Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Sunday, 12 January 2014

A Christmas Tree Skirt

Tree skirt top

Each year I try to add something hand-made to our Christmas decorations. This year it was the tree skirt. I followed the directions for A Simple Old-Fashioned Christmas Tree Skirt which I found on the Moda Bake Shop website. The pattern really is very simple and is just a top with binding around the edge. I decided to back mine and quilt it before binding.

Tree Skirt back

The instructions fail to mention any indication of seam allowance. I assumed there was a 1/4 inch (6mm) seam allowance included. The pattern pieces are not accurate anyway, as there are pieces you have to chop off after each seam. I did something a bit different to the instructions, which was to use all one colour for one star piece and another colour for the other star piece. The original pattern used the same colour for both pieces on each block (does that make sense?)This meant the two greens alternated all around the skirt. If you decide to do the same, you need to realise that you can't just fold and cut, all pieces must be stacked with right sides all facing the same way and cut.

I prefer the way the original skirt was pieced, as it gives the star a three dimensional look, which I thought mine would get too, but instead mine has a bit of a pin-wheel-spinny look if you get what I mean. I think a chunkier star would have shown off the green fabrics a bit better too.

Tree Skirt - free motion detail

I quilted around each star point, just next to the ditch with some green Aurifil, using my walking foot and then switched over to my free-motion foot and used some red Gütermann sew-all, as that is what I had at the time. I chose to do a kind of feathery-paisley quilt pattern, which wasn't really a pattern, but sort of made-up as I went thing kind of (very loosely) inspired by the Craftsy Quilt Class I've been watching. I see that Angela Walters has a feathers class too, I might have to take a look at it.

I finished my Tree Skirt up with some picot-edge bias that I purchased from the Haby Goddess. I didn't quite have enough, so I finished up the straight edges with some left-over strips from the Walk in the Woods Jelly Roll from Amélie's quilt.

This wasn't the only Christmas item I made this year. I also made some Chubby birds and Gingerbread men decorations for teacher presents, but I was so busy that week that I never stopped to take photos before gifting them. You can see other gingerbread man decorations that I have made in Christmases past, but I haven't made any birdies and taken photos of them to show you.

Chubby Birds

Would you like to be able to make a Chubby Bird of your own? You can buy the pattern on Craftsy, here, (for really cheap) and get it instantly, but if you like, I have a spare copy of this pattern. Not a digital one, but an original greeting card sized pattern. I bought one, and I also have one that was given to me and I would like to give it to one of my readers. If you would like to be the lucky recipient of this Creative Card, tell me where you are from, how you found my blog and why I should give it to you. I will choose the best answer in a couple of weeks. I am happy to post it to anywhere in the world.

Monday, 7 January 2013

Ty's Teddy Bear Hat

Ty's Hat

I made this hat for Ty for Christmas. Ty isn't quite three months old yet, so the hat is still a little big on him. It should fit him better next year.

Ty's Hat

Don't be fooled by my hand, it makes the hat look smaller than it is. You can see the same sized hat here and here. It is the baby hat from the Nicole Mallalieu, "You Sew, Girl!" book. It took about an hour and a half to put together, though I would advise, if you are using fabric with scattered prints (like this one), that you take the extra time to make sure that the bears are not all upside down!

Ty's Hat lining

I love the structure of the drill fabric and how well the lining goes with it. Both fabrics are from my stash.

Saturday, 29 December 2012

Tess' Kinder Doll

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This happy, smiley Ric-Rac Kinder Doll was made for Tess for Christmas.

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Instead of the fabric and ribbon combination for the shoes, I made them from felt this time. In pink instead of the usual black.

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I used a stem stitch to sew the mouth and nose this time, instead of the usual back stitch. I used more strands of embroidery floss than the other times, too. This gave the mouth more definition. I made her eyes blue instead of black, too.

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You might notice that the fabric matches what I used for Tess, last year.

If you are interested, you can see the other kinder dolls I have made:
Amélie's Kinder Doll
Lima's and Noah's Kinder Dolls
Ellie's Kinder Doll
Adara's Kinder Doll

***Update: The Kinder Doll pattern is now available as a downloadable pattern from Craftsy. Get it Now!

Tuesday, 25 December 2012

Merry Christmas!

Flying

Merry Christmas!

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I hope you all have a wonderful day, surrounded by loved ones.

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If you are traveling, stay safe on the roads.

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Pattern: Rudy by Melly & Me

Sunday, 23 December 2012

Teacher Gifts

Shhh

Please excuse me, I'm running a little behind on the blog!

