and seams.

Now to see if I can find some hand puppet tutorials – recommendations welcome :-)

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Dinosaur tails!

15 Aug

As I mentioned in my last post, I need to start nice and early to get all my September sewing done! I took part in Selfless September a few years ago but since four close relatives have birthdays in the first two weeks of September, I tend to dedicate August to them instead now!

I set aside most of Saturday to make these dinosaur tails for my nephew’s birthday. I love them so much… I considered only making one but his sister or friends will surely want to join in the fun 😊

I love the almost-neon green that I found

I used the tutorial from Running with Scissors, which is brilliantly explained. I made some minor changes:

  • I wanted them to be washable, so in each colour I made one additional version without the spikes and waist strap, and filled that one with the stuffing and sewed it closed. Then I made the one with spikes and straps but added a zip to the bottom seam before I sewed the two (almost)triangular pieces together along the long edges – and put the stuffed tail inside this tail cover. I think I only had 6-8″ zips in my stash but that worked fine since you can stuff the inside one in.
  • I added some medium weight interfacing to the spikes as my fabric was thin. I considered stuffing them but decided it would make sewing it all together more difficult than I felt like dealing with, maybe next time.
  • I am terrible at accuracy, so to give myself a fighting chance I made a “pattern” for both the almost-triangular shapes and the scales (and used bowls for the circles). Now I can make more whenever I need to!

As usual this fabric (and interfacing) is from Goldhawk Road – Universal Textiles (one of the first on the left hand side coming up from Shepherd’s Bush station) had lots of bright polycotton for £2/metre! I already had the stuffing at home – I bought 1kg online ages ago not realising that that is a LOT of stuffing!!

I really enjoyed making these, they were so much fun and I realised my thighs are about the same size as my nephew’s waist and so had lots of fun playing with them myself….

Two down, four more gifts to go!

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Mini drawstring backpack

5 Aug

I have four family members with birthdays in the first two weeks of September… I have finally learned to start my sewing before the last weekend in August! Here’s the first item: a small backpack for my niece (this is the view of the back to show off the eyelets)

This is about 12″ tall – I think it’s the right size for a two year old!

I tried to use the same Hobbycraft tutorial as I used when I made my nephew’s elephant print backpack a couple of years ago.

Warning: that is a very difficult to follow tutorial. As I’d done it once before I thought I’d be ok but it took me three times as long as it should have because I kept unpicking it and redoing it. I eventually stopped following it and decided to record my method here. I maybe didn’t take enough photos to call it a tutorial, but here goes..!

You will need:

  • 2 pieces of outside fabric, 12*14″ each
  • 2 pieces of inside fabric, 12*14″ each
  • 2 pieces of coordinating 4mm or 6mm cord, 1m each
  • 2 eyelets, ideally 8mm but 11mm will do
  • Coordinating thread, a needle for thick material (I used size 100), a hammer, a safety pin.

If you want a bigger bag, you should also get longer cord.

Sew, with right sides together, the bottom (short edge) of your two outside pieces of fabric together – I use a 1/4″ seam allowance. This will give you one piece of fabric that is 12*27.5″. Then do the same with your inside pieces. Press seams flat.

Place the two 12*27.5″ pieces of fabric together, right sides together. Pin along the long edges, matching the centres up as in the photo below. Now sew along the two long edges (again I use 1/4″ seams) but do not sew along the short edges. Then turn this tube inside out and press the side seams.

Line up the centres/bottoms of the inside and outside fabrics before pinning (it’s folder over here to demonstrate the two long edges in one photo)

Now, we create the channel for the drawstring cord. Place the fabric with the lining fabric facing up, and fold/press one of the short edges over 1/4″, as in the photo below.

Fold over the outside fabric onto the inside fabric by about 1/4″ and press.

Then fold it over another 1″, press and pin.

Now you have to sew the bottom of this fold over, fairly close to the edge so you leave a nice spacious channel for the drawstring to go in later. This stitching will be visible on the outside of the bag so go carefully – and in the photo below, you want to measure the distance from the right (open) edge as this is what matters when looking from the outside – I tried to sew at 7/8″ all the way down.

Sew a 7/8″ channel for the drawstring

And do the same at the other end, it should be the same size – once you pin it, and before you sew it, fold it over and check against the other end.

I forgot to get a photo of the next bit, sorry, but now is when you sew up the final open edges. Now, you want to fold the tube in half so the two drawstring channels meet each other, it should now look like your bag is inside out but the long sides need to be sewn up.

Pin the long edges – these edges will be visible inside the bag, so try to pin it neatly. When you sew it, make sure your stitch starts *just* below the drawstring channel and goes all the way to the bottom to create the bottom corner of your bag. I again tried a 1/4″ seam. Do this along both sides, and turn it inside out and push out the corners. It should now look recognisable as a bag!

Now to put the bag straps through the drawstring channels.

Using a safety pin makes it much easier to thread the drawstring

Next, push the safety pin through one end of the drawstring cord, and thread it through one drawstring channel (e.g. left to right at the back of the bag) then when it comes out the other end, thread it through the other drawstring channel (e.g. right to left at the front of the bag). I’ve tried to show this in the picture below – one cord is the green line, one is the blue.

Now for the really fun bit – putting the eyelets in! The hole should be about an inch diagonally from the corner of the bag, at the back – the eyelet goes through the back outer and lining layers, but you shouldn’t see it from the front.

I recommend looking at the instructions for whichever ones you have, I used Prym 11mm and they have nice YouTube videos that are really helpful.

Then you just have to thread your cord through the eyelets, tie a knot in the end (adding bead spacers if you are worried it might squeeze through the eyelet). And you’re done!!

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Easy cotton placemats

16 Jul

Three years ago I bought some nice felt placemats on sale from John Lewis, and they have served me well – but aren’t the easiest to clean and do easily get grubby.

So I decided to make my own that can go in the washing machine. I got this cotton fabric from Goldhawk Road in London and I think I paid about £5/yard. Originally I was planning to make quilted placemats with this fabric as the backing, but on my tester one I struggled to find a mix of the chosen fabrics that didn’t look tacky, and realised the backing fabric was all I really wanted. Thankfully I had enough to make a set of four – I planned eight but I rarely have that many guests! I can always make 4 more in another colour sometime.


I used pieces of fabric 10*13 inches, and sewed with 0.5 inch seams. I also added a layer of lightweight fusible wadding (vilene h630). I then sewed two borders around the outside. I am really pleased with them AND they are machine washable!!
It’s nice to get some “functional” sewing done sometimes, it’s rewarding and makes my home prettier! :-)

E-reader case (kobo/kindle)

17 May

After I made my own kindle case (back in 2014!), a friend liked the design – it has a great little pocket you can protect your Kindle in when you’re not using it, or that you can use to hold your train ticket like I do… So, she asked if I’d make a case for her e-reader. She even bought the fat quarter and had it mailed to me, and it still took me three years to get around to making it – and maybe an hour to make once I started! I’ve never sewn anything for anyone outside of my family, so I think I was very nervous about giving over my handiwork to someone to judge!

I quilted the outside cover/interfacing before I sewed all the layers together. I decided to quilt it in only one direction – I wasn’t sure if it would clash with the swirls too much but I like it! I am glad because I didn’t have the energy to try to follow the swirls, it was straight lines or nothing…

She has a kobo glo, not a Kindle, but I figured it’d be easy to change the measurements. As it is, I only had to reduce the height by 3/8 of an inch (so where the tutorial says 8 inches I used 7 5/8 inches). You can see the difference below with my kindle in the case.

Other than the size adjustment and a bit of quilting, I followed the tutorial from Whip Stitch exactly – the instructions are so clear. The only difficulty was recognising the need to adjust the thread tension when sewing more/fewer layers.

I really enjoyed making this, and think I might even make myself a new one! I used an old spool and bobbin of thread and was gutted to run out of bobbin thread an inch from the very end! Aaargh!

I find that once I’ve found a tutorial that works for me, I tend to reuse it. Here’s a quick list of my other favourite tutorials worth remembering!

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A new spring dress (and I’ve already worn it out!)

29 Apr

I made another dress! I got this fabric from Goldhawk Road (like most of my fabrics), for about £5/metre  as a cheap way to practice sewing with knits (I think I needed two metres, but there seems to be about half a metre left over). Thankfully I already had stretch machine needles left over from hemming a knit dress for my mum years ago. I got New Look 6495 for galf price from Hobbycraft :D

I was keen to put this one together as I cut out the fabric ages ago, and since my last dress (New Look 6431) showed some fit issues with a woven, I thought it’d be good to get a knit done so I can have one of each done without adjustments before moving on to FBAs etc. It took me about 8 hours to put this together, after having cut the fabric out ages ago – but I am a slow sewer and also had to unstitch one armhole and half the zip!

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It fits a lot better than the woven – but it’s a smaller top (12) in a knit so the better fit makes sense! The skirt was a 16. I’ve always needed my skirts 1-3 sizes larger than my tops, so well-fitting dresses are hard to come by, so I am quite happy with the fit of this one as a starting point.

I wore this out for breakfast/brunch today, and can definitely see myself wearing it out again (but with a cardigan to hide the imperfect back). I do need to improve my finishing:

  1. The neckline and armholes aren’t sitting flat. Maybe the top is still one size too big, and needs a small FBA? The neckline facing worked well on my last dress but that made closing/adding the zip at the back really messy/difficult. So I’m not sure what to do except practice and go slow, but I think trying an FBA on a cheap fabric is worth a shot.
  2. The back pieces (two bodice and skirt) don’t line up, by as much as 2cm. There was about 1cm of shift in the last dress too. I can match up pieces/notches fine but things move around when I put the zip in. That said, the invisible zip itself is fine thanks to this guide from ByHandLondon.
  3. My zips are messy both at the top and bottom – I hand stitched at the bottom as I couldn’t get the sewing machine to do the first inch! The top of my last dress zip was also very messy. Maybe I need practice?

This was an easy make, and I will definitely make it again! Mostly, I am enjoying working out how to make dresses and I’m really looking forward to making them fit. But for now, I have a few other mini projects: an ereader cover, a bag holder, a tote bag, a RTW dress adjustment, and some pot holders. It’s great having my machine back :D

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I finally made my first dress!

14 Apr

Having bought my sewing machine around five years ago, I’ve finally made my first dress! :-)

I got this lovely red cotton, with lots of tiny white stars, from Goldhawk Road. I knew I wanted to use it for a red skirt on a dress, with a black top. So, when I saw New Look 6431 I thought view B could be just right for letting the black and red balance each other out. I think it widths well!

I wasn’t expecting it to be easy, but it was even more of a challenge than I had been expecting!

The neckline pleats and interfacing proved trickier than I thought they would be, logistically, but they turned out quite nicely.

Getting the neckline interfacing done was a bit tricky, and I did it wrong a couple of times, but eventually I followed the guide at Tilly and the Buttons and I was really happy when it eventually worked and sits flat.

Then I had to deal with the armhole bias binding – I had no idea what I was doing and the pattern was confusing, as I mentioned in my previous post and seesawyer helped me out by commenting with the answer! For the future I found this tutorial with pictures.

Attaching the skirt was easy peasy, so no problems there! Hemming it at the end was also fine, except at that point suddenly my machine decided that it needed a higher tension – I had been using 3.5 all throughout, but now it needed 6…

Adding the lapped zip was pretty difficult! I was worried as soon as I saw that the pattern needed a normal, not an invisible, zip. The guide by Nancy Zieman guide was super helpful. Nonetheless, I had a couple of problems – first my lap wasn’t wide enough to cover the zipper pull at the top. Then, the LHS of the dress/top was longer, so it went about 3/8″ longer than the RHS, so I had to try and shorten that before attaching the hook. I think this will be something for me to work on more in future – hopefully it gets easier with practice!

