Christmas 2011 - February

This is my February Christmas through the year post.  If you want to join in, you've got until the end of the day on the 28th to hop over to Allie's blog and link up.

In January I only managed 1 present, but I've done a lot better this month.

1, 2 and 3 - zippered pouches:

4 - Lavender sachet:

5 - wire knit bracelet:

6 - crochet wash cloth:

7 - Buttercup bag:

8 - embroidered bookmark:

9 - glasses case:

Oh yes, that's a grand total of 11 for February!!  A total of 12 overall.  Roll on Christmas, I'm ready for you... well not quite!

10 - crochet washcloth 2

11 - crochet washcloth 3

Crochet washcloths

Oh yes, another exciting title!  It does tell you what's in the tin though...

I LOVE to crochet, love it.  And it's perfect for evenings in front of the tv.  I'd been seeing crochet wash cloths around and thought they were the perfect project for practicing and learning new crochet stitches.

I found some Sidar Calico double knitting yarn on sale.  It's 60% cotton, 40% acrylic and the colours are delicious.  The picture above is my first attempt.

pattern here

And here's a close up of that pretty ruffle.  The pattern was great, really easy to follow.  But then it occured to me that I had a great resource for crochet washcloths in the form of 2 books I bought.  200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws and Afghans by Jan Eaton and Around the Corner Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman.  Both books provide a wealth of blocks and borders to mix and match.  Here's my first attempt:

Could this be the world's most fancy washcloth??  My husband says no-one will want to use it!

This is attempt number two.  Not quite so effective as I didn't start with enough stitches for this shell pattern. 

These are my entries number 3 and 4 for the craft book challenge this month.  That's 7 craft books so far this year.  Click over to Liesl Made to join in.

Hold on to your hats, another exciting blog post title - Glasses Case!

It really is so hard to think of interesting blog post titles!  90% of the time I just use the item that I'm showing you, but it's not really very exciting is it? 

So, no prizes for guessing what I'm blogging about today!

I wanted to make glasses cases as Christmas presents, particularly for my dad who has about 6 pairs and is forever losing them.  Scoring blogland, I came across Crafty Ady's blog on which she was showing her readers a glasses case she'd made.  A little bit of begging later (I have no shame nor dignity!) and she very kindly posted a tutorial!  It's a brilliant tutorial, really easy to follow and you can find it here.

The tutorial uses internal flex frames, which I think are brilliant for glasses cases, and the lovely Crafty Ady also pointed me in the direction of an online shop which sells really cheap flex frames (along with purse and bag making accessories galore).

I used some more of the Hushabye fat quarters of bargain fame (see Buttercup bag post if you want to know more) and the tutorial uses such a tiny amount of fabric, you could make loads just from a fat quarter. 

One problem I had was that the sleeve that the flex frame sits in is too short.  This is NOT Ady's fault, it was mine.  I read the seam allowance, saw it said 1/4 inch and translated that in my brain to 4/8 inch... 

(See my amazing gravity-defying spools in the background?).  I used the same fabric as the sleeve cover for the lining.  I'm really chuffed with it and will be making a whole loads more.  Most of my family and my husband's family are blind as bats so these will be coming out of my ears come Christmas.  I will, of course, use more masculine fabric for the men's cases! 

Now for something completely different...

For  my Craft Book Challenge no. 2 of February, I tried something completely different.  Ladies and ... erm... ladies, let me introduce to you - knitting with wire!

OK, so you're sitting there thinking "big deal, like we haven't seen this before", but I hadn't!  I went to a craft show back in November where one of the stalls was demonstrating knitting with wire.  I was entranced.  I bought some wire and beads and thought I'd get started straight away.  Then I forgot about it.  On a trip to HobbyCraft, perusing the after-Christmas sale section I found the book Wire Knits by Heather Kingsley-Heath.  I snapped it up and finally got to work on a bracelet.  Wow, did that knit up quick!  It's pretty much like knitting with yarn, the only difference is that you have to place the wire round the needle and nudge the stitch off the end.  Oh, and you can't wrap the wire round your hand unless you want to cut it in half! 

It's quite hard to keep it neat, especially at the edges, but a little tugging and stretching works wonders.

You will definitely be seeing more of these from me!

I'm linking up to Liesl's Craft Book Challenge.

The Buttercup Bag completed

In my last post I talked about how I had started on the Buttercup Bag, the pattern for which can be found on Made by Rae's blog.  Well, thanks to a change in family plans, I got to spend all of Saturday sewing.  I manged to finish the bag and I'm really pleased with it!

There are still a few issues with the finished bag, that seam at the top is still a little wonky, but the button bit covers the worst of the sins.  I had to make that part longer than the 3" suggested as my buttons were quite big.

It's a little bit wobbly and a bit wonky as it's hand sewn on and I was trying to make it invisible, but hey! it's handmade, what can you expect!

Here's a back view and below is the inside view.

I bought some little silver "handmade with love" charms and I want to add them to handmade items - where relevant of course, not on a scarf or a baby blanket, but definitely on a bag.  I attached it to the handmade pocket.

I made something else too, but I'm saving that for its own post later in the week.

