A Year of Happy - 4/52

Well I haven't ventured out much this week, the weather has been mostly cold, wet and miserable but its been quite a good week for ticking a few people off my Christmas present list which I'm very happy about.

When I decided I would like to hand craft all my presents this year, I didn't take into consideration just how much time and energy it would take, so as time is passing, I have cheated and bought a few presents but I'm happy that I've also made use of some of the crafting materials I have on hand and this week I've enjoyed the challenge of turning some of them into gifts.  So all my happies for this week are crafting related...

My first happy is that I finished my Secret Santa gift this week!  Obviously I can't give you any details about this one right now as it might spoil the surprise if my SS recipient sees it, but there was a great sense of achievement when it was done.  You might also notice I had another little play with my question mark illustration on Photoshop during the week too - I wanted to make it look a bit more interesting.

My second happy is a pair of cushions I've made for my eldest niece and nephew who recently bought a house between them as a way onto the housing ladder.  They have a mid-grey sofa with green piping so I've made these out of a piece of fabric I bought earlier this year.  The fabric design sometimes makes me think of a coastal scene and at other times it makes me think of Venice - either way, I knew I wanted to decorate the cushions with "bunting".  I bought half a yard/metre if this fabric, which was enough for two cushion fronts but not the backs, luckily the strip I cut off the top of the fabric, was wide enough to decorate the back...

I used a simple pillowcase construction and attached the strip to the edge of the top flap, the rest of the back was cut from a large piece of cream cotton I bought I few years ago and never used.  The "bunting" is made from the cream fabric too, I wanted to keep it plain so it didn't distract from the lovely green fabric.  I was also incredibly lucky with how the back strip worked out - just enough to be able to place the buildings at the top and some boats at the bottom.

I did the stitching with a mid-grey cotton which will hopefully match with the sofa.  I'd never done machine applique before - it was a little scary but I'm pleased with how it turned out.  One last photo...

My last Happy is a bag I've made for a friend of mine - she loves environmentally friendly shopping bags.  She's also a quilter so the bag needed to be really well made...

I used some more of the cream fabric and added a border of a pretty birdie fabric which I used as inspiration for the machine applique I used on the front.  This shape wasn't as easy to sew around and it wasn't as easy to see what I was doing as the colours were so similar.  The handles are reinforced with webbing and sewn in about 5 times on each end, while the side seams are double sewn so all the raw edges are hidden (I have no idea what that type of seam is called).  The bag itself is made from a single piece of fabric which will hopefully make the bag stronger and give my friend a reasonable amount of use out of it.

Hopefully I haven't spoiled any surprises here as I'm reasonably confident that my niece, nephew and friend don't read my blog.  If any of them come across this before Christmas Day, then please accept my apologies, but I was just so happy with what I've made this week that I really wanted to share  :)

Inspired by Moby and Alice

Once a fortnight I attend a craft club at my local library and every so often we tackle a book related craft project.  Our first project was based on Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" and our second and most recent has been Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland".  Its entirely up to us as to how we interpret the theme, we just use the story or characters as our inspiration.  The club has only been running for a few months so far, but its lovely to get together with other crafters, enjoy the company of like-minded people, learn from each other and it's great to see how everyone else interprets the themes.

I meant to blog about my Moby Dick themed project a few months ago, but looking back through the posts I've published, I've realised Moby got away from me somehow, so here he is now...

I still need to get some dowels so the wall hanging can actually be hung up, but I was quite pleased with the finished piece even though I've never tried anything like this before - at least not in felt!  It made me realise my abilities to work a sewing machine need a lot more work, but it was fun to do.  Some of my inspiration for this piece came not just from the book, but from a piece of stained glass that hangs in my bedroom window.  Years ago before problems with my hands made it impossible to continue with the hobby, I used to love making things with stained glass and while most of the pieces I made were given away as presents, one of the pieces I will never part with is the glass panel in my bedroom.  Although I can't see the sea from my window, it faces the sea which is about half a mile away and is roughly east facing so it catches the sunrise.  Its not very often these days that I'm awake as the sun rises but I do love to watch dawn breaking when I'm able.  I used black thread for all the stitching apart from attaching the beads and anchor at the bottom, it was a deliberate choice because I wanted to make the borders between the felt pieces stand out like the seams on a piece of stained glass - I just wish I'd managed to get them a bit neater!

Apologies for the bad photo, but this was just a quick snap of the glass panel taken on a very dull day!  You've probably already noticed a few of them, but there are four fishes swimming around in the sea.  Most of the panel is made from transparent water glass which is made with gentle ripples which gives a sense of movement; the seagull is made from opaque glass to make it stand out from its background.

My first thought for our current theme was to make a white rabbit, but I haven't yet got around to sitting down with pencil and paper to make a pattern for my bunny, I'm not giving up on the idea but I wanted to be able to produce something for our last meeting so I made a bracelet.  I've had the card charms for some years and the bunny charms for a couple of months, though I did have to buy the rose charms and the dark grey/black glass pearls in order to put together the bracelet I had in mind.  Several times I wasn't sure it would work out but after a couple of false starts I finally figured it out.

I have very chunky wrists so sadly the bracelet doesn't fit me, but one of my daintier friends has tried it on and I was pleased with how it looked on her.  I could have made it bigger but it would have ruined the pattern, it was made for the exhibition we will eventually have at some point, so it doesn't really matter that it doesn't quite fit my wrist, it wasn't really intended for me anyway!  One of these days I'll have to make a start on that bunny and maybe then I'll be able get the song "We're Painting The Roses Red" from the Disney film, that was the main inspiration for the bracelet, out of my head!  :)

Necessity Breeds Invention!

