Sunday 31 March 2013

Applique T-shirts

It feels as though many of my recent posts have been for or about Sophie and this one is no different - lucky girl. I promise other things are coming soon!

As babies do, she has had a growth spurt resulting in no tops fitting her and so I headed out on an emergency trip to a local cheap clothes shop to see what I could find. Unsurprisingly none of the lovely things I had in mind but lots of pink and horrible slogans. I ended up buying a pair of long sleeve tops aimed at boys and a plan to make them unique.

After looking at some of the clothes from shops I liked I settled on doing the letter 'S' and a bunny and drew out my designs on paper.


Next I flipped over my designs and sketched the lines in reverse. You can see that my original sketch is made of quite thick lines so it was relatively easy to see the line through the paper.


I then placed Bondaweb over the reversed sketches and traced the outline. I cut around the Bondaweb leaving an edge and ironed this onto the wrong side of my fabric.


I then carefully cut out the shapes.


Then I removed the backing from the Bondaweb ready to iron my fabric onto the t-shirt. A great tip to remove this layer is to rip it, the fabric doesn't rip but the Bondaweb paper does and makes it really easy to peel off.


To ensure my fabric stays in place I stitched round the edge. I used a lovely soft grey thread rather than white as I think it blends in better. I set my machine to zig zag stitch with the needle to always stop down. I tweaked the stitch length and width to small and close together.



 By going slowly and stopping regularly to reposition my fabric and direction I was able to sew close the edge and create smooth curves. A couple of reverse stitches at the start and end and I was finished!


The finished article!



Thursday 21 March 2013

Nap-time Purse

Its amazing what you can do in the space of a baby's nap when you put your mind to it!


Today is my last of maternity leave and I had a couple of things left on my list of things to do before heading back to the real world.

One was go to the wonderful 'Watch with Baby' at my local cinema and the other was to make a clasp purse. So, this morning Sophie and I joined several dozen other mums (and a couple of dads) and their babes to watch a film - typically the film I choose wouldn't play so I had to watch the other film which was terrible! And this afternoon I cracked open my 'Easy Peasy Purse' kit, a gift from my lovely brother last Christmas.


Having already read the instructions and purchased the recommended glue, I was ready to go and Sophie seemed to be settled for a decent length sleep - perfect!


After cutting out the pattern, ironing the interfacing to the exterior fabric and cutting out my pieces I sewed the side seams of the two exterior sections plus fleece together. I then ironed all the seams and pushed the side seam down to meet bottom seam and and sewed a seam 2 cm from the corner, this creates a lovely shape.


 After repeating this with the lining it was time to join the two sections together with a row of stitches close to the edge. I then trimmed up to make neat and tidy.


Next, I added glue to the frame and purse - left to go tacky and gently pushed the side and top edge of one side of my fabric into the purse frame.


I left the first side 15 minutes before tackling the other side and then, using my scissors I pushed in the piping that will  keep everything firmly in place.


And there its done! I'll wait overnight to let everything dry properly before putting bits n pieces in it.


I think I've caught the bug and will definitely be ordering more clasp frames in the future. I'm already imaging a lovely patchwork version!


Wednesday 13 March 2013

Etsy Shop - NOW OPEN!!





Yep - I did it. With just a week to spare of my maternity leave left I have opened my 'shop' on Etsy. I've still got some more bits to add but there are quilts, baby bibs, bloomers, booties and changing mats for sale. I shall be holding my breathe until my first sale!