And sew to bed

Hello again

I thought you might like to see this sewing project using a pattern from Love Patchwork & Quilting magazine, issue 28 which I thought would suit both my younger grand-daughters for a present, as I had made the coveralls for their siblings.

The pattern consists of two larger mice, two smaller mice and their bed.  I thought the mice might be tricky but not the bed - how wrong was I!!

I matched the mummy and daddy mice's ears to their baby son and daughter and they all have a little string tail!  I made the mice from felt and used matching fabric for the ears.  The mice were unbelievably easy and the instructions were very good.

However, the bed!!  Oh my word I could not get my head around the pattern.  I showed it to several sewing people but they were stumped, like me.  In the end I emailed them at Love Patchwork & Quilting and explained my problem.  They were very helpful and sent me a bit more detail.  Unfortunately I still couldn't get my head around it.  Eventually I took it with me to Sharon Gammon at WhoopsieDaisyDesigns to see if she could see what I was doing wrong.  It took Sharon quite a while, but she eventually managed it!  Hurray! and you can see the finished project.  

For the bed I made some little patchwork squares and quilted them for the front of the bed, which had some padding on it.  The pillow I made it from some white minky material I had in my stash and then padded it out with some toy wadding.  The rest of the bed is made up by doing some 'fabric origami' (hence my problems!  You use some cotton fabric for both the lining and the bed backing. 

I'm still not sure I can work it out again, but I shall make some notes to add to the instructions so I can do it again if necessary.  

I really do love it and I hope my grand-daughters will love it too.

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Children's coveralls

Hello

Today I'd like to show you some coveralls I made for my four grandsons.  I hope they will be ideal for them to paint, draw or even eat in.  

I made these using a pattern from Sharon Gammon, WhoopsieDaisyDesigns and fell in love with them.

I bought some Super Heroes cotton material from the Pumpkin Patch in Hailsham, East Sussex and lined it in plain yellow cotton with a green pocket.  

I cut out a character from the material and appliquéd it onto the pocket.

The back has two sets of ties one by the neck and one by the waist.

The second coverall I made using pirate material which I already had in my stash, on sale from Dunhelm Mills a couple of years ago!

This time I cut out the treasure chest and the pirates' galleon and appliquéd them onto the pocket before I put the pocket on the main fabric.

As you can see I lined it in red cotton and used plain blue cotton for the pocket.  

Again I put two sets of ties on the back.

These two will be winging their way to Australia together with a present for my grand-daughter, which I shall blog about soon.

I also made a spiderman one and a woodland one for my other two grandsons, but I forgot to take photos of them!  

My grandsons range from 16 months to 6 years old and I have made the same size for them all.  The beauty of this pattern is that it will fit all sizes around the neck and waist and all that changes is the length.  I must say it is quite long on my 16 month old grandson but he is probably likely to  make more mess than the others!  (possibly!)

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Little make-up bag

Hello

Today I'd like to show you a make-up bag I made using WhoopsieDaisy Designs at my sewing class near Horam.  I go every Monday morning and we have so much fun.  Sharon Gammon is such a good teacher.

The top of the bag (the pink bit) uses a material called faux leather, which I bought from Debbie Shore on the Crafters' Companion website.  It comes in various colours and I must admit I love using it.  I plan on using it to make some handbags soon, so watch this space.   The bottom part and the lining are made from Tilda fat quarters.  

The faux leather is really soft and feels just like leather.  It is also very easy to sew with as the back is just like normal fabric.  It can be ironed (but only on the wrong side) and treated just like ordinary cotton.

The bag has a zip and Sharon shows how easy it is to insert a zip into a bag.  The pleat in the bag, both inside and outside, allows you to put much more into the bag than you would think as it expands.  

I really enjoyed sewing this bag and I have already made a couple more, one of which my eldest grand-daughter 'snaffled' for her make-up!  

This one I made for my friend Sue and I think she was pleased with it; she certainly said she was!

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Cuddly Bear

Hello

Here's another Whoopsiedaisy Design that the talented Sharon Gammon has designed.  

My younger son and his wife were expecting their first baby last November and I wanted to make something to welcome my seventh grandchild (!) into the world.

Sharon designed this lovely bear with his snuggle blanket as well.  As we didn't know the sex of the baby I had to go for neutral colours and I was struggling to find neutral fabric that co-ordinated in the local fabric shops when lo and behold, Debbie Shore came on Create & Craft and had this matching fat quarters set,  There are six different fat quarters all in neutral colours.  Perfect!  I decided to do teddy in patchwork too but I could have done it all in one piece of fabric. He is stuffed with toy stuffing and is lovely and squidgy!

I also used Minkie fabric for the front of the ears, his little nose which is heart shaped and the bottoms of his feet.

The blanket is quite straight forward although it took a while to work out where to put the squares!  The picture makes the blanket look a bit creased, but I promise it wasn't.  It was lovely and smooth!  I sewed the blocks together and then put a border around it. I backed the quilt in the lovely 'bobbly' Minkie, which I got from the wonderful Pumpkin Patch in Hailsham, East Sussex and also brought it round to do the edges too.  I then quilted along the seams of each square, sewing right through to the backing.  Sharon is a expert at putting quilts together and she helped enormously, showing us every step of the way, with the binding and quilting which is not as easy as it looks!!

Here are the two together.  Don't they look smart?  My son and daughter-in-law were very pleased and I don't think they were being polite!  They had a little boy called Rory and the quilt and teddy sit proudly on his little crib!  Brilliant.  Thank you Sharon.

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

WhoopsieDaisy

Hello

Today I'm going to show you some more sewing.  I joined a weekly sewing group with my friend Jill.  Sharon Gammon runs sessions all week, morning and afternoons and sometimes weekends too and it is called Whoopsiedaisyhandmade.  She has a Facebook page and I recommend you have a look at it.  It shows you how talented Sharon is and also gives many examples of items we all have made.

Sharon provides the patterns and and tuition and we bring along the material of our choice. 

The first two pictures show a little lined makeup bag with zipper closing.  I dreaded the thought of putting in a zipper as the last time I put in a zip, not very successfully!, was as a teenager - many years ago.  Sharon, however, showed me how to put in a zip and it was so much easier than I remembered.  She made it much simpler and had plenty of time to show me exactly what to do.

This is a Christmas table runner using Sharon's pattern.  The material I bought from Dunhelm Mill in their Christmas sale.  I have never made a table runner before nor had I done any patchwork so I was very pleased with it.  Sharon provided the pattern, explained it and showed me what to do.  

Thank you for looking

Liz x