comfortstitching

oval box bag tutorial

Just because you all asked so nicely on the last post, I decided there was no way I couldn't write this tutorial up for you :)  This project is VERY straightforward, there may be curves but you CAN handle this (trust me).

Without further ado, may I present to you my...

 

Oval Box Bag Tutorial

You will need -

1 FQ main fabric (blue hexagon fabric)

1 FQ lining fabric (white cross stitch dot fabric)

1 FQ size piece of stiff iron on interfacing

14" zipper

Fabric scissors, paper scissors, lots of pins

A paper copy of the templates (below) - VERY IMPORTANT make sure your printer is set to 'Do Not Scale'

Download Oval box bag templates

Cutting Instructions

Print off a copy of the templates  and cut them out.

Using the oval template - cut 2 from main fabric, 2 from lining fabric and 2 from interfacing

Using handle template - cut 2 from main fabric, 1 from interfacing

For the pouch sides, cut 17 1/2" x 3" strips - 1 from main fabric, 1 from lining, 1 from interfacing

For zip tab, cut 1 1/2" x 4" strips - 1 from main fabric, 1 from lining fabric

 

Fuse interfacing onto the the back of the 2 main fabric oval pieces, the main fabric side strip and one of the main fabric handle pieces.

All seam allowances are 1/4" unless otherwise stated

1.  Place the two handle pieces right sides together and sew along the two straight edges, turn right side out and press.

2.  Place along centre of the top oval and baste the two short side edges of the handle in place with a few stitches.

3.  Take both zip tab pieces and turn each of the short ends over by 1/4" and press.  Turn each short end over by 1/4" again and press.

4.  Lay zip top end of zipper onto the wrong side of the lining zip tab.

5.  Place main fabric zip tab on top and pin in place.

6.  Attatch zipper foot to your sewing machine and sew together 1/8" away from the folded edge of the zip tab

7.  Bring the end of the zipper around to form an oval shape, tucking it into the opposite end of the zip tab pieces.  Pin and sew together as before using an 1/8" seam allowance from the folded edge.

8.  Fold all the following pieces in half lengthways to crease guidemarks and open out again - main and lining side strips and all 4 oval pieces.

9.  Fold main fabric side strip in half lengthways with right sides facing and sew the short raw edges together.  Repeat witht the lining side strip.  Press seam allowances open.

10.  Fold your zipper in half lengthways and mark on the front and back edges with a pencil.

11.  Place zipper so the wrong side of it is facing outwards and the zipper end is on the left inside.

12.  Place the main fabric side strip inside the oval formed by the zipper,  aligning the centre crease in the side strip (made in step 8) and the pencil marks on the zipper.  Make sure your zipper end is still on the left inside.

13.  Pin side strip to zipper as shown.

14.  This is what the view looks like from the back.

15.  Hand or machine baste the zipper to the side strip, 1/8" from the raw edge.

16.  Pin lining side strip over the wrong side of the zipper (the right sides of the main and lining fabrics should be facing).  Pin all around the top edge.

17.  Sew top edges together.  If possible remove part of your machine arm out of the way so you can easily sew these together as in photo above.

18.  Flip right way out and press.

19.  Turn the side piece inside out, take your top main fabric oval (the one with the handle) and

flip over so wrong side is facing up.  Pin the centre crease of the oval (made in step 8) to the centre crease in the side strip.

20.  Pin all around joining the zipper to the top oval.

21.  Sew together the oval and the zipper edge.

22.  Place upside down so the raw edge of the side strip is facing up.  VERY IMPORTANT - make sure you open your zipper a couple of inches.

23.  Tuck the raw edges inwards, scrunching them up in the centre.

24.  Pin one of your lining ovals on top, wrong side facing up and matching the centre marks of the oval and the zipper edge.

25.  Pin the oval and zipper edges together all around.

26.  Make sure you leave an opening of 2 inches where the open zipper is.

27.  Sew all around to join the edges together, leaving a gap at ther zipper end opening.  Make sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of the seam to secure.

28.  Turn right side out. pin and hand sew opening closed tucking the raw edge under.

29. Turn pouch upside down.  Matching the central crease on the side strip and the remaining oval lining, pin in place together as shown.

30.  Sew together using a scant 1/4" seam.

31.  Matching the creases, pin the bottom main fabric oval to the bottom edge of the side strip, right sides together.

32.  Turn pouch right way up and scrunch the side and top edges into the centre, encasing them between the right sides of the bottom main and lining ovals.  Match the opposite edge of the centre crease on the oval to the seam line joining the side strip and pin in place.

33.  Pin all around, leaving a 2" gap at the back of the pouch bottom.  Sew all around the pinned edge, leaving the gap open and backstitching at the beginning and end of the seam.

34.  Turn right side out and hand sew the opening closed.

35.  Hurrayyyyyyyy!   You have finished your oval box pouch.  Pat yourself on the back, have a drink and maybe enjoy yourself a little dance.

Then maybe make a couple more ;)  They get easy after the first one I promise.

So the only question that remains is  What fabric are you going to use???????????????????????

Please make one/some/lots and upload them to my flickr group so I can see :)

petal ring pillow tutorial

Firstly, I'd like to say a great big huge version of Thank You to all of you who responded to my request on the last post.  I really enjoyed reading all of your stories and finding out more about you, my cup was filled many times over and is still being refilled, my kettle has never been so busy.

So what's a thank you without a little something back from me to you?  As I've just finished up a second petal project in the form of the pillow above, I thought I'd do something that I haven't done in a while - write up a new tutorial, lets just hope I remember how.

May I present to you my Petal ring pillow tutorial.

This tutorial will show you how to make paper pieced petals and applique them onto a square of fabric.  The appliqued square can be used as a quilt block or made up into a pillow, table runner what ever takes your fancy frankly.

 

You will need :-

An 18" square of fabric

fabric scraps to make the petals

paper to make the piecing templates

plus - needle, thread, pins, spray starch

You will also need a copy of the template sheet which you can download using the link below - print 2 copies to make each block/pillow (note. two copies will give you two extra petals more than you will need)

Download Petals by aneela hoey

 

1.  Cut out 24 paper petals.  Pin a paper petal onto the wrong side of a fabric scrap.

2.  Cut the excess fabric so that the fabric petal is 1/4" larger than the paper one all around.

3. Turn the excess fabric edge over onto the paper template and baste in place (see middle petal above).

4.  Continue with remaining templates until you have 24 paper pieced fabric petals.

5.  Give your petals a spritz of spray starch and then press.  The starch is important to keep those pressed edges nicely creased until they are safely appliqued in place.

6.  Before I talk about how to put together this design let me just go through the appliquing bit.  Remove your basting stitches and the paper template (please note - for some reason this was not done when taking the pic above so please pretend those basting stitches are not there).  

7.  Pin the fabric petal in place.  Make a few little stitches one on top of the other under where the fabric petal will hide them to secure your thread . 

8.  Bring your needle and thread out just above the folded edge of the petal and make a tiny stitch to exit just below the folded edge into the background fabric.

9.  Make another stitch about 1/8" along the folded edge and continue until petal is stitched in place all around the petal edge.

To make the ring design above -

10.  Fold fabric in half vertically and crease with the palm of your hand all along the folded edge.

11.  Fold it again, horizontally this time and crease again.  When you open out the fabric, it should be separated into 4 quadrants by the creases.

12.  Refer to the picture above when pinning the petals.  At the centre, pin one petal in each quadrant so that they form a ring.  Applique into place (see steps 6-9 above).

13.  For the second ring, pin two petals in each quadrant to form a ring of eight petals in total and applique into place.

14.  For the final ring, Pin three petals in each quadrant to form a ring of 12 petals and applique into place.

And when you have finished that you will have one petal ringed square of the design above to use as you wish :)

The block finishes at 18" square or alternatively you can change the size of the background fabric as you wish to suit yourselves.  For reference the largest petal ring finishes at 13" square so any size larger than that is suitable.

I turned my block into a 17" square cushion cover.  I'm going to give super quick instructions here but please use any method you are used to.

To make a folded back opening - I used two pieces of fabric 22" x 18".  I folded them in half to measure 11" x 18" and pressed them.  

Next I topstitched them 1" away from the folded 18" edge.

To make the cover - I placed the pillow front right side up, then placed the two back pieces on top so that they overlapped at the center and were aligned all around the edge with the pillow front.  After pinning the pieces together and basting I stitched the cover using a 1/2" seam allowance all around the outer edge.  Turned it right side out and dressed up my pillow in it. 

If you use this tutorial I would love to see your pillows turn up in my Flickr group here.  You can also add anything you make from my fabrics, patterns or tutes here or just have a browse around to see what everyone else is up to!

Have fun!!!!!

Christmas to do box

This is the Christmas to do box I showed you at the bottom of yesterday's post.  It contains a selection of seasonal coloured fabrics picked from my stash to provide a quick go-to capsule collection for quicker project making/less time faffing about choosing fabric.

The contents are a few choice 'lead' prints plus lots of fun geometrics in a palette of red, green and blue.

