Sunday 24 February 2013

Crochet needle case

I have been working on a case for my crochet hooks. I sandwiched two pieces of striped material with cotton batting (37x24.5cm). I created the pocket from some left over red pattern moda cotton, lined with calico (pocket measured 11x37cm when assembled). The main body and the pocket was assembled. Sewing through all layers to created individual pockets for each hook (pockets were either 2 or 2.5cm). I used a lace ribbon instead of bias tape to finish off the edges, this was hand sewn on. Finally, I used a piece of grey ribbon to fix the case closed. Here are some images.














Sunday 17 February 2013

Little felted purse

I have always fancied having a go at wet felting, and now I have finally bitten the bullet I found that it was really easy! I wanted to create a simple purse so I improvised a pattern with chunky feeling yarn. Here is the pattern:

Yarn: Filtzwolle color Zum FIlzen in der washmaschine (40degrees)
100% Virgin wool (color 22, lot 15645)(super bulky weight yarn)
Needles: 8mm

Cast on 42 stitches and continue in stocking stitch for 20 rows.

Cast off 21 stitches

Continue in stocking stitch for a further 5 rows (21 stitches)

At the beginning of the next and following 15 rows (16 rows in total) decreased one stitch by knitting two together, until there are only 5 stitches remaining.

Cast of the remaining 5 stitches.

Place the project in a pillow case (secure the end of the pillow case with a knot) and put in the washing machine on a 30 degree wash. I included a pair of genes in the wash to increase agitation, this helps in the felting process. Here I used the economy quick wash setting and actually run it twice to get the correct effect. Each time I ran the cycle I removed the knitted item and reshaped.

Once your item is felted leave to dry. This may take a couple of days.

Lastly I added a button and cut out a button whole with a seem ripper. Very handy that you don't need to worry about button wholes when felting! Here is the finished item.







Owl Needle Case

I was inspired by a friend to create a case to carry all my sewing needles in one place. I was fed up of keeping them in my pin cushion as they get pushed into the cushion lost forever! So here it is my needle case themed around the owl material which I purchased a few weeks ago without knowing what I was going to do with it.

I cut out pieces of owl and plain blue material 12x6 inches, placed the right sides facing and sewed a quarter inch seem leaving a gap to turn it the right side out again. Once it was the right side out I ironed it flat and over sewed it with a zigzag stitch. Note: in retrospect I would have included some bating before I sewed it up to give it more body. I sewed a few pieces of felt down the centre line to form a book. A couple of these I had edged with hand blanket stitch, or machine stitch of some description. I also sewed a square of felt to the inside front and back to form additional space for needles. Then I added some needle felted owls to a few of the pages to add interest. And lastly I hand sewed press studs to the inside and a few coordinating buttons to the outside, so that they were aligned. Anyway that's enough talking here are some pictures!





















Friday 1 February 2013

A new floral top for spring

This month I have been working on a couple of sewing projects. The first one is a top made from a cream cotton material. The pattern is from simplicity number 3750 and I made size 24 (I usually wear shop sizes 16-18). I had to make a modification to the pattern as the neckline was very low when I finished assembling. I added a strip of material (folded over with right sides together, sew down one side and then turn inside out), then I rouched the strip using a long stitch and then gathered the material before sewing to the rest of the garment.