Hillary's Craft Competition

I got a new sewing machine about six months ago. It's lovely, and yet I've not spent anywhere near enough time getting to know it. I've been in a bit of a sewing rut. My New Year's resolution was to work through my fabric stash, and so I've been sewing quilt tops like there's no tomorrow and doing little else. I needed something to break me out of my mould and into my new machine.

And along came an email from my lovely friend J at QuiltyKitty. She'd found this brilliant craft competition run by Hillary's . They send you a metre of fabric of your choice (of four patterns) and you make something with it. Blog it, and you could win a big prize. Sold!

I've had a look at some of the other entries (google them if you're interested - search for 'hillary's craft competiton' entries) and they are amazing. So amazing I felt a little embarrassed by my effort. But prizes aside, this was the most fun I've had sewing in a long time. I was challenged to be creative and come up with something original. I used loads of new tricks on my sewing machine. I ended up with three things that I love. How can you go wrong?

If any of you are in a sewing rut, set yourself a challenge. Buy a fat quarter of something and see what, and how much, you can make from it. And go on and drop me a comment and let me know what you made!

Project Number 1: the houndstooth skirt

As soon as I saw my fabric, I knew I wanted a skirt. If this hadn't been a competition, I'd have made a simple pencil skirt with a zip, but given I was drafting my own pattern - and I HATE zips - I decided to take a different approach. The idea for the sailor skirt was born: a straight skirt, a few darts for shaping in the back, and a button panel in the front with contrasting lime green pieces. I tried my hand at piping for the first time, inspired by the episode of the Great British Sewing Bee I'd just seen.

Piping was actually pretty easy. I used a zipper foot and bought cotton bias binding which saved some time. Give it a bash if you haven't already - I was really impressed with how nice and neat it makes things look. I lined the skirt, and used the roll-hem foot on my machine for the lining - another first! Maybe not as easy as the piping, but still quite good.

Blurry self-photo showing the piping, button panel, and mess on my bedroom floor.

Voila! One sailor skirt, no zipper required, easily made with a metre square and fabric left over. So, onto...

Project Number 2: the handbag

I was surfing eBay (dangerous habit) when I saw some green leather handles and thought they would be perfect for using up my extra fabric. Highly recommend this seller, by the way - very fast shipping and I love the handles! I used my leftover green to line it, and basically just cut out one piece for the outside and one for the inside in this shape:

Sew up the sides, leaving an opening in the lining large enough to turn the bag right-side out. Fit the outside inside the lining, right sides together. Sew around the top, then turn it out through the opening you left. Sew that up, and top stitch around the top of the bag. I invested in some magnetic closures (super fun!) and popped one on for a closure. Sewed on the handles and ta-da!

Bag and lining, right sides together, sewn and about to be turned

Turned right-side out and top-stitched

But there was still a bit leftover, and I had a lot of magnetic closures left, so we have...

Project 3: the sunglass case

This was even simpler than the handbag, and yet (because of that?) it's maybe my favourite of the three. It took about five minutes to make and I use it every day. Same process as above: two rectangles of fabric. Sew up the sides, leaving a gap in the lining. Put together, sew up the tops, turn through the lining, sew up the hole, top stitch, magnetic closure, done. Almost as quick as writing that sentence!

Measure to fit your glasses

Lining and outer piece sewn up, not yet joined together

My lovely friend Jon the Photographer came over to take a photo of the finished result, so here I am in my meter of Hillary's fabric. Thank you to the lovely people there who gave me so much fun this month!

 

Summer Sewing

Yesterday was spent working on my little girl's summer wardrobe. We're going somewhere hot and humid for a week, and she'll need - well, summer clothes! Since little dresses are always my favourite thing to make, I tried a few different ones out (there's one more to come).

