Each summer for the last few years I have made small bears on the boat. A good small craft to keep me occupied. I enjoy hand sewing.
The antique gold Schulte mohair was chosen for this year as the couple I made last year went down so well.
I really love the tradition look of this gang.
No walking the plank for them.
I was lucky to find this William Morris fabric at a pop up shop on Darwen market. Herbert Parkinson is a local company and they were selling rolls off for charity. £5 for 2 metres.
After much deliberation about the pattern and how best to make 4 cushions, 8 sides with the same design I chose to have the two birds and the strawberries in the centre. The ‘Strawberry Thief’ is a famous design. I have seen other people use the other birds in the design as the centre but with the piece I had choice was limited.
Adding to previous posts about piped cushions I learned from experience. The dark bias binding I bought for the edges has previously shown through the white cord used in the piped edge. This time I bought black polyester cord. It is cheaper and it does not show through, but it is slippery to work with. Putting a pin through the whole piece of piping while sewing helped a lot.
Cushion one.
And repeat, repeat, repeat.
The bias binding 2m per cushion, cord 2m per cushion cost £15 and the padded inners were £16 for four. Total cost £36.
Seems expensive, but in the shops WM cushions would be very pricey.
These are for us in our own home. Love ‘em.
More Tote bags, I am addicted.
Very interesting fabric, which feels a bit waterproof. I thought it would be hard to sew but it wasn’t at all.
This one is lined with black polyester and has a dog bone fabric pocket.
This one is padded with curtain liner. I was not sure the white would work with the black outer, but I really like it and as usual the liner gives the bag substance.
Inside with doggy pocket. For my dog mad relly.
I really like small zipped bags and they are so useful. I have made a number for my stall at a local charity craft fair.
There are dozens of YouTube videos showing how to make these. The trick is to line everything up well and cut the fabric accurately.
Front
Back
Padded inner, lined with curtain liner.
Butterflies
Spots, I know I am a nerd, it took me ages to line up the spots.
Sweetie Jars, yum.
Following the previous post on Rag Rugging, I liked the look of Hooking, which is like rugging in reverse.
I chose to use fleece fabric for this mat as it is light weight and does not fray. T-shirt material works well too. Fleece is harder to pull through the hessian than t-shirt material. Professionals use wool, old wool blankets are good, wool does not fray either, and the results are very refined.
The backing is hessian which I sewed around with a zig-zag stitch to neaten the edges. Some people cover the edges in colourful cotton on completion.
In rugging we thread small pieces of fabric through hessian, leaving the ends on the surface.
For hooking a one inch by ten inch strip of fleece is cut. The length of the strip is a personal preference.
The strip is rolled between the fingers so that no raw edge is showing.
With the strip underneath the hessian, put the crochet hook through the hessian and pull the fabric strip through the hessian to the front, forming a little ‘pebble’.
The first pebble is tricky as you often pull the end through to the front. Practice makes perfect.
In this picture you can see that the curled up ends are in the front of the piece. I decided I did not like this and spent quite a while when I had finished pulling them to the back and snipping the remains.
As an example the dark frame of this mat took half a metre of fleece fabric. So this is a great stash busting craft.
The finished item. It was intended to be a welcome mat on the boat. But the writing drove me nuts as half the time I was reading it upside down. Note to self, make mats bi-directional.
It is now on the small floor in the boat bedroom, and is lovely and cosy to step out onto.
