I don’t think this tea cosy could really be any more personalised!
This was a Christmas present I made for my Gran & Grandad, as Gran is the kind of person who really appreciates hand/homemade things. This was a relatively simple and easy thing to do, but it does take quite a bit of time as there needs to be lots of drying time.
To get the image onto the material, you can use a product called ‘image maker’ by Dylon which cost a couple of pounds from HobbyCraft.
The instructions are on the back of the packet. Basically what you need to do is take a photocopy of your chosen image (it must be a photocopy or it won’t work), then smear the image maker paste generously over the image (it says to use a bruch but I used my fingers and it was find). Then put your image face down onto your chosen material and roll this with a rolling pin for a minute or two. My tip here would be to absolutely ensure that your image is completely flat. I did mine on my ironing board as this seemed flat, and when the image was transferred and finished, I noticed that it had a cross-hash pattern all over it, which was the metal underlay of my ironing board! Argh! Luckily it wasn’t too much of a problem for me, but it could have been disasterous. You then leave that to dry overnight, and then next morning soak the paper with water and gently scrub it off. You’re then left with a reverse image on your material – magic! I had to keep letting mine dry, then scrub a bit more paper off, for several days as I struggled to get all the paper off without damaging the image.
Once I had the rough idea, and knew what types of colours I wanted to use (Gran loves blue), I put together a kind of physical mood board, as below.
This then eventually turned into this (I forgot to use the ribbon! Doh!). On one side is my Gran, the other side shows my Grandad, it’s lined with blue babychord, and has a fairly thick wadding inner. Gran loves cameo’s so I tried to kind of imply that style with the wiggly thing framing their pictures.
I had asked my grandparents for photos of each of them a few months ago, which they thought was very mysterious. They happened to give me photos of each of them holding tea cups, which had a little pink bit on them. Perfect. So I photoshopped the photos before I photocopied, as I wanted them to be in black and white aside from a little something, which turned out to be the pink on the tea cup. They absolutely loved it (and my family thought it was hilarious!) so it went down well.
It says that it’s washable, but I’ve advised Gran not to, just in case.
So a very satisfying project, and the options it opens are incredible! This could be used to customise clothes, tea towels, cushions etc. Obviously not all with people’s faces, but perhaps a photoshopped picture of something crazy, like a cow wearing a wedding hat, could be put on a purse! Oh the possibilities…
Happy New Year! Here are some beautiful local snowy pictures (taken a few weeks ago now).
I hope you’ve all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Mine was filled with lots of family, friends and laughter – all the good bits! We spent Christmas in Essex with family, and will be heading back home to Hertfordshire soon to take down the decorations (which always makes me so sad I have to rush through it and not think about it too much), and wonder what we’re going to do with all the mince pies, chocolate and biscuits!
I’m one of those people who do use the new year as an opportunity to start afresh, and I do try to stick to my new year resolutions. A good friend, for the past couple of years, has written a list of what she wants to accomplish in the coming year, which I think it a very different approach to it all, and one which I’m adopting this year! So, amongst my list of things to accomplish this year (amongst the inevitible get healthier, lose weight, stop spending impulsively etc…) I have said that I wuld like to make a homemade home. We will hopefully be moving to a bigger house this year, so I would like to get ready by making lots of lovely homemade things. I also plan on buying some bits from Etsy of Folksy to add to the handmade feel I want from my home.
My mum’s house is a real inspiration for making over my flat. She’s very artistic, and is a big fan of shabby chic, so consequently a lot of her furniture is painted beautifully. Have a looky…
And of course my wonderful Stewart, what a poser…
So, I have a mahogany table with beautiful detail on the centre base bit (it has one leg in the middle which splays out if that makes sense… oh how articulate that explanation was!) which I don’t think is shown off to it’s full potential whilst it’s dark. So, I’m thinking about asking mum to shabby chic it. I’ve had the table for over 3 years, so that’s how long I’ve been thinking about it, but I have now made my final decision… I think. We’ll see.