When a project idea 'strikes', I go to the box, grab the fabric swiftly then chop it up deftly (but not too deftly) until a pile of magic fabric squares emerges before my very eyes.

A little arrangement time takes place.

Then fabrics are stitched together into one big piece of...............fabric.

I cut a piece of backing slightly bigger than the patchwork, then pin the two, right sides together.

like this,

Then stitch all around the outside edge, leaving a 10" gap at one edge. Trim the excess from the backing fabric then turn inside out, press and stitch the gap shut.

Top stitch all around the outside edge (for extra tidy looking durability).

And have a patchwork Ta Da!!! moment.

A pretty little seasonal table dressing to remind the girls what season we are in (just in case they forget whilst sleeping).

Tune in for more seasonal dressing up and trimming looks for you tomorrow :)

no excuse not to be busy

Three reasons that mean you have no excuse to be busy this week,

I have finally got around to making up a pattern for my girl on a bicycle embroidery.  This pattern originally appeared in the July 2010 issue of UK magazine SewHip.  You can find the pattern here.

If however you like your patterns to be of the free kind, you just might be interested in taking a look at my tutorial for making a zig zaggy blanket like the one below.  This tute has now been re-added to my tutorials page.

Finally, I'm also adding the pdf for making this cutie little pillow.  This project was dreamed up and made by the awesome-ly skilled hands of Debbie Duckworth at Moda, based on my embroidery of the girl from my round and round pattern.  The pillow is an excellent way to use up a handful of 2 1/2" squares.  

 

With Christmas creeping up around the corner (can you see it already, sneakily hiding right behind Halloween???) you just might know the perfect little girl who would appreciate one of these decorating her bed??????

Download Little apples pillow

There you go, three perfect reasons not to have an excuse to not be busy!

moda country fair

Welcome to my day of the Moda Country Fair blog hop!  For this stop on the hop, you find yourself in good old England, so won't you come in and join me for a cup of tea? (trust me you'll need it to get through this post).

My name is Aneela Hoey and I've been designing fabric for Moda for around a year now.  I live in the UK with my husband and two daughters about a stone's throw from the Queen's home (we share a postcode but things aren't quite so posh around here).

detail from my 'Fancy' quilt

My newest collection 'Little Apples' has just been released, I love the way the prints in this group turned out - this is fall mixed with a big heap of sugar filled fun.

I love to sew for my home....

as well as making the odd quilt, these blocks are for a new crazy scrappy quilt (there's a tute here).

On with the hop...

My favourite fair food? - At one of our local country fairs, they have a WI (women's institute) tearoom with homemade cakes, the lovely elderly ladies are quite slow in serving because they are always too busy chatting to their boyfriends! but I don't mind because 'homemade' cake and proper tea are my favourite things and worth the wait.

What's your guilty pleasure? - I probably have pleasures that I should feel guilty about (eating cream cakes when the girls are at school, reading blogs when I should be washing the dishes...) BUT I have to be honest and say the only thing I'm guilty of is not actually feeling guilty about them.

What's on your bucket list? - I would love to live in Italy, to be able to speak italian and learn to cook like an italian, I have no idea why but there is a hidden italian in me waiting to jump out!

What inspires your work? - Definitely children, mostly my daughters but also children's books and films (coraline, fantastic mr fox, alice in wonderland...) too.

 

My hop tute - A Quilted Tissue Box Cover

Make one of these and approach your next winter cold in style!

You will need -

A 15" x 10" piece of double face/ready quilted fabric (alternatively use two 15" x 10" pieces of regular fabric and a piece of batting the same size, sandwich together, quilt and you're ready to go).

A 55" strip of 2 1/2" wide double fold binding.

Cutting

From the double face fabric, cut -

Two - 9 1/2" x 5" pieces

Two - 4 3/4" x 3 1/4" pieces

 

From the binding strip, cut -

Four - 9 1/2" long pieces

Two - 4 3/4" long pieces

Instructions

Use 1/4" seam allowance throughout

1. Take one of the long quilted fabric pieces and two of the long strips.  Align the strips to the top and bottom edges of the fabric (matching the raw edges of the binding to the raw edge of the quilted fabric).  Sew binding to fabric.

2. Fold binding over to the wrong side of the quilted fabric and slip stitch in place at the back.

3. Repeat with second long quilted piece and remaining two long binding strips.

3. Place the two pieces one above the other.  Join the bottom edge of the top piece to the top edge of the bottom piece by slip stitching the first 2 3/4" on the left and right sides together (see detail pic below).

This will leave an unstitched central 'mouth' or opening.