I made these purses for the boys' kindergarten teachers. Actually, these were just the ones I made for Liam's kindergarten teachers. I actually made seven purses, for six teachers and a kris kringle gift for a friend in my mum's group, but this is the only photo I took.

The purse on the left is made from Ink & Spindle Wrens in inky blue, lined with the same fabric. I chose that fabric for that teacher as she said nice things about my Wren City Bag on several occassions.

The purse on the far right is made from red leather from my leather city bag for the same reasons. I was unable to find my scraps from the panel from that bag, but whilst I was hunting, I found this American Jane print that I purchased from Badskirt many years ago. The lining in that purse is the flower print from the American Jane fabric. Obviously, that kindergarten teacher's name begins with S.

The purse at the centre back is Birch, by Ink & Spindle and the one at the centre front was a remnant from Retromummy (when she had her shop), it's a cheater quilt pattern - I think a Kokka Modern Kimono? I made three more using pieces from the same fabric.

The pattern I used was Nicole Mallalieu's 90mm purse frame pattern. I have made (at least) nineteen of these now, so the pattern was well worth the investment. They make great little gifts.

Saturday, 7 January 2012

Cousins

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Oh dear, this blog post would be so much easier to write, if the dolls had names... Anyway, introducing the new Dolly, who is Amélie's Dolly's cousin, who will be going to live with Amélie's cousin.

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So Amélie's-dolly's-cousin is the last of the Christmas presents, and will be hitching a ride with Australia Post on Monday.

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What an adventure she will have! Actually, I'm hoping that her trip is rather straight-forward and as unadventurous as possible.

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Oh, and just for interests sake, here is dolly before I be-headed her and gave her a chin lift.

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Can you tell she's had work done?

Friday, 6 January 2012

Belated Christmas Gifts

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Another couple of Super-Hero capes with specially designed super hero emblems for some more nephews. Hopefully these will be in the post on Monday. I have one more really late Christmas present to get ready before they go.

Tuesday, 3 January 2012

More Christmas Gifts!

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I still have a few bits and pieces from December to blog about. I made this ear-bud case for my nephew, Owen. He's staying with my parents over summer, and had brought his iPod, but forgotten his ear-buds, so luckily for him, this came with a set. I used a tutorial to make this, it was relatively quick and easy to do. Don't be scared of the zipper!

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Upon hearing about their sale, and needing a few bits and pieces from a particular range of fabrics (I didn't want them to sell it all!), I popped into Spotlight. As I was standing at the counter, being served, I noticed there was a pattern that I needed, for just $2.50.

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The pattern is Simplicity 9958, a 1 hour boxer shorts pattern sized for men, teens and boys. Overall, there are ten different sized patterns, ranging from a hip of 61cm right up to 130cm. They were pretty quick to make, but took me a little more than the 1 hour proclaimed on the packaging. I made two pairs of boxer shorts for my nephews, both in a child's medium size.

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I added an adjustable waist to both pairs (not part of the pattern), by adding a couple of button-holes to the waistband and using some buttonhole elastic. This made me a little more confident that the shorts would be a comfortable fit.

Saturday, 31 December 2011

Amélie's Kinder Doll

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On Christmas Eve, whilst Santa was out putting together the big Christmas present, I was busy inside finishing off this dolly for Amélie.

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The pattern is from Ric-Rac, and includes the pattern for the cardigan and the beautiful dress, which is also reversible. I used some of my favourite scraps to make the dress, and trimmed it with some ric-rac from my stash.

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*update: the Kinder Doll pattern, as well as other fabulous Ric-Rac patterns, is now available as a down-loadable pdf: get it here!

Wednesday, 28 December 2011

Christmas 2011

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Christmas Eve and the night before that were quite busy. I managed to whip up another Apple shirt for Liam, make another sunglasses case, and put together a dolly for Amélie. You can see the shirt in the pictures in this post, the dolly I will come back to in a later blog post.

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Mean-while, Santa was very busy putting together this awesome present. Santa and his helper were very busy Christmas Eve putting the final bits together and managed to beat the storm (although there was a lot of lightning - perhaps a little risky?). There were a few trimmy bits and a chalk-board that he left for us to add, Santa is very busy, you know.

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There was a little more to do before going to bed, the dolly still needed her dress finished, and there were snaps to apply to the shirt. So it was a bit of a late night for me, but it was worth all the effort. The kids are out on there at every opportunity and I think most of the outdoor toys (not the bikes, thank goodness) have been down the slide by now.

