Bears 5 –Two Tone Bear Twins

I was asked to make a bear for a friends Niece who is expecting. 

I thought I might as well make two at the same time and finally use up the fabric.

I really love this fabric as when the noses are trimmed the underneath colour is a lovely contrast.  I use the same fur turned inside out for the paws and pads, which means it matches perfectly.

Katie’s bear required a Pink Bow, which when tied just did not look right, so I made a Bow Tie out of two types of ribbon with a press-stud fastener.  Bows have to be secured with a few stitches for small children.

You have to be very careful making bears for children.  Jointed bears need to remain on a shelf until the child is at least 3.  These bears have safety eyes and plastic safety joints.

Rag Doll

I saw this doll pattern in a craft magazine years ago and stashed it.

Last year a friend from work and his wife had their first baby, Alessandra.

She was about 18 inches tall when complete (the doll not the baby).

Again I had the base body material in my stash as I had intended to make this for a long time.

The WI show had a rag doll in it and that spurred me on even though I would not be able to enter it.

The legs and arms are very thin and I employed small bear techniques to get the stuffing just right, she could not have lumpy legs.  The trick is to roll the stuffing into 1cm balls (a good TV watching activity).

I enjoyed making the clothes more than I thought I would.  She is wearing cropped pants, a long top and a jacket.  Deciding which fabric to use took me ages.

The shoes are the cutest bit and were quite easy.  Two pieces of felt, blanket stitched together with a bow to tie them.

The hair took a long time too.  But it covered my biggest mistake.  I am used to making bear noses, but delicate doll features were a trial.  After 3 attempts I turned her over and used the other side of her head for the face.  Her hair is quite secure, but if you are determined, you can see she is two-faced.

I liked all the detail on the cloths and the tiny bows, which all had to be secured so that they would not come un-done.

This was a labour of love and she will be an only child.

Baby Blankets

About 2 years ago at work we had a rush of babies.  Apprentices, growing up, meeting girls and having babies and lady employees having babies.

The first blanket I made was for Dave and Catherine and had a Disney design for Erica and then a Pooh Bear design for Sam.  Sadly I did not take a picture.

Feedback was positive and I thought I would make a few more.  Apparently really useful when visiting people to have something to put on the floor.

Elisa’s blanket was inspired by the fabric which I could not resist.  It was simply the same material both sides with wadding in between.

As you can see they make really nice gifts.

Carl and Brad’s

Carl and Brads were all quite similar, they had Quilted Broderie Anglaise (which is hard to find and not cheap) on one side and fleece with children’s designs on the other side, for extra snuggly-ness.  These also had tapes at one end so that they could be wrapped up and carried more easily.

Emma and Claire’s

Cody’s

It is was very hard to get Fleece with designs more suitable for boys.  It is easier now and I have seen some really lovely ones.  Including a bear driving a John Deer tractor, tooo cute.  Please someone have a baby.

I was asked to make the ‘Taggie’ blanket for a friend who Fosters children.  It is fleece on both sides, approx. 1 foot square and has 20 ribbon tags of different types and textures around the edges, which apparently babies love.  It worked OK, but was very hard to line up all the tags.

Bags 2 – Vinyl Satchel

I made this Satchel from the Bag making book I bought for 50p this summer ‘A Bag for All Reasons’ by Lisa Lam (author of the Bag Making Bible).

The Vinyl arrived as the packing for an item Mick had purchased on-line.  It seemed to good to throw away so I stashed it.

I wanted to try the pattern out, but did not want to waste good fabric as I knew the corners were going to be tricky.

The pattern is made up of double side pieces with stiffener between the layers to make it strong and stand up.

The vinyl is a bit floppy which caused no end of trouble when I was trying to put the magnetic fasteners on and position them correctly.

When using Vinyl you cannot use pins, but you can buy very small bulldog clips which do the same job.  Sadly I did not have any so used Mick’s masking tape instead.  The beauty of which was that I could sew over it and remove it later.

The worst part is that the reverse side of the vinyl is white so the out-facing seems show the colour.

Mick thought it was a shame that so much effort was put into something I won’t use, as the colour shows, but I learned a heck of a lot and the next one will be better.

I did not have enough material to make a long handle so improvised with a short one.  The machine had to go through 5 thicknesses of fabric to do this and managed it.

I used the walking foot on my machine as the vinyl has a tendency to stick.

It’s not pretty but it does look like a satchel.

Christmas Crafts 1–Wreaths, Table Mat and Christmas Tree Wall Hanging

Table Mat

Having made this bunting out of ‘Scandi’ fabric, which is a one-way design I was left with more upside down triangles (see Bunting previous).

Due to the linear design it lent itself to being matched up into a Pentagon shape.  So I sewed the pieces together, making sure (at the second attempt) that the triangles met perfectly in the middle and the lines matched up-ish.

I then cut out some red spotty fabric for the back and some thin-ish wadding for the middle in the same shape using the top piece as a template.  I sewed these together by ‘quilitng-in-the-ditch’ which means topstitching along the dividing lines of the pieces to keep them together and slightly quilt the table mat.

Finally I edged the mat with inch wide ribbon.  First by sewing the ribbon and the top design side, right sides together with the sewing machine.  Then hand sewing, with a small hemming stitch, the ribbon to the back of the mat, after folding it over the edge and ironing it straight-ish.  Ribbon is very forgiving due to it’s finished edges.

I used a walking foot on my sewing machine which is a recent, very useful and much used addition to my sewing machine.  It prevents the multiple layers of fabric from bunching together. 

Pam’s Table Mat

Wreaths

I made the wreath above (in the centre of the bunting) last year 2013, out of the remains of the bunting fabric in the same picture.

