Happy Holidays!

It's Christmas Eve and I have a couple of finished projects to share before the festivities really start.

Doesn’t seem that long ago that I was hanging up the Advent Calendar and now the last sweet is about to be munched!  This was actually a present I started making for the OH while we were busy with wedding prep.

I don’t get the chance to make things for my OH much.  The only other things I have made him in the last three years are a Christmas Stocking and cover for a Kindle.  That’s it.  He is fine with that and is not spending the days claiming that I am neglecting him – although he would prefer if I made more cakes and less dressmaking/cross stitch!

It was relatively easy to put together, albeit a bit fiddly at times.  

I could not decide how to quilt it for ages and settled on stitching round three sides of the pockets again so as to not interfear with the design.  This worked fine until I realised that I now had 48 knots to bury in the quilt!  Not such a bright idea after all- thats a lot of knots! 

Quilting the top and adding the bias binding round the sides ended up taking a whole Saturday.  Had a good few goes at adding the binding as I was trying to get rid of the green border on the original panel. No idea why it took so long to get right and I ended up just cutting the green border off. 

The OH was really pleased with the result in the end though which is the main thing.

I also just managed to get my Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery Christmas Celebration Sampler finished in time for Christmas.  Love how cute these patterns are and it will be good to get it framed and displayed ready for next Christmas.

That's all the crafting done for Christmas now too which is a relief.  We are spending the day with family tomorrow so a nice relaxing evening with a bottle of bubbly before Santa arrives is in order!  Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.

X 

More curtains

Before I start the Christmas crafting posts I just wanted to write a wee post about another pair of curtains that I made.

A couple of months ago I made a pair of bathroom curtains for my Gran which also featured in my very first blog post.  Well once I had made them my other Gran started to hint that she needed a new pair of kitchen curtains!  I should know by now that I can't make for one without the other but somehow I always forget.

I thought it would be a good idea to write down what I did to make the curtains.  Now I am not really qualified to tell other people how to make curtains, and there are lots of tutorials out there, so this is really more of a note for my own future reference!

I started by measuring the curtains she already had up to get my finished measurements and then added 12cm to the length and made sure I had 8cm on the width for the hems.   I started by checking that I had a straight edge for cutting the first curtain then lined up the pattern to ensure that I managed to match the pattern across the two curtains.

I then created a 2cm double fold hem for each of the sides.

I then stitched the sides down using the straight stitch on my machine.  Actually I was very lazy and just used a strait stitch to do all my seams - no blind hemming for me! I know I was cutting corners here but to be honest the stitches vanish into the fabric and I think it looks fine.

I then folded the top down by 2cm and created a 5cm double hem at the bottom. I then struggled for ages as to how to miter the corners properly at the bottom, before settling for a mock mitered corner as per this tutorial!  I think it looks ok.  

The last set of curtains I made both my mum and Gran mentioned that when they have had curtains made for them before there was a small pocket for the extra hemming cord to sit when they are hung.  So I pulled out a small strip of off white fabric from my stash and created this little pocket to include under the heading tape. I did this by eye and didn't take any measurements but its about 3" long and 2" wide.

I then added the header tape.  I cut it to the correct width and ziz zag stitched down the two cut ends to stop it unraveling, making sure I didn't catch the cords, before attaching to the fabric.  This went nice and quick, until I realised that I had sewn a pin in-between the tape and curtain fabric. Can you see the pink pin head? Oops!

Pinning the tape on the second curtain.

The only bit of hand sewing I did was to stitch down the mitered corners.

They then got folded up for a week until I went to visit my Gran.

In pride of place (sorry for rubbish photo - it was getting dark so the light is a bit off!)

See you all soon x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment!

Time flies

Wow can’t believe how quick the last few months have gone and that it was September when I was last on here. 

Life has certainly been busy in the meantime. We got married…

….went on honeymoon….

…got ready for Christmas….

…. and to be honest just life in general has just been a bit crazy.  I have also managed to break the camera (both the camera and I got soaked by a wave on honeymoon – it didn’t survive!) and laptop (currently in the computer hospital) which has not helped.

I have, however, been managing to do some crafty stuff.  Those of you who follow me on instagram will probably be bored of seeing the updates on the Christmas Celebration Sampler by Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.  Fab wee pattern and I do love being involved in a stitch along but the border is taking an age and has had to be put on hold while the Christmas sewing takes place.

Stitching Christmas ornaments when I was supposed to be gift sewing (another Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery project – Cozy Gingerbread Snow Globe)

Despite promising not to do many crafty projects for Christmas I seem to have been very busy making gifts!  I have a couple of posts lined up for after Christmas so I won’t share them just now.  However, I have been making loads of lavender bags and tissue holders as gifts – an idea which I have stolen from Mrs King Sews!

I have also made some more bean bag chairs as a favour for a colleague at work (they looked a lot better in real life - and were very comfy).

While I have been doing a lot of crafting, I have not touched the dressmaking in months.  The closest I have got was buying £45 dress for £8 out of Oasis as the seam had come away at the zip.

I know this seems very small but it is not something I would have even considered doing before.  A little bit of interfacing to reinforce the seam where a wee hole had occurred and away I went.

It was a bit fiddly, and the OH was a bit amused that the night before we go on honeymoon I decide to fix a dress, but I think it was worth it (photo doesn't do it justice!).

That’s enough from me for one day I think! 

Will be back soon  x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment!