Gail Made

How to avoid pipe insulation wreath kink!

2011-10-13T06:50:00.000-07:00

So, there are lots of gorgeous wreath making tutorials out there and the top tip for making a wreath form on a budget is to use pipe insulation for the base of the ring. This is great because pipe insulation is cheap, this is not so great because pipe insulation is made for straight pipes, not ring-shaped ones. Wreaths made this way have a tendency to have bends or creases or kinks in them, as demonstrated below...

(Wreath wrapped in burlap and decorated with t-shirt roses made from this tutorial by Cathie Filian.)

After several craft nights where we have made projects for the kids I decided it was time we made something for ourselves and burlap-wrapped wreaths seemed to fit the Fall-time bill. Off I went to Lowes and bought lots of pipe insulation and came home and tried to form some rings. Not very easy to do when you want a nice round circle without any kinks. My main philosophy when I'm coming up with things for Craft Night is that they need to be easy enough for anyone to turn out something great, and I was having visions of people struggling with their foam trying to eke out something resembling a ring shape. Not good, so I decided to experiment...

I thought about stuffing, I thought about wire, (but I didn't really have anything suitable in the house and I'd left this to the last minute), so then I just thought about maths. The inside diameter of a ring is always going to be less than the outside diameter, so trying to form something that is parallel into a ring is not going to work unless one side is shorter than the other. One Aha! moment later and this is my solution for a nice circular pipe insulation wreath form:

The foam has a slit pre-cut in it to allow it to be wrapped around the pipe but usually this is not fully cut. Cut right through this along the full length.

Then tuck one cut edge into the slit.

Bend the foam into a ring. Tucking one side into the other allows them to move over each other and allow a shorter inside diameter, if you look at the ends you can see the extra length.

Cut this excess from the ends so they are parallel (this photo is before cutting). Tape ends together with duct tape.

You can see that this doesn't give a nice circular cross-section but once it is wrapped and decorated you can hardly see the difference, certainly less than you'd notice a non-round wreath.

No-Sew Swishy Superhero Cape (or Apron)

2011-09-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

These capes require absolutely no sewing, just some scissors and an iron. I came up with the design after being asked to find something boy-friendly for our Mom's Craft Night. These are nice swishy, triangular-shaped, capes.

(The same method can be used to make no-sew aprons by following the instructions for a cape, and then cutting 2" wide strips parallel to the outer edges, to approximately waist level. These strips become the waist ties for the apron.)

To make a cape you need:
One old t-shirt plus some scraps from other t-shirts for the applique.
Fusible webbing.
Iron-on Velcro.

It works best if the t-shirt has no side seams and is completely plain on either the front or the back (unless you want to incorporate the design on your t-shirt into your cape). The length of the t-shirt is the length the cape will be so you might not want a really huge one if you're making it for a tiny person (although you could always trim the bottom). The way it is cut out uses some of the front of the t-shirt (which is why it is best to not have side seams) to give it lots of width, so you can make quite a good swishy cape from a small or medium size adult t-shirt.

Start by cutting off both sleeves at the armholes (not absolutely necessary, it just makes it easier to lay it all flat later).

Make a cut up the centre of the front (for t-shirts with printing on the front or plain ones, if the printing is on the back then cut up the back!), STOPPING ABOUT 1" FROM THE NECKBAND. Make sure you don't accidentally cut the fabric underneath!

Using pinking shears (if you have them, otherwise regular scissors will work just fine) make a cut following the shape around the front of the neckband, about 1" away from it, stopping at the shoulder seams of the t-shirt. Then cut along the shoulder seams to the armholes on both sides. Cut off the label if there is one.

Open it all out and lay the shirt flat and then fold in half down the center. Draw a straight line from the corner of where you cut around the neckband down towards the hem of the t-shirt making sure to avoid the armholes. Use a disappearing pen or chalk if you have one to draw the line, otherwise cut inside the line so you don't see it on the cape. Add a little curve at the bottom to round off the bottom edge of the cape unless you are making an apron. For an apron cut it straight and then you can add a curve once you've cut your waist ties.

Cut along your line through both layers.

Open it out and you have a cape!

You could stop here but I think they look best with some embellishment, and I like to put Velcro at the neck for safety. If you want to make an apron now is when you would cut a strip 2" parallel to the edges, stopping at waist level.

Decide what design you want on the back. For our Craft Night I made some templates that people could use as a base for their designs. It works best it there are no sharp corners so that the design doesn't peel off so easily (because we're not sewing it on!).

Cut some pieces of fusible webbing the right size for your design and iron them on the back of some t-shirt scraps (one advantage of having lots of people make these at once is that you get lots of scraps to choose from!).

Draw out your design onto the fusible webbing backing paper. Remember it will be REVERSED when you iron it on so if your design is not symmetrical make sure you flip it before you trace it out. (And yes, I know I'm ignoring my own advice about sharp corners on the F!).

Peel the backing paper off the fusible webbing.

Arrange the design on your cape and iron it on according to the instructions for the webbing you are using.

The last step is to apply some Velcro to the neck. Cut right through the neck band at the front and then cut a length of iron-on Velcro to fit. Iron it on following the instruction in the pack. For these it was 90 seconds each side with a hot steam iron. Let it cool and check it's not peeling at the edges, if it is iron again.

Try and convince your children to model them for you!

Quick and Dirty Felt iPad Case

2011-03-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

I took advantage of the storm sirens going off today to head down to the basement and cobble together a quick case for my shiny new iPad, before I take it out of the house for the first time. I bought the Smart Cover with it, and while that is great around the house I don't fancy sticking the whole thing in my bag with just that for protection. I made it so that it also doubles as a handy mat to stand the iPad on in the house.

It's made from a felted wool sweater and the button is a beautiful old mother-of-pearl one from my Granny's button bag, which makes me happy. I made it so that the flap tucks inside, which means that the button is not on the main body and that means a flat surface to lie the iPad on.

I have great plans to come up with a fantastic case in time, but for now this works just fine. It's a bit baggy and a bit quick and dirty, but it should keep my new toy a little bit safer in my bag.

"Cute Little Turtle"

2011-03-22T11:45:00.000-07:00

Freja's a bit sad at the moment because her Dad is away on a work trip. Today on the way back from the Nature Centre she asked me if I could make her a "cute little turtle" because she loves the things I make her the best.

So I had a go while she's at pre-school, I hope she likes it!

Valentine Heart Crayons

2011-02-13T08:56:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day is a big day for kids over here and it's usual to send cards in for the whole pre-school class. This year I decided it would be fun to try and make something so Freja and I decided to give heart-shaped crayons a go. I bought some heart-shaped ice cube molds from the dollar section in Target and a big box of crayons. We're not big crayon people in this house so we didn't have any spare to use, but this could be a good way to use up old crayons if you happen to have some.

