Lovely, quality leather bag sewn by me! OK, the pieces were all cut out with stitch holes and foolproof instructions. Nevertheless I feel creative pride in making this birthday gift into something I will use and enjoy for years and years.
I would definitely make another bag from Simple Way; just musing over the catalogue…
Easy project, use lightweight cotton.
Cut a circle around the intended bowl two inches away from the rim. I use pinking shears to avoid fraying
Press over a hem of about an inch (lots of tucks and folds).
Sew around the hem. This creates a channel for the elastic. Leave a gap of a couple of inches.
Cut elastic an inch longer than a snug fit length around the bowl. Stick a safety pin through the elastic and thread it around the channel. Fix the safety pin through the other end of the elastic to check the fit. If ok, Zig zag over the overlapped elastic and finally stitch up the gap in the channel.
Stashbusting Christmas paper means gathering all potential festive supplies together. This encourages me to use new combinations. Here I have used residual A5 card bases with dies that from past magazine purchases and I even recycled elements from cards we received over previous years. Embellishments of adhesive gems that seem to accumulate complete a batch of cards. Inside I have heat embossed a simple greeting so they are ready for boxing and gifting.
Surprisingly easy to learn this technique, but it does take quite a while at the sewing machine
Cotton washing line rope is coiled, pinned and then secured with a zig zag stitch. The coil grows as big as you choose then to create bowl sides you lift the coil as you zig zag.
For this set I wrapped scraps of fabric around the rope at random intervals.
Ideal for kitchen keys, bread or fruit bowls…might try some place mats and coasters next time
This is a simple pattern to make for yourself and a quick, simple sew too.
Sketch a mask shape on paper, cut it out and hold it over your eyes to check the overall size. Best to make it slightly too big than too small and to have a flattish top and a more marked indent at the bottom where it sits on the bridge of your nose.
Fold the shape in half and trim to make it symmetrical.
Pin your paper on to two pieces of cotton (or fabric suitable to rest on your eyelids) and cut around leaving a 1/2” seam allowance, then pin the paper on some felt (or batting) and cut around that more tightly so your fabric outers are bigger than the felt
Stack the fabric with the two outsides facing and then put the felt on top, I stuck my felt in place lightly with a few dabs of fabric glue
Cut a piece of elastic that is long enough to go round the back of your head from outside eye socket to other outside eye socket. Place the elastic with about an inch sticking out over each side of the fabric stack and pin each end (this is enough to make the elastic stretch without being too tight).
Sew around the mask leaving a gap for turning (I left mine at the flat top), if your elastic is thin it might be worth sewing and reversing at each edge as you go over it.
Turn fabric out and poke out any caught seams before top stitching all the way round- this closes your turning gap and further strengthens the elastic fastening
I decorated mine with exaggerated eyelashes using a pearl pen (don’t think it is waterproof but twas a quick finish)
A quick, fun embellishment for wrapping and home decor wreaths …
Cut an A4 sheet into three long strips. Stack the strips and cut a deep fringe all along one long edge (much quicker than cutting each fringe separately.
Stick a strip of red liner or strong double sided tape along the unfringed long end
Cut twine or thread to chosen length, loop it and stick the raw ends across the tape at one end of the strip
Roll the strip tightly starting from the end with the loop, so the loop is encased in the roll.
Fluff the tassel up when finished!
This year’s lavender harvest has arrived and I have been challenged to do more than the usual lavender bags, so a wreath starts us off…
The base was cut from cardboard packaging and wrapped with donated wool before five handfuls of lavender were placed around the wreath, their stems cropped, lightly hot glued in place and then ‘bound’ with curling ribbon – which also makes a hanger for this lovely room scenter.
this time from Joanna Sheen cardmaking collection…
The shadows are achieved by masking and effects by pulling up the ink with water – useful practice.
I thought I would be using the die and stamp set from this mag but got sidetracked by an article on blending distress oxides with the stencils that came in the kit. Here are my two ‘casing’ efforts.
I cut a stencil from acetate to make a wreath builder, saving myself money and extending the use of my new Craftwork cards flower stamps.
The stencil is merely two 4 1/4” squares, one rotated 45 degrees to form a star shape. The scan n cut did it’s stuff and I popped out the star leaving a place holder to rotate stamping paper around so that repeated stamping in a stamp positioner is neatly aligned. (See Gina K wreath builder if you want the original at £10.99)
For this card I used my distress oxide inks and filled the centre with fussy cut flowers from the papercraft magazine kit.
janecrafts 