Overall, I am happy but will have to sort out some sizing issues before it is wearable. You can see here that the top is far too large in the back, and it is also too large in the waist (my waist-hip ratio is high, so I find tops have to be well-fitted for an overall outfit to be flattering). I chose a size 16 top, with a size 18 skirt, but I think that maybe I should have chosen a smaller size top and did a full bust adjustment (I guess patterns aren’t made for an E as standard!).

Next time I will definitely look at doing an FBA, but for now, I want to work out how to sort out this one so the top is slightly more flattering – then I can actually wear it out :)

I really enjoyed doing this – it was hard at times, especially when my sewing machine broke for a couple of months, but I am so keen to work out the FBA for future dresses, hopefully I can get a really nice fit eventually!

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Trying to understand bias armhole instructions… 

7 Apr

I am so confused! 

In terms of clothes, I have only previously made the Collette sorbetto top. I posted about it, and was convinced that the damp fabric was the problem so I made another, with homemade bias binding, and the fit still wasn’t for me. Nonetheless, I now have two comfy pajama tops and learned how to do visible binding on necklines and arm holes, so I’ll take that as a positive learning experience :-)

But now a Simplicity pattern has me completely stumped. 

I already had to go elsewhere for help on how to do a neckline with interfacing – tutorial from Tilly here. Having finally worked out the logistics of the neckline, my sewing machine gave up and stopped sewing properly (loops underneath, skipping threads, breaking threads) so I packed it away. Now, two months later, I have given the machine a clean and oil and I’ve finished the neckline (yay! Another technique learned) but have the arm holes to contend with now….

“Open out one edge of single fold bias tape. With RIGHT sides together, pin tape to armhole edge having crease 3/8″  from raw edge, turning under and lapping one end at side seam. Stitch. LAYER seam.

UNDERSTITCH tape. Turn tape to INSIDE; press. Baste close to inner edge. On OUTSIDE, top-stitch as basted.”

I think the bit I need help with is that in bold. I have tried to find tutorials online that use similar words so I can be sure that I’m doing the right thing but no luck. I don’t *think* the bias binding is supposed to be visible….

If you know a good tutorial you can point me to, I’d be very grateful! I’m looking forward to eventually finishing making this item but I keep getting lost :-(

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Another beanbag!

7 Jan

I made a beanbag for my nephew for Christmas 2016 and he and his sister have so much fun playing with it that their mum asked if my neice could get her very own this Christmas. Yes!!!

These are so fun to make, from finding fabric (Goldhawk Road again) to cutting all the curves to pouring the beans in and seeing it become properly 3D (and watching the kids immediately start jumping on it)!

The tutorial from Reese Dixon is great, my only additions (not even changes) are:

  • I use 50cm zips and extend them to the ~150cm needed using a matching fabric to subtly insert it as an extra (thin) panel (like in this purse tutorial) the same length as the others.
  • I use scrap fabric (e.g. old bed sheet) to make an inside beanbag cover so the pretty outside cover can be washed – or changed when the kid’s preferences do!
  • I buy 3 cubic feet of beans, for about £6

I am a very slow sewer, and it took me maybe three evenings. It’s not much cheaper than buying a basic one (say £15 for 3m of outside fabric, a few quid for a bed sheet, £6 for beans, and £5 for zips and thread … comes to about £30) but is excellent value for being able to choose exactly what you want out of the pattern!

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Pot holders

6 Jan

My sister got a slow cooker / crock pot for Christmas, so before she headed back to the new university term I decided to quickly make some convenient pot holders for carrying the ceramic pot to the dinner table.

I used this fun red cotton I got from Goldhawk Road in London (about 3m for £20), with a plain black cotton and insul-bright inside.

I didn’t use a pattern and just measured around my hands – so I used rectangles of fabric about 6″ wide and 17″ long. I might change it slightly if I make any more, maybe 7″ by 14″. I made two for my mum too!

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Homemade Christmas wreath

9 Dec

I made a Christmas wreath!!

A local “city farm”is doing wreath-making classes this Christmas (for just £15!) so a friend and I popped along. I’ve never had – letalone made – a wreath before but it was a really fun relaxing activity! It took maybe 60-90 minutes.

They also do children’s sessions using paper plates (cutting out the middle) with leaves, glue, buttons, glitter glue, etc which sounds good fun too!

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A lined tote bag and a new laptop case!

3 Dec

I am doing a lot of travelling for work at the moment (not to anywhere exotic :( ) and so I need a sturdy tote bag to carry my laptop, notepad, etc, between the hotel and the clients’ offices, letting me keep a small handbag for my essentials and a small suitcase for lugging everything on the flight.

Enter a lined, box bottom, tote bag!

I was super chuffed to find that my local charity shop has opened a haberdashery section, and even moreso to find that they had 2m of this gorgeous blue Laura Ashley fabric for just £7!

I used the tutorial from CrazyLittleProjects but only used one outside fabric (instead of two) and the lining fabric. I also made my fabric pieces 14″ wide and 18″ tall, but next time I might make the bag wider and straps shorter. To make the box bottom I measured in two inches from the corner, which gave a nice size bottom to put A4 papers in the bag. The right side of the strap should face the right side of the outside fabric when sewing them in – took me a while (and a few pin pricks) to work it out in my head…

I love that the fabric is interesting but work-appropriate!

Although the bag has a bit of padding with the interfacing, I just got a new laptop so I want to keep it extra safe. I used the same tutorial, cutting the fabric to the same size as the laptop and replacing the strap with a 4*7″ piece of fabric to act as the flap to hold the velcro to close it. It used two fat quarters of fabric.

The outer fabric, lining, velcro, and battng were all from my stash – and it only took an hour! Very happy with it :)

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Quilted pencil case

15 Sep

My sister asked for a pencil case with a flat-ish design so it doesn’t take up too much space in her bag, for when she goes into her final year of university soon. It was for her birthday so I also got sone cute simple earrings and a cross stitch magazine which comes with several kits for Christmas cards and decorations – she is keen to get into crafts and I thought this would be a good introduction.

Anyway, about the pencil case!

I got this lovely Liberty Tana Lawn “Betsy”, with a darker fabric on the inside so it will better absorb pen/pencil mess. I used the tutorial for a coin purse from sew me happy, but with 10×10″ pieces of fabric and a ~12″ zip.

The zip looks way more wonky in this photo than it actually is!

I decided to use fusible wadding, as I felt a pencil case could use more structure/support than normal interfacing would give. I then quilted 1.5″ squares on both the outer and lining fabrics before continuing with the tutorial. Awkwardly I could only find my bobbin spool of lilac fabric, so had to use that as the main/top thread and a different colour (I chose white) for the bottom/bobbin. Hopefully it’ll never be visible!

I am really happy with it!

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Kids’ name bunting

8 Sep

This month my niece and nephew have their birthdays, and their mum asked me to make them some bunting with their names on.

As it had to fit on their door I only had about 36″ length to work with – for 9 letters!

For each set I needed:

  • 18 triangles 4″ tall and 3.5″ wide – 10 in one fabric and 8 in a coordinating fabric e.g. light and medium pink
  • A 7″ square of one of the triangle fabrics to make bias binding for the bunting string
  • About 2″ by 12″ of whichever fabric you want the letters in
  • About 2″ by 12″ of a contrasting fabric (e.g. dark pink) to use to make the outline on the letters
  • Pinking shears
  • Matching thread (light-medium)
  • Fabric glue and/or paper-backed fusible interfacing
  • Letters to trace
  • Craft knife and cutting mat

I had most of these fabrics in my stash, except the lighter letter fabrics which I got from the market in Durham.

First, I cut out the triangles using a rotary cutter, and sewed each pair together up the diagonal ends about 5mm from the edge. Then I trimmed the diagonal edges with the pinking shears. Since the width of the bunting was limited, I wanted to make the most of the space, and so this worked better than having seams on the inside, and it sits flatter.

Then, I had to cut out the letters. I used the Microsoft font Impact, in bold with a black outline and coloured in white, in about size 200. I was going to print it off and cut out the letters, to trace onto the fabric but then I realised: I recently bought a tablet, so I could trace the letters off that! It worked perfectly, as it is backlit it is really easy to see the outlines of the letters. I downloaded an app called Touch Lock (on Android) to make sure that I didn’t move the screen or zoom in etc while tracing. Important to remember when tracing: you might need to reverse/mirror the letters (I did, writing on the paper side).

I traced the letters onto the paper-backed webbing, ironed them onto the fabric, and cut the letters out using a craft knife. Then, I ironed the letters onto right side of the darker / contrast fabric, and ironed paper-backed webbing onto the wrong side of the darker / contrast fabric. Then, I cut out the letters in the contrast fabric close to the original letters, to give a nice outline. I then ironed the letters onto the triangles.

Next, I had to make the bias binding. I used the technique from So-sew-easy, using a 7″ square of fabric. I pinned the triangles into the binding and sewed one line down the bias binding close to the open edge.

I should have used the fabrics on the blue one differently -the navy polka dot triangles should have been swapped with the medium blue pattern outlining the letters, which would have helped the letters to stand out more – it is more readable in real life though so I am happy.

Also, when making the blue one the paper-backed webbing just wouldn’t stick. So instead of freaking out I bought fabric glue and I think it’s great! As I wasn’t intending to sew around the edges of these, the glue is better as it is stronger, especially if kids play with it and lead to it needing to go in the washing machine – I have no idea how the interfacing would hold up in the wash.

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Liberty print sleeping eye mask

1 Sep

It’s September again, when my sister-in-law, sister, neice, and nephew all have their birthdays – which means lots of fun sewing for me!

My sister-in-law asked for a new eye mask, and since it’s for a gift I figured I should go for a slighty more expensive fabric than I usually would – I decided to buy a piece of gorgeous Liberty Tana Lawn (maddock) and team it with some fleece and lingerie elastic (cute and comfy!). I really love this fabric! I added some Montezuma chocolates and a bath bomb.

I like to add two straps rather than just one, which helps to stop it rising over the head in the night as the lower strap sits under the ears. You can see on the left in the photo below where I add them.

I used the tutorial from the red kitchen, which has a really helpful template too!

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Envelope cushion covers

24 Jul

I lovelovelove this fabric. It’s by RoseandHubble fabrics (available here, although I got it from London’s Goldhawk Road)

I havent sewn in a while but I boughtnew pillows and didn’t want to bin the old ones (they’re not as firm as I need but still in good condition!)

Since I have been struggling to find cushions for my sofa, I decided to’upcycle’ the pillows!

I cut them in half with scissors, rearranged the stuffing to be centred/ thicker at the new ‘middles’, and used a zigzag stitch to close up the edges.

I then :

  • Cut 1m of fabric into three strips (about 14″ by 42″)
  • On the short fabric edges, folded over 1cm twice, using an iron, then stitched it closed with a straight stitch
  • Folded it over the pillow to measure how much the fabric should overlap for the cover to fit the pillow – about 4″
  • Finish with French seams: Trimmed the long edges using the rotary cutter to keep it neat, and pinned them with right sides out. Use edge stitching on the two long edges, then turn the cushion cover inside out, iron the seams, and close the long edges with another line of stitching each.

I’m very happy with them!! It was fun getting back to sewing :-)

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Christmas sewing: boy’s beanbag

7 Jan

I made my sister a beanbag cover a couple of years ago, with a really simple “pattern” I made up (here). I wanted to make a more interesting-looking beanbag for my nephew, so I started trawling websites for cute kids’ duvet sets. I wanted to use two coordinating fabrics, and duvet covers with a different top and bottom are the easiest (and often cheapest) way to achieve that! I managed to find a cute lorries-and-diggers design in a toddlers’ size duvet, with a nice bright pattern on the back, which gave exactly the right amount of fabric for this pattern! :) :) :)

Joeseph's beanbag.png

It was very hard to photograph!

