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!

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!

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!

S.O.P.H.I.E.

Several weeks after Christmas I finally finished Sophie's last gift - cushions spelling out her name!

You can see that Sophie looks quite pleased with herself and her cushions. Just before the photo was snapped she was chewing the 'H' - hence the spelling mistake!!

Each letter is made from a different fabric. The 'S' is a lovely Liberty print I picked up a couple of years ago, 'O' is lovely floral print with turquoise birds, 'H' is called 'Virginia's Closet', 'P' is in 'Yellow Damask Flora', 'I' is a hard to find Heather Ross 'Buses' i won from Ebay and the 'E' just peeping from behind Sophie is 'Scamper'.

I think they look good - I may remake the 'S' with some medium weight interfacing to keep its shape better.

Crafting withdrawal!

We've decided to sell our flat and find us a house - with stairs - and room for us all! This meant a huge clear up including my crafting and sewing stuff which had started to take over most of the living room. After a day of sorting, binning, folding and arranging all my bits and pieces are tidily put away in their rightful places. You can see the difference it makes.

Admittedly there are a couple of large bags of scraps in the corner of our bedroom!

The only problem with this new found tidiness is that its pretty impossible to do any making. Any project would involve the possibility of disturbing this calm and so I'm feeling a bit lost.

Hopefully it won't be long until the flat is sold and I can make a mess or get creative again!

Giant Pom Poms!

 So the perfect way to banish the winter blues and catch up with friends...a party in February. More importantly a celebration of our beautiful baby girl - Sophie's Naming Ceremony.

The day started with a lovely ceremony at Nuneaton Registry Office. We had readings from Morgan and Alison. And then onto a party with a bouncy castle and plenty of food and drink.

With help from my oldest friend Hayley we spent the night before making these giant pom poms - using a technique I found here. We clustered them together to decorate the room.

I choose pink, white and purple tissue paper to create a theme to link with Sophie's middle name - 'Violet'. 

I ordered a dozen Violets from a super helpful nursery in Dorset who chose the prettiest in bloom plants  and packaged them up and sent them to me the day before. Each table had a different potted Violet with some homemade vintage ribbon and paper lace doilies.

We invited those that had helped make the day so special to take a Violet home and help it grow - just as our Sophie will!

A fabulous day!

Machine Embroidery - a lesson learnt

So, on Friday night when 'normal' people are enjoying a drink with friends, a meal out or a play, I headed to Sew Over It in Clapham. I was off to my first class there - Machine Embroidery - or how to draw with your sewing machine as I've been explaining to those with blank faces when telling them where i'm off.

I was greeted with a huge array of fabrics, notions and patterns and offered a piece of cake - a good way to start the creative process. Downstairs I got accustomed to my machine for the evening - Rose - and got a cuppa. There were 8 of us in total and after a quick demonstration and explanation of what we'll do in the following 3 hours we were off!

First I needed to change the foot for this beast. When I bought my fab new Pfaff last summer I got one of these but have no clue how to attach it. Clearly once someone shows you its bloomin' obvious - simply unscrew the bolt so you're left with just the metal rod and the reattach your machine embroidery foot (sometimes called a quilting foot or open toe foot or free motion foot or Sandra if you like!).

We were given instructions and told to practice, before moving onto our project. Putting a piece of calico into a 6in hoop we squeezed it under the foot and just went for it! Most instructions seem to tell you to drop your feed dogs, but our instructor told us it wasn't really necessary, I expect it comes down to personal preference. Moving the machine smoothly and a good speed seems to be the key - too slow and stitches can be small and tight and thread can snap, too quick and stitches are long and loopy. 

My first attempt to draw something!

Then it was time to move onto our projects. I decided on a taxi cab cushion. First I sketched an outline onto tracing paper. Then flipped this over and copied into onto Bondaweb. This was then ironed onto the fabric and cut out leaving a small edge. I then peeled the back off the Bondaweb and ironed the taxi onto the main cushion fabric. Next I placed my tracing on top of the fabric and the hoop fitted over the top - ready for sewing. You can see from the pic below that its best to choose a section of your design and put this in the middle of the hoop and sew before rearranging to a new spot. Tear off the tracing paper as you go to reveal your masterpiece underneath!

And here it is - the final product! Not wonderful, but a good first go.

Next time, I'd go over my lines a few more times to make them stand out more, but over all I'm pretty pleased with this and I'm already brewing up some ideas for my next attempt.