living on the crafty side of life

christmas ideas [day 3] : christmas bunting, banners and garlands

The Christmas idea I'm sharing today is an almost no sew Christmas bunting. I say it's almost no sew as the flag parts of the bunting have no sewing whatsoever, and the only sewing involved in this project is stitching the flags to the ribbons.

To create each flag, choose two fabrics, one for the front and one for the back. Cut the fabrics slightly larger that the finished triangle. Fuse both pieces together with fusible webbing (the stuff used for applique work). Now cut the triangle flag shape from this double sided fabric. For something a little different, I used my pinking shears to cut the edges.

 

Once you have your desired number of flags made, pin them in place along a length of ribbon. I've used plain grosgrain from Ribbons Galore. I added a thinner ribbon to the middle of the first ribbon for some detail. I then stitched another piece of ribbon to the back of these front ribbons to hide the raw edges of the bunting flags. 

The fabrics I've used are from Michael Miller Fabrics, from the Christmas range including red, lime and green holiday ditzy, lime joyful damask and pink joy.

And here is it's final position for the festive season. Over our over-sided doorway at the end of our hallway. And I have to agree with Mel now, bunting is one of the hardest things to photograph.

Now please make sure you visit Mel's blog to see her gorgeous circular bunting that she has made, so very cute.

Here are a few favourite ideas for banners, garlands and buntings.

Mel has already mentioned this Christmas tree bunting in her post, but it was on my list of favourites, so I'm popping it on my blog too. This is from sadieandland blog. She has included a tutorial on her blog.

Shelley has shared a couple of gorgeous ideas for banners... the first one made from party plates...

... and the second one, made from page protectors...

This list at Whipup.net contains several clever garland and buntings which I won't repeat, just head over there and click through the list for lots of interesting ideas.

That's about all from me for now. Thanks for popping by.

Cheers

Fiona x
  

christmas ideas [day 1] : advent calendars

From now until Christmas Mel and I will be sharing some inspirational crafty Christmas projects and ideas. We'll be posting every Tuesday and Friday until Christmas.

In preparation for the silly season, I created a Christmas-y blog banner, just to get me in the festive mood.

Mel and I thought we'd start our festive ideas with a post about Advent Calendars. I wanted to find out a little about the history of the Advent Calendar. I knew it was a way of counting down the days to Christmas, but I wanted more.... Wikipedia to the rescue, this was one place that appeared in my search. A brief history can be found HERE.

Since having children I (and my girls) have a tradition of choosing a chocolate filled calendar from the supermarket. My girls love opening their calendars every morning through December. Its the only time of the year they are allowed to eat chocolate before breakfast!

And since having children I always had grand plans of making a calendar for each of them, something that would become a "long term" tradition. Last year I finally made two calendars. . I did share photos of these last year, but I didn't go into detail of how they were made, so here's a little more information (not a tutorial, but a few tips to making them).

Emily's Advent Calendar

 
I didn't measure any pieces of fabric for Emily's calendar. The larger background pieces (front and back) are the size of fat quarters. I did machine quilt fabric I used in this project, but you can leave this step out, or just use a light batting to give the calendar a little substance.

I created 4 large strips of fabric to go across the calendar background fabric. These were embellished with ribbons and rick rack. I sewed them to the front base piece only. I then sewed lines from top to bottom to create the smaller pockets. Six pockets were created across each of the four rows. The flowers and buttons were then added to the calendar.

 

Now is the time to consider how you would like to hang the calendar. I made some fabric tabs and sewed them to the top of the calendar, leaving the tabs facing inwards before finishing off the project.

The back of the calendar is sewn in place at the end... with the right side (pockets side) of the calendar and the right side of the back fabric together, sew around the edge, leaving a small hole to turn the calendar right side out. Stitch the hole closed.

And your calendar is ready to be filled with little treats. Now I didn't add number to this calendar, we used a little decorative peg last year to show the number, and moved it along to each pocket.

Phoebe's Stockings Advent Calendar

 
Phoebe and I made 24 quilted, fully lined stockings for her calendar. Phoebe did alot of the quilting herself. Now this seems alot of work, but set up a little production line to make the stockings and it's not such a huge task.

The stocking pattern I used was from Martha Stewart. Any stocking pattern can be used, just ad adjust the size to what you require. Martha Stewart's stocking template can be found HERE. Her original project was made using felt which was very cute. There are good instructions there for making the stockings.

