Sometimes....

Sometimes as a crafter, you see a picture of something online and you think "I've GOT to have a go at that!"

Sometimes it doesn't really turn out the way that you thought it would...

THIS LINK really made me chuckle! (Top 20 hilarious Pinterest fails)

I've been away for a few days...

I've been away from the ol' crafty room recently. Over the weekend we went to a wedding in London and it was inspirational! The wedding cake, the wedding favours (a selection of jams and chutneys), and I think all the flowers, were all made, grown and cooked by the bride and groom in preparation for their big day.

The couple got married at Wilton's Music Hall , which  they decorated so beautifully with fairy lights and flowers!

The whole day was an inspiration for the ol' fiancée (teehee!) and I. All day we were "oo-ing and ah-ing" at all the bits and pieces and the live bands. It was so lovely to see everyone in the room so happy and having so much fun. I even managed to get him up and dancing with me (by dancing I mean he stood with a beer in one hand and I got to twirl and jump about while holding his other hand - that's our style :p).

We want to start getting the ball rolling for our wedding (which (after getting a "proper" job yesterday!!), will be able to happen next year!!). We've started thinking about what we want to make and bake and grow and design for our day, and on Saturday we plan to go for a drive around where we live to look for places that might let us in for a wedding with all our friends and family! A year and a bit is long enough to plan a wedding right? Yippee!!!

Tutorial: How to make bunting

I thought I would post the way that I make bunting in case anyone wanted to have a go.

What I used:

Sewing Machine
Cardboard
White ribbon (you can use all sorts for the bunting support)
White thread
Selection of fabrics
Fabric for the back

1) First I made a template for the individual pieces of bunting to make sure that they all turned out the same size. I made the top edge of the template 15cm long, so the top of the bunting was 15cm wide. The length of bunting can be whatever you want, but I like bunting to be quite long in shape. I made the template by folding the card and then drawing  and cutting a vertical line across. 

2) Choose which fabrics you would like your bunting in.

Using the template, cut out the fabric for the front and back of your bunting pieces leaving around 1cm for a seam. For the bunting that I made, I cut out 6 pieces of the colourful fabrics that I chose and then 6 pieces out of the backing fabric.

3) Using the template again, sew front and back pieces together, right sides together. Make sure that you don't sew across the top! You need to be able to turn the fabric the right way when they're done.

4) Turn the fabric the right way pushing the bottom corner out using a blunt object. I used the wrong end of a pencil:

5) Now your pieces are ready for being sewn to the ribbon (or whatever you have chosen to use). The ribbon that I chose to use it 5cm wide, so I had plenty of room to fold the ribbon and iron it to keep it in place. 

6) Arrange your bunting along the ribbon and pin it place. Then sew along the ribbon to attach it. I sewed two lines to make sure that the bunting was secure.

7) And done! Some lovely bunting for decorating! 

 

Sarah's Bunting (complete!)

I didn't get to make anything new today, but I did get a chance to go to my friend's house...

So here it is! Sarah's bunting in the kitchen :) We had a little fun setting up the picture with candles and playing with the lighting in the room to make it look all rusticy. 

Ruth's Owl Cushion

One of my favourite things that I have learnt how to do recently is appliqué. Ruth is a pretty big fan of owls, so an owl cushion it is!

I drew an owl onto a piece of paper to start off with and then arranged different coloured fabrics according to how I wanted it to look. The sewing around the edge isn't the best, but I've always been a fan of rustic and home made  The little legs are free motion stitching with the lovely sewing machine. Cute eh?...

Cushions are now for sale by the way, so if you have any ideas of anything that you would like making, get in touch! 

Sarah's Bunting

Today is my friend's birthday and she was very happy with the bunting that I made for her!

I haven't made anything in the craft room over the weekend, but I thought that I would share some pictures on things that I made over the Christmas period for friends and family.

1) Someone asked if I could paint some mugs with dogs on them. After doing a little brainstorming and research, I thought the most affective way would be to paint the dogs as silhouettes

2) For Christmas I made two cushions for my "sisters in law to be" which they loved :D I used linen and cotton for the base fabrics for each cushion and then cut out the butterflies and bumble bee's with felt 

3) I was given some canvases to paint for our new house together. After being inspired by quite a trippy image that I found, this is what I ended up painting. I might go over the dark green again to make the colour solid, but other than that we are very happy with how it looks :D

Bunting

My friend Sarah recently moved into a gorgeous little house with a rustic kitchen. She's decorated it with fairy lights and asked if I could make her some bunting for the chimney breast.

I hope to get another picture of it when it's hung up properly in the kitchen.

Bunting is really easy to make if you have a sewing machine.

I made this bunting with some ribbon that I had left over from making a Halloween costume, but usually I will use string. One day I'll get round to uploading a post of an easy way to make bunting. 

My Craft Room

After a little bit of encouragement from my mum (practically professional blogger Angie of angiequilts), this is the first post of my blog, where I plan to keep track of the things that I make.

The "other half" and I moved into our first home together (and he proposed on the same day!... soooo romantic! *swoon*) in October 2013. We are so lucky because there is plenty of space for us to continue with our hobbies. In fact, we have so much room that I get my very own craft room! 

Since moving in, my dad and my uncle have helped put some shelves on the wall and our friend Annie helped us attach the desk as well. 

This is some bunting that I finished last month made from fabric scraps from my mums quilting projects.

I thought that this was an excellent little space saving device; a little portable ironing board. This way I can have it ready to use all the time and it doesn't get in the way.

My mum has lent me a sewing machine and some draws and given me so many bits and pieces to use to make things. Every time I walk in here I get frustrated because I want to make EVERYTHING!