beach bag

Last year for our wedding I purchased a whole lot of fabric. Mostly for bunting, and some for our table plan. I ended up with a lot of this candy stripe material left over, and I finally decided what to do with it: make a beach bag!

Perfect for our holiday we're taking in just two days time! I found the tutorial here & here. It was very quick and straightforward to follow, which is just the kind of tutorial I like.

 {perfectly sized for beach towels, books & suncream - just in need of an iron!}

  

{strong, sturdy handles}

 

{inner pocket, perfectly sized for a phone, keys & lip balm}

I cannot wait to hit the beaches of Southern Spain with my new bag in tow.

bibs.

I've been thinking for a little while about making some baby bibs, & wondering what to back them with. While shopping the other day I found a little pile of bargain items in the baby section of TKMaxx, one of which was a soft jersey-knit pillowcase. It was perfect, and brilliantly cheap, so home it came. 

Today, the pillowcase became the backing for some dribble bibs, made from remnants of the fabric I used to make this dress.

They were wonderfully simple to make & I've probably got enough fabric left from the pillowcase to make another twelve or so, which is an exciting prospect! Hmm, what does that say about me - that I am excited about making tiny bibs for babies to dribble on?!

summer sewing

Remember these fabrics?

{fabric from Moda range by designer Sandy Gervais}

I was so excited when I bought them that I cut them up straight away to make bunting. The neat pile of triangles then sat next to my sewing machine for far too long before being stitched together. Yesterday, I finally got round to it.

On my last trip to Poppy Patchwork, I picked up a few more fat quarters, one of which I turned into this dress (although I had to go & get a little bit more fabric as one quarter wasn't quite enough).

{Fabric by designer Riley Blake: 'Lovebird'}

This dress isn't for any baby in particular, I made it purely for the fun of it. I quite like having a little stock of homemade items at the ready - it means I have longer to enjoy the prettiness before giving them away!

layers of lace

My latest bunting project is a fun, quick and very pretty one. A friend from my PGCE course is getting married in August, and decided on lace bunting. On Monday, she came round, along with two of our other friends, armed with vast amounts of lace from her mother in law to be's airing cupboard, ready for a date with our scissors.

Here's how it's looking....

Oh, I love weddings & making pretty things for them!

When I heard the news that a friend of mine was expecting a baby girl, I decided that I would attempt to make something a little more adventurous than a taggy blanket, which was becoming my go-to baby present for any new baby arrival that I knew of.

I decided to attempt a dress. This was my biggest sewing challenge to date, and has become my biggest sewing accomplishment. If someone had sat me down and showed me how to sew a dress, or anything else that requires more than just sewing in straight lines, I would have probably attempted this a long time ago. When it comes to following patterns, I struggle a little. I had to read, and re-read each instruction goodness knows how many times before getting clear in my head what I needed to do at each stage of the process. 

I know that it is not perfect, but I don't think it's really possible to make something completely perfect, and I am ok with that. I decided to cut out a couple of mini bird shapes from some scraps of matching fabric and attached them to a baby grow for a little extra something.

I will most definitely be making more baby dresses in the future, and who knows, I might even attempt something in adult size...one day. At the moment, that still feels rather ambitious!

stitch & sew

On Saturday morning as I was thinking about the week ahead and what I would do with my time off over the school half term holidays, my thoughts turned to sewing. 

I am the kind of person who tends to have multiple sewing projects on the go, not because I start one thing and get bored of it but, because I start one thing then think of other things I want to do, so start another. Even though I have a few projects in the pipeline at the moment, I find I am often thinking of what fabrics i could invest in. While I was pondering sewing & fabrics on Saturday, I thought to myself, 'It'd be lovely if there was a fabric shop slightly closer to home...' Half an hour later, we walked into Westbury on Trym to buy some local produce, and, lo & behold, there was a brand new fabric shop just down the hill from our house!

I managed to restrain myself while we bought fresh local raspberries & super cheap tomato plants, among other things, then popped in to Poppy Patchwork. I couldn't have been happier - they have such a beautiful collection of fabrics. Recently I came across Moda Bake Shop and their range of fabrics & wished that they were available in England as well as the U.S. Well, Poppy Patchwork just so happens to stock some of the Moda Bake Shop collections! (for those of you who have no interest in sewing, I'm sorry, please just indulge my excitement)

I tried to exercise restraint and just bought three fat quarters in these lovely colours.

I was keen to use these fabrics straight away, but in an attempt to try & combat my tendency to start yet more new projects before finishing old ones, I set about finishing up these two:

yep, it's yet another taggie blanket. 

finished, but far from perfect. this is the scrappy nap pillow project from Anna Maria Horner's book, Handmade Beginnings.  

While it was fun using up lots of scraps, this took a long time to make, and a lot of un-stitching was required in the process, and it ended up lumpy in the middle. I might try and amend this, but it'll do for now.