Here's a few tips for making fabric stockings.... Cut out 48 stocking pieces (if making unlined stockings or using felt), cut out 96 stocking pieces if making lined stockings.

 
Fix 48 of these to a fusible webbing and quilt (only the outside stocking pieces were quilted, not the lining pieces). Below is a photo of the pieces once quilted, we quilted the whole wadding piece, not each individual stocking:

 
Cut out the stockings (from the wadding) and embellish with ribbon and rick rack across the top. I only sewed ribbon to the front piece of the stock not the back:

 

Sew the stockings together. I sewed a front (quilted) piece to a front lining, then back piece to back lining. Then right sides together and sewed around the whole edge, leaving a small hole in the lining (near the heel of the stocking) to turn the stocking to the right side. Stitch the hole closed and stuff the lining back inside the stocking. I hope that makes sense, if not ask any questions. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of that step.

 
Once finished, we pegged them up on string.

 
Now all I have to do is fill them all with goodies and we're ready to another year of our Christmas tradition.

I have found many more calendars on the web. Some favourite handmade advent calendars from other crafters are below. Please click on the links to visit their blogs and instructions to creating their calendars.

Cathe Holden's Simple Spool Advent Calendars:

 

Roxy Creations advent calendar:

Miss Gioia's Frankincense Advent uses buttons for the numbers:

Full Circle handmade advent:

Pink Chalk Studio's quilted advent:

And lastly, one great place for creative inspiration is Flickr, one group to look through is the Creative Advent Calendars group. So many ideas all in one place!

If you have a favourite advent calender idea, please share a link in the comments, I'd love to take a peek.

Thanks for visiting, see you on Friday for our next installment of our Crafty Christmas ideas.

Cheers

Fiona x

quilt top is finished...

here it is...

 

with my gorgeous Prints Charming fabrics.

 

I'll be sending it off to be quilted soon, so will show it again when that's finished.

I have one more lesson to go, and I'm making a couple of cusion covers from my left over materials.

Cheers

Fiona x

prints charming embroidery class

Last night Emily and I went to an embroidery class over at the Prints Charming studio at Annandale. We had a lovely evening stitching and chatting with a lovely group of ladies. Here's our stitching pieces in progress, we both need a little more stitching to finish off our pieces. I'm very pleased to say I have finally learnt how to sew french knots correctly.

 

Below is Emily's piece. Her chain stitch was so neat and even (as was all her stitching)...

 

Any my funky flower piece (which is actually a bindhi design). I came home last night and continued sewing while having my cuppa tea.

 

The little hand printed motifs used in the class can be seen/purchased HERE.

The girls at Prints Charming are holding some fabulous classes over the next few months. Join their mailing list to be kept up to date. I so happy as I've booked into one of their patchwork/quilting set of classes for next term, so looking forward to that.

Hope you have a good weekend. Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x

a phoebe for my phoebe

 

During one of my recent visits to the Central Coast (Phoebe's sports have been taking us far and wide of late) I managed to sneak away for a short time to visit Blueberries. [Yes, any opportunity to surround myself in crafty stuff when I should be watching sport I will take.] My goodness, Blueberries is such a beautiful store. I wish it was located closer to me with it's gorgeous selection of fabrics, although that could be very dangerous to my budgeting. I did buy a couple of Melly & Me softy patterns which I'd been wanting for a while now.

One pattern I bought is Phoebe the Elephant. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have this patten. It's very, very cute. I showed it to my Phoebe. I told her I'd make one for her birthday. I let her loose on my fabric stash. She picked out some blue fabric and I started making and stitching.

 

I quilted the little blanket and edged it with rick rack.

 

I usually hand sew little details, but I wanted to try using the blanket stitch on my sewing machine. I need to practice a bit more, but liked the machine stitched look.

 

Phoebe is a very cute elephant. And my Phoebe loves her.

 

Fabrics used (all from Hello Betty by Chloe's Closet for Moda Fabrics):

• Berry Blossom Blue

• Order Up Blue

• Order Up Yellow

Thanks for vising my blog.

Still no news on the release of Australian Homesewn magazine, will keep stalking the stores.

Cheers

Fiona x

australian homesewn

A little while ago I was thrilled to be asked by Mel Goodsell to create a project for a new publication, Australian Homesewn. Last week my copy arrived. It is just lovely, with so many sewing projects for kids, the home and of course, us girlies. Mel has created so many gorgeous projects for the magazine herself.

