New Blog

The small sewing room as moved! 

It can now be found  on wordpress at thesmallsewingroom.wordpress.com

Please come on over and take a look at the new small sewing room adventures.  

See you there!

Blue Quilted Bag - Charity shop challenge part 2

I wanted a bag to use for work, that  would be big enough to hold my lunch box. 

So I thought I would make a quilted bag using some of the fabric found in  the bundle from the CS.  I combined this navy print with  plain blue curtain fabric from my stash.

Quilted bag with loop and covered button

Sewing Room

A few pictures of my sewing room...................

This was a bedroom until my oldest son moved out.  Having a very small budget to create the room, some creative thinking was needed.  First the walls were painted in a dark cream colour.  The sewing machine table is a computer desk given to me by a kind friend having a clear out.

The chest of drawers is an ebay bargain, bought for only £16, those little drawers are perfect for storing fat quarters.

The Lloyd loom style chair, a junk shop find, was originally pink and gold, I have painted it a creamy yellow colour, recovered the seat in yellow gingham.   The patchwork quilted cushions as featured before.  Curtains used to be in my dining room, simply cut down and tied back with ribbon from stash.  Boxes storing craft magazines (yet to be covered).

This wire Ikea drawer unit was rescued from the garage and fitted with a MDF top, handy home for my cutting matt.

Charity Shop challenge - Placemats

This week I have been making quilted placemats, using some of the fabric from the bargain bag for my CS challenge.

I used cotton curtain fabric from bag of curtains given to me by a friend for the top of the placemats.

For the backing I used the  pale green from the "bargain bag" and for the binding the peach.  There was not quite enough fabric to bind all of the placemats in the peach, so two have green bindings with fabric from my stash.

Sweet Peas

I didn't find any fabric on my latest visit to the CS's, but I did spot this little beauty, a Dartington Glass rose bowl.  After a wash with soapy water and a polish of the silver plate, it looks as good as new.

We have picked an amazing amount of Sweet Peas from garden this year, we have jam jars full of them all over the house, but this is perfect for Sweet Peas and very elegant.

Charity Shop Fabric Challenge

I bought this mixed bag of fabric from a Charity shop while on holiday in Cornwall.   
In the next couple of months I am going to try and use the fabric in as many different projects as I can.

I was not really sure what was in the bag, but at £1.50 how could I go wrong.

This is the contents of the bag, a mixture of quilting cotton and curtain fabric.   I am loving the sheep! 

Cushy Weekend

Although I had a busy weekend with all the usual chores, food shopping and visiting my elderly parents, I did mange to fit in some sewing.

I managed to finish a couple more cushion covers and insert cushion liners.  The red and yellow fabric was a Birthday present of 10 inch squares stash packs.

I used fusible Vilene Iron on Fusible Fleece and then stitched wavy lines across and down.












The backs are envelope style made from the lining of my extensive collection of old curtains.  The cushion insert liners were also made from curtain lining.

Hexagon Patchwork Cushion Cover

I have finally been able to tidy my sewing room and get back to some sewing. 

These are the hexagons which I stitched together by hand, while on holiday, and I have now made some in to a cushion cover.

 

After removing the tacking stitches and the paper templates, I used a fusible fleece as backing for the hexagons.

Then used my new (second hand from ebay) walking foot to create wavy lines of stitching across the patchwork.  This is the first time I have used a walking foot and I am very pleased with the results and how easy it is to use, If you find free motion quilting scary, then try a walking foot, its a lot of fun.

Hexagon cushion

a 

Beautiful Cornwall

Though I would share a few of my holiday photos of Cornwall.  

Holiday Packing

We are off soon on our summer holiday, this year we are heading off south west to Cornwall.  

My travelling patchwork sewing kit













I needed to sort out something sewing or craft related to take with me, of course hexagon patchwork is the obvious choice and I think some knitting, I have a huge ball of Arran wool so I thought I could knit a cushion cover, so I Googled and found this pattern here 

http://www.canadianliving.com/crafts/knitting/aran_pillow.php

So having printed the pattern, found the right size needles and the wool, did I pack it way ready for the holiday? no, course I didn't I had to start straight away, I didn't bother with the tension square either, I know, but its a cushion whatever size it comes out it will be fine.

I also remembered I have half knitted summer top to finish, so that can be packed too.

Roll on two weeks of sun (fingers crossed) sea, and sewing/knitting.

What load of old..............curtains

A friend has kindly given be a bin bag of old curtains, she knows I will try to find a use for them.

