comfortstitching

zip pouch tutorial

Just in case you might fancy snuggling up with a bit of stitching this weekend, here's a quick and easy tutorial to make a zip pouch that can be employed in so many different guises - to house your stitchy kit/make-up or as a kids pencil case for those with more pens than they can currently handle.  I chose to make my two a christmas pencil case each so they can while away the school day dreaming of snowier times.  I made a simple patchwork for the front but you could use just one fabric if you wish.

You will need:-

a cup of tea, thirsty work this.

2 pieces of fabric, 10"x5.5"each for the front and back pieces.

2 pieces of lining fabric, 10"x5.5"each.

10" zipper.

Basic sewing kit.

 

Take one of your lining pieces and lay it wrong side up, top with your front fabric piece. right side up.  It is a super sensible idea to sew the two together by stitching a line of stitches an eighth of an inch from the top edge.  I skipped this bit cause I'm lazy but I'd advise it. 

Fold over your top edge by a quarter of an inch.

 

Place this folded edge along one side of your zipper and sew in place using (super surprises) your zipper foot (or by hand if that pleases you).

Prepare the back piece and lining in the same way and sew this along the other side of the zipper, until it looks like this......

 

 

Fold in half with wrong side on the outside. 

VERY IMPORTANT!  Undo your zip a little or you won't be able to open it in a minute to turn it the right way around!!!!

 

If you have one attatch on overlocker /zipper foot to your machine.  You will need to stitch and overlock/zigzag a quarter of an inch all the way around the sides and bottom of your pouch.  My machine does this in one action but you could stitch your seam first and then go around again with the zigzag all around the side and bottom edges.

 

Your pouch will look sort of like this (if you used a plain lining and yellow zipper)

Matching snowman pincushion is optional.

 

Turn right side out.  Present to your offspring, who if they are anything like mine will say they are just putting it in the drawer until it's actually nearly christmas.

Now you've made one................ooh think of all the gifts you could make from this one turorial!!!

 

So what do you think???  good tutorial, bad ????  too easy?  too hard?  Just right in the middle!!

Let me know, I may have more up my sleeve!!!!!!!

Happy crafting!

 

I've been busy!!!   MOre sOon !!!!!

coral and emerald...................really?

 
You know me, stuck in my merry red and aqua rut, happy in my blissful ignorance of the rest of the rainbow when, I pull out of the airing cupboard these lovely seasonal cushion covers.  Made way back in ooh 2005 at a guess.  They got me thinking 'is the the weirdest colour combo ever or does it strangely work??...'. 

 
I've spent the last few days face-lifting these a little (they were always too big for their intended cushions) and pondering this thought.  I can't believe I'm saying this but I have quite a bit of of affection for this marraige of shades.  Maybe because it's odd, maybe because I am slightly influenced by my pot plants (see exhibit 1),

 

(this is a flaming katy by the way)
 

well if it works in nature, it's got to be a natural winner! (see exhibit 2).

 

 
Thoughts please??????

 

 
Drop by tommorow, if you fancy a little tute on something to make over the weekend, it takes less than an hour too!!!!!

boy!!!!!!!!!!!!! spoonflower fabrics

 
When I showcased my 'skip-ity' fabric a few weeks ago, a couple of you requested I design some boy fabrics.  Jo (bellsjo) particularly requested something along the lines of 'Slugs and snails and puppy dogs tails, which is all very well until you have a go and then realise how hard it is to come up with a fabric that is not too gory (which little boys would love but mum's, well wouldn't).  So here is my fabric interpretation of the rhyme...............I hope it appeals to mums and sons alike.

 
Poor pup!!!

 
For my second design, I went for that old boy-ish chesnut...........cars!!!  but decided to take a different road to the usual.  I've gone for the young boy as wannabe inventor, as that to me is boy-ish-ness in a nutshell.  Boys are always intrigued by the workings of anything and fascinated by designing their own supercars from a young age, that is what this one is all about.  So mum's of sons, as a mum to two girlies, have I got the boy thing wrong or right??!!!  I am intrigued to find how this goes!!!!

