M is for

A busy bank holiday weekend called for a relaxing craft in front of the TV of an evening.  Enter decopatch...

I'd bought these MDF letters at the craft fair along with a load of decopatch papers.  I also bought a desk tidy and my plan was to do a rainbow sweeping across the letters and the tidy.  

So I got out my papers and sorted them into colours.  Blue, purple, red, white, black, gold...  hmmm, no yellow?  No green?  No pink?  OK, so a rainbow is out then!

I covered the fronts and sides of all the letters, including that tiny gap in the "A" (these letters stand 3.5" tall), and getting into some of those spaces was tricky.   Rude words were said.

It may be considered as a kiddy craft, but I like some kiddy crafts and I like decopatch.

My skinflint side insisted I spell out the 4-letter MAKE rather than the 6-letter CREATE!  Currently, they're residing on a shelf in my craft room (which seriously needs a sort out and tidy up!).  As I was framing the photo, I was pleased to see other handmade items in this little space, my inspiration wall!

Oh, do you like what I did with my bobbins?  That's a piece of L-shaped plastic extrusion from B&Q, taped onto the edge of the shelf so the bobbins can lie in front of the the spools.  If you do this, use A LOT of tape.  The first time I didn't and came up to my craft room to find bobbins everywhere, I'm still finding them now!

The one you've been waiting for...

I made the Amy Butler Weekend Bag.  In a day.  Yes, I'm crazy, it's something you don't want to try at home.  Sure, make the bag, but not in a day.  

The East Midland's Modern Quilt Guild had a sew-in session a few weeks ago where we were to begin our bags, a group challenge.  I couldn't go in the end due to my interfacing not arriving and the fact I had to dismantle an entire kitchen, but I resolved to make the bag anyway.  When I found out I was going to Turkey on the 29th April, I had my deadline.  Unfortunately, I didn't start it until the 28th April...

I bought the pocket fabric at the Hobbycrafts show in March with this bag in mind.  It's a Coats and Coats fabric and at £10 a metre wasn't particularly cheap, though it is heavy weight so it was a good deal.  I only bought a metre as I knew I needed 3 for the bag and panicked at the cost, so just bought one?!?  Where is the logic in that??  I later went to the shop I'd bought it from's webshop and it was crap, so I bought the rest of the fabric elsewhere.  Sorry, no idea where!  There are three different prints that I used - you can just make out the tiny roses on the handles, this is the same fabric as the piping.  In hindsight, it might have been better with the lining fabric as the piping as required in the instructions...

If you've seen this bag around, you might think mine looks a little sloppy and floppy.  It didn't, but I didn't take these photos until the bag had been dragged to Luton airport, around Luton airport, on a plane for 4 hours, to a hotel in Istanbul, to the office each day, out to diner, through a tear gas cloud and back again.  It held up really well!

I used Kate Spain's Cuzco for the lining, bought from The Village Haberdashery using the £10 voucher I'd won.  It helped lessen the sting of buying 3 metres.  Of course, I hadn't used this fabric for the piping, so I have over a metre left... I'm thinking skirt...  I suppose that's my first criticism of the pattern, it calls for 54" wide fabric for both outer and lining and when I tried to convert that to 44" fabric I came up with 6 metres total.  I've used about 4, maybe even less.  I suppose that could be a criticism of my maths rather than the pattern but I think they should tell you the fabric requirements for 44" fabric too.

I added the zipper pocket using the pattern from Lisa Lam's Bag Making Bible that I always turn to for fully-lined zip pockets set into the lining.  On hindsight, I'd have also added a couple of slip pockets.  Oh hindsight is a wonderful thing!  No inner pockets at all are mentioned in the pattern so I'd suggest adding some before you make up the lining.

So, what did I think of the pattern?  I'd heard horror stories about Amy Butler's patterns being very hard to follow, I didn't have that problem.  I found the pattern really easy to follow, my only mistake was sewing the side pockets upside down, she perhaps could have mentioned which was the top in the instructions, but then it was marked on the pattern piece, I just didn't check.  Apart from that, it all made sense.  I had a nightmare sewing the base/sides/top onto the first side, I must have sewn round the entire thing at least 4 times, but the other side was easier.  I did have to go over spots where I hadn't got close enough to the piping, but it worked out in the end.

I didn't like the way we did the lining.  The pattern said to use the outer pattern pieces, but sew with a 3/4" seam.  Not a good idea on curves, my inner curves are dire, but it was too late to go back.  It would have made much more sense to reduce the lining by 1/2" and sewing with a 1/4" seam to get neat inner corners.  

I had to finish with some hand sewing, and I should have sewn the top front and back edges to the lining as the lining droops when I open it, but it's too late now!  I also didn't do the false bottom as I ran out of time.  I don't think I really needed it though.

A word of warning?  Don't put anything in those outer pockets!  I lost my sunglasses on the plane, then lost my phone in Tesco... they're not secure at all and things wiggle up and out of them.  

BUT, it's done.  Weekender bag, conquered!

