Thursday, 29 July 2010

A day out at Croft Castle

Listening to the trees...

King (or should that be queen) of the castle

A pink tree - the artist had wrapped this tree in red cotton fabric - the dye had washed away leaving a pale pink

A quick walk around the Co-op in Leominster

Tuesday, 27 July 2010

A bag (and first attempt at applique)

This weekend I made a bag for my niece for her 5th birthday. I used a pattern for a small shopping bag which I had from a 'learn to sew' course at my local knitting/sewing shop. Some new Ikea fabric formed the bottom half and the handles, and the denim was left over from some old jeans I recently cropped. My niece loves all things pink so I used some dark pink thread for the top stitching.

I had decided to add an applique butterfly using some fabric from a japanese-style satin-like top I bought at a car boot sale. I ironed some bondaweb onto the reverse of the top, drew a butterfly shape onto the paper backing and cut the shape out. I then ironed it onto the bag fabric and zig zag stitched around the edge. I'm really pleased with the result - I love the look of applique but when I tried some out before (on some scrap fabric) it went all stretched and the shape was warped - possibly because I didn't use any bondaweb, or possibly because the fabric was t-shirt jersey so had some stretch in it. Anyway, this worked really well - two non-stretch fabrics probably made it easier - so I'm feeling enthusiastic about trying some more applique in future!


Sunday, 25 July 2010

Taggosaurus

I've been making a few of these for the littlies I know; I may try to sell some at our community market too. The fleece for the body is cut from a large babygro bought at a car boot sale for 50p - what a bargain (especially as I made four taggosauruses from it)!

Thursday, 8 July 2010

Happy 1st Birthday

Happy 1st Birthday my lovely little one :)