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Santa even made sure Amélie was accounted for. She loves the swing, she doesn't like getting off it much, though.

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Friday, 23 December 2011

Is it too much?

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I decided in addition to the shirred dress and the frilly bloomers, my smallest gift recipient needs a hat as well. In the same fabric. I hope it's not overkill. The pattern I used was from Nicole Mallalieu's book, You Sew, Girl!. It is very similar to the kids hat pattern, but covers the smaller head of a baby under 12 months.

Thursday, 22 December 2011

To Be Shirr, To Be Shirr

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I had never had a go at shirring, and I purchased some shirring elastic some time ago with the full intention to have a go one day. Yesterday I decided to do so. I was quite surprised with how easily it worked. It was a case of hand-winding the bobbin and dropping it in. No tension adjustments or anything! The result is not bad considering it was made with no pattern.

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Of course, a cute little dress requires matching bloomers, so I made a pair of these as well. I hope the recipient (and her mother) likes her gift!

Wednesday, 21 December 2011

A gift for a little baker

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It's actually full-sized, but still good for a little baker. My brother's girlfriend has a daughter who likes to cook. I've put insul-brite the entire length of this oven mitt so that she is well protected from hot objects. I had a little stash of spatulas and I'm thinking of adding a wooden spoon or two before I wrap. Mum has made her a matching apron and a chef's hat. I hope she likes it!

Tuesday, 20 December 2011

Super Hero Capes

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I made these superhero capes for some of my nephews. I've made some for my boys before and they are very popular and get lots of use, so hopefully their cousins will like them too. I'm a bit unsure what to make for their older cousins, but they won't be down until after Christmas so I have a bit of time up my sleeve. The pencil rolls last year seemed to go down well, and I know they are all still using their car-bags.

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The super hero emblems this time, were a collaboration between myself and Maxx. Maxx wanted to be a part of the process and design the emblems himself. I really do have trouble leaving something like that entirely to someone else, it's the control-freak in me. But they were mostly his design with a bit of a tweak here and there from me.

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Noah wants me to make super-hero capes for Uncle Ben and Uncle Al, too. If only I had all the time and money and resources to make everything I wanted to before Christmas...

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Anyway, I'd better get back to it, there are still plenty of Christmas gifts still to make!

Monday, 19 December 2011

With Bells on their Toes

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I spent a fair amount of time last year trawling Etsy and Made-It, looking for just the right pattern to make some lovely elf-stockings. This year, I googled, and found this amazing free tutorial.

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Instead of the appliqué monogram in the tutorial, I used my embroidery machine to put their names on felt, which I then appliquéd onto the stocking with blanket stitch. In addition to the instructions, I also added some bells to the toes, which I think adds a nice festive touch. Despite the fiddly-ness of the operation, I think sewing on 18 little pompoms was well worth the effort.

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I also added a lining. The original pattern has no lining, so the stuffing is accessible at the bottom of the stocking. I used the stocking pattern to fashion a lining, chopping it off just below the ankle and adding a bit of a rounded edge. I stuffed the toe before adding the lining to the inside of the stocking. I basted the top edges of the lining and stocking outer before adding the cuff. You could still pull the lining out, but not the stuffing, which is what I wanted to achieve. I also under-stitched the lining so that stays nice and neat and doesn't pop out of the top of the stocking.

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They have Noah's approval: "I really do luff it a lot".

Hopefully they will get used for many years to come.

Friday, 16 December 2011

Tutorial: Appliqué

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As promised, I am back with my appliqué tutorial. I will apologise in advance as it is very wordy and quite picture heavy. The appliqué I am showing you is part of my Christmas bunting project. 



DSCF1409To appliqué following this method, you will need some fusible web. I like to use Lite Steam-A-Seam 2. Steam-A-Seam 2 is a double sided fusible web, sandwiched between two sheets of paper. It is designed particularly for lightweight fabrics.

There are heaps of similar products on the market you could also try. I prefer Steam-A-Seam 2 because the paper backing stays on well, and the webbing sticks lightly to the fabric before you press it with the iron, so things stay put a little better but you are still able to re-arrange things before you permanently affix it to your work with the iron. This makes fussy cutting and appliqué positioning very easy.

I purchased my Steam a Seam 2 from OzQuilts.

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If you peel away a corner, you will see that between the two layers of paper, there is a layer of fusible web. This web will be sticking to one piece of paper more than the other. This is the sheet that you want to trace onto, as the other sheet will be peeled away.

