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)