In other news, I've won two giveaways recently!  First I won some lovely bug fabric over at Follow the White Bunny, then I only went and won an Amy Butler bag pattern and 2 half yards of fabric from Kite & String.  Thanks so much girls, I'm absolutely chuffed and can't wait to get my goodies, I'm definitely in the mood to make another bag!

FNSI results - 18th Feb

I joined in the Friday Night Sew In last night.  I didn't get too much done as my husband had been working away and came home on Friday so I wanted to spend some time with him.

Earlier in the week I'd come across this post over at I make Stuff.  She'd made one of the gorgeous Buttercup Bags designed by Made by Rae (free pattern here).  It only takes 2 fat quarters of fabric and I'd wanted to make a bag for my mother-in-law.  I generally buy fat quarters so I had plenty available, including 10 from the Moda range Hushabye which I'd bought for £10!  Bargain.

So I got to work.  This is how far I got.

But I'm not happy.  See the seam at the top?

Very messy.  I also hadn't caught the seam at the side so I've just unpicked it this morning and am going to try and sew it up again.  I'll post about it when I'm done!

The pattern calls for two buttons.  I'd gone to HobbyCraft to buy a magnetic snap (I'd only just ordered some from the internet when I realised I needed one for this pattern, so I had to spend £4 on one!!  I think I ordered 6 for a pound or two from ebay) when I saw these self-cover buttons.  I was amazed, I've seen self-covered buttons mentioned but thought you needed a special tool, I was going to look into it when I had a bit of spare cash.  Well, for £1.69 I snapped them up.  The two I've made match the lining on the bag above.  They were easy to make, though I had to fussy cut and fussy sew (is that a real term or have I made that up?) so the motif was centred, they'd be quick to whip up if it didn't matter about centering the pattern.

Last night I also finished off a work in progress from before Christmas.  I'd started to embroider a bookmark using the gorgeous designs from Big B.  I'd abandonned it half way through the first motif when I realised I was going to have to get working quickly on my presents to get them finished in time.  I had left it languishing in my sewing box so I got it out and finished the embroidery.  Last night I sewed it up.  I am RUBBISH at sewing up bookmarks, despite the fact they're the easiest thing you could sew!

It's backed with this sweet scrap of Moda fabric from a layer cake.

Some close ups of my embroidery.

I've used stem stitch for the icing, satin stitch for the cherry and back stitch for the rest.

Here I've done the doily in satin stitch (that was hard going round the  corners!), stem stitch again for the icing and back stitch elsewhere.

This one is stem stitch and back stitch again, with lazy daisies for the flowers.
I'm adding this to my Christmas stash.



Right, I'm off to sew that bag up again!

baby blankie

One of my friends from work is having a baby in March.  She left for maternity leave last week and me and our other partner in crime are missing her.  We had a collection at work and gave her some vouchers, but we wanted to give her a present from the two of us.  Rachael suggested buying something but I said "no way"!  We agreed on a blanket as Rachael says they're invaluable when you have a newborn.  She knows far more about it than me as she is actually a mother. 

I found a couple of patterns and let Rachael choose, she went for this one on the Lion Brand website.  I bought some Sidar Baby Bamboo in cream.  It's the softest, most gorgeous yarn ever!  It feels like a dream before crocheting and after.  It also crocheted up REALLY fast.  I thought it would take months but it only took a week of after-work crocheting. 

I'm not sure I did the ruffle right to be honest, I may have crocheted in too many stitches, but I like the way it looks.  I decided it needed something and added the satin ribbon.  I blocked it after I'd finished and it does look much nicer!  It wouldn't fit on the ironing board so I pinned it to the carpet and sprayed it.

I had some wool left over so started on a hat, but then I ran out of wool and so have ordered some more.  I feel some booties and mitts coming on!!

Zippers conquered! (Well, sort of...)

I think we all know what that means?  Oh yes, I conquered the pouches.  Finally!  This is my first entry for February for the Craft Book Challenge over at Liesl Made.

I made three more.  The initial purple one just isn't good enough for a present so I'll keep that myself.  This time I interfaced the linen which made sewing it much easier as it was far sturdier.  I had fun choosing the fabrics from my lovely stacks of layer cakes and charm squares.  The choice of zippers in my local Hobbycraft isn't great, and it's pretty much the only place I can get to, unless I brave Nottingham City Centre on a Saturday (not for the feint-hearted).  The lovely Sandra has given me the address of a fabulous Etsy shop which sells a great variety of zippers at a low cost, but I think I need to build up my zipper confidence before I invest!!
Here's a peak inside at the linings:

And a close up of the zippers.  I had loads of brilliant advice from both Sandra and Malea, but unfortunately I'd already sewn the zipper part before I read their comments/emails.  I will try your ideas next time girls!  Pop over to visit Sandra's blog for lots of lovely pouches and Malea's blog to see her pouches made from the same pattern I used.  Much better than my attempts I must say!

This time I sewed the side seam bigger than the 1/4 inch recommended.  I made sure to capture the majority of the zipper tape to the side of the metal fixing/plastic stopper inside the seam.  The zippers still don't quite lie flat at the ends, but they are better than the purple one which you can see here.  Oh, and by the way, the craft book used was I {heart} Patchwork by Rashida Coleman-Hale.  A book full of gorgeous projects and wonderful photography, but not such great instructions and real lack of diagrams and progress photos.