I used the tutorial from Reese Dixon which is great because it isn’t too strict on the size, or the curve, etc, which helped me to relax a bit if my cutting went astray!

The one problem I had with this is that I didn’t think in advance how the 30″ zip would fit into my approximately 40″ seam. I made the beanbag cover that you see above first, and the zip ends were a little messy, but for the inside bean bag (the one that holds the ‘beans’ safely so my nephew can’t “accidentally” pour them all over the floor / eat them) I used the same method as in this purse tutorial – simply adding a length of fabric to each end of the zip and trimming to make sure it fits perfectly.

I used 3 cubic feet of ‘beans’ – which I think was the perfect amount. It was a bit of a faff to create a cardboard funnel to pour them into the beanbag, but we managed to hoover the stray ones up before the dog got to them…

I also made my niece a hooded personalised (applique) towel, similarly to the one I made for my nephew a year ago (here), but clearly I didn’t take warning from that because I made it in lowercase letters AGAIN which was incredibly tricky! I didn’t actually get a photo of the whole thing, but here is a snippet:

Alexandra's towel.png

I didn’t actually get a photo of the whole front of it! As proof that I did ALL NINE LETTERS (!!!) here’s a mirror image of the inside too, which I’m not sure why I took!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to finish my Christmas sewing, as well as the bag I blogged earlier, I had been planning to make a range of hand/neck warmers (using rice to be microwaveable) and turn the leftover half-towel from the applique towel above into a face cloth (using bias binding and appliqueing an “A” onto it) – but I managed to hurt my shoulder so even doing the above was quite painful! Maybe they can be random January presents instead.

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Child’s drawstring backpack

22 Dec

I wanted to make my nephew a small backpack with some cute teal elephant fabric I got from Goldhawk road a few months ago – but obviously, at the time, I had no idea what I would use it for I just loved it so bought some!

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The photo on the left is closest to real colours – terrible winter light!

I used the tutorial from Hobbycraft’s blog, but make sure you read it through carefully and slowly before you start – it is an easy process, but they have made it fairly confusing. I wanted to use the Hobbycraft one despite the many good ones out there because I REALLY wanted to use the eyelets. Here’s the changes I made:

  • I used 4mm drawstring (because then I could get it in grey, and it’s comfier too).
  • I used Prym’s 11mm silver eyelets as the 5.5m ended up too small to fit the drawstring.
  • I didn’t use the quantity of fabric they said to use. Instead I used 4 pieces of 14×12 inches to make this a little bit smaller.
  • As the bag was smaller, I only needed 2m of drawstring, which is great because that’s all I had received despite ordering 3m!

I then filled it with lots of chocolate coins – I don’t expect a 2y old to be particularly delighted by a bag so this is to make sure he still loves his Christmas present!

I still have two sewing Christmas presents to finish off – I hope yours are all going well! :)

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A circular pot holder

18 Dec

I’ve been using a tea towel as a pot holder for months, so decided it was time to make a cute pot holder for the kitchen!

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I used the tutorial from Nancy Zieman, although I made a few changes:

  • I used normal insul-bright rather than quilted, so added a layer of white cotton fabric to the inside
  • I didn’t have the circle cutter, so just used a side plate which was about 8 inches
  • When I’d finished, I realised it’d be really useful to have a hanging loop, so I used an extra piece of binding (folded in half, sewn  up, then attached using a ridiculous amount of thread).

I had this cotton in my stash, from making my sister a purse a while back, so just had to buy cotton thread (as I normally keep synthetic but that might melt…) and the bright red binding – and waaay more insul-bright than I need so there might need to be more “insulated items” coming to use that up..!

This took me a lot longer to make than the tutorial suggested it would, but I hadn’t sewn in months and was using it as a “getting back into sewing before making Christmas presents” activity, so I am happy :) I have already cut out the fabrics to make another identical one!

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A new laundry bag from curtains

27 Jan

My boyfriend and I have been taking the term ‘laundry pile’ quite literally since we moved in together a few months ago, and finally decided enough was enough. When in town we popped into the charity shop, looking for some fabric that might make a suitable laundry bag – something a little thicker than usual fabrics, with a nice pattern that isn’t too light. We found these curtains, a set of two 66×53″ for only £4.50! It’s a half cotton half polyester mix.

Laundry_bag_fabric

I previously used a different tutorial for a lined drawstring bag, but that felt unnecessary for a laundry bag, so I wanted something a little simpler. I found the Great British Sewing Bee tutorial! It’s available on the Radio Times website. It shows you how to make the ribbon as well as the bag. It took me three evenings of an hour or two each, so probably about 4-5 hours in all – most could probably do it faster as I always seem to take much longer than the tutorials suggest! It didn’t help that the fabric had a slight stretch to it which made measuring and cutting it tricky! :S

Laundry_bag_finished

The finished bag! It looks brighter in real life but the camera on my phone is playing up.

I didn’t like the raw edges inside, as this fabric frays quite a lot and I don’t have pinking shears, so I used the zigzag stitch on a low length to hold the raw edges in instead of ironing them into opposite directions as the tutorial suggested. I first did this to the sections of the side seams where the hole is for the ribbon to pass through, so through one piece of fabric for the 4 inch gap, and then to hold the double layers of every other seam together, so through two pieces of fabric for all remaining raw seams. It’s much better now and I am really happy with it! I don’t think french seams would have worked as well as this did because of the holes for the ribbons.

I am really happy with it! And since it only used one of the two curtains, I might use the other curtain to make one for my sister, as she previously mentioned she was on the lookout for a new laundry bag. [Edit – I finally made my sister one, so that’s most of this fabric gone from my stash now, phew!]

This is the first time I have sewn using charity shop fabric (well, repurposed) and I wish I’d thought of it sooner – will definitely be going again. Maybe once I have used up some of my stash….

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Hooded personalised towel / back after 12 months

4 Jan

I haven’t sewn much at all since my last post in November 2014. Other than small tasks (fixing curtains, hemming dress, etc.), I had only had one project in the 12 months since my last post, before this one. Christmas 2014 I made a purse for my sister out of some fabric I got on Goldhawk road. I used the tutorial from FortworthFabricStudio and I think it turned out nicely. It was part of her Christmas present  and she was delighted.

These photos were only just taken yesterday as I didn’t take any at the time – so excuse the PJs – I loved the contrasting red but think maybe I should have used half navy rather than using only patterned fabric, it’s a bit overwhelming!

ANYWAY – about the personalised hooded towel!

My sister-in-law asked if I would make my nephew a personalised towel for his 2015 Christmas present, and I jumped at the chance / motivation to sew again after so long. The last 12 months I’ve been pretty unwell and having to ration my energy, but I have been feeling better recently so figured it was about time to get my Singer back out!

I wanted to make it a bit more interesting than just a towel with his name on, so I was really happy when I found a tutorial from CrazyLittleProjects which sounded like it wouldn’t take too long. It needs a bath towel and a hand towel, and a LOT of thread (I used one and a half of the 100m Gutterman ones). Sewing the towel together was a little tough, even with a size 100 needle, and I discovered that the little lever that raises/drops the foot will raise the lever even more if you push and hold it up. Without that I would never have managed to get the doubled-over bits of the towel under the needle! It took a while and gave me sore shoulders, but I was pretty happy when it was done.

I had also never done applique, and have decided since that doing it with lowercase curvy letters was a terrible idea for my first time. Next time I might be able to work it, as I think I got the hang of this a bit as I went on, but in hindsight I should have used capitals only for this one! I used the great templates from Free Applique Patterns and traced them off my screen. I didn’t have any paper backed fusible webbing and so I just used hemming web to stick the fabric directly to the towel and it worked quite well I think – but it was a bit fiddly so I might have to add some paper-backed stuff to my collection for future.

Hooded Towel - appliquéd letters.jpg

I decided to make the letters wonky so I wouldn’t drive myself mad making them straight! I am quite happy with the result and my boyfriend’s advice to use dark thread against the light-ish towel was a great suggestion.

I was quite happy with the finished result (although I forgot to get a photo of the full thing) and when he opened it he gave it a snuggle – even though he had no idea what it was other than a soft thing, that one snuggle made it worth it and reminded me of why I love sewing. So I definitely won’t be leaving it that long until my next project!

Back after two months: kindle case and eye mask

13 Dec

I’ve been missing since the end of Sew Selfless September – a combination of moving house (moving out of my parents’ and into a flatshare with a uni friend, halving my commute in the process) and being quite ill (mainly very very sleepy).

Anyway, I finally decided to get a little bit of practise in before I make my sister’s Christmas present, and made TWO things:

I made a Kindle Case using a tutorial from Whip Stitch – it is a really good tutorial and fits perfectly but make sure you read a couple of steps ahead to make sure you have understood, I made a few mistakes… I also had to do two lines of topstitching on the far left edge because my batting was VERY thick (about 1cm)

Kindle Case Inside

Kindle case!

I know that people who love books tend to feel it is important to love the feel of a book, and while I definitely won’t stop buying and reading paper books (I am reading one atm and have others on my Christmas list) it is so much more comfortable to read a kindle, it doesn’t matter if I finish a book when I am unable to buy one as I’ll have others stored, and I can look up definitions of words I don’t know without a huge interruption to reading as is needed if I consulted a dictionary while reading a paper book.

But I’ll never read a kindle in the bath.

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Then I decided that in my new flat the curtains don’t quite cover it enough, so I then also made an eye mask, this time loosely using the pattern from the red kitchen. I didn’t even realise that she had done a double row of topstitch, I did it because it looked a lot neater – and it was easier to first do the inside one and then do the one closer to the edge with the first line holding the fabric in place. Ta-da!

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I feel ready to attack some vintage fabric for my sister’s Christmas present… eek! :)

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Liebster award – thank you!

26 Oct

The lovely Beth from After Dark Sewing nominated me for the Liebster award! It is essentially a chain email in blogs, and I really enjoyed reading her entry which is here. As I was halfway through this post with it sat in my drafts, I was told that I had actually received another nomination, from the brilliant Some Assembly Required’s Shawn here! I really enjoy reading both of these blogs and HUGELY recommend that you check them out :) I am also SO flattered that they have nominated me since I still think I am a complete beginner!)

(For the five blogs that I now nominate, please see the end of this post :) )

liebster award

Since I received two nominations I am going to answer all the questions in a row. Numbers with a B are Beth’s questions, and with an S are Shawns :)

B1. If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

Would “being able to have half as much sleep and still function” count? Because I definitely would make loads of use of that.  If we’re talking real superpowers, I’d love to be able to read people’s minds on demand because it’d be helpful in real life and in work with clients, but being on demand means that you don’t have to listen to everyone’s inane thoughts all day.

S1. What is your favourite film quote?

Hmmmm this is really tough, even just choosing between different ‘genres’. I’ve chosen the one that has stuck with me weirdly strongly over the years:

Calling somebody else fat won’t make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid doesn’t make you any smarter. And ruining Regina George’s life definitely didn’t make me any happier. All you can do in life is try to solve the problem in front of you. (Cady, Mean Girls)

B2. Which movie would you watch over and over?

I have watched 27 dresses a million times, and would probably happily watch it many more! But as for non-guilty films, I’d go for The Life of Brian. It is one of the first films (after cartoons) that I remember loving it so much the first time and coming back to it. The spaceship at the start still surprises me every time!

S2. What was the first thing you made?

Apart from hemming a couple of skirts (and turning culottes into a skirt), which were botch jobs at uni, the first thing I made with my sewing machine was a floral coin purse. I just wanted to try out my new machine but  my mum asked if she could have it to keep her tissues in her bag in! I still remember how amazing that felt, that someone actually wanted something I had made with my own hands on my first attempt, and I got addicted!