The first thing we did was remove all the paper and break the crayons up into small pieces. We just went for as small as we could do with our hands. We tried to fill the molds up so they were pretty full but without having any bits hanging over the edges of the shape. We went for some red, pink and purple, and some blue and green.

Next I put the molds on an old baking tray, poured a layer of water on it and stuck them in a low oven set at 200F/ 93C. I watched them closely until they had completely melted, about 10 minutes. (This pic shows them about half-way through, I waited until there were no visible lumps).

I took them out of the oven to cool and gave each one a little swirl with a bamboo skewer.

Once they were cooled we put them into these little plastic heart boxes which are also from the dollar section in Target.

Hoops!

2011-01-13T13:39:00.000-08:00

I've had hoops on the list of things to get for the kids for a while because the ones we did have got left out on the deck in the summer and pretty much melted, and it's hilarious rolling a hoop along the ground and watching Magnus chase it.

I've also been reading a few things about hooping as not just for kids recently, (thanks Helena) so I thought that while I was at it I'd take a look into adult-sized ones. Turns out adult ones are huuuuge compared to the ones you can get in a toy shop, it makes it much easier to learn because each revolution takes longer. The ones you can buy start at about $30 plus shipping but I also found this very helpful tutorial on hooping.org that shows you how to make your own from plastic pipe which costs about $30 for 100ft, enough for several hoops.

My parents were here for Christmas so Dad and I took a trip to Tractor Supply Co. for supplies. Dad was in heaven with all the tools and hardware but we managed to get out without too much that wasn't on our list (although I did find a metal potholder loom in the discounted Xmas section, more on that another time...). We got the pipe cutter suggested on the tutorial, it cut through the pipe like butter, and sticking the ends of the tube in a boiling kettle softened them up enough to get the connectors in easily (according to Dad who did it for me!)

The next step was to decorate them, I've just gone for electrical tape on these but if I make more I might look out for some fancier tape. I did Magnus' first with alternating orange and yellow and should really have done a solid base layer first because the pipe underneath is black so it shows through a bit. For Freja's I did a solid base of pink with green and yellow stripes, and mine is red (mostly, I ran out a bit early!) with pink and blue stripes.

Now we just need to learn to use them. Right now I can just about keep my hoop up around my waist, having always been hoop-challenged in the past, the large hoop really does make a difference. I have a DVD which I'm hoping to watch when Magnus' head is not in hooping distance because they are pretty heavy! I think Freja will gets it soon and Magnus is happy to just roll his and jump into it on the ground for now.

Needle-felted candy corn hairclips

2010-10-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

I still haven't managed to get back into the swing of making things much but last night after the kids were in bed I decided it was time to have a go at something I've been thinking about for a while. Candy corn isn't something I really knew about before we moved to the US, but over here it appears everywhere as soon as the summer is over. It brings backs good memories for me of our first Halloween over here even though it's horribly intensely sweet and can give me a shocker of a sugar rush. I've spoken to a few people who say they can't eat it anymore after overdosing on it as a kid and I do try and keep the kids away from it if I can, but inevitably at this time of year a few pieces sneak in here and there.

I've been thinking about making candy corn hairclips for Freja for a while because the shape fits really well with those snappy clips. I was going to just cut the shapes from coloured felt but last night I decided to try needle-felting instead.

I formed the basic shape from white roving and then added the orange and yellow stripes, then stitched them to the clips. The first one I made is larger and more shaped but does look rather huge. I tried to make the second one smaller but in doing so lost some of the shape. I think they'd probably look cuter on smaller clips but I didn't have any, maybe I'll try and pick some up when we go shopping next. Overall I'm pretty happy with how they turned out and if Freja doesn't like them I might steal them for myself.

SuperMagnus!

2010-09-03T14:41:00.002-07:00

Magnus has been showing rather a lot of interest in the dressing-up box recently. So far this week we've had Alice, Dorothy, Upsy Daisy and Snow White. Cute as he looks in a dress, I thought it was about time the poor child had some dressing-up clothes of his own. So here is SuperMagnus!

The pattern was based on this free download pattern from Sewing Mamas, a very friendly forum for anyone who sews for kids. I used fleece that I already had for the cape and the applique is felt

It was very quick to make especially as I left the edge of the cape unfinished. Some of the sewing is a bit wobbly because I was working with a little helper, but he had lots of fun pushing the foot pedal to make the sewing machine stop and go. The neck is held together with Velcro which should come undone if it gets caught on anything. I have a feeling this won't be the last one I make...

SuperMagnus to the rescue!

.

Cakes

2010-09-03T08:39:00.000-07:00

This post has been sitting half-finished in my draft folder since before the summer, oops (and sorry Fanny!) so I'm just going to post it now anyway because I've started sewing again after a little lull, and hopefully there'll be other stuff to post about soon:

These are all the cakes I made for the Alice in Wonderland obsessed one for her 4th birthday recently (I do think that's an improvement on last year's princess obsession). The Eat Me cupcakes were for pre-school on her actual birthday and the big Alice cake and the other cupcakes were for her party.

Living in the US has made me too much of a label-reader to be able to bring myself to buy the ready-made fondant icing here so I thought I'd have a go at making my own. I had a bit of trouble choosing a recipe though, all of my UK recipes books seem to call for egg whites, which I wasn't too happy about using for cakes that I was sending in to Freja's school. The US recipes which I found online all seemed to call for shortening which is also something I couldn't bring myself to buy after reading the back of the packet. I eventually found this one (Recipe 1) which uses just water, sugar, glycerin, glucose and gelatin. I looked in the grocery stores for the glucose and the glycerin but couldn't find any, so I had to go to the craft shop Michaels.

The recipe was pretty easy although plain gelatin does smell a bit gross, it brought back memories of rendering down the suet for my mincemeat!I found I had to add a little bit more water as I was kneading in all the sugar but it eventually all came together and I had a nice big smooth ball of fondant. I doubled the recipe because I wanted to keep some for the big cake, and ended up with a ball about the size of a large grapefruit.

For the Eat Me cupcakes I used some gel food colours to make pink, blue, and yellow and added a bit of vanilla extract as I was kneading the colour in to make the icing taste a bit nicer and soften it up a little bit. I rolled it out on a board covered in icing sugar and used some cutters from Ikea to cut out little scalloped circles and some pink hearts which I left overnight to harden.

The buttercream is Martha Stewart's Fluffy Vanilla Frosting recipe which is just sugar and butter and vanilla with lots of beating air into it.

For the cupcakes I tried a new recipe, Martha Stewart's One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes which has since become my go to recipe for cupcakes because they come out nice and flat and easy to decorate. The batter is really runny so I've found the easiest way to get them into the cases is to pour it from a jug, and for the best results use a tin that is as deep as the paper cases.