This pair is my favourite

When does a pair of old, second hand curtains become vintage fabric?

Any ideas?

Sorbetto Top

No sewing blog is complete without a Sorbetto top from Colette Patterns, which can be downloaded for free from the Colette website http://www.coletterie.com/colette-patterns-news/free-pattern-to-download-the-sorbetto-top

So what all the fuss about, well its free, and with only two pattern pieces how hard can it be?

Do remember to check the 4 inch test square, I had stuck the pages together, cut out the pattern and had it laid out on the fabric before I though I had better check the square, and you guessed it, it was only 3 3/4 inches square.  So back to the printer and this time tick the option for print actual size in properties.

I used a piece of pink and white cotton that I bought from a car boot sale, as I didn't quite have enough fabric, I had to cut the back out with a seam down the middle.

It went together easily, until I tried it on for fit, I really liked the simple design, but it gaped around the arm holes and seemed a bit lower than I had expected it to be around the neckline, I am very short between shoulder and waist, so I  shortened the shoulders and added darts at the armholes to take out the excess fabric, I know this is not the correct way to solve the problem, but it seems to have worked.

What I need is a FBA (full bust alteration) but this is a little advanced for me and I am yet to get my head around it!!

Next I have to tackle the basis binding, which I have not made before, but it will give me chance to try out the little gadget Mr P gave me  for my Birthday.  I am going to make it out of the same fabric as the top.

I was hoping to make the binding and finish the Sorbetto today, but housework and other such exciting things have got in the way!

How for the bias binding first I use the continuous method following the tutorial from using this book (another great Birthday present ). 

or from this tutorial on the Coletterie website

   http://www.coletterie.com/tutorials-tips-tricks/continuous-bias-tape-tutorial

but being a left hander with right handed scissors my strips were not perfect enough so I tried the strip method, which can also be found on the Colletterie website, so I could use my rotary cutter and mat, this worked much better for me.

Tra la.......... I have made bias binding wow!

Another Skirt

I bought a metre of each of these fabrics a couple of weeks ago, from a small local shop for only £3.95 a metre.  I am making the Butterick 5564 skirt again with the brown.  

Fabric is slippery and fraying a lot so I decided to use French seams on the side seams, which I haven't done before on a skirt (only on a festoon blind I made a long time ago) but what to do with the back seam with the zip? 

After searching the internet, I think the answer is to use bias binding on the back zip seam, called a Hong Kong seam finish.

Excuse the photo!

Showing the waistband facing (trying to be neat on the inside of the skirt)

Re-cycled Denim Bag

Bag with a flap, made from old jeans, cotton curtain fabric and lined with navy cotton from charity shop.  Although I made the bag in my usual way, I was unsure how to make a flap closure.  After a search on the internet I found an excellent tutorial on  http://mmmcrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2009/06/basic-messenger-bag.html

More Hexagons

These lovely red hexagons are my latest project - they are to be cushion covers for my sitting room 












Update 2 June 2013

These little hexagons are coming together.........

Linen Skirt

My second attempt at a skirt and this time I used a pattern - Butterick 5564 -view A.  

This  pattern takes less than a metre of fabric, I made this skirt from some Linen which I bought to make a bag with, and then didn't use.  As it was a bit thin I lined the skirt, this was done by cutting the pattern out again from thin  cream cotton fabric and sewing it with the skirt to the waist facing.
   

Quilted Bag

This bag is made from three recycled fabrics: the cotton print is from a pair of curtains given to me by a friend, the plain blue was a charity shop purchase and the lining is from an old duvet cover.  

Like my other bags, but without the recessed zip,  it should have a covered button for the ribbon loop fastener, but I haven't got round to sewing the button on yet.

Car Boot - Cotton

I bought this lovely piece of cotton fabric from a car boot sale sometime ago, for £1.  I made this skirt by cutting round my favourite M&S skirt.  Its a little big round the waistband, but comfortable.

Also made a bag - this bag is much the same as the Moda Freebird bag but a bit bigger, made with the left over fabric from the skirt and a plain fat quarter.

Moda Firebird Handbag

This bag is made from three coordinating fat quarters of Moda Freebird fabirc (only had 3), I used Pellon fusible fleece to give the bag body and boxed  the corners.    Quilted with wobbly lines of stitching.  The inside pocket is small because I had used very scrap of fabric.

Red felt, scraps of fabric and a button are used to make the flower which is hung on a ribbon around the strap.

I made this bag as a present for my sister.