Bird Blocks

Last week I bought a couple of patterns from the shop Precious Patterns on Etsy.  I fell in love with their cute bird blocks pdf pattern, and here are the two I’ve made so far:

I think they’re lovely and so easy to make, I knocked them up in probably less than an hour in total (split over several sewing sessions – it is the school holidays after all!)  They’re stitched together so they are suitable for babies too, but I don’t think that the are going to be given to any babies – they’re going to sit on my shelves & watch over my sewing space.

Here is a close up of Mrs Bird – I don’t unfortunately have a close up of Mr Bird as he must’ve moved when I was taking his portrait as the photo was blurry (nothing to do with my photography skills!)

The pattern includes several other bird patterns, such as penguin, flamingo, cockatoo, owl, parrot & chick.  I think they’re so gorgeous that  I’m going to be working my way through each of them by the end of the summer.

Hope everyone is surviving the school holidays so far.

Sally

xxx

The Fabric Marketplace

Emma over at It's All About the Fabric has just launched a new website.  TheFabricMarketplace.com "A place to buy and sell all things fabric"

It's a great site, well worth a look, and a brilliant way to start a small fabric business.  As if that wasn't good enough, there are no listing fees at the moment too. 

To celebrate, she is also having a fantastic fabric giveaway - click here for your chance to win. 

Sally

xxx

Teachers Gifts

School for my youngest two children finishes tomorrow – not quite sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing yet!  But sewing-wise it gave me the excuse to make presents for their teachers.  Last year they had purses, so this year I racked my brains & scoured the internet, and this is what I came up with:

This is the inside & outside of the first notebook cover – with a pink pocket inside for holding teacher-y things.  Then I made the following ones for the other teachers:

 

I hope they like them!

Sally

xxx

Now appearing in Simply Homemade

 

Just picked up this months issue of Simply Homemade & my patterns are featured in it.

Some lovely table linen I designed, and yes that is a photo of me!  It’s so exciting to see something I’ve made in a fab magazine.  And the best bit is that next month there will be more of my patterns appearing!

Sally

xxx

New Website & New Bag

Wow, what a busy weekend!  Firstly I finished the redesign of my little shop – www.DitzyandDotty.co.uk where you will find all my new lunch bags and some new little purses, along with all of the other usual bags that are on there.  I’ve decided to offer free delivery on all of my patterns, so if you are interested in any patterns, feel free to go have a look.  I’d love to know what you think of the site.

I’ve also been crafting.  This time a bag for myself. 

I fell in love with this fabric at Franklins in Salisbury & couldn’t resist making something to keep.  I also used fusible fleece for the first time & I think its great.  Just adds a bit more ‘puffy-ness’ to the bag.

  Again I loved these 2 fabrics for the lining and as I didn’t have enough of either to make the whole of the lining, I used both!!  The best bit about this bag is that its completely reversible too.

  Even though its a bit mad, I love it.

Hope you’ve all had nice crafty weekends.

Sally

xxx

VW Van Lunch Bag

My poor husband puts up with a lot from me and my obsession with all things crafty, from having to move piles of fabric before he can put his dinner plate on the table, to having our bedroom overrun by boxes of scraps and patterns, and he doesn’t complain (well not very often anyway!)

So, today I decided that I would actually make something for him to show him how much I appreciate him.  Voila, a lunch bag.

I’ve had the fabric for a while, and had only used a small amount to make a picture for my bathroom (click here if you want to see the post about that), and what better use for the rest of it, than a lunch bag for my hubby.  I used a Fat Quarter of fabric for the outside and some white poly cotton for the inside.  Sadly you can’t see the handle in this photo, so you’ll just have to believe me that there is one on there! 

The bag is made using the Yum Yum lunch bag pattern which is available in my shop if anyone is interested. 

Sally

xxx

Big Beach Bag & Pattern soon to be available

Yippee, I finally got my sewing machine out today!  It’s been so long I’d almost forgotten what it looked like.

Today I decided to make a beach bag as I’d been asked for one at the Tisbury market a couple of weeks ago, and hadn’t actually got round to making it.  I had some lovely charity shop red stripy fabric and some cream calico & here is the finished bag. 

The pattern for it is in the first testing phase right now (well my friend has a copy & some fabric and has promised to make one for me!)  Once she has tried it out & I’ve had another couple of people test it, it will be available as either an e-pattern or a paper pattern in my shop.

The pattern is quite quick and easy to make, it only took me an hour today to put this one together.  They’re great for holidays too as you can screw them up in your luggage, and then when you get home you can throw them in the washing machine (depending on your choice of fabric).

Hope you like it as much as I do.

Sally

xxx

A Splash of Colour

No sewing this weekend, however a friend & I took our youngest children to a pottery cafe in Salisbury.  Its called A Splash of colour, and is just off of the centre of Salisbury.  Daisy and I have been before, but it was all new to our friends.

We had a great time – spent about an hour and a half choosing and painting our items.

I painted this mug:

The colours are quite muted but am promised that they’ll be a lot brighter once its fired.

Here is Daisy with her pet Dragon

Her friend with his mug (and his can of drink – product placement, maybe I’ll get a free can of Tango now?!!!)

  

and finally my friends mug, which I absolutely love & wish I’d copied!

We’ve just got to cross our fingers and wait a week to find out what they look like after being fired.

Tomorrow I’m back to sewing, although its been so long since I had my sewing machine out, I’m not sure I’ll remember how to use it!

Enjoy the last dregs of your weekends –I have a pile of shirts waiting for me to iron them, roll on the school holidays.

Sally

xxx