Simple sewing?

Hooray! I made a dress :-)

It's only taken me about 4 years to sit down and have a go at it... thankfully made up in it's largest size it still fits Emily.

This lovely shift dress is one of the fantastic kits you can by from Clothkits. It has the pattern printed out onto the fabric so all you need to do is cut out the size you are making and get sewing. For this kit there is also a 2 part video tutorial up on Youtube which was really helpful, especially when I went quite badly wrong putting in the placket.

I love the colours and the design and doesn't it look fantastic on Emily!

Patchwork weekend

Last weekend was spent at a sewing machine in North Yorkshire.

My lovely husband was in charge of the kids for a three day weekend while I got to spend all that time learning how to do patchwork. I stayed in a lovely bed and breakfast in Burniston (near to Scarbourgh) where I was provided with plenty of lovely food as well as being surrounded by so many beautiful patchwork items that it almost made you dizzy.

The lady who taught us (we were a group of 6 ladies all working on different patchwork projects) is called Maggie Martin and she runs regular courses in all aspects of patchwork. As well as keeping all 6 of us busy with our various projects and helping some of us more novice patchworkers (ie me) she also kept us provided with some very lovely meals. Her courses are well worth the money so if you are local to Yorkshire then definitely give them a try.

I really loved making these two cushions (in case you are curious the block design is called 'dutchmans puzzle') and I now have a much better appreciation of the time and effort that goes into doing patchwork!

Special cushion - by JanJan Designs

My mum is having a very special Birthday today - happy 70th mum!

Because I wanted to give her something extra special to help mark the event I got in touch with Janet from JanJan Designs.

Janet makes the most beautiful cushions and by scanning in a photo which she prints on to special printable fabric she then creates one of a kind cushions. I managed to get hold of a photo of my mum back when she was still a toddler and Janet turned it into this beautiful cushion.

Because my mum loves green Janet decided to 'frame' the photo with some green satin ribbon, lace and mother of pearl buttons. The green and pink rose backing fabric is lovely too and I especially like the hot pink pipping around the edge.

Thanks for doing such a beautiful cushion Janet I'm sure my mum is going to love it!

Party preparations - zipper pouches

These little simple zipper pouches were the next item on my party bag to-do list. No pattern this time just a stack of lovely organic fabric (screen printed by Showpony) that I won two years ago.

Because this fabric seemed to fray quite easily I wanted to try out french seams in an effort to make a more durable pouch. I also gave putting in zips another go and after a bit more practice and the occasional curse I managed to get my sewing machine to sew in a zip on each pouch quite neatly.

For the girls I chose the pretty flower & butterfly print as well as a couple of summer tree pouches (my favourite design in my fabric bundle) and for the boys it had to be the insect soup - nasty pattern - I hope they like them!

July's craft - Machine sewing

In my on-going quest to tame the sewing machine I went to one of the 'crafternoon' sessions being held locally at Traders outlet. The session was to make reversible handbags - a simple pattern but involving sewing in curves so quite tricky for a novice like me.

Being able to sit and concentrate on some craft for a whole afternoon was a real treat - Rich took the two little ones out for the morning while I got to indulge my crafty side as well as eating up some very tasty home made muffins.

These are the two bags that I made up - they need a quick iron but I'm really happy with how they turned out. They don't need any buttons or zips to close, all you have to do is thread the longer strap through the shorter strap and it hands around your wrist.  To give them a finishing touch I think I'll just make up some crochet flowers and then into the Christmas box they will go!

I'm going to be teaching a crochet crafternoon some time in September so if you are local then do get in touch and I'll send you the details.

Thanks to my mother-in-law for paying for this as one of my presents - I had a lovely time!

My lucky day!

I've just found out that I've won the giveaway at believemagic - I can't believe it though as I never win anything. Very excited about this - the giveaway is for a fantastic 'creative girl art quilt kit' which I can't wait to have a go at and will be making up for my own little girl.

My own little giveaway over on Pretty Crochet Things was also a success and I've now got a good few new followers there which is lovely.

Lovely sequins

Things seem to be starting to come together here in the new Tea Towers, new furniture is steadily being added, new kitchen appliances being installed (still stuck with the scary old gas oven though... hopefully will have a new one of those some time soon). My crafting has also taken off again and I'm back up to my usual crafting capacity.

Having all my craft things back out and nearby has been such a relief after 3 months of them being stowed away in storage. I've been sorting through what I have and during that time have come across a few exciting bits that I can't wait to find uses for. The sequins you see on this little bag were one of my discoveries and they match the little handbag I was making perfectly.

So now with it's added glam and straps securely fastened it can be sent off as a slightly late Birthday present for a little girl I know - I hope she likes it!

