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

T-shirt tote

I saw this link on the sewing directory's facebook feed.  It is a really simple little pattern for making a tote from a t-shirt created by a Girl Scout from the States.  This obviously appealed to me as a volunteer with Girlguiding UK and I also have a T-shirt that I can't quite bring myself to chuck and a charity shop wouldn't be able to sell it, so it's just been hanging around.

Basically, I have recently been running and to challenge myself I sugned up for a sponsored 5k run for the World Cancer Research Fund, racing against a man in a banana suit ...  I did the run - quite pleased with myself for that.  And now I have a bright yellow T-shirt that has that annoying tight neck-line so I'm not going to wear it again ...

This was a very simple design - a few snips and a little bit of sewing.   Basically, cut off the sleeves, cut out the neckline and sew closed the bottom.  I also did a couple of little extra stitches to give the base of the bag a flatter bottom.

So now I have a bag (ok, another bag!) that I can just scrunch into my handbag to give me extra storage when it's needed.  Hoorah!

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!