Baby blocks

Cute alert! Got the idea from flicking through a magazine - can't remember which one - and essentially quite simple. Using my Sizzix machine I made standard squares. I bought some letter stamps on ebay but unfortunately they wern't as big as I'd hoped they would be - I wanted one lette on each block face but with the smaller shapes I went for 2-3 on each face, and the eet I bought came with a cute fish, so he's on there too!

So another gift set - this time for my PA who is on paternity leave.

Waistcoat - complete

Well it's done. Overall I think it looks good  so am happy  ...

... But  ...

... It doesn't fit my niece. :-( She has very politely said she's not bothered about it doing up, and it will look fine worn open  ... But it  should have fitted. So I'm wondering if the pattern didn't have seam allowances. I'm sure I measured her right and she hasn't grown.

Anyway, construction was mixed. Some bits really simple but in othe places the instructions were completely confusing. In the end I gave up following the instructions and did final construction based on the Victoria Blazer pattern, which worked fine.

Waistcoat 1

My niece turns 18 at the end of this month. Having asked her what she might want she said 'a waistcoat'.  Simple enough I guess. Starting point was to find a pattern. Being female she needs something with a bit of shape but so many waistcoats for women are incredibly girly (see New Look for my particular favourite in pink!) and she has a far more relaxed look - she's a jeans and trainers kind of gal.

And then I found this one in Burda Style magazine  ... Well found it online and as it's a back issue a quick trip to ebay got me the magazine! It does 'waistcoat' well, have a female shape to it without screaming 'I'm a girl!'

Onto the fabric shopping. It says to use an ottoman fabric. Well I'll be damed if I can find one. I did find an amzing knitted fabric that I thought might work but as it was £65 per metre  ... Yes, per metre  ... I felt that whilst I love my niece I don't love her that much. So have gone off-piste and am trying it with a cotton twill. We'll see if this agfects the drape I guess.

Anyway, first time making anything from one of these multi-pattern magazines. Having pulled out the pattern pages it looks like somone has gone crazy with some coloured pens. How the hell am I supposed to work with this? But thanks to the Male Pattern Boldness blog I tried highlight the pattern I want in the size I want with a felt pen, making it easier to trace. Et voila! Job done.

Phew!! Now onto the sewing.

House coasters

Well here they are - cute huh? Really simple and quite effective set of coasters; perfect as a house warming present. The design is from an old Sew Hip magazine by Jo Ebisujima who designed the Travel Tray I made for hubby. The only deviation from the design was to leave out the spoon hoop - didn't quite see the point of those  ...

Anyway, the very exciting aspect of these are that hubby got involved in making them - they are for his brother after all. He did the (sewing machine) applique stitch around quite a few doors and windows as well as sewing the layes together and turning through a couple. Have I converted him to sewing? We'll see.

Hopefully the B-I-L will like the gift!

On a roll

Well, whilst I'm waiting for the next sew along post I'm desperate to get sewing something else. I've put an orde in for some fabric for another project  ... more on that when it comes through. But wait, what's that? Brother-in-law moving house in less than a week? Well I must make a house warming gift! So I had a rummage in some old Sew Hip magazines and found a cute pattern for house shaped coasters  that will be a great stash buster too.

Bunting

More bunting made for a friend's nursery - simple. Cath Kidson fabric as requested.

Trousers 1

My husband and I have a tradition of Christmas cracker presents.  we make our crackers and rather than a mood fish or mini plqstic hoop-la we put in our own gifts  ... Or a representation of a gift. Last Christmas I decided it was about time I made good on my promise of making him trousers. He's 6'6" and that height is all in his legs, so ready to wear trousers rarely fit him or he has to spend almost £100 in a specialist shop.

So for the cracker I knocked up a quick pair of mini-trousers from Batman fabric and then gave him tha pattern. I chose Burda 7841 - It looked smart enough for a work trouser but also could work as a more casual pant. This is the firts time I've worked with a proper pattern for about 22 years  ... since school! So it's a bit of a test for me. It's also my first proper foray in clothes making so I know the sewing has to be good, no more 'rustic'!

Step 1 - shopping! Took the husband to John Lewis so he could pick the fabric. He went for a dark grey gabardine. Couldn't find a zip that was the right length so I thought longer was better than shorter. It was a little bit crazy in the shop - we almost had a fight over a tube of buttons!

Step 2 - pattern cutting. Having measured hubby I identified which size to go for, but obviously the legs need adjusting.  I've added in 3/4" into both the lower and upper leg on each pattern piece. I want to crack on but know I need to wash my fabrics before starting  ...

The cutest thing ever!!!

So I've been wanting to make one of these since I got Small Stash Sewing.  The ohoto in the book is so cute and it is obviously one of the most popular designs from the book. A friend I knwo through guiding is having a baby in September so I thought this might be an ideal present to make for her but with a guidey twist.

It needed 5 different fabrics - I used 2 from my stash and used three guiding fabrics: the first was my old leader's shirt; the second was from my Centenary neckerchief which also handily provided me with bias binding; the third was my tartan neckerchief from the recent WAGGGS World Conference.

It was a pretty easy make and very enjoyable too.  As I cut out the feather shapes I could really see it coming together.  I'm really pleased with how it has turned out.

Charlie!

My niece is a big fan of Charlie the Unicorn, a bizarre series of cartoons about a grumpy unicorn and his psycho "friends".