I'll be back later this week to show you what I did with my new fabrics.

sewing interlude

I whipped up another taggie blanket this weekend. These have become my favourite thing to make for new babies that arrive at church, of which there is a plentiful supply. For those of you who kindly stop by here regularly, sorry this is nothing new, but I wanted to write a little post for posterity, so I can keep track of things I have made.

I like making these so much that I've started making spares, just for fun. There'll be one with more feminine colours coming later this week. Happy Monday!

on fonts and fabrics

Today the new edition of delicious landed on our doorstep - the joy of monthly subscriptions. Anyway, as with most magazines, there is always a nice little pile of adverts inside the magazine. Normally, they make a speedy trip to the recycling bin. But today, one of the ads caught my eye - not because it looked like something I'd like to buy, but because it looked hand written, and lovingly crafted. Although I know that the font was probably a handwriting computer font, I like to think that someone, somewhere in a little stone house in Italy lovingly wrote this advert in their best cursive script before re-printing hundreds of copies to advertise their little business on an international scale...Then there's the tiny little illustrations, adding even more character to the already creative advertising concept, consisting of a postcard that looked like a party invite, and a self addressed return envelope. I love all of these little details.

Other things catching my eye at the moment are reams of fabrics, waiting to be cut & sewn into beautiful things. At the weekend I was visiting my parents & popped into town with my Mum. I love that about the small seaside town where I grew up - that it's so small that you can just take a little stroll down the road, and in 10 minutes you're in town. We paid a visit to the lovely little shop called Through the Loop, where I picked out some lovely colours & patterns. It was so hard to choose just a few, but here's the selection that came home with me.

I love fabric.

saturday sewing

On Saturday I had the pleasure of attending a baby shower for a friend who is expecting a baby boy. It was quite fun going to a baby shower where the gender of the baby isn't a secret as it allows more freedom in present choosing. So I decided to whip up another taggy blanket, this time in beautiful blues.

My expectant friend is the only friend I have who has required that the guests at her wedding wear wellies. I loved that. It is so fun to get to celebrate different life events with friends over the years - first weddings, then babies. Wonderful.

for baby awesome

I know it's the new year so technically I should be sharing with you all of the things that are happening this year instead of last. But there are a couple of things which I did not manage to blog about before the year ended. My  hope is that I will have a few more sewing projects to show you over the coming year. Until they materialize (no pun intended), here's what I stitched at the end of 2010.

The brainwave came as I was thinking about my favourite baby. I decided to make her a taggy blanket. At the moment she's a little bit too young to fully appreciate the fun there is to be had with a whole lot of ribbon tags and some brightly coloured fabrics, but knowing how baby's tend to go, I am pretty sure in a few months time she will be loving it.

Here's how the process went...

I selected five different fabrics and cut them into strips of about 35cm long and 8-10cm wide.

Then I pinned them back to back and stitched together to create a row of strips with hidden stitching. 

Next, I went to my ribbon stash and selected 8 different ribbon styles. I tried to vary the ribbon texture where possible to make the blanket as tactile as possible. I cut two strips from each style of ribbon, measuring 6 inches long (15cm).

Once I had cut the ribbon strips, I worked out where they would look best against the different fabric styles and placed them on top of the fabric, aiming to space them relatively evenly, placing 4 on each side. I didn't bother with measuring the spacing.

Now, if you happen to feel inspired to have a go at this project yourself, don't make the same mistake as I did at this stage. Note how in the above photo, all of the ribbons are facing the right side up? Well, they shouldn't be. I went ahead and stitched the blanket together like this, which meant that the ribbons which were only patterned on one side ended up inside out Fortunately, there were only about 4 that this was the case, so my mistake was easily redeemed. 

Having made sure all of your ribbons are facing the right way (or wrong way if we are speaking practically), fold each ribbon in half and pin to the right side of the fabric strips like so:

Once securely pinned, I machine stitched each ribbon to secure it to the fabric and removed the pins. I then cut a piece of wadding to be the same size as the fabric square - approximately 40cm square.

Having chosen a plain, slightly textured piece of fabric for the backing, I lined up the backing, fabric with ribbons attached, and the wadding - placing the two pieces of fabric right sides together, so that the wadding lay on the wrong side of the backing fabric. Like so:

I pinned through all three layers then machine stitched around three edges, leaving one side open to turn it the right way out. Now comes the moment of truth where you discover whether or not you have put your ribbons the right way round and right side out!

If all is well with your tags & machine stitching, it's time to hand sew the top edge....

Ta da! It's finished! Simple as that. I wanted to sew another 10 of these right after finishing, it was that that straightforward (minus a couple of hiccups but I have learned lots from my little mistakes). Simple, satisfying sewing. Just the kind I like.

bootie love

Babies. Don't you just love them? Would it be wrong to love teeny tiny newborn baby booties almost as much as the prospect of the unborn baby they were knitted for?

Hmmm...Maybe that's a bit too much bootie love...

Anyway, these perfect pairs of booties were lovingly crafted by a lady in my parent's church, at my request for my wonderful friend Hannah's baby. 