First off, this wrap dress. It was ridiculously fast and easy, once I got the pattern pieces sorted. The pattern template on this tutorial worked really well for the front two pieces, but not for the back. What I ended up doing was cutting out the two front pieces, positioning them as I wanted them to look, and then laying them on top of the fabric and tracing out the back piece to match. I also gave my pattern a bit more of an a-line to the skirt, because I think little girls need a bit of room to kick! I used two versions of the same cotton patterned fabric, and this dress took 1/2 a metre. Wrap dresses are dead easy and super forgiving - loads of fun combinations to be made with these!

Back




Front

 

  

And on!



Next up, this peasant dress. This was a breeze, and took no time at all. I had the fabric already, reclaimed from something else, so it already had the pink stitching on. Super cute dress, and I'll make more for sure!

And finally, the piece de resistance. I love this fox fabric (by Moda) and wanted to make a gorgeous short sleeved shirt with it. I made a combination of the peasant dress above and this gorgeous tutorial. I pleated the sleeves and front, and in the end added a few to the back to size it properly. I love it.

Front

Back, with red buttons

Sadly, my daughter's response hasn't been the same. She was most excited about the wrap dress, and wore it happily - for fifteen minutes. Then she demanded I take it off. When she woke this morning and saw her fox shirt, she was again very excited - but screamed until I took it off of her. And she wouldn't wear the peasant dress. I still have one more dress to make, from a beautiful creme broderie anglaise... But I may well be giving these away! Still, some fun patterns and good tutorials. Happy summer sewing!

'Easy' Quilts

In the last few weeks, a couple of friends have asked me about making their first quilt. Is it complicated? Is it going to be too advanced for their sewing? And how long will it take?

They don't tend to believe me when I tell them that a quilt is only as hard as you make it. Most people think of a quilt as lots of little squares sewn together and yes, that kind of quilt can take a while. But a quilt top can really be quite simple and still be very effective.

This is a quilt I made from a single piece of flannel with appliqued flowers and birds. Didn't take too long to make, although (as with most quilts) the most time consuming part was the cutting out.

The principles of this 'quilt in an hour' can be applied to any fabric, and you can make a quilt with just single pieces of fabric for the front and the back. For these, more elaborate quilting can really make the quilt something impressive - but elaborate quilting is beyond me!

I recently saw a quilt that was simply a plain white piece of fabric and a contrasting backing. What made it special was that the quilter had used a huge variety of stitches and threads to quilt an elaborate bird on the fabric, and thus turn a plain piece of cloth into an amazing quilt.

A quilt is really just a sandwich of layers: top, wadding, and backing. It doesn't have to be squares, and it doesn't have to take months. A few examples:

This is the quilt I made last week. I started on Monday night, and finished it on Wednesday. The actual quilt top construction took a few hours; the rest was the binding. It was made with fabric from Africa, bought and given to me by my mother-in-law, and the quilt was a gift for her.

To make it, I simply cut strips of the dark blue fabric and strips of the same width from the unbleached cotton. I varied the width of the strips so they ranged from about 4-10 inches. Then, I joined them together at an angle, again varying the length of the blue pieces. I wanted to bring out the green in the blue pattern, so I appliqued the green rectangles over top of the strips once they'd been sewn together. It was backed with another yellow fabric she'd given me, and I used the green for the binding. Simple simple, but it looks smart!

Try buying 20cm strips of 6-8 different, complementary fabrics and sewing them together for a super easy baby quilt - have a look at this blog for inspiration! Make your quilting as simple or as complicated as you can handle, finish off the edges, and you're done. It looks like a serious amount of work, and no one has to know that it wasn't.

And finally, if you're new to quilting, you can have a look back at this post which will cover the basics of it all. So don't be intimidated by quilts. It's really just a sandwich. And anyone can make a sandwich!

Stick Man tutorial

We love all things Julia Donaldson and The Gruffalo here, but my kids are equally fond of Stick Man. He's a bit of an unsung hero, is Stick Man, but he's surprisingly easy to make. Here's a project that can be done in about 20-30 minutes, and sewn by hand if you don't have a machine. Easy, cheap, and fun - does it get any better? 