Third time's the charm

Version 1 of the rug was started in June last year.  It was based on a doily pattern.  It got put aside and when I went back to it, I didn't know where I'd got to.  I started again a few months later and again it got put aside.  When I went back to it in April, I didn't like it.  So I started again and last Sunday, the day before I went to Turkey, at approximately 7:30am (I'd got up very early so I could go to bed to get up at 2am!) I finished it.

I used this tutorial on CraftTuts.  It left a lot to be desired.  A few times I had to wing it as the instructions didn't make much sense.  A few times it told me to "inc" and I told it that it's not a knitting pattern so that doesn't make sense!

I put my 24" ruler on top to give you an idea of the size.  It's 35" / 90cm across.  I used 3 cones of Hoopla yarn so it wasn't a cheap rug, but it was intended for the living room.  Now, I'm not sure what I'll do with it!

I spilt coffee on the yarn or the finished rug several times...  I have turned it upside down so the stains don't show!  I could be housewife of the year...

Oh, forgot the important part!  This is #4 on my very-large-but-not-overwhelming-and-no-I'm-not-ashamed-of-it list.

ooh I could stitch a brick

That title popped into my head and I know it's a reference to something British in  my childhood but have no idea what... answers on a postcard.  

This time last year (I would never have guessed it was that long ago!) I made a circular brick stitch necklace in a craft class.  One of my colleagues borrowed it for the Christmas party and I made her these earrings to go with it, promising her a necklace after Christmas.  I forgot.

She reminded me on Friday so on Friday night I sat down and made her one.  I thought it would take days but it didn't.  I seem to have absolutely no perception of time whatsoever!

The original necklace was on a non-silver chain and she said it marked her neck, so I had to come up with an alternative.  I was going to go with silver chain, but she asked for cord.  I've used leather cord here but I'm not sure I like it.  I'm going to take it into her tomorrow and ask her what she thinks as I can easily change it.

The ends of the cord are finished with these coil-type-thingies, I think I can cut the bottom one off, the one that's crushed against the cord to keep it in place, but if not, I'll just cut the cord.  

What do you think?

roll up, roll up

Morning ladies, I've got just an hour before I'm going to the in-laws for dinner - not having a kitchen is a really pain in the arse.  We had the loss adjuster round from the insurance company yesterday.  They will only pay up if it's subsidence and they're trying to wriggle out of it.  He said that to check for subsidence, they'd have to take measurements every 3 months for a year...  A year without a kitchen?!?!  Currently, we have no idea what the hell to do.  But anyway, on to more positive things.  I got that damn jewellery roll finished in time!  

It was only after I'd finished it and finished sewing the binding on that I remembered I hate things like this that tie with ties, so inconvenient... why did I do it?  BUT, it served its purpose and it's pretty!

It's an altered version of the jewellery roll in 100 Pretty Little Projects, altered to remove the earring (blurgh) section.  Each side has a zip pocket, behind the zip pocket is another pocket.  On the right in this photo you can see the centre flap which has a pocket each side and I used mainly for pinning on brooches.

Flip the pocket to the side and you have the same again.  It worked pretty well so I'm happy enough with it.  Even in the binding gave me palpitations in its refusal to be sewn down

Boring post today, sorry about that.  I'll try to get tear gassed again or something...

loving all rabbits equally

Remember I keep saying I'll write progress posts?  I am so crap at that.  BUT, I do have a progress post for you today... cue the excited cheers.  Oh come on, at least pretend you care!

More progress has been made on the Lynette Anderson needle case that I'm not sure I like.  This is the front cover, all finished.  The house was supposed to be a button but they are hideously expensive so I embroidered it instead and added in a rabbit sent to me by the lovely Sandra.  OK, so the rabbit is clearly a giant rabbit, but I love all rabbits equally, giant rabbits included.  

If you're thinking this is finished, you'd be wrong.  I still have the two inside covers to do, then the whole thing to assemble if I can decipher the atrocious instructions.

I thought I'd show you an update on the crochet rug too.  Turns out I couldn't be bothered to get it out of the bag!  Soon...

Herringbone Weave

Hello ladies!  Well, it's been an interesting day, I can't say I've ever been tear gassed before, but I can now!  I've got something to show you from last weekend, or was it the weekend before?  I went to another craft class at The Bead Shop, Nottingham, this time we learnt wire wrapping, using the Herringbone Weave.

I am so sorry about the photos.  I took them on a piece of blue paper as they looked even worse on white.  I think there's a problem with the white balance on my camera, however it's not an expensive camera and I can't figure out how to adjust it...

We used Swarovski pearls, which are beautiful, and wire wrapped them using 0.6mm wire.  Confession?  I hated it.

I don't know if it was because I was stressed out, or it was the technique (it certainly wasn't the tutor, she's brilliant!), but I just could not get it neat and that frustrated and annoyed me.

This one (above) is the back.  We made links for a bracelet and I have almost enough, but I'm not sure I'll make it into a bracelet, they just look too amateurish for me.  

We'd been wrapping the smaller pearls, 6mm I think, so I tried a larger pearl to see if that would be better.  Erm... no! 

What do you think ladies, do these look like something a 3-year old would make?