Zakka Style Sew Along week 24 - nesting boxes - post 1

It's the last week of the Zakka Style Sew Along people.  I can see some of you sighing with relief - I'm sorry if I've been a bit one-topic recently!  This isn't actually my post to be linked up to the Sew Along, this is a pre-post!  I saw on the discussion group on Flickr that some people had made the boxes and didn't like the construction.  I had a look, I didn't like the construction either.  Far too much hand sewing... I knew there must be an easier way.  So I made mine like a bag.

This post is for anyone yet to tackle the project, this might be an easier way to do it!  I made one the same way as in the book too, I'll post about that next week and then link up.  I'll also give you the links, I don't have them right now as they won't be posted until Monday.

This is a sort of tutorial, but without giving pattern details away as obviously this isn't my pattern.  I really hope I'm not crossing any lines here - please let me know if you think I am.

Follow the instructions in the book for the Block and Side Panel Assembly and Leaf Appliqué.  You will then follow the instructions for Quilting and Appliqué with one difference.  Do not follow steps 1-3.  Start from step 4, laying the front panel on the batting.  No back panel.

After I'd finished, I cut the batting to the same size as the front panel.  Clearly I hadn't finished when I took this picture!

Cut your backing piece to the same size as your finished front panel.  Cut out your bottom square as detailed in the book.  I didn't actually bind the top of my box as suggested in the pattern, instead I sewed a 3" strip of cotton to the top of my back panel.

As you can see on my top picture, this creates a very wide "binding" at the top.  You could use a much thinner strip to replicate real binding.

Take your front panel and one of your squares.  Now, I omited the batting for the base of my box, and the quilting, but you could do that if you want.  Quilt the design as you did for the front panel, without the back panel.

I drew a 1/4 inch square around my base as I'm not so good at judging distances by eye.  If you are, you don't need to do this.

Now, lay your square on the bottom corner of your front panel, front panel right side up, linen square markings side / wrong side up.  Align the right hand edge and bottom of both pieces.  Start sewing 1/4 inch from the edge, sew until you get to 1/4 inch from the first corner.  Stop with your needle down, lift the presser foot and pivot until the second side of the square matches the edge of the front panel.  Continue all the way round.  It should look like this:

And from the back:

Sew up the two edges of the box with a 1/4 inch seam.  Clip the corners and turn right side out.  Do the same thing for the lining.  Stuff the lining inside the shell, right sides together.

Line up those top edges.  If you added the "faux binding", you need to align the top edges, not worrying that the shell will be floating inside the lining.

Sew all around with a 1/4 inch seam, leaving a turning gap.  Turn through.  It'll look like this:

Now push out the corners of the shell and then stuff the lining inside the shell, matching the corners.  Press the top.  Machine top-stitch very close to the join in "faux binding" and the shell to close that turning gap and hold the lining in place.

Ta dah!

Now, clearly my method means that the inside isn't quilted. 

That's fine by me.  If you do want the inside to be quilted, don't do the quilting at the beginning, construct the box with my instructions and those in the book as above, then hand quilt.  Simple?

So what do you think?

Pretty Crafty Home - Kitchen drawer

Hello ladies.  I've just finished the second week-from-hell at work and I'm looking forward to some weekend crafting and home prettifying.  Oh yes, I have plans to paint the bathroom.  Probably.  Anyway, you may have forgotten (as it's been a while) but I joined up with Pretty Crafty Home at Cherry Heart and last weekend I did some PCHing.  Not much, just a smidgen, but every smidgen counts.

We bought this house almost 5 years ago.  Whilst huge and a great bargain, it had been a student house for 20 odd years and so basically everything had been spray painted white, repeatedly.  The kitchen and bathroom are both from the 1970's.  At the moment, we can't afford to remodel them, though it is on the list, so I'm going to have a go at smartening up what I've got.  I started small.  With the kitchen drawer.

 

This was our cutlery drawer.  We could never find what we wanted in there.  So I decided to do something about it.  I think I was avoiding doing something else I was supposed to be doing, but I can't remember what... painting the bathroom?

Yuck!  How gross is that?  I gave it a bloody good clean, peeled up that horrible drawer liner and sprayed the whole thing with bleach.  Whilst it was marinating, I went upstairs to make some storage for the drawer.

Look what I made!  Well actually, that's just the scraps... loads of 2.5 inch squares... they might be turned into something at some point.  No, what I made was these:

The photos are appalling, I just couldn't get a good colour to them.  I measured the drawer and then drafted up my own pattern.  Due to a slight cutting error, it went from 3 fabric baskets to 4. 

Each is slightly different, but all are made with co-ordinating fabrics.

