More Zips, More Ripples and a Tangled Mess

After the success of my little Union Jack purse/accessory cover last week, this week I have been mostly making some more. I started off with the remainder of the scraps of blue fabric to make three more identical versions.

Blue fabric all gone, I turned to the rest of the hessian-type remnant and got busy with other scraps of fabrics and some more ribbons from my stash. The Cath Kidston Stars ribbon is a recent purchase. I finally got to visit the new store in Bournemouth, which unbelievably took me about three weeks to get round to!

More stash-busting.

And finally, at Mum's suggestion (thank you Mum!) a way of using up some more Cath Kidston scraps and keeping our friends from across the pond happy. I really love how these two turned out but am resisting temptation to claim one of them. I need some stock to sell!

In crochet news, lots of happy outdoor time at the park in the thankfully arrived sunshine has provided plenty of hooking opportunity, and my baby ripple blanket is almost complete.

Having never got to this stage of crochet before, I asked my crochet guru Bex at SnB last night if I was edging it the right way. Apparently I am, so Yay! I firstly went along the edge in double crochet, and am now making my way back along with trebles. In some versions I have seen, people 'fill in' the ripples along the top and bottom, but it is the shape of the ripples that I love about this blanket so I want to keep them.

At the beginning, I shaped the corner by using a double crochet, then a half treble, before going on to the main trebling. I'm quite pleased with how it's looking so far.

A little gratuitous close-up shot to make your eyes go funny!

 

As well as being a crochet and knitting guru, Bex is also a spinner and dyer of yarns. She has a shop online which you can visit here. I had been admiring many of the Hitchhiker shawls knitted by members of SnB and decided to have a go at one myself. I ordered the pattern and a needle and Bex very kindly brought me a lovely selection of yarns (see, I'm slowly coming around) to look through last night.

I settled on a lovely wool/nylon 4ply sock yarn dyed in gorgeous deep purple and turquoise tones and last night after SnB set about turning a skein into a ball. This was my progress as of 12.37 a.m.

Not really sure what I did wrong, but another hour or so this afternoon has left me with this.

I'm off dancing tonight so can't make a start just yet and it feels a bit ridiculous to start knitting a shawl when it's so blinking hot, but no doubt this will be another WIP by the end of the weekend!

Wishing you a lovely hot weekend with sun loungers and pina coladas.

Beth x

Zip It!

This week has been all about the zippy pouch, purse and accessory cover. I have been having a jolly old time fiddling and faffing about with my fabric stash, my buttons, ribbons and thread. It's been great, I finally feel like I can say I'm a sewer again.

I started off with the fabric I had cut that I showed you in the last post. The linen outer was from a bargain bin at my local fabric store, the flowery interior is Ikea. Originally I had planned to use buttons and ribbon only on the outside, but when I cut the excess from the interior pieces, I knew they would look great on the outside. So here they are.

I had a good old rummage around in the bags I was given by my lovely neighbour and found some more neutral fabric which I married up with some treasured Kokka linen that I only have a tiny amount of, bought from The Makery on a trip to Bath last year.

With another Kokka swatch I cut it more generously so it only covered three pouches. But don't you agree they look fab! I am rather proud of these. The trim is vintage, bought at one of the fairs I did last summer.

Next on the hit list was some Cath Kidston fabric. I had a special commission from my teenage daughter to create a purse with a dividing piece of fabric so that she can stash her phone and ipod together safely. She loves horses, so there was really only one choice of fabric for her. I only have the cowboy print in haberdashery weight, so I used heavy weight interfacing and an interlining for strength.

Thankfully it was well received. Phew!

I made these two with a tutorial in mind. Would you like to make one for yourself?

This morning, having another rummage, I found some dark blue hessian-type fabric. With so much red, white and blue everywhere, I had to have a go. Didn't I?




This is quite possibly my favourite. I have to confess that my own 'bits and bobs' went straight in it and it has become mine.