B3. If you could be granted three wishes, what would you wish for?

Hmmm this is a tricky one! I think my wishes are a bit boring but here goes:
(1)  for more sewing space! I currently use a tiny writing desk and it isn’t really working out…
(2) to be able to magically get home instantaneously every night. commuting isn’t too boring with a book but sometimes I’d rather be at home sewing or in the bath or cooking!
(3) that when I move into my flat everything works and we don’t have any major bill nightmares.

S3. Which three words best describe you?

This is always an interesting question because really there’s two answers – the three we want, and the three our friends would say. If the two are pretty close you’re normally doing alright! However I haven’t asked my friends so I will have to go with

  • Organised – because I feel anxious if things aren’t planned and will always have a list or a spreadsheet and my filofax is the key to my life.
  • Chatty – I will talk to most people if they demonstrate a willingness, and will even strike up a conversation with someone I am alone at a busstop with because I would rather talk to the stranger than feel unsafe or awkward in their company. From the start of school to the current day in my office I have always talked too much (though I don’t get told off for it at work, thankfully!)
  • Stubborn – my boyfriend calls it principled but it is the same things really. Once I have made up my mind, which normally takes a very long time, I don’t change it! Probably because I am so indecisive I know how painful it’d be to try and come up with a new plan!

B4. Coffee or tea?

I’m very British and love my tea! Although with my response to (1) I admit that I do give in when there is a fresh pot of coffee in the work kitchen!

S4. How do you find inspiration for projects?

I read pretty much EVERY post which appears in the ‘sewing’ stream in my WordPress Reader, which often throws up some cool ideas which I then REALLY want to make and try to think who I could make it for. This has led to most of the things that I have made on this blog.

Alternatively whenever people are talking about buying things / I am thinking about buying things, I often think “I could make something” and it won’t always be cheaper but it will be fun and personal – this was the reasoning behind my recent laptop cover and the baby blanket.

Much to my surprise, people have begun ASKING me to do things. Hemming a dress here and there, mending a bag. I even made a draught excluder for my uncle’s house, in about 15 minutes upon request and the beanbag cover was a request too!

I am trying hard to get into Pinterest!

B5. What are your pet hates?

I cannot stand the sound/sight of chewing. That is definitely my main one! All my other ones are sound-related: sound of people cutting/picking at their nails, sound of tinny music from someone’s headphones on the train or a neighbour’s music/tv, snoring. Most unnecessary noises count really – I am probably happiest when sat in a corner with my headphones in and working away on my sewing machine blissfully unaware of everything else :)

S5. Do you have a favourite post from your archives?

I don’t actually have that many posts at all…. I think my favourite must be the His and hers passport covers one (not really his and hers, just mum and dad..) as I really enjoyed making them, thinking about how the different fabrics required different patterns, and the covers turning out quite nice! I plan to make them some matching luggage tags with the leftover fabric one day

B6. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?

Purple! I get most things in purple if I can… I would choose a nice deep purple

S6. If you could take up any new hobby what would it be?

If I could take up an OLD one I would choose jogging since I had to stop due to knee problems. As for new ones, I would probably go for cycling or knitting, which are both things I hope to take up in the near future!

B7. What’s the story behind your blog name?

It’s a bit of a miserable answer but it has a happy ending I promise (!): When I graduated from university I spent about a year unemployed and recovering from an illness. I became depressed, seeing everyone else getting on with their jobs or further degrees while I didn’t produce anything except unsuccessful job applications. I started to do cross stitch and embroidery when I was taking time off from job applications (weekends), and found it immensely satisfying and it made me feel like I was doing something worthwhile even if it was just going to be stuffed in a drawer for eternity once finished. I decided it’d be a good idea to set aside some time every weekend to create something to keep the good feeling going, and Creative Saturdays happened! Since then I’ve found my dream job and bought a sewing machine, and sewing has remained as my hobby :)

S7. What is your favourite book

There’s a lot of contenders as I imagine there is with a lot of people, and I recently read The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window and Disappeared which I thought was brilliant.

My all-time favourite book, however, is How To Be Good by Nick Hornby (author of About A Boy) . It hasn’t received great reviews but I think, as with a lot of peoples’ favourite books, I read it at a time of life when it just really spoke to me – It is about a doctor struggling with what it is that makes us ‘good’, and how often can you do something before you have to admit that maybe you are “the sort” that does it as opposed to it being “not really like me at all, honest!” – There is a great quote in the first chapter that I can’t remember exactly but it was along those lines. I would obviously just look it up but I’ve lent it to a friend at the moment…

B8. Do you have any pets?

I have a lovely lurcher, who is the most energetic, loving, and scatty (and huge) dog. I also have a cat but she doesn’t spend much time in the house on account of aforementioned lurcher who doesn’t realise he is a bit too big to play! I am sad that when I move out of my parents’ house soon I probably won’t have my own dog for many years :(

S8. Describe your house

It is a terraced house in the suburbs of London, with three bedrooms and just me and my parents. I am moving out soon and so it will be just them! It is quiet apart from dogs barking (not mine!) and lots of buses, and children playing. My room is the ‘box room’ but I love it, it has ll old mismatched furniture which is definitely my kind of thing. We have a huge trampoline, which even at the age of 23 I use a lot, and my dog LOVES to chase his tail while jumping on it (I must video that someday)

B9. Are you a lark or an night owl?

I am a bit of both – I wake up early and can stay up late, but I lag in the afternoon! So I have to force myself to sleep earlier to avoid the lag…

S9. What has been your favourite blogging moment?

When I posted my embroidered Mary Jane and got the nicest comments and recommendations – it was really early on, before I had my sewing machine, and people were just so lovely that I think it got me addicted to blogging.

B10. What was your favourite television programme as a child?

oooh this is a tough one! I think of them all I might have to choose Saved By The Bell, I remember being banned from watching the ‘Trouble’ TV channel because I watched it too much! This was back when the remote control had a ‘back’ button which showed which channel you’d watched last – so whenever I saw my dad’s car pulling up outside I would change the channel to ‘allowed’ ones twice so he couldn’t tell :D

S.10 Which celebrity would be top of your guest list for a dinner party?

The Queen – would hardly be raucous but would be a good evening without being able to discuss politics and an excuse to have amazing food and loads of courses. Heaven.

liebster award

And now to nominate some more blogs for the Award! I really enjoy these blogs so please do check them out :)

My five nominations are to:

Sewnhenge: Sewing such cute clothes for her kid, and lovely dresses for herself, I love seeing what she’s done :) Especially the purple ostrich dress (seriously, go find it)

I Fucking Made This: Such gorgeous makes (not just sewing, her baking is as envious as her sewing!) and I think my favourite thing about her blog might be her attitude towards it being pretty bloomin cool to be able to make things.

A Dress of My Own: Brilliant cheery colourful dresses! Her photo locations always make me jealous too

Vint Hill Vintage: Awesome swing for kids and mums again, and you HAVE to see the fish costume on her tutorials page!

Atelier Oursonne: mainly knitting but I love the scrap Sundays!

and the questions which I’ll pass on – you can do all 20 of the above if you like, but it took quite long and I don’t want to eat into your sewing time so here’s a condensed list I recommend :)

1. If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

2. What was the first thing you made?

3. If you could be granted three wishes, what would you wish for?

4. How do you find inspiration for projects?

5. What are your pet hates?

6. If you could take up any new hobby what would it be?

7. What’s the story behind your blog name?

8. Do you have any pets?

9. What has been your favourite blogging moment?

10 Which celebrity would be top of your guest list for a dinner party?

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Laptop cover: Sew Selfless September

7 Oct

This is the last of my SSS items! I didn’t actually finish it in September, but that is due to a combination of: making the beanbag cover from my last post when I should have been doing this, then being ill, then my sewing machine going haywire after I’d only sewn about a quarter of it. Anyway, my sewing machine perked up again on Sunday so I decided to finish it and hope that it could still count.

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Click to go through to Sometimes Sewist’s SSS intro

My boyfriend has decided to replace his 8-year old laptop (surprisingly) with a shiny new, fast, smaller one since he is starting his PhD. He got a MacBook Pro 13″ (normal, not air). Ages ago he chose this zig-zag fabric without us knowing what to do with it, and when he got the MacBook I hoped that the single fat quarter which we bought would be enough for – and it turns out that it definitely is!

I decided to opt for an envelope-style, as he wanted it to be waterproof and I felt that needed something which was covered on all six sides. So this needed a FQ of outside fabric, a FQ of batting (I used quilting cotton batting), and a FQ of waterproof fabric (mine was navy nylon).

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Here’s the stripes all lining up next to the flap:

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And a close-up of the binding which I used to close the edge where the case opens to let the laptop in/out – it is not perfect by any means and I think the envelope style makes it a little harder to have neat edges – I wonder if somehow a zipped-up case might have actually made it easier to have all the raw edges enclosed and everything a bit neater? Anyway, I made my own bias binding for the first time! It was only about 25cm worth but still.

Laptopcase_binding1Laptopcase_binding2

I haven’t written out all of my instructions but I kept all of my measurements and doodles, so feel free to ask, though there’s so many out there already that unless you are as fussy as me I am sure you can find what you want.

He is really happy with it and it kept his laptop dry when he and the contents of his bag got quite wet during a cycle in the rain (yay British autumn) so it serves its purpose!

I didn’t have any sew-on Velcro and my metal snappers/fasteners risk scratching his laptop so it doesn’t fasten for now, but the flap is just long enough to get away with that until I can get to Hobbycraft / John Lewis.

If that is allowed to count in my Sew Selfless September, then I managed to complete my task successfully! Though if it doesn’t I don’t mind much, as I was able to make plenty of things for people and three people have benefitted well from it :)

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Beanbag cover (Sew Selfless September)

5 Oct

I did make this over a week ago, in September, but I have been far too busy to post it!

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My sister left for uni last Saturday!  She asked me to make her a new beanbag cover since the previous one was a bit childish…

We don’t have many fabric shops around here, and I didn’t have time to order from eBay before she left, so I got her to go to a local shop and buy a cheap duvet cover.  £8 for a double duvet set! So much fabric.

I used the old one to slightly work out what to do and saw that it had a circular base of 18″ diameter. I wanted the new cover to be slightly smaller  so I decided to make my circle base 18″ before seams so 16″ after.
I didn’t want to have to put in a zip or some type of fastening especially when the duvet has one,  so I drew a semi circle with the straight edge a cm away from the snap fasteners / poppers at the bottom of the duvet cover.

Beanbag_basemeasuring

Beanbag_base1

Then I cut a piece the rest of the length of the fabric (about 60″) and 26″wide. I left I the extra few inches of length on (you need the perimeter of the circle, so 3.14*diameter plus seam allowance plus a few extra inches to account for issues caused by attaching a straight line to a curve)

(I didn’t take any pictures of the next few steps – I hope they are clear if anyone is following them but I’m not trying to sell this as a tutorial…)

I then sewed the base to the rectangular piece I just cut, with the perimeter of the base being attached to the longer edge of the rectangle. I only pinned the start then kept adjusting the fabric as I went.  I sewed french seams for the base but not for the other seams as I realised it was incredibly pointless and was making the calculations a bit more tricky.

Now that I had the base attached to the main body of the bean bag, I sewed up the side seam (where the two ends of the rectangle meet. Next I laid it flat on the floor and measured the width of the beanbag – it was 28″ folded over so 56″ overall. I sewed four darts 7″ inch deep and 6″ wide, to taper the sides out into leaving just a few inches at the top for me to insert a handle into.

For the handle I sewed a 9″ wide strip of fabric together inside out, turned it right side out, and inserted it into that gap left at the top of the beanbag.

