I Was a Winner.

Boy, oh, oh, boy, I was a winner in a blog giveaway run by DragonflyCrafts. Look at the lovely goodies I received.

The parcel with lovely photo card.

The contents. The sewing on these is just so even and the colours fit together beautifully. Thanks very much, Fiona.

On the creating front a few felt softies have been created. The first was an elephant - made as a sample to show a group of children. the pattern came from the very useful book on my bookcase - My First Sewing Book Hand Sewing by Winky Cherry. The patterns in this book have been ever so useful over a long period of time.

The eyes are split pins and the tail has been plaited on after the sewing was finished. The idea for the split pin eyes came from the kits I have purchased from Paper and String. The elephants sewn by the children were then decorated with glitter and fabric paints whereas mine was left very plain.

Second on the felt softie creating spree was a little car. This time I created the pattern myself with some help from some images found trawling the web. Again this was a model to inspire a group of children.

When I worked on this softie with the children we left out the split pin idea. I had tried this to see if it would look like a door handle but in the end decided the car looked fine without this addition. I did wonder about adding buttons for the wheels but have not tried out that idea yet.

Last on the creation line were some Perching Doves from Fa La La La Felt. I purchased an ebook copy of this great little book of felt Christmas decorations and chose the doves to have a go at first. I tried out several different variations before settling on the way I like to make these. They are a little addictive - I couldn't just make one!

With these two I followed the directions in the book to stitch the wing detail but I added the curve at the top of the wing and a second row of decorative stitching inside the first.

With these two I experimented with stitching on a wing that I had cut out with pinking shears but in the end found this to be a little fiddly. I also experimented with both blanket stitch and running stitch around the outside and decided that I preferred the running stitch. I love the way Amanda Carestio has designed these to be sewn onto pegs! Instead of buttons for the eyes I again resorted to split pins.

The ripple blanket is still slowly growing - lucky for me the recipient is so relaxed about when she will get the finished item!

Happy Crafting

Long Time, No Posts Probably, No Visitors but...

As always the same old excuse - things get busy and something falls by the wayside.

There has been some crafting going on but getting down to the putting it on the blog has not been happening.

Avid Crafter has made some beautiful gifts for friends. She sewed a patchwork scarf, knitted a neckwarmer, created a bag, cooked chocolate brownies and bestowed these as gifts to four of her friends. Sorry no photos at this stage - they are there somewhere but not easily found.

I have Zentangled and found that it is a great way to snatch a little relax time as you focus on just creating the pattern you are working on. I bought a little sketchbook to do my drawing in and then decided it needed a cover. I had seen something that I liked in Kata Golda's book - Hand-stitched Felt - so I hunted out some felt and created a felt cover with pockets to keep my pen, pencil and shading stub in. I had a trial create first and made the stationary pouch exactly as described in the book and then adapted this for my sketchbook cover.

They were great fun to make and I used a little bit of felting I had made for the pocket. More about the felting later in this post.

Here is one page of my drawings using the Zentangling. I am having great fun experimenting with all the patterns that are shared from the newsletters, flickr pool and various blogs.

Next bit of crafting was gifted to my mother. When the Craft Fair was in town I went and looked and spent and signed up for a felting workshop. It was to make a scarf from a long piece of wool batt to which you added pieces of wool tops and silk to create a design, wet it down, worked it over and over and over to felt it altogether. In the end you get something like this.

Next shot shows a close up of one end.

I was pretty pleased with the result. This was something I had never tried before and I enjoyed creating it. I came home with some more batting, tops and silk to try out some more but stuck to much smaller pieces than the scarf. I have used the pieces for the pockets of my book cover and stationary holder and cut some up into squares for some cards.

One last little link. I stumbled across this set of tutorials and loved the little needle book. Just the thing to keep your needles safe when travelling.

Happy crafting!

Things Discovered

Just a quick post with a few links for you.

I just came across this tutorial and am just waiting until I can try it. I like the idea of a carry strap and the lovely big button holding everything together. This is one of the positive things I admire about the crafty blog community - so many people are willing to share their ideas.

I also came across this art idea. The idea of breaking down complex patterns into easily repeated patterns that are then combined to create very interesting images was one that really appealed to me. I followed a few links and was amazed by the number of images being created.

Have you seen the envelope project coming together at Meet Me At Mikes. I am enjoying watching the window display grow. We sent our envelope off and it was very satisfying to see it in amongst all the others. Check it out over on Flickr.