Basic sewing...

While we've been living up in Yorkshire (not long until we move again now) I've been making good use of the local children's centres here. If you are a mum of under 3's then it is well worth you having a look at the services your local centre offers, as not only do they do plenty of activities and sessions for little ones, most also offer adult education courses.

In the past I've done child first aid, card making and a small business course. Over the last month I've just completed another course - this time a basic sewing course which though very much targeted at beginners was still interesting and once we get all our belongs out of storage I'll be sure to dust off my own sewing machine and put some more time in on it.

The course was just for a 2 hour session over 4 weeks and in that time we covered very briefly threading up machines, using basic patterns, cutting pieces, sewing seams and a little bit of hand embroidery.

Unfortunately course materials were limited - we only had 4 machine between 10 mums so often there was quite a wait to do any sewing. The fabrics provided were also just scraps and nothing really exciting - even so we all managed to make use of what was available to add our own personal touch and when a course is free you can't really complain.

First up we had a go at making a simple taggy - a tactile sensory toy blanket thing with ribbons sticking out around the edge. These were pretty simple and quick to make and we all managed to get one done within our 2 hour session.

For the next 2 sessions we made up a little purse thing which involved doing some simple hand embriodery on the front - this is what took most of the time and now I've finished mine I'm not entirely sure what to use it for... it didn't quite work out as nicely as I had hoped.

For our last session we optimistically tried to make up a little hand bag - however with the limited sewing machines we didn't all get to finish so I've still got a few things to do on my bag - hopefully I'll get round to it soon as it would make a cute little bag for a toddler.

Christmas goodies

Before we get too far into 2011 I wanted to share with you some of the beautiful craft related goodness that I was given for Christmas.

I'm really lucky to have some very talented craft people in my family, my sister (check out her beautiful blog here) who has only be crocheting for 4 years seems to be a pro already - check out this beautiful tea cosy with matching mat that she made me for Christmas. It is so beautiful that when I first got it I couldn't stop admiring it. So I've gone from no tea cosy to having 2, what a great start to the year!

Next up we got this fantastic door stop from my sister in law who is always coming up with cool sewing and crochet projects. I love the fabric she has used (I really should have included a back shot of him too as you can see more of the design... oh well) and with the addition of buttons to his felt eyes he has lots of personallity. I'm really going to have to make 2011 the year of the sewing machine so that I get a bit more confidence and perhaps even do a few fun projects like this.

My little boy has taken quite a shine to him and keeps removing him from the kitchen door (which Mr. Owl is responsible for keeping open) and taking him for rides on his wheely bug. In fact he is sitting on the computer desk with me right now as he has had his morning ride and has been brought over to me to keep me company.

Next up I was given this cool Christmas tree bunting from a local crafty friend of mine (she has an Etsy shop called Bunting and beads - but it seems to be sold out at the moment). I can't wait to get it on the tree next year and I'll try to remember to take a photo of it for you all to see in it's full glory then.

Lastly I was given another whole year subscription to Inside Crochet as well as this box which is choc full of fantastic card making supplies all from my very generous Mum in law :-) I just love the pretty snowflake stamps she's included and there are even some tea cup card decorations that suit me so well!

Finishing off

Seeing as we are only just starting the beginning of 2011 I feel like I should be finishing up some of the unfinished projects that I've got on the go at the moment. There seem to be quite a few of them though - and I've so many lovely new projects that I want to get started on that it is very hard to concentrate.

I've still not finished my patchwork that I started all the way back in September, though I have progressed it a little and now it looks like the photo on the left. Hopefully I'll get it done soon - any guesses as to what it is going to be?

Then I've got a pile of craft books (the top three in fact were presents for my Birthday back in July!) which need reading through, crafting from and then doing reviews for.

I'm especially excited about the "Gifts from the Kitchen" book which is full of lovely tasty things that you can make and send as gifts. I love the idea of giving out baked treats as presents so hopefully I'll be organised enough to make a few things for some of my friends this year.

So far all I have on my finished list for 2011 are the two hyperbolic crochet pieces that I started back in October. I will soon be sending them off to the new exhibition of the UK reef in Salisbury  - a little bit too late for the opening but they'll still be added thankfully.

Loving felt

What do you do when you suddenly realise you are missing an extra little something to go with a friend's present? Well I have a play with my scraps of felt and so far it has never let me down.

For this little elephant I had an idea of what I wanted to make and then for added inspiration I did a quick google image search for 'felt elephant' and I fell in love with this beautiful little elephant by Art Flow.

This elephant is the result of that inspiration and few hours quietly crafting - yup, I just love felt!

