Coasters gift - tutorial

I'm finally coming to an end of my course, and wanted to say thanks to my last supervisor. He loves photography, even displaying and having his work available for sale. So I decided to use up a little more of my camera fabric, to make up some coasters, perfect for a man who also loves his tea... And they're so easy, perfect for a brief tutorial!

(Disclaimer: I got the idea a while back for these from another blog, but I can't remember where, sorry whoever I have plagarised!!)

Tutorial
As always, remember to pre-wash your fabric - especially where tea is concerned you can guarantee they'll need a wash at some point!
To make each coaster cut two squares of fabric and one of wadding 5inch x 5inch.
Place the wadding at the bottom, then the bottom fabric, right side up, then the top fabric, right side down.
Sew using a 5/8ths allowance, along three sides, and a third of the way across the left and right of the last side.
Turn them so the upper fabric faces the right side out.

Use a pin to bring each of the corners to a point, then, sew the last bit of the final side - *wagging finger* remember to use hand stitching (What? Me? Ummmm.... Well I used a sewing machine because I'm lazy!)

Finally, do some top-stitching as you see fit!

Pretty clothes for a pretty girl

These days whenever there's something to celebrate I can feel my stitching fingers twitching! A very good friend of mine (and one of my bridesmaids-to-be) recently gave birth to her second child, a beautiful little girl... A great excuse to get sewing!

I've got two baby patterns in my arsenal - Simplicity 1889, which I used in my Stonersaurus and the Monkey shorts, and Simplicity 1921, a new one to me.

So, with the help of some fabric stolen from my Mum, and from my stash, a mix and match project was planned, using the top from 1889, and the pants and hat from 1921. I used the softest cotton and bias binding I had, picking up some perfectly matching gingham ribbon for the hat (Thank you John Lewis!)

And the final verdict... Well the clothes are still a little large for the little one, but unfortunately the hat is TINY - I don't understand where it went wrong!

I think the hat is destined for a premature baby charity - going to start a little campaign via my Twitter account today to rally us craftivists! In the meantime, I'll get stitching a larger hat, once my machine is back from a service...

The Flirty Cherry skirt

Way back in August, a good friend had her birthday and I decided (was told?) to make her something as a gift! The criteria: It needed to have a cherry print (like my first dress that she liked), and the cut would need to be her style. Now, she has lots of super-girly clothes, is petite and super slim. So I needed to find a pattern that would fit, was flirty enough, and would hopefully match the rest of her wardrobe... 

After far too long deliberating I came across this pattern from Vogue, V8295. It's too long, but I thought it might work with a lot of shortening and some cute fabric.

Supplies for this one are from right across Britain! I picked up the cherry fabric at Mostyn's Abakhan Fabrics, the lining came from Brick Lane in London and the lace trim from Watson and Thorntons in Shrewsbury.

I chose to just drop the hem band to keep the length short, but think it'll probably need more trimming to get it the right length for her. 

And so, the final verdict? Well she seems to like it! I'm absolutely convinced it won't fit her (the dreaded unpredictable 4 inches of 'ease'), but fingers crossed! I'll upload some pictures of her wearing it if / when she sends them over.

As an aside, if you're looking for fabric shops, you might want to check out my map of fabric shops across the UK. I'm writing reviews as I come across new places :)

Retro bag for a digital camera

Another gift, this one a bag for a very well loved and used camera (the one that takes the nice photos on here). This is actually my second go with these instructions, though the first didn't make this blog yet.

This time instead of cardboard for the base I used two layers of felt, not enough to protect against a big hit, but enough to protect the screen on the back. Last time cardboard didn't do a great job and just became damaged and added unnecessary bulk.

I found this fantastic fabric on Ebay - I love the retro print, perfect for a digital camera!

 I chose to use it on the inside - a hidden detail in an otherwise quite anonymous bag. I just love interestingly detailed lining.

The cord ends were sealed with a knot, and then clear nail varnish. So far that's been enough to hold back the fraying, and this time the ends don't feel too sharp or scratchy. 

All the overcasting was done with my sewing machine, and turned out really well. I also slipped in one of my 'Hand made with love' ribbons for a detail. I really love adding these, and will need to buy more very soon!

