Lilla Handlebar Basket

Waaaay back in March I bought the Lilla Handlebar Basket pattern from Hemma design and ordered oilcloth and started out to make Hazel a basket. I got about 1/3 of the way in and it kind of fell by the wayside. There was a lot of gluing involved and I couldn't seem co-ordinate myself to do the gluing at times when I could let it dry and then get on to the sewing later. A couple weeks ago I had a fit of wanting to get some UFOs finished, and this was one of them (I still have too many to list here though).

One of the things that prodded me in to doing it was Hazel wanting to take stuffed animals with her on rides but not being able to since we've taken off the little doll's seat at the back of her bike. So for all your stuffed animal transport needs:

If you look at the pattern photo, you'll see Hazel didn't want to mess with perfection in terms of which oilcloth we used, which was fine by me! I ordered mine from La Cuisine and it came super-fast. I've never used oilcloth before but it seems nice and it's not horrible and thick like I always think of oilcloth being. It sewed up really easily too, I was surprised that I had no issues with my foot sticking to it, and the needle went through easily. I had some tension issues, and the seams looked a bit untidy but other than on the flower at the front they aren't visible anyways so it didn't really matter. The pattern itself went together very nicely, even if there is a lot of gluing, but I had to do a bit of fiddling to make sure the lining pieces were the right size for the outer before committing myself with the glue! Parts of the lining were too small, and parts were a bit too big, and it's not like you can stretch or ease oilcloth to fit!





She hasn't used it as a handbag yet, but I wouldn't recommend carrying heavy things in it, the handles are only held on with a narrow hem at the top. It's also a bit of a bitch to get on and off because the straps are very thick and don't bend easily.

Another card wallet

Last year(ish) I made Mat a card wallet. He'd had a metal one in mind and was a bit...unenthusiastic about it at first, but came around to it to the point where he asked me awhile ago if I'd make another one for him to put his loyalty cards, store cards etc. in.

I used some fabric he really likes and he seemed pleased with it on reception (he'll be sporting patchwork vests before I'm done*).

I used the tutorial over at Schlosser Designs again, it's super easy and very quick. It would have been quicker if I'd realised that I didn't have to cut separate sections for the back and pocket fronts because they're from the same fabric and form a continuous piece... The fabric is Robert Kaufmann something or other I think, and the circles are Metro something or other I think - I can be a bit more specific if anyone's dying to know!



*If anyone knows him I hope they'll find that image as funny (and unlikely) as I do.

iPhone case

The Monday night quilt group's 'homework' for the meeting last night was an electronic device cover. Since I share the iPad with my husband and I don't think he'd be thrilled by a patchwork cover, I decided to make another iPhone slipcover.  I liked the one I made last year so much I used the same pattern, although this time I made it as one long piece and folded it in half instead of making two separate sides like the first one. Since it was homework I figured I'd better make an effort at some piecing rather than just use one bit of fabric like last time! I've been wanting to try postage stamps for awhile, and something this small seemed like place to try them out.



The squares were 3 cm cut and 2 cm finished. And yeah, that's small! And yes the linen stretched. But actually all things considered, the squares generally matched up pretty well! I love all the reds and pinks against the linen, but couldn't resist putting in a single square of blue.



I had a typical last-step disaster though - if you look carefully at the large red and white polka dot fabric you can see the red has leached into the white, as it has on the two smaller ones next to it - and they're from different manufacturers to boot. Argh! I used water-erasable pen to draw in the quilting lines, so before I gave it a last iron I sprayed them out and ironed it wet and the red ran! I'm not sure if it would be permanent, I bet it is since I effectively set it with a hot iron, but I might try washing the cover in warm water with a colour catcher. I thought that both of those fabrics had been pre-washed but perhaps not. Anyways, not impressed!

I made it just a few millimeters too tight, so had to hand-sew the sides up to make enough room. It was meant to be sewn together along those stitching lines you can see, which this time around are simply giving a bit of structure to the edges. It's such a tricky thing making a cover just the right size - not too big or the phone will slide out, not too tight or you can't get it out in time to answer a call! I like this style of cover though, because I can pinch the fabric at the bottom and the phone slides up and I can then pull it out. I can also press the home button through the fabric and slide up the phone a bit to just see the time, and there's nothing blocking the headphone jack at the top.

So now I have two covers, although I imagine I'll still be wandering around the house saying "has anyone seen my phone cover?".

Wonky log cabin pillow

I started this pillow a couple months ago in an attempt to use up some of the really neat scraps of fabric Lyndy sends along with fabric orders. I came across this brilliant little needlebook by Stitched in Color on Pinterest and thought yes!

                                                           Source: stitchedincolor.com via Hazelnuts on Pinterest

Well it started out like that and then turned into a cushion, but these things happen.

I don't have huge amounts of small scraps really - I'm super-stingy when I cut things out so tend to end up with large scraps and I wanted to use up small ones. I easily had enough pink and red, less blues and fewer greens, so there are some non-scrap fabrics in those two colours. I decided to work on my wonkiness, which I always find hard. As you can see, I didn't manage to be hugely wonky, but dammit I didn't use a ruler or anything so it's wonky. The other problem I had was if things were too wonky then the block wouldn't lie flat. I'm not sure how you manage wonky and flat - are they somewhat incompatible?



I quilted the front in a spiral, which exposed a gaping hole in my general world knowledge - how to draw a spiral.  If you look carefully you can see mine is a bit oval-shaped and not roundish. Why is that? Well I thought if I marked out concentric circles and then fudged it a bit it would turn into a spiral. Apparently not! Of course I looked it up afterwards and discovered the correct way to do it. I will remember that for next time! It looks kind of cool anyways, though I don't think I'd like to attempt it on anything larger on my little machine.

I quilted the back with wavy lines, which I'm now in love with. I told my husband I felt like I was driving the sewing machine with hands on either side moving the fabric side to side. He just looked at me like I was mad.

I haven't had any feedback on it yet from most of the family, but one of us has made it her own.

Brown Hexagons

I mentioned awhile back that I'd done a 'block you don't like in a colour you don't like' challenge for my Monday night modern quilt group. I decided to do hexagons because I really haven't felt the love for them at all, popular as they are; and I chose brown because although I don't mind it as a colour, I really don't like it in quilts. Brown hexagons. Blech. This is what I ended up with



Although it wasn't explicitly stated, I think part of the reason we chose this challenge was to see if we could come to like something we might be prejudiced against for whatever reason. Now, I'm not entirely sure why I don't like hexagons much to be honest, I just don't. Someone suggested they might be too geometric, or precise and I think that's probably it in some deep subconscious way.

Brown, well I don't like brown in textiles much because I grew up in the 70s. Add some orange to that and you've got every childhood trauma right there. So of course I had to add in some orange. It didn't matter that it was Heather Ross orange either, because oh my I do not like this colour combination! Mat suggested after it was too late that green would have been a good background, and then I thought perhaps a paleish blue might have been good too, but it was too late and I'd already done all the quilting so wasn't going to change it. But I think perhaps it would soften the starkness of the brown against the white. I really need to stop using so much white as backgrounds.

So what do I like? Well I really like how I put the hexagons on (barring a few layout issues I can see now) with the negative space. And I really like how I quilted it.



Basically I quilted on the hexagon shapes first, then appliqued the hexagons on. I left parts of the top unquilted, so both the quilting and the actual hexagons have a lot of empty spaces. In fact, I could happily take off the hexagons and just have the quilting! I also really enjoyed making the hexagons, it was satisfying and good for keeping hands busy while watching tv.

Verdict: I still don't like brown much, but I think it's possible that, used judiciously, I could come around the hexagons. Just not brown ones.

KCWC Day 2

Phew! This one was a bit of a mind-bender at times but got there in the end! It turned out there was heaps of the blue flowered fabric to do the Figgy's Sunki tunic, so even though I suspect it's a bit crisp for the pattern I couldn't resist the combination!

Hazel hasn't tried it on yet, but I thought I could say a couple things about making the tunic because it's not the most straight-forward thing I've ever made. The tricky bits are the pockets that are set into the princess seams down the front. Unfortunately, the pattern illustration shows one piece a totally different shape than it is in reality which is extremely confusing, and the instructions are fairly brief. There is a further tutorial on the Figgy's site but that didn't really clarify things for me at all and I was in despair! Luckily I found Hemoglobinhummingbird's great tutorial on Flickr, had an "ah-HA!" moment and I was away. The rest of the tunic was pretty straightforward and even the pocket thing isn't that complicated once you have it straight in your head. One thing I did notice though is seam finishing happens in some places and not others - so you need to use your own initiative and finish the facings and some of the pocket areas for example. Same with curve-clipping. Not a biggie, but if you weren't paying attention and didn't do it in those spots, you might not be as happy with the finished result. The next time I do this I will also make the pockets deeper because they're quite shallow and Hazel was a bit put-out she couldn't get her whole hand into them.

