Bears 13 – Summer 2016

These are the bears I made during our summer sail to France.

The three large bears at the back are faux fur, bought again in Brighton, I suspect the end of the bolt of fabric I bought last year.  The blue bows are child friendly and red one is less so. 

The bows on the others bare no significance, as they are all unsuitable for small children.

I had ordered three shades of Mohair fabric prior to departure, Cinnamon, Ice Grey and Cream.

The Cinnamon and Ice Grey had a longer pile and worked best on the medium sized bears (second row).

The cream worked well on small bears as the pile was very short (front row).

I tried a tiny bear with the cream fabric (centre front), he was very hard to make and has a startled look.

They are still taking me at least 6-8 hours to make. 

Bags 6 – Anne’s and Small Boat Bag

The spotty bag was made for a friends birthday.  It is similar to previous bags I have made but I just wanted to show the bag finished as it is such lovely fabric.  Bit more substantial as it was for a present.  I lined it with foam backed curtain lining, or bag lining, as I call it, and added a small spotty pocket inside.

I was especially proud of this stitching to secure the handles.  It can all go so wrong right at the end.

The denim bag was made on board this year as I did not have a small handbag to take out at night.  Mick’s trouser legs were used this time.  I did make a large one, but have mislaid the photos so will have to retake them.

The main body is the bottom of a leg from a pair of jeans.

The lining was very pretty strawberry fabric that I have had for ages.  I bought the beige webbing for the handle on a market stall and sewed red ribbon down the centre of the webbing to make it a bit less drab.

I then made 11 Suffolk Puffs and added various buttons in the centres of the puffs as they were being sewn to the bag.  A Suffolk Puff is a circle of fabric, edged by a running stitch and then drawn together into the middle and secured.

The bag came in really useful during the summer and is now the resident small boat bag.

See sailing blog for details of life afloat www.fleurofpendle.blogspot.co.uk

Knitting 2 – My First Jumper

Having completed the socks I had my knitting mojo and thought it was time to tackle a full sized item.

I chose this James C Brett pattern from ‘Pendle Stitches’ as they also had the wool available in the same colour.

Woodlander, Double Knitting in shade L11.

80% Acrylic and 20% Wool, 3.5 and 4mm needles.

As it was my first item I wanted it to be washable and hard wearing so deliberately chose a mostly Acrylic yarn.  I did not want to ruin it on its first wash.

It took approximately 3 months to make.  I liked knitting it as it was easy to pick up and put down, once I got an angle on the pattern.  I also had to wind on the second sleeve ball to make them match.

I wrote down every line of the pattern which had 12 rows of knitting within a 34 row pattern.

I did have to pull back a few rows as I found it hard to read the pattern around the knitted rows.

I have to thank Annette, Liz and Lisa and Liz at Pendle Stitches for their help and patience.

For non-knitters, the internet has video clips on every element of knitting if you get stuck.

I used flexible circular needles for the whole project and was able to knit the neck in one piece, joining the front, back and sleeves in the process.  Then stitched it up with a running ladder stitch.  Its like wrestling an octopus at the end stitching it up.

Bit chunkier looking than pattern picture but I am chuffed to little mint-balls with it.

Patchwork Cushions

My name is Ann-Marie and I am a fabric addict.

Over the last few years, each time I went into a fabric shop I picked up Nautical Fat Quarters, without necessarily thinking how they would fit together, but they were too nice to leave behind.

With the thought that if they had the same theme, they may go together, I decided to cut them all up into 10cm squares and then spent several hours trying to make something of them.

The criteria was that none of the same squares should touch each other and only diagonal connections were permitted.

Ta Dah!  Phew.

 

I then pieced them together with a 1cm seam allowance as they need to be quite robust.

Sadly I did not take pictures of the rear of the cushions.  They were backed with bag/curtain lining, which has a thin foam backing and holds its shape.  I also added zips to the back using the letter box method of slitting the fabric and folding it inwards to then add the zip on the inside.

Lastly I piped the edges with dark blue bias binding and they look great. 

The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that they are slightly different as I was 4 dark blue squares short.  Hey-ho.

Beadwork Card

Having never tried any beadwork and having admired it for many years, I bought a beadwork card kit at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate.

There was a graph like pattern to follow which showed all the appropriate colours.  After much counting I started in the middle of the Ada fabric supplied.  It is simply a matter of passing the needle to the front of the work hooking on a bead and then securing it by passing the needle through to the back.

