Sew Along!

So on a Monday night I run a sewing group at the PrintHaus guiding beginner seamstresses through the steps of how to make items of clothing from paper dressmaking patterns. It's a 5 week course made up of 2 hour sessions and is quite informal and fun. We've just come to the end of the latest block and I always feel a little sad but eager to sign up another bunch of lovely people to come learn a new skill.

Its definitely a great sense of achievement to be able to make and wear your own clothes especially when you get positive comments on them! I have a couple of people who keep coming back to the class which is great as I get to see their progression and how well I'm doing with my skill sharing too!

So if you live in Cardiff, have a sewing machine you're intimidated by and can commit to 5 Monday nights at a reasonable price send me an email for more details!

helensmith123@gmail.com

No Rain in These Clouds just Fluff!

I've not been very well this week so thought I'd share something nice to cheer up everyone's day! I've made a couple of cloud plushy cushions. They are so super easy and fun to make too.

I started off by cutting out a simple cloud shape from some blue and white polka dot fabric and appliqueing on a smaller cloud shape in a blue and white stripe. I love the combination of spots and stripes. It was always considered a fashion faux when I was growing up and I do love going against the grain eh! haha.

I used a zig zag stitch to secure the mini clouds and then putting the right sides together used a straight stitch to sew around the edge, leaving a small gap at the bottom to turn it through of course.

To get the fabric to sit well on the curve when turned inside out you need to notch into the seam allowance. This will insure the fabric doesn't buckle and look all lumpy.

Once it was done I gave it a quick iron and went crazy with my big bag of toy stuffing!

Voila a pretty cloudy sky for your sofa!

 

Re- vampery

So yesterday, in the wake of me realising I have to make a whole heap of stuff to sell on this market stall I'm going to be doing, I went on a revamping spree. I've been collecting old clothes from friends for a little while now; most people if they're having a clear out will give me a little nod to a bag in the corner to look through before they take it to the charity shop! It makes me very happy giving clothing a new lease of life, so I had a fun day. Here's a few snap shots of what I got up to, mostly adding lace to things it seems!

 

 

Elbow Patches, Cushions and more!

I thought I'd share some photos from the past week or two so you can see all the different things I've been doing!

Elbow patches and vintage dress repairs for Broken Girls Club

A huge pile of screen printed plushy cushions for Who? clothing

Some more for Droneboy Laundry too

Another of my Dahlias that I've grown from a bulb finally showed its beautiful colours this week. The sunshine's been all over the place so we have a few late bloomers! I spent Friday sat in the garden working on some embroidery and soaking in the atmosphere. The garden is full of spiders and I even had a visit from a dragonfly!

We had a big gathering at Porthkerry Park in Barry after Lucy's funeral on Thursday, a few of us helped set up the gazebos in the morning and I made a pile of tissue paper flowers, bunting and bows to decorate the place. It felt like a mini festival as friends played music too.

 

 

 

 

Love to you all everywhere, enjoy your crafting!!

Ironing Time!

Sorry I haven't blogged for ages but my clumsy side took over last week and I managed to drop my laptop =(  lame! I snapped the pin that the charger goes into so had to take it to the computer man to fix!

I have been crafting silently in the background though. Its been therapeutic making lots of things ready for our friend Lucy's send off which was yesterday. I will blog again later and show off all the things we made for that; this post in the mean time is dedicated to ironing and how the only things that get ironed in our house are the things I'm making!

I managed to put a hole through the board cover with my sharp fabric scissors a while ago and it's just got progressively worst over the past month or so. So I finally gave in and took some time to make a fresh one. It took no time at all in fact.

I was given tonnes of this great children's bedding fabric a few weeks ago and have been eyeing it up in my box of fabric ever since. The style of the print seemed to lend itself well to a cheeky board cover. I started off by taking the old one off the board and using it as a template for the new one.

I was a tad naughty and just cut straight around it rather than drawing it first. Cocky pattern cutting some might say but in reality I always cut corners when I'm making something for myself. It's different when I'm doing a job for someone else, I guess I know what little mistakes I can live with whereas I have more pride I guess in making things for others.

The next step was to cut some padding to go under the fabric, you need a well cushioned board haha! I had a pile of curtain interlining that was perfect and overlocked the two together. I was good this time and did pin it so it wouldn't move!

