Bella's Birthday Craft Extravaganza

There's nothing quite like seeing the sheer joy on your little one's face and knowing that in some part you have done something to create that joy.   Here is Bella enjoying her 3rd Birthday Present - lovingly handmade.

Another year has passed and my little girl is now 3!  Where did time go, it passes far too quickly.  Three years ago we were waiting for our little precious arrival and now I have a chatty little toddler who know's what she likes and wants and is more than happy to tell us.  She has a great personality and is such a busy little bee from morning til bedtime.  We have had a wonderful weekend of celebrations with family and her little friends.

This year's Birthday project was a little less ambitious than last years crazy Birthday make, but again one that hubby and I could both contribute to - a little shop all of her very own.

Typically, the initial design that Hubby drew ended up with a small amount of scope creep, with ideas of storage for all of those books, jigsaws and musical instruments we have.  Once size and scope was agreed, Hubby yet again surpassed himself and created a shop that anyone would be proud of.  Her shop is complete with slanted shelves to display her products and blackboard signs for prices and her little Bella Boutique sign.

Add in a crazy week of making felt food (we realised we had very little to stock the shop with) and there you have it, 1 happy shopkeeper, priceless!

 

 

Happy Birthday Bella!

New Year, New Organised Start

Those who know me well would probably use the word 'organised' as one of the three to describe me but to look at how my sewing room had 'developed' I'm not sure that word applied in my creative life! 
I had seen various posts where people had been busy organising all their fabric and so in the back of my mind (filled with envy at what couple be) I planned to have a go at a tidy up once the crazy Christmas crafting had ended. 

So here's our starting point!  2 storage units doing their best to contain my ever increasing stash.  Kind of tidy but what you can't see is that each little box (which was at least sorted by fabric colour) is bursting at the seams with fabric stuffed in.  No hope of really knowing what's in the boxes, plus a whole tonne of stuff down the side!  All of my lovely ribbons were exploding out of their little shoebox!

 

So I tackled the ribbons first, wrapping them round some lolly sticks then storing them in tall glass jars.  I can now see each colour much more clearly and it's not a big tangled mess of ribbon all in knots!

I had some time ago seen a fab tutorial on mini fabric bolts and felt this was the way to go for the fabrics.  With the help of some comic backing boards bought from local comic store (Legacy Comics) in the lovely Piece Hall in Halifax, I've made some wonderful fabric mini bolts which I love.  I couldn't believe how many different fabrics I have amassed - loving my Aneela Hoey stash!

 

A little more organisation of buttons, fastenings and boxes for tools like the Big Shot and my KAM snap pliers and all was complete, bliss!

I think reading other posts from fellow bloggers the New Year has been a good start for people sorting out their crafty spaces.  Feel free to comment if you have any great tips or ideas you would like to share.

Happy Sewing

Keri

Satin Stitch Foot

This is a really quick one because there's not much I can say about the satin stitch foot.  It's a clear see through foot which helps when sewing applique because you can see where you are sewing.  It also has a bevelled bottom so that when you are sewing satin stitches it allows the bulky stitching to pass under the foot easily.

Hopefully this picture helps you get the picture, so to speak!

Coming up next the walking foot tutorial, maybe even a vid with that one I think as you really need to see it in action a bit like my earlier post about the ruffler foot!

Happy Sewing

Keri

Pintucks / Blind Hem Foot

So this is a little dinky post to show you one way to use your blind hem foot.  Not the proper way, but a novel different way that I just found out about before Christmas.  It's a monkey to explain how to fold the fabric to use your blind hem foot to make, well, a blind hem, so whilst I think about how to do that for you here's a little secret...............................you can use it to make perfect pintucks!

The picture above tries to illustrate what you can do.  It's a hard one because they are such teeny tiny delicate little pintucks they are almost invisible.  I have shown the 2 pintucks, next to a line of straight sewing in the hope that this would help to distinguish them.  I think in reality the only way to really see is to sew some. 

So here's how it works.  The blind hem foot has a little black guide in the centre and a little hole that the needle goes into, which is millimetres away from the edge of the guide allowing you to sew a perfectly straight miniature channel!  I found it best to mark your fabric where you want the pintucks to be, fold your fabric on that line, place it under the foot against the guide and then off you go, creating your perfect litttle pintuck.

Happy Sewing

Keri

1/4" Inch Seam Foot

Wow that sounds exciting doesn't it! Not!  1/4 inch seams! The reality is though that this is one of the feet that I use the most.

This foot is brilliant because what it does is leave you with a perfectly even 1/4" inch seam/hem.  I love to use it when hemming garments and it does leave a much more professional look to all items if you have a perfectly straight line!  Brilliant for topstitching on items too. 

The foot had a black metal guide on it's right hand side and you simply place the edge of your fabric against this edge and sew!  Simple as but oh so effective!

Happy Sewing

Keri

Christmas Makes

Now that all of the presents have been given I can share a few pictures of my Christmas makes!

I posted earlier about the Christmas Dress I made for my little girl but then for some strange crazy reason I decided to make some more for friends daughters too!

 

My brother asked for a draught excluder and though he'd shown me a pic of a simple snake I decided that as they had just got a new puppy I'd try to make a dog one!  Much hilarity ensued at sewing class as after many alterations (with no pattern I had much fun trying to make the dog face the right shape) I produced something that was neither a snake nor a dog - Sewing class christened this a 'snog'!

 

I made some little belly button pads for Post Pals children who are fed by feeding tubes and sent quite a few of my Christmas clips to the children too:

 

The final projects were using some fab wood print fabric bought from Fabric Shoppe on etsy to make work aprons for my wonderful hubby and daughter and some bunting using more fabric from Fabric Shoppe and the gingerbread cutter on my big shot!

And then last thing on Christmas eve I was busy converting the neckline of a dress I'd bought for Christmas day (sorry for grainy phone pic).  It was high, round necked and not very flattering so I gathered for a much nicer neckline.

   

  

I'll leave you with my latest fun adventures in crafting - glass etching! I etched this glass at the

Hobbycrafts show - a fun first attempt at a glass for Santa etched with his name and some holly - look out for more of this in 2012 as Bella Boutique launches some Wedding focussed products.

So that's why I disappeared in December! Drowing under Bella Boutique orders from lovely customers and making lots of wonderful crafts for Christmas.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas,

Keri

Sew, Show and Share and by the end of the night Shelebrate!

Last Friday the great and good of Helen's famous sewing classes gathered together at the fabulous Word of Mouth crafts and had an evening of fun and frivolities.  One of the highlights of the evening was the show and share session where people shared the experiences they have had in the classes and their handmade items.  I thought it best to tell the story of the evening in pictures!

So lets start with  a multitude of boxy bottoms!  Not the ladies but the bags that have been made!

    

Next we move onto garments, ranging from 1 hour skirts to beautiful thrift store transformations and everything inbetween

  

  

 

  

Then sticking with the clothing theme we had a wonderful insight into re-purposing with some wonderful coat collaborations - take 2 coats that don't work, sew them together (with flair and style obviously) and look what you get......................

 

  

Throw in a little crochet, drinking, gossip, fabric fancying and it makes for a brilliant night full of inspirational ideas for 2012!

   

And then all that remains is to say Thank You Helen for a year of wonderful sewing adventures and a great end of year party!