My brief was to create a stationery set with a matching pencil case, covered note book (which you can see on the cover, above) and a laptop bag. 

 

I wanted to make something colourful, so I used some fabric from one of my favourite fabric collections, Park Slope by Erin McMorris, and mixed it with some lime chenille

The covered note book was fun to make with a place for your pen on the cover.

 

The pencil case....

 

and the lap top bag...

 

One of my favourite little details on my sewing projects at the moment, fabric covered buttons.

There are full instructions for these three projects included in the magazine.

Australian Homesewn is published by Derwent Howard. I've emailed Mel to find out when it will be on sale. To be honest I haven't ventured out over the last week to see if it's in stores yet, but when I find out, I'll report back here.

And in other news... 18 months ago I had braces put on my teeth. A little know fact to most and something that has not been well documented in photographs. Well, tomorrow I'm having them removed. YEAH!!! They've done their job. I'm not sorry to see them go, to be honest, but I did get a little sentimental this afternoon that I didn't have much photographic evidence of their existence. So this afternoon I dragged Phoebe outside to have a photo. Yes, a self portrait taken with Phoebe's little digi camera, a quick snap shot, a little memory captured of this little stage of my life. Bring on tomorrow!

 

I seem to have lots of other little things to report on, but have been really busy with family life and birthdays and Ribbons Galore. So I will attempt to post some more little projects very soon.

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Fiona x

new ribbon pouches

New ribbons pouches/pencil cases/make up bags are now available at the Handmade store at Ribbons Galore.

Some pouches feature new German ribbons. This Babushka Dolls ribbon is just beautiful. 

 

Some pouches are decorated with some of my favourite Portuguese ribbons...

 Little Red Riding Hood ribbon.

 

 

And Flying Dolls ribbon.

 

 

There have also been some changes over at Ribbons Galore.

• I have replaced the Ribbons Galore blog with a WHAT'S NEW page, where I'll be adding news as it happens.

• The IDEAS GALLERY has been replaced with a new look gallery.

• I have also added a TESTIMONIALS page. I receive lovely feedback about the Ribbons Galore website and the ribbons, so I thought it time to give these a home.

While I'm giving a Ribbons Galore update, I have also created a Ribbons Galore group on Flickr. If you have a creation using ribbon from Ribbons Galore, please feel free to add it to the group. I'd love to see how you use Ribbons Galore's ribbon.

Thanks for visiting. Have a great weekend.

Cheers

Fiona x

Productivity update

School holidays are over, time for a crafty catch up.

Firstly I'm going back to before Easter. I did finish my other Easter basket for Emily in time for the Easter bunny. This was our last project from the Easter Egg-ceptional Egg-xtravaganza. Here's the finished product.

 

The cute birdie fabric used on the outside of the basket is manufactured by Timeless Treasures Fabrics. The only details I can find about this one is its code name on their website, it's mod-c4867-sorbet. The lining is another fabric from the same collection, but I can't find any details of it at the moment. That fabric has small hearts printed in matching colours.

And here are the baskets together on Easter morning.

 

I have been quite productive over the holiday break. We went up to Hawks Nest for a few days and seeing the weather forcast I didn't think we'd be spending much time outdoors, so I packed my sewing machine, fabrics and ribbons and settled in for a few days of sewing.

I have made a few changes to the Ribbons Galore site. One being a dedicated section for my new Handmade at Ribbons Galore goodies. And here is a batch of new pouches/pencil cases in the making, the result of my holiday sewing.

 

A few favourite designs are coming back.

Little Red ribbon pouch:

 

Snow White ribbon pouches:

And a few new designs...

The Snow White ribbon is now available in pink at Ribbons Galore. Here's the pouches in the making:

 

Tea Time ribbon pouches are coming soon too:

 

Golilocks ribbon pouch:

 

I have several new favourite ribbons which can all be found in the Fairly Tales and Fables collection at Ribbons Galore. One ribbon which I've loved using is the Babushka Dolls ribbon:

 

If you would like to pre-order any pouches before they are available at Handmade @ Ribbons Galore, please send me an email, info@ribbonsgalore.com.au and I can send some more details about the designs.

That's about all for now. Have a great week and thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x

 

Day 8 of the Egg-ceptional Egg-xtravaganza

Well here we are, our last day, day 8, of our Egg-ceptional Egg-xtravaganz.

