Giant doilies and the reality of the crafty lifestyle....

On my trawls of the local charity shops I picked up two giant doilies.  These are pretty big and measure approx 50cm across!  I wasn't really sure what I wanted to use them for to start with.  But after completing the lace cushion backed with mustardy yellow fabric last week, I decided they would look great against some contrasting coloured fabric. 

 

This is what I've been up to the last couple of days...

 

 

It took SO long to hand sew this doily on the fabric!

 

 

This is the second one, I'm yet to start.  The fabric is one of the fat quarters I picked up on my little shopping trip yesterday.  I am making them both into giant cushion fronts.

 

 

I think these doilies would look fantastic on top of a stylish little coffee table.  The reality is that my coffee table is not so stylish flat pack furniture from IKEA.  Also if I were to put anything like this on my table tops, this would happen...

 

 

 

Did someone lay out some fabric?  Must be picnic time!

 

Quick, mums got the camera!

 

 

ARGH GIANT BABY TODDLER!!!!!

 

Realistically there is really very little free time for crafting in the daylight.  No matter how engrossed the little one looks like she is in Mr Tumble, she always ALWAYS knows when I'm sneakily trying to do a little making.  Good job Sweetpea is super cute! :o)

 

 

So here goes the next one...

Don't mind if I do!

Hello, Happy Sunday!

 

I just thought I would share with you my lovely haberdashery purchases.  Its PearlyPea's Birthday this week coming and I was given an early gift of moneys.  Having a kid, I'm not used to buying myself "things" anymore, so unsure what to get myself I headed to my favourite little fabric shop... which is not so little and sells far more than just fabric!

 

I have loads of fabric already, in all sorts colours.  This is great if you want to make a rainbow, but not so good for colour schemes around the house!  I just never seem to be able to find the right fabric from my stash.  Plus you can never have too much fabric, right?

 

 

Firstly I picked up two more balls of Sirdar Snuggly double knit, to finish of my large crochet blanket project, (its getting there... I will update on its progress during the week.)

 

The three pieces of fabric on the bottom row are fat quarters for sprucing up my living room sofa.  I have just finished painting the fireplace wall in a really fresh looking pale green, that I mixed up from two other paints we had sitting in the shed, from our previous house.  Thrifty!  So now the colour scheme is starting to make sense in my head, I can add lots of little colour accents.  Of course nothing really "goes,"  as I have quite eclectic taste.  (I love that there is such a positive word for being mismatched!)  Anyway, I always think matching brown, with brown, with brown, or red, with red, with red, is really not very hard or creative! 

 

I just love the little tree fabric on the right!

 

The two pieces of fabric at the top are larger bolts of fabric, from the end of rolls.  I like  checking what bolts are available, as there are often popular prints, which are discontinued.  Fat quarters are better on the purse, but can be a little limiting due to their small size.

 

 

Since joining #PostCircle a few months ago, everything letter themed has caught my eye.  I thought I might turn this rose and letter print fabric into a lovely table cloth.  (You can find out more info on #PostCircle over on miss-beatrix blog.)

 

 

More rose print fabric, this time with a yellow pattered background.  Not really sure what I will turn this into just yet.

 

 

Last but not least, who doesn't love a miniature cake?!  These are not much bigger than a five pence piece.  I will add these to something for my daughter, as it will soon be time to get making for her Birthday.

 

The best part about today is that this little lot only came to £30.00, leaving me £20 cash, and...

 

 

...upon paying for my items and getting my loyalty card stamped, I received a £10 voucher, KERCHING!  Must be used within 6 months, so I may have to take another trip there very soon!

 

Super Speedy, Simple, Sweet Bow Tutorial

This is a How To for the little bow featured on the cushion tutorial from my blog on Sunday.  I'm not sure if this is the technical way to make a bow, but this is my solution.  It is a great way to use up little scraps of fabric and is so simple to make, you will be wanting to add bows to everything!
 

 

You will need:

 

2 rectangles of fabric measuring approx 4cm x 8cm

2 rectangles of fabric measuring approx 2cm x 4cm

fabric pen

needle

matching cotton

pins

scissors

Lets get making:
 

1.  Cut fabrics to size and pin rectangles together with right sides facing.

 

 

2.  Draw a rough sewing guide line around both rectangles, leaving a 1cm seam allowance on the larger and a 0.5cm seam allowance on the smaller of the two rectangles. 

