Basic hand sewing stitches

When I ran a sewing workshop at a hen party, I realised that people are often quite scared of sewing. It really is quite easy and like most things just a matter of practice. With hand sewing, you can sew while you're relaxing doing something else like listening to music or watching TV, so I'd recommend it as a way to get started.

So here are a couple of stitches to try and I'll be posting a simple tutorial on how to use these two to make a simple make-up bag. 

First thread your needle with double thread and knot the end.

BACKSTITCH

•Working from right to left, come up at A

•Take a small backward stitch, go down at B and come up at C

•Move the needle forward beneath the material & come up one stitch length ahead

•Try to keep your stitches even

•Tie a knot at the end

It will look like this  on the right side

…and like this on the reverse

WHIP STITCH

•Pull the needle through at A

•Push it back through the other side of the fabric at B and through both pieces of fabric

•Pull the needle through at C and repeat

New Cushions

Back in the summer, I made a cushion for a friend with some lovely African style material that she picked up in Ridley Road market in East London. Luckily, she liked it so much she asked me to make another one for her. I really like this material, I must get up to Ridley Road myself in the new year and get some for myself!

You can find out how to make this cushion by reading my Easy Peasy Envelope Cushion Cover tutorial.

Homemade Christmas Cards

Now it is December, it's officially OK to start getting excited about Christmas - yay! After a failed attempt to buy some 'nice' cards for my close family that didn't cost about a fiver (when did cards get so pricey?), I decided to make my own. Here are my first attempts:

 To create something similar, lay out your buttons on a different card or blank piece of paper and then gradually sew the buttons on the card you're going to use in sequence - easy! I used double thread and taped down the knotted ends on the inside so that they don't come loose. And I even added a little bell on the top for that Christmas sound effect.

For my second design, I cut out some mini stockings out of red felt, attached a bit of silver ribbon to the top and then secured them to the card by sewing on the buttons. I've left spaces on both to sew on people's names and I think next time I might sew the stockings on the card with a blanket stitch and even fill them with little presents.

With some Christmas carols on and festive biscuits to nibble on, making these was surprisingly therapeutic so hopefully I'll have time to make some more and maybe get a bit more adventurous with my designs.

Helping hens to be crafty

A few weeks ago, I ran my first craft workshop at a hen party which was great fun. The lovely bride Hannah is a keen crafter herself, so her sister and bridesmaid organised a relaxed afternoon of tea, cakes and crafting at her house before the ladies headed out on the town.


As most of the hens were crafting novices, I needed something that they could sew by hand and decided on a zip up make-up bag. The finished bag looks professional, so I think it is really satisfying to make and is also useful which is important for converting newbies to crafting!

When I arrived to set up, I was pleased to see that the cake stands and containers that I'd chosen to display the materials fitted in very well with the vintage, tea party theme that the bridesmaids had gone for.

Set up and ready to start

The yummy cakes provided for afternoon tea

After the hens arrived and had a chat over tea and cake, they came up to choose their material and I showed them how to do the first few steps in small batches. Over the next few hours the ladies set about sewing while catching up and nibbling on more tea and cake. The best bit was seeing how  genuinely chuffed the hens were with their make-up bags when they had finished.

The beautiful bride-to-be Hannah

I also learnt a few crucial things:

1. Running a workshop means that you will be so focused that you will forget to take any photos once things are under way. So apologies for the lack of action shots - here are a few that the bridesmaid kindly forwarded on to me. The main thing I forgot to get pictures of were the completed bags which all looked great. So you'll just have to trust me on that one until I can get hold of some photos.

2. Beginners are nervous to start with and so sew relatively slowly. Sounds obvious I know and although I sort of knew that this would be the case, I think next time I would get the hens to make something a bit smaller.

3. Crafting workshops are fun! I had a great time and realised that my experience of running workshops in my day job meant that I really enjoyed the whole afternoon and wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be. I would definitely be up for running more and now I'm thinking about a whole host of options and I have lots of ideas for other things to make at hen parties, or even birthdays and kid's parties.

How to Make an Easy Peasy Envelope Cushion Cover

One of the many wonderful things about living in East London is the range of markets. Ridley Road Market in Dalston is a brilliant place to find lots of unusual and relatively cheap fabrics and has loads of great African tribal prints, which also happen to be bang on trend at the moment.

My friend Amber asked me to make a cushion for her, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to share a tutorial as it really is very easy. It's perfect for beginners and can also be sewn by hand if you don't have a machine.

You will need:

• Cushion filler - I used one that is 44cm x 44cm (you can buy these new or upcycle an old one)
• About 1 metre of material - I used 1.05m of material with a 0.5m width  (the amount will depend on the size of your cushion filler)
• Measuring tape
• Pins & chalk 
• Fabric scissors
• Cotton thread
• Sewing machine (or needles if sewing by hand)

1. Measure your cushion filler, the one I used was 44cm  x 44cm.

2. Now for your fabric; if it's wide enough you can cut out one big piece so that you have less sewing! Add on a few centremetres as a seam allowance - I've added 2 cm. Measure out your material, mark the length you require with chalk on the wrong side of the fabric and cut it out - the fabric I used was 46cm wide and 105cm long. 