Well you know where to go look!!!!

*******************************

 
As promised yesterday, a sort of little mini guide to hanging up your mini quilts if you are a hanging up without a clue novice like me!!!!

 
You'll need loops!!  I made mine from the drawstrings from some munki pj's.  Cut into 3"-ish lengths.  Form into a loop and carefully overlock/zigzag the edge. 

Stitch onto the back of the quilt as shown, one on each end of the top.  Voila!!  Instant hangability!!!!!

 
This is how I did it, I'm sure there are many many other ways!!!

OOOh did you notice...............no red or aqua in this post!!!!!

 

new spoonflower fabrics!!!

Well the new fabrics are already on their journey over to me!!!  So I suppose I had better reveal what's instore (or will be!).

Four new fabrics in total, I'm showcasing the two girly ones today and the boy-ey ones tommorow, though they are all already listed in the shop so go take a look if you really have to. 

First up in the original incarnation of the lovely belle.  'Belle the cloudbuster', with her stripy leggings, balloons and bobble hat is here to put your frowns to bed and send you to an altogether floatier, dreamier place, somewhere I would far rather be!!!  All belle's clouds have a silver lining............as all clouds should!! 

 Definately my very favourite bit!!!

 
Secondly I have gone for that old favourite, little red riding hood in 'little red runs very fast indeed!'.  She runs from the house, she runs from the tree's.  She relaxes whilst hiding behind another tree and hangs her cape out to dry!!!  Well, storybook character's have to do the laundry like everyone else you know;)

 
My favourite bit of this one, as it actually appears printed on fabric (a sample).

New fabrics will be here by the beginning of next week, pre-orders are now being taken, you know where!!!

**********************************

 
Fabric talk aside, I am actually proud to announce that I have managed to hang my collection of doll quilts so far, up for the girls in their bedroom.  There's my HR mini and the swap mini I got from Kim, together with the embroidered 'Belle' next to A's bed and my dqs7 mini from wendy together with a frog prince mini by me on C's side of the room.  I can't believe it's taken me this long!!

 
Tommorow I will add a close up pic of the hanging loops I made to get them to hang up but for now I will leave you with a pic of new fabrics bought from the lovely 'sewdeerlyloved' on etsy.  Those chickens are especially adorable!!

 

Remember, boy fabrics tommorow!!!

Belle the cloudbuster!

 
Introducing my newest baby, no night feeds or nappy changing for this creation:)  Belle was thought up whilst listerning to 'get off my cloud' by the rolling stones of all things when antiquebrowsingshelfhunting 2 sundays ago.  First she got turned into a new-coming-soon-I'm-so-excited-fabric-design, then I got bored waiting for that to arrive (oh spoonflower - why do you take so long!!!) and she got re-born in embroidery.  Asha keeps checking that she is going to live with us as little red riding hood is off course being sent away to live in her new home soon.

 
She has now been reborn again (nine lives style) in pdf format, in case any of you are as stitch crazy as me and long to re-create her in real live stitch.  Perfect for any little girl to dream along to!!!  Belle is exactly where I want to be, floating in the clouds with the helpful aides of colourful balloons wearing stripy leggings and a bobble hat!!

On the subject of new spoonflower designs, I have created a few new ones that should be arriving in a couple of weeks.  I was wondering..................would you like to see and pre-order designs sooner or would you rather wait until the actual fabric arrives and see them then??????   I am quite excited about them, there are a couple of boy ones too as requested by angela and jo.  Jo wanted me to do something along the lines of 'slugs and snails and puppy dogs tails' which I did without making it at all as gory as I first thought it would.

 
As it's nearly halloween, we've got our decs and witchy tales ready today.  'The Worst Witch' is one of my all time fave books and this is my original aroundabouts 30 year old copy, scribbled on by my little sis as a baby (she's 30 now!)