You will need:

-brown felt (I used two squares and had plenty left over)

-brown thread

-3 pipe cleaners

-a black fabric pen, or black thread

-green felt and thread

Step 1: Draw a Stick man

Thankfully, my drawing skills are just about able to cope with this task. I'm sure yours are, too. I used a sheet of A4 paper, and made sure that he wasn't too skinny at any point. Once you're happy with your pattern, cut two out of the brown felt.

Step 2: Fashion a Stick man from pipe cleaners

Fold one pipe cleaner in half for your head and body. Twist another one across the middle for the arms, and join the legs on at the bottom. Be sure to fold the ends of the pipe cleaner back so that the sharp, pointy edges aren't going to stick through your felt and poke any small people.

Pipe cleaner stick man, with the ends of the pipe cleaner folded up so as not to be pointy

Step 3: Give Stick Man a face

Take a scrap of your brown felt, and cut an isosceles triangle that is quite long along the bottom and the right height for Stick Man's nose. 

Stick Man's nose

Position the triangle on Stick Man's head, and sew straight down the middle of it, like so:

Now fold the triangle in half and sew up the sides, like this:

Voila! You have Stick Man's nose. I then used a fabric pen to draw a very simple face on him, but you can embroider yours in black thread if you'd rather.

Step 4: Cut some leaves

Using your green felt, cut out a couple of leaf shapes. These will stick out of the top of Stick Man's head, so don't make them too big. I cut 2 of each of my leaf shapes and sewed them together with the green thread, for extra durability, but you don't have to.

Step 5: Sew him up! 

Starting at the left arm, sew up the side, across the top of the arm, and up the side of the head. Stop to tuck your leaves in, and sew over them twice. Sew down the other side of the head, top of the right arm, and the side edge of the right arm. Stop and tuck your pipe cleaner man inside of your felt Stick Man, and slowly start sewing the pipe cleaner inside.

** Just to be clear: on this project, we're not sewing on the reverse side and then turning Stick Man inside out at the end. All the stitches are visible. **

Continue sewing stick man until all the edges are closed and the pipe cleaner form is completely tucked in. And... You're done! You now have a bendy, functional Stick Man, ready for all sorts of adventures. Just don't forget to always bring him home to the family tree.

Dora the Explorer Backpack and Map Tutorial

Here's the second part of the Go Diego Go rescue pack tutorial: for my soon to be 2-year-old, a Dora the Explorer backpack.

This project also relies on the excellent Indietutes tutorial for a toddler size backpack. Because the Dora backpack is much closer to this pattern, it only required a few additions to make it work and is a much easier project than the Diego rescue pack. Probably do-able in a nap, especially if you don't bother with the iron-on interfacing (I didn't).

You will need:

- 1/2 metre of purple cotton
- yellow, black, white, and pink felt
- small pieces of fabric to use for the map: I used two 7" squares of unbleached cotton but really anything would work.
- small piece of velcro (optional)
- fabric pens (optional)
- thread to match the above
- this template for the map's face
- bondaweb (optional)

** Before you start: read through the tutorial instructions. I won't replicate them here: just use these two tutorials side by side.

Step 1: Cutting out

Cut out the pattern from the Indietutes tutorial, plus two additional 3"x7" pieces.

Step 2: Assembling the face

Using the template above as a guide, cut out pieces from the felt to make the backpack's face. I didn't use bondaweb, but you could if you wanted. Sew them onto the backpack: eyebrows onto the top flap, eyes and mouth on the bottom section. Attach velcro if you are using it.

Step 3: Attaching the sides

Dora's backpack needs a side pocket to hold the map, so make sure you add one before you attach the sides. I put one on each side. Take each 3"x7" piece and press down and sew across the top. Now turn it over so that it's wrong side up, position it on the strip of fabric that will be the sides, and sew across the bottom.

Pocket, attached at the bottom.