Here it is in situ:

Beanbag in sister's room

This did come under my Sew Selfless September pledge but I still had to make something for my boyfriend since my pledge specifically stated that I would. I had a few problems with the sewing machine, and with maths and visualising it, however it is done and I will post it soon :)

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Sew Selfless September: A sewing kit

14 Sep

My sister leaves in two weeks for university, and doesn’t have anything resembling a sewing kit. Not even some black/white thread and a needle. She can definitely hand sew to mend her clothes as she sometimes borrows my stuff to do so. It is also her birthday today, which is a perfect coincidence. I decided to make her a hand-picked sewing kit. I used Truly Myrtle’s Box Bag Tutorial, which I should say upfront was really excellent. It is quite a tricky process (for me as a beginner) and you have to look at the pictures carefully to make sure that you understand as you go along, but it works really well and I was so pleased with the result. I’ll definitely be making another sometime, maybe for my cross-stitch stuff. I was originally going to make the one which I mentioned in this post, however I feel that the box bag offers more opportunity for expansion, and I am hoping that this will be the main kit she uses – the one in that link would be better suited to a travel version. 20140914 Sewing kit_equipment I wanted my bag to be the same dimension as that in the tutorial, so I used:

  • Two pieces of fabric 13.5″x17″ (from fat quarters)
  • Two pieces of interfacing 13″x16.5″ (one heavy, one light)
  • One 14″ white YK zip
  • Scissors, pins, zipper foot, ruler, rotary cutter, cutting mat, white thread, and my SEAM RIPPER

20140914 Sewing kit_closed bag 3 It is not symmetrical as you can see there, however I take comfort in that the line is at least straight so it is ok for it to be off-centre. 20140914 Sewing kit_bag contents 2 I hand-sewed on this ribbon that I got from eBay (only half of those red stitches are mine) You’ll notice that I left off the handle. By that point of the tutorial I had found it so hard (I am a little ill and it was 2am, my fault not that of the tutorial!) that I was convinced that it would be a royal mess when I turned it out, so chose not to add the handle. I regret not adding the handle, as it was one of two really good things about this tutorial (the other being that it is lined and seamless) and I think it would have looked nicer than I thought in my tired state. 20140914 Sewing kit_bag contens full It contains:

  • 6 spools of thread (black, white, red, beige, blue, brass)
  • two needle threaders
  • a thimble
  • safety pins in 4 sizes (36)
  • sew-on snappers (helpful for gaping tops/dresses!)
  • a dressmakers’ measuring tape
  • hemming web
  • a seam ripper
  • 24 needles in a felted needle book which matches the box bag!
  • some nice sewing scissors which my mum has bought her separately

I made the needle book quite quickly out of some scrap fabric – I had been planning to make this really awesome one from Diary of a Crafty Lady, but again was a bit tired and couldn’t face it, but I wouldn’t have had enough matching fabric for it anyway. Maybe I’ll buy a pretty fabric and make her one for Christmas and she can use this one for her pins? 20140914 Sewing kit_needle book closed 20140914 Sewing kit_needle book p1 20140914 Sewing kit_needle book p2 The needle book took about 10 minutes to make and just uses two bits of felt and two bits of fabric. I bought the ‘hook and loop’ (John Lewis brand instead of Velcro) and didn’t realise it was adhesive until I went to use it. I also didn’t realise that you can’t sew through adhesive hook and loop (unless it is the special ‘stick and sew’ kind) until my needle got stuck and subsequently broke. Oops. It was a really simple process. Sew two rectangles of fabric together right sides together, with a small seam allowance all around, leaving an inch un-sewn to turn it right side out. Turn it right side out, iron it, and top stitch around the edges. Sew the two pieces of felt onto the book with a line completely down the centre of the fabric and felt, and iron it folded so that it holds that shape easier. Attach two pieces of hook and loop, and it’s done!

20140914 Sewing kit_maythethoughts

I am giving it to her alongside my favourite book, a collection from a London artist from http://www.maythethoughtsbewithyou.com (a personalised signed copy!)

With this post I am two-thirds of my way through my Sew Selfless September pledge. Jess of the Sometimes Sewist  set up Sew Selfless September to encourage us all to sew for others this month. I pledged to make items for three people: my sister-in-law (posted here), my sister (this post), and my boyfriend (which won’t be easy, but I have some ideas – watch this space).

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Sew Selfless September: a pillowcase and an eye mask

6 Sep

Sew Selfless September_bigger

This is my first Sew Selfless September post (see my pledge here), and I’ve made two items! It has been a bit hectic this week so I am posting them together :)

It was my sister-in-law’s birthday this week. She had asked me to make a baby pillowcase, and I had some fabric leftover from the baby quilt which I’d been (secretly) making. The pieces of fabric that I had were perhaps an inch or so too small, so it didn’t fit perfectly, but I am happy with it (the closest I have ever got a line of stitching to the zip – unfortunately no close-ups)

Baby_pillowcase_front

baby_pillowcase_back

The back – excuse the poor lighting/angle/background

And it matches the quilt, so I gave them to her together:

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I was so happy about the zip that I couldn’t face ripping it out when I realised that I’d sewn it in upside down. I wanted the zip pull to be at the TOP of the pillow when closed so it’d be away from the baby’s face. I have several potential solutions: cover it in ribbon/soft stuff; use the pillow upside down; or cut off the zipper pull and attach ribbon or some other soft thing. Hmmm.

Another snag about the zip: I didn’t really think about merging it in. I normally insert zips like in this coin purse, so didn’t really think about the zip being in a corner. I’d appreciate any tutorial recommendations / tips!

 

My SECOND make this week, and one that took about half an hour without a pattern, is an eye mask also for my sister-in-law.

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20140903_EyeMask_back

I used some of the fabric which I used for her Christmas presents, and bought some purple lingerie elastic as I didn’t know how big her head is and it has plenty of give, is pretty, and comfy! I decided to use two straps, as that is what I have on the shop-bought eye mask which I have, and it is MUCH better than having just one strap – highly recommended.

I used a fleecy material for the back, which is so comfy. I wonder if I should have used interfacing – though as I had half an hour to make and wrap this I didn’t have time to find and cut some once I realised!

Even though I made two items, I am still only really a third of the way through my pledge, as I pledged to make items for three separate people – I’m hoping to get some time today to make my sister’s birthday present….

 

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Baby quilt: completed and gifted!

5 Sep

I have finally finished the baby quilt which I have spent LOADS of time making for my baby neice-or-nephew who is due in the next couple of weeks!

It is only a small (cot-sized) quilt, but it has been quite a big task for me – well lots of little ones which started around March

  • Find gender-neutral fabric to suit their chosen baby room theme (I went for this)
  • Work out what style / arrangement would suit the fabric (I went for one from Oh, Fransson!)
  • Decide what to use as the backing, and whether to use batting/wadding (frantic post here)
  • Buy new sewing equipment, including: walking foot, rotary cutter, cutting mat (excitement here)
  • Sew the squares and strips together (here) and work out how on earth to install a walking foot to quilt it (here)

Finally, the last stage was to use bias binding to finish it off – which I did this week. I decided to follow the advice on my previous posts (those in the last bullet point above) and only machine stitch one side of the binding. I think that was sensible and I am much happier with the result than I’d have been with messy machine stitches – even though the binding seems to have puckered the whole way around I tried everything to stop it (I even basted it). I gave it to the mum-to-be earlier this week and she was really happy with it :)

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Click to enlarge

I used the Charm Squares Quilt tutorial from Oh, Fransson! which is a really nice design as it avoids teddy print overload.

As you can probably tell from the massive number of links to other posts/blogs, I have had SO much help from the blogging/online sewing world in making this quilt, and while it is not perfect I think that it is SO much better than it would have been had I just ebayed some fabric, found a pattern and flown with it. It feels very bragging/uppity but thank you to everyone who commented or even happened to have something on their blog which helped me – if I liked your quilt/binding post it was probably helping me get through this quilt!

I really enjoyed doing it, and would be keen to try another sometime, though I have two questions – I’d be so grateful for any help with either of them:

  1. are people generally able to quilt with a normal sewing machine? I had ok space with this with my Singer Tradition, but I was only using one layer of cotton with one layer of fleece. I’m worried a double quilt would get to be too much to fit under the arm of the sewing machine?
  2. How do I stop that puckering?? I had it flat when I was basting it :( 

I have 100 followers!! Thank you!!

26 Aug

I am just a bit excited that as of today I have 100 followers!

I really enjoy sewing, and a lot of that enjoyment is in finding ideas and inspiration from people on here, and also getting feedback or help on my projects.

When I recently tried to show a friend a couple of things I’ve made her response was “So what? Do you want me to show you [list of things she made in textiles at school]?” – which is the complete opposite of the sort of response anyone receives in the blogging world (and I’d honestly have loved to see all of the things she made!).

I know what I  make is not perfect (and is never original), and 99%+ of people who read my posts can do better – but I’ve never had a single negative comment or seen them on other people’s blogs. I started this blog to keep a record of what I’ve done as I struggle (and hopefully improve) at sewing, but it has become much more a part of my sewing process, and blogging is now a big part of my sewing. I don’t sew anything without blogging it anymore! The first time – repeats of items haven’t been posted yet though I imagine when I move onto more difficult projects they might.

This is just a quick ramble trying to say thank you, for all being so nice and talented (and nice enough to share your talent).

Have a lovely week :)

 

Up next – I am hoping to finish the baby quilt this week, make a baby pillow cover, and then comes Sew Selfless September which will hopefully contain: a wheat/rice bag, a sewing bag, a needle book, an eye mask, and a drawstring pouch. I’ve never made that many things in a month before!!

Fabric corkboard/pinboard – de-uglifying a university bedroom

24 Aug

An alternative use for fabric, other than sewing….

I changed rooms halfway through my final year of university, and found myself in a room with a huge (useful) but disgusting yellow corkboard. Armed with some cheap polycotton and a tub of simple drawing pins, I covered that ugly board and turned it into something of a feature in my room. I couldn’t bear to pull it down when I left – I wonder if it is still up, two years (and two new tenants) later! I’ve now passed this tip onto my sister who starts University in just over a month, even if her board isn’t as ugly as mine was it will still be a cheap way to make her room much prettier! :)

Uni fabric corkboard

Sew Selfless September: my pledge

18 Aug

Sew Selfless September_bigger

Jess of the Sometimes Sewist has started a new thing! Sew Selfless September is about sewing things for other people.

My pledge:

I, MRR, of Creative Saturdays, pledge this Sew Selfless September to sew at least three items for my friends and family, including: my sister-in-law, my sister, and my boyfriend.

I am copying Jess’ target of three, as I agree that it is a realistic target. I’ve chosen the three people because they all have exciting things going on in September: my sister-in-law is giving birth to the first of the next generation of our family, my sister is starting at university, and my boyfriend is moving from Germany to the UK to start his PhD. It’s possible that these exciting things will leave me with less time to sew, but that is part of the challenge!

I already sew things which I give to other people, but it isn’t really selfless as I think of things I want to sew and the work out who I should give it to when it’s done. For September I will reverse my thinking – I’ll think of what someone would like, and THEN sew it especially for them, hopefully with fabric from my stash (though I don’t have any manly fabrics so will need to buy some for the boyfriend).

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Want to join me for the first ever Sew Selfless September?

1.  Post your pledge in the comments on the Sometimes Sewists’ post, using this template:

“I, *name*, of *blog name*, pledge this Sew Selfless September to make *your pledge here* for *your intended receipt(s)*.” 

If you want to name specific people to make for or things you’re going to make, cool, if not cool, too.  You can see how vague my pledge is; no problem with leaving some wiggle room!