Stonersaurus and the Monkey Shorts

In an ongoing bid to give original and affordable gifts I've been busy stitching! These shorts were made using Simplicicty 1889. As you can see there were lots of variations available, but I stuck with the simple D shorts.

I used what I think are some amazing fabrics and buttons. This dinosaur fabric (which I'm calling Stonersaurus owing to the suspicious looking ferns) was picked up super-cheap from Birmingham Rag Market, though I don't remember how much for. I've got a slightly paler version too, so I'm hoping to use them together for a nice contrast fabric sometime.

 Isn't it super cute? I also found this amazing button in a sewing shop near my workplace...

And HURRAH, looks like my Curious George fabric has finally all gone! I do love it, but it's getting a bit samey to sew with! I'm wondering though if these trousers are just a bit too ridiculous... Hopefully they'll fit for one of the to-be parents... Do you think they're ok for both genders, just boys or girls? Or really, are they ones for the charity shop?

When picking up the dinosaur buttons I also happened across this ribbon, which I'm going to use for all my projects (at least until it runs out) - it's on the Stonersaurus shorts too. Long term I'd love to print my own ribbon, but you know what? I have better things to do right now!!

Baby gifts (+ pattern matching!)

It seems I'm at that phase in life where everyone's getting pregnant and having children - I think there must be something flowing through the British water system at the moment! With three little ones due in the next couple of months it's definitely time to bring out the Nested bibs again (already made here).

None of the parents knows the sex of their babies so I went fairly gender neutral, sticking with my good old Curious George fabric already used for a cushion for Baby A, and a super girly Liberty print pattern for good measure!

It's the first time I've done pattern matching and though this is about as easy as it could possibly get I'm pretty happy with the finished effect. I also did some top stitching with white thread which overall looks pretty alright!

 

 They'll be going in the post next week to the soon to be parents - fingers crossed that they like them!

The Metropolis Project

A while ago I invested in an order from Decades of Style which included a 1940s blouse pattern, redrawn. Shortly afterwards a good friend of mine @LovesNMacarons happened to mention on Twitter a fabric she liked from Liberty, inspired by the film Metropolis...

Well, an idea was born, and the rest is history.

This was by far the most difficult project I've attempted to date and I had weeks of feeling so intimidated. At one point I thought I'd lost a pattern piece (I hadn't). Once it was done it seemed remarkably easy - what was I worrying about? It's a really fragile blouse due to the dodgy sewing but hopefully it still turned out looking vintage and yet modern enough to be wearable!

I'm still awaiting a photo of her in the finished project (she's just about the busiest person I know) but will update this blog post as soon as I get one!

Gifts for placement

I've been a little quiet recently, just so busy and so tired. I've been getting ready to leave my latest placement, and have had a little make before going to say thanks for the great time I had there. The team are relocating to a new base, although they still don't know where. Anyway, I made this little cushion as a leaving gift and bought a couple of things from Dunelm Mill to match - a lamp and some pot pourri. Hopefully it'll cheer up the place!

 

Apologies the photo isn't up to much - it's the best I could do in the NHS on my camera phone this morning!

Gift making

So this year for Christmas I made a few gifts, trying to do presents as local and handmade as possible. I'd given most of them on Christmas day, before I thought of having a blog and making photos, however there were just a couple left which I finally gave this week.

I made this cushion for 'Baby A', a lovely little boy. It's a 12" cushion with Curious George fabric that I picked up from Abakhan's. I used the sewing machine for most, but did the zip by hand for convenience last minute (Well more like last hour!). On the outside it looks fine, but I really missed not having an overlocker to finish the seams on the inside, especially, as it's for the little fella I can imagine it needing to be washed a few times to keep it clean. I ended up with a compromise of having the two sides facing different directions - to make sure that the zipped side would be less likely to fray I used the serged side to put the zip on.

This iPhone cover was made for Baby A's mum, using a super straightforward tutorial. I used some fabric that I had left over from my Summer block dress because I knew it's completely her style - she's a real Lulu Guiness girl! The finished product wasn't exactly as planned - it was just a little long, and you can see the left hand hasn't matched up perfectly. Still, not bad for sewing it without an iPhone to hand!