Fold over and press. You should now have the makings of a pocket, with both sides left unsewn. Do the same on the other side, then attach the side piece following the original tutorial instructions.

Both pockets attached

Step 4: Sew the backpack together

Assemble the rest of the backpack!

Step 5: Make the Map

The Map is vital to Dora's backpack, and a chance to let your creativity go! I used these fabric pens to make mine, although I thought about applique-ing, or doing a combination of both.

Cut two equal size squares of fabric. On the top corner of one, trace the Map's face (or applique it on). On the other, draw a map.

Put the right sides together and sew around the edges, leaving a gap to turn the map right way out. Clip the corners, turn right side out, press, and top-stitch (catching the gap that you left). Roll up the map and tuck it in the side pocket.

And you're done! I stuffed mine with a little Boots sidekick and some binoculars (every explorer needs them). Can't wait to see the pair in action!

Go Diego Go Rescue Pack Tutorial

My son's latest obsession is Go Diego Go, and he has been asking for a rescue pack. Although I can't deliver his original request - a pack that actually turns into a hang-glider/kayak/snowmobile/etc - I did my best for his upcoming 4th birthday. And I'm actually quite pleased with the result! This is a few naps worth of work, but can be divided nicely into two stages: nap 1 for making the face, and nap 2 for putting the bag together.

I went back to this wonderful toddler backpack tutorial for the basic shapes and measurements but because the rescue pack has a front pocket, zipper, and one strap instead of two, it needed a little modification.

I still haven't figured out how to make downloadable patterns, so this will take a bit of piecing together and figuring out, but here's how I did it.

You will need:

- about 60cm of orange cotton

- one 12 inch orange zipper

- a small piece of velcro

- black, white, yellow, red, and pink fabrics (felt is easiest)

- a small piece of elastic (about 5 inches)

- thread

- bondaweb (optional)

- a printer to print out this template for the face as well as the backpack patter linked above

Step 1: cutting out

From the backpack pattern above, cut out TWO backs. You could make the backpack just as it is in the pattern but my son is a stickler for detail and definitely wanted a front pocket and zip. So, cut two of the back pieces. Then cut a 6" x approx 20" strip for the shoulder strap (you will want to surreptitiously measure your child to make sure the strap will fit over his head and body, and then make it a bit bigger!). Instead of cutting one 3" by 34" piece for the sides, cut one 3"x approx. 24" piece, and one 4" by approx. 14" inch piece. I also cut a small strip to make a loop at the top of the rescue pack, to hang it up, and a slightly rounded square for the front pocket.

Now using the face template as a guide, cut out pieces from your felt for the eyes, eyebrows and mouth.

Step 2: assembling the front

Applique the pupils onto the eyes, and the tongue onto the mouth. Fold the top of your pocket piece down and sew across, then sew on to the top centre one piece of the velcro. Clip along the edge of the pocket to make it easier to turn under, and then press the edges underneath.

Depending on where your Rescue Pack face is going to sit, you might want to sew some of it onto the pocket before you attach the pocket to the bag. On mine, the eyes sit on the pocket, the eyebrows just above, and the mouth below. So, in whatever order you need to do it, sew the face and pocket on, and the second piece of velcro to keep the pocket closed.

(The real rescue pack has a top flap over the pocket, but given the dimensions of this backpack and the need to get the face on, I couldn't make the flap fit as well. However, if you were making a bigger version of this and wanted to be really authentic, then you'd want to add a top half to the pocket too.)

Face on, pocket and velcro attached

Step 3: attaching the side

Cut your 4" wide strip into two 2" wide strips, and attach one to each side of the zipper. Then sew one of your 3" pieces to each end and press flat. You should now have one solid piece of fabric followed by a piece with the zip and then another solid piece. You may need to do a bit of trimming to make sure they are all approximately the same width.

Side strip, before trimming to a consistent 3 inches width

Follow the tutorial instructions for attaching the sides and topstitching.