I stitched elastic all the way around, apart from the top straight edge to hold it down to the board. I think I might add some ribbon ties at a later date but it seems to be staying in place for now!

 

Wonderland Embroidery

I've started a personal project. I've fallen in love with the hoopla craze; I blame Crafster for this! Also there are a few large blank walls left in the house which are just asking for decoration =)

I bought a beautiful pair of vintage Alice in Wonderland curtains from eBay many moons ago and had (with hindsight now I'm gutted) chopped them up and made handbags and purses galore to sell at craft stalls. I remember they sold really well as it's really unusual fabric. I was in my early 20's and was eager to use good fabrics I guess; I'm so much more precious now. Going through the crazy fabric stash the other day I came across scraps of the curtains that I'd saved - go me not throwing anything away!! I decided it would be fun to applique some of the characters and use big enough pieces to fill my hoopla need!

Here's what I've done so far and some progress....

The Queen's announcer is in a 10" hoop and the Tea Party is in an 8". I've bought a selection of other sizes too for new ones.

The edge of the tea party is the actual fabric and the rabbit is appliqued onto the pink stripey background. Its a lightweight cotton that I thought matched quite well. The pictures below show a closer view of the stitches I've used. The pink stitched line work is back stitched to secure the fabric as well as decorate. You can just make out little french knots in the whites of his eyes. For the fur I've free stitched to give him texture but kept it to the outline for a more minimal feel. I've created stripes on his tunic and outlined the heart in split stitch as it's nice and neat. The screen print itself is terrible, the registration (lining up) of the colours is well off but it adds to the quirk I guess. I like the effect anyways.

The Tea Party was really fun to embroider into. The wonk on the print meant there was lots of bits I could tidy up. I've been wanting to do a pile of french knots for ages, what a perfect fit for a bunny tail, eep!

I've since added a few more stitches across the bridge of his nose to hide that yellow bit of print.

I made a little cross stitch pattern to his jacket to try and give a tweed impression and I satin filled in his lapels too. His waistcoat buttons have little french knots. I'm thinking of trying out some chain effects on the pocket watch.

The tea cup was originally just plain white, so I thought it'd be fun to put a little pattern on it!

So once again the running theme of the dodgy registration meant that Alice wasn't too pretty. You can see in the photo below she was missing a nose and her eyes were doing something funky haha. I used a split stitch to add different shades into her hair and then with just a single thread from the skein I stitched into her face to add more detail. I hope I've done her justice!

It was fun doing the little scallop on the bottom of her apron; I've enjoyed using new stitches.

There's still loads to do on the big rabbit one and I want to do more so I can have a big wall of hooplas but this is a work in progress so I guess I'll just keep showing you updates along the way =)


 

Collar Me Good

So this week it was Miss Appletini's birthday. A very good friend of mine that moved away last year to the south coast. I miss her terribly but this weekend she's back to celebrate! I'll see her tonight and as she'll be travelling today I thought I could sneak this blog post up with out her seeing her present! If you are reading this Missy then stop and wait til later!!!

She has the coolest style, a fusion of granny and punk rock! So I decided to make her a very un-rock and roll collar, so even when she has a good band tee on she can still old lady it up.

I choose a lovely blue chincy floral cotton and a green gingham for the reverse. I thought one collar two looks! I cut semi-ish circles and made the shape using my mannequin as a base.

I stitched down some vintage scalloped edge trim to the one side. This makes it easier when you're putting the whole thing together.

I added some polka dot ribbon to tie at the front and sandwiched it all together. As I was sewing curves, I pinned it to death. I'm usually quite lazy with my pinning when its straight forward sewing but it was a real necessity this time. A trick I was shown years ago when I was new to sewing was to put the pins in sideways as shown and then you can just sew straight over the top of them, the fabric will never move. The machine needle usually will get pushed to the side of the pin, although I have broken a couple of needles in the past, on the whole a useful trick!

I left a small gap about inch and a half in the back of the next to turn it the right-side round. Before turning round I snipped into the seam allowance so it would form the curves neatly. Then its just a case of ironing it all tidy!

I guess I'll find out tonight if she likes it but I have a feeling she will!

Also incase anyone is interestedI'm now on Pinterest!! Feel free to follow