Animal fabric roundup!

My town doesn't really have many option in terms of fabric buying (Market stall or John Lewis) and so I have been really struggling to find suitable fabrics for my projects. So this week I have been searching the web for UK based online fabric shops. To be honest I haven't really had that much luck in the past at finding anything worthwhile until now. After searching around and a recommendation from a friend my dedicated research has brought up some right beauties!! Literally had me drooling at the yummy fabrics available online! So with my dribble bibs in mind I was looking for some fun unisex animal fabrics and I have made my first round up of my favourite finds! See the shops listed below or click on the images to go to the shop page it's from, ENJOY!
1. The Village Haberdashery
2. Eternal Maker
3. Backstitch
4. Fabric Rehab
5. Modes4u
6. Plush Addict
7. Elephant in my Handbag
8. Modes4u
9. Plush Addict

Dribble bibs DIY

In the evenings I love doing little sewing projects using the scraps of fabric from my stash. Recently as you are aware I have been making loads of baby things, mostly because they don't require a lot of fabric or time, in fact i can usually knock something up in an hour or so. SO satisfying! I had already made several Baprons (funny word I know!) from Craftiness is not optional I downloaded the pattern and I have made mine using scraps of oil cloth to make them wipe clean. Then Dribble bibs caught my eye as they are SO simple, quick and make great presents, especially as the idea is the kid keeps them on throughout the day while teething to stop their clothes getting soggy and making their necks sore.  Ideally I think they would be best made from jersey cotton with some micro terry on the reverse for absorbency. I have looked EVERYWHERE online and no-where in the UK as far as I can see sells Micro terry (which is like normal Terry towelling but tiny loops of fibre). The market near me sells the normal white terry towelling for something like £6 a metre. I bought half and have made over 10 I reckon. I made the pattern from drawing round one bib I borrowed. Below are the photos and you will see the co-ordinating headbands we made too! You can download the PDF pattern HERE.

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Here you can see the different fastenings I used, the shop bought ones tend to have the press stud set up-simiar to those of baby grows. I only had the sew on one and I just used 3 parts, in stead of two pairs, in order to give different size settings. The blue one is fastened with Velrco which makes the sizing much more flexible, I made sure to put the scratchy side so it will always be facing up and wont eve touch the skin.

This is the shape of the bib when it is undone.

Here you can see the front and back of the bib. Ideally I would of used micro Terry as the Towelling I have used is quite bulky, but it wont really affect how the bib works, It would just look more professional with the smaller loops.

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Pretty headbands for newborn girl!

Making the stuff in this post was so much fun! My sister in law has been over from Australia, and she is currently pregnant with baby number three which is going to be a baby girl! (Yay!!) She said that she would like some headbands for the baby so that it is clear she is a girl and looks super cute.  This turned out to be the perfect excuse to get some crafting done! During school last year I had looked up several different tutorials for making flowers for some of my GCSE students and they were the perfect solution for these tiny headbands. I ordered some coloured elastic from e-bay, the sort with one slightly more velvety side, one for cuteness and two so that it was wider and softer on the babies head. Not having the baby there at the time, (lol!) I got the measurements from this website.  Measurements for a new born head were 12" (which is 30.5cms). I cut it 2cms longer to allow for seam allowance when joining the elastic. Behind each decoration we glued a circle of soft felt to prevent any stitching rubbing. Not usually a fan of fabric glue but the tacky glue I found worked great.  Below are the finished headbands, we were so pleased with them and I cant wait to see them on the babies head!! My favourite ones are the really frou frou pink and white pair. I will at some point in the future upload the tutorials on how to make each flower.

Pink and white Mary Janes

Here are the second pair of Mary Janes I have crocheted.( For free Ravelry download see previous post for Itty bitty dress from Made by Rae) For these I used the white Rowan cotton yarn as before and the Pink is a bamboo yarn, but I can't remember the brand! Sorry! It's very soft as I think it's part of a baby range. To do the different coloured sole I changed yarn just before starting Rnd 5 on the pattern. So easy and quick to do. I'm looking for more boyish colours now.

Envelope needle case tutorial

The other day on Pinterest I was looking for a small sewing project to do with the girls from DCI (Dream Create Inspire craft group I teach at) and I came across this super cute needle case in the style of an envelope. I searched high and low for the tutorial but I couldn't find one so I thought I would have a go myself. This is my first tutorial so please bare with me! The photography isn't amazing and artistic, It's just done on my Iphone so apologies for that! If you find anything confusing or unclear, please write a comment at the bottom of this post and ill try and rectify it for you! Any feedback is appreciated!

