Time flies

I have no idea where the time has gone but I do know I haven’t blogged for ages. I have been busy in the Veg patch getting stuff growing for the coming year. I haven’t had much time to make things for that reason. I have however as a treat to myself subscribed to the crafty creatives box which sends out themed boxes of crafty loveliness each month. This month the theme was the colour blue. I have used the felt and beads from the box to make a bird hanging similar to one I had seen on pinterest. Now I have something to enter in the pinaddicts challenge.

here is my finished article. The bird shaped glass beads are really cute I could have used them on so many different things.

Very Scooby Doo!

Last year I ordered some new patterns online when they were in the sale. As usual I didn’t read all the pattern instructions properly and just picked the ones I liked the look of. When this one arrived I realised it was for knit fabrics only. The pattern is Newlook 6979.

I have never attempted knit fabric before, partly because my machine is a bit fussy and secondly it scares me! Anyhow while searching for some fabric the other week I came across some knit fabric in a sale at a bargain £1 per metre. Throwing caution to the wind I splashed out a whole £1.20 on a length to make the skirt view D in the pattern. Cutting out was OK, I did use loads more pins than usual, and I was very impressed with myself that I remembered to change my machine needle to jersey. The machine didn’t seem to object to stretch on the straight stitch but it didn’t much seem to like the zig zag.

Anyway I am so chuffed with how the skirt is beginning to look I wanted to post a photo straight away, just pretend the hem is finished. I am just doing a rolled hem as I am not sure quite how to do it otherwise. If anyone has a better idea please let me know. I know the fabric is a bit psychedelic -is that spelt right?, but Scooby Doo was always one of my favourite cartoons. I’m beginning to think that stretch fabric isn’t quite as scary as I have thought for all these years so may well have to give this pattern another go.

Whatever you are making I hope you are keeping warm, the spring weather is rubbish here. Happy crafting x

Felting workshop 2

Last week I went to my second felting workshop. I had been to the first one before Christmas where we were taught to make a piece of flat felt. I so loved my piece of felt that I didn’t want to cut it up in any way. I have ended up simply folding it in half and making a needle case from it. I now have separate pages for my beading, tapestry and sewing needles.

I made some of my own buttons, Dorset buttons, I think the correct terminology for them, to jazz up the front a little.

The second workshop was to make a 3D flower corsage using a plastic resist. I chose the colours to go with my new coat. Although I am not really a flowery person I do love the finished piece especially as it is a one off piece and nobody will have one exactly the same.

The workshops were run at the new art gallery and cafe near to where I live. Check them out on Facebook , they are called Byrom and Steel, if you are near give them a try, the cakes are to die for!

I have also been working on another dress but am not really happy with how it is turning out. I loved the fabric when I bought it but now I have made it up I think it is looking a bit frumpy. I hate it when that happens, I made the same dress the other week and it looks great in the other fabric. I shall leave it on Ethel and keep looking at it in the hope that it will grow on me.

Whatever you are up to this wet weekend I hope it is successful, happy crafting x

On another planet

I thought today I would make another skirt for summer- ok so it’s snowing outside but what the heck! So I don’t know if the cold weather has addled my brain or what but I was definately on another planet when I cut the pattern out. I used the same skirt pattern as the one in my last post, a different view, but somehow I managed to cut it way too short.

PANIC as I had used a really nice piece of Liberty print linen that I had been saving, what to do? I had a rummage through my odds and sods of off cuts and found a piece of lilac that matched the colour in the skirt and have stitched a border around the bottom.

OK so it is not exactly the same sort of fabric but it is not far off and it has at least saved the skirt, in fact I quite like the outcome and may do something similar on purpose in future. At least the afternoon has not been wasted.

Hope you are all keeping warm and out of the snow. Happy crafting x

What happened to spring?

OK so last week was so beautiful it really felt like spring was on its way. I had even pulled out some more of my stash of fabric to make up into summer frocks. I have been stitching away and of course now they are done we are back to scraping ice off the car in the morning and have snow showers forecast for the weekend. So I thought that before I have to put them away to the back of my wardrobe until we do get some decent weather I would let you see what I have been doing.

My first make is this fab dress using Newlook 6803- I am especially loving that all Newlook patterns are reduced to less than half price until March 9th.

i have used some really fine cotton that I bought in India and it falls really well.

I also like the little pleated detail on the neckline.

Next I ran up a skirt from Newlook 6843.

I used some fairly cheap fabric for this as it is the first time I have made it up. I have some other material in mind for it now that I know it fits and hangs nicely. I especially liked this pattern, it advertised itself as easy, 1 hour sewing time. I am usually very sceptical about claims like this, however to my shock I did actually manage to complete the skirt in an hour as I did cheat and machine the hem where I would often hand stitch mine. If you need a new skirt in a hurry I would definately recommend this pattern.