Skirt Sewing

A request was made from Avid Crafter for a new skirt. I was shown some examples, in a few of the local shops, of skirts her friends had purchased and was asked did we have any fabric that could be used to create something along a similar idea. Next step was to hunt through the accumulated fabric stash to unearth some grey wool that had been purchased some nine years earlier and not used. It was a piece of fine merino wool suiting that had been bought to make a pair of light but warm trousers for Avid Crafter when she was much younger but they never happened. Wasn't she lucky.

The skirt style requested was of the pencil variety with front and back darts, back lapped zipper and a length of slightly above the knee. I had drafted a similar skirt for her some time earlier but when the shell was tried back on there was no wearing ease left so off to look through the pattern books we went as I was feeling too lazy to go through the drafting process at the time. We settled on a Kwik Sew pattern - no 2957.

The correct size was traced off and then I had to remember all the lessons learned a while ago to get this little skirt made. The zipper was first and it went well apart from forgetting the excellent tip I had been taught about adding extra to the seam allowance in the zipper area. If you do this it so much easier to do a lapped zipper. We have made a note to alter the pattern for the next time.

Darts were next and the back ones looked fine but the front darts were angled in an unusual way and did not look at all right. In the end I undid the darts up to the waist seam line and left them as sloped tucks. These were OK as they mimic the shape and style of the examples I had been shown. These front darts disappointed me as I had not, up until that point, bought a Kwik Sew pattern that had not met with total approval of the design.

We wanted a little bit of design detail and ended up with a red oraganza ribbon strip down the front. It is slightly off centre and has a piece of the grey wool underneath that has been put on without the edges being neatened. Three vintage buttons were added to the top of this strip.

Side seams were sewn and the waistband was added - again I forgot some of the good tips taught to me until part way through this part of the sewing but in the end the waistband was on and I had even managed to make both sides of the zipper even after they looked very uneven after inserting the zipper. Time for a fitting. All was good but we think that a little more room in the waist might be needed when the pattern is used again. A buttonhole and red button were attached rather than a hook and eye as there is no shortage of buttons in this crafting household. The buttonhole went well until the cutting time. I did not line up the buttonhole chisel correctly and cut the stitches on one side so then it was out with the needle and thread to add some hand buttonhole stitches to make sure all was OK.

The final request was for a fancy hem so we settled on creating a wide band at the bottom. This was done as the hem which made hemming so easy. Fold up the required wide band, machine tack at the bottom edge, fold back and run around it with the overlocker and fold it back down.

One small incident with melted organza ribbon was the last trouble spot. Luckily that was rescued by undoing some stitching and inserting a new piece of ribbon. Whew!!!

The end result - what do you think? The back view show how the waistband is a little on the tight side as the line from the zipper to the top of the band should be straight but I need to allow some breathing room!

There is some more vintage fabric to use up so I think there will be another skirt produced with this pattern. A top is also almost finished using the same pattern as these. The fabric is a patterned rib knit with some red in it so it may well be teamed up with the new skirt at some time.

Happy sewing.

A bag and a felt softie to share

It has taken a while but a I have made a new bag with help from Crafty Things. The pattern was Huntington Hobo by Pink Sand Beach Designs.

I had a bit of trouble with some of the instructions. The photos in the pattern instructions were hard to see as they were too small but with some help from Crafty Things I finished it. I used a different interfacing so the bag is floppier. This picture shows the back of the bag with the zipper pocket and there is another pocket inside without a zip. When I test ran the bag I found the inside pocket to be a little on the small side and some things fell out. It is going to be used for carrying books to school and probably not as an everyday handbag. I like how it looks and it is very roomy. This was the first bag I have made with zippers and these were the bits where I needed the most help. Thanks, Crafty Things.

Here it is part way through construction.

A while ago I made this cute kitty. It was a kit from Cupcakes for Clara and came with everything you needed to make the kitty. I think I might have run out of one of the threads but everything else was perfect. I wasn't quite sure if I liked him at first but he has been growing on me lots.

Applique on Drawstring Bag

A quick post to share this little applique. I needed to repair a pair of denim shorts - they have been so well loved that the fabric had worn thin on the front. I added an applique flower just like the one in the photo with a smaller one on the other leg. I did some repair work to the inner leg seams with a multi stitch zigzag, some bias tape and a bit of fusible webbing and will now get a little more wear from the shorts before they fall apart. I fused the bias tape to the inside of the seams and then used the multi stitch zigzag on the outside to hold it all together.

I like the colours I had chosen for the applique so made another and added to a lined drawstring bag. This bag will come in handy to hold those little bits and pieces that need a home in my creating space.

Off to sort some of the accumulated stash of fabric, felt, yarn, buttons and other things crafty.

A New Bag

I have had great fun with the sewing machine this week. A few little fishes, a few drawstring bags and then this. It all started with a little piece of patched fabric - just a few rectangles sewn together and the thought of "what will this become?"

