More Easter Bags

Today my youngest son returned from a couple of nights away on a school trip.  It was lovely to see him and to hear about all he’d done while he was away, but it was even better to see him home again.  It seemed so quiet without him (even though my other two children tried to make up for it!), and I found it quite hard to settle, but now he’s home our house seems complete again.
While I was waiting for his return, I managed to make a couple more Easter themed bags ready for the Tisbury Country Market tomorrow morning.
A bunny and an Easter egg. Here are the insides:
They should be just the right size for Easter Egg hunt bags, so keeping my fingers crossed that they sell tomorrow.
Weekend Wishes to you all
Sally
xxx

Pockets and Travel Trays

I didn’t have a lot of time to sew today, but I did manage to knock up a couple of bits for my lovely mum, who is heading to Australia for a holiday.  I’d made her a bag a while back, but didn’t put any pockets in it, so she asked me to make her some pockets to attach to the bag. 

I’m just going to hand stitch them to the lining, and hopefully if I’m careful, the stitching shouldn’t show through to the right side of the bag.

As my mum is away for mother’s day, I wanted to make her something before she went.  I saw a pattern for travel trays in this months Sew Hip magazine, and here is the tray I made.

It’s such a good idea, just a square of fabric, with press studs at the corners to fasten when you want it to be a tray.  Very useful for jewellery/keys/loose change, especially in a hotel room.

Hopefully it’ll come in useful for her & as its so light, it won’t take up any of her precious baggage allowance. 

Sally

xxx

Easter Egg Hunt Bags

Thought today I’d share some Easter bags I’ve been making.

and a close up of the chicken as the photo didn’t come out too well.

This is the inside of the same chicken bag, just some children’s cotton I had hanging about:

I also made this bag, which is slightly madder as I suffer badly from trying to use too many different patterns on the same bag!  Perhaps next time I’ll tone it down a little.

These bags are just the right size for Easter Egg hunting.  I’ve made them in the same way as my monster & embroidered bags, but this time I’ve just added a chicken appliqué to them.  I used bondaweb to attach the chicken to the bags, but I’ve also sewn the chicken on too as I wanted to make sure they were suitable for young children.  The legs of the patterned chicken are just attached using a 6 stranded piece of embroidery thread.

Am planning on making another couple of bags with bunnies or Easter eggs on them, but that is a job for another day.

Sally

xxx

Beaded Lampshade Tutorial

I’ve finally finished the beaded lampshade I was making for my bathroom, and thought I’d make a tutorial on how to do it.  I’ve used lots of photos so hopefully even if my descriptions don’t make a lot of sense, the photos will!
Here is the lampshade, proudly hung for all to see!
First things first – get some lovely glass beads.  I got mine from Hobbycraft, and I bought 2 of the small pick and mix pots that you can buy in there.  I also used a pack of smaller glass beads to mix in with them.  You will also need some seed beads, thin wire, some jump rings and a lampshade frame.
Lay the beads out in the pattern you want them.  I used alternating large and small beads.
Take a piece of wire, about 4” in length and create a loop about 1” from the end.  Wrap the tail of the wire around the other end, like in the photo here:
Add a seed bead to the wire, then a small bead and then one of the larger beads, followed by a small bead and then another seed bead. 

Create a loop and twist at the other end of the wire to complete your link.

To make the bottom link I looped the wire through a seed bead, then passed both wire ends up and through the large bead, and another seed bead, then I made a loop and twist on the top of the bead.

Join your links together using jump rings.  I made 8 large chains, which used a total of 7 beads on each, and I also made 8 smaller chains of 5 beads.

Take your lampshade frame (I bought a cheap lampshade for £2 and cut it up to get the frame out).  Wire the chains around the frame by creating a twist of wire over the frame.

Continue to add them around the frame until you have used all of your chains.

Position the chains where you want them and wrap the ends of the wire around the frame to hold them in place. 

Your lampshade is finished.

If you are making a bigger lampshade to the one I’ve made, you may have to shorten your chains as even though my shade is only small, it is quite heavy.  I guess you could use plastic beads, however I’m not sure how they would be if the bulb gets hot.  I’ve used mine with a low energy light bulb.

I’d love to see photos if anyone else makes one of these.

Sally

xxx

A Missing Couple of Weeks

I’ve not been around on here for a while, mainly due to kids & tummy bugs, half term and the new addition to our family:
A rescue dog called Snoop.  Sadly prior to coming to us he was badly neglected and at the moment he is so nervous we are having to be very calm and try to build him up both physically and mentally.  He’s very gentle even with all he’s been through, so fingers crossed he’ll make a lovely member of our family.

Crafts-wise I’ve been making an odd few things, which I’ll show off properly over the next few days.  Here are a few examples:

My first attempt at making felt slippers for my daughter, even though they resemble monster feet and even though they’re patchy, she seems to love them.

One of a series of Egg pictures I’m making.

and a sneak peak of a beaded lampshade tutorial I’m preparing.  All I’ve got left to do is to find a smallish lampshade frame and then it’ll be all systems go.

Here’s to a crafty March.

Sally

xxx