The rose design is subtle and the colours are gentle. 

I really enjoyed this process and the result was very pretty.

Bags 5 – Birthday Bags

Annette’s Tote

I wanted to make a useful bag that was hard wearing.  I managed to find a piece of furnishing fabric which was of the appropriate colours.

The size of the pattern determined the size of the bag.  I managed to match the pattern at the bottom when I squared off the corners..

I then made a bag lining and added an inside pocket

Next I joined the lining to the outer, turning both in and top sewing around the top twice.

Due to the material being quite thick the straps turned out well and I attached them to the outside, top sewing a cross design.

The bag at this point seemed quite large, so to enable it to be folded and used in a smaller mode I added bag magnets to the inner folds.

The finished item looked good. Annette kindly said it was great for taking things like hairdryers and bulkier items on holiday etc.

It will also fold away quite well as I inserted a covered cardboard base inside too.

Auntie Dorothy’s Tote

This is a slightly small version of Sally’s bag made previously shown in Bags 4.

I added a pocket and a covered insert.

The final bag looks in proportion and should be very useful for all the plastic bags we have to carry these days.

Bears 12 – Baby Bear

Baby bear is for Lukas and so he had to be baby friendly. 

I used safety eyes, and he has no joints or anything else to worry about.

The fabric is very soft acrylic fur fabric, which should be grob-snobble resistant.

The nose was very tricky as the bear was so soft and the fabric so soft too.

He’s a real cutie and the bears not bad either.

Round Neck Jersey Tops

Continuing my mission to learn how to make clothes better, I bought 2 lots of relatively cheap fabric to experiment with.

The pattern is a McCalls, number M6964, Size F5, 16-24.  I cut out the 18 thinking i was giving myself some margin for error.

The first was made from light weight Viscose and had very little give.  I used the overlocker to edge all the pieces but stitched it together with the machine.  The seam allowance and the lack of give made it a snug fit.

Also the lack of give meant that the neckline turned out all wrong.  The pattern is for stretchy material so I thought I would make the neck edging longer.  But it just made the neck edging stick out awkwardly.  So I super-cheated and folded it forward and top sewed around the edge again.

Looks OK and it gave a little with wearing.

TAKE 2

Much stretchier fabric and I stuck to the pattern with the neck edging.

This time i used the overlocker to sew the whole thing, this gives about a centimetre extra on each seam and with the stretchiness it fits great.

I consulted Annette and she said I had to stretch the fabric as I sewed it, to make the neck edging fit, and it did!!!

Top sewing the neck and double top sewing around the cuffs and bottom finished it off beauitfully.

The fabric is light and a bit pajamery, but perfectly OK for everyday.

Socks 2

Jackie bought some of this wool and made a really groovy pair of socks and I could not resist buying some when I found a ball in Jenny Wrens wool shop in Ipswich.

It is OPAL Happy with Silver Effect. 4-fach (4 ply?) Pullover & Sockenwolle.  Farbe 9094  Part No. 1340.

The wool knits into the pattern itself, no brains required.

I love how jazzy they are and the silver freck appeals to my inner magpie.

Bag Lining Repair

My friend asked me to repair her trusty old favourite bag, as the lining had given way.  This one was a joint effort with myself and my husband Mick.

The weight bareing straps also needed some attention.

So first we used Gaffer tape on the inside of the bag to repair the holes.

Then we sewed the weight bareing strapp back into place and added a few lines of stitching for good measure.  Fortunately we have been given an old Singer sewing machine, which we intend to use for sail mending, but has come in very handy already for other projects.  It is quite amazing how well this machine penetrates thick material.  In this case 4 layers of leather.

I then made the lining out of light weight Viscose material.  If you use something too heavy it makes the bag to heavy.  Simply 2 pieces of material measuring just more than the total width of the bag and 10cm longer.  Then I mitred the bottom corners to add width to the shape, and made a zip pocket on the inside.

Now the tricky bit, hanging the lining inside the bag.  Much cajoling, pegging and unpegging, until it fitted snuggly.  Then another 2 handed job to sew the lining into the bag.  One row of stitching on each side of the bag, we had to leave a gap where the straps were.

I then hand sewed the lining to the very top edge of the bag using blanket stitch.

Bag lining.

Bag Front

Finished item. 

I would now give it a good polish with leather food, but the owner may prefer the used look.

Job Done!