 

3.  Sew along this line using a matching thread, leaving a space un sewn on each, so that both rectangles can be turned inside out. (This is indicated by double ended arrows in the picture above.)

 

 

4.  Clip the corners before turning inside out (or right way around.) Iron both pieces.

  

 

5.  Fold the fabric in half and fold each of those halves in half again, so that you have gathered the middle of the fabric.
 

 

 

6.  Pop a little stitch in the back of the bow to hold it in shape, but don't pull too tight!
 

7.  Wrap the smaller piece of material around the centre of the bow, making sure that your rough, un sewn end is on the inside.
 

 

8.  Sew a little row of stitches to hold this smaller piece of fabric together, but don't sew it to the larger piece of fabric just yet.  You want it to be a tube which moves freely over the bow.  This is so when you turn it over and come to attach it to something, you can adjust it and plump the bow, making sure it is even and not looking sad and wonky! 

 

9.  Pin this to your cushion front and ladder stitch (invisible stitch) into place, using a matching thread.
 

 

 

 

You can change the appearance of the bow by simply altering the measurements to make a long skinny bow or a wider bow with lots of pleats.  Make a huge bow or a teeny tiny bow brooch.

 

 

Try changing the colours of the bow for a mix and match effect or the backing fabric on which it sits, to make it stand out more, or nearly disappear.
 

 

Can you spot the bow on this one?
 

What would you add these bows to? I think they would look sweet on an Alice band (simply glue gunned into place.) On a bracelet made from a strip of fabric and fastened with a  little popper.  Or maybe put onto a clip and attached to a Birthday gift, as a kind of fancy homemade gift wrap, where part of the gift wrap is actually the gift?

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

As you may have heard, Google Reader will be shutting down before long.  I'm not sure what the reason behind this is, but I have finally got off my butt and joined Bloglovin.  If you would like to follow me over on there:

http://www.bloglovin.com/pearlypea

That is all, Thank you :o)

Lace and bow upcycled cushion tutorial

I've had the idea for this little cushion floating around in my head for a few days and finally got to bring it to life yesterday.  I am currently sorting out my sofa.  The existing cushions that I made are OK, but they could do with a bit of a spruce up.  A few really don't go since I finished my last crochet throw for the back of the sofa, some are fraying in places and others just really need a good Spring clean and press!

 

 

I feel a little sad for the ones that are getting a little ragged, as they are mainly my oldest makes.  They have seen a lot of wear and shlumping (that sliding down the sofa motion, as you get tired in the evening,) over the last few years.  I also have three large step children who are great at lounging and shlumping in ways I cannot comprehend, and a little girl who throws herself around something silly on the sofa.  (I try not to be too precious as I know that kids just think pillows are for pillow fights.)  I will try and recycle what I can from any cushions that are getting the chop!

Lace and bow upcycled cushion tutorial:

These are the materials I used for the cushion (although I did have to rethink the buttons part way through making, as one was too big for my sewing machine to do a button hole.) 

The lace piece, I think is one of those funny things that grannys put on the back of their arm chair, as it has a scalloped edge on one side only.  I picked it up on a whim and then had no idea what to do with it.  I certainly wasn't going to put it on any chair in its current state!

The fabrics are a piece of mustard cotton, to contrast the lace.  You could use whatever colour you had to hand, but you want something that will show the lace off (so no putting cream fabric behind cream lace, because it will disappear.)  A pale blue flowered fat quarter and a long scrap of pale blue miniature polka dot material.

Two cotton threads in cream and light pink.


1. Cut the lace piece into two, NO GOING BACK NOW!  The front panel needs to be a square and the back panel was just what I had left over.  Cut the mustard backing fabric to match (don't trim around the scallop edging just yet.)  Pin lace and mustard fabric together. 

2.  Run this quickly through the sewing machine, all the way around the outside using straight stitch and cream thread to hold both fabrics together.  When it comes to the scallop edge I used zigzag stitch (to prevent fraying) and did two rows of stitching, making sure to hide the stitches in the lace and that the outside row of stitching runs along the very edge of the lace piece.  Trim neatly around the scallops.  You can now remove all pins.

3.  Change the thread to pink on the sewing machine and attach the button hole foot.  Make sure you refer to your sewing machine manual at this point and do some testers on an old piece of fabric!  I always forget where my machine starts the button hole and did four testers to get the stitches to look right before trying on my cushion back.  Sew a button hole in the centre of each of your scallops, remembering to reset your machine before each one.