I like the pleats in the sleeves - very 80s! I like to think Hazel will be wearing the Year 2 version of the power suit ;) You can see the effect the pleats have better on Angry Chicken's example. The overlap detail is neat too, although I couldn't find any reference in the pattern to sewing them down on each other, perhaps I'm just not reading it right - so I just sewed over the top stitching again.

I'd like to try it again in a heavy knit I think, at the moment I'm thinking the fit might be a bit uncompromising in a fabric with no stretch like this one. Wouldn't it be great if it came in adult sizes though?!

ETA: Aaaah! It's too small! Noooo! All that work and the great fabric and it only fits if she stands completely straight and still.  I rechecked the measurements and she should just be within the 6/7 size range, but it's obviously a very slim fit and more towards the lower end of the range of measurements. The sleeves are also a bit short. So. Dress goes next door if they want it and it fits Abbie and I try again. I will also raise the bottom of the arm scythe as it's too low and causes the dress to lift when the arms are raised. Boo-hoo. I'm pretty gutted about this, but serves me right for not tissue-fitting eh?

Fluffy*Stuffy bunnies

Look who I found out in the garden!

I've been making Hazel a bunny for Easter for the last few years, and almost left this year's too late! Last year's was Binky Bunny, this year it's the Fluffy*Stuffy Bunny from All Sorts' cute tutorial.



The one on the left is Hazel's and the one on the right is for another little girl. Hazel's was supposed to be given to her tomorrow, but yesterday morning she was in the spare room and called out and when I came in there she was with one and half bunnies, wondering what they were. Oh well! It meant I could finish them up openly instead of doing it at night. She also made the pompom for her bunny's tail, and chose the buttons on the dress.



The pinafores are reversible. Hazel's one has its nightie side on (as determined by Hazel) and the other has its daytime dress on. They really make the bunnies!

This is such a cute and easy bunny to make, I really enjoyed the process! So nice to be able to whip something out like that without any swearing or ripping out or major issues. Well ok there was one major issue - when I put the eyes on Hazel's bunny on the back of its head. Luckily the fake fur was pretty forgiving and the holes were easily sewn up and don't show. The fur isn't the softest ever, which is the only downside to them. The upside was that it's been in my stash for several years and it's nice to actually use a bit more up! In fact everything was from the stash, so they're economical bunnies to boot.

Critters

When I saw the Critter Community panels by Suzie Ultman for the first time I thanked my lucky stars there were babies being born who needed (yes needed) quilts made from it to justify buying some. I figured that it would look great with the squares and animals quilted, and a simple border around that. And you know what, it does! Or did. Or whatever tense I should use there.



The blue border is a scrap from the new blinds in our spare room and the brown is linen I bought to make a bigger quilt but it was just so perfect I used it on this instead. In retrospect I doubt there was enough to use in a larger quilt anyways! The binding is a spotty fabric by Lecien. I've already done a post on the FMQ 'issues' I had, but after a wash and a little blurring of the eyes I don't think any occasional wonkiness was too obvious. At least I hope not!

NICU quilt

The AMQG's second challenge was to make a small quilt (at least 20x24") to donate to the neo-natal intensive care unit at Auckland's Starship Hospital. Two very small members of my extended family ended up in the Wellington NICU unit at just over 22 weeks, so I know these places need cheering up! The challenge was to use a block you've never done before. I wanted to do paper-piecing but since I have technically done that before with BOM I decided to do a star, made with paper-piecing! I used the Lone Star template from Six White Horses and it turned out beautifully.



I had plans to put 4 stars on the quilt but then reality smacked me upside the head and I did one central one! I think it looks nice though, simple and cheerful. The quilting around the star went just as I'd hoped, but the border...well it's not exactly the greatest but I didn't plan it out as well as I should have in retrospect.



It's hard to take a good photo of white stitching on white fabric but the back looks really neat.

