Two Owls Design

Number Cutting

My next post on the Sizzix blog is now live, the numbered pockets are done and the advent calendar is now two-thirds complete, please check it out and let me know what you think.
Cutting the numbers using the Lollipop Shadow Numbers die saved a mountain of time and effort and resulted in a little heap of perfectly cut digits (and no cuts to my digits).

Sizzix blogging

My first blog post over on the Sizzix site has gone live today, showing the advent calendar that I'm currently making using my Big Shot. I know Christmas is still a long way off but when it comes to hand-making it's so much better to have time to spare rather than having to channel your inner elf with frantic last-minute, late-night sewing during the Christmas run-up. For me, no doubt that will still end up happening too but for now all organisational good intentions are still intact.

I ordered a selection of printed reds and white (Kona Cotton Solid in Snow, it seemed appropriate) fabric from Simply Solids, as anything too busy could distract from the numbers on the advent calendar. Cutting out with the Big Shot is so easy and because everything is cut to exactly the same size and shape, it makes sewing together easier too. I'm a total convert.

To see how the calendar is progressing and how it's made (it's not at all tricky), check out the Sizzix blog.

Stockings

The stocking production line has stuttered to halt whilst I await a delivery of more red Christmas fabrics as the first batch of red stockings have sold out.
 
Normally I hate making multiple versions of the same thing but stockings are the exception, it's possibly the only design I haven't got bored of or think can be improved in some way. I love getting a stash of the new Christmas fabrics each year and sitting at the machine stitching a stocking together has become part of the annual festive preparations now. The combination of Christmas cheer and a small production window is a winning one.

Should anyone be interested the stockings are on sale now, more red ones to follow soon.

Christmas Cushion

I dug out my pile of festive fabrics a couple of weeks back to begin making Christmas stockings for my Folksy shop. My favourite ever Christmas print is 2D Zoo in Yuletide by Alexander Henry and last year with some judicious cutting, I managed to save a piece just big enough to make a cushion. I never did get around to making the cushion last year and so when I saw the carefully saved square I found myself with a dilemma, keep it for the cushion or use it for this years stockings. Much as I wanted to save it I needed as much Christmassy fabric as I could gather and the cushion had to be sacrificed. It was painful to take my rotary blade to it but the pain was numbed slightly with the compromise that I'd also cut out 3 squares to use in a patchwork cushion.
The patchwork design is taken from the snowball quilt by Allison Harris as featured in this months Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine (mentioned in the previous post). It's quilted with simple freehand wavy lines (which I think look a bit like ice-skate tracks) in variegated blue thread, possibly a pale blue thread would've been better than the variegated, the darker sections are maybe too strong and distract from the prints.

The grey fabric which looks a bit like snowfall is Petite Street, Grey Dots by Wendy Kendall, the 2 gnome prints are by Michael Miller and the Christmas trees are by Robert Kaufman. The best range of Christmas fabrics I found online this year was on Frumble, a site recommended by Lynne (thanks Lynne). It has a great range and the cheapest shipping I've seen but you do have to wait a couple more days for it to arrive.

Simple Drawstring Bag

The only bit of sewing I did all summer was on the night before we went on holiday, when I quickly knocked up a drawstring bag for Rowan to keep and transport his toy animals in. Rowan has embraced the 'terrible twos' with fiery gusto and going out armed with a handful of his favourite animals to keep him occupied is vital, otherwise he causes chaos. A little bag to hold them all was required and Alexander Henry's Teeny Tiny Zoo seemed the obvious fabric choice.

It's not difficult to find a drawstring bag pattern or devise your own but I thought I'd post my method here as it might come in handy as a gift bag for Christmas (with the piping cord swapped for ribbon maybe). The bag takes less than 30 minutes to make, it's simple and with French seams on the inside it's nice and neat. It's ideal for holding things like playing cards too, the cardboard boxes for snap cards etc never last long in our house.

 

Drawstring Bag

To make a bag measuring approximately 130mm x 150mm, use an A4 sheet of paper as a template to cut out the fabric. If the fabric has a print pattern cut the fabric out landscape (the arrow on the paper in the picture indicates the print direction).