I was always very impressed as a child that my Grandmother seemed to have a saying for every circumstance and the one in the title is what popped into my head when I was making this bag (it seemed appropriate to photograph it on the beach given my choice of fabric).

Since I've had to start using crutches instead of a walking stick when I go out I've discovered a problem - it's very difficult to juggle a crutch and a carrier bag!  I tried digging out an old rucksack as the hospital suggested but I found it hard to get on and off as my left arm doesn't work too well either.  So the answer seemed to be to find a bag that would fit across the body, that wasn't so wide that it would get in the way, but that was also big enough to carry my usual bits - purse, phone etc., and any odd bits of shopping you might pick up when out and about - such as the local paper, a craft magazine, a library book or a pint of milk.  I thought that such an item would be easy to find... sadly not, so I decided I would have to make my own.  I spent some time looking for a suitable pattern but in the end I had to create that too - using pages from my local newspaper.

My original idea had been to use the beach hut fabric on the outside, make a plainer flap with something appliqued on it and line the bag with the seagull fabric, but I couldn't bear to hide the seagull fabric away, so in the end I used a plain calico for the lining.  The bag is also padded so it will protect my DSLR nicely too.

I also added a loop and lobster clip on the inside so I could attach my purse lanyard for security - plus it gave me an excuse for using some of this lovely ribbon I picked up in my local craft shop!

The handles were triple stitched for strength as I want my bag to last as long as possible.  All that was needed then to finish it off was a button.  I mentioned yesterday about the button... up to this point, all my decisions had been relatively easy so I never would have dreamed that choosing a button would be so hard!  In the end there was me, my friend and the shop assistant involved in its selection and we must have looked at dozens upon dozens of buttons before a final choice was made.

I'm still not totally convinced, but I think thats probably only because I'd previously found the "perfect button" in my button tin - only it was the wrong size for the loop I'd made and I couldn't find anything else that resembled it, this button really does work very well with the blues in the beach hut fabric so I'm sure I'll grow to love it too in time.

DIY Pincushion

Its been quite some time since I last posted a project on here - sorry but I've been distracted by a lot of other things going on in my life, I have made a few items lately, so hopefully I can share them with you over the next few posts.  I have no idea who - if anyone - reads this, but if you do, it would be great if you left a comment.

Last year a friend lent me a pincushion that attached to the wrist while I was working on a sewing project, it was really useful but I discovered that to get one of my own could also prove to be quite expensive, so I thought there was no reason why I couldn't make my own.  I bought my self a fat quarter of fabric, a piece of co-ordinating felt, some matching embroidery thread and a packet of elastic - the total cost wasn't really all that different in the end to the cost of a bought pincushion but I had great fun planning what I was going to do and it was the first time I'd ever tried die-cutting felt so I also had the excitement of discovering how effective that was too!

I actually cut my pincushion out and embroidered the hearts onto the fabric last year but then came to a halt because at that time, I still hadn't plucked up the courage to try out my new sewing machine.  The machine has been sitting on the dining table for a few days and today I finally decided it needed moving... but then thought it would be a good idea to finish a couple of outstanding projects first.  It actually only took a few minutes to sew around the pincushion - trouble was I'd under estimated how much elastic I would need for my (rather chubby) wrist as once I'd turned it out and slid in a piece of repurposed plastic (to prevent accidental pin acupuncture) and stuffed it, the elastic was tighter than I'd anticipated.  Luckily, I'd prepared two pincushions ready for sewing so made sure my second attempt was a better fit and in fact its currently in my teddy workbox already being put to good use.  :)

The pincushions are a very simple design, were really easy to make and I have loads of fabric left so I might make a few more as Christmas gifts for some of my crafting friends or I might use some of the other fabrics I've bought since or perhaps next time I'll make something more ambitious as I've seen some absolutely wonderful ideas for pincushions on Pinterest - but this one was designed with a particular task in mind and it does exactly what I needed it to do so I'm happy.

I have to admit I now regret that I gave away my old fabric stash a few years ago when it became obvious my old sewing machine was never going to work properly again, but the fabric did go to a good home and the fabric designs I've seen since I started looking again over about the last 10 months, are just SO beautiful that I have given into temptation a few times, so hopefully there will be more sewing projects to follow.

Sewing Machine 101

I can't really remember a time when I didn't have access to a sewing machine, but after a disastrous house move back in 1992, my machine got damaged and despite numerous attempts at getting it working properly again, I finally admitted defeat last year and replaced my machine.  The trouble is, its been so long since I was last able to successfully use my old machine, I've been putting off making use of my new one!  Finally enough was enough and I booked a one-to-one session at Kathy's Patch for me and my sewing machine to get to know each other.

Well I made it to my sewing machine 101 this morning, even though I was feeling more like crawling back into bed after sleeping badly last night. A lovely lady called Jo, took me through maintenance, threading, bobbin filling, all the stitches my machine can do and she finished up by showing me free-hand machine embroidery - something I've always wanted to try. The nice squiggly bit at the top was Jo's (she made it look SO easy) I found it a little harder to control but as my first squiggles looked a bit like a B, I had a go at my name. Jo said it was very good for a first attempt... I think I'm going to need a LOT more practice!  Marcus the bear came with me for some moral support as he enjoys trips out, meeting new people and having his photo taken.  Once the session was over I'm afraid I succumbed to a little fabric temptation, so I now have some beautiful fabrics for a couple of projects I want to try soon.  I also think it long be too long before I revisit this lovely shop!