4th Birthday outfit

2010-04-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

This is Freja as she headed off to pre-school this morning in her 4th birthday outfit.

The skirt is another Insa from the Farbenmix book Sewing Clothes Kids Love, although I cut this one out in a hurry and forgot I to add a seam allowance to the pieces, so it's a little smaller all over than the last one. I love this pattern, it's so quick and easy to sew-up (especially if you're lazy like me and don't topstitch the seams) and it hangs really nicely. The fabrics (only two this time) are from Hobby Lobby and the top skirt is trimmed with ric-rac. The bottom skirt is trimmed with what I now know is called eyelet lace in the US, but I would have called it broderie anglaise. I bought the t-shirt and did a very quick applique on it in one of the skirt fabrics. I was going to make a hairband to match but with making her birthday cupcakes I ran out of time. As it turns out there was this beautiful corsage hairband in the parcel her Granny had sent from Sweden so she decided to wear that today too.

Happy Birthday gorgeous girl! xxxx

Dotty Birkenstocks

2010-03-30T09:42:00.000-07:00

I've had this pair of Birkenstocks for a few years now and decided they needed a makeover. They were originally red and much as I love red shoes I've hardly worn them, I think because I didn't really like the way the black buckles and soles looked with red uppers. I saw this blog post recently about covering shoes with fabric and Mod Podge, and was inspired to give mine a similar treatment.

I didn't use Mod Podge because I'd heard it could be very hard and crack, I decided to try my old faithful Aleene's Tacky Glue instead (I think it's the same as PVA in the UK). I smothered the shoes in the glue and cut out some fabric pieces bigger than the tops of the shoes in case the glue shrunk the fabric slightly. I stuck the fabric down cutting a slit where the fabric went over the buckle and then smothered the top of the fabric with another layer of glue. Once the glue was dry I trimmed around the edges with sharp pointy scissors for the top, and a craft knife by the soles.

I'm pretty pleased with how they've turned out, they still seem to be fairly flexible and don't feel too rough. I don't know how durable they'll be but I think if anything is going to happen to them it will just be that the fabric peels off. In that case I will either glue it back down or rip it all off and start again with different fabric for another new look. It looks like we're in for nice weather this weekend so I shall try them out then.

Okay, since I wrote this post this morning I have been wearing them in the house and I think we might have a solubility problem with the glue. I've noticed it goes white again if I accidentally splash water on them. Oops! I will be checking out the glue section the next time I go shopping for something a little more waterproof, or maybe a flexible varnish....

Playing with ruffles

2010-03-25T11:27:00.000-07:00

I think I might be getting addicted to feet, for my sewing machine that is. My latest toy is a ruffler, a handy little thing that, as the name suggests, makes ruffles. No more gathering by hand, just lovely even ruffles done by machine. That's the theory anyway, it's a bit of monster as feet go and it has adjustable bits so it helps to know what these bits do. There's a great free guide to using a ruffler on youcanmakethis.com which is well worth a read, preferably before you start. I have to confess to not having done the calibrating my foot to my machine thing yet, although the engineer in me will probably want to do that at some point, for now I just wanted to get ruffling!

So here is a skirt made by cutting strips of fabric and ruffling one strip onto the next. When you're not using a pattern it doesn't really matter what your 'ruffle factor' is. It makes for a great twirl:

I think this is going to be fun, what shall I ruffle next?

A rainbow unicorn peasant dress

2010-03-14T11:45:00.000-07:00

Yet another fabric that Freja chose herself! I thought I'd better sew it up soon before she thinks she's too old for unicorns. The fabric is very thin cotton and a bit see-through so I backed it with the green cotton which I had found in Goodwill. I winged the pattern using a combination of a dress she already has and used this peasant blouse tutorial to help with cutting out the sleeves. It's a little short because originally I was going to make it a pillowcase sundress until she told me she wanted sleeves, but she usually wears shorts or leggings under dresses so I don't think that matters. She seems happy with it, now we just need it to stop raining so she can wear it.

An Alice dress

2010-03-08T08:18:00.000-08:00

Freja and Iwent to the cinema on Saturday, it was the first time I had been since I was pregnant with her, so about 4 years. We went to see the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland which is probably not the most appropriate movie for a not quite 4-year-old, but she had seen the trailer and really wanted to go. We went on the condition that she told me if she wanted to leave because it was too scary, but she sat through it all and I think a lot of the scarier stuff just went over her head. I think she enjoyed it, she's been talking about it ever since. I keep catching her pretending to eat cake and then grow bigger, and diving over the back of the sofa pretending to fall down the rabbit hole.

I only decided on Thursday to make her an Alice dress so this was a very quick and slightly bodged job, but she seems happy with it. I used the bodice pattern from a pattern I've got just to get the size and the sleeves, and then winged it from there. It's supposed to look something like the dress here. I just used quilting cotton and the fabric isn't quite so bright in real life.

Here she is pretending to jump down the rabbit hole.

A colourful twirly skirt for Freja

2010-03-01T13:19:00.000-08:00

Freja chose these fabrics when we were in the fabric shop last week, they are very bright and summery with ice cream and cupcakes and strawberries. The pattern is the Insa skirt from the Farbenmix book that I made the leggings from at the weekend. I managed to get it all done in an evening, including tracing out the pattern. Using a rotary cutter and mat to cut things out is so much speedier than scissors.

She seems to like it and insisted on wearing it today even thought there is still snow on the ground, can you tell she chose the tights herself?

And here's a blurry picture to demonstrate it has twirlability:

Maybe knit fabrics aren't so scary after all

2010-02-28T06:35:00.000-08:00

Not the most exciting of garments, and pretty horrible poly/cotton remnant fabric, but I am very excited about this humble pair of leggings that I made last night for Freja (excuse the terrible photo, she wasn't feeling very cooperative). They are the first thing I've ever made from knit fabric. I have been petrified of sewing with the stuff. For some reason I was convinced that I needed a serger, a special machine that sews and finishes the edge at the same same time like you see on store-bought clothes. Well, these leggings were made on my regular sewing machine and I think they've turned out okay.

There seem to be a few ways you can sew knit fabrics with a regular machine, it is important to make sure that the stitching can stretch with the fabric so that it doesn't break when the fabric is stretched as it is worn. A zig-zag, triple zig-zag or a stretch stitch which goes forward and back, could all be used, but for the seams on these I used a regular straight stitch and just stretched the fabric as I was sewing. I used a triple zig-zag for the hems and finishing the elastic.