Step 4: making the shoulder strap

Sew your shoulder strap pieces together to make a tube. Turn right way out and press flat. Because I like my things to have a bit of give but fit closely, I added a bit of elastic to the bottom of the strap. This is entirely optional! To do it, cut a piece of elastic about 5 or 6 inches long and feed it into the bottom of the strap so that it sits about 10" up. Sew the elastic in place. Then pull the end of the elastic down and sew it in place at the opening of the strap. Your strap should now be a bit bunchy at the bottom, and have a bit of stretch.

Step 5: final assembly

If you are making a little loop to hang your bag, do it now. Follow the instructions from the tutorial to sew the back of the bag in place, remembering to pin your strap and the loop in place so that they are on the inside of the bag (which is turned inside out) as you sew. It also helps to leave the zipper a little bit open so that you can turn the bag right way out when finished - I say this from experience...

And, you're finished! I stuffed my Diego bag with a note pad for his animal journal, this book for his Click the camera, and a little Baby Jaguar stuffed toy. I hope he likes it, and isn't too upset that it doesn't turn into a helicopter or jeep...

Click here for the Dora the Explorer backpack tutorial!

Pirates and Planes

My sewing machine has been going non-stop this week. It started when my son's nursery had a pirate theme for the week. The children were encouraged to bring in pirate things, and as he didn't really have any, I decided to make him a quick eye patch. I took a piece of black felt, and some pirate print that I had in my stash. Cut out a skull and crossbones from the pattern (I'd been thinking about cutting out my own applique but frankly, 3 1/2 year olds don't appreciate the fine art of applique) and stuck it onto the felt with bondaweb (I didn't even finish the edges. Bad mummy!). Then, I made a little tube with black cotton fabric, threaded a piece of elastic through, and attached both ends to the felt patch. Ta da!

I was feeling quite pleased with myself (and I would show you a photo, except that son has hidden the eye patch somewhere in the flat and for the life of me I can't find it). But then, the rest of the nursery children upped the game and the next day he came home wanting a pirate hat, like his best friend from across the street had. 

Pirate hat, kindly modelled by Wol.

After some probing questions, I learned that this was a bandana/skull cap affair, and I turned to the internet for help. There were a huge number of tutorials for folding a bandana gangsta-style, but finding a good pirate one took a while. I wanted something that was sewn rather than tied, because I knew otherwise I would be tying the thing onto his head every 3 minutes. It took some careful googling, but finally I got this tutorial. I adjusted the measurements slightly, basically taking an inch off so that my semi-circles were 4 inches high and 8 inches long and my central strip was 4 inches by 15 inches.

Pirate pieces, ready to be sewn

Then, for the band that goes around the front and acts as a tie, rather than making a tube and turning it inside out (I HATE doing that), I simply pressed my long piece in half and pinned it along the cap with the rough ends lining up. I then sewed along, and pressed it down flat. When I came to the ties, I pressed the edges in a bit and then sewed over top, tucking the ends in. In the end, I got this. It fit perfectly, and my son was thrilled. Alas, pirate theme is over now and goodness knows what I'll have to make next...

Cap shape sewn, before the band is added to the bottom

Ta-da!

But more fun than pirate hats: I've been making travel bags for the kids. These will be stuffed with stickers, crayons and so on to keep them occupied on an upcoming long trip. I found this tutorial ages ago, but only just decided to make it - and it really is as easy as she says it is! The longest part was ironing on the interfacing. Once that was done, it only took minutes to put together. I added a snap instead of velcro, but otherwise followed the pattern exactly.

I LOVE these, and want to make them for everyone I know. A few things I'll do differently next time, though: I would add a loop on the top for hanging them on a hook, and possibly a side pocket.

The ladybirds are for my daughter (1 1/2), and I made it exactly the size of the pattern. The turtles are my son's, and I enlarged the pattern by about an inch on all sides so that I could fit all his many bits and pieces into it. They are super easy and super lovely - give them a try!