I’m also going to re-paint the frame for a mirror, make some cushion covers (which I’ve never done before), make a quilt, some of Tone Finnanger’s house angels… oh so many plans! Time will tell how many of these plans actually materialise, but I’m going to try.
As well as the door stop I made for mum for Christmas, I also made her a bag. I think this is my favourite bag design yet, as the handles scoop right around the bottom of the bag, therefore they take the weight of the contents rather than straining the glue in between the frame and material bag.
The frame is from Hong Kong, and was so cheap! I couldn’t help it, I ordered loads of frames once I found this site in case everyone else found it and it ran out! It took a couple of weeks to arrive (forward planning is essential!) and perhaps some of them aren’t the best quality ever, but they do the job perfectly and look great!
I bought the material from two lovely ladies at Saints and Pinners who are utterly lovely people. Good customer service is rare these days, so when you find it, it’s so wonderful! I highly recommend them. The buttons came from John Lewis and were a little pricey at £3 each, but they add that detail that the bag needed I think. Check out the contrasting thread used! Yeah – check me out!
My favourite bit is the inner zipped pocket. I used Lisa’s fantastic tutorial for this, and just added a bit of the outer fabric over where I wanted the zip placing. This gives a very professional finish I think, and I would do it again. I may do a tutorial on this in the future, it really is simple though. I wish I’d placed the zip a big higher up in the bag, but never mind – lesson learnt for next time.
I have taken a week off from work, to wind down from Christmas and New Year, and I want to make a few things. I’ll be sure to post with updates.
These are wonderfully quick and easy to make, as there is no need to be neat – my favourite type of sewing! This was featured on Kirstie’s Homemade Christmas. I’m putting her tutorial for the stocking on here, as I think it was a little rushed on the programme, and so it was easy to miss the stages.
Ingredients
0.5 metre of Christmassy material
0.5 metre of material for lining (I’ve used gold velvet – very cheap at £2.99 per metre!)
.25 metre fairly thick wadding
Small amount of thin wadding
Stage 1
Draw on a piece of paper (or straight onto the wadding) your desired stocking size and shape. Add 1cm all around the edge for your seam allowance, and then cut this shape out as a single layer of the wadding.
Stage 2
Next gather your Christmassy fabrics together, and chop off a couple of smallish pieces. there is no need to worry about straight edges.
Lay one piece of material face up over your stocking shaped wadding. It can go anywhere, but perhaps place it so that it covers quite a bit of the wadding.
Next take another piece of material, and lay this face down on top of the first piece of material. Try to line up the edges (as much as you can).
Next stitch along the edge of the two pieces of material. No need to pin them, they shouldn’t move about, and it’s not the end of the world if they do. You will be stitching through the two layers of material, and your wadding.
Now if you unfold this piece of material, you’ll see that you have two lovely bits of material fixed neatly to the wadding.
Then, leaving these two pieces of material face up, lay the next piece of material face down, lining up an edge and stitching along the edge.
Continue adding fabric and stitching in this way, aiming to cover the entire piece of wadding with material.
Stage 3
Eventually you’ll end up with a mess looking something like the below…
Get the iron out (it’s only quick, and really makes a difference) and iron over those seams to make it all nice and flat. Your aim should be to hold the pieces of material apart so that you can almost see your machine stitching. Iron it whilst your material is being held taught.
Turn it over, and trim off the excess material.
Stage 4
You then need to create the backing for your stocking. I’ve used one piece of material, and using my stocking template have cut this out of seasonal material. You can, if you wish, create a patchword backing for your stocking too, but without the wadding (just keep adding material and measuring it against your template until it’s big enough).
Stage 5
Next, to turn to the lining. I’m using this gold velvet material - usually hideous, but weirdly at Christmas it suddenly looks great! I doubled the material over so that there are two layers, and then pinned my pattern piece on. I cut my template out, but extended the leg of my stocking by about 5 inches. This will be used as a lip over the outside of the stocking.
The material I am using is very flimsy, so I’m sewing some firm interfacing/very thin wadding onto the extended section at the top. As this material is stretchy I’m sewing my wadding on using a zig-zag stitch, as I seem to remember reading somewhere that this was recommended.