Seminole patchwork journal cover

Last year I came across this stunning pillow using Seminole patchwork, done by Lucie Summers. I'd seen Seminole patchwork around but it always looked so not my thing, bright colours, completely symmetrical and repetitive, that I'd dismissed it out of hand. When I saw it reinterpreted like that I fell in love and took some books out of the library and bought myself an ebook from The Book Depository. I finally got the chance to try it out myself when I came to cover the journal that Helen gave us last month at a modern quilt gathering she had. And even better, I got to use up some of the scraps I'd generated, and bitched about, with the last MBOM block. Of course, it took a heck of a lot more fabric than just those scraps, and I generated some more, but what the hey! Like someone said for the MBOM block, we need to be less precious about cutting that fabric up!

It was very time-consuming because I was just winging it, and so I had to add bits on and take them off and make up more, but I got there in the end and learned a lot in the process! Things to remember for next time - think a bit more about colour placement for overall effect, use more thinner strips, make the straight strips wider to start with so the finished strip is too.



But what a fun process and I'm definitely going to do some more. In fact, Hazel was so taken with it this morning that she asked if I could make a cover for her and could she choose the fabrics this afternoon and it could have a heart on the top like so, with another one inside, and then another one underneath. But the patchwork had to be just like this, though in a different colour. Or as my SIL Kate would say (after a trip to Thailand) "same same...but different"

I also need to work on my journal cover construction techniques. After seeing about a gazillion online and in books it would seem I couldn't actually find one when I needed to! (ETA: I found this great tutorial at Bloom via Pinterest, source of all things good. Will definitely use it for the next attempt, especially since it will remind me to put in a bookmark ribbon!)  I may go back and hand-sew the top and bottom middle bit so the seam isn't there and fix that, but annoyingly I didn't extend the batting far enough because I was worried it would add extra bulk. Otherwise I'm very proud of my pretty-much-entirely-winged-journal cover because I don't often do that! It was so hot and humid with pouring rain here yesterday I basically just said "screw it" and sewed instead of doing the things I was meant to. No such excuses today!

I Heart You

Yes you! And all the lovely people who read this blog - I can hear you breathing out there you know ;) And I need your help with this post! A few weeks ago I came across this very cute tutorial for making a heart on a pillowcase with little dots of fabric paint and somehow, some way, I managed not to Pin it, or bookmark it or anything - just stowed it away in my memory and got the supplies. Of course, when I went to do it I couldn't find the webpage and just had to wing it based on my memory. So if you have seen this heart before and know where the tutorial is could you let me know so I can credit it properly?  Yay! The tutorial has been found and it's over at V and Co., thanks to Lyndsey and Jocelyn. It's a bit like Chinese whispers looking at my effort and the original - the things I'd remembered and forgotten.

The heart turned out very cute despite all that, my memory must be better than I realised (aside from the fact it was done on a tote bag in the original!).



It wasn't quite as easy as I'd thought, my technique with the end of the pencil was a bit lacking at the bottom and lots of the circles had no paint in the middle. Then I figured out that if you lightly dab dab dab it in the paint for each dot you get a much nicer circle. I also think I could have gone for less of the darker pink, but I was aiming for three colour changes as in the tutorial and was too timid with adding the white so my gradations weren't as obvious. I like the more subtle ombre effect of mine too though! One thing I did do is waste a lot of paint because I was adding white to the existing pink at each change and it takes a HECK of a lot of white to make an increasing amount of pink lighter! In the end I started scooping out a small amount of the pink and lightening that. I still went through most of a bottle of white paint before I figured that little trick out. And yes, I have a PhD, though in my defence it's in archaeology, not painting :P

This was the first time I'd used freezer paper and I'm a total convert! It was so easy to iron on and the edge, though not perfect, is pretty clean and sharp. I definitely need to try more stencilling with it.

Stringing it out

How many posts can you get out of two pillows that you didn't photograph comprehensively before you took them off for a challenge? Three! Here are the two together.



I find it amazing how they have essentially the same fabrics (the spotty one has a couple extra) but completely different techniques and backing fabrics almost completely removes that similarity to the point where I don't know they go particularly well together. I don't mean that in a negative way or anything, I love them individually but not together so much. I think it's the very formal style of the Cathedral window with the freestyle look of the circles.

The modern quilting thing is funny isn't it - often I see it defined through fabric choices and negative space, as well as old patterns reinterpreted in the light of the first two criteria. So the Cathedral window pillow certainly qualifies for all three of those points - but what about the circle pillow? I think another side of the movement is heavily influenced by the use of linen and 'natural' fabrics, and a sort of Japanese/zakka aesthetic as personified by Rashida Coleman-Hales' work over at I Love Linen and my circle pillow definitely falls within that zone of influence. Are there any other genres of the Modern Quilting movement that you can think of?