With right sides together, fold the fabric over widthways and on the opposite side to the fold, measure 6cm down from one corner and make a 15mm deep cut in the fabric through both layers.
Open the fabric out again and fold a 10mm deep hem along the long side nearest to the 15mm cuts (1).

From the snip in the fabric up to the top (now folded edge), iron in place a 5mm fold (2). Repeat for the other side.

Fold this 5mm fold over on itself so that it folds at the end of the cut in the fabric and iron in place (3). Repeat for the other side.

At the cut in the fabric side of this hem, tuck the corner under and iron it flat (4).

Sew this hem in place, down along the folded edge across the tucked under corner and up the other side. Repeat for the other side.

To make the channel for the drawstring, fold over this top section so that the top and bottom of the short side seams are together. Iron the fold in place and stitch from one side along the length as close to the edge as possible and then turn and come back just above the original seam for extra strength.

Wrong sides together, fold the bag in half and with a seam allowance of 5mm sew the body of the bag together from the drawstring channel down, around the corner to the folded edge.

Clip the seam at the two bottom corners.

Turn the bag the wrong way out and tuck in the top corner of the seam just made. There is nothing really holding this tucked corner in place so you might want to add a couple of stitches for security (I never bother though).

From the end of the drawstring channel (this should give a 10mm seam allowance), sew down and around the body of the bag as before, this will seal in the raw edges so that the bag is neatly finished inside. Turn the bag the right way out.

Wrap the end of some piping cord with sellotape to make it rigid and feed it through the channel at the top of the bag. If you're using ribbon instead of piping cord, taping the end to a blunt darning needle or similar may make it easier to feed through.

When the cord is through, tie a knot in it and cut away the excess.

Gift Bags

Christmas is a dot in the rear-view mirror now but whilst there's snow on the ground I feel it's still acceptable to post about this last year's Christmas makes.

We have lot of people to give gifts to at Christmas and so most years I come up with a gift project. This year I made hessian bags to fill with food and drink bits and bobs - a mini-hamper affair.

I've mentioned in the past my make-threshold of 8, I can sew up one partcular pattern 8 times before hitting the wall and never wanting to make, or see one, ever again. That was so very true for these, 8 were made and now I never want to think of them again.
Hessian is not the most accommodating fabric to sew with, it requires extra strong thread, frays and gives the room a strong and authentic farmyard smell when it's ironed. My domestic sewing machine couldn't cope with sewing through the 4 or 5 layers of hessian needed to make the handles either and an unwelcome late night traipse out in the cold to the shed to use the industrial machine was required. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.

I can't take credit for the felt decorations hanging from one of the handles as they were a Marks and Spencer pre-Christmas sale bargain find (75p for two I think).

Christmas and Puffins

The festive blog break wasn't intentional but as happens every year I went from feeling moderately in-control to utterly swamped sometime during the week before Christmas. It's all a distant memory now but late-night roulade making and wrapping presents at 3am featured.

I'd love to be able to post some beautiful Christmassy photographs of fresh wreaths, glasses of mulled wine set down in front of a crackling fire etc but I don't have any as that was not the reality of our Christmas. Our Christmas tree was definitely not photo-worthy, whilst it had a certain charm it could not accurately have been described as being beautiful at any point over the festive period as it was continually being stripped of decorations by Rowan and mauled by both boys as they climbed up behind it in the bay window.

There were plenty of smiles amid the chaos though.

 

We spent a lovely relaxed New Year's Eve with friends and then on New Year's Day ventured over to Lyme Park with my parents for a lungful of fresh air and a look at the wonderful Nuffin Like A Puffin exhibition which celebrates the publisher, Puffin's 70 year history.
The exhibition contained a selection of original artwork from several children's books including Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs and the first Spot book by Eric Hill which were wonderful. The highlight for me though were the illustrations from one of our family favourites, Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. It was fascinating to see some of Janet's detailed preliminary sketches and ideas displayed alongside the actual artwork featured in the book and I was surprised to discover that the original artwork was reproduced at the same scale in the book (I'd always assumed it would've been reduced) making the level of detail even more impressive.