As you will see in the diagram below the two sections that you will fold over to form the envelope need to total more than the length of your cushion filler so that the material overlaps. 

(If you are working out your own measurements, you don't need to worry about being too exact but a good guide is to take the length of your cushion filler then add on about a 1/4 of that length again then divide that total between the two sides of the envelope. Don't divide it equally but make one side longer than the other as this will look neater.)

3. Iron your material so that it is all flat 

4. Fold over the ends by 1 cm each end, pin into place and then hem them on the machine (or by hand).

5. Lay the material right side up and put the cushion filler in the middle. Fold over the ends so that they overlap. Make sure it is quite tight around the cushion so that it isn't all saggy when it is finished. Use pins to mark where the folds are on the material.

6. Take the cushion filler out and then pin all around the edges.

7. Sew up the two sides and cut away any excess if necessary.

8. Turn the pillow the right way out and insert the cushion filler. And you're done.

9. Place on a chair and put the kettle on : )

Stars and Buttons Go Screen Printing

The Boy in action

Ever since Stars and Buttons started, I've wanted to create unique and special designs that make my stuff stand out. Drawing is not my strong point but luckily my other half trained as an Animator and spent some time working as a Storyboard Artist. He's got a great quirky style and is always doodling so I've been trying to get him involved and turn his promises of help into some actual final designs that I can use.

The Boy's dog design

Finding the time with busy day jobs has been a challenge, so I decided to enrol us both in a screen printing course to inspire us. Last week, we both fought hard to leave our office jobs a bit early to race over to Islington and spend the evening at the wonderful Make Lounge. 

This is my third craft course at The Make Lounge and I can't recommend it enough. The classes are always friendly and well organised. After only a few hours (and a few glasses of wine) you leave with not only some completed projects but a life skill that you get to keep forever.

My fruit tea towels

I kept my designs super simple and tried to focus on learning all about the paper stencil technique. The teacher Helen Rawlinson, who is an acclaimed lighting and textile designer, was a brilliant teacher. She shared lots of top tips and kept us focused throughout the session. It was great fun and soon memories of messy afternoons screen printing at school came flooding back. I forgot how satisfying squeegees can be! I printed some fruit shapes on tea towels and created a couple of special Stars and Buttons tote bags to use at my sewing workshops this summer. (Pictures to follow once I've added some finishing touches.)


The Boy created some much better designs, including a dog and wiggly worm and flower combo, which he printed on a couple of tea towels along with some T-shirts that came out really well. (He's a perfectionist so insists these are not the 'final' designs!)

The Boy's worm & flower (and yes we're trying not to mention that it looks a bit phallic!)

I think it's safe to say we both now have the screen printing bug and are trying to find a space we can hire for short printing sessions in London.


Next stop is our own designed, printed and hand made products. Exciting times!



Visit The Make Lounge website for more information about their classes.

Find out more about Helen Rawlinson by checking out her blog.

Workshop Planning

Something great happened this week. A friend of mine asked me to run a crafting workshop at her sister's hen party this summer which I'm very excited about. Having organised a lot of hen dos myself, I know that the pressure is on to make it a fun and memorable day. Not to mention perfect (eek should I panic now?). I immediately thought of loads of crafting projects but it turns out beginners are afraid of sewing machines. So now I'm coming up with some options for an easy but useful item that they can sew by hand.

As I now make most things on my machine, it's been a good reminder of how much fun hand sewing can be. And with Spring trying to elbow it's way in past those pesky April showers, hopefully it will mean I can makes some things and enjoy the sunshine at the same time - will keep you posted on the planning progress!

Spring blossoms in London Fields

Sunday Sewing

Thankfully, I managed to stay in long enough this weekend to start making things again - which is just as well as I have some pre-orders in for some bibs and the babies are on their way. I also finally got around to making some cushions with this Orla Kiely Car Park Print material that I've had for ages.

As you can't seem to buy Orla Kiely material by the metre, (surely there would be a market for it?) I ended up buying some pillowcases and picking them apart. I used the smaller print on one side to cover a footstool from a junk shop and always intended to make cushions with the larger car print on the other side. I managed to cover the stool almost a year ago, so I'm very pleased I can now cross the cushions off my to do list. They were so quick to make I'm not really sure why I put it off for so long.  

I've seen on Twitter that a few crafters are already talking about Christmas. I have to confess that I started thinking about it on the first day of September. (I get a bit over-excited about Christmas so I'm banned from talking about it until this month.) So the next job is researching some new product ideas which I'm looking forward to - a glass of mulled wine anyone?