August | 2012 | My Home Makes

August 30, 2012
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Progress Beyond Knit and Purl…

A few weeks ago, I started knitting a cardigan following an “easy” cable pattern (according to the lady in the knitting shop). This was my first venture away from scarves and bags that can be made from a square or rectangle of garter stitch.

I started knitting when we were on holiday in Suffolk. As we took the dog, we stayed in at the cottage most evenings and it was very relaxing spending time reading and knitting. The chunky wool helped and my knitting grew. It was far easier than I thought to do the cable, not so easy to work out the rest of the pattern. I found out to my cost, the inclusion of a comma in the instructions was more significant than I realised so there was a fair bit of unravelling to do!

I now have one back and almost two completed sides, with sleeves to follow.

I was grateful to my Mum for the suggestion to write out parts of the pattern row by row so I could tick them off as I went. It certainly helped in some sections.

It seems I have more patience than I thought. I’ve been happy to unpick and re-knit in order to get it right.

As I spend most of my time in an office, my “making” time in the evenings is limited so I place pressure on myself sometimes to have a finished “thing”. My knitting has a slower pace and shown me that practice will eventually make perfect. It is not how fast I can turn something out, but how much I enjoy what I am doing that counts.

I think I will always prefer to sew but to start off with balls of wool and progressing to a garment with so little equipment does seem amazing.

August 28, 2012
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Colour Challenge Fabric Book Cover

Last Sunday, I visited The Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, UK. My friend and I spent a lovely day admiring the inspiring and breathtaking textile art from international entrants. There were also trade stands and my treat from the day was this small pile of fat quarters. I usually favour more muted colours but these bright squares were a bargain and I thought it would be interesting to try something different.

I plan to see how many different items I can make from these fabrics and will share any successes as I go.

My first project has been a fabric book cover. It is simpler than the needle-felt, embroidered book covers from my earlier post but I am very pleased with the end result.

Fabric Book Cover with Patchwork Fat Quarters - myhomemakes

Fabric Book Cover – Front

Fabric Book Cover – Inside

To make a book cover like this, measure the length of your chosen book:

Measure the length of the book to be covered

I added 4cm to the length measurement to allow for ease. The next step was to measure the width:

Measure the width of the book to be covered

I added 15cm to the width measurement to allow for ease and to make the flaps.

Using the total measurements, I cut out a piece of iron-on fusible medium weight interfacing and lining. For the front of the book, I divided the length by 3, as I wanted to use three fabric strips to make the front cover. I added 1cm to each seam to allow for joining.

Strips for the front piece, interlining and lining fabric

To make up, I stitched the three strips that would make up the front cover with a seam allowance of 1cm. I pressed open the seams and then ironed the interfacing on to the back. Using a fly-stitch on my sewing machine, I top-stitched the seams for a decorative finish. With the right sides facing, I pinned the lining to the front and stitched around the edge with seam allowance of 1cm, leaving a small gap on one of the short edge to turn through. I turned through and pressed with an iron. With the lining facing uppermost, I folded 6cm in from each edge to form the flaps and pressed with an iron. I secured the flaps at the top and bottom with pins placed from the front. (This meant I would be able to finish top stitching from the front without tacking – I can be a bit lazy!). Working from the front, I top-stitched all the way around the edge of the cover which secured the flaps and provided a neat finish all round. All that was left was to insert the book and hey, presto one fabric book cover was completed!

August 23, 2012
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More Fun with Scribbler Too

A few weeks ago, I found the Scribbler Too site and spent a fun half hour or so messing around drawing chickens. I wanted to have another go and this is my very quick doodle flower.

After saving the black and white image, I opened it in Photoshop and coloured in the petals, centre and leaves. I think it is effective and shows what can be done in just a few minutes. Printed out on card, it would make a pretty gift tag or maybe with more time I can create a design in Photoshop with multiple flowers that I can print onto transfer paper, then use on fabric…

If you have any ideas, please let me know.