The light at the end of the tunnel

I've been buried under a large pile of UFOs over the last month which is why I've been posting less frequently. However with the time I've not been blogging here I have been getting most of my Christmas crafting finished, and just in time too!

These stripey mens hats are all finished and ready to be wrapped as presents for some of my lovely male friends. The pattern is similar to the ' Boy Beanie' pattern from the "Happy Hooker" however I had to adjust it somewhat to take into account that I was using DK yarn instead of the suggested worsted weight yarn. They turned out nicely though and hopefully they are stretchy enough to fit all the different heads they are destined for.

This mysterious pile of pretty leaf fabric has all been sewn up now into gifts - the sewing machine and I almost came to blows over making these, but after all the tears things came good and I'm quite happy with how they turned out. I'll post more details about them after Christmas as I don't want to ruin any surprises for a particular sister who follows this blog quite closely...

Lastly I did a bit of salt dough baking and came up with these little hearts and stars for tree decorations. Sadly the paint that I used seems to be chipping quite quickly so I'm going to have to do some repair work and add a few layers of varnish before I can send any of these out... it almost seems like too much work for something that was supposed to be a quick and relaxing project.

Now I had best get back to some final crochet projects and hopefully I'll be back soon without any of the Christmas panic hanging over me...

Delighted!

On a Saturday morning I have a lie in - for as long as possible, sometimes even until midday, I look forward to it all week. Not this morning though, the postman woke me at 10.20 with a parcel. Still in my dressing gown I trudge up to my bed and try to get back to sleep and then realise that I'm not expecting a parcel so I decide to find out what it is.

I won something!

Last month I entered in an Etsy competition featured in Sew Hip magazine and one lucky winner would receive some beautiful screen printed organic fabric from Showpony (blog), 2 lovely hand-printed fabric rolls in pretty containers from Summersville and 3 fantastic make your own felt kits from paperandstring (blog). I just can't believe that I was so very lucky to win all these beautiful things - I'm going to have to do some serious thinking about how I use these beautiful fabrics and I can't wait to get started on these beautiful felt kits.

Learning patchwork

With all the crochet that has been in progress here at Tea Towers it was so nice to go along to my craft group this week and do some hand sewing instead.

We were all let loose on a pile of scraps and after a few basic instructions we made a start. Because I love blues and purples so much I decided to focus on these colours and I was surprised by just how quickly the strips of hexagons all joined up.

I'm still undecided about what these patches are going to be made into - the original idea was that they became a teapot cosy but I'm also thinking that a little patchwork money purse would be very cute. Any other suggestions?

Too old for dressing up?

I'm pretty sure that when you pass 30 you shouldn't really be found wandering around the house wearing a feather headdress. Unless it is Halloween or perhaps even your Birthday, but as neither of these applied to me the other day I'll have to come up with a better excuse.

Oh, I remember now - I was testing it out.

Yeah.

This little feathery headdress is in fact meant to be a present for a soon to be 4 year old that I know who loves dressing up. Last year I made her a little pink crown and as that seemed to be well received I decided to try my luck again, this time with the help of feathers.

This simple headdress has been made with the remains of an old pair of jeans (already much cut up to make a robot plushie) a few bright feathers that I've had kicking around for ages and some blue furry ribbon stuff. I cheated a little and glued the feathers in place before sewing the front and back pieces of the band together. Then to finish off I hand sewed the blue zig zag to the front and attached some ribbon to the back for ties.

The only thing I in fact forgot to do was to double check the size. This turned out to be quite an error as I have found that it is more suited to a 30+ head and not a little 4 year old. Never mind - I'm sure with the help of a safety pin it will stay on the Birthday girl's head and there will be plenty of growing room :-)

Experimenting with felt

What do you do when your dad is going to be celebrating his 60th Birthday but absolutely refuses to say what he would like you to get him? My dad would not hear of anyone making a fuss for his big day so I was forced to try and think a little bit more creatively and as I always do when I'm stuck for present ideas I turn to my craft stash.

Because I'm out of white, brown and yellow yarn (how this has happened without my noticing I'm not too sure, perhaps we have a yarn elf stealing it?) I moved out of my crochet comfort zone and turned to the next best 3D craft medium - felt.

What the heck is this strange looking little hut? Well it was supposed to be a small Celtic round house based loosely on the buildings constructed at Butser Ancient Farm (check the photo below) although somehow while I wasn't looking it became too tall and thin. I made the main section separately from the roof, added the door detail to it, stuffed it with rice and fiberfill and then had a devil of a time trying to get the roof to sit straight on the top while I sewed it on.