2.  Post your pledge on your own blog, and link it back to this post by using one of the badges below.

3.  Join the Sew Selfless September Flickr group.

4.  Come September, make all the things for not you and post them to the Flickr group!

Quilted coaster / ‘mug rug’: turning corners with bias binding

16 Aug

If you saw my post about my Botched attempt at a Sorbetto, you’ll have seen that my first attempt at bias binding, around curves, was definitely not a success…

My current WIP, a baby patchwork quilt, will need to be finished off with some (24mm) bias binding. After the comments on that post, which helpfully pointed out some good tutorials, I decided I definitely needed to practise first – especially with turning the corners with binding.

I used a tutorial from So Sew Easy on turning corners with bias binding, but I was being a bit dim and forgot that when joining up bias binding you need to sew it and press etc., so just trimmed at the point where I should have sewn them together! I realised almost immediately after and just felt so silly. Thankfully, this wasn’t the real thing ad was just a bit of a scrap buster practise :)

One side turned out a bit neater than the other, but my lines weren’t perfectly straight.  I am hoping that when I use 24mm instead of 12mm bias binding, I will be able to pin it more accurately and it will be less messy… I hope.

2014.08.16 Teddy Mug Rug side A

The slightly neater corners

2014.08.16 Teddy Mug Rug side B

The messier side!

I think this took about two hours all in, including: finding my bag of scraps; finding enough matching scraps; ironing the scraps (and melting one of my towels by ironing on it); sewing the two sides up and interfacing them; quilting together with some cotton batting; trimming; and eventually adding the binding.

I think it would probably only take other people half an hour, but I am happy enough with that :)

Machine hemming, or “under-appreciating my iron”

9 Aug

My sister-in-law asked me to hem a maxi dress for her…. which is a lot of fabric, curved! 

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:-)

The last time I tried to hem something, was a silk dress by hand which was perhaps a little messy. I decided to be more careful with this one, pinning every inch as I rolled it over. 

Why didn’t I just iron it fr the first fold and again for the second fold?

I have no idea

That would have been so much easier

Though I guess I might have then burnt my fingers rather than a few pin pricks, which is a more long-lasting pain?

Maybe I should try it sometime. But for now, this did the job :)

(apologies for the boring post – the quilt will begin again next week!)

WIP: My first quilt – one step to go!

26 Jul

I’m one step away from finishing my first quilt! Just the binding left to go.

Only the binding left to do!

Only the binding left to do!

I am not sure if you can see properly but as well as the horizontal lines in the off-white strips I’ve done a sort of square zig-zag through the patterned rows.

I promise to post a whole host of close-ups and better pictures once I have completely finished it!

The pattern is from ohfrannson, but it doesn’t contain any instructions on how to quilt, quite reasonably since there are loads of tutorials and tips on the internet! Nonetheless this left me a bit too scared to quilt, but having my first completely free weekend for a while which is likely to be my last for another long while, I decided to just get on with it!

I bought a walking foot from eBay, and used the instructions from justquilty to attach it to my machine – the instructions are SO simple I would definitely recommend it to anyone else struggling to install their walking foot. Also, mine was a reasonably cheap (~£10) one rather than the £30 Singer one, and it seems to work just fine! I absolutely adore the walking foot, and can see myself using it for other projects now too :)

Next up – the binding. Eep! I am slightly terrified by this, as anyone who saw the mess I made of my Sorbetto will understand. I think this time I will buy the real stuff, from John Lewis or a reliable eBay/etsy store, rather than what I have now discovered was a cheap and uneven version (which I bought from an Indian fabric store in Ilford, East London).

Does anyone have any tips for the binding? I don’t know what thickness of binding I should use, or whether I should try rounded or mitred corners? I would be very grateful for any advice – hopefully I’ll get some time in the next couple of weeks to pop to JL and maybe even to actually tackle the binding :)

I feel like I have learned so much already working on this quilt. I have more of an appreciation for consistent seam allowances, and the usefulness of a walking foot, and that it is sometimes necessary to manually walk the machine through a few stitches, and that you should definitely check the bobbin occasionally to avoid horrendous moments when you run out of thread at the start of a metre-long line and don’t realise until the end. I think this won’t be my last ever quilt :)

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WIP: My first patchwork quilt front :)

22 Jul

My first patchwork quilt front! Or patchwork anything! Sorry for the blurriness – need a new camera

I made my first patchwork! It has taken me far too long to get this far, but the quilt front is now ready to be quilted with the batting and fleece backing I bought ages ago.

Now to work out

(1) how to use my walking foot (not to mention how to install it)

(2) how to do the lines for the quilting

It is coming together :) The baby is due in eight weeks so there is time :)

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Fathers’ day forever friends cross stitch card

15 Jun

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I love doing cross stitch while travelling by air (including the transfer and queuing) as it’s nice to feel the time has been productive and its less annoying to have to pause than reading a book!

This was dad’s fathers day card :-) gave it to him with a CD from one of his favourite bands (Rush) and some liquorice all sorts which he was happy with :-)

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My first me-made: A botched sorbetto

9 Jun

I did a search for free patterns and found the Sorbetto from Colette patterns which looked just about simple enough while having the bias binding technique which I have never used before.
I didn’t think I’d ever seen this blouse before but since I downloaded it I’ve been seeing it in loads of blogs!
So I bought and cut out the fabric a couple of weeks ago,  but it all went wrong as the fabric was apparently still a bit damp from the pre-washing when I pressed and cut it. Oops. I panicked about it here.
I finally encouraged myself to just put it together anyway and here it is

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Sorry about the awful photo quality on that selfie! Must get someone else to photo me. It’s far too baggy I feel but it’s hard to see here.

Knowing full well that I had no intention of wearing it in public I decided it would be for learning how to do bias binding and then be a comfy pyjama top (that fabric is soooo soft) and it seems that I need a lot more practice but I did it! This was my first ever attempt at making a garment from scratch and of that I am so happy :D

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And here’s a close up of the dodgy binding.  Tempted to either make my own or buy higher quality next time as while my technique the first time obviously isn’t great, it was made worse by the uneven binding :-(  and i asked for 3m but it seems it wasn’t enough for me to also bind the bottom hem so I just did a sort of double rolled hem quick attempt.
I misread the pattern so started my binding at the centre front instead of back, now I see why it should have been at the back as that seam is messy :-( (edit -I initially wrote that it did say to start at the front then I checked it again. Oops again)

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How to use / upcycle old/odd socks???

22 May

I have tonnes of these. Tonnes.

I’ve never lost a sock when I’ve been the only one involved in the laundry process, but if ever my stuff has been thrown in with the family wash, or when people removed my laundry from the dryer at uni, I’ve found myself with odd socks. 

 

Has anyone found a good creative use for them? I cannot stand wearing odd socks (though will occasionally hide them under a second, matched, layer of socks when the temperature is low!) but also hate to throw away good fabric!

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May The Thoughts Be With You

21 May

I am currently struggling to complete my self-assessment for my appraisal, which is at work tomorrow. I’ve been in the job for six months and am not sure what to expect!

Anyway, this led to me seeking out my favourite self-motivating book to flick through, and when I saw this page I had to share it. For so long I didn’t let myself be creative because I wasn’t good enough, as if anyone actually cares if the coaster/purse/hem doesn’t come out perfectly neat! It’s not what matters :-)

You should visit her website at http://www.maythethoughtsbewithyou.com as her stuff is so brilliant, and she has a motivating story to boot.  I met her at her stall in Portobello Market and she signed my copy of her book and is genuinely lovely. She also has twitter and facebook and I love her daily updates.  I want to post more of her work but I don’t want to prevent her site the  traffic she deserves, so please trust me and visit her!

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WIP blouse: Lesson learned, don’t cut damp fabric

19 May

I cut this pattern out yesterday after pre washing it. I didn’t realise it was still damp but it must have been as it has now shrunk to smaller than I need for my pattern :-(

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Mini sewing kit, a lingerie bag, and more fabric!

18 May

2014.05.18 EllisSewingKit_upright

See below for link to tutorial (and the inside!)

I’ve had a busy week! Yesterday I popped down to Ilford lane (a little bus ride from where I live)

I managed to get the below, plus 3 yards of black 0.5″ bias binding and some thread, for £10! 1.5 yards of each fabric, with the big floral pattern being 60″ wide and the others 45″ :)

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I think I might make a blouse out of the fabric on the right, and bag of the one on the left. The white is for a quilt but it is more sheer than I thought in the shop (maybe she picked up the wrong roll!) but I’ve found some cream fabric at home which might work anyway.

Well, now my main stash looks like this, but I have just as much again waiting in plastic bags…

2014.05.14 Fabric stash

At gone midnight last night/this morning, I decided to do something about it. I bought those mesh bags to keep my tights in in the wash, however the pack of three have now all broken. I salvaged a zip from one, and  hit my stash to find a fabric I didn’t mind if only I ever see, and in about 30 minutes made the following (including french seams). I rushed as nobody will ever see it apart from this blog, and it is already half full!  The lines are inches, for scale :)

2014.05.17 Lingerie bag

But that used only a little bit of fabric… so today I tried a new project; a mini sewing kit! My boyfriend often asks me to lend him supplies to fix his clothes, so I thought I could give him his own set. There’s a great little tutorial at ‘roseycornercreations‘, which was really easy to follow. I didn’t have any felt so I just used that pink velvety fabric, which does work well but is hard to handle in a machine, resulting in a slightly wonky finish, but not too much I think :)

2014.05.18 EllisSewingKit_closed

All I needed was 13″x7″ of one fabric (the tutorial recommends 9″ of one and 4″ of another, but I didn’t have manly coordinating fabrics), 4″x7″ of felt/velvet, a button, and an elastic hairband.

2014.05.18 EllisSewingKit_materials

I’ve sewn buttons before, but I’ve never actually followed any method. So today I decided to use the instructions from ‘theartofmanliness‘ which was really easy to follow and has made it really strong with less thread than I usually use, and a lot neater!

Then I loaded up some cardboard pieces with the colours most dominant in his wardrobe (plus a few empty spares), added some pins, needles, and buttons, and it looks nice and full (the lines are cm, for scale):

2014.05.18 EllisSewingKit_open

From find the fabric to taking the finished photos took about 1h20mins – I really hope he likes it! I will see him next week to give it to him :) I am clearly loving my new rotary cutter and mat :D

Next up: I am working away on my quilt, hope to make a blouse, I’ll be making some luggage tags, and I am about to finish off my father’s day cross stitch :)

 

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New sewing equipment!

13 May

I’ve bought myself some new treats! These are: Fiskar’s 45mm rotary cutter, Fiskar’s 30.5×45.7cm self-healing cutting mat, a metal ruler, a walking foot for my sewing machine, and this lovely tape to act as tags:

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I’ll pick the rotary cutter and mat up from my local Waitrose tomorrow (I love Click and Collect from John Lewis!!) and the rest should arrive in the post soon :D I am really keen to get started on this quilt this weekend! I plan to make the Charm Squares quilt from Oh, Frannson!

Though this is all adding up  – sewing is an expensive hobby!

 

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Baby quilt: with fleece? Help!

24 Apr

If you’ve been following my blog you’ll know that I’ve only made a handful of items with my sewing machine,

My sister-in-law is due to have a baby in September, and I have decided to make a quilt. They don’t want to know the sex of the baby until the day, so the baby’s room will be beige.

I have this fabric (the beige) and have also bought a metre of a beige fleece to go with it.

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From alwaysknittingandsewing.co.uk (click to go to it)

Now my problem is that there are fleece-backed blanket tutorials, but no fleece-backed quilt tutorials. Has anyone used fleece to back a quilt?

Should I still use batting?

How should I adjust a quilt tutorial to suit a fleece backing?

I think I may be out of my depth, please tell me I am wrong!

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WIP Cross-stitch, and transporting a sewing machine

13 Apr

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Can you tell what it is yet?

So, it’s coming along nicely!  Should be finished well in time for the occasion,  which will be revealed!