August 21, 2012
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Embroidered, Needle Felt Book Covers

I have always liked stationery and browsing around shops looking at the paints, pens and papers on display.

Most of all, it’s notebooks that get my attention. I usually have one or two on the go for writing down ideas, keeping clippings from magazines or the odd sketch and writing down instructions for things I have made, or am yet to make.

A friend of mine showed me a book cover she had made in a class. It was beautiful but then she is a clever lady. She explained the basic technique and I decided to have a go to make one for myself, and then another, and then another…

Using recycled fabrics I made the book cover on the right hand side first using felt scraps and the trimmings from a needle felt project, which I then attached in a lattice pattern to the felt. I then went over the lattice with sewing machine, stitching with metallic thread. The middle book cover was made from a denim jacket that had seen better days and I used one of my needle felt “experiments” to wrap around the spine. The final cover was made from a piece where I had tried needle felting different types of fabric in stripes to see how each one reacted.

I like that each book cover is so different and when I make another, I will take photographs as I do, so I can post how to make one.

August 16, 2012
by My Home Makes 3 Comments

Tulip Glasses Case

I gave my first attempt at a glasses case to my Mum. It was a mix of greens and browns, her favourite colours and she was upset because she lost it.

I decided to try another for her. I had some silk left from the sky on the lighthouse picture I made. It was printed at one end. I used some old curtain interlining and my embellishing machine to make a strip of needle felt. I wasn’t sure of how it would turn out, making it up as I went along.

Punching the fabrics together with the six needles on the machine distorts it into shapes I still can’t predict and as the printed end of the silk scrunched up, it suggested a tulip flower and leaf. I worked over the flower with several layers using tiny scraps of felt, a little pink wool top and some chiffon. I added wool worked in random lines, the fibres helping to keep the machine felt together. Finally, using some metallic thread, I machine stitched slightly curving lines to quilt the piece. I then made up a small bag, lined with linen fabric and finished with a diamante button.

It was a lucky combination of scraps and lack of knowledge with the needle felting to create something unexpected. I am really pleased with how it turned out – and so is my Mum!

August 14, 2012
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My Home Makes… too much rubbish!

Every so often, we can find ourselves looking at our lives with a critical eye. I don’t mean in a negative way that can leave you feeling bad, rather the positive type where you appreciate your fortune but know that some things have to change. I had one of those moments this weekend.

We decided we needed to clear space in our garage and sorted through all sorts of old fittings, plastic boxes, broken furniture, camping kit and long forgotten paint tins. Some are just waiting for “that day” when inspiration strikes and the renovation gets done, others because they are useful. The things we will use got stored away more neatly, leaving us with a car load that needed to go to the local rubbish tip.

As we had been away on holiday, we had also missed our recycled rubbish collection so we packed that into a car too. Maybe it was the act of having to throw glass and plastic into the right container rather than leaving it for a curb-side collection, maybe it was the truly shocking amount we saw of old TV sets, plastic chairs, broken chipboard furniture being thrown away at the tip that got to me. I realised I want to take action to reduce what we bring into our house and what gets thrown away.

We are lucky in that we supplement what we grow in our garden with a delivery of meat and vegetables from a great place, Church Farm at Ardeley. It is a mixed, high welfare farm and our box arrives with veg packed in paper, or tied with raffia with the odd plastic punnet of soft fruit. This does help limit the packaging that comes in each week. I cannot bear the amount of plastic that surrounds the average supermarket purchase. We also have a milkman so that helps too as we can return our milk bottles.

Looking round our house, I realise that much of the furniture that has lasted our time together and our children growing up, is the older, solid wooden items we have come to love. Most were donated by family or bought cheaply at charity shops and car boot sales. Ironically, some of the furniture we saved for has long since fallen apart! If our needs change and we need any more furniture, we will look for second-hand well-constructed things.

I already save all sorts from old greetings cards, orange and lemon nets, fabric, buttons, zips, old clothes etc to use, only buying new materials for crafty projects when I really have to. I like clothes but I am not obsessed with latest fashions and my wardrobe has some old favourites, some charity shop buys and some new. I am sure many could be altered with buttons, trims or a little bit of sewing when I get bored of them and am ready for a change.

