Pattern...what pattern?

I made some pj shorts for my next present. I took a pair of short’s my sister had and used them as a pattern to make another pair. Because I used tartan fabric and I wasn’t sure how to match it at the seams I purposely turned the fabric so the pattern went a different way all together. The fit wasn’t as good as her original shorts but for a first try without a pattern I think I did pretty well. July 2010

A sewer's best friend...

With all this sewing I was doing I was finding one problem. I would sit on the floor to pin my project, leaving the pin-wheel on the floor, I would then go to the sewing machine and as I sewed I would take out the pins and put them on the table in a pile. I would then go back to the floor to pin the next bit and find I didn’t have any pins and I would then have to go put them all back in the pin-wheel before continuing. I found this all very frustrating so I decided to make myself a pin-cushion I could wear on my wrist, so wherever I went my pins came with me.It is only small but it does the job intended and doesn’t get in the way while I’m working. June 2010

Sophie the doll

I wanted to make something different so I started scouring the web for ideas and came across the idea of a doll. When researching I found a type called Waldorf Dolls. These have a face that is not just flat, but that is shaped to be more life like. I bought a book and went from there. It is quite specialized and so it took me a while to find somewhere to get the ‘skin’ fabric. It’s also meant to be made from natural materials, but instead of the wool fibres they recommend I just used normal stuffing as I already had some.
The head shaping was quite tricky. I used a sock (new/unused) to stuff then tied some threads around it to make the indentations specified. When I was happy that it would work I got the rest of the things I would need including ‘skin’ fabric, doll making needles, and wool for hair.
I had some chopsticks (that I had never used) that I used for getting the stuffing into all the small spaces, and found that they did a really good job. Who needs to buy special sticks just to stuff toys?
The whole doll was pretty tricky to make, but the hair took forever, as it needed to be hand sewn (something I’m not such a fan of).
I used patterns from the previously bought doll book to make the clothes, but did adapt them slightly. I made the top from some cotton I have used in several other projects and the trousers were made from some linen trousers I no longer wore.

The doll was named Sophie by my niece (whose birthday present it was). June 2010

Another birthday bag

It's been a while since I last posted as I've been working on making more things. Since I still have quite a back log of pieces to put on here the posts will probably be quite short so I can catch up with myself.

Making birthday present’s for my family has kept me pretty busy so far this year. For the 3rd birthday present of the month (June) I went back to my old faithful, a bag. I used material from a jacket I had previously pulled apart. I decided to do a simple bag without a lining and so I used French seams to keep it neat inside. I used ribbon around the top of the bag, sewn at intervals to draw the opening in. I then made a yoyo flower and matching handle in an accent material and added some buttons for decoration. June 2010

My first quilt

When I first got my sewing machine, last year, one of the main reasons was because I wanted to make a quilt. I spent many an hour at the end of 2009 looking online at quilting fabrics and found a company that I love called Moda who do lots of great fabrics. Not only do they do great fabrics but they do collections that you can get lots of fabrics that all go together. And what’s more you don’t have to buy masses of one fabric you can get different packets of small amounts of fabric from one collection. There is some strange jargon for the different shapes and sizes but some of the packs you can get are: Jelly Rolls, Charm packs, & Layer cakes.
I decided to use a Jelly Roll for my first quilting project. This contains 40 strips of 2.5 inch wide fabrics from one collection.
For Christmas I received 2 books with many quilt patterns for Jelly Rolls. I decided on a style, and then in January I bought the fabric I had been coveting for a couple of months. I used the collection called Eva. I had to also get some plainish fabric for backing to go along with the Jelly Roll to make the desired size.So after having the fabrics sitting around for months, my sister got some fabric to make a quilt for herself and started work on it. This really made me want to work on mine. Hence I decided I could take the time and make the quilt I wanted as a birthday present to myself. After spending a few evenings working on my quilt I took a day off of work and spent the whole day making my quilt. In the end I think it probably took me about 2 whole days to get the top part of my quilt finished. Now all I need to do is buy the wadding and backing and then I can finish the quilt. Jun 2010



I would place the bits over the living room floor to work out where I wanted it placed. Luckily I wasn't making the quilt any bigger because it fitted perfectly on the floor.




This is a section of my finished quilt top. It had a border on it and with that it didn't quite fit on the floor of my living room. Now I just need to add the batting and backing and do the quilting.

What every 3 year old boy wants...

Hmmm… what to make my nephew for his 3rd birthday. I didn’t think he would want a bag, or a cushion (these seem to be what I make the most of) so I went for a pair of pyjamas instead. I did cheat slightly by buying a plain blue t-shirt. I then made a little motif dinosaur to sew on the front that matched with the bottoms that I made. Jun 2010

Another bag

My sister-in-law loves green, so when it came time to make her present I knew I would use some green linen I had. Again I made a bag (very handy one-size-fits-all). I had a fat quarter of some quilting fabric that I had picked up just because I liked it and I thought it would make a good lining and detailing. A drew out a few designs and finally narrowed it down. It took me a while to make this one, as I had to keep trying to figure out the angles I needed to use. I put a front pocket on with the lining coming up over the edge to accentuate the edge. I then made the flap with the same edging. The bag turned out to be quite long in the end, but I was pleased with it over all. May 2010