The pattern was so easy, it is the Riviera leggings from the wonderful Farbenmix/ Studio Tantrum collaboration, Sewing Clothes Kids Love. There is only one pattern piece and it is really quick to sew. I made them in a cheap fabric first, without modifying the pattern at all, so that I could check the fit on Freja. I have a couple of minor tweaks to make and hopefully the next pair will fit her perfectly, although she's pretty happy with these ones. The book is full of great advice for a beginner like me and I'm looking forward to getting some of the other patterns in it traced out and sewn up.

I'm so excited about all the possibilities my first foray into the world of knits opens up. Most of the clothes my kids wear are made from stretchy fabrics and now I can think about making t-shirts, shorts, dresses, pyjamas, more leggings...

But just in case Peder reads this, I reserve my right to decide I need a serger in the future!

Playing with quilting

2010-02-22T09:18:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking about having a go at quilting for a while, living in the US now I kind of have to. I did a bit of patchwork when I was little but always by hand, not on the machine. When I saw a log cabin quilt-along come up on a sewing forum I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to get started. Log cabin quilts seem to be universally described as perfect for beginners, each block is made up of strips around a central square. The strips represent the logs in a log cabin and traditionally they have a red centre to represent the hearth. They are usually made with a contrast between light and dark, this means you can make bigger patterns when the blocks are sewn up into a quilt.

I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle a whole quilt just yet so my plan is to try and make some cushion covers for our living room. The quilt-along isn't due to start until 1st March so for now I'm just planning what to do and making sure I have the supplies I need. I have bought a jelly roll (pre-cut 2.5" strips) of the gorgeous Momo Wonderland fabrics, which should hopefully brighten up the very beige room.

This black and white cushion was made from a cheap bundle of fat 1/8ths from Jo-Ann's, just to test out how it all works. I quilted the top by 'stitching in the ditch' (along the seam lines) because I don't think I'm quite ready for free-form quilting just yet. The edges are finished by folding over the backing fabric and stitching it down. I didn't put a zip in this one because I was being lazy, but I will probably try and do that for the next ones I make.

A little cashmere panda

2010-02-21T13:01:00.000-08:00

This little guy is a present for my cousin's new baby boy. We both loved pandas as we were growing up, we had matching toy ones who were regularly married to each other. (Actually, we both still have them, mine is called Peter which provided much amusement on my Hen night seeing as my husband is Peder).

I made the little panda from thrifted cashmere sweaters which have been washed in the machine to fuzz them up a little bit. I used the bear pattern from the Aranzi Aronzo book Baby Stuff, which I picked up in the library on a whim, and adapted it to add the panda eyes. I tried using the sewing machine but that didn't work too well because the cashmere was so stretchy, so I sewed him by hand. He's turned out a completely different shape to the bear in the book but nevermind, he may be lumpy but he's very soft.

The End!

Some small snowy day projects...

2010-02-16T13:42:00.000-08:00

A wool felt ball necklace for me to brighten up a snowy day.

A lavender heat pillow in baby corduroy for us to keep.

A lavender heat pillow

2010-02-14T05:15:00.000-08:00

This was so easy and it feels so good I'm kicking myself for not making one before.

I didn't use any tutorial in particular. It's just a piece of flannel about 16" x 14" folded in half to make 16"x 7". I stitched along one short side and the long side, turned it right-side out and stitched two rows along the length to divide it into three channels. I used a makeshift funnel to fill each channel approximately two thirds full with a mixture rice and a bit of lavender, and stitched the end shut. I like this shape because it can be used as a flat pillow or the channels allow it to sit easily around your neck. I've already made a second one a little bit longer (this time in a fine corduroy) and I think that works even better around the neck.

About a minute in the microwave makes it lovely and toasty for applying to aching muscles. I used rice because that's what I already had in the house, but I've seen them made with flax seed and feed corn too (not pop corn, that could be interesting!).

The two I've made so far are making their way to Sweden with our visitors, so I will have to go and make another one for us to keep.

P.S. If you do make one make sure there are no metal threads in the fabric!

My first attempt at free motion machine embroidery

2010-02-08T19:34:00.000-08:00

Okay, so it's a bit rubbish, but it was my first time...

I will be practising more, it was very fun to do once I managed to work out how to drop my feed dogs, install my new Big Foot presser foot, and get the tension on the threads about right.

I've signed up for a fabric squares swap so if I can get the hang of this, and also manage to work out how to do patchwork, maybe I'll get to try a bit of free motion quilting sometime soon too. I have a feeling that I might be wandering into the section with all the really pretty thread next time I'm in a craft store...

A turtle appliqué t-shirt for Magnus

2010-02-04T19:13:00.000-08:00

This was a quick project to practise my machine appliqué, and use up a blank t-shirt I'd bought for Magnus before he outgrows it. I completely cheated on the design and cut the turtle out from some Ikea furnishing fabric. I hope he likes it!

Felt Danish Heart Purse Tutorial

2010-02-02T10:51:00.000-08:00

I've always loved the look of woven paper Danish Christmas hearts and when I saw these felt ones on the Felt Cafe blog the other day I was inspired to have a go at making one in felt myself. I decided to turn it into a small purse and here's how I did it...

You will need:

Two colours of felt, I used some felted sweaters. Approximately 4" x 12" each.
Some fabric for the lining. Approximately 4" x 12".
Needle and thread.
Button.
I used a sewing machine for the lining but it could be done by hand.

An internet search for Danish Christmas heart will bring up lots of directions on how to assemble these hearts so I'm not going to go into huge detail here. This is the link from the Felt Cafe blog. There are some very fancy designs out there but I decided to start with the simplest possible one.

You could cut out a template to use as a pattern, or wing it like I did. The shape you need is a square (mine was 3.5" wide) with a semi-circle added to the top edge.

Fold your felt in half and lay the pattern on the the felt so that the bottom edge of the square is on the fold. Cut one piece (on the fold) from each colour. Make two equally spaced cuts from the folded edge, through both layers of felt, just slightly longer than the square.

Weave the two pieces together thinking about weaving through the loops rather than up and over them.

To make the lining cut out a piece of fabric the same size as one of your pieces of felt. Iron one of the long edges over by about 0.75" and then fold in half longways with the right side in. Stitch along the remaining sides about 0.5" from the edge. It's probably best to try and make sure the fit is right before you sew it as I think different thickness felt would need a slightly different sized lining. Trim with pinking shears close to the stitching.

Decide which side you would like to leave open and fit the lining into the heart so that the open edge is across the rounded part of the heart on that side. Stitch the lining to the felt around the whole opening by hand. Now stitch the other rounded side of the heart closed along the edge, and continue stitching all the way around the heart shape to give it some stability. You could use blanket stitch and contrasting thread but I decided to try and match my thread so you couldn't really see the stitching.

Cut a button hole in the top flap of the open side and stitch a button to the inside of the back flap.

Give to your three-year old daughter so she can fill it with small rubber princess clothes.