From now on, I plan to re-use, recycle and re-love as much as I can. I am paler green than I thought!

August 9, 2012
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Lighthouse Picture with Needle Felt and Applique

I made this picture of a lighthouse to go in our bathroom. It is a fairly naive interpretation! I had already made the beach hut picture and as I am still learning how my embellishing machine works with different fabrics, I wanted to try another.

The background went together fairly quickly. I used a scrap of cotton batting as a base which shows through as the clouds. The sky is made from an old silk scarf with a little devore fabric for some glitter and the sand is made from fairly stiff gold sheer.

I used felt scraps to make the lighthouse and as I didn’t have any fusible fabric left, just pinned and stitched together. I ran round the outline of the light with navy cotton in a zig-zag stitch and machined straight lines to form the grill at the top of the light. I am undecided whether I will take out of the frame and outline the whole building in navy stitching.

Next were seagulls created with a couple of stitches made with beige tapestry wool and a few more longer stitches to form the grass.

I like these pictures as I can recycle old clothes or scraps of fabric – it feels good to create something from nothing and not have to spend when you do!

It reminds me of so many places we have visited around the British coastline where the work of those who run the lighthouses keeps the shorelines safe.

August 7, 2012
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No-sew belt from recycled t-shirt

I have been wandering what to do with a pile of t-shirts I have after we cleared out our wardrobes. Although some have seen better days, I can’t bring myself to cut them up for cleaning cloths. I looked on Pinterest for ideas but after messing around, I eventually came up with this belt myself.

First, I pressed a t-shirt. (This was one of my Son’s that had already been tie-dyed and had the sleeves cut off to make a vest to extend it’s life!).

Then I cut strips across the shirt:

Working from the bottom edge, I cut across the strips slightly on the diagonal to end up with one continuous length.

Once I had the long strip, I pulled it out so it rolled and formed a neat strip. (Apologies, the next image isn’t great quality but you will get the drift).

I cut the long strip so I had two lengths, then knotted in the centre, and again roughly half-way down each side. If you are careful where you place the knots, you can hide any seams in the strip.

I eventually ended up with a belt like this which is about two metres long and wraps around me twice, with the ends hanging down.

The final touch was to cut each end of the t-shirt tubes up the centre as far as the first knot on each side. This will divide two strips into four thinner strips. Run your fingers from top to bottom of each of these four strips, pulling each out slightly which will encourage the fabric to roll.

You will now have a belt which looks great with jeans or casual skirts. I have even worn mine round my neck as a necklace! It was a quick make and I am now looking at the rest of the t-shirts wandering what to make next.

August 2, 2012
by My Home Makes 5 Comments

St Georges and St Andrews Flag Cushion Covers

Our eldest Son has recently moved to Scotland. To mark the occasion I wanted to make a house warming gift for him and his girlfriend. Their colour scheme is red, white and blue so I thought cushions based on the flags of St George and St Andrew would be fun and in the right colours. In my fabric stash I had some heavy duty pre-washed calico, some red material left over from a patchwork project and some lovely vintage Laura Ashley fabric in navy given to me by my Aunt. I made the cushions with a flap closure on the back.

For the St George’s Flag Cushion, I folded a strip of fabric 12cm wide in half and stitched a tube, taking 1cm seam allowance and leaving the ends open. I turned the tube through and pressed, then cut the two strips that would form the cross. I pinned the strips down then top-stitched to the calico front piece. This method gave a neat finish to the applique pieces. I cut bias binding strips from the Laura Ashley fabric and used to pipe the cushion. With right sides facing, I pinned the two back pieces that would form the flap to the front piece and machine stitched together.

Using the same method, I made up the St Andrew’s Flag Cushion using the navy Laura Ashley fabric as a background and the calico to form the cross and to pipe around the edge.

The cushions are now in use!

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Monthly Archives: August 2012