Nuffin Like A Puffin managed to appeal to each of the 3 generations of us visiting: Rowan enjoyed playing with a bucketful of dinosaurs, Aidan liked the activity sheets and spotting pom-pom caterpillars in the orangery, Mike enjoyed reading Mr Big, I could've stared at the artwork for hours, my mum discovered an historical adventure story she'd read years ago and wanted to revisit as well as looking at
some of the letters on display and my dad did some sterling crayon-work and helped the boys colour in and make a butterfly mask.

We didn't even see half of the exhibition as the boys are a bit young but it was well worth the trip out, especially as we're National Trust members it was all free.

Although not a Puffin title we even spotted the Gruffalo on the walk around the lake...

Custom Stockings

As I rule I can only make 8 of something before becoming totally bored with it and never wanting to make another one ever again. So far the only exception to that has been Christmas stockings which I can happily sew and sew - handy as I've made plenty over the last couple of months.
Providing some variety within the stocking stitching was this pair of custom made stockings for a pair of brothers, as requested by a customer through my folksy shop. They are 50% larger than my standard stockings and each have an appliqued initial.
One of the stockings is only a day or two younger than it's new owner, the order being placed before the baby was born and the initial only confirmed once he was here and his name was a certainty!

My stocking pattern came into being for my son, Rowan's first Christmas last year when I made him and his big brother, Aidan one each and I feel very honoured to know that at least two of my stockings are for babies celebrating their first Christmas this year.

I have the last batch of stockings to make and list in the shop tomorrow before closing that production line down for another 10 months. Then there is just one last custom sewing order to complete before I can turn my attention to an idea that's been itching at the boundaries of my brain for a while now. That's made it sound more exciting than it is, it's just a cushion cover but I really want to see if it looks as good in real life as it does in my head.

The Run-Up

My Mum has long favoured Christmas Eve over Christmas Day because of the excitement and anticipation it holds and over the last few years I have started to feel the same way. Many of the aspects of Christmas that I love, the twinkly lights everywhere, the decorations and festive activities, all begin to feel stale almost as soon as the plates are cleared after Christmas lunch and the sense of it all being over for another year starts to descend. The Christmas tree ceases to possess the same (if any) feelgood festive glow for me by Boxing Day, by then it represents little more than a lost evening of packing away and hoovering up pine needles. But on Christmas Eve and the days preceding it it's all still yet to happen, there are still choirs singing carols and Santa could appear on the Rotary Club sleigh issuing sweets at any moment. It's all just a bit more magical. For me the fun of Christmas is in the run-up and we're making the most of it with several advent calendars this year.

There is this one, the advent bags containing chocolate, which is now on it's third year.

Bag number 24 always has a note in accompanying the chocolate, detailing the location of a new pair of pyjamas to wear that night (they were hidden in the sand-pit last year).

 

This Lego one for Aidan which has been a HUGE hit.We've had to build in extra time to our morning routine to allow for the lego building.

 

And lastly a book advent calendar put together by Aunty Beth who got the idea from Pinterest I think.
Beth assembled most of the books, made a drawstring bag to hold them all and wrapped them in red and gold, gold for Aidan to open, red for Rowan and they each get to open one on alternate days.
When Beth suggested a book advent calendar I thought it was a nice idea but in practice it's so much better. It differs from the chocolate and lego calendars in that this one is for the evening. Once the boys are in their pyjamas (it works brilliantly well at focusing their minds to getting washed and ready for bed with minimal fuss), they get to come downstairs and find that days book, it's unwrapped and then we sit and read it together. So far 'The Tiger Who Came To Tea' has been the biggest hit - a classic that up until now we've missed out on.

 

Oh and December 1st is when the Christmas mugs and coasters can come out too. It's all about the run-up.

Stockings

I made a batch of these Christmas stockings for my shop, a few weeks back and started to feel quite pleased with myself for my early Christmas preparations.
Things have started to slip since though and I don't feel half as ready for Christmas as I should do at this mid-November point - it seems to be creeping up really quickly this year don't you think? The advent bits and bobs have to come out in just over a fortnight and then the weekends packed with plans to see Santa and parties begin.

Just one year I would like to spend December knowing that all of the shopping, the wrapping, the cards and the delivering is done and all that's left is to sit by the fire watching Christmas films by fairy-light with a glass of mulled wine. Of course if that dream ever was realised though, I could end up drowning in my own smugness.

Oh and the Compound Word Project is now in full swing, pop over and have a go.