It was a polystyrene ring which I covered by knotting strips of fabric (approx. 1 inch by 5 inch) with a double knot. 

NB.  Cover the white polystyrene ring first, as it takes a lot of hiding.

Then, I threaded some leftover Caribou string feathers through it and finally added some very small baubles I bought in Sainsbury’s for £1.

2014 Wreath

Another Polystyrene ring (only £1 from The Range).  This time I covered it with fine ribbon first!

Then I made approx. 30 bows out of red and green ribbon.

Using pearl headed pins I placed the ribbons around the wreath in alternate colours.

I made larger bow for the bottom out of the same ribbon.

Liz’s made me a bobby-dazzler of a bow for the top, with her new Bow Maker.  Thank You.

The bow topped it off a treat, and it managed to survive the winter weather outside on my back door..

Christmas Tree Wall Hanging

I saw this pattern made up at the Harrogate ‘Knit and Stitch Show’ (great day out) in 2012 and thought I would have a go.

The pattern was sold for charity by a ladies group.

It consists of 75 squares of fabric, painstakingly cut out and ironed, in half and half again, to made a thick edged point.  These are then sewn to a backing fabric and the ‘felt pot’ and edging is sewn on afterwards.

My symmetry OCD meant that I did not randomly place the different fabrics, but I think it would have looked better.

Small brass bells were added at the end for additional decoration.

Never again, it anyone likes it they can have the pattern. 

Lace Making 1–Beginner

Liz from Craft n Chat is a keen and expert lace-maker.  She said I should have a go and I liked the idea, as it has always appeared to be so baffling.

She kindly lent me a Pad and lots of other essential items.

First she taught me how to thread the beads onto the bobbins.  The beads identify the bobbins in pairs as all the work involves a pair of bobbins.

Then the bobbins need to be wound with thread.  There is a worker pair which does all the work and crosses the work on each row.  In the example below there are 5 passive pairs, shown in the middle at the top.

At the end of each row you place a pin in the cardboard ‘pricking’ (which is like a pattern) to keep the finished row in place and tension the work.

The workers are passed over and under each other in a sequence to create each stitch.

Stitches are varied by using different sequences and twisting the bobbins as you work across a line.

It is very much like weaving at this simple stage.

Pins are added into the centre of the ‘pricking’ to make loops and structured holes in more advanced work.

I was advised to use different coloured thread to make it easier and my worker thread was yellow which made it stand out.

This piece took about 4 hours all told.

Draft Excluders

After making one draft excluder for a friend, who had recently moved house and had a very wide door, for which a normal draft excluder would be useless, it cascaded into several.  As every time I mentioned draft excluders the person i told said ‘Ooh, I could do with some of those’.

Tip

After the first lot where I sewed down a short edge and one long side, I realised that it was so much easier to sew down the long side, then pull the stuffing through and seal the ends afterwards.  Yeah!!

I used thick wadding to stuff them as it can be rolled and easily pulled through the centre.  It also gives a much smoother appearance to the finished item.  Using stuffing makes them lumpy and look like Nora Batty’s stockings.

Each takes half a metre of fabric, preferably curtain weight or heavier and 1 metre of thick wadding rolled up.

Hannah’s

Yaz’s

Ella’s

Ssshhh, don’t tell anyone else!!

Paper Crafts 2 – Funky Wallpaper Pictures

I bought these deep ‘3D’ frames at IKEA.  They would also be ideal for keeping baby keepsakes or small breakable items that need some protection.

I used some butterfly wallpaper for the images.

Using the mount inside the frame I identified which butterflies on the wallpaper would work best.

Then roughly cut squares around the design, leaving enough space around the image to fit in the frame mount without the edges showing.

Using a craft knife and a self healing mat to protect the table, carefully cut around the butterfly wings, leaving the head and the tail attached.  I then folded back the wings slightly to raise them from the image.

Cut out a leftover piece of red satin and stuck it behind the butterfly image.

Then I cleaned the glass back and front and assembled the items back into the frame.

The beauty of the frames is that they can stand-alone or be hung from a wall.

The frames were £3.50 each.  IKEA use the frames to make decorative gifts with butterflies themselves.  Their butterflies are cut from white paper and have coloured paper underneath for which they charge £12.00 each.  Result!!

Paper Crafts 1 – Funky Wallpaper Boxes

Carol from Craft n Chat brought some wallpaper samplers for us to make paper flowers.

I also chose a few I thought would make homely contemporary items.  Butterflies, Birds, Vintage Travel and Campervan examples.

Covered Boxes

I have been stashing shoe boxes and various other boxes, which I could not bear to part with, for a while now so it was good to have something to do with them.

The first one I tried was the glasses box, because it is relatively square and I thought it might be easier, also being a substantial box it would not need lining.

I chose the Vintage Travel design for this.  After much head scratching I managed to fold the paper in such a way that it made present style corners at each end and folded neatly into the the middle/inside.  I then neatened the inside edges with a craft knife.  Finally I used craft glue to stick the edges to the inside of the box.

The next two were shoes boxes with hinged lids.

The pieces of paper were approx. 18 inches square but not quite large enough to cover the whole box.  More head scratching lead me to cutting the piece in half and then half again lengthways.  One piece for the back, wrapping round to the front, one on the front wrapping round to the back (so that the joins don’t show) and the largest piece to cover the lid.

Due to the hinged lid the top piece needed to overlap the back piece slightly so that the hinge would still work.

 

I then covered the inside of one with leftover black stretchy velvet (never again, I was all black fluff and glue and it took ages) and the other with some leftover thin plastic sheet, like you use for table covers.

The end result looks OK.  I can use them in my craft room to stash more bits and bobs.  If they were a bit neater and had some ribbon added they would make nice gifts or gift boxes.