Cot Blanket

I must admit I don't need a cot blanket in my life.  However, my reward for finishing all my Christmas crafting is always that I sew whatever I feel like.  This year I had a long for a little more rainbow patch work, but I wanted big and bold, because I wasn't in the mood to faff about.

The quilt top is made from cotton and poly cotton scraps in my fabric stash and it's bound with some cream polyester satin that my mum gave me ages ago.  Most of the satin went on making an angel costume (I'll show that in a later post).

 It has minimal in the ditch quilting along the seams and the binding is part machined and part hand stitched on.

 The backing is green fleece, left over from making my husband a hoodie (which I'll also show another time!).

It currently comes in handy for when Small Bean comes to visit and I suspect once she out grows it I will take it to work and use it there as blankets are always handy!

Pouches!

I ran these up for a couple of friends of mine who I know cook with bay (even if one of them isn't often allowed in the kitchen these days...)

These are made of cotton which I embroidered before I made it up into pouches. 

The embroidery is a very simple back stitch design I doodled up.  I also want to show you my latest hanging heart pouch.  I am very much in love with grid quilting at the moment!  This was a present for a friend who has a love of steam punk and a like of the brown and gold colour scheme.

Apologies for the shortness of this post, illness in this house has left me somewhat fuzzy headed....

Velvet Waistcoat - Simplicity 2346

As far as I'm concerned giving gifts is about the most fun thing ever.  Because you get to think about people you really like and then try to come up with a present they will really like.  Some people are easier to think up ideas for than others it has to be admitted.

In the case of my friend who adores waistcoats it was very easy indeed!

The waistcoat is made of grey cotton velvet and lined with more of the purple lining fabric from Seeker's Coat. 

It has a patch pocket on the front and ties at the back and the buttons were acquired especially because they were pretty.  I really do love a pretty button or two...

In other news, in between Christmas and the New Year I ran up a few crochet Granny Squares.  I wanted to use up some scrap wool and Franca's appeal for squares for charity seemed to fit the bill nicely!  I posted them to her a little while ago and totally forgot to take pictures!  However, she's more organised than I am and took a picture which she has put on her blog here.  Please do go and have a look because her blog is a great read and there are lots of cute baby pictures!

Next week I have some little pouches to show and the blanket I made on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (which has been helpfully modelled by Small Bean!).  Then I think we are done with all the Christmas makes so I better get on and sew something to show after that, hadn't I?

Jabots

I do like a nice bit of lace and I love ruffles!  Luckily I have many, many friends who appreciate the same things as me.  So for Christmas, three of them got jabots!

I used this tutorial and it was a nice easy sew.

All the lace!

I didn't add the brooch as I wanted these to be customisable to the outfit as they may be used for multiple characters.

So, there you go.  Jabots!  I now really want one for myself, so I need to keep an eye out for a suitable wide lace.

Home Made Oven Gloves

I made three lots of oven gloves for Christmas presents, but only remembered to take pics of two.  Sorry!

They were all lined with thermal wadding, to protect against the heat and quilted with straight lines.

The owl gloves were given to a friend who bakes cakes.  Everyone should have pretty things to use in the kitchen!

 They are made of cotton with cotton bias binding to pretty up the edges.

This pair were made for my husband who makes bread and likes trains.  What better way to combine these things?

Next week I'll show some lace jabots and a velvet waistcoat.  In the meantime, have a lovely weekend!

Bags and Buttons!

So, I liked the pattern for the bag I made out of the monkey fabric that I made another bag and a pouch from the same pattern!

I embellished these with ribbons and finished them with beautiful buttons from the lovely Em!

 This one is lined with a spotty fabric, has an inner zip pocket and like I say, a lovely ceramic button!

This one is smaller as it's a pouch.  It also doesn't have the zipped pocket but other than that is constructed the same way.  I really like these bags and I have plans to run myself up one soon!

Monkeys!

A day late, but I can now get photos on the blog again, yay!  I now have a very clever little gadget that can read just about any sort of SD card so I should be safe.

Now, going back to the title of this post, I have a friend who loves monkeys.  In fact, long time readers may remember Missmass Munkey who was gifted to this very friend.  When thinking up a Christmas present for her I know she was getting a toy monkey from someone else (the joys of crafty friends!) so whilst I wanted to work on a monkey theme I knew it couldn't be a toy.

When I was at the Knitting and Stitching Show we found the most fabric, covered in monkeys!  So I made a bag.

 

All the monkeys!  It's a flat bag, lined in the same  fabric and all seams are bound in bias binding.  I gave it an adjustable strap, mostly so she could see how I make them and it has an inner zipped pocket.

Next week I have some oven gloves to show off and the rest of the bags I made for Christmas gifts!

New Year New Look, Same Old Technology Fails!

Hi All!  I hope you like the new look of the blog, I've been playing with it a bit!  Sadly though, I need a new camera card reader, as the old one seems to have died a death, so there may be a temporary shortage of pics with posts until I get that sorted.  In the meantime, here's my new winter coat!

 It's made of fleece and lined in cotton (only the bodice).

 The pattern is my own design and though you can't really see it, the lapels are embroidered (in black, because clearly, that's whta this coat needed.  More black!).

The buttons are silver and are part of my super special Cheddar Gorge stash (acquired for me by a very kind friend), because I wanted it have one bit of the coat that wasn't black!

There's not really a lot to say about it.  It's warm, and comfy and washable and that's it really....

Lavender Sachets

Rememer these?  Look what some of them became!

Lavender sachets!  Using lavender I dried myself no less. *Smug face*

They are backed with grey cotton drill and are just lightly stuffed with dried lavender.

I like them all, but I think my favourite has to be the Queen Annes Lace embroidered one.