Polka Dot Craft Swap

I've become quite obsessed with craft swaps recently. I like thinking of something my swap partner will like that will make me use new techiques and materials to make. I like the suspense and nervouseness after you've sent it, whether they'll like what you've made. And I LOVE post so I love getting my parcel in the post and excitedly unwrapping it to see what is inside.

I have signed up to the Popular Crafts swap twice now. The first time the theme was 'spring' and I cross stitched a little picture which can be seen here and brought a gift and sent it on its way but didn't receive anything in return which was a little dissapointing. This put me off craft swaps for a couple of months but I have taken the plunge again and so glad I did as I received a lovely present from @sarahwalters99 and really enjoyed making her a present.

The theme for this swap was 'polka dot's. Who doesn't love polka dots right? You make your partner an item related to the theme and buy a little gift to the value of £3. This is what I received from Sarah:

A polka dot strawberry pin cushion which is living in my sewing box:

A wooden heart memo clip:

A Cath Kidston brooch, the second layer is polka dotty!

And these are my gifts: An embroidery hoop (perfect for on the go stitching), Cath Kidston buttons and cupcake ribbon. And yes Sarah I also LOVE buttons and ribbons!!!

And this is what I sent Sarah. Her email stated that she loved pink and Hello Kitty so I thought it safe to encorporate these into her present!

I'm quite pleased with how the cushion turned out and wanted to keep it for myself! I am planning to make more to sell at a craft stall in September they may even make it into my Etsy shop when I get round to stocking it up! I do love cushions!

Progress on the fabric letter 'E'

Sorry I have been absent again- I'm useless I know!

This week I gave blood for the first time- I was pretty scared but it actally went fine. I was mostly worried about fainting or taking foever to give my pint of blood and neither of these were an issue so I was fine. I didn't even feel slightly weird or spaced out afterwards. I know my blood group now and I am one of the most common ones (how boring). I also have a blood donor card which I have put proudly in my purse. The colour of the card change depending on how many donations you have given- mine is currently red but will change to blue after 5 donations. There is a purple coloured one (i think they call it diamond) for 100+ donations- I hope one day to be able to make it to this colour but I worked it out to take about 25 years so I will have to wait a long time for that one to come through my door!

Anyway onto my work in progress for the week. Just a quick update on the papier mache letters I was covering in fabric in a previous post. This is how you last saw them:

I haven't made great improvement on them (mainly because I've been scared to cut into my Cath Kidston fabric) but I have taken the plunge and started with the easiest letter 'E'. The fabric is all cut to size and I have started sewing some edges together onto the letter but haven't completely finished it yet.

I do LOVE this fabric a lot. Whilst stitching the edges I have been planning what else I could make with it and for everything I want to make I would need a lot of metres of the stuff! I have a lot of birthdays to prepare presents for in May so I doubt much progress will be made this month.

Xxx

Finished Fridays

Hello!

I missed Finished Friday too because I was ill so here it is for you (better late than never!)

This week I made a new cover for my sewing machine. My machine was kindly given to me by my great aunt a few years ago and it has a plastic material cover on it which has definitely seen better days so when it came back from a service with a massive rip in the cover I started looking for a pattern to make a new one.

I found a really easy pattern in '101 Great Ways to Sew a Metre' by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Haskins. A friend of mine has a copy of this book and I always look at it wanting to make everything from it so when I had some spare book vouchers I decided to splash out on getting my very own copy and the machine cover is the first thing I made from it!

The pattern was really easy to follow and it took me about 1-2 hours to complete from start to finish- my kind of project!!

I decided to use some Cath Kidston fabric I had in my stash that I haven't been able to decide what to make with. They are remnants that I got cheap about a year ago so I didn't want to waste them as I could never afford her fabric full price!

The cover has a very handy pocket which even when I was making it never though would fit A4 paper in but it does easily so this is where my 'to-do' list and list of things to make as presents now lives!

I think it goes really well on my sewing table (another donationg from my great aunt), much more jolly than the old white cover and I like the contrast between the pocket and the cover. I hope all the projects in the book are as easy as this!

Until next time Xxx

Work in Progress Wednesday

Fabric letters are my Work in Progress today. I brought some papier mache letters aaaaaages ago from Hobbycraft but haven't finished them yet!

I saw on the back page of Mollie Makes (the page where someone gives you a tour of their craft room) months ago and wanted to have a go myself. They were 3 fabric covered letters which spell 'sew' which I think is perfect for what I want.

I want to create an area in my room for sewing and general crafting and want this to be part of it. So far it is just a sewing table and sewing machine given to me by my great aunt. I would like to have a pin board up so that I can have a mood board and also space to hang scissors, embroidery hoops other equipment I use all the time.

These are my letters so far:

I have wrapped strips of wadding around them to make them padded (but I remembered not to cover the bottom so they would still stand up!).

I am going to cover them in some off cuts of Cath Kidston fabric I picked up from the discount store in Bicester Village but I haven't decided which print for which letter yet!

The main reason this hasn't been finished is that I don't know how to cover the letters with the fabric- most online tutorials tell you to glue it to the back but I think this looks quite messy and as I have wadding round mine the fabric wouldn't stick very easily to it.

I want to try and sew the fabric onto the letters but not sure if I should cut out a template or simply cut as I sew, and I don't want to mess it up with the fancy fabric!

I can see this not making it to Finished Fridays blog for a long time yet!!

Xxx