Wow, look how messy my craft room is in the background!  I have taken some "before" photos of that too, but it'll be a long time before I've done much "after" to it!  I did tidy up though.

Anyway, enough about the fabric baskets, back to that drawer.  I mod podges some scrapbook paper (leftovers from my wedding stationery) in place, then covered it with clear self-adhesive vinyl.

Much better already!  I then loaded all the stuff back in, throwing some bits away at the same time.

Ta dah!  I have another drawer which houses the foil and the dreaded cling film and stuff which I'll have a go at soon, and then two large drawers with saucepans and the like in them, they're also in my sights!

I do also have plans to paint the kitchen, wait until I show you shots of how it looks now and you'll see my reluctance to get started!  I also bought some Michael Miller, Put a Lid on It today, I'm going to have a gorgeous cafe curtain!  I did a little browsing for suitable material for the bathroom curtain, but to no avail so I'm going to try and use what I've got.

In other news, I washed and dried the baby quilt last night, I was so scared!  It's come out intact and I'm madly in love with it!  Photos tomorrow, light permitting.

My new best friend!

I've got a new best friend!  Meet Humphrey...

I was given a free copy of the pattern to make Humphrey by Retro Mama in exchange for a copy of Crafts Beautiful in which she was featured.

Humphrey!  Don't show the nice people your bum!  When we got our last rabbit, I wanted to call him Humphrey but Mr CA said no, so he was named Harry instead.  This time, Mr CA doesn't have a say in the matter!

Humph is made from grey linen with a piece of a layer cake layer on his belly and in his ears.  His tale is flannel so is nice and tactile. 

This morning I came up stairs with the intention of making my 5th block for the Skill Builder Sampler.  My computer took forever to boot up and so in the meantime I turned over my 2011 Sewing calendar and found this lovely little tray.  Well not this actual one, this is the one I made.  I'm far too lazy to climb down 2 flights of stairs and scan the original. 

You can find it at Boutique Nutmeg Designs if you want to make it.  The 2011 Sewing Calendar is actually a bit of a con as all the designs are available free on various blogs!  Ah well.  I've just realised it's not on my Craft Book page.  Does it count as a Craft Book Challenge?  I believe it does!

The pattern called for two 12" squares of fabric, but I used 2 layer cakes from my Bliss pack so the flat size is 10" square.  I also cocked up first time.  It says to sew the ribbons down to their intersections, so I did.  It was a bit messy as I used a zig zag stitch and the tension was all over the place, I couldn't seem to fix it.  I didn't think it would matter as I thought they'd be inside (despite me sewing them to the right side of the fabric - duh), but when I'd sewed it up, it was obvious they would be seen!  I also couldn't tie them to bring the corners up due to the way I'd sewed them, so I unpicked them and I'm just relying on where the two pieces were sewn together and the topstitching to hold them.

And what am I using it for?  To hold my Bliss scraps!

experiments in crochet

My name is Wendy and I'm a crochet addict.  There, I've said it.  Since I learnt to crochet last November, I just can't stop.  I spend hours looking for free patterns and tutorials and then trying them out - with mixed results!

Do you want to see what I've been crocheting?

I found this great tutorial, here, for a crochet bowl.  It's made using two strands of yarn.  Now please ignore the colours as I wanted to use up so yarn I had in case it didn't work.  I love the shape!

Then I used this pattern to crochet this cute little baby hat.  I used a Sirdar snuggly yarn with sparkly bits in it that you can't see on the picture.  Love the little flower!

My final experiment wasn't so successful.  I found this pattern for crocheted slippers and had to give it a go.  I have so many pairs of slippers, I have to have them scattered around the house so there's always a pair convenient, but some off them fall off all the time and have caused me to fall downstairs!  I thought that if I was making them, I'd be able to make sure they fit.  The pattern gives different sizes.  I started with a 5-6 as I'm a 5 and I think that's a 6 in the US so I thought I'd covered all bases.  The resulting base was so tiny a three year old would have struggled to fit it - OK, so I'm exaggerating, but it was tiny.  So I tried the size 9 pattern.  This is it.  I can't get my foot in it.  It's tiny.  I must be crocheting far to tight as I'm using the right yarn and hook.  I'll try again with a larger hook.

I've gone wrong on the toe bit.  I realised I had after I'd done the final row, that's why it's so misshapen.  Ah well.  It's only made using budget DK yarn (£1.50 for 100g) and the pair I make for myself will be from some Sublime Merino wool I have in a lovely blue.  I've just got to get the size right first so I'll try again with this yarn and a giant hook!

I've got my eye on a lovely hat pattern and I'm waiting for some yarn to arrive so I can crochet a fab bag I've found.  More crochet coming this way very soon!