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You will need to trace a mirror-image of the final appliqué because this will be sticking to the back of the fabric. One thing that you can do, is trace it the right way around on the paper that you will be peeling away, and then trace that line onto the liner with the fusible web on it.

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Once you have traced your design (remembering that it needs to be back to front and on the paper that will be peeled away first), you need to roughly cut out your design, leaving some excess paper around the edges. This will ensure that you will have webbing right to the edges of your applique.

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Press the fabric that you are planning to use for your appliqué design. Press it from the back, so that you don't have to flip it over and you can then keep it flat, ready for the webbing.

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Peel away the backing, ensuring that your traced design stays on the paper that is still attached to the webbing. Peel away carefully, so that if you notice the webbing is attached to the wrong sheet of paper, you can fix it before it's too late.


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Position the webbing so that you are happy with the placement of the fabric within your design. If you are using fabric with a large motif, or a design that has a definite right-side up, then you might want to move it around a bit until you get it right. The webbing will stick a little, but is easily lifted and moved around. Once you are happy, give it a good press with the iron to bond the webbing permanently with the fabric. A good 10-20 seconds on cotton setting with some steam ought to do it.

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Roughly cut away the fabric with the design on it, ensuring that you keep all of the paper intact. You can now store away the remainder of the fabric, knowing that there is no sticky webbing left on it to ruin your next project, or make a mess of your iron.

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Now, trim away the excess fabric, carefully following the outline that you traced on the fabric.




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And throw the waste edges into your over-flowing bin. Your bin is over-flowing, right? Mine is. It's also sitting up on a table right now, away from small children who like playing with fabric scraps.

Give your main or background fabric a good press, this time from the right side, as we want a nice smooth surface on which to place our appliqué motif.

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Peel away the backing from your motif, ensuring that the sticky webbing is adhered to the back of the fabric.


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Place the appliqué motif face-up, on the backing fabric, moving it around as before until you are happy with its position. Give it a good press with your iron to bond the appliqué permanently to the fabric.

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Take some tear-away stabiliser, larger than your motif, and place it on the back of the fabric. You might like to hold the fabric up to your sewing machine light, or a window (during the day-time)  to make sure that the stabiliser covers all the edges of your motif.

According to the instructions that came with the Steam-A-Seam 2, the paper backing can also be used as a stabiliser. I have heard of other people using baking paper as well.

Stabiliser is used to keep your fabric nice and stable whilst you stitch it.Without stabiliser, your fabric can stretch and skew and warp out of shape. You want your fabric to stay nice and flat and not become a lumpy, bumpy, three dimensional mess when you're finished.

There are different kinds of stabilisers, some can be ironed on so that they don't move at all whilst you are stitching, some can be disolved away with water and are great for things like lace making. The one I use can be torn away when I'm finished so that the fabric returns to its original, flexible shape once it is finished.


Choose a nice, decorative stitch on your machine. I chose to use blanket stitch. When I was looking to replace my sewing machine, a year and a half ago, blanket stitch was highish on my list of priorities. This is the first time I've really used it since I tested it before and after I purchased the machine and I'm pretty happy with it.

DSCF1428Test the stitch on a scrap piece of fabric before you start sewing on your design. I used some nice shiny machine embroidery thread on my design, along with a bobbin thread that I normally would use on my embroidery machine.

When I tested my stitch on the scrap fabric, I decided that it needed to be wider, so I made that adjustment. I also found there were a few loopy bits of thread from the back showing on the top. I loosened off my  top tension a little, and this fixed the problem.

Now, flip your fabric to the right side, with the stabiliser underneath and the appligue on top, and get stitching!



DSCF1429You will need to be careful when you are turning corners with decorative stitches like blanket stitch, my machine does a series of stitches like forward-backward-forward-left-right-repeat. You really need to be stopping and pivoting, with the needle down both before and after it does the left-right bit so that it makes a nice neat turn.

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When you flip your fabric to the back, you will see your stabiliser all nicely stitched to the back of your design. Hopefully, everything is all neat and tidy like mine is here.


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You can now carefully tear the stabiliser away from the outside edges of your design. You can tear it away from the inside edges too, if you like. If you used paper, and you are planning to ever wash the finished project, I would strongly recommend that you do remove it all.





Your appliqué is now complete - now you can get on with the rest of your project!

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Please let me know if this tutorial is useful to you, or if you have any feedback. I would love to know what you think.
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