Second AMQG pillow

For this pillow I really wanted to use linen and circles. I decided to applique the circles on and then quilt/embroider them both to hold them down and to look pretty! To be honest this pillow took me a lot longer than the Cathedral Window pillow, which was all done by machine. Luckily I had an old needlepoint frame to use with the quilting, but the size determined the height of the pillow - it's essentially a regular bed pillow but narrower top to bottom and slightly longer so it didn't look so...beddy.



I forgot to take closeups of the embroidery after I put the pillow together but I put teaser photos up on Instagram a few days ago






The worst part of putting it together was putting in piping and then an invisible zip along one edge. What a freaking nightmare! I had to resew things So. Many. Times. I thought I was going to go mental. The invisible zip foot wouldn't work on the piped side and my regular zipper foot sucks at the best of times, but with top and bottom being quilt sandwiches, plus the piping fabric and the general bulk of it all, it really didn't want to get close in to any edges! But hey, if you sew around something about 20 times eventually you get pretty close by small increments even if you die a little inside each time you have to resew a section or rip something out. :P

The back is plain with different-sized circles quilted all over it - why on earth did I not take photos of it? It looks great - I've noticed I often like the backs of my cushions as much as the fronts, I guess that's a good thing!

First AMQG challenge pillow

Well phew, I can blog about this at long last! I suppose technically I should wait until the 13th when we can all see each other's pillows, but I honestly think I'll bust if I can't blog about something. I've been spending all my time on these two pillows and other than having Instagram photos to put up I haven't had much to discuss*. So. This is the first one and not surprisingly it's a Cathedral Window pillow - I'm quite sure I wasn't fooling anyone with that thing of acting like the grey version was a random choice unrelated to the challenge.



While I love the grey version a lot, I think the colour placement was better on this one, and I know technically it's superior.



Not all the points are as perfect as these by a long shot - I discovered that the points formed at the joins between blocks are lovely, while the ones formed by the centre of each block look slightly mitered. I tried so so so hard to not have that happen but it did anyways, so I suspect it's an artifact of the method (I used the tutorial and A La Mode). I don't think I'll do another one but if I did I'd try one of the methods where you sew the blocks initially instead of ironing them and see if that made a difference. As I mentioned with the previous cushion, I tried sewing the turn-overs in circles and it was much more successful than sewing around four sides of each colour. The points are reinforced and much smoother with no back-tacking. I also paid more attention to how much I was folding back so my circles are more circular! The other thing I figured out after the fact was that if you want a directional print to run straight up and down on the finished item, you need to cut it on the diagonal initially - my prints were cut on the grain and as you can are all on the diagonal when sewn up. Not sure what that would mean for keeping the fabrics straight while sewing though, you might get too much distortion to make it worthwhile.

I've just realised I forgot to take proper photos of the backs of both pillows, but I did have an Instagram one from when I had just put the invisible zip in and was super-duper proud of myself. Can you spot it? The back is quilted with widely-spaced straight lines, and the row of blocks about a 1/3 of the way across. The rule of thirds is my life!




Second pillow tomorrow!

*Well I could have blogged about how depressed I am at the NZ election results and the fact this lovely country seems to be moving away from an inclusive and caring community to the "f**k you I'm in this for myself" attitude so prevalent these days. I hate the meanness of spirit and mind that seems to be such an integral part of the right, and I hate that the world that Hazel is going to inherit is all about the individual, what they can get out of life and what it owes them, rather than the individual as part of the community and humanity as a whole. I'm more than pleased that the Greens did so well, but in practical terms I guess I question how effective that will be when Labour is at such a low point. Sigh. I need to go and cuddle a cat or a child I think.

Stuffed animal sleeping bags

I've had the Flossie Teacakes stuffed animal sleeping bags Pinned for quite awhile but finally got on to making them after Cat gave me the gorgeous Heather Ross Far Far Away fabric as a gift. The pattern comes in three sizes - Daddy Bear (Teddy), Mummy Bear (Foofoo) and Baby Bear (Snooks). I don't know if Teddy is really a daddy bear (its sex varies from day to day to be honest) but the bag fits beautifully.