If you do make one I'd love to see pictures.

Kanzashi Fabric Flower Necklace

2010-01-31T13:05:00.000-08:00

While I was in the middle of making my flower corsage necklace the copy of Kanzashi in Bloom that I had ordered arrived. I love the way these Kanzashi flowers are made up from individual petals, a bit like the Betz White felt poinsettias I made before Christmas. The book is really easy to follow and shows how to make three different petal styles from folded fabric squares, and combine them into all kinds of beautiful flowers.

After trying out all the petal styles I was itching to make something proper so decided to have a go at a necklace using Kanzashi flowers and the same fabric beads I made before. The fabric is plain old dotty quilting cotton from Jo-Ann's and the buttons are some gorgeous old mother of pearl ones from Mum's button box.

The fabric beads were made from a 2.5" strips, folded to 1" wide and cut into 2.5" pieces. It's not easy to tell from this photo but the flower on the left is bigger than the other two. The large Kanzashi is made from 3" squares and the two small ones from 2.5". I added small round pearly beads (left over from our wedding favours) between the fabric beads. This allows the necklace to curve better so I could have it shorter and fastened with a clasp.

Frayed Fabric Corsage Necklace Tutorial

2010-01-20T19:03:00.000-08:00

Usually when the new Boden catalogue finds its way into our mailbox I flick through it, think I love that, I could make that, and then I forget all about it. This time I actually decided to do something about it. I love this Corsage Flower Necklace and thought it would be a great way to liven up a boring jeans and t-shirt outfit once the weather warms up a bit.

So, here is the necklace that I made, inspired by Mr Boden's creation:

And here is a tutorial if you would like to make one for yourself. It is all done by hand, no sewing machine required!

Although it pains me slightly, I'm going to do this in inches, seeing as I live in the US now, and that's how things come, and that's how my ruler is marked.

The necklace is made up of a mix of fabric beads and fabric flowers threaded on a strong thread attached to two rings. It has two ribbons which are attached to the rings and tied in a bow behind the neck.

You will need:

Fabric. Mine is some lightweight linen from Jo-Ann's, but quilting weight cotton should work about the same. I doesn't matter if it has a wrong side but the edges are left unfinished so don't use something that will fray really badly. I used plain and striped and bought 12" of each. It was 54" wide and I could probably have made two necklaces with that quantity.
2 rings approx 3/4" diameter. Mine are actually beads.
Grosgrain ribbon. Mine is 5/8".
Buttons/beads for decorating the flowers. I have a mix of beads and fabric-covered buttons.
Strong thread and big needle for threading the necklace together.
Fabric glue like Aleenes Tacky (PVA in the UK I think?).
Fusible webbing (not pictured).
Needle and thread for hand-sewing.
Pins.
A thimble comes in handy for threading the necklace.
A cork board is useful for pinning the beads while they dry.
An iron.

To make the beads:

Cut a 3" wide strip of fabric. With the right side down, fold each long side in towards the middle of the strip so that they overlap evenly and you end up with strip about 1 1/4" wide. Press with the iron. Cut this strip into pieces 2 1/2 inches long. I used two strips of 54" fabric.

Take one of your folded pieces and fold it in half with the overlapped edges inside and so that the two raw edges are together. Roll the strip up tightly from the raw edges and apply a thin line of glue about 1/4" from the end. Roll up completely, and pin in place until the glue dries (on a cork board if you have one). I made 38 beads in a mix of the plain and striped.

To make the flowers:

Cut strips of fabric to the measurements for the size of flower you are making:
Large flower 1 1/4" x 54" (or the width of your fabric). I made 1 plain.
Medium flowers 1" x 54" (or the width of your fabric). I made 2 striped.
Small flowers 3/4" x 27" (I made 2 plain and used half the fabric width for each, but should have made the strips a bit longer because the flowers turned out a bit flatter than I would have liked).

Take a needle and thread and make a few stitches so that your thread is securely attached to the end of the strip. Make a long running stitch (about 1/4" stitches) about 1/8" from the edge along the whole length. When you get to the end gently pull the thread so that the fabric ruffles up to about 9" long (for all sizes of flower), and fasten off the thread securely.

You could leave the fabric like this if you want a more frilly look, but for a more pleated look pinch the gathers up into pleats with your fingers and press them with an iron. Don't worry too much about getting them perfectly even, but try and vary the direction of the pleats and make sure they are approximately evenly spaced.

To form the flower shape lay the ruffle on a flat surface and spiral it around to form a flower shape with about 3 layers, each layer slightly larger than the one above. Keep the centre of the top layer nice and tight and try and have an even gap between the edges of the different layers. You could stitch this together but I chose to use glue because it gave a bit more control over the shape. To do this gently lift up the layers and glue the back of one layer to the top of the layer below, make sure nothing has moved out of place and then leave on a flat surface to dry.

The ruffle half way through ironing in pleats:
The rolled-up (but not glued) flower from above and below, note the larger hole in the base from the spiraling.

I did try making the ruffles using a long straight stitch on my sewing machine but it was much harder to pull the gathers up, and my fabric frayed too much, so I went back to doing it by hand.

Once the glue is dry, decorate with your choice of buttons and/or beads. I stitched mine on but you could use glue if you prefer.

To assemble the necklace:

Iron the fusible webbing to the wrong side of some of the fabric and cut out a circle, approximately 1/2" smaller than the diameter, for each of the flowers. Lay out your fabric beads and flowers and decide on your arrangement. Remove the flowers and put the fabric circles in their place with the fusible webbing side up. Thread your big needle with strong thread and start threading the beads and fabric circles onto the thread. Try to get all of the beads aligned in the same direction, you could change direction at the half way point, but I didn't think of that until too late for mine! When you get to the circles make several large stitches across the diameter, curving slightly to try and follow the shape you want the necklace to hang. Glue the flowers to the fusible webbing side of circles with fabric glue, and allow to dry. Trim away any long frayed threads from the fabric.

Attach the ends of your thread securely to the rings. Cut two pieces of ribbon approximately 25" long, tapering the ends to prevent fraying. Knot one end of each piece of ribbon to one ring. Tie the other ends in a bow behind your neck, and admire!

The final dimensions of my necklace are:

Large flowers 3.5" diameter.
Medium Flowers 3" diameter.
Small Flowers 2.5" diameter.
Length from ring to ring 24".

I have since made another necklace using these beads and Kanzashi flowers which gives a completely different look - here it is.

This is my first tutorial so please let me know what you think, if any of it needs clarifying, and if I've made any mistakes. If you do use it to make something I'd love to see pictures, thanks.