We will be enjoying the spookiness with a little candy corn love from the delightfullykindandnotspooky jenny (Thank you!!).

!!!!!!!!!!!Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cheery cherry on the volcano of duty

 
I honestly am not purposely intending to be around as little as I am.  The fleeting prescence is due simply to the otherwise quite possible eruption of the volcano of other more pressing duties - it could get quite messy if things aren't attended to.  You can guess to the nature of these duties, many involve the prefixes of tidy or sort.  I wont bore you with the gory details, you might fall asleep!! 

I have managed a little of something enjoyable in the form of the cheery cherry of the title, my little red embroidery is all but finished and was extremely pleasurable to complete right to the very last minute!!  So pleased with the result was I that I decided to delve in to the murky depths of the world known as PDF-ing (see last thursdays post).  This came with several nightmares which thankfully due to the magic wand known as asking for help in blogland are now all well and truly sorted out!!  Thank you to EVERYONE who contributed to that help - I have learned simply LOADS!!!!

 
So if you fancy creating your very own little cherry to cheer up your own volcano of duty, I have my personally instructionalized version with 2 sizes of miss red and a rundown of stitches I used in my version all ready to e-mail.  Available of course in my shoppy!!  And as it's neatly pdf-ed to you - no shipping!!!!

I have done a few crumbs of other bits........

 

hexing along nicely!!

 

more stitchy legs!

I asked last week if anyone had begun making anything from either of my christmas fabric designs and Jo was quick to show me her wonky stars for her christmas quilt, I LOVE it!!!!  Would love to see any more beginnings or ends out there!

aliens in the christmas tree and a nightmare of pdf

There are some things I am quite confidently good at.  You know when you are happily content in your blissful cocoon of ease at being able to do something you quite enjoy.  In this little box of smugness I would quite happily place sewing and blogging.  I am completely self taught in both these little large hobbies of mine and just find my way around quite easily now that I sort of know what I'm doing.  There are other things I would wish to be able to do better or maybe even be able to do at all.  In this pile, sitting quite shamefully on the top like a blemished cherry, I would probably place creating a pdf file (or rather Please Don't Frustrate yourself file).  This is what I have been trying to do all day thus far, in my usual style of 'try it and you will find a way eventually' as I don't have a clue but have a go anyway............I have got as far as being able to create one only it has to have just words or just pictures (just not both together!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).  

Is there anybody out there (???!) who can help me?????????????????????

any PDF tech-ie wizards???  completely computer-abled persons, I need you!!!

Oh well thank goodness I can sew! else I'd have nothing to show you!!!

 

I've turned my aliens in the christmas tree patchwork into another..............

 

as if you couldn't have guessed(!).......cushion!!!

 

And it will probably take me now until then to work out the PDF nightmare (and that is a very optomistic dream if ever there was one!!!).

Calling all purchasers of my spoonflower christmas fabrics!!!!!!!! - I would love to see anything you have made or started with my designs and add a few links on my blog so others can see what you are upto too!!!!!  Not that we are nosy you understand..........
 
 
 

 
 
 

are you sitting comfortably?

Here we are, a little later thanks to parent's evening but the blog must go on! 

I am enjoying chopping into my christmas fabric to address the lack of comforting holiday cushions, which I always remember to make each year, precisely when I have no time left to make any.  So this year obviously I am very well prepared having my own fabric on hand too!!!

 

This is the first one I've finished, nicely improv-ed style with added aliens and lobsters!!!!  as you do!!  and of course a sprinkling of my spoonflower fabrics.  Now I just have to make a few cushion-y friends!! 