I added two strips of osnaburg either side and then some more fabric top and bottom. At this point I was thinking of a tote. I then hand-stitched the three rows of running stitch using Perle cotton and found the the three buttons. It needed to be a bit wider if I wanted to use box corners at the bottom so I added two more fabric strips at the sides and at this point thought I would experiment with a different back.

For the back I used osnaburg with a layer of flannelette and added satin stitched ovals with two different coloured threads - the idea from this came via the book "Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts".

At this point I joined the front and back together. I added a backing of flannelette to the front as well. I added box corners on the outside instead of hiding them on the inside of the bag. I had tried this on a bag before Christmas and like to look of it. The lining was a piece of light weight cotton.

What kind of handles was the next step along with a closing of some sort. In the end I went with a drawstring top that was the same as the one I tried here. The last idea was for it to have a long strap so that I could use it messenger style - I like this style as it is hands free. As always I made the strap too long and had to shorten it by folding the strap on itself for a little bit and adding another button. I added some more patchwork to the strap but should also have interfaced it - it is a bit soft.

The end result is OK but the drawstring doesn't work very well hence the addition of some beads that can slide along and help keep it closed. I have been using it for the last couple of days and I think I will like it. I have a zipper pouch and smaller drawstring bag inside it to keep things organised. Avid Crafter likes the fabric I created for the back of the bag.

I think it is now time to get stuck in and finish the crochet food and then move on to working on some of the kits that are just waiting to be finished.

Happy crafting.

Go Fish - a gift in the making.

Some sewing has been progressing and a few little drawstring bags and zipper pouches have been made. More fabric has been purchased - the stash grows ever larger and a gift has been created.

Here is a little fish in the making. It is part of a set of ten that will be winging their way to a little nephew and niece. Each little fish has a washer sewn inside so that they can be caught with a magnet. I would love to link to the site from which the idea sprang but in the mysterious ways of the Internet it is no longer there???? This blogger has also made some and linked to the original site but has noted the disappearance of said site.

I have used the freezer paper method to create each fish and simply tucked a metal washer (I had some of these and decided to use them instead of the suggested magnets inside the fish) in the centre of the fish as I sewed around the edge of the freezer paper fish shape. There are two layers of fabric with a piece of batting in the middle add a little bulk.

Once I have sewn all around the edge I removed the freezer paper fish shape and cut outside the stitching with my pinking shears. Then I moved the washer to the mouth end of the fish and used my zipper foot to sew a curve around it - trapping it in place. I was able to reuse the freezer paper fish for each of my different fabrics as I just pressed it in place with a warm iron and then peeled it off after the stitching was done.

In the end there were ten little fishies. They will packed in a post bag very soon and my lovely Mum with help by acquiring the required magnet and pole to create the rest of the fishing game at it's destination.

I can remember making a set of fish for my own children but they were not as colourful as these. I made them from scraps of fleecy fabric (I cannot remember what used inside to be caught by the magnet) and used safety pins to add numbers to the bottom of the fish so that they could play a game and see who could catch the more valuable fish with the higher numbers to win the game. They were also just as happy to go fishing with no numbers attached - they would use my cane laundry basket as a boat and sit there quite happily fishing away. The magnet was a big horseshoe one that we tied to a cardboard tube with some very thick white cord. Not very attractive but very practical and created in minutes.

I think I will be making some more of these for me and others.

I am still creating the crochet play food and and now made pancakes and a salad bowl with lettuce, tomato pieces and onion strips but have no photos yet.

Who says elephants can't be orange!

This fellow follows on from my penguin that I designed earlier in my Art & Fashion class. I just tweaked the penguin patters, making the body section a little shorter and rounder, then making pieces for legs, ears and a trunk. He didn't turn out quite as I imagined, but very cute nonetheless. He is made mostly from felt, with the patterned sections coming from random scraps of fabric, his eyes are buttons, the eyelashes from dimensional paint (I was going to sew them on first, but I forgot when I was sewing him up, so dimensional paint it was!), and he has a little plaited tail made of orange wool. There are toy-pellets in the base so he is nice and weighty. The outsize ears and slightly downwards facing expression make him look like a shy, baby elephant to me.



When I make another, I think I would make the trunk shorter and perhaps curved more. I did cut a little off the original pieces I cut when I attached the trunk, but I would still prefer it a bit shorter. Also I would interface to fabric pieces with a nice soft interfacing so they didn't fray. This definitely isn't a toy for children; I doubt he would be up to much rough handling even if he didn't have 'choking hazards'.

Once again I got some lovely comments from my classmates and a few of them tried to sneak him home with them! I have a couple of requests for some more :-) I love when designs work out so well.