As always Ethel my model is making a far better job of modelling them than I ever could. Now all I need is some warmer weather so that I can start wearing them. I am planning to wear leggings with the skirt as it a bit shorter than I would normally wear.

Whatever you are up to, happy crafting x

Another project finished

I am trying to make the early part of this year a time to use up some of my stash of fabric, yarn and other crafty supplies. My craft cupboard is starting to bulge at the seams, a bit like me really, and so I am trying desperately, and in the most part successfully, to resist the urge to buy anything more until I have worked my way through some of my stuff.

I had recently knitted a jumper which turned out to be big enough to fit half my village in together. It has sat in my cupboard while I tried to decide what to do with it. The jumper had taken quite a while to knit so I was sort of at that fed up with looking at the yarn stage and didn’t want to pull it down to make something that would take equally as long to do. Then a friend showed me a bolero that she had made and offered to lend me the pattern.

This turned out to be just what I was looking, what’s more I had it all put together in just 3 evenings, don’t you just love knitted with super chunky yarn on 10mm needles!

So here it is in all its glory, modelled far better by Ethel the mannequin than I ever could. I have enough left to knit another one for the friend who lent me the pattern too.

On Thursday this week I am going to a felting workshop which I am really looking forward to, I did the first one before Christmas and it was great fun. This time we are making flower corsages, I will post my results here if it comes out well.

Now I am away to have a rummage in my cupboard to see what else I can find to use up next. Whatever you are all doing, happy crafting x

Pet hate

Call me old fashioned but one of my real pet hates is people putting their feet up on a chair when they want to tie their shoe laces. Just sit on the chair and bend down to do it instead of leaving mud on my furniture.

At my front door I have a wooden pew that several people seem to think is a good shoe rest.    So what has happened, my lovely bench is starting to look tatty And I have had enough.

A few months ago I bought some fabric online to make cushions for my kitchen sofas but the fabric didn’t turn out to be a good match, obvious really as the computer never shows colours well, what was I thinking! So now I have fabric I like but nowhere to use it. Then this weekend while stuck at home I decided that if I made a cushion for the bench it may just make folks think twice about putting their feet on it, or so I live in hope.

So here is my bench in all its cushion covered glory. I decided to go for a patchwork theme just to make it a bit different and to give myself a challenge as I have never done anything but squares patchwork before.

 

 

I am quite happy with the patchwork, most of the corners match up, it’s not perfect but it is passable.

Hope you have all had a good weekend, happy crafting x

Making my own clothes

In a previous post I wrote about how I could never find clothes to fit and I showed a few photos of things I had been knitting. I had a clear out of lots of my old clothes that didn’t fit, many from last summer and am now turning my thoughts ahead to hopefully warmer days. While it is difficult to make too many things as the diet is going quite well and hopefully by summer I will be at least a couple of sizes smaller, I found this dress pattern which is not really fitted except around the bust so I decided to start with it.

The pattern is Simplicity 2249 and with a bit of clever (skimpy) cutting I managed to get it cut out of some fabric I had stashed away from a trip to India several years ago. I have stitched the front together and am pleased with the way it is coming together.

The sleeves are cut as part of the front bodice which is not something I have tried before so how it will suit me remains to be seen. I am hoping the inset lace in the front panel will produce the illusion of a thin waist when the dress is worn!

Watch this space for a photo of the finished frock.

Happy crafting x

Time………. (plus the Feb linky is OPEN!)

Time………. (plus the Feb linky is OPEN!).

For anyone out there who loves pinterest, get over to the pinaddicts challenge for this month and enter something you have made from your board- there is a lovely prize this month too.

Alternative Family Portrait

I have on my pinterest board a really lovely picture which is an ideal way of documenting the family at a particular moment in time without having to resort to a photograph. I pinned it originally because for a photo-a-phobe like me it seemed a great way to have an alternative family portrait.

This is the original as shown on my pinterest board.

It was seen by a friend who liked it and so as she has fairly recently had a baby I decided to make one for her. I co-opted her elder daughter to draw around the family’s hands for me and I hope that my friend hasn’t worked out what it was for so that the finished article will be a surprise. The same daughter also chose the colours for each hand outline.

I haven’t as yet decided whether to give it to my friend as shown above in its unfinished state so that she can frame it to her liking or to finish it as a cushion which is probably my preferred choice.

I have worked it with 3 threads of stranded cotton on some fairly close weave hessian over some batting. The large diagonal stitches are purely for holding the layers together.

I am pleased with the way it has turned out. So much so that I may use an old plaque made of salt dough from 2003 which has my three boys handprints on it as a template and make one for our family. To do one now would not be so great as two of the boys have adult size hands now, though maybe I could do a 2003 and a 2013 on the same piece as a sort of look how they have grown reminder.

Have a good weekend and happy crafting x