 

The back is just a simple double flap.  The way I work out the width measurement for each half is, divide the width of the cushion by half then add six inches.  The edge of the flap is turned over by half an inch, ironed, then turned by one inch, ironed again and finally sewn in place.  Do this for both halves of the back.  Then lay your cushion front right side up on the table, top with your two overlapping back pieces both wrong side up as above.  Stitch in place, with a half inch seam allowance all around.   Oh so easy, go on have a go!!!!

Remember, many sale items still available, so stock up!!!!!!!!!  now.

  Thank you to julie for my fab blog award!!!

 

 

 

more cushion-y goodness soon!!!!
 

 

the broken home

 

Stitch...

stitch......

stitch.  The soundtrack rarely changes around here and today was  is  no exception.  These little nibbles are just to whet your appetite for next week, when the whole of the above should be cooked and ready to serve. 

In the meantime we could talk about....................shelves.

 Oh you know me................I like to be random...........Do you like shelves?  Is your husband a mr fix it??  On second thoughts maybe I shouldn't ask, as there is very possibly a high risk of more ceaseless unhappiness for me in the case of the broken home!!!  My home is pretty broken you see, as a matter of fact, I can't ever remember any such thing as a fully functioning version of this particular abode.  Let me show you just one case load.

Exhibit one : The (broken) bookshelf.

This bookshelf was once whole and bookshelf-y perfection.  It was bought to act as living room library and dispense my weighty tomes to me in seconds.  Alas the case of the ' husband must have the christmas tree in the corner' soon put an end to the happy relationship me and the bookshelf shared.  Husband = must move shelf.  Husband = can't be bothered to move any of the books off first.  Fully laden bookshelf is dragged across the room to accomodate the tree.  Several weeks after the merry season, it is noticed that there is a landslide where once perfectly straight and flat shelves once served.  See that third shelf.........frightful.  Husband of course blames this on the weight of wife's books and magazines because of course no one else buys weighty craft and cookery books and that is why a bookshop is rarely found on a high street and why amazon makes precisely no pence whatsoever, ever.  Wife put's up with misery of broken bookshelf for three years waiting for husband to own up to mistake even quietly and re-furbish this highly important centre-piece of the home.  In the meantime wife lays many books on their side to prop up the shelves and stop possible book shelf avalanche.  Wife still waiting.  Wife hatching many plans including quietly pointing out all the nice bookshelves people have in their homes on tv programs.

If only I could stitch my bookshelf better, things would have got better years ago.  Please tell me I am not alone.......................

and again, randomly moving on, for those of you who love fabric and especially fabric that is free and being given away!!!!!!  Please visit my friend Jenny's almost one week old blog! - Cut sew iron repeat.

more randomness (!) soon.....

 

october continues while autumn falls

It is that awful third week of the month time or as it is known in our house - many minutes of mummy moaning maudily.  Well it actually isn't but it should be and you can probably guess those rather feminine reasons why..............  So me, myself at this time of ache-y -o-rama drama, like to self prescribe myself a dose or two of hexagon-ing.  Should be stocked on the chemist shelves in my opinion as it is a proven remedy for a stroppy head-ache or six. 

Are you ready for another quilt????  Well settle down with a cup of something and a biscuit-y bite whilst I saunter my latest gift-to-be quilt, an autumn-ish quilt in a seventies disco style ( strictly the view of myself and not necessarily anybody else).

each block is individually improvised for maximum spontaniety assurance!!

lot's of colour, lot's of loudness and even more pattern!!!!!

The white is needed solely to calm the whole riot down!


 All blocks are created from scraps and slightly mis-behaved.

Can you tell I have developed a taste for mosaic maker?  I thought it might be a good idea to remind myself that the season we are in  is the one before the holiday one and while the leaves and the tempreture both tumble, plummet fall or cascade, I reasoned maybe so should the prices in my shop............there's nothing like a bit of unison in a season.  So take a look, visualize how these more attractively priced something's may look in a holiday stocking or two.............or else buy them for yourself, as something to get you through...........the seasons, the weather, the moaning, the shopping, the tantrum-ing and more.