4. Machine stitch a short binding piece to the bottom of each of the two small quilted fabric pieces.  Slip stitch the folded over binding to the back of each piece.

5. Fold one of the small quilted pieces in half widthways.  Position pieces as above, aligning the newly made 'crease' on the small fabric piece with the central opening on the large joined piece.

6. Flip the small piece over onto the large piece and pin the pieces with right sides together.  Stitch along the bottom (raw) edge of the small piece, starting and stopping 1/4" from each of the side edges (see pic above).

7. Repeat on the opposite side of the large piece with the second small quilted piece.

Your cover should now look like this from the wrong side.

8. Bring together each of the two raw edges at right angles to each other and stitch together to make each corner.

This is what your cover should look like wrong side out.....

And this is what it should look like when you turn it out!

Yaaay !  roll on winter sniffles!!!

(If you happen to make one of these please add it to my flickr group so I can see).

 

so, I hope you've made it this far, I really do because...

there's a bundle of fabric right here,

A whole FAT QUARTER set of Little Apples no less that is looking for a new home....

Do you want it to come and live with you?????????????????

If you fancy your chances at winning - just leave me a comment below, letting me what YOUR guilty pleasure is (you know how bad I was at answering this question so I need some idea's on how to get guilty). 

I'll draw a winner in a week or so....

Best of luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't forget to continue with the hop tommorow with Barbara Brackman.

Comments are now closed.

party lemonade

Thank you for all of your comments on the last post, I am so intrigued by all of those combo's that sound as if they shouldn't work but hit the spot.

I'll be making up a list of one's I need to try because none of it sounded too yukky to give it a go at least once..

As promised, I'm passing on a family ritual - the way we drank lemonade when I was younger, I don't know where my parents got the idea from.  One reason I felt like doing so is that I have never heard of anyone else doing this, I would love to hear from you if,

a) You did this also

b) You have a similar drinks themed ritual to share

ETA: Thank you to Debra and Joanna for letting me know, when I talk about lemonade I'm talking 7UP or Sprite type drinks i.e. the carbonated stuff.

 

Party Lemonade

1.  Pour a glass of lemonade about half to three quarters full.

2.  Add a dash of salt (we use ordinary table salt), the drink will fizz up and start to make a dash for the top of your cup..

3.  You need to move quick and drink before the cup overflows, the rule was you also had to finish the drink before it stopped fizzing.

It's extra fun if you are laughing too hard whilst adding the salt, so you add too much and get a pic of your child suddenly realizing that fact.

Sllluuuurrrrppppppppppppppppppp!!!

Go on - try it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

crazy scrappy block tutorial and a maybe quilt a long

Last week I decided I needed to start something new to keep my overflowing scrap box in order and there would no better way to do it than to start another crazy scrappy quilt.

I first started making these blocks here and here then wrote up a pattern for the first ever issue of Fat Quarterly - a version with a single gigantic block called the Bedtme story quilt.

The best thing about this quilt is it uses up all types of scrap shapes from squares to strips to triangles. No scrap is too scrappy for this quilt!

This time I'm hoping to make a much larger version with at least 20 - 30 blocks (that's how bad the scrap sitch is).

What I want to know is, do you want to join me????????

Below is the tute for making the basic block, along with a button if you care to wear it on your blog.  As an added incentive for you to get scrapping with me, I'll be holding a yummy-super-scraptastic giveaway!!!!!!!!! in a few weeks time open to all who are participating.

 

Crazy Scrappy block tute

 

For my quilt, I'll be making 11" blocks with each block using shades of one colour only, so if you want to do the same first sort your scraps according to colour.

To make your block, select a fabric for the centre, this piece needs to have 5 sides, so slice off a couple of corners if necessary.

Starting with any side you please, find a scrap that measures slightly longer than the side and stitch the two pieces together.  

We will be working around the block clockwise, so trim the excess from the next edge along in that direction, in the above case this is the bottom edge.

Continue working around clockwise in a log cabin kind of style, trimming and adding as you go.  I press my seams open after each addition to keep things as flat and neat as possible.

To stop your corners becoming too square as you go round, occasionally chop them off.  This keeps everything nice and vortex like which is what makes this block look different to the log cabin style.

It's also good to throw in pieced strips now and again, this will up the scrapilisciousness as well as bust down that scrap pile.

An 11" square ruler (if such a thing exists) would be great here but I don't have one, so I just keep going until my block is at least 11" square all around and then trim.

When you have finished your block, make another!

Then another!

I promise these are very addictive!

So the question is,

care to join me????

