Category Archives: sewing

Scrap Sunday – I can’t really tell

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IMG_2682I am currently very busy with a big new sewing project but I don’t want to tell until it is finished. Well, until Step 1 of a new adventure is finished.

It includes the use up of a very loved and precious fabric so it is perfect for Scrap Sunday – except that I can not talk about it.

All I can say is that I have this piece of fabric since a few years. I walked past a Marimekko shop and discovered those beautiful finnish designs. I walked straight in to buy some fabric. I had cushion covers for the children’s bedroom planned since a while. When I discovered the price (over £40 a meter, but very good quality also), I had to reduce the planned amount of at least 500m to twice 60cm 🙂

I was very thrifty when cutting out and made two almost normal sized cushion covers and two smaller, rectangular ones. Which left me with two long stripes of roughly 15cm width each. I was always wondering what I could possibly make out of this tiny piece, especially as my favourite one (big round shapes) doesn’t even show the complete pattern anymore, it is cut right through the circles. But I could certainly not throw it away.

Anyway, now, years after, I finally got the perfect opportunity to use one of them as stripy appliques on something I can’t talk about. I will manage to squeeze out two one of a kind special edition examples of my new project and it looks a-ma-zing.

I promise I will show you more in a couple of days. Really 🙂

Oh and don’t forget the coupon code UPDATE11 if you want to get 15% off in my shop until Friday only.

 

Scrap Sunday: Dressed for night and day

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I’ve got this custom order for teddy trousers a few weeks ago and could just not be bothered with the whole fiddly concept. But I have finally found the time (and it took two attempts – I hadn’t measured the little fellow and totally underestimated the size of his huge bottom 🙂 )

So, I have this fabric combination since three years precisely (more or less precisely). That had been another request from the same customer: Baby carrier (my idea) with aeroplane pattern (her idea). So now, the fabrics had to be used to make teddy trousers, using the one fabric for the front and the other one for the back.

And before you start laughing at the worn out bear in the picture I’d like to point out that it is actually mine, it just got somehow in the hands of a young teddy thief.

Here it comes:

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and from the back…

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and front again…

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and back again…

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4 pictures to show the tiniest trousers ever might seem slightly excessive but I guess it is a case of a biased photographer 🙂

And coming back to the actual subject of using up scrap fabrics: This has probably been the use up of the tiniest amount of fabric so far (for me, not speaking globally) so a well deserved Scrap Sunday project 🙂

Rainy days

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A couple of weeks ago, a tutorial for a bicycle seat cover caught my eye. I really wanted to make one of these. Which is a problem if you do not have a bike. Well, not a problem but a bit pointless really.

Thankfully then one of my bike owning friends celebrated her birthday and I remembered that post.

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I did struggle a bit to sew the side (which is first sewn into a ring) to the top as somehow the length did not match up. I did not want to pin them together as it is not the cleverest idea to put lots of pins into an up until then waterproof material.

But when I finally had the all changing revelation to use paper clips instead, it was easy peasy. (I am – however – considering to take the cutting out bit a bit more seriously next time – there was an issue with the template and the control square not quite having the required size, aaanyway, paper clips are great to hold coated cotton together)

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Fabricwise, I can proudly say that I fell into my old pattern:

40x100cm were required, I ordered 1m from a 1.5m wide fabric. Just to be safe.

And just to be even safer, I also ordered another one as well. Same size. You never know.

Lots of Scrap Sundays can be filled with the remnant from this bike seat. Or is it technically not scrap if the left over is bigger than the actual project?

I ordered them at Dots n Stripes, a shop with a small but very nice range of fabrics from some of those German and (I think) Scandinavian (maybe) brands I love. I am really pleased to have found it as obviously delivery times and costs make much more sense.

Another recent birthday make was this pattydoo top – using sensibly bought fabric (required amount only, also at Dots n Stripes)!

IMG_2565So, it has so far been a rather successful week, but there are still a few thousand things to get done. (Did I already mention that I have started a Fashion Course? With homework? Ridiculous amounts of homework? Especially over half term when the children are AT HOME)? And it is only Friday. I better go now. Have a lovely day 🙂

 

 

 

 

Scrap Sunday

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Maybe I should keep my challenges to once a month rather than once a week as I have to slightly cheat. Again. The Scrap Sunday project I had in mind for this week, isn’t finished yet. So I will have to reuse an old idea. Again. And it is only week 4 or so. But I made this item this week and I used only left overs. So technically it is fine for Scrap Sunday. Just not what I have planned.

Anyway, we are going to a birthday party today, hurray! The little girl seems to be a huge cat fan but has most likely all available cat books at home already so I decided to try to make a cotton bag with a cat applique. That is quite a challenge for me as I am really not good at drawing. So I did a lot of research (online and picture books in our on-site library) and after hours and hours of erasing wobbly pencil lines, there was finally a recognisable cat shape. See, I really need a shape-only applique. I would never be able to stitch or draw a face on that cat. Well, never say never, but not in the next zillion years.

After that it was straight forward, I just followed my own tutorial 🙂

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I was a bit worried of the narrow curves when stitching on the applique, in fact I had incredibly low expectations in my own abilities but I exceeded them by miles 🙂

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I am in fact so pleased with the result that I will try to draw other shapes (rather than just printing out oversized letters).

I can definitely do hearts. I have done this before. And a star probably. And a duck most likely. And a bunny, I am sure I can get the bunny in my head onto paper. And a butterfly of course. I can definitely do butterflies. And cars. I rather stop here. I don’t want to raise expectations which I am then unable to meet 🙂 .