Now, about my sewing machine… my friend just got a new house and has got a dining table with wooden benches and wants me to make foam cushion tops for it, which is quite exciting as it would be my biggest project yet :) BUT she lives on the other side of the country and doesn’t have a sewing machine…. how safe is it to bung my Singer (tradition) into a suitcase with a couple of layers of clothes around it so it is snug and head off? getting the train and really don’t want to damage it!

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Why it’s worth paying more for cross stitch kits…

9 Apr

They separate the threads so you don’t need to spend hours working it out, and even longer unpicking your work in the wrong colour later! Looking forward to starting this – just a sneak peek for now!

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Does this show up as huge on screen as it does in my post editor? First post from my phone!

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Portable sewing kit – gifts for students

3 Apr

My sister goes to university at the end of the summer, and while it seems a long way away I am sure that it will come very quickly..!

She doesn’t really sew but I imagine that a basic sewing kit will still be very useful, given how many times people borrowed mine at uni….

So, I want to make her a small sewing kit, using this tutorial from lotsofpink at blogspot.

I actually found it through another blog, tartankiwi, which looks like this (photo copied directly from her site)

Note: not mine. please see http://craftandnappies.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/sewing-kit.html

I really like the fabric used on this one, and it might be a fitting ‘going away from home’ gift.

I also considered this one but I prefer the structure of the lotsofpink one. I’m posting it here in case anyone is curious though :)

It’ll obviously be stocked slightly differently for her than it would be for a sewer! Bit of hemming web alongside the dressmaker pins perhaps…! Do you have any suggestions for how I could stock it?

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Mother’s day cross-stitch (take II)

30 Mar

So… if you saw my previous post, you will know that it was Not Going Well. Well, it didn’t get much better. It was from http://www.cross-stitching.com’s magazine, and had seven shades of brown all with rather ridiculous names and arrived in a bundle so were hard to sort. Even looking up the DMC charts online didn’t help.

So, Friday night I gave up, decided to buy new floss and aida for that one and try it for mum’s birthday later in the year.

And I tried a new one. Ed Hedghog from CrossStich magazine, probably would have been a two-day job if I had the time but instead it was more of a ‘very late night’ job, which I am sure won’t be my last for this blog..!

Here he is all ready to be mounted :)

Here he is all ready to be mounted :)

It was the first time that I have done ‘blended’ stitching, and I found myself lining up all the threads in the same order so that I couldn’t get lost at all. Each time I pinned one of them to the aida to continue with another colour, I jotted down an arrow and its symbol so I couldn’t get lost. I refused to make the same mistake that wasted three evenings of stitching last week!

My big tip: if you are prone to getting lost while doing a cross stitch, there is a cheap way to keep track without ruining your pattern. Use a plastic wallet (one of the A4 ones used in ring binders) and a whiteboard/drywipe pen. I just coloured over each square as I did it (well often in groups of 5-10) and I didn’t lose track :)

Now, it came with a little mount however no frame/card, so again I tried to be resourceful – I used the pink card from one of those separators used in ring binders. I never throw them away as they come in handy so often without having to buy whole packs of card separately! Anyway, here it is mounted:

Backed and ready to give :)

Backed and ready to give :)

I was rather happy with it, and my mum was very pleased too! Along with the bunch of flowers freshly gathered at the florists.

I hope you all managed to get your mothers’ gifts right first time! 

And to finish off – here’s a photo of the back. I heard it should look like the front and I don’t think it is too bad :)

Recognisable from behind!

Recognisable from behind!

 

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Mothers’ day creating

27 Mar

So my Mother’s day cross-stitch is going far more slowly – given that it is this coming Sunday 30th (in the UK anyway)!

I’ve had to unpick so much as I thought it would be a good idea to try it on an aeroplane – without good lighting it is very easy to mis-read the pattern though… eek.

It will be worth the late nights if I manage to finish it on time though :)

I won’t post a sneak peek in case she sees this… I’ll obviously post it on Sunday/Monday :)

How are all your Mother’s Day projects going?

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His and hers: passport covers

9 Mar

Dad's and Mum's wrapped

All wrapped up and ready to be gifted!

For the last two years, I have been wanting to send my parents on a holiday. And I decided: what better way to give them the news than with some personalised, hand-made passport covers?

Dad's and Mum's

The finished products :)

I used a different approach for each, and started with the floral one: It was easy to pick the fabric for this, as I fell in love with it on eBay (it also comes in gorgeous red and blue, for only £2.59+P&P for a FQ from ‘thefabricfrieze‘ – click here), and I had some leftover pale yellow cotton with white polka dots which matches nicely for the lining.

Mum's closed

The finished product :)

I started using a pattern which is for an American passport. Although the internet assured me that this is the same size as a UK passport, I realised it was too big when I pinned it together. The pattern is from Unify Handmade and was really easy to follow but do adjust the height and width a bit. Including allowances, you need:

  • 15 x 22 cm of both your main and lining fabrics
  • 15 x 22 cm of fusible interfacing, two pieces
  • 15 x 6 cm of the main fabric, two pieces
  • 15 x 6 cm of fusible interfacing, two pieces

Then follow the pattern as it is – I used a size 90 needle to assist the machine through the tough bits. I am pretty happy with the finished product.

Mum's open - redacted

With a UK passport inside

Now for the male version – my dad is awful to buy presents for so you can only imagine how hard it was to choose a fabric! Luckily, ‘thefabricfrieze‘ also had some lovely shirt fabrics available as FQs, so I snapped up this one for just £2.95+P&P.

Looking manly

Looking manly

You can imagine how much of a nightmare it would have been to match up those stripes with the above 3-section design! So I went for a simpler design, measuring the necessary fabric size myself and checking this tutorial by 1hungryhippie to make sure I wasn’t going to make any big mistakes along the way. Again, size 90 needle! I enjoyed making this one but matching the lines up was difficult! I must consider getting a rotary cutter to make cutting more accurate, to make it easier in the later stages :)

The dimensions which I used (UK passport, remember) are:

  • 15 x 26 cm of both your main and lining fabric
  • 15 x 26 cm of fusible interfacing, two pieces

Not perfectly lined up - but I tried!

Not perfectly lined up – but I tried!

Have you made passport covers before? I’d be really keen to see some more designs, I might make one for myself :)

Also I am keen for recommendations on rotary cutters in the UK! Is it necessary to use one of those boards? I imagine it is?

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Christmas presents: a drawstring bag, and plastic bag storage

22 Dec

I haven’t posted in a while – but I have been sewing!

One thing I have sewn is a plastic bag holder for my mother, a few weeks ago. My sister-in-law saw it and asked for one for Christmas, and I thought I would share it here.

I used this fabric from eBay (ceb1909), and a tutorial from ‘craftiness is not optional’, though I slightly changed how the ribbon is pinned in – after it comes out of the seam, I fold it back out the top of the fabric holder, as I noticed the one I made my mum fell in a weird position because the ribbon was facing into the bag.

Here is the finished thing!

 

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A little saggy without any bags!

I wanted to also buy her a present so I bought a gorgeous pocket mirror from notonthehighstreet, which I decided to make a little drawstring bag for – using a tutorial from ‘georgina giles‘. It was a little more difficult than I’d hoped, but I think I got it! I might try a lined one (like the one from ‘threading my way‘) next time, but here is the finished product:

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I love the colour of the cord (from John Lewis)

I am really pleased with them, though my stitching could have been neater. I’ll keep practising!

 

What presents have you made this year?

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First machine project complete! Floral coin purse

23 Oct

I finally found the time to do some sewing! I have been working extra hours to finish my project on time, and also decided to start an online course… bad timing! Anyway, I needed something to do to de-stress while I had a migraine, so out came the sewing machine and this cheap fabric I bought ages ago for sewing practise :)

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I used this great tutorial from sewmehappy, which has step-by-step instructions with really helpful pictures.

I had some problems, mainly with the zip – I didn’t have the right needle, I didn’t use the recommended 8″ length (6″is not enough!), I couldn’t sew in a straight line around it, and eventually the zip pulley fell off… twice!

I am glad I persevered with this zip though as I love the contrast with the light green of the fabric :)

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Ta-da! Pattern from sewmehappy.blogspot.co.uk

I really enjoyed making it and, even though it is far from perfect (not so good at straight lines around a zip yet!) I am feeling encouraged and hope to get set on my next project soon!

My mum asked if she could have it to store her tissues in (those handbag tissue pouches never stay closed!) so even though I feel quite attached to it as my first completed project, I was too flattered to say no. She is very happy with it and I have an excuse / motivation to make something new :-)

What I learned today:

  • how to change a needle
  • which needle sizes are appropriate for different fabric types
  • how to change the machine footer
  • I really enjoy machine sewing :-)

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Sewing machine update…

12 Sep

I finally found someone who owns a sewing machine to watch me thread my machine, they instantly found how I was incorrectly threading the lower thread – it’s still not coming out perfectly but almost! Hopefully it will be worth this time getting used to how it ticks before flying into a project – I’ll get more frustrated if something goes wrong when I get started on a project!

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New sewing machine: Singer ‘Traditional’ [2250]

4 Aug

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My sewing machine!

After a two month hiatus from this blog (my new job kept me quite occupied, as have interviews for other jobs..!) I finally took the plunge and bought myself this basic 10-stitch Singer from Argos (£119.99).

 

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Back and front (on paper, but comes out the same on thin polycotton)

After taking 10 minutes to work out how to completely thread it, I tried sewing in a straight line…. it didn’t go well. So apparently I can’t do a running stitch. I tried one of the zig-zag patterns which came out well but the running stitch was really tight at the front and really loose at the back…

What am I doing wrong? I can’t tell if it is the tension, the pedal speed, moving the fabric, or if it is threaded incorrectly! :(

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Cross-stitch: Father’s Day card

11 Jun

(Late post, it’s been a bit of a hectic weekend making arrangements for the new job!)

I wanted to cross-stitch my dad a nice Father’s day card, but I couldn’t find any that were both appropriate and would arrive in time for the weekend just gone. I might keep a eye out for a tatty teddy or something one next year. I chose this fairly simple one with a pretty border around some writing:

Free Father's Day chart from You Sew Should

Free Father’s Day chart from You Sew Should

It really didn’t take very long at all, probably about 5-6 hours in all – I like projects which can be done in a day :)

His favourite colours are red, white, and blue, making thread selection easy!

The border done :)

The border done :)

I couldn’t find a card with a 3×4″ hole in it, in which I wanted to display the finished piece. Instead I got a 4×5″ plain card from Paperchase and did some not-very-straight cutting out to make a window, and taped it in:

The card all ready to be put in the envelope, nice and simple :)

The card all ready to be put in the envelope, nice and simple :)

The back of my cross-stitch - I want to show off how neat it is!

The back of my cross-stitch – I want to show off how neat it is!

Are you giving your dad something handmade this Father’s Day?

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A new job! sewing machine should follow shortly…

5 Jun

Ive just been offered a short-term public sector job which is likely to turn into a longer-term deal, which may well lead me into exactly the area I want to be in! It is very exciting because it means that on my first payday I can reward myself with a shiny new sewing machine!

My local sewing shop sells a basic Janome for £99 which I am considering, especially as it comes with a 2y guarantee and means supporting a local firm.

Does anyone have any better recommendations? Basically a beginner’s machine is all I want!

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Organising my embroidery thread, and a simple cross stitch

3 Jun

Yesterday I wanted to cross stitch but struggled in the messy pile to work out which colours I had, to help me choose a pattern. Ihave my mum’s (full) “Anchor stranded cotton” organiser, but it wasn’t clear whether numbers were DMC or Anchor – some didn’t even have any! I decided it would help long-term to just spend a while writing/googling. Fun fun fun….

