Wednesday 24 September 2014

Advent Bunting Tutorial




Aaah! I know what you're saying! "Is that really a Christmassy thing already?" Well, yes, it is!
Today I'm guest blogger over at Simply Solids.
The lovely Justine wanted me to use some Christmas fabrics, and I thought: "What needs to be made well in advance for Christmas?" Well, an advent calendar of course.....you need that right from the start of December, and that's only about 9 weeks away!
This is bunting that has pockets in it so you can add little treats, one for each day.



The pockets are fastened with a ribbon loop and little button, so there'll be no peeking before the day.


You can choose to make just one length, or split it in two as I have done. It makes it a lot easier to hang on a chimney breast, door or a child's wall.


To make the bunting you will need:

7 fat quarters of Christmas fabric
Bias binding tape
Narrow ribbon for the button loops
25 small buttons
A small piece of solid white for the numbers
Bondaweb or other fusible to secure the numbers in place.

The full instructions along with templates for the pennants and numbers and plenty of stage by stage photos can be downloaded here


Monday 15 September 2014

A Little Scrap Busting

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We are having the most gorgeous September imaginable ....so far! So a lot of my time has been spent enjoying the sunshine, taking in the subtle changes to autumn colours and making a mental note to treasure these days. These will be the memories to get me through the dark, dreary days of winter. And of course, I've been harvesting. Every day I think I've picked the bulk of the tomatoes and by the next morning there are plenty more saying "I'm ripe. Pick me!" They are mainly being roasted along with onions, garlic and basil and then pureed down into a sort of passata, before being frozen in varying sized portions. They will be used on pizza bases, in pasta sauces and salsas in the coming months. The cucumbers have finished, but courgettes are still going strong and peppers and squashes are just about ready, so sewing and knitting has been mainly an evening activity, but I do have a few small finishes to share.
First up, some scrap busting for a good cause - 2 zippered pouches for a Leukaemia Research coffee morning later in the year.
The navy one is my favourite, and it used up the tiniest of jelly roll scraps.


The back is different to the front. It was made with the quilt as you go method. I even joined some really small pieces of wadding together with iron on tape to get a piece big enough for this pouch, so it really is a true scrapbuster!
I've also been using up some really "What on earth was I thinking!" fabric. I've been buying organic fabrics since they first hit the quilting market a fair few years ago. But designs were limited then and my thirst for organic fabric was great, so I didn't always make good choices.
Actually apart from being rather bright, (you probably need to pop on your sunglasses before viewing the next two photos!) I'm quite pleasantly surprised at how good these fabrics look once they're sewn up.

This one is made entirely from that impulse organic buy all those years ago, and there's enough of the bright pink solid to make an entire wardrobe full of dresses! This will fit a 4 -5 yr old and is the pattern is New Look 6796. It is destined for Greenfields Africa. I'm quite sure the little girl's Mum won't care how bright it is!


This is another fabric that looks a lot better sewn up than it did folded neatly buried in my stash.
It's not organic. I bought it in a January sale several years ago and it was ridiculously cheap, so I feel good now its made into something useful. The pattern is New Look 6718. I made the large baby size and added a fair bit to the length so I think it should a fit a 2 yr old or  thereabouts and again is destined for Greenfields Africa.
All in all, it's been a good week :-)

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