Sewing, Sewing, Sewing

Well the bag lead to some inspiration to keep sewing. Do you get like that? Start one sewing project and then that snowballs into more so sewing becomes the obsessive activity for a while before something else catches your attention and you switch to that.

In the photo there are a couple of fabric baskets made using Pink Penguin's tutorial. In the second one I experimented with stripes as well as patchwork squares.

Browsing through my favourite tutorials and my rather large stash of fabrics led me to creating a set of criss cross coasters. I found a new tutorial for a reversible drawstring bag and I had a few squares left from the bags so I created a bag for the coasters to live in. Everyone who sews has more fabric than they could possibly use, don't they? There is fabric that just begs for a home when you walk past it in the shop, doesn't it?

Last was another drawstring bag using the techniques from a bookmarked favourite. This blog has a series of posts that document the development of her drawstring techniques. I use this often because it creates a very nice lined pouch for tucking things in.

Two new felt project kits have arrived from paper and string. The robin and the reindeer kits plus some ribbon and brads winged their way to my house from the UK. These have jumped queue to the top of the to do list. Hopefully I will get some time to start these soon but an unexpected house guest is arriving late today so I will just have to see how much time is left.

Bag Making

Some more sewing has been happening. I needed a gift for a lovely friend so I decided to use a small stitching that I had just finished and incorporated it into a bag loosely based on the tote bag from the Bend the Rules sewing book. It is larger than the bag in the book and I lengthened the longer strap quite a bit. The stitching was part of a kit purchased at the Craft Fair earlier in the year. It is called Stitched with Love and is by Calico Farm Designs.

I was very pleased with the end result and it was one of those gifts that was so hard to give away. I would have loved to keep it for myself but know that it will be well used by the recipient. The bag is big enough to fit a medium sized lunch box or book and a drink bottle. I added a small zipper pouch for keeping small things in and looped that around the strap. For the zippered pouch I used my favourite tutorial by Sew Sally. I really like her construction technique and the way the zipper is on one side of the pouch. The last part of the gift was a small drawstring pouch for holding stuff. For this I used my bookmarked tutorial from happythings.

I modified the base of the bag by making a feature of the boxed corners. This idea came from my copy of the Zakka Sewing book that I was lucky enough to win earlier in the year. I folded the corners to the outside after sewing across them and added a wooden button as decoration.

I seem to have found a few tutorials that I go back to again and again. Do you have tutorials like that - bookmarked to get back to easily or used so often they become just part of your sewing repertoire?

A Little Bit Of Sewing

I found another book to add to the collection last week courtesy of a post on this blog. The book is called Felties and I have created two already.

The book has eighteen little felt critters to create. Each one is pocket sized and they do not take very long to make. I adapted each one slightly as I didn't want to use beads as I am going to gift these to some little people. I also stitched rather than gluing for some of the smaller parts.

First meet Pensive Rabbit.

And second to be created was Babuska. Instead of the beads used by the author I stitched some flowers.

I have a few more on the list of things to sew. The list that is growing oh - so - loooooonnnngggg!

Finished Blanket

In amongst lots of other things I have finished my crocheted blanket. It is lap sized and very snuggly. I really like the colours and the technique of joining as you go was a great one to learn.

On the go at the moment is a stitching from Calico Farm Designs - sorry but there are no pictures - and another neck warmer using Frog Tree alpaca yarn. I am experimenting with a little bit of the lacy pattern from another scarf pattern in the crossed over section of this scarf.

Time for a Happy Dance!!

You know what that means! Warning: This is a picture-heavy post!



Uh huh! The Spring girl is finished, the lucky last in the whole set. Here they all are together:



Don't they look good all together like that. I haven't worked out yet exactly how I'm going to put them together, or what they will actually end up being, but that's ok, there's no rush. There's plenty of fabric around the edges of each girl so I have plenty of room to move. Of course, I immediately moved on to something else, and finished it too! (ok so that's because I finished the Spring girl a little while ago, but hadn't taken any photos yet but shhh, no-one needs to know that!) So here is a cute May Gibbs bookmark front and back:



It is based on her famous book Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. Crafty Things had the kit sitting around for years, so I ended up stitching it instead.

And yes, I have the next one all ready to go :-)


In between doing those cross-stitch projects I made these from a pattern produced at my local-ish quilt shop.



Meet "Moggy" and "Sproggy". (No I didn't think of those names, they were on the pattern. Wish I did though!) They are not very big and only took me a weekend to make. Plus I did them all myself, no help needed :-) My machine-sewing skills are improving slowly!


So until next time, off I go to do some proper work.