It didn’t take as long as I thought so I tried a little pattern found on Shona’s Place. I previously copied the image to this posy but that was wrong – it’s their copyright so please visit that link and you can find the graph named as ‘Pattern01’ (they didn’t say anything I just realised – sorry!)

I did it on white Aida (14 count) and it is really small so didn’t fit even in my tiny 4″ embroidery hoop properly! I also had to keep unpicking whole sections because of silly little mistakes but it still didn’t take too long at all – probably around half an hour for each section.

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Using Anchor 45 / DMC 814 (Dark Garnet) with a (‘snow’) white blanket stitch

I tried to add a blanket stitch around the edge to prevent bad fraying, but managed to make it worse in some places – definitely need to practise! The corners are particularly awful, how is one supposed to negotiate corners with a blanket stitch on Aida?? :S

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A weekend of cooking: roasting, baking, and a touch of tapas

27 May

My family are away for the Bank holiday, so instead of sitting in my room sewing I thought I’d take advantage of an empty kitchen! Unfortunately I was unable to get any pictures so I’ve included the recipes’ ones :(

Saturday
Honey-roast gammon
Cauliflower cheese

Gordon Ramsay’s honey glazed roast gammon: recipe here

I like Gordon’s glaze, if you add some vegetables (including those with which the gammon was boiled) in the dish with the gammon while roasting then you get some tender, tasty veg. Not too much though, as the glaze makes them quite sweet.

If your gammon isn’t Gordon’s expected 2kg, boil for 20mins per 500g (or 1lb) and the same time in the oven.

BBC GoodFood’s cauliflower cheese: recipe here

I love a good cauliflower cheese! I tried it with half-and-half cauliflower and broccoli which worked well and added a bit more flavour and colour. I tried to halve the recipe but it didn’t make enough sauce…

Sunday
Cold gammon sandwiches (add a thin layer of mustard)
Spanish garlic prawns

BBC’s Hairy Bikers’s spanish garlic prawns: recipe here

I had brunch with friends so was NOT hungry for dinner time, for which I’d planned a fish pie. This dish, with some toasted wholemeal bread, makes a perfect small supper.

I use dried chillies to make it medium ‘hotness’, which I think was less hot than the recipe – so beware to alter the recipe if you are more a Kurma person than a Madras!

I love this dish; I’ll definitely include it if I ever decide to take the plunge and try making several tapas dishes – everything can be prepared in advance then just dumped on the hob for 10 minutes :)

Monday
Vegetable soup
Fishcakes (smoked salmon and cod)
Chocolate brownies

Time to use up that leftover stock from the roast gammon: sautéed leeks carrots onion, M&S dried pulse mix (soaked overnight), a dash of chicken gravy granules, basil, pepper. Lovely, and very filling, though I’ll maybe leave the cinammon out of the gammon recipe next time..

Another light dinner to use up the fish pie ingredients: oat-coated salmon and cod fishcakes :)

Summer Island Food’s smoked salmon fishcakes: recipe here

I decided to halve the 250g of fish between smoked salmon trimmings and a cod fillet. Smoked salmon trimmings are about £1 for 100g from supermarkets, and are great for loads of recipes if you aren’t fussy about looks.

I seasoned the mix with fairly boring pepper, lemon juice, and chives. Next time I’ll add some chillies! Beware not to add butter and milk to the mash or it will make the mixture too soft.

Lesley Water's chocolate brownies: recipe here

Lesley Water’s chocolate brownies: recipe here

Chocolate brownie! I love the marbled brownies from BBC GoodFood but they are extravagantly rich and use a LOT of chocolate. This recipe uses coffee and cocoa powder to add flavour, using only 40g of solid chocolate.

Whereas the marbled brownies need well over an hour in the oven, these need just half an hour, and aren’t too rich at all.

So there you are, lots of cooking and even more washing up! It would perhaps have been more creative without recipes, but it was fun and de-stressing which was the whole point of the projects behind this blog.

How have you been using your bank holiday weekend?

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A thwarted attempt at sewing

20 May

There’s a good reason this week’s post is so late, I promise! I failed to complete a project this weekend :( BUT I learned a new technique – paper piecing- which I am keen to try again sometime.

I was browsing sewdaily.com and found a guide entitled “Tips on how to sew by hand”. You can find it on this page, though you have to register (for free) to download it. I thought it was perfect, as I like sewing but don’t have my machine at present.

As a nice, small, project, I chose the Hexagon coaster. It is also a really good way to use up scraps!

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Photo taken from sewdaily.com

So I find some appropriately sized scraps hanging around my house, and set off. I I always make sure I have everything before I start, ‘mis en place’ being something I learned to follow religiously through cooking!

Everything (supposedly) that I would need.

Everything (supposedly) that I would need…

An hour and a half of paper piecing, bastes, whip stitches, and pressing later, I’ve finished step 9 and am feeling I have made ok progress considering it’s my first paper piecing ever.

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You can see my sloppy piecing here :(

Step 10: “machine stitch…” AAAAARGH I didn’t pick up on that when I skim-read the steps! So much for mis-en-place :(

It’ll have to stay like this for a little while! I hope to get a new machine really soon. I have an ever-increasing backlog of items to finish off when I get it :S

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It did not rain on Mary Jane (embroidery)

12 May

LiliPopo's

It did not rain on Mary Jane
for she had a huuuuuge umbrella!
from lilipopo.com

On the recommendation of Auntie Pippa I decided to try out a little embroidery pattern from LiliPopo. I chose Mary Jane because I thought she was adorable! Except for a new hoop and needles, the pattern was the only cost incurred as I had a piece of fabric and plenty of floss – yay :D

I was really keen to start so didn’t wait to get a proper transfer pen so used an old nail white pencil which should come out in a cool wash easily! It made it all a bit harder as I had lines which were rough and thick, and I was a bit worried the finished thing would be very messy as a result…

Using a nail white pencil to trace onto linen straight from a computer... not the prettiest result!

Nail white pencil + computer screen = not neat!

I love blues/beach tones and am not very keen on earth tones  so I spent a lot of timetime choosing my floss out of my mother’s old box! It was made even harder by choosing to use a navy piece of linen as the fabric – as I now had to pick a colour for her face…

It probably took me about 15 hours in total but I am a complete amateur and did it over several days and while multitasking so not sure… but it is my first ever free-stitch embroidery :) It only used backstitch and split stitch but it helped me to get a good feel for basic handling of floss by the end, I think.

All finished :)

All finished :)

Colours used (DMC): hair 433, skin 407, umbrella 826 (outside – inside is unknown), dress 611. The fabric is a navy linen from a sale!

I have already planned what to do with it, and pre-cut the fabric to fit – but it will remain a secret til I have my sewing machine… watch this space!

This is a 12cm embroidery hoop, for scale!

This is a 12cm embroidery hoop, for scale!

P.S. Do check out LiliPopo’s blog and etsy shop – there’s a load of cute patterns and she also sells some nice finished items – it’d be nice to see what anyone else has done with her patterns. Future embroidery suggestions are also welcome as I have a newfound love for it :)

Edit: on the recommendation of Megan via the comments (whose awesome cooking/sewing blog is here) I decided to put together a little slideshow of the photos I took along the way! I also made a template so I can quickly create new ones :)

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Necklaces made from ‘Swarovski element’ beads

4 May

I’m away this weekend so instead here’s some of my past ‘work’!

A couple of years ago I was daunted by the challenge of buying a present for my brother’s fiancé’s birthday… eep! Having met her, I learned the colours she liked and her style and decided to try to make a necklace for her! I found a local bead shop and bought
– gorgeous Swarovski element beads, plus mini filler beads
– ‘thread’ (was the wire stuff, in hindsight a bad move) and clasps
– cute little “made with love” heart-shaped pendants
– jewellery-making pliers etc and a bead mat!

As you can gather from that last item, this was my first ever attempt at making jewellery!  Using the Swarovski beads rather than cheaper cut ones increased the cost as I wasn’t organised enough to buy them online in advance… oops. I decided to make two and get my brother to choose the better one for her (he chose the blue, she loved it, and was surprised/flattered when she found I’d made it). Here they are:

2011.08.13 Jewellery - Pink and purple necklace close-up

I chose to  put the beads on randomely – I thought it would look nicer that way but I admit it went against all my instincts of being organised!

2011.08.13 Jewellery - Blue necklace in box

The winning necklace, hooray! The colours just happened to match what she was wearing, lucky…

I’d say how I made them but I can’t really remember – there were no websites, books, or YouTube videos involved, just me doing whatever felt like it’d work! It was my sister’s birthday a couple of weeks later, so my mum wanted me to make one to match a dress she’d bought, so here’s number 3:

You can see the "made with love" pendant almost here!

You can see my shoddy finishing here! She even wears it to sixth form :D

And my fourth attempt is my personal favourite, made for a friend who has a wardrobe that is probably 70% red. I went for slightly larger beads and a different type of clasp this time:

2012.01.23 Camilla's 21st Necklace 2

Red…. duh! A little thicker and shorter this time.

I’ve not attempted any more necklaces since then, but I did find a bunch of beads stowed away waiting ready for a bracelet – watch this space! It was so easy to make them, albeit not with quite the right method, that I am definitely going to give my local bead shop another visit soon :)

Do you make jewellery for yourself or for gifts? I’m looking to add some more colour to my own jewellery box!

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What to do with a (vintage floral) fat quarter…

3 May

So, I’ve been quite naughty and started late-night fabric hunting on the internet. Picked up this lovely vintage fat quarter (£1.79 which isn’t that much of a bargain but look at it!!) which is 100% cotton 130gsm.

The result of late-night eBaying!

Anyway so I have been trying to work out what to do with it. While I’d love to do something without a sewing machine, by the time I get round to using this I hope to have a new one anyway so can do something super neat and speedy :)

Current possibilities are:

  • coasters: 8 from one fat quarter (!) from ‘Made-by-Fabi’ here,or one with a cute quote from ‘Saltwater-Kids’ here
  • a sunglasses case, like this one from ‘Create Craft Love’
  • line a purse that I will *definitely* make in the future
  • maybe a camera case would be possible?

What do you do with your fat quarters? The simpler the better but I can keep any more complicated ideas for future!

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What to make?! (& hand sewing)

1 May

I thought an easy way to spur myself on is to try and think in advance of what I want to do rather than waiting until something pops up! My boyfriend told me after I completed my cross stitch that it’d be cool if I did one without a pattern – I think I will need to practice some more before I can do that though…

So I now have a “pipeline” page where I will put all of things which I am thinking of making (generally links to tutorials) so please visit it here if you are interested :)

I don’t have a sewing machine yet, so any hand-sewing suggestions would be so so appreciated please please please!

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Creative Saturdays begin!

27 Apr

I came across this little notevenstarted cross stitch sitting in my sewing box today, which I bought in the Hobbycraft sale years ago and was a bit too intimidated by at the time. I was keen for some procrastination, and finished it hours later – with a very sore left elbow! Here it is:

2013.04.27 Cross Stitch - Christmas Teddy Bear

I think the hat ‘crinkles’ make it look a little evil, almost like odd eyebrows! Anyway, that is my first ever real cross-stitch done :) I am not sure how I got to 22 without completing a cross stitch. I did the children’s ones when I was younger, where you use 6 threads  at once and a piece of incredibly thick material with holes about 1cm apart. Surprising given that my mum was forever making cross-stitch anything…

It finishes at about 2″x2″, and uses only cross-stitch (which I had to re-learn) and back-stitch – neither particularly hard and after about three I stopped having to think about every step, thankfully..!

You can buy these little kits (fabric, thread, needle, and full charted instructions) from places like Hobbycraft from just £1 – I might buy some less festive ones for the summer months!

Have you got any cross stitch tips, suggestions, or creations to share?

P.S. I am away next weekend so will try and find something possible to complete on a train!

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