M I A

It was amazing when I looked back at my blog & I realised that I had only made one post in the last two weeks. I have been M I A , well not so much missing in action as working on other projects. Some of you may know that I also have a Bunting company called Lavender Bunting, I make bunting to hire for any occasion or bespoke orders. Thats what I've been doing finishing a very large order for classroom packs, I have struggled to get anymore Calico to finish the order but last week I eventually tracked some down & have managed to get the order finished.
Having the sewing machine out over the last couple of weeks has just served to remind me how much I love sewing. 
Yesterday after the order was finished I made a fabric bag & customised another, Can you spot the Stampin' Up products used in these two projects?


First the customised canvas bag

Using up the scraps to make a Lavender Bunting Bag

Can you spot the Stampin' Up products on this bag?

Regal Rose Grosgrain
Subtles designer buttons
Antique Brass jumbo Eyelets

Did you spot them?

This is a bag that I made from scratch using some of the extra Calico as the lining & half a Metre of beautiful floral fabric. The inside has a pocket as I always lose my keys in the bottom of my bag, now theres no excuse unless of course I forget theres a pocket!!

Can you spot the Stampin' Up products used on this bag?

If you cant here's a close up

Old Olive Striped Grosgrain ribbon

I covered the webbing straps with the Old Olive Striped Grosgrain ribbon.
I still have about 2 Metres of Calico left so watch this space & see how I combine the fabric with the beautiful stamps from the Mini catalogue.

Making your own bunting

 

 

What you need

Card
Pencil/tailors' chalk
Ruler
Scissors (for cutting card)
Pinking shears or scissors suitable for cutting fabric
Fabric
Pins
Needle and thread/sewing machine
2m ribbon or cotton tape (wider than 2cm to make it easiest)
Iron

Step one: Make a template

To make sure all the triangles are the same size, cut a template from card to draw around. I reckon long triangles are better than short stubby ones.

Step two: Draw the triangles

Draw around the template on to your fabric using a pencil or piece of tailors' chalk. Remember to rotate the template each time you draw another triangle so you can get as many pieces as you can from your fabric.

Step three: Cut out the pieces

Use pinking scissors to cut around the triangles - this gives them a zigzag edge and stops the fabric from fraying. If you don't fancy investing in any new tools, use normal scissors to cut out and:
a) Put up with the fraying (really, this isn't ideal).
b) Use felt - which doesn't fray - or strong upholstery material
c) Overlock around the edges with a sewing machine

Step four: Attach the triangles

Take a long piece of ribbon and fold it in half, lengthways, so it is just as long but half as wide. Iron to keep the fold in place (this makes the next bit easier). Pin the fabric triangles on to the ribbon at equal distances from each other.

Step four: Sewing up

With the triangles pinned in place, sew all the way along the ribbon, at least 1cm from the edge, making that sure when you stitch, the needle goes through the triangle and both sides of the ribbon. A sewing machine makes this easy, but if you don't have one, hand-sew using a backstitch.

Work in progess at the moment is yet more bunting at the moment I am making up some bunting I've called Strwberries & cream. The fabric in the machine is a michael miller fabrics called Sandi Henderson - Meadowsweet - Strawberry Fields - Cream.

I have now hit a slight hiccup as all of the other fabrics I originally gathered for this project were from the Nicey Jane range by heather Bailey & now I'm not so sure that they all look right together as they are predominately pinkier than the Strawberry fabric I have based the project round.
 









So I'm wondering weather to use
Plain cream
Plain red
Red Gingham & 
Green Gingham


If anyone has any suggestions Please e-mail me.

My little Janome machine is the 140M model & is just so cool, especially for just £40.

New fabrics have just arrived

For the past week I have been stalking the postman, well thats the way it feels, just over a week ago I ordered these beautiful Riley & Blake fabrics from America to start making Halloween bunting & today they have arrived. Just one more pack to come & I can start the halloween bunting. I dont know wether to use black tape or to dye some lime green, or orange maybe, what do you think?

The fabrics are from a range called Boo to you available from 

Fabrics I Love

 

Now just because I shared that link with you I take absolutely no responsibility if you choose to follow the link & subsequently get a letter from you bank manager about your severe overspend. Delivery only took 8 days so I was really pleased & I got some free charms of Fabrics that are lovely for boys.

Flea market bag ~ Home sewn of course

A few weeks ago I found this lovely pattern for a bag & thought I would give it a go, as many of you know Me & sewing machines were an alien concept until about 4 months ago, so I got the pattern checked out to make sure that I wasn't running before I could walk.

The Fabrics are By Tanya Whelan & they are stocked at work.

After a couple of false starts, because the bag is double sided & has an interfacing as well, I kept sewing them together in the wrong order, not once, not twice but three times & to make it worse I had to unpick it each time with a needle & sharp scissors. I learnt my lesson fast & bought an unpicker & touch wood I haven't needed to use it yet.

The bag is reversible & has a double pocket inside.

The pattern actually makes a larger messenger bag as well & you can choose 4 different strap styles & lengths.

It's in the making

The next bunting project is on the drawing board, its called Strawberries & cream. 

The 100m of tape arrived in the post this morning, I am deciding wether to dye it pink before I make up the bunting.

The fabric is a mixture of Amy Butler & Heather Bailey "Nicey Jane"

Yummy ~ Strawberries & Cream

 

 

Nothing ever goes the way you plan

Well today certainly hasn't gone to plan.

We were all supposed to be going on a coach to Lakeside & Ikea, Abi wanted it as a Birthday treat instead of a party. Well it was all booked & we were supposed to collect the coach at 8 this morning, But Abi had already been sick 4 times by then & she decided that she didn't feel well enough to go, despite having some anti sickness tablets. She was so excited last night & had planned to take pictures of everything so she could make a mini book of the day.Well Dan decided that as all the tickets had been paid for that he would still go, but as he couldn't raise any of his friends at 7am this morning he went on his own armed with an Ikea shopping list for me. I need some more rails & storage for the craft room.
So I need to look at the dates the trip runs again to re-book for her.

As we were all up so early Paul is in the garden constructing a large wooden stand to put all of the veggie planters on, we definately need them to be off the ground as Bramble has a habit of weeing on everything out there. I have been busy updating my blog with a layout I started last week, its my first stitched layout.
The stamps used to make the flowers are from the Vintage vogue set that are in the current Mini catalogue & are available until 30th September.

Poor Abi has passed out on the sofa, but at least she hasn't been sick for the past 3 hours, so fingers crossed she is over the worst of it.

An abundance of Birthday Bunting

In the making ~ all of the triangles cut & stitched together

When I looked at all of the triangles together I thought that I needed more variety so on Friday I went & bought 6 more fat quarters.
The fabrics are a mixture of Amy Butler & Heather Bailey.


Well as promised some pictures of my Amy butler bunting that I have made for Abi's birthday tomorrow.

I got a bit carried away, as many of you know spacial awareness & calculations of size of any sort are not my speciality so before I knew it I had made a stunning 25 metres of this beautiful bunting. At least I gave my Mum a good laugh as she has NEVER knon me to sew anything in my whole life. But since I've had my lovely little sewing machine I have been itching to make something. But now I have a seed of an idea i'm working on.

The bunting is all around the living room at the moment & there is enough for the pergola in the garden. I made a length especially for the porch & in stepped the spacial awareness problem again! ! dont laugh but it's 4 metres long, Paul reminded me that we only have an Average 4 bedroom house & not a mansion.

I have loved making the bunting & now looking for more fabrics.