I think I might make these again, and I'll certainly try other projects from the book, but I think I'm going to need a bit more sewing practice first as the projects seem to be a case of work-it-out for yourself. 

On a non-crafty note.  I had a fish pedicure at the weekend, you know the little Garra Ruffa fish that nibble your dead skin?  Sounds gross but it was heaven.  I've just booked another!

Valentine's

I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day.  It doesn't really have much of an impact on my life.  I have seen a lot of Valentine's projects blogland over the last two months, and I have to say, I'm sick to death of it!  Judging by the posts I've seen, Valentine's is BIG in the US, with people giving Valentine's to everyone they know and decorating their houses.  I'm pretty certain this doesn't happen over here.  When I first met my husband, we probably went out for Valentine's and there would have been a card, but now we're not really bothered.  Restaurants sport overpriced, fixed menus and shoehorn couples in so it's not in the least romantic.  This year we decided to just exchange a card, then forget about it!!  I only really wanted to exchange cards so I could have a go at a design I had in my head for a heart card using free motion embroidery and applique.

It looks pink in the picture, but the linen is actually natural.

I cut the hearts freehand and attached them to the linen with Bondaweb.  I then machine embroidered over them.  I wrote "love you" free hand in the corner.  I then zig-zagged the panel onto a card blank and frayed the edges before adding a simple heart brad.

I think it turned out pretty well.  The first version didn't work as I'd backed the hearts onto a blue fabric, and when I sewed the "love you" in the variegated thread, it didn't show up. 

I also made some of the little heart pouches I've seen on blogland, filling them with his favourite sweets - Midget Gems.  These are just made from two hearts cut freehand from vellum and sewn together a little haphazardly!

Friday Night Sew In

Ladies, the sign-up for the Friday Night Sew In is open! You can find the link on Bobbi's blog and don't forget to visit Heidi too as she co-hosts the event.


The date is the 18th Feb, so you've got over a week to decide what you're going to sew... I am definitely going to do it this month. Last month I flaked out after a hard week at work and sat on the sofa eating chocolate and feeling guilty instead!

Crochet hearts

Wow, that's a bit of a boring title isn't it?  Sorry about that.

I've seen crochet hearts all over the internet and I love them.  I love hearts in general and am forever buying little hearts to hang around the house.  I decided it was time I had a go myself.  Oh, before we go any further, I have been practising my photography - I took them outside, went all artistic and pegged them up!  The photos are still far from perfect but a big improvement on my usual yellowy pictures!

I made four.  2 good, 1 bad and one circular!

The pink one on the right is the circular one and the white one is the bad one as it just doesn't dip down enough at the top...

See?

Hum.  Then I decided to try this tutorial here over at Skip to my Lou.  Success!!  I'm not sure about the centres as they seem to be a bit holey, but they're better than my first attempts. 

Now I just need to whip up a batch for a garland...

All those hours of practicing, for THIS??

I don't know if you remember, but I recently posted about my free motion embroidery attempts.  I gave it up because the bobbin wouldn't stop looping.  Well, I went back to it at the weekend to try again.  Same problem.  So that project is abandonned, but I did practice my free drawing again so I haven't given up on the technique, just that particular project!! 

Anyway, I did manage to get one of them done before the bobbin declared war.  I sewed it up into a very simple little lavendar sachet.  Christmas gift number 2 all present and correct!

Mad Writing Skills

Have you seen the new series over at Mad in Crafts?

You may not know this about me, but I used to be an English teacher.  The kind that teaches English as a foreign language.  I've always been a bit of a stickler for grammar and so I was chuffed when the series was announced.  Seriously, bad grammar annoys me! 

And guess what?  (That was bad grammar - you shouldn't start a sentence with "and") the first question she's answered was mine!  I asked about the word "addicting" which I see everywhere in Blogland but I swear is not a word.  Turns out it's US English.  You still won't find me saying it!

my pattern testing adventure!

Last week I responded to a call out for crochet pattern testers by Heather at Me Making Do.  She chose me to be one of her testers and I received a pdf pattern of a headband which came with a removable flower and removable bow so the pieces are interchangeable.  The pattern is now available in her etsy shop at a special discount price.  

I thought you might be interested to see the results of my work.  The first time I made the headband, I really, really struggled.  Each stitch was painful and hard.  When I'd done, it was a mess so I thought I'd try again.  That's when I realised I'd been trying to crochet my first attempt upside down!!  No wonder it didn't work!!  This time it went perfectly and flew off my hook, this is a really quick project. 

Here's a shot of the individual pieces.  I chose to do it all in shades of purple, but it would look great in so many different colours.  You could change the flower or bow to match your child's outfit.

And here it is with the bow in place and the flower waiting to be slid on.

And finally a shot with the flower attached.

This is a really quick make and suitable for beginner crocheters like me.  I really enjoyed my testing experience.  Heather has just launched a new crochet blog where she'll be offering some free patterns, hop over and see it.