A Cardigan - M6844

Normally I get my cardigans from charity shops but I am finding it harder and harder to find the kind I like - long and loose. When I saw this pattern on sale before Christmas I bought it because view B is my perfect cardigan.

I had fabric waiting for the pattern - a grey ribbed cotton/linen blend jersey that I got from organiccotton.biz (the one on the right) , so thought cardigan perfection was within reach. I was wrong, it was a disaster, loose rib was horrible to sew and the cardi ended up enormous by the time I finished. It got sent to the charity shop in disgust and the pattern got put away for now.

About a month ago I ended up with 2m of this fabric (instead of a refund for some fabric that's colour ran when I washed it) and had another bash at the cardigan pattern.

This time it worked, just, this fabric is awful as well!

 I cut a M and it fits fine, the next time I will lengthen the arms though. They are not as short as they look here in real life.

Now to try and write up my epic trouser making sessions that have been happening.

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DIY Fabric Origami Bow

Origami is my stress buster of choice at the moment, I love how you can create beautiful things by only folding paper! My favourite is the Origami Bow, which has been adorning many birthday cards recently! I have been wanting to try making one from fabric for ages but only just got round to it.

There are loads of great sites (and some youtube videos) with instructions for making them, this is a good tutorial, and I recommend getting good making them with paper before you attempt fabric as it is a bit trickier!

I started with a fabric square which I then interfaced.

I then followed the instructions as for the paper bow but pressed each fold as I went. It was harder than the paper bow but the final result is worth it!

I glued a barrette to the back and plan to wear it in my hair

although my husband says it looks too childish, what do you think?

Linking up to these fab linky parties!

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I think I maybe have the best friend ever!

I got a surprise parcel in the post the other day, 4 remnants of gorgeous fabric! What a fab way to cheer up a day that had so far been spent cleaning little e's bedroom carpet and rug as she had been sick on them...nice.

Along with these was a note from my oldest and bestest friend, saying she had seen the bargain bin at her local fabric shop and thought of me. Looks like I have not kept my fabric obsession well hidden then...!

I plan on making something for 'super friend' and who knows what the rest will turn in to, although I have a hankering to recover my computer chair!

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Teacher/leader gifts

Tomorrow is Big E's last ever day at nursery (pre-school) so some teacher gifts were in order! It is a big nursery so I needed 5 female pressies and 1 male.

I decided fabric flower brooches were the way to go for the ladies:

I made them all different and attached them to a piece of card with the slogan 'Thanks for helping me Bloom'  printed on. I am going to get Big E to sign them all in the morning.

The dahlia is for his group leader, I made it to 'match' the plant we also got her

The other ladies got flowers made with fabric scraps and beads and buttons from my stash.

and one for me because it was too nice to give away!

bad photo I know, I took it while wearing the flower, why didn't I just take it off???!

I had no bright ideas for the man so he is getting a bag of M&M's!

At least next year there will only be one teacher to make for!

p.s. let me know if you want to know how I made any of them. I didn't include any instructions since there are millions of flower tutorials floating around and figure everyone has seen them all before!

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Lots of fabric!

We brought an extra bag back from Florida which was about 50% full of this:

Fabric is so much cheaper in the US that it was hard to resist. The only thing that restrained me was that none of it was ethical so I didn't go mad as I try my best to only buy fair trade organic cotton. 

Little e will get a Snow White costume out of it (in fact I think I have bought enough fabric to make 2 costumes!) but the Royal Blue velvet looks distinctly purple in natural light...

It was strange to walk round Joann's and see all the products I read about on the blogs, I would have definitely brought some Mod Podge home if space allowed but no such luck!

Now to decide what to do with it all but I have 50 wedding invites to do for the middle of May so it may be a while before any sewing gets done!

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Off on my holidays!

There is much excitement in the house today, we head to Florida tomorrow with an unknown return date as they have moved the shuttle launch we hoped to see and if it is rescheduled for before the 3rd May we are going to extend our stay to see it!

I am going with a spare hold all in the suitcase so I can fill it with loads of crafty goodies, can't wait!!

Back in a couple of weeks

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Reducing my fabric mountain!

In an attempt to diminish my rather large stash of material (more than 100 different pieces of material and a suitcase full of clothes to repurpose....Hubby is worrying about the weight in the loft!!) I am using this calender

image from amazon.co.uk

and trying to make at least one of everything I have the supplies for. So far I have made 3 cafetiere cosy's, one Christmas one and 2 everyday ones. The bottom one in the pic is using old felted jumpers as the inner and back so it is not as nice looking as the other two!

and am now making 2 fabric baskets, one to match Big E's curtains and one to match little e's curtains. Hopefully all this making will produce at least some of 2011's Christmas pressies!

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Fabric Headbands

Big E's 5th birthday is fast approaching and I am making headbands for the girls party bags.

Here is how I have done it (to fit age 3-6 yrs approx): 

Cut out 2 strips of fabric, I have used scrap jersey material so they have a bit of stretch:

Headband strip is 35cm x 9cm 
Smaller strip, for the elastic casing, is 24cm x 5.5cm. (forgot to take a pic unfolded!)

Cut one, 12cm, strip of elastic 2cm wide elastic.


Fold the two strips in half length ways, right sides together, and stitch (I used a 0.5cm seam allowance).

Turn right sides out then press seams down the middle and you will end up with:

Attach a safety pin to the elastic and thread it through the smaller tube until it is just at the end.

The safety pin will still be in the tube at this point but first the most important thing is to anchor the elastic at the end of the tube. I had to unpick the first headband twice so decided this step was essential!! I pulled the top of the casing away from the elastic and stitched throught the elastic and one layer of material.

Then fold over the end of the tube ~0.5cm,

gather one end of the larger tube (the pic shows a gathering stitch but in the end I just gathered them by hand),

Stuff the gathered headband piece in to the elastic tube (make sure the seams are both on the underside) then stitch in place. I stitched twice to make sure it was really strong.

Now, pull the elastic to the other end of the tube and repeat the above until you have something like this:

I made the flowers using this tutorial by Little Miss Momma, hopefully you won't burn yourself with the hot glue!!


I have made 8 of these and hopefully the girls at the party will like them!!

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