Feeling girly

I went window shopping this evening on the way home from uni. Below are links to some of the books I had a flick through. It would be nice to have them on my bookshelf one day. They had lots of colourful pictures, ideas, instructions etc in and although I'm sure it would be easy to find a lot of the content online, nothing beats sitting and flicking through a real book.

Queen of Crafts by Jazz Domino Holly

Sew It Up by Ruth Singer

The Girl's Guide to DIY by Jo Behari and Alison Winfield-Chislett

Life takes over..

It seems like I won't be able to cultivate my many Christmassy gifty ideas this year as I continue to struggle to keep up with uni work and to motivate myself to do it. Is this life taking over? Or is this life being taken over? It's hard right now to stick at it when I feel like I'd much rather be out there, living, but I know that if I don't try hard at uni now I'll regret it if I don't get the degree I want at the end of the year. It's less than a year now in fact - after my January exams I will only have half of my final year left to do! I guess I must just concentrate on that for now, even though I'm determined not to let go or forget about all the other things I want to do. I want to make so many things, read so many books, go so many places! I wonder if keeping a tally of months, weeks, days till I graduate would help.. hmm.. maybe not.. it might just make me a bit obsessive. Perhaps a giant computerized scrapbook/folder for all my future projects would help - something I can keep adding to, then when I'm all done with uni I can have a lovely big selection of things to choose from :) Yes, I find that thought encouraging. I think its a good thought to go to bed on. Goodnight.

Present-buying

Just how lovely are these sequiny keyrings?! I bought one today for my cousins birthday. I'm not sure how long it would take to make something like this by hand but I'm sure it would be rather fiddly and probably quite time consuming.

I hope she likes it.. if she doesn't I wouldn't mind having it myself for my house keys! If I pass the shop I bought it in enough times I may just have to go back in and buy one of my own!

From T-Shirt to Cushion Cover!

Here is the cushion cover I made a few weeks after moving into my new flat. The middle piece is from an old t-shirt that I had grown out of but liked so much I couldn't throw it away. The flowery fabric panels around the outside and the material used for the envelope back were, for once, bought specifically for this project!

I'd happily make a similar cover again, for my other spare cushion inner perhaps, but must remember in the future to make the pattern a tad smaller than the actual measurements of the cushion to avoid the cover being too baggy - a tip from Grandma which came a little too late for this project.

Homemade Owl

I was over visiting my boyfriend today so took a pic of the wee owl I made for him a while back so you could see. The pattern and instructions I used came from this tutowlrial which I found when browsing for crafty things online. I decided to go with some more .. interesting fabric than used in the tutowlrial, not only because I thought it was more cheerful but because, as in previous projects, I already had it!

I found the pattern reasonably easy to follow but did encounter some problems in matching up the seams - it just didn't want to fit in some bits and I was worried the owl was going to turn out wonky. Luckily he didn't but when I made a second owl later on I re-shaped the pattern a bit in the hope it would be easier to sew. This was not the case - I simply ended up with a much smaller owl! Nonetheless, I think my mum was please with it.

If any one else has tried/is going to try making this owl I would love to see pics! I was wondering if it could be modified in some way to make a different creature .. and ideas?

Here's a photo of my Singer to finish, with Bagpuss who also joined in the fun and gave me a wee hand .. paw .. with the initial stitching of the owl. He also helped choose some of the fabric, can you tell? :]

Mr Snakey

I said last night that I knew what I was going to blog about next, and here he is! Mr Snakey, who now keeps my bedroom window draft-free. I made him out of an old home made skirt, the material of which I loved too much give to the charity shop along with the rest of my clear out. Also, it saves buying new stuff! Why bother buying new fabric when I have plenty of old clothes to cut up and recycle? The ribbon for his tongue I had already too, as with the buttons .. I thought he rather suited odd eyes .. and I didn't have matching big buttons and wasn't going to buy any when I'd had all the rest of his 'body parts' already.


As I made him rather thin to fit on the ledge it made stuffing him a rather laborious task as I'd almost completely sewn him up already. I stuffed the snake with cotton wool - I usually have a large pleat of it somewhere, I find it useful for so many things - and the help of the handle of a broken fish slice to poke it down with. I made him a little longer than my measurements on purpose as I knew once sewn up he would've shrunk a bit. As you can see, the fit is perfect! I had thought that perhaps I should've made him a bit .. taller/fatter? but he covers the gap fine which is the main thing :]

Threads to make with and threads to mend

Well, my lovely new threads are rather photogenic if I do say so myself :] I was given a beautiful old Singer sewing machine a few months ago and am still getting to grips with it (pictures to follow soon!) but I thought I should treat it to some new threads of its own as I'd only had, and used up, the one spool I could use on it. I haven't had a sewing machine of my own before this one but had always found the hand/foot coordination of the modern ones I'd used previously rather tricky, so when I was told I could keep it or sell it if I wanted a more modern one I of course said nooo - keeep!! (and gave Brigid lots and lots of hugs!) The Singer I have, I must explain, is a hand crank machine, not a treadle, meaning no foot action is necessary, woohoo! So far I've made a few things on it, but then I ran out of thread, time and immediately do-able ideas so haven't made anything for a few weeks. I still have a cushion inner collecting dust somewhere so I think I may try a patchwork cover next out of some flowery fabric I bought recently. One day I'd love to make my own massive quilt for the bed using lots of different, brightly coloured squares, so a smaller cushiony version would be good practice I think.

To tide me over until I get round to the Giant Quilt project, as it may one day become, I've been searching the charity and vintage shops as well as online for some traditional wool blankets to keep me warm this winter. I bought this one in a charity shop for a pound (!!) and now after a wash and dry it smells lovely and is keeping me toasty here on the sofa. It had been blanket stitched, but as you can see from the photo it has come undone in

places and needs some tlc. I will, dear blanket, do it one day I promise, but at least you're clean and smell ok now! I have another lovely blanket, orange this time (it'll so not match but eventually I plan on having a pick and choose type pile of blankets anyway so its ok), on its way from somewhere via ebay, but according to the website it still hasn't been dispatched yet.. and I paid for it on the 12th.. perhaps they've forgotten, and if so will feel rather bad when they remember, and then throw in another blanket for free :] Besides blanket mending, I'm hoping to get some more cards made to put up on etsy but I've been rather busy with Uni work recently (I'm in my final year and it seems I've only just realised..) so I might be posting on projects past, rather than present or future, for the time being. Ooo I know what I'll post next.. hehee.

Too tired to think straight!

Well after forgetting more than once I finally managed to get some cards made for the wee twins this evening. I would've taken a better picture as this was just to show them to my boyfriend but I completely forgot before putting them in their envelopes. Note for next time - must try harder. I think I need to get some coloured card as sometimes I can think of the image ok but then lack the ideas for layers (e.g. I feel the teddies would look better if they had a square of pink, say, as their background) to give it that bit more oomph. Excuse is tiredness.. as well as having one eye and most of my brain focussing on tonights Doc Martin episode.

Hello blog-world!

Hello and welcome to my new blog. I'm going to be using this blog to write about my creations and ideas in relation to card making and other crafts, as well as maybe jotting down a few kitchen related creativities. Hopefully it will inspire me to keep making things (even if they don't sell on etsy!) as I can write about cards and gifts I've made for friends too.. which reminds me, its the twins (something(1st?)-possibly removed-cousins..?) birthday this Thursday so I'd better get making some cards for kiddies! Brown felt teddies with pink blanket stitch springs to mind.. we'll see.