A Day In My Life
I’m absolutely thrilled to be Tilly Walne’s Miss November! If you’d like a nosey in to the goings on behind the scenes at Plush Towers then pop over to Tilly’s amazing blog for a read about my day. There’s fabric porn too 🙂 (more…)
Thrilled!
I am absolutely thrilled and humbled to have been nominated for the British Sewing Awards 2013 in the category for Best Sewing Blog! A big thank you to everyone and anyone that voted for lil old me, thank you SO much, it’s very motivating and encouraging. Our shop was also nominated for 2 categories too – Best Online Retailer and Best Website for Sewing Resources, I’m over the moon! Voting starts on 12th November and we will be crossing our fingers and letting you know as soon as the voting opens. Wheeeee!!
Crayon Roll Tutorial
Baby Plush has recently got into drawing in a big way, apart from being irresistibly cute toddling around insisting she put crayon to paper it’s amazing how it can keep her occupied, quiet and still for such a long time and she’s not yet even 2. Always one to jump on any opportunity for 5 minutes of peace and quiet I figured it’d be silly not to make her a crayon roll which I can just pop in my bag when we are out and about and so far it’s a huge hit.
Crayon rolls are super easy to make and you can knock one up in about half an hour (have you gathered I quite like these super speedy makes yet?!), here’s how I did mine.
What you need:
3 co-ordinating pieces of fabric 13 x 5 inches (I used fabrics from the Hello Tokyo Collection from Robert Kaufman)
1 piece of medium weight iron on interfacing 13 x 5 inches
1 piece of matching ribbon about 24 inches long
Matching sewing thread. I always use Guttermann Sew All Thread
Step 1
Take the interfacing and iron in on to the wrong side of fabric C which will make the inside lining of your pencil roll
Step 2
Fold Fabric B in half length ways and iron
Step 3
Take your folded fabric B and place it on to the lining fabric C matching the bottom edges of the fabrics together. Next draw lines in tailors chalk starting 1 1/4 inch from one short end and then at 3/4 inch intervals until you reach the other side. Starting in the middle (in case your fabric shifts) sew down each line in a co-ordinating thread, these will make the pockets for your crayons.
Step 4
Fold your ribbon in half and sew it in to one side of the crayon roll. I used a triple stitch to ensure it’s secure
Step 5
Place the outer fabric (fabric A) onto the other pieces of fabric so that the right sides are together and sew around the edges ensuring you leave an opening of a couple of inches so you can turn the right way. Snip the corners.
Step 6
Nearly there! Turn your fabric out through the hole you left and press, ensuring the opening is pressed flush and even to the rest of your sewn crayon roll. Top stitch all the way around ensuring your opening is sewn closed and fill with your crayons!
Tutorial: How To Machine Applique
I’ve got a new addiction making these skirts following the fab tutorial over at Dana Made It . They really are the simplest skirt ever and take about 20-30 mins to knock up. My daughter’s wardrobe is being over taken by them.
So my latest *need* was to use up some dark indigo chambray I’ve had for ages and I figured it’d need a bit of prettying up to save it from being b.o.r.i.n.g. so I thought I’d pop a little machine appliqué on it as I couldn’t be bothered to set my machine up for embroidery I thought it would be nice so I figured I might as well pop a little tutorial up as it’s so easy to do and will spice up any make!
You will need
Some Bondaweb which is available here
Fabric scraps
A pencil
Scissors
An iron
STEP ONE: Decide what it is that you’d like to appliqué and find a picture you can trace around. Simple is the the key here and will give you the best results. Bear in mind that you are going to have to sew around the outline of whatever you choose. I decided I wanted a birdie so I typed in “bird appliqué templates” in to Google images and I found this one which seemed to fit the bill.
Watch the birdie!
STEP THREE: Iron on to your fabric, textured side down
STEP FOUR: Cut out your applique along your pencil line and you will have come nice crisp fabric shapes
STEP FIVE: Iron on to your fabric. I’m not gonna lie to you ….This is the fiddliest bit of the process, I’d even go as far as to says it’s a PITA. Bondaweb has a paper side which needs to be removed before it will bond to your fabric so you need to peel off the paper from the back of your shapes. I find the best way to get it off is to run finger nail down an edge of your shape, or sometimes I fold it in half and tear in the middle of the paper. (If anybody has any tips for removing the paper I’m all ears!) Somebody helpfully has suggested to score with a pin – sounds genius and thank you!
Once you’ve removed the paper then you can iron your appliqué pieces on to your fabric. Don’t forget to do them in the right order from the bottom layer up if some parts of your appliqué are underneath others.
STEP SIX: Stitch your appliqué to your fabric. Start at one corner and slowly follow the outline of your appliqué piece. You can get creative with the stitch you use, I chose this one on my machine, it’s like a blanket stitch, I like that effect, but you could use a zig zag or a straight stitch. Play around with the finishes and see what works for you. If you choose a contrasting thread colour your stitching will be more visible. I added legs and an eye by using a tight zig zag stitch. Voila! You have a machine appliqué on your garment, isn’t it pretty?