My dad (who is one of the volunteer workers at the farm and has even helped to thatch a few of the buildings there) loved it, so hooray for craft saving the day again!

Friday book review

"The Softies kit: Instructions and tools for creating 15 plush pals" by Therese Laskey
ISBN: 978-0811858861

This is more of a set of instructions and a few materials than a book but even so is well worth doing a review for. The title is a little misleading as you could easily think that you are getting instructions and all the materials you need to make all of the 15 designs - you actually just get all the bits you need to make up the party cake design. So when I first received this kit back in 2008 I made the cake out of it and was quite put off by how tricky I found it to be. The kit also includes 14 other designs all printed on separate folded instruction cards, all the templates to make the designs and a little basic instructions book to show you all the techniques you'll need for the projects.

While having a browse through my craft book shelf I came across this kit again and felt that I had to give it another go as there are so many adorable softies shown. So while my husband was out with our little boy for the morning I started to iron out scraps of fabric and got to work on one of my favourite patterns - the "flat 'in' fat penguin".

Cutting out all the pieces was fiddly, and the purple corduroy that I had chosen as the main body colour was tricky to cut accurately but as I wasn't in a rush I managed it all fine. Once all the pieces were cut and ready I followed the very clear and simple instructions and before I knew it I had already finished putting together the face. During the next free chunk of time (nap times are fantastic) I got the flippers sewn together and the feet with their embroidered toes. Then once little Sam had gone to bed I put all the pieces together back to front, sewed all the way out and breathed a big sigh of relief when on turning the penguin the right way out everything was in the correct place.

I love this little penguin very much and finding him so easy to make has been a real confidence boost. I'm definitely going to be trying a few of the other designs in this kit and I'm sure the most crafters will also find a good few patterns in here that they too would love to have a try at making.

Last minute panic

Last week the Tea Towers residents (ie: myself, my husband and little Sam) were all away on a quick break at one of the UK Center Parcs during which time I managed to completely forget about a number of impending Birthdays... So after finally getting through most of the laundry on our return I notice in my diary that I needed to do some Birthday related crafting - and quickly!

That's where Sasha the Seahorse comes in. My little niece loves sea life and is particularly fond of seahorses so when I found the free pattern for Sasha on Futuregirl's fantastic blog I was determined to have a go at making it for her. This little seahorse was pretty quick and simple to make thanks to the detailed and clear instructions. I found cutting out the pieces to be the fiddliest part while the sewing was strangely quite easy and satisfying.

Now I'm off to tuck this in with my niece's Birthday card and then I should probably check my diary again in case there are any more Birthday related surprises lurking in there.

Robbie the Robot

As I seem to have been inundating you with crochet recently I thought I would share with you a photo of my recently finished Robbie the Robot.

Robbie has been made from a very well loved old pair of jeans that I had worn so much they had holes everywhere. He has been put together without a pattern (probably my first proper sewing project that has) and has been entirely hand stitched. He has a little bit of crochet for his arms and legs which have pipe cleaners in to make him more poseable. He has only been lightly stuffed to make him more hugable and my son has already spent some time giving him a few :-)

I really love Robbie and I already have plans of trying to make a Robbie mark II, perhaps as a smaller version. I'm also trying desperately to think of other bloke friendly toys/gifts that I can make as there are not many guys who would want to be given some of the cute girly stuff that I make. So if you have any ideas then please let me know!

It's in the bag!

Around Christmas time the wonderful Sew Mama Sew blog hosted another huge giveaway with tons of crafty blogs taking part. Lots of very generous blog authors take the time to host giveaways on their blogs and there were some really fantastic prizes up for grabs.

Even though I'm not a very lucky person I managed to win something - the lovely Green Bag Lady did a very generous giveaway of one finished bag as well as the materials to make another bag. She had 100 winners so I can imagine she must have been at her sewing machine for hours making up bags for this giveaway.

The bag on the left is the one that the Green Bag Lady made up for me and I just love the colours. This is the bag that I'm going to be giving away as my Mother in Law was quick to reserve it the minute it came through the door.

So with my first New Year's resolution in mind (conquer the sewing machine) I set to work on the material that I was sent. First off I had to figure out how to turn the iron on and set up the board (yes, you've guessed it, I don't do any of the ironing in this house) and then with my fabric pressed and cut ready I dusted off the sewing machine and had a go.

Surprisingly I encountered no real problems at all and with the help from the online video and instructions I whizzed through making this little bag as though I was some sort of pro. My sewing machine and I are now firm friends and I am seriously thinking about making up a batch of these bags for next year's Christmas presents (that's resolution #2 start Christmas preparation now and hopefully prevent the usual Christmas last minute panic).