 

4.  Place a pin in the end of the button hole (so you don't slice straight through the end) and open the button hole using a quick unpick and a small pair of scissors, being really careful not to cut through any of the little zigzag stitches.

5.  Cut the blue floral fabric to fit the back of the cushion, remembering to leave plenty of room for overlap of the two backing fabrics, plus a little extra for hem.  I left approx 8-10cm overlap between the blue fabric and scallop edging, as I don't want my cushion billowing open.  This overlap is especially important if you're omitting the buttons and just doing a basic envelope opening on the cushion.

6.  Change the sewing machine threads back to cream.  Press and hem the blue floral fabric.  I ran two rows of stitching along the hem.

 

 

7.  Place all three pieces of fabric together, fronts facing inwards.  ***Make sure your blue fabric is on top of your scallop fabric so that when you turn it inside out, your scallop will sit on top of your blue fabric!*** Pin in place, draw out your square shape for your cushion, making sure you leave at least a 1cm seam allowance.  Run a straight stitch around your cushion. 

 

8.  Remove pins and turn right way around to check its all OK (as its easier to adjust/ unpick at this point) before turning back and reinforcing the stitches with a row of zigzag stitches.  Trim any extra material and clip the corners.  Keep all of the offcuts, we can use these for another project!

 

 

 

9.  Turn the cushion right way around.  Open the button holes and make a little mark in the centre of each, onto the blue floral fabric.

 

 

 

10.  Use the pink contrasting thread to hand sew the buttons into place.

 

*You could leave it here and use the button side as the front of the cushion.  I however wanted to add a bow to the other side of the cushion and use that as the front, as I find buttons can be a little uncomfortable to sit against. 

 

 

11.  Add bow detail to cushion front using ladder stitch and cream thread. 

 

*I will do a separate How To, for the bow as this is becoming quite a lengthy tutorial.  The bow is so quick and simple, you will want to be adding bows to everything!

 

12.  Make custom sized filling for your cushion from recycled cushion stuffing and an old pillowcase.

 

 

TaaDaah!!!!  A questionably fussy, frumpy, frilly lace piece, turned into a sophisticated and smart little cushion, all in an afternoon!  I love the pale blue and cream with just a pop of yellow peaking out from behind, and think that it ties in nicely with my ongoing colour scheme.  Please children don't jump on my tiny pretty pillow!

 

I hope this gives you a little inspiration for what to do with some of those lace pieces you might have been collecting.  Happy sunny Sunday to you all! :o)

Pretty as a picture!

Since we moved house earlier in the year, I've found that we have this wonderful thing called wall space.  This is the first house that I have lived in that actually has room to hang more than one picture in each room.  So now I have the little task of filling my walls with beautiful things.  I've been working on two little pictures.

 

 

This first one I've had sat in a box for a long time.  I actually rescued it from the dustbin.  If you see a pair of legs sticking out of a wheelie bin, just Holla!  I just loved the little hot air balloon  The little caption at the bottom says, "THE FLIGHT OF CHARLES LACQUEHAY - 1802 PARIS."  I've always thought that the frame was a bit odd looking (its pine with no glass.)  Pine makes me feel a little sad.  It looks so lovely when its new, but after a few years it goes all funny and orange!

 

 

...So I've given it a fresh coat of cream paint.  Homebase Classic Cream, quick dry satin to be exact.  Lots of things in my house have been painted with this, firstly because if it was a colour I would probably get bored with it and have to repaint, yawn!  Also it goes with lots more stuff.  Lastly I figured that Classic Cream, being so classic and all, will hopefully never get discontinued.  So, I should have a lovely supply of cream paint for many years to come! :o)  It looks lovely above my telly (my massive telly is however not so lovely!) Every time something comes on I don't like, I can just gaze dreamily at my little balloon picture.

 

My second project was a deep picture frame, which had also been sat in a box for many moons.  Enter 3D items, HOORAY!

 

 

This one also got a new coat of cream paint.  I've filled it mostly with items that I picked up from last weekends carbooty!  (I picked up a little basket crammed with sewing bits and bobs for £2.)  With the exception of the tape measure that I've had for forever, which is really worn and part missing between zero and one inch measurements.  Not particularly useful, so in it went!  The doily I picked up a couple of months ago and have been wondering what to do with it as it is too three dimensional to put behind glass and far too delicate to sew onto a cushion.  If I sneezed, it may disintegrate!  Also the backing fabric is a fat quarter from my stash.