A wooly One Yard Wonders Folklore bag

2010-01-18T16:27:00.000-08:00

Ever since I started amassing a mountain of felted sweaters in my craft room I've been thinking of making a bag from them, but I hadn't quite got round to it. I got the book One Yard Wonders just before Christmas and I've been watching all the beautiful projects people have been posting from it in the Flickr Group . I really liked all the versions of the Folklore Bag that were popping up so I decided to cut out the pattern for that one and give it a go with one of the sweaters I had.

The beauty of the One Yard Wonders book is that each pattern uses one yard or less, so with making the lining in a different fabric, I was able to fit all of the outer pattern pieces for the bag on one rather large felted dark grey cable-knit sweater. I cut the front and back and top band from the front of the sweater, the straps from the back, and the side piece was cut from the two arms sewn together to make one long piece. It was lucky that the sweater I had was very large so that I could try and match the cable patterns on the front and back of the bag. In retrospect it probably wasn't the best sweater to use for my first bag because it was so chunky, but I learnt a lot from it.

The pattern has pleats under the top band but I decided that this would not work too well with my chunky sweater so I used the lining pattern piece for the outside. Sewing the pieces together was a bit of a challenge for me, and my machine, but we managed it by taking it very slowly over the really thick bits, and I definitely had to baste it all together by hand first. I didn't overstitch the seams as the pattern suggests for cotton, that would have killed my machine I'm sure.

I decided the bag needed a home dec weight fabric for the lining to match the chunkiness of the knit so I opted for some plain green Ikea fabric I already had, but I did sneak a little bit of print onto the inside pocket, a green Dala horse. I chose to overstitch around the top of the bag by hand with a simple running stitch. This gave it some stability and I quite like the effect of the hand stitching. The bag is supposed to have a magnetic clasp but I didn't have one so decided to go without, at least for now.

Overall I'm pretty happy with this bag and I learnt a lot making it. It definitely won't be the last wool bag I make, or my last project from One Yard Wonders.

A button bracelet

2010-01-08T12:02:00.000-08:00

My lovely Secret Santa sent me these gorgeous buttons as part of my pressie and as they are so pretty I wanted to try and make them into some kind of jewellery. I used some wire (gold because that's all I had, left over from our wedding favours) to weave through the holes and link them all together. This gives it a nice amount of stiffness and helps stop the buttons twisting. To cover up the wire I threaded some very fine ribbon over the top. Initially I was thinking it would be a necklace with the buttons just in front, but then I decided it works better as a bracelet. I don't have any clasps at the moment so for now I'll just have to get someone to help me tie it on with a bow. Thank you Lucy! :)

Russian dolls and a seal

2010-01-05T07:28:00.000-08:00

These are what Freja selected for me to make first from the Japanese felting book I got for Christmas. Considering I don't read Japanese so just had to go by the pictures, I think they turned out okay. I made the seal first, he's about 6cm long, and then the doll with the purple scarf. She's about 4 cm tall and my Mum claimed her so I had to make another one for Freja.

Some crafty pictures from Christmas 2009...

2009-12-27T13:49:00.000-08:00

Clockwise from top left:
A snowman cheeseball made with herby cream cheese and decorated by Freja.
Some presents with more Felt and Stitch poinsettias, ready to be sent to my Gran and Peder's parents.
A peg bag for my Mum made from one of Freja's baby dresses.
The felt balls for the kids.
Bookmarks drawn on upcycled linen napkins by Freja, for her Dad and Grandpas.
Crumbly semolina mince pies made with Auntie Pams's recipe and my mincemeat.
Peder's Swedish knack.
A wrap around apron for my Secret Santa.
A little purse for my Secret Santa.
A Warm Fuzzies felt cupcake pincushion for Mum and a felt tissue pouch for me, for inside the Jack Horner Pie.
A present for me! A lacy Baktus scarf knitted by my Mum.
My Mum knitting me another Baktus scarf.

Crackers

2009-12-21T09:07:00.000-08:00

So, last week someone made a comment about Christmas crackers on Facebook and I realised we didn't have any. What to do? They are not very common over here and I hadn't noticed any out and about in the stores. I had a little browse online and came across Olde English Crackers where they also sell the components for making your own. There you go, I could make some! I just ordered the snaps because I was pretty sure I could rustle up enough other supplies to cobble something together.

So first, the contents. We needed jokes, hats and presents.

Jokes were easy thanks to Google and this 50 guaranteed hilarious* Christmas cracker jokes list. I just printed the list out, selected a joke for each of us and cut them out with pinking shears, just to make them a bit fancy and all.

Next, hats. We all have rather large heads, or thick hair, or a combination of both, in this family, so those paper hats that come in the crackers seem to be too small for the adults and way too big for the kids. I measured all of our heads and was going to make some tissue paper crowns but then I figured if I was going to cut them out and glue them I might as well cut them out of felt and sew them, then we can use them again. I used some red craft felt that I had and decorated each one with a different trim.

For the presents Freja and I swung into a Hallmark shop and picked up some very cheesy mini snowglobes for my Dad and Peder, and I sneakily bought a princess keyring that for Freja that she was coveting. Magnus is getting one of his Matchbox cars from the toy box, my Mum is getting a silk scarf with holly and other Christmassy stuff on it that I'd already bought, and I made myself a very quick wool ball bracelet.

Here it is all laid out and ready to go:

And all rolled up together for each cracker, mainly so I could make sure I got the right things in each one.

I used the tutorial on the Olde English Crackers website although I didn't really use their dimensions. I used a mailing tube for the inside cardboard tubes because it was the only tube I had that was big enough to fit my chunky felt hats. The outer paper is some Ikea gold giftwrap from a few years ago and the stiffener in the ends is the heavy paper that Ikea uses in rolls of giftwrap instead of tubes. I added tags to each one so we know whose is whose, these were cut from leftover paper from our wedding stationery with little star-shaped holes punched for the ribbon to go through.

I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out, I just hope they BANG!

Balls!

2009-12-15T11:02:00.000-08:00

It's been a bit quiet on the crafting front here recently with all the run up to Christmas stuff going on. I've still got a few more presents to finish off and I think I'm going to have a go at making our Christmas crackers this year. They are a bit tricky to find over here and I'm sure they can't be that difficult to make. I've got the snaps on order and I'm having a little think about what to put inside them.

These balls are presents for the kids for inside the Jack Horner Pie. I used the two remaining balls from when when I made my wooly dryer balls and used a combination of wet and needle-felting to add some colour to them.

I'm really enjoying playing around with felting and I'm expecting this book to be under the tree on Christmas morning, or a bit later as it has to come from Japan. I'm hoping the pictures are good because my Japanese isn't!

It won't be too long now until we can crack open a jar of mincemeat and see how that turned out, yum!

Christmas is coming...

2009-12-01T13:38:00.000-08:00

...and I don't want to spoil any surprises by posting pictures, as most of what I've been making lately is for presents. I've been making a few more felt things and started doing a bit of 'regular' sewing. I've been trying out using proper patterns from books, instead of just winging things, which I'm really enjoying. It's nice that someone else has already done the thinking so all I have to do is cut out and sew, that helps when I don't get started until the kids are in bed.

Hopefully I will sneak in some time to make something for myself soon, otherwise I will post pictures of all the other things once Santa has been.

Continuing the tradition...

2009-11-20T14:02:00.000-08:00

I come from a family of sewers:

My Dad wooed my Mum with a pink felt elephant, and made me a witch costume for my Brownies Halloween party.
My Mum made almost all my party dresses until I was at University, and most of my curtains since.
My Granny made nightshirts for everyone, every Christmas, for years.
My Auntie made our bridesmaids' dresses and waistcoats for all the boys.
And this week, my daughter and I made a lavender bag:

My new wooly dryer balls

2009-11-20T09:22:00.000-08:00

Okay, not the most exciting of things I admit, but very useful. I've been using plastic dryer balls for a while but one of them split in half recently so I needed to replace them, as I do think they help reduce the drying time and soften things up. Since I bought them I've read that they are made from PVC which isn't the most eco-friendly of materials, and I've seen (expensive) felted wool ones available to buy online. Seeing as I'd just ordered some natural merino roving for some other projects, I thought I'd have a go at making some felted wool balls myself. I used a combination of needle-felting and wet-felting to form them and then finished them off by sticking them in the washing machine inside an old nylon tights leg. I started by making four smaller ones like I'd seen online, but after running them through with a load of laundry I realised that it would drive me nuts trying to locate four golf-sized balls in every load, so I enlarged two of them to about the same size as the plastic balls. I decided to leave them natural because I didn't want any dye rubbing off onto our laundry but I think I might add some coloured roving to other two balls and turn them into the kids' presents for inside the Jack Horner pie. I just need to be a bit more careful when I'm needle-felting because I managed to stab myself twice and then snap off all five needles on my tool whilst making these.

I enjoyed trying out the wet-felting for these and I've just got this Feltique book which has some lovely projects for all different kinds of felt, so I think I might try making some wet-felted sheets of felt soon.

A hat for the princess-obsessed one

2009-11-16T12:24:00.000-08:00

There's not been much crafty stuff going on here the last week because we've all been flaked out with the flu, but I've finally managed to get an action shot of a felt hat that I made for Freja. A crown for the princess-obsessed one:

I also made another needle-felted pouch. Needle-felting is so much fun, I've just ordered a load more roving so will hopefully have some more projects to share soon.

I need to get cracking on a few things for Christmas presents which I won't be able to post until after Santa's been (sorry Mum, no use trying to get a sneak preview here!) and of course, I need to come up with some little pressies for our Jack Horner Pie.

Felt and Stitch Projects - part 2

2009-11-06T11:59:00.000-08:00

And some more things from the workshop:

A needle-felted pouch.

A "Jack Horner Pie". The idea with this is that you serve it up on Christmas Eve and inside is one little present for everyone. I thought this would be a nice family tradition to start, particularly for the years when we're doing Christmas British style, not Swedish.

Felt and Stitch Projects - part 1

2009-11-06T06:44:00.000-08:00

The 4-week Betz White online workshop I've been doing is over today so at last I can share some pictures of the things I've been making.

Some Christmas trees, the big one still needs to be decorated.

An angel, although I'm thinking about making it into a fairy by making it a little crown and wand.

A poinsettia brooch.

A poinsettia brooch made from felted sweaters.

Another poinsettia (these are fun to make, can you tell?).

A cashmere hat for Magnus...

2009-11-04T14:30:00.000-08:00

I've managed to find a few cashmere sweaters in the thrift shop recently and they are soooo soft. They don't felt up like wool does but they do go a bit thicker and fluffier if you run them through a hot cycle in the machine. I thought I'd try and make a hat for Magnus based loosely on a fleece one that I saw in the Crafty Mama book I borrowed from the library recently. It's two pointy pieces stitched together and then knotted in the pointy bit. I like the idea that as his head gets bigger the hat can be made bigger just by moving the knot. We had problems last year with a Santa hat that kept falling down over his eyes in the car because his head disappeared up inside it! I didn't have the pattern so I just eyeballed it and cut one piece out from each of the sleeves. I stitched them together and added an extra bit of ribbing from a different cashmere sweater round the end so that it could have a turn-up without exposing the seams. We've just been out to the park and he only pulled it off once so that's a good measure of success for me.

Freja's Pumpkin

2009-10-31T17:20:00.000-07:00

Drawn on the pumpkin by Freja, cut out by me. I love her people.

Mmmm, cake.

2009-10-29T19:33:00.000-07:00

I've been having lots of fun the last couple of weeks making things from the Felt & Stitch workshop. I can't share any pictures from that until it finishes next week, but I can show you the cupcake pincushions I've made from Betz's book Warm Fuzzies. Only problem is they can't be eaten, but that's okay, I have a plan to get Peder to take me to Sugar Cupcakery in Milford for my birthday treat next weekend.

Some Halloween decorations...

2009-10-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

A felt banner.
A twiggy tree.
A pipecleaner spider...
...and his friends.
Another felt banner.
Some decorated cookies.
Ghosts on the stairs.

Our Halloween Costumes

2009-10-26T17:01:00.000-07:00

Can you tell what we were supposed to be?

Our neighbours had an adults-only Halloween party on Saturday night which was a great opportunity for us to go out for once, because I was able to pop back to Magnus when he woke up. Peder's costume was made with a cheap poker set, an old waistcoat of his (which he has been hanging on to since I've known him!) and lots of hot glue. Mine was made from some pretty shimmery blue fabric, a kit of foam fish (which Freja helped stick together) and some safety pins. If you haven't worked it out yet here's a clue - we were supposed to be a typical British fast-food meal...