I'm sharing some photos of a fabric Easter basket I've made for Phoebe. [I have a basket for Emily half sewn and will share photos of that one when I'm finished.]

The idea for the fabric basket came from Liesl's disdressed blog, where she made a very cute Easter fabric basket with bunny ears.

I've made a similar box style basket. The handles of my basket are semi-circles of fabric. I have quilted both fabrics (the outside and lining) to give the fabric extra body.

The finished basket measures about 20cm square, which gives a very generous space for the Easter bunny to fill with eggs on Easter morning.

 

 

I finished the top edge of the basket with rick rack.

 

I loved this cute fabric for the lining of the basket. It is a Japanese fabric by Sevenberry. The brown fabric for the outside is a Michael Miller fabric called Espresso Pod Ditz.

 

One of my blog readers, Julie, asked about the girls bunnies. We still have Bubbles and Butterscotch, they are nearly six years old, which I believe is "getting on" in bunny years. I admit to being a bit slack when it comes to taking photos of our little darlings lately (that's the bunnies, not the girls). So this afternoon in the fading light, I quickly took some photos of beautiful Bubbles.

 

Bubbles is still very cuddly and loves a snuggle.

 

Butterscotch was reluctant to leave the hutch this afternoon.... I will have to try one the weekend to take a better photo of her.

 

I'd like to thank everyone for visiting my blog during our Easter Egg-ceptional Egg-xtravaganza. Mel and I have chatted abouthow much we've enjoyed sharing our Easter ideas. We're hoping to bring you some more crafty ideas sometime soon.

Have a happy Easter.

Cheers

Fiona x

Day 6 of the Egg-ceptional Egg-xtravaganza

Hello and welcome to day 6 of our Egg-ceptional Egg-xtravaganza. Today Mel and I have made some EggIE softies.

Meet Egg-wina, Egg-ward and Egg-berta, the EggIE softies for Easter. If you go over and visit Mel's blog, you'll have the opportunity to meet Egg-na.

I designed this EggIE pattern recently and I'm very happy to share the pattern and step by step instructions below.

Download Fiona's EggIE SOFTIE (A4) or Download Fiona's EggIE SOFTIE (letter) (for the US letter paper size)

EggIE softie tutorial (a pictorial step by step)

Step 1: Download pattern.

 

Step 2: Fold fabric and pin pattern to both layers. Cut out the pattern.

 

You will now have two pieces of fabric. We'll think of each as one side of EggIE.

 

Step 3: Take one piece of the fabric and fold along the "side" line as marked on the pattern. Sew the "side" seams above and below this fold line. Repeat for other piece of fabric.

 

You now have the two sides of EggIE.

 

Step 4: Place one side inside the other, right sides together. You will be sewing the front seam only. Leave the back seam open at this stage.

 

Turn EggIE right side out, so you can work on the eyes, etc.

 

Step 5: Cut two eye pieces. I used felt.

 

Position the eyes on EggIE and pin in place.

 

Sew eyes in position. I used a blanket stitch around the eye pieces.

This is the stage you can sew some ribbon around the EggIE. [All Easter eggs need a bow or decoration, including EggIE]. It is easier to sew the ribbon around the Eggie before we close the back.

Sew on some extra decorations if you would like.

 

Step 6: Turn EggIE wrong side out and matching the back seam, sew along the back seam, leaving a small gap for turning and filling.

 

Turn EggIE right side out and stuff. When you have finished stuffing, hand sew the opening closed.

 

You should now have a finished EggIE happily sitting with you.

 

The fabrics I have used to make my EggIEs are from the Charm Bracelet fabric collection by Windham Fabrics. The colours and patterns in this collection are perfect for Easter fabric projects. Ribbons are from Ribbons Galore. I have made the felted flower and circle pieces using the Clover felting gadget. I have also made my own buttons, covering self-cover buttons with fabric.

I'd love to see any EggIE relatives that may be created. Leave a link to your EggIE image in the comments field so I (and all readers) can pay him or her a visit.

Thanks for dropping by again. We've received some lovely comments and emails, so thank you for those as well.

I have been asked a few times about the Clover pom-pom makers I used in the previous post. I think Spotlight has had them, Mel has mentioned Big W has also sold them. I haven't had a chance to find them online yet, but I will do that later today.

We'll see you on Friday Monday for the next day of our Easter crafting ideas.

Edited: We've both had some sicknesses in our families this week, and our next post has been postponed 'til Monday. See you then.

Cheers

Fiona x