I had a little helper for the photo shoot. I think Edward is choosing which purse he would like.

He's not having mine.

I'm currently uploading about forty pictures taken for my zip tutorial. Hopefully I will get them edited and arranged tomorrow so I can post again soon and you will be able to have some fun with your own stash!

See you soon,

Beth x

edited to add: the zip tutorial is now ready. You can find it by clicking here x

Progress

Although I have been doing lots of extra night shifts lately and have been feeling slightly zombie-d, there have been some crafty things happening here.

Crochet has become my new addiction. From initially hooking up little granny squares for pure pleasure, I progressed onto sorting them out a little and choosing nine to turn into one large square which I am intending to become a cushion.

Having finished this square I am trying to decide what to do about the reverse of the cushion. Do I make another square, use fabric or try and thrift an old jumper to adapt as I have seen done very successfully elsewhere? Any thoughts or suggestions welcome!

My thoughts are already turning to what I want to crochet next. I have found plenty of inspiration in both my trusty old craft books and from the internet. I took an opportuntity to pop into my local wool shop the other morning whilst it was quiet and I was on my own so that I could have a proper browse. My intention was to add some more shades to my acrylic collection so that I can make something really colourful.

These are the acrylics I already had and below are the new ones. I have been playing around with different combinations but as yet remain undecided on the exact palette to use.

Since this knitting and sewing obsession has been growing, I have been gathering up all the little bundles of wool/yarn squirrelled away in various parts of the house. I need to address my storage issues! Out of interest, I laid it all out on the sofa. Grannie Magpie please look away now.

I was a bit shocked myself at how much there was when seeing it all together. I just need to look at this picture next time I feel an urge to buy some more. Rachael from Sew Ray Me kindly emailed me a pattern to make fabric baskets last week. I am thinking of making some to accomodate some of my stash.

Talking of storage, I have been taking pictures of the dining room as it's make-over is in progress. This has been a gradual process since Christmas but I think we will be paying a visit to the big blue and yellow shop in the next few weeks where I can get the last few bits and bobs I need. Hopefully I will have it all arranged how I want it soon, then I will give you a tour of my crafty space.

In crochet-related sewing, I spent a happy few hours yesterday creating these little lovlies. I wanted to make one for myself and the other two are for presents. I used three fabrics from my Cath Kidston cotton duck stash for the exterior, with coordinating haberdashery fabrics for the lining.

To make them, I used a tutorial from Joanne's blog; you can find it here. The tutorial is really well written with lots of pictures. I think it took me about three hours in total to make these. An enjoyable afternoon!

The only thing I would change if making this again would be the needle pocket. My needles kept falling out when the roll was closed. Possibly this is due to me using cotton duck fabric and not the recommended quilting weight cotton (which also made the whole process rather trickier, why didn't I learn from the jewellery rolls I made?!) but the problem would be easily rectified by replacing the pocket with a piece of felt to keep the needles in.

Today the boss has told me that I need to get on with the brick path that I am creating in the back garden out of our old kitchen wall. Better get on then.

Thanks for stopping by,
Beth x

Evolution of a Sewing Habit

This time last year the only machine sewing I had attempted involved straight lines, no patterns and rather a lot of frustration. True, in this time I did manage to assemble several baby quilts (although the word quilt can only be loosely applied) a couple of cushion covers (not removable) and quite a lot of roman blinds.

My 'technique' was to buy appealing fabric, approximate a design in my head and then to begin making my chosen project with a mixture of trial and effort, struggling to marry up the image in my head with the wobbly lines of looped stitching that were emerging. I did have a book borrowed from my Mum for the blinds, which were fairly successful, except for the bathroom blinds (which were the first ones I made) which came out rather too short. Not sure what happened there! When we re-decorate the bathroom I will have to make new blinds.

Luckily, we never close them. Not that we could.