Equipment and materials:

• Medium weight Interfacing
• Felt
• Plain fabric
• Patterned fabric
• Pinking Shears
• 1 Press stud/ Popper 

Firstly you need to download the pattern for the envelope from here, the template in the pictures doesn't have the seam allowance added on but the download will. You need to cut out one patterned piece for the inside and one plain colour for the outside.

You also need to cut one out of a medium weight interfacing. I like to use the iron on sort as it doesn't slip about! this will be used to stiffen the case and give it better structure. 

So you should have 3 bits all cut out now the same, one plain, for the outside, one patterned for the inside, and one piece of interfacing. Next Iron on the interfacing to the plain piece as this is reinforce the fabric for stitching the address. If you don't have iron on stuff, just leave it till later or pin it to the plain piece.

Next thing to do is to sew the lines of "address" on the front of the envelope, which is the plain fabric. I worked this out by folding up the envelope and working out roughly where it would go. Make sure you have the template up the correct way!! I just used straight stitch but if you had the time and inclination you could hand sew an actual address or someones name on it if you liked!

Now for the stamp, I cut out a piece of felt, using pinking shears to get the zig-zag effect and positioned it using the folded template again. Remember you have 1cm seam allowance around the edge, so don't go up to far into the corner. Stitch that down with straight stitch then you could sew  a button on, or embroider a little motif, I used a small piece of fabric (with a little dog on) and bondawebbed it on then stitched around it again (see end photos)

Now to cut out the felt pages for the inside of the booklet, again I just folded the flaps of the template in and then cut out a rectangle about 1.5cm smaller than the folded template.

Fold the felt to find out where the middle is and then using straight stitch just sew it straight down the middle.

Now to sew it altogether! so....you need to put the right sides together, so the side with the pages needs to be touching the side with the sewn on address and stamp. Interfacing, if you haven't ironed it on just needs to go on top of either side, it doesn't matter.

Stitch all the way around the outside of the needle case, keeping your 1cm away from the edge. DON'T SEW IT ALL UP! Remember to leave a gap on one of the long sides so you can turn it inside out. Before you turn it you need to remove the bulk from the corners to make it flatter when you turn it out. Cut diagonally across outward points, and cut triangles into the inward points. See the picture above.

When you have turned it inside out, use something pointy to point all the corners out, and then iron it. The open gap you have left can now be turned in, and then when you top stitch all the way round on the very edge, this should be sewn in too. If it isn't just use a needle and thread to slip stitch it shut.

All that's left to do now is to stitch in your poppers (or press studs, whatever you call them!), It doesn't really matter which way you do them, but they need to go onto the top and bottom flaps, not the side. i like to to the pointy one on the top so it can press down into the one with a hole in it. I should of used white thread here, but I was rushing to the end, I'm sure you will do a much better job!

So here is the finished one! You can see the little doggy I Bondawebed  and then stitched on. A little squiffy, but not too bad.

Here it is closed, for some reason my machine did a funny lump of thread where I started and stopped, and the point at the top of the envelope wouldn't fold in and so it looks a little shabby I'm ashamed to say (not like the amazing polished tutorials you get on other sites!!)

And here it is Half open so you can see how to fold it up!

 I hope that is pretty clear-if not-write a comment and Ill answer ASAP. O and I'd love to see your results if you have a go! ENJOY!

Made By Rae Itty bitty dress

It has been a long time since I last posted anything, due to so much work at school and plus we are moving house!  So our life is slowly being packed into brown boxes, ready to be moved but school if on the wind down, so I have been getting crafty again!  My sister bought me a 30cm remnant of fabric (amy butler I think) and I used a pattern I found from  Made By Rae, the site also has a tutorial that is beautifully photographed and super easy to follow. I also used my own homemade bias binding, using the printable bias binding maker from The Scientific Seamstress, (I know!! Amazing! it works like a dream!)  I think next time I will use the 1" binding one rather than the 0.5 as it was a bit small and made it quite bulky on the little dress.

I also learnt to Crochet! One of my ex GCSE students, popped back in on her exam leave to teach me the basics. I can knit quite well, but crochet just blew my mind with all the abbreviations etc. Anyway-the myth has been busted and with her guidance I have picked it up quite well. (Even if I do say so myself!) There are hundreds of tutorials on You-tube to show you any of the different stiches you need. It is so quick and fun once you get going, you can really see the thing you are making take shape. Icouldn't  help but make some matching shoes to go with the new dress I had made. I used a free pattern for mary Janes from Ravelry and I used a size 3.5mm crochet hook and Rowan hand knit cotton in cream, its very smooth, nit fluffy and doesn't stretch which helps! I only bought a 50g ball and I've made two pairs of shoes (more photos to come) and have enough for another pair too! 

Nellies brother arrives

I finally made Nellie a brother! So meet Ernie (Ernest) who has so far two new tops one of which is his very own rugby shirt from and up cycled (or down cycled!) t-shirt.