Next, pin your pieces of lining together (right sides facing) and stitch (zig-zag again), leaving the top of the stocking open.
The perceptive amongst you may see that it looks like I’ve pinned to allow for a turning point in the lining – ignore this, this wasn’t needed in the end. Just to clarify, sew all the way round aside from the very top of the stocking – where you’d usually put your foot in!
Stage 6
Do the same with the outer stocking, pinning and stitching all the way round aside from the very top.
Now turn your outer stocking the right way out, and slip the lining (swong side out) inside the outer. The wrong sides of each stocking should be touching. Start getting excited, as it’s nearly finished!
There will, of course, be a lip of the lining sticking out of the top of the stocking.
Fold the lining over so that the raw edge of the lining meets with the raw edge of the outer stocking.
Then fold it over again, using the meeting of these raw edges as the folding point.
Thread your machine up with complimenting coloured thread, and stitch around the top of the stocking, therefore securing these couple of folds in place.
That’s it!
At Christmas I say you can never have too much, so I then like to decorate my stocking with bells, bows, felt cut outs, the more the merrier!
And another one I made last weekend, I embellished with ribbon. If you choose to sew things on such as ribbon and string, you’ll need to do it before sewing the front and back of the outer stocking together.
Ta da! Now, if you wish, attach a loop of ribbon on to hang it up. Happy Christmas everyone!
While I’m waiting for my nails to dry, I thought I’d share with you a little pink wool bag I made recently.
Isn’t it cute?
The outer fabric forms a lip to the lining, which was really difficult to work out in my head! The coursage on the front is a shop bought one. I love how coursages are making a revival – my friend over at second phase living makes beautiful ones.
And whilst looking for a picture of that pink bag to show you, I found some other purse pictures I’ve haven’t blogged about – a nice surprise!
This is using some of the 1950s style fabric I bought. The zip corners didn’t quite work on this one, but I still like it.
This one is really cute I think.
I love how this one is so simple and plain on the outside, and then…
… it’s like there’s a little surprise waiting for you! This is, again, some 1950s style fabric I bought.
I think it’s another weekend of Christmas craftiness approaching, I’ll be sure to post some pictures.
This is a very very easy bag to make. It can be made more complicated if you want to add a magnetic fastening or bag feet, but in the below version I’ve kept it really simple.
Ingredients:
Outer fabric (2* 39cm x 26cm)
Inner fabric (2* 39cm x 26cm)
Firm interfacing (2* 39cm x 26cm)
I bought some new pyjamas from Primark the other week. They’re like an adult babygro! The boyfriend wasn’t too impressed to say the least, but anyway… being of the short variety of lady, the trousers were several inches too long for me, and looked pretty rediculous (not that they were ever going to look any different anyway of course).
So I opened a seam on the foot, and cut where there wasn’t a seam (see the black line below).
I then turned the main body of the pyjamas inside out, and put them on. I also turned the foot inside out and put that on. I turned up the legs of the trousers until I was happy with the length. I did this whilst kneeling so that they wouldn’t be too short. I pinned the leg to the foot at the desired length, and then sewed it. Hey presto! So easy!
It was at this point that I really panicked, as I noticed my machine was skipping stitches -oh no!!! I have a 1970s Singer sewing machine which my mum gave me. I was be in a world of trouble if I broke it! I only had it serviced about 6 months ago, so I really was worried. Anyway, there is a very lovely sewing machine fixy shop near me and the man in there told me off for using the wrong needle with the wrong material – oops! So he changed the needle, tested it and it worked fine. Lesson learnt! Luckily, there is a table in my singer manual which shows which needle should be used for which type of material. I’ll always pay attention to that now!
Anyway, so I’m sitting very smuggly in my shortened pyjamas, listening to the rain, and deciding what to make today…
Someone suggested to me when I first started sewing that after each project I make, I could use some of the left over fabric from that project to make a quilt. After each project, I could sew a new block/square on. This sounds like a great idea, ignoring the fact that if you use different genres of fabric, it aint gonna look good!