Button Code

<p><a style="display: inline;" href="http://comfortstitching.typepad.co.uk/comfortstitching/2011/04/crazy-scrappy-block-tutorial-and-a-maybe-quilt-a-long.html" target="_blank"><img style="width: 200px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Button" src="http://comfortstitching.typepad.co.uk/.a/6a010536fd6c85970c014e87663b14970d-200wi" alt="Button" /></a></p>

a weekend project ~ strawberry split table runner

In the form of a free sewing project for you!

I have been putting a bit of spring into my living room decor by discovering the heady world of making table runners.  Quick, easy and perfect for injecting a bit of seasonal splendour (without the rain bit) into your home.

Having become a bit of a convert/table runner making factory, I have been stitching up a forthcoming storm of them, so expect more in terms of dresses for tables from now on.

It all started with this 'Strawberry Fields' charm pack by Joanna Figueroa for Moda, perfectly reminiscent of salmon and cucumber sandwiches and strawberries and cream on lazy summer picnics (there's precuts on sale here).  

So if you fancy dressing up your own table with a little spring love... 

I've got the perfect weekend project for you here,

Download Strawberry Split Table Runner by aneela hoey

Have fun but please don't blame me if you suddenly procur a taste for teatime scones with strawberry jam and iced mint tea.  

Talking of which, I had better switch the oven on...

Have a great weekend!!!

DIY fabric transfers tutorial

 
As requested, here is the tutorial if you fancy giving this technique a go.

To make your own fabric transfers, you will need some TAP paper.  TAP stands for Transfer Artist Paper, it comes in A4 sheets and allows you to transfer drawn or inkjet printed images onto fabric.  You can actually use it to transfer images to pretty much any surface including glass, metal or wood but here I am talking about what I know which is transferring to fabric.

This is what the paper looks like.  From left - back of TAP paper, Front of TAP paper, silicone release paper (this came with the paper and is used for protecting your fabric from the heat of the iron).

To make your own fabric transfers, just draw your images onto the white side of the paper.  Do not press down too hard with your colours or you will scratch into the coating.  

Here are the pens I used to make the images - ordinary kids felt pens (these are washable colours) and fine liners (which are permanant pigment ink markers).

I then cut out all the images I want to use with a thin border around the image (as above).

With a hot iron, place one of the cut out images drawn side down onto fabric, cover with the silicone release paper (to protect fabric from being scorched by the hot iron) and press down for about 10 - 20 seconds.  I find you can happily move your iron across the images as you press, the cut outs stay in position and do not move.

Carefully turn up the corner of the cut out and if it removes easily, it's done.  If it is still tacky and doesn't come away easily, press a little more.

After transferring, I washed the fabric in a bowl with a small amount of washing powder and hand hot water.  I squeezed and scrunched up the fabric as I washed for a couple of minutes.  I then rinsed it and ironed it with a hot iron.  I ironed right over the transfered images without the silicone paper.  The pictures above and below show the fabric after washing and ironing.  I am pretty impressed, particularly as the felt pens I used were washable!!

So, I can see lots of potential in this technique, particulary with decorating kids t-shirts and clothes, mixing the technique with embroidery and applique for fun little pieces and for making labels for quilts (any writing would need to be written back to front, so it appears the right way round after transferring).

What do you think?  Is this something you can see yourself trying?

Let me know if you have any questions, I can answer them in the comments below.

Finished pickledish quilt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YES! Finished finished FINISHED!!!!!!!!

And I thought this one would take me a year.

In practise, as with all quilt patterns, I became completely gripped with a need to see this one finished.  So everything else piled up whilst I ignored the chores, burned several dinners (my husband is getting used to the taste of cremated food now), let a few layers of dust settle and put it together.

The pattern for this quilt can be found here.

This one is 80" square, so required 16 blocks (each block is 20 1/2"). For the sashing I used some Moda Bella Solid in Bleached White.  I have to admit to being pleasantly suprised with the softening effect the off-white colour the sashing gives it as I normally go for a whiter than white shade.

The binding is 'Square Dot' in Cherry from my 'Sherbet Pips'

The backing is made up of my 'Girl on a tree swing' print in grey and a stripe from 'City Weekend' by Oliver and S'.

As usual I stippled this quilt, which is a great choice for this pattern as it hides a multitude of slight wonkinesses in the piecing (there are many, my quilt tops very rarely lie flat)

Quilt is now living happily on my bed!

So, quiltwise what's next????

I was thinking of starting up another quilt a long in a few weeks and was wondering what I should go for this time???

Any thoughts/idea's/suggestions?????????????????