 

 

So first of all, holding my breath I pressed both the fabric and the little doily.  No sneezing!  I put the fabric in an embroidery hoop and carefully pinned and then sewed the doily into place using matching thread.  I then taped the fabric to the back part of the frame using brown picture framing tape, making sure that the corners were neatly folded.  I then mocked up a good composition for my haberdashery items and glue gunned them into place.  Put the back onto the frame and secured all with a little more brown tape!

Carbooty finds!

Firstly I would like to apologise for being absent without leave for the last few of weeks.  Its been a combination of feeling really run down with a mouth full of ulcers for two weeks solid, a bad back and trying really hard to get some of our house painted (that needs doing from top to bottom,) that has left me with little energy or enthusiasm for blogging of recent.  I have still been around, and have still been silently making away.  So now I am feeling much better (excluding the sore back,) lets get this blog ticking over and have a little catch up!

 

At the weekend I had my sister @LovelyThings2 come to visit from Sheffield and we spent much of the weekend rooting around at three carboot sales.  We almost got blown away at the last one as it was so gusty, and came home with what looked like a lovely light spring tan... on closer inspection it was a peppering of dusty carboot earth, lovely! 

I have a terrible habit of putting the brakes on any spending, as its hard just making ends meet these days.  Buying anything that is not for my family to eat goes against all of my instincts, but seeing as it was all second hand and all dirt cheap, I feel slightly less guilty.  Here are some of my thrifty finds:

 

 

The two large pieces of material (top left) are a thin sheet (blue and white) and curtain made from thicker material.  They were only 10p each!  I'm sure they will come in handy for a project somewhere down the line, even if its just to make a tent in the summer time for my daughter.  Where can you buy anything for 10p these days?!  The piece of fabric at the bottom left is an embroidered table cloth in excellent condition for £1.  The book, "Stumpwork," by Kay Dennis was also only £1 and is full of lots of photos and techniques for wonderful raised embroidery designs.  Ideas and techniques that go far beyond anything I could have possibly dreamed up!  I have the machine embroidery book from this series and was so happy to find it at a bargain price.  I can't wait to try out some new techniques!

 

Top right is a lemon juicer for 20p.  I have been looking out for one of these for ages.  Its one of those items that will get used rarely, but do you know how hard it is to get juice out of a citrus fruit without one of these little bad boys?!  Also a tiny lidded metal saucepan 20p, for my little girl, "mummy making porridge," too cute!

 

 

Random Coleman's Mustard powder shaker for 50p. Apparently it is "Fit for a King" and "Used in the Royal kitchens."

 

 

Teapot shaped tea infuser, like new for 50p.  So dinky, just had to have it!  Two miniature houses and what looks like a chapel all for 60p.  Looking quaint on my mantle piece right now :o) Two pieces of crochet lace for 30p.

 

A greeny teal knitted cardigan for the grand sum of £1.  Looks like its never seen any wear.  Its acrylic, which is ideal for me as my skin is sensitive and anything with even a whiff of wool in sends me into an insane itch!  I can't find any labels inside and from the general shape and how the buttons are attached I would say its been lovingly handmade by someone.  I feel funny whenever I see handmade things going second hand.  Someones put so many hours of love into making this cardigan.  I see this as a rescued item and I'm sure I will wear it to death.  I only wish that the other dark turquoise cardigan with it had been a little smaller as I would have snapped that up too!

 

 

Here is a little close up.  Its a greeny flecked with turquoise kind of wool.  Not sure what stitch it is as I can't knit.  I will learn one day, I WILL!  May have to switch the buttons for something a little more jazzy tho, as brown is totally not my favourite colour.

 

 

Last but not least this little lot was in a basket along with some other junk for £2.  The stall holder was practically throwing this at me at the gusty dusty carboot, as everyone was seeking shelter and packing up for home.  I can't believe this was still sat there at the end of the carboot.  I'm in Norfolk UK, if I lived in a more creative area this would have totally been snapped up by some eagle eyes!  It also came with a large doily on top, which I unfortunately can't show you (along with a bunch of other doilies I picked up on another stall,) cos they're in the sink having a little hand wash. 

 

 

I'm glad I didn't go in all guns blazing, as the basket was also full of lots of metal pins and also a bare naked razor blade.  Eek!  I think the owner of the sewing kit was using it to cut cottons instead of scissors... that is real make do and mend there!

 

Really chuffed with all my little finds, hope you had a lovely weekend too :o)