When I got my Small Stash Sewing book for Christmas I saw a very cute, girly unicorn cushion and wondered if I could adapt it.





I got the template from the book and traced over it, using a still from one of the videos for reference.





I transferred this to my fabric then got embroidering. I'm a little concerned that I quite enjoyed the embroidery ... But have to look at a few more projects involving embroidery now!




All in all, a nice little project. Just have to wait and see what my niece thinks when I give it to her!

Messenger bag

Another little project from Sew Hip. I quite enjoyed this one but I did cock up some of the stitching. It is my first use of a magnetic snap and I have learnt that metal bobbins and magnetic snaps don't work well together ...

As a b'day pressie for one of my best friends I did enjoy making this and am mostly happy with the result.

Another quilt

Another baby, another gift ...

Some good friends of ours have just given birth. For a few weeks now I have been working on another circle quilt. At every turn I seemed to come up against an obstacle. I decided to make it from my stash rather than purchasing even more fabric (seriously, it's getting ridiculous now!) and that was ok. I think I could have been a big more strategic in terms of colour choice. There's a bit of clashing here but, hey, it's for a baby. Multi-colour clashing should be fine, right?




I did need to buy new fabric for the backing but managed to do the binding from existing fabric. I was quite gutted that I didn't have enough wadding to fit the quilt in one piece, but as I have sooooo much wadding knocking around I did manage to do it from two panels and I think it has worked quite well.




I was using up the excess thread I'd purchased for my fantastic bag. Unfortunately, just as I started the quilting I ran out if thread ... I headed back to John Lewis where I purchased it and they were sold out. Managed to find it online and then had to wait over a week for it ...

So it's done - finally - hoorah!

argh!

Why can I never get quite what I want?  took a trip into town yesterday to buy another spool of thread.  I'm mid-quilt and so definitely need the exact same colour.  But no, they've run out.  delivery in about 10 days.  That sucks!  I WANT TO FINISH MY QUILT!

So I try to but stuff to make a birthday present for a friend.  I can get the fabric and the thread but the hardware and the interfacing? no.

And I'm still searching for bamboo handles the size I need for a bag I wanted to make myself.

I'm off to sulk now

Quick gift

It's been a while - I'm in the middle of a project which will hopefully be finished soon.

We're off to a friend's BBQ for her birthday today and realising I hadn't bought a gift I thought I should knock something together quickly.

So I had a quick flick through my latest Sew Hip where I had seen a simple yo yo flower brooch, grabbed two fabrics, thread, needle, button, safety pin and scissors and off we went.

In the coffee shop on the way I did a quick effort but I think it worked out nicely. It is, after all, the thought that counts!

one last thing ...

ok, just one more thing to get caught up.  I did a really quick little project to make a cushion cover.

My husband gave me a Barcelona hanky ages ago, after a fabulous trip to Barcelona, that I have just had knocking about the bedroom.  I was using it on my dressing table chair to make it slightly more comfortable.  So I decided to make it into a cushion cover.  My husband was throwing away an old shirt so I used the front of it with the buttons to make the back of the cushion cover, meaning that it already had a finished opening.

I simply cut round the hanky to make sure the back panel was the right size and then sewed round all four sides with rightsides together and then turned it out through the buttoned opening.

As we were also chucking away some old battered pillows that had got quite manky, I stuck them through the washing machine and then cut them up, resewing them closed to make cushion pads out of them.  So now I have some spare cusion pads - a few more cushion covers to come me thinks ...

Birthday time

I have just celebrated another birthday  I'm not one of those people who is fussed about aging (maybe that will change as I get older?) but this birthday signifies aproximately 1 year since buying my sewing machine, which is quite a landmark in itself.

So what have I achieved in the past year?

• Bunting
• 3 pigs (two types)
• 8 bags (varying types)
• 3 bears
• 5 pairs of slippers
• a needle case
• a sock monkey
• a purse
• a dress
• 3 pairs of curtains
• an Iphone cover
• a baby book
• a hat
• a skirt
• a quilt

Not bad... when you put it all together like that you realise how much you have done.

Thankfully my birthday didn't pass without further sewing-related presents:

A rotary cutter, large cutting mat and quilters ruler from my lovely husband

Small Stash Sewing book, with the most amazingly titled item - Owly McPillowpants - known to mankind.  Item from this book is the next project so  more to follow ...

Also 3 fat quarters beautifully selected by my wonderful sister.

right then ... best get on with some sewing then!

Happy New Year!

Christmas is over, my jeans are too tight, and I'm please to say that I did get a few sewing related presents.

My first one is from my work Secret Santa.  This year, to help each other out, we each submitted two words to indicate what we might like to receive.  I said "Fat Quarter" and was amazed to actually get 3 beautiful fat quarters, all nicely presented in a ribbon with 3 cute buttons.  Apparently they came all the way from France!

From my brother-in-law I got a free-motion foot for my sewing machine.  There's been lots of wonderful designs in Sew Hip magazine with machine embroidery and I want to give it a go ...

And then my wonderful husband.  He bought me some more bobbins in a bobbin case, which is great as I needed some more.

He also bought me a racing wheek and some dressmakers tracing paper - which is very exciting.  I have to admit that I didn't know what it did when I first got it but have had a little play and it is quite cool.

So overall I think I am a very lucky girl.  The various hand made sewing-based presents also seemed to go down generally well, so best get started on birthday gifts!