The little labels which I stitched onto the sides of the booties are made by Sarah Trigg as part of a project based on Psalm 139 which describes how we were formed. 

 

Life really is miraculous and I am so excited about meeting the baby that is being intricately woven together in Hannah's womb in just a few weeks time.

clevedon & creating

Sometimes, a trip to the seaside is necessary. This weekend was one of those times. John had suggested last week that we should get away from our wedding planning heads and go to the beach where our heads could be filled & refreshed with the sea air. He didn't put it quite like that, but that's how I like to think of it. I loved the unplanned-ness of this trip - the only essentials I put in my bag were my camera, a bottle of water and a cereal bar. (I have a tendency to get incredibly hungry at inconvenient times & cereal bars are best friends with the hunger in my belly, so I try to make them a constant companion.)

I have to confess, Clevedon is not the most beautiful of beaches or most exciting of places to visit, but for us on a day when all we needed was rest, it was perfect. We headed straight for a pub to find some lunch. After filling our bellies, we read the paper & watched the Grand Prix practise which brought back memories of sitting in the living room with my Dad, dozing to the sound of the cars going around and around the track. I unashamedly slipped off my flip flops, drew up my legs onto the comfy cosy sofa and dozed awhile. I am pretty syre the barmaid must have thought it a bit odd for me to choose to take a nap in her pub, but I did not care. I was content to dream away in my dozy state.

I loved that for the whole day, I had no sense of time. I never knew what hour of the day it was, and it was so wonderful that I had no need to know. We lay on the pebble beach and I drank in the beauty of the sky. The clouds were stunning - so fluffy that I really did want to eat them - and they kept on changing to ever-more beautiful states. 

We drove home with windswept hair, full bellies & rested souls then spent the evening painting & sewing. What a wonderful day. 

bunting

 

The wedding bunting project is now well under way. 

Thanks to my brilliant friend Ros, we have managed to cut 300 triangles of fabric over two lunctime sessions & I started the stitching last night.

Following the wise advice of the ridiculously talented Sarah Trigg, I cut the triangles using pinking shears then stitched the triangles double sided, with plain fabric on one side, patterned on the other. This will increase the longevity of the bunting (I plan on using it at every possible occasion, birthdays, babies, anniversarys, and just when I feel like putting up bunting around the house) & makes it all the more beautiful! 

20 down, 130 to go.

To my heart's delight

A little while back I mentioned that I was making some spotty dotty cushions.

Due to my total lack of ability to think laterally, I had a few hiccups with the first envelope cushion that I made. Out of frustration, I took a little break from it until I could get my head round (quite literally - figuring it out involved me sticking my head inside the cushion cover that had gone wrong) how I needed to fold the fabric to make an envelope. Oh, how I wish I had my Mother's thinking skills.

So anyway, here are the end results. I am running out of space for my cushions but that's not going to stop me.

John insisted that I make him one (the top-most cushion now sits on his bedroom sofa), even though I did warn him it'd totally clash with his current cushion&quilt combination. He was unperturbed, unsurprisingly.

la la la la laaa

Sorry for the lack of entries over the last few days - I've been busy busy busy since getting back to Bristol. Yesterday was spent writing my assignment which I have to hand in tomorrow morning. The evening was taken up by my servant duties. My good friend Ros was having a Murder Mystery party for her birthday, and asked Helen and me to help her with the food. We had to come dressed as eighteenth century ships maids. I have to say, I think we pulled it off pretty well. I whipped up a couple of aprons for us both, with some lovely lovely lace trim, which also adorned our wrists and our necks. Oh if only I had a digital camera to provide you with evidence.

I had a whole lot of fun making the aprons, stitching away on my sewing machine, which I finally got to work. It was incredibly satisfying seeing it all come together in a matter of a few short hours. I'm very excited about the prospect of all the lovely things I am going to attempt to make over this next year on the sewing machine that chug-chugs along and has a flashing bulb (not a feature but a fault), giving a strobe-like effect as I sew. Anyone would think the machine was trying to distract me.

Today has been spent running, church-ing, baking (polish cake, fudgy chocolate bars and chocolate brownies) and article writing. The baking is for my friends to consume over the next week at training, which is at Center Parcs. The leader of my church was ever so slightly indignant at the fact that when he did FP, they had their training at Herne Bay Court, and I get to go to Center Parcs! Everyone I've spoken to about going to Center Parcs has said that I must spend plenty of time in the pool and on the rapids. However, the last time I went swimming I lost both of my contact lenses, costing me an arm and a leg, and I don't feel I can spare the other two limbs, so don't plan on spending too much time in the pool. Goggles might seem like a sensible suggestion, but I know myself too well, and think that I would still manage to have some kind of disaster, even with goggles, so don't think about suggesting it.

In view of the fact that I have training for the next week, there is going to be a week-long blogging absence, but I am sure I will be able to make up for it upon my return.

Ciao amigos.