I'd like to make a longer one to accommodate Puppy, as he fits nicely in the largest width-wise but is too long - the beauty of the pattern is that it's easily altered to accommodate a range of animals of different sizes and shapes.

I bought the pink fabric from Stitchbird because I really felt that they had to be set. Not because I like buying fabric, oh no.  All the rest of the fabrics came from my stash so I feel vaguely virtuous about the whole exercise. Vaguely. Though if I have to get a fourth version to make Puppy's bag...



Just simple straight line quilting but you could get fancy if you wanted - they'd be a great project to try out free-motion machine quilting.

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Note: Just to clarify, the pattern for the sleeping bags isn't mine - if you'd like to make one the pattern is available from Flossie Teacakes at the link above.  Thanks!

Quilted pillow in reds

...or 'In Which I Learn That Perfectly Straight Is Much Harder Than Wonky'

I'm gradually trying to replace the grey-patterned pillows on our couch with lighter and more interesting covers. For my second one I decided to have a go with white and a pop of colour, and went with red scraps I have left over from my red quilt. I used the Picket Fence tutorial over at Made On Maple to get me started

Source: madeonmaple.blogspot.com via Hazelnuts on Pinterest

with some inspiration from Oh Fransson's Chopped Vegetables pattern.

Source: ohfransson.bigcartel.com via Hazelnuts on Pinterest

So the wonky thing - both the inspirations are wonky, but I thought I'd rather go with the more traditional stacked coin look and cut everything nice and straight. The thing with that though, is if your linen fabric (the white) is stretchier than the coloured cottons, then it won't come out perfectly straight no matter how hard you try. So you end up with something that is neither wonky nor completely straight! The pillow is close enough really and only I'll know to look at it, but a good lesson to learn :) The linen does have a lovely sheen to it though, which doesn't come through in the photos.

I was really pleased to be able to use some of my 'In the Neighbourhood' houses fabric from Ruby in the Dust - I didn't get it in time to use in my red quilt. My other favourite in here is the Kei Honeycomb dots, there's something perfect about that fabric! I've almost used it all up, but luckily the FQ I won at the Modern Quilt Guild is virtually the same, so I'm not totally out of red with big fat white spots (thank goodness, it's my all-time favourite design).

Family reactions: Mat refuses to commit to any particular colour scheme in the living room, but has said he thinks there's enough red (the curtains are quite a heavy red and the rug is a red Persian one) so I think my next pillow will be blue.  When she saw me holding the cushion after photographing it, Hazel paused in a stream of chatter about ponies or something like that to say "that's good work you know" and went back to chattering. That's one thing good thing they don't generally tell you about having kids - they make you laugh!

Baby Binky Bunny

I'm pretty sure that when I give this to Hazel I'll be compelled to say "Congratulations Miss Hazel, it's a Bunny!"



It's such a super-cute pattern, and is available as a pdf from mmmcraft's Etsy shop and you can also see it on the blog here. It took two days all up, so pretty fast for me!



I really love the binky too. Given I was in a bit of a rush I wasn't able to over-think the whole fabric selection bit and that probably means I'm much more satisfied with it in the end! It's just two layers of fabric sewn right sides together, turned right side out and then finished with edge stitching and embroidery thread ties. The backing is a pale blue linen.



The bunny is also made from linen, with wool felt and a bit of Heather Bailey jelly beans in pink (or something like that, don't think it's available anymore).

 

The nose is padded satin stitch and the eyes are stem stitch. The only thing I'd change would be the mouth, it looks a little put out about something. I should probably change it to a smile. I might also attach the ears together as suggested in the pattern, I think it looks a bit cuter. I changed the mouth to a smile and stitched the ears together and am now thoroughly happy with every aspect of it. :)

Can't make the tail any cuter though!

Felt bag with embroidered bird

It's done! Man, this took a lot longer to do than I expected, thick felt is tough to embroider through! But it was totally worth the sore fingers. The design is from Scandinavian Needlecraft by Clare Youngs.

The design itself isn't hard, and the stitches are simple.  I've never done a whipped stitch before and while it seemed like double-handling, it gives a lovely three-dimensional effect. I like how the design almost looks like yarn just sitting on the surface.