So I ended up with a rather ugly collection of fabrics stitched together. I stuffed this into a bag and forgot about it, vowing never to attempt to make a quilt again.
Then I read project 5 on Crafthope. If you don’t know, Crafthope is a fantastic idea. It’s a collection of crafters from around the world (anyone can join in) and they all make the same type of thing (eg sock monkeys, dolls etc) for charity. A deadline is given, and everyone sends their projects to the chosen charity. It’s brilliant! I heard about Craft Hope in an issue of Sew magazine, when they were nearing the end of project 4 (sock monkeys) and I didn’t have enough time to get involved. Project 5 was a great way to pull up my quilting socks and try again, the result is…
I worked from the same mis-matched quilt I first started with, and built around it using left over bits of material and cut up clothes. It’s by far not the most beautiful/intricate/coordinated quilt but it’s my first, and I’m pleased I’ve done it. As I’m sending it to America I’m just sending the top rather than the whole thing, due to the weight/cost. I’m a bit sad about this as I’d quite like to finish it, and do the actual quilting bit (stitching over the top, backing and wadding). Never mind – I’m sure I’ll make another at some point!
I have made two Christmas presents now… still many to go, but I’m upbeat - it’s a start!
First up is this gorgeous mouse door stop. My mum received a door stop last year which… was not exactly to her taste. She’s been bugging me for a year to make her one, and I haven’t because my head has been full of bags! But when I saw this in the latest issue of Sew Hip magazine, I thought I must make it for her. The pattern was really easy to follow, and it only took a few hours.
I thought this would be a good point to share a tip about pattern reading. I was flummoxed for ages when faced with something like this…
…lots of patterns all printed over each other. I have no common sense, so I was quite disappointed as I thought you had to decide between all the designs, as you would have to cut the paper up according to one design, and therefore destroy the others. Then it was tactfully pointed out to me that I could trace the patterns off one at a time! Genius! Tracing paper is quite an expensive way to do this, so I use baking paper instead. Obviously this only works with patterns up to a certain size, then I guess you’re buggered after that…
I also made this zip purse for my little 9 year old neice, I hope she likes it.
It turned from this…
…into this…
Using Flossie Teacake’s fantastic tutorial. My measurements are 7”x5”, and I didn’t bother with the zip ends as I can never get them to look like they should anyway!
I have three gorgeous neices, they’re 7, 9 and 15. I’m going to make a purse for each (a girly pink one for the 7 year old, the one pictured for the 9 year old, and a rock style one for the 15 year old fashionista) and put a little bit of make up in each. Perhaps nail varnish for one, something lippy for another and… maybe some glitter for another. Body glitter is making a comeback apparently, so maybe that should be for the 15 year old.
Looking forward to the X-Factor tonight – go Olly and Stacey!
I’ve just got back from a lovely Christmas gifts and craft fair! I was a little reluctant to go at first, as I was going by myself, but I had a great time! The fair is on all weekend, so get yourself down there.
They had such a variety of wares for sale, and they even had a few woody craft people working there, showing how they carve wood! Amazing! I love these kinds of things. It was all set in tents, and they were heated and had a proper floor, so all very cosy and tidy. There were lots and lots of people, which I’m really pleased about for those who were selling.
I got some Christmassy bits…
and I also found a beautiful corsage stall, where the lady makes and sells at the same time. Liliia is certainly talented, with the most beautiful designs. I had to buy one…
I also bought this gorgeous pot. I have big plans for this pot, I’ll take a piccy once it’s ready.
I went to the craft show at Sandringham over summer whilst on holiday in Norfolk, and it still brings a smile to my face as it was so brilliant.
Next Saturday is the Country Living Christmas Gifts Fair in Islington, London and I’m going to that with my mum (another craft enthusiast!). Very excited!
So at today’s fair I spent all my pocket money for the week, plus a bit more! I did get a couple of Christmas presents though, so I’m kind of justified in spending. Right, it’s a Saturday afternoon and I’m off to make something out of 1950s fabric I think…
Sew Hip magazine do a fantastic feature every edition ‘Things we love’. It’s a couple of pages of fantastic crafty bits they seem to have found from around the web.
