Month: April 2017

Home furnishings

Quick cushion

sewambitious

For my mum for mother’s day I literally threw together this cushion cover. She recently moved house and chucked out a lot of stuff in the process including her old Singer Sewing Machine (see my first blog) and some material she had had stuffed in a black bag for what smelled like 30 years.  I procured both of these items. 

The fabric had to be washed, dried, cut and stitched in the morning of mother’s day.  I actually can’t think of a better way to spend it. I also had to find out how to make piping. No zip or envelope back (not enough fabric) so I had to hand stitch to finish it. 

It’s lovely fabric though so I’m glad I rescued it. 

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Home furnishings, Quilts

The quilt that never was

sewambitious

So this is the quilt I was going to make for my nanna’s Christmas present. This is as far as I have got and I might now give up. 

The reason for my disinterest is that I have downsized this quilt top from an accuquilt pattern and I miscalculated the size of the parallelogram  (dark pink). They are too big and it makes a lot of unpicking and starting again with it. 

I think I will shelve this one for a while šŸ˜•

Clothes, Home furnishings, Toys

Apron

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My daughter spotted some fabric hanging over the bannister and said it was her ā€œfavouriteā€!   I asked her if she would like me to make her something, she said yes ā€“ an apron.  

As we all know, two year olds can be pretty fickle when it comes to ā€œfavouritesā€ but she has been mentioning aprons for some time because she wants to help bake cakes (not something I do so frequently any more but Iā€™ll indulge her).  She has helped me twice before with cakes and each time I just pegged a tea towel around her neckā€¦

I set about making a template for the apron and kind of made it up as I went along.  I ordered some herringbone webbing in different colours so that my daughter could choose which one she wanted on the apron.  I bought red, light blue and beige.  When I showed them to her and asked her what colour she wanted, she said PINK!  Oh…

I opted for red because I thought it would look great.  I finished the apron and presented daughter with it.  She said “Not pink.  No like it”.  Mum is slightly disappointed here kiddo…

Anyway she wore it happily (see photo).  I then realised I’d made it a bit too short and I also had to put velcro in the neck strap because otherwise the front would have been quite low in order for it to fit over her head.

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Oh, we were potty training as well…
Bags & Accessories

Laptop Bag

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Yes! Ā Another bagā€¦

I think Iā€™m getting addicted to making bagsā€¦

This was another Lisa Lam creation and I just HAD to make it. Ā I did, however, decide to do this the day before going on [another] holiday and it took me a full day to do it, when I should have been packing… Ā I did take it with me on holiday but it stayed in a carrier bag because I was worried it might get dirty. Ā Not exactly what you want from a bagā€¦

I loved making this bag and I would like to make another. Ā I love how you make all the different elements ā€“ the internal pockets and zips and the front flap and then sew it all together. Ā The only issue I had this time was the internal zip ā€“ I find it a struggle to sew this with the fusible interlining on the back of the lining fabric. Ā The zip just doesnā€™t seem to want to stay in the right place. Ā I also added a Velcro strap inside the bag to hold a charger cable because I was taking the laptop away with me. Ā This didnā€™t work out quite so well because it was a bit too long. Ā It does hold though. Ā I think it needed a little more thought before execution though.

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Bags & Accessories

Another Oilcloth Bag

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Having made one, I wasn’t put off making another. 

A friend and colleague had got another job so I decided to make her a weekend bag as a leaving present. I had seen the pattern for this in The Bag Making Bible by Lisa Lam (a great book – it really is a bible for bag making!) and really wanted to make it.  She had made it in oilcloth too so I thought I would give it a go. 

I used a faux leather for the corners but my sewing machine didn’t like this at all so when it came to making the strap loops it gave up. It just couldn’t go through the required 8 layers of fabric even with a leather needle!  I couldn’t leave the shoulder strap off so I had to improvise the strap loops. 

There should also have been a front pocket but it looked so creased that I left that off too. And I forgot to put the bag feet on. And sewing the leather handles on was a nightmare! I did tell my friend that I didn’t think they would come off, even though they look like they might…

All in all, it looks nice.  I hope it stands up to a few holidays for her. 

Bags & Accessories

Oilcloth Bag

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No, I’m not giving up on the bags…!

Prior to a forthcoming holiday I decided I wanted to make a swimming bag big enough to hold everything we needed – 3 towels and swimming costumes, arm bands, swim nappies, etc…

I’d always fancied using oilcloth because the range of prints you can get is just lovely and it’s such a tactile material. This bag was an amalgamation of two bags in Debbie Shore’s Sew Beautiful Bags.

Some how yet again I overestimated how big the bag needed to be and I ended up cutting 4 inches off the length. I also cut the zip a bit too short so had to stitch it together by hand. 

I wish I’d put more pockets inside too. I have one for locker coins etc but more compartments are always handy.

Home furnishings

Doorstop

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Phew!

After Christmas my (mega quilt) friend came round to have a go at sewing. I didn’t really know what to give her to sew  (she was convinced she would sew her fingers together) but I did want to make a doorstop so we set about doing that. 

Unfortunately we didn’t have time to finish it (after a lot of faffing about and me not being very prepared) so I had to finish it off. 

Not the most inspiring but it’s done!

Quilts, Toys

Christmas Make no.4

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December was a busy month!

I bought a doll bed for my daughter from Ikea.  The bedding which came with it was functional but not very inspiring and didn’t go with the colour scheme in her room (the bedding was blue) so I decided to make a mini quilt. 

This was definitely a Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorial. 

The photo is awful but you can just about make out my dreadful first attempt at free motion quilting…

Christmas, Home furnishings

Christmas Make no.2

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Because my daughter is now at the age where she would not leave presents alone if they were under the tree, we had to hide them all. I got sick of looking at bare carpet underneath the tree so decided to make a dresden plate quilted tree skirt with some Christmas fat quarters I’d bought. 

I think I saw something like this on one of the Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorials. I do love Jenny’s tutorials. 

This didn’t take long to make and I was really pleased with the results although I do think it should have been a bit bigger perhaps.