The instructions say to use "thick felt" but don't elaborate so I really wasn't sure what to use. I went looking and found Jenny Hislop's gorgeous version, and it sounded like just putting together two layers of thin felt wasn't going to really do the trick.  In the end I bought the most beautiful 3mm white felt from FilzFelt on Etsy and it was perfect. I got the 1/2 yard and it's not cheap, but I discovered that there's enough in that to do 2 bags plus have some left over for other small projects. It's really just amazing after dealing with the much thinner felts, the body it has is unique - plus it still smells like wool a little bit which makes it nice to work with.

In general, although the instructions are perfectly adequate, I did rather want a bit more detail in terms of stitch spacing and construction techniques. So I thought I'd just pop down my thoughts in case anyone was casting about for guidance.

• Cut it with a rotary cutter, even the cut-outs, it gives a beautiful edge. I just used a box cutter to trim into the points of the cut-outs and to get into the corners of the handle. I used a small cutter for the inside of the handle.
• Cut out the front and embroider it before cutting out the back to match it, the front changed in shape and size a bit and then I had to trim the back down which was a pain.
• You will probably need to tuck in the raw edges of the fabric behind the cut-outs and stitch it down to avoid fraying and to keep it tidier inside.
• I did the cross-stitching down the side spaced 10mm and 5mm in from the edge. More tightly spaced at maybe 8mm might have been good too, although more work! I marked the lines out with water-soluble marker to keep things even.
• You can do a lot of the embroidery without having to come through to the back of the felt which not only makes it much easier to work, but keeps the inside looking tidier.

So now I just have to work up the courage to actually use it - I have a really bad feeling it will get dirty around the handles fairly quickly and I'm not sure how well it will wash. I did briefly consider trying to put some sort of lining in it that would wrap around the inside of the handle but I actually think the thickness of the felt is particularly obvious around the handles and part of the appeal of the bag for me.

I pondered faithfully copying the original after seeing Jenny's interpretation, but in the end I decided that I'd seen the pattern and wanted THAT bag, not anything else, so it's not really a cop-out in terms of creativity. What do you feel about that kind of thing - do you always change things up a bit or do you tend to copy the original as closely as you can?

Clothes for Mum Challenge

Time to walk the talk ladies - the Clothes For Mum Challenge is officially on.  It's official because there is a button and a Flickr group.  Did you know it's distressingly easy to start one of these things up? I must remember that next time I casually mention a challenge thinking no-one would be interested. But no, I'm keen and I hope you guys are too!

The brief is to spend the next month (October 23rd - November 19th) focussing on sewing clothes for yourself.  I know Christmas is coming and there are stuffed toys and quilts and ornaments and kid's clothes to be done (or at least thought about in my case) but darn it, we deserve something nice to wear on Christmas Day don't we? We deserve to have some new clothes for summer (or winter for you Northern Hemisphere peeps)! Enough putting it off to make something quick and easy for the kids that you won't worry makes your bum look big.  It's oh so tempting not to do it I know, but I've got the fabric and the button and the group and I'm doing it so please join me so I'm not at this party all by myself!  Leave a comment below if you'd like to join in, if you have a blog pop in the link too! Anything you've done since I first posted the idea counts - submit it to the Flickr group for us all to admire and be inspired by.  I'll compile a wee list of the people who've put their hands up and I'd like to post links to highly recommended patterns or tutorials so if you have any suggestions let us know - for example I'm interested in good tunic patterns that suit someone with a bit of a bust!

Please do join in at any time if you'd like to! So far we have:

Laura
Deb
Pdxolson4
Heleen
The Textured Leaf
Elizabeth
Maryanne
Lisa
Tracy 
Melinda
Willy Wagtail 
Lin3arossa
DorothyBills  
Bellgirl

Here's the button if you're so inclined (the code looks awful I know but it works!)

<br /> <a href="http://hazelnutgirl.blogspot.com/2010/10/clothes-for-mum-challenge.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="CFM button" height="150" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1218/5106340606_f5ffb0ec8e_m.jpg" width="165" /></a><br />

A is for Apple and P is for Pear

Why did I post about the apple when clearly I wasn't finished with it?  The way the post finished just screams "will not be able to leave it alone".  So I made another leaf for it, and then a pear, and then because that wasn't enough, I put some shiny shiny beads on both of them.

Beads are very important on functional items like pincushions.

Hazel wants a pear now. She won't wear the clothes I make but she wants a freaking pear. Actually I think she just wants stuff, full stop. (bitter much?)

And I promise I won't touch these again before I send them out. Honestly and promisedly.