Saturday 24 December 2011

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas



As the festive season is upon us, I look back on the past year and remember the big and small things which have shaped my year in many significant ways. I think overall I've had a pretty good year and I hope you have too, friends and fellow bloggers.

I wish you all a very happy Christmas and a New Year filled with peace and prosperity.

Small Christmas gifts

As these were commissioned by a friend for her friends as Christmas gifts, I am happy to share these with you before Christmas! These are little purses made using Keyka Lou's Zip Pocket Pouch pattern.



When open, each has a zip pocket and a slip pocket (behind the zip pocket). A bit of velcro holds the pouch close.



The friend who commissioned these pouches specifically asked for cat themed fabric.



I made this one in two sizes.



The slip pocket in the smaller pouch is perfectly sized for credit cards. I made myself one of these for myself a couple of months ago. I added the loop and split-ring as I like having the option of adding a wrist-strap if I wanted to later on.

These are great fun to make and I have three in progress on my sewing table at the moment.

Tuesday 20 December 2011

Non-Slip slippers for mum and a quick tutorial

When my mum was visiting me, she happened to mention in passing that she could do with some non-slip house slippers to wear when she was at home in Malaysia. Her house in Malaysia has terrazzo flooring which can be quite slippery if you're wearing socks and besides, the weather is far too warm for sock-wearing about the house. I had seen this stuff called 'Slipper Grippers' which is a non-slip slipper sole fabric. It's made from natural hardwearing thick cotton canvas which is embossed with rubber non-stick little 'feet'. I ordered some and it arrived the day before mum was supposed to fly home! Talk about Just-in-time! Here are the slippers I made for her.



To make the slippers fit my mum, I drew around her feet including a rough quarter inch allowance. I then measured across the bridge of her foot and drew onto my template where the slipper band would go.



I then traced and cut out the slipper gripper fabric, some fleecey interfacing, some iron-on interfacing and some quilting cotton weight fabric for the inner sole. I ironed the iron-on interfacing to the wrong side of the quilting cotton fabric.



Then I created a stack with the slipper gripper fabric right-side out at the bottom, the fleecey interfacing in the middle and the quilting cotton weight fabric right-side up on the top. I basted all around the stack to hold the layers together.



For the slipper band, I drafted a pattern following the template I sketched out earlier and cut two each of the quilting cotton fabric for each foot. I also cut some fleecey interfacing to give the slipper band a bit more body. Placing the fabric pieces right side together and the fleecey interfacing onto the wrong side, I sewed along the long sides (top of the band and bottom of the band). I then turned the bands right side out, pressed them, top-stitched along the top and bottom edges and basted the open sides closed.



I basted the bands to the soles and got mum to try them out for side and fit. Once we were happy, I sewed bias binding around the slipper edges.



I noticed that Wendy aka The Crafter's Apprentice had made very similar slippers for her spa kits (aren't they a fab gift idea??! Wendy - I might just nick that idea from you for next year's Christmas makes!) and she refers to this tutorial which illustrates the binding process wonderfully. (Thanks Wendy!)

Mum was very pleased with her slippers. She promised to send feedback on slipper performance once she's had a chance to use them properly at home.

I've had a few other last minute Christmas makes and will share them with you as soon as I am able to load up the photos.

5 sleeps to Christmas!! Eeeekkkk!!! I am so not ready ... food to be bought, gifts yet to be wrapped .... how about you? Are you ready for Christmas?

Monday 19 December 2011

The last Crimbo cards of the year

I finally managed to finish my 2 dozen or so handmade Christmas cards for family and close friends. Whew!! Most have now been posted off to their destinations.

These were the last four cards I made.



Sorry I haven't been around much. My lovely mum visited us for 5 weeks from Malaysia and we've had a wonderful time together - although it's meant that the amount of crafting I was hoping to do didn't really get done!! Mum flew home to the warmth over the weekend and I think she was glad to escape the cold.

I managed to make a few gifts for Christmas. My little team of five colleagues at work all got handmade gifts from me this year which I was very pleased about. I'll share some of them with you after Christmas as I don't want their surprises spoilt. I also made mum some quick and simple house slippers. I'll share that with you very shortly.

Have a great week ahead, friends.

Thursday 1 December 2011

My creative space

The space is still full of Christmas cardy bits and bobs. I finished a few cards last night.



I have maybe another dozen to finish off before I can get on with a few last minute Christmas makes.

Find other creative spaces here.

Have a creative day, friends.