Project Mincemeat

2009-10-21T13:58:00.000-07:00

This will be our third Christmas in this house and in the US. The first year we had only been in our house a few weeks and I was pregnant with Magnus, so there wasn't much spare energy around for Christmas preparations. My parents were here and my Mum did all the cooking. Last year Peder's parents came over so we celebrated Swedish style, which again meant that I didn't have to do much. This year my parents are coming again, but I thought it was about time I put a little bit of effort into establishing some Christmas traditions of our own. I thought mincemeat would be a good place to start for two reasons, you can only really buy one pretty ropey brand here and two, I don't like orange so won't eat it anyway. I decided to give Delia's recipe a go with a few tweaks to remove the orange. I chose this one because you heat it up to melt the suet and coat all the ingredients so I'm hoping that will help the apples keep well.
So, recipe in hand I went off grocery shopping and managed to find most of the ingredients apart from the suet and the mixed peel. I think I found sultanas, although they were called white raisins and actually just looked like very big normal raisins. The peel was easy, I used a Jane Grigson recipe and made some candied lemon peel myself. The suet was a bit trickier. People don't eat animal fat here you know, it's too unhealthy :) All the Googling I did suggested that suet is used to feed birds and could be obtained from butchers. I called a local butcher but he said it was a seasonal product and it was still too warm for them to stock it. Not much use if I wanted my mincemeat to have a bit of time to mature before Christmas. In the end I discovered, from the Cincy Localvore Yahoo group that Greenacres Farm had some.
I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, I suppose a nice little foil wrapped block like butter, but no, this was a big hunk of frozen raw animal fat. Nice. Definitely not in a state to be put directly into mince pies. Anyway, as you can see from the picture I found out how to melt the fat and strain it so it was nice and clear, and a much better state for mincemeat production. The tweaks I made to the recipe were to use apple juice instead of orange, and only put in the candied lemon peel. I also had to play around with the spices a bit as I didn't have Mixed Spice. I think I used fresh nutmeg, cinnamon and a litle bit of ginger. I doubled the recipe so was expecting about 6 jars but ended up with 4, each weighing about 1.25lb. They are now sitting in a cupboard waiting for us to get Halloween and Thanksgiving out of the way.

Some craft room progress...

2009-10-12T08:44:00.000-07:00

I've had a little bit of time this weekend to do some sorting out in my craft room in preparation for the Felt & Stitch workshop that starts today. I won't be able to post about anything I make with that until after the workshop ends, but here's how the room is right now. There's still a way to go (it's lucky the tablecloths reach the floor because there are a lot of boxes underneath!) but I'm happy with how it's shaping up. I found the big table and the wall shelves in Goodwill, the red and white tablecloth fabric at a yard sale, and the chair is from Ikea. I gave the shelves a quick lick of Copenhagen blue paint and some varnish, and enlisted Peder's help last night to put them up. Despite our best efforts the one for the scissors is a bit wonky, but it was getting late so we left it. Maybe once I get a bit more up on the walls it won't be so noticeable? :)

I'm still planning a few more Halloween decorations with this little lot so I'll try and post some pictures of those when they're done.

Going batty.

2009-10-07T11:29:00.001-07:00

I've volunteered to host a Halloween party for one of our playgroups but at the moment, apart from our 5 little pumpkins collected out and about, we have hardly any decorations. I could go out and buy a whole load of plastic rubbish that we stick up once and throw away, but I thought it would a lot nicer to try and make some decorations that we could use year after year. The kids coming will be mostly aged 3 and under so I don't want anything too scary, I think I'll mainly stick to cut-out shapes like pumpkins, ghosts, owls, cats.

These bats are the result of my first attempt. I just cut out the shape from felt and used my new glue gun to stick them onto a clothes peg. The peg works well to hold the body part rigid and makes it easy to attach the bats around the house. It was pure fluke that the felt I had was just bigger than the clothespegs so none of the peg shows when they're up (I considered painting them but decided they didn't need it). The felt is cheap non-wool craft felt with purple sparkly bits running through it. I'm quite pleased with them, might have to go and find some more cheap felt in Halloween colours, I'm saving my nice wool stuff for the Betz White workshop which starts next week.

A mini glue gun project

2009-10-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

That's a mini project, not a mini glue gun. I flicked through the Crafty Mama book the other day and just about every project seemed to require a hot-melt glue gun. I happened to find one for $2 soon afterwards so decided to bring it home and see what I could do with it. I haven't used one in a long time, probably not since school, so I thought a small project would be a good place to start. I want to put up some pinboards in my craft room so I've been keeping an eye out for cork. In Ikea the other day I found these cork trivets which I thought would make lovely little pinboards. So, glue-gun + cork trivet + fabric + drawing pins + buttons + double-sided tape to stick it up with, and I now have somewhere on the inside of my kitchen cupboard to pin up my plan of what's for dinner each night. I found that the glue dried really fast so I had to work quickly, there are a few lumps where I wasn't quick enough. Next time I will make sure I cover the surface I'm working on and maybe wear an apron so I don't get glue on my top. Might make another one for my shopping list...

I have a plan for some of that felt

2009-09-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

Since starting this blog I've worked out how to actually follow other blogs, rather than just bookmarking them and forgetting all about them. I was very excited to see this post from Betz White pop up today. She's going to be doing an online workshop which sounds like a perfect way for me to get some Christmas crafting done, and eat into my pile of felted sweaters at the same time. I've signed up and it starts on October 12th so look out for some felty projects in the next few weeks.

Felt Owl Cushion

2009-09-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

I've made something with some of that big pile of felted jumpers!

Freja and I were having a root around in my jewellery box the other day and I found an old owl brooch that I've had for years. I used the shape of the brooch to draw out a pattern template, cut the pieces out from felt, and zigzagged them together to make the owl. Even the buttons on the eyes came from a cardigan that I felted. The cushion cover was made from a really big jumper that didn't felt up quite so much because it wasn't 100% wool. I'm pretty happy with the result, but I do need to work on my photography. Off to browse the library catalogue for some books on that...

A big pile of feltiness...

2009-09-22T10:58:00.000-07:00

I had a little go at felting last winter, boiled up some wool sweaters from the thrift store and a bit of needle felting from a kit. I found the process really satisfying so when I saw Betz White's book Warm Fuzzies at the library recently I checked it out. Last week while Freja was at pre-school Magnus and I hit the thrift store and came away with a big stash of wooly sweaters. This picture is the result of felting it all.

They've all had one cycle through our washing machine on the sanitise cycle, which I'm assuming is the boil wash. I did them in three batches and the dye ran a lot (that purple one was a light blue/mauve before it went in with the red jumpers) so I'm glad I kept the colours vaguely separate. I followed the instructions in the book to cut off and open up the arms before felting, so that they don't get a creased line all the way down them. I think I'm going to have a go at some more of the cupcake pincushions from the book and I'm also trying to think of ways to use the red and green for something Christmassy.

What am I doing?

2009-09-15T16:02:00.000-07:00

This is me at the beginning of my journey to regain my craftiness. It has been far too long since I made stuff regularly, not since I was at school and I miss it. I miss planning projects in my head, spending time making them and then admiring my finished handiwork. One of the benefits of US houses is that they tend to have basements and I am lucky enough to have a room in ours that I have claimed as my craft room. That's about as far as I've got, I've moved all my craft supplies in there and claimed a few bits of furniture but it's still in need of a big sort out. It has no windows but it does have a lovely big walk-in cupboard, or closet as they say over here. This is a picture of it now, hopefully over the next few months I will be able to show the transformation to fabulous craft room and all the wonderful things produced from within.