around here recently

Well its been a busy few weeks, here are a few pics of what I have been upto....

last week my church hosted a ladies BBQ and craft evenng. I helped one of the craft tables making sewn hanging fish. It was a lovely fun evening. It was great to see so many people getting stuck into different crafts. 

our strawberries are doing so well. But my youngest is learning that we pick them dhen they are red! 

My Etsy shop has had an oder or too, yay! 

I have been sewing for an order I got as well as the gallery my things are in. 

Here is a sneaky peak at what I have been making. 

Check out the little framed sea gull.

Lovely greeting cards - Go to my Etsy page here

Iam so excited!... new tins of paint to paint our kitchen cupboards. Yay! It is going to totally change how the kitchen looks, be so much fresher and cleaner and look amazing! I can't wait to get started. 

Stay tuned for an update on my kitchen!

Interested in painting wuth Annie Sloan Chalk Paint? We have used it before to paint the inside of our caravan!- have a look here.

Learn to sew - lesson 9 girly skirt

Oh yea...when you find fabric to make matching skirt with your daughter! Yep! I made mine and my excited daughter made hers! Arent we cute?!
Follow these steps to make your own.

Here it is, so cute. 

Measure your waist and the length you want it to be. 

Add seam allowance for the bottom seam plus 1.5" fabric to the top edge. Plus s few more inches 6"-10" depending on how floaty you want it. 

Cut out a rectangle. This is the waist measurement plus the extra gather. 

Fold it in half along the short edges keeping the fabric the wrong way round. And sew slong that short edge.

keeping it inside out fold the top edge down about 1cm down and iron. Now fold that edge over again, just more than the thickness of your elastic. Needle in and start sewing close to the folded edge - but leave a gap sbout 2" for the elastic to go in. 

Test how long the eladtic should be by putting around the waist. You want a little bit of overlap. Put a safety pin on the top of the eladtic. Thread it through the gap in the waistband. Make sure you don't lose the end of the elastic! 

Then overlapp the edges of the elastic and sew them together. Push the elastic back in and sew up the gap. 

Now its time to sew the bottom heam. 

When we tried this out we realised it was sitting abit short. 

So we decided to add a frill. 

To do this get a longer piece of fabric heam one of the longer lengths, then right sides together attach it to the skirt, gathering as you go along. (Sorry no picture of this) 

Up until this point my daughter did all the sewing herself. She did really well. It comes down to lots of straight lines. 

Here it is...

Isn't it cute?!

I made one for me too! 

I added pockets onto my skirt, which I love, they sit really well and are a great size. 

Here we are, girly skirts together! 

Yay! 

Hanmade fabric highchair

My sister asked me to make her a fabric highchair for her little one.
With a lovely bright coloured fabric I got to it. I knew how I wanted to make it. With one piece of fabric a fold at one end to overlap the back of the chair with some fabric lengths at the other end.

Here it is. I just need to attach the straps at the end. 

For the raw edges I made my own bias binding. Which finishes the edges off really well. 

Here is the flap at the end. With two loops attached. 

And why not make a bag to put it in! 

so how does it work? Well lay it on the cjair with the fold over flap over the tip part of the chair back. Put your Little one in. And bring the straps up and round under the arms, round the back thred through the loops and tie. 

Here is the back. 

Simple and as you can see my 2 year old sits still, mostly! We use one for him to eat after church. 

I hope you feel inspired to make your own fzbric highchair. A great gift or perfect for you to know you can keep it in your nappy bag. 

Hanmade lampshade slip cover

Oh my word, I have loved this project. It has been on my to do list for a while. And I've done it! Yay!

I found a cheap £2 reduced lampshape and waited for the perfect fabric for the job. I remembered about some tractor fabric I had stashed away and knew my almost 2 year old would love it. I had thought for a while which would be the best way to make the lampshade cover. I had seen lots of ways using glue, but as a sewer knew, surely there would be another way!
This tutorial helps you make a 'slip' to cover the current lanpshade. So if you change your interior you can slip this cover off and make another.
If you want a quick and simple project. This is for you. It took me less than an hour.

Are you ready? Lets begin. 

Grab your lampshade, pencil and greaseproof paper. 

Put the lampshade onto the paper and follow the top line of the lampshade rolling it round creating a pencil line. Repeat for the bottom line. 

Cur out your template. 

Lay your template onto your fabric. 

Cut round the template. 

*now then, I cut round giving myself a good 1cm allowance all the way round. As it turns out I'm pleased I did. And would did it again next time. So give yourself allowance around every side.

Wrap your newly cut fabric around your lampshade - inside out. 

Gather the raw edges together (don't overlap them) and pin along the surface of the lampshade. 

Take it off the lampshade. 

Sew along the pinned line. 

Turn it round the right way. 

Slide onto your lampshade. 

Looking good so far! 

Remember we added 1cm to the edges? Here is why. There are options of how to finish the top and bottom edges off. 

Im going to both on my lampshade. 

First option which I did on the top edge. With the fabric on the lampshade fold the edges back into themselves (but make sure its not on the lampshade itself) and pin into place. 

Second option

To make some binding to cover the raw edge. This is neat but bulky. 

Here you can see I have a binded bottom edge and a folded over top edge. All pinned into place. 

Choose how you are going to finish your edges. 

Sew your edges.

Look all sewn up. 

Wasn't that simple?! 

Now put into place, turn the light on and admire your handy work. 

I have really enjoyed this project. Minimal sewing with a brilliant outcome and so effective. 

My little boy loves his new lampshade. 

Im waiting on which lampshade will get it next! 

learn to sew - lesson 7 sew a crown

Today is a project that my daughter had to make for school. A crown to celebrate the Queen's 90th birthday! Everyone has to make and wear a crown to school.

Why cut and stick when you can sew?! 

And as an extra we could do it as a sewing project together. My daughter loved the idea.... so, lets get started. 

measure around the head for the crown. 

we choose some felt and heart fabric. 

Cut the crown shape from the fabric. 

Get your machine ready, my little lady loves trying to thread the machine. 

Sew the fabric onto the felt. Following the edges round. 

Then trim the felt from the fabric.

We found some sparkly pink ribbon that we folded over the bottom edge and stitched onto the bottom of the crown. 

we added more ribbon and a heart to our design. 

You can add buttons, flowers or anything else you would like. 

Bring the short edges together, overlap them, pin  and sew down. 

Your done. One sweet crown made and ready to be worn. 

Perfect. This was a great little project whigh I would reccomend, as it was quite quick and easy to put together but fin to embellish which my daughter enjoyed. 

So to recap some of the things we have practiced today: 

threading the sewing machine, choosing felt, fabrics and ribbons, sewing along the fabric jn straight lines with some pivoting, adding the embellishments, we also did some zig zag stitch (because we could!) and pinning. 

Well done prince and princesses - enjoy your new fabric crowns 

*** since posting this, my daughter enjoyed wearing her crown to school. Then when collecting her at the end of the school day to find she won the 'make a crown' competition! 

Hanmade fabric bible cover

I really need to cover my Bible. I wanted something simle and not cheesy.

Follow these steps to work alongside me.

So after searching through my stash I found the right fabric.

Hem the side seams. Here they are pinned here. 

Add decoration to the front/ back now. 

Now you need to fold over the ling sides. I did this twice so the raw edge if folded away. 

Use your iron to help you with this. 

Work out where you need to fold the sides in. Press them down with the iron. 

With the sides folded in, sew along the top and bottom edge. 

All sewn. 

Now insert your Bible. 

Tada! 

A quick lunchtime project, done!