My sewing machine and I had been together for about nine years but I hadn't really taken the time to get to know it properly, hence many of the problems. The only textile lessons I got at school involved me and a couple of friends spending about half a term drawing five-petal flowers onto a very roughly sketched dress pattern that never got off the drawing board.

Around Christmas time last year I decided it was high time I had some proper lessons and booked a short course through the local adult education centre starting in January. This spurred me on to having my machine properly serviced, which cost me what I thought was an eye-watering amount, although several faults were discovered which had probably been caused by my ignorance. I confess now to never having oiled the poor thing in all the years of ownership, or removing any fluff, and only ever having changed the needle when it broke. I still had some of the original needles included with the machine left, I had never bought any or been aware that there were different needles for different jobs.

At my first lesson I discovered that there was a correct way to load the bobbin, something else that had probably caused many of my sewing problems. I also learned about back stitching at the start of a seam. This was also a revelation to me, who had previously and laboriously pulled the threads to the back of my work and tied them together. Every. Single. Time. Roman blinds have a lot of seams and I estimate that over the dozen or so I had made, tying the threads had probably taken me an extra few hours at least!

The lessons were spaced fortnightly, but after the first one I experienced something of an epiphany and was hungry to learn more. I took to the internet and found it to be an amazing resource. I still wonder why I had never thought to look there before.

I had also got the Cath Kidston book 'Sew' for Christmas. My version didn't include the materials to make the bag, but I decided to make a version of it.

For the very first time, I attempted button holes.I don't think they came out too badly, considering.

After my buttonholing experience, I thought I would try zips. I found this tutorial which I found really easy to follow and created this

I had never really thought about patterns until making this bag, but buoyed by it's success I then went on to adapt the pattern several times. By this point I had set up a dedicated area for my machine and this together with the increased knowledge of how to use it has changed my life quite dramatically, but definitely for the better.

Thanks for stopping by,
Beth x

Snap unhappy

Well, apparently I'm not talking to myself, so I'll continue.....

I hadn't really thought the whole blogging process through because it is only when I come to write that I realise I need photographs to accompany my witterings. Therefore the past few days have seen me snapping away at anything vaguely connected with crafting and having an enormous file full of dodgy shots to sift through. I will share a couple of the less dodgy with you, but please accept my apologies. My photography skills have improved since the advent of digital cameras (I was always the one with pictures of headless bodies and blurred images) but I am thinking I may need to enlist the services of one of my more snap-happy friends if I want to keep any readers.

I'll start with this picture of a couple of the bags I made this week

Those who know me will recognise my most crafted item of this year, the wash/cosmetics bag. After quite a few botched efforts, I came up with what I think is a great pattern and  have probably made about seventy of these now, lots of which adorn the bathrooms and dressing tables of family and friends, and some that I have sold at craft fairs this autumn, which has been a new adventure for me. (More about that another time.)

The fabric is from Ikea and I really love it. It has been very interesting to see which of the fabrics I use is most popular, but so far Ikea seems to be winning out over Cath Kidston, surprisingly.

Something else I made recently was the pincushion caddy by Anna Maria Horner, from her book 'Seams to Me'. I bought the book because it was recommended by a few different people whose blogs I read, especially Florence's. Florence is my blog and sewing heroine. She makes beautiful clothes (amongst many other things) and her blog is full of tutorials, patterns (her own), advice and other nuggets of stitching wisdom.

Anyway, after spending two days trying to make the pincushion, I did some research and discovered that I wasn't the only one who found it difficult and even learned some good tips to make it successfully, should I be moved to try it again. (I won't.)

My version isn't a resounding success (the middle should be solid, not squidgy) but it does the job and was a good way of using up several Cath scraps for posterity. Should you ever consider making this, my advice would be don't, but if you are determined, get in touch and I can point you in the direction of help. Failing that I can recommend a great Pinot to help you through.

Thanks for stopping by,
Beth x