Papertake weekly: a stitch in time

The theme at Papertake weekly is to using stitching on your card. This is a card that I made for my niece using scraps of pretty paper cut into heart shapes. I lightly glued them into place along the folds and then sewed with a machine.
I got the idea for this card from one I saw on Pinterest

stampotique: wearable art challenge and a chance to be a guest designer.

Want a chance to be a guest designer for Stampotique? We love to give our fans a chance to be a part of Stampotique throughout the year, and our challenges here are one way to do that.

There are 2 ways to enter this challenge. First one is you can join in with our challenge here and when entering put GDT next to your entry. Second way is you can create anything with Stampotique stamps and post it over on our Facebook page. Please remember either way you must use Stampotique stamps.

We will announce our next guest designer with our next challenge on March 28th.

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For my wearable art, I used Monster by Roc Nicholas. I stamped with versacraft fabric ink, which I hot-ironed to set. I stamped again onto felt and cut out the body, which I glued in place with fabric glue and the blanket stitched in place. I then embroidered various parts and sewed on a button. I also used whatever stamp. I gave this t-shirt to my 9 year old to wear.

stamp and stitch valentine card

I've been meaning to do some chain stitch on a card ever since I did my "libby" card with back stitch on, but I didn't know what do use it on until some new stamps from Crafty Individuals dropped through the post. I love the selecion of heart stamps, they remind me of fractals or zentangles (but so much easier than drawing your own)

I am entering this card for the sunday stampers "heart" theme.

I used an insert on this card to cover up the messy stitching detail on the inside of the card, but I chose to use some pretty paper to do this. so as not to waste its prettiness, I cut out the smallest heart from the stamped image to show it.

(a quick "how-to": Stamp the image in black onto white card, with a piercing tool or sewing needle make holes around the heart at regular intervals. Using two threads (taken from a six thread) of embroidery silk, chain stitch through the holes. Cut the smallest heart out with a craft knife. Apply double sided tape to the back of the stitches and position the insert.)

In Stitches

This card I made for my friend's birthday is a perfect fit for this week's challenge at Paper Play Challenges

I simply stamped the name (see D's) onto patterned paper. then pierced it at regular intervals with a needle, then backstitched it.

next time I'm going to do the same but chain stitch it.

Envelope Fold T-shirt Cushion - the tutorial

I promised the tutorial for this cushion a little while ago.

I used to make my t-shirt cushions using this tutorial, where the cushion is fully sealed and the t-shirt is left intact. this is fine for me as to wash I unpick the final seam, wash, then sew it back up.
But I wanted to make a cushion for a friend that doesn't really sew, and she was happy for me to cut the t-shirt, so i decided to make an envelope fold cushion.
Work with the T-shirt inside out.
The first thing is to decide on the size, the maximum square you can make is the width between the arm holes, measure this, and then measure the same distance down from the neck hole and mark this square on the reverse of the front of the t-shirt.
turn the th-shirt over so you are working from the back (still inside out)cut up the sides nearly to the arm hole. You will actually cut it all the way up, but just cutting this far, helps to hold the positions of the front and back.
Fold the front of the t-shirt inside the t-shirt to make the square you decided on previously.( this will make the envelope flap, so the longer it is, the better.)
fold up the back, to shorten it ( I made it shorter than the front, but have since decided that it is better to actually make it the same length)

sew across this hem.

pin front and back together, trim off surplus on sides and top and sew along the sides and top of the square. Make sure that you are also sewing in the flap that you folded earlier

turn right side out.

insert cushion pad (tip: use a cushion pad larger than the measured size of your cover for a plump cushion)

cushions galore....

I'm in a bit of a cushion making frenzy at the moment. I have a new sewing machine and I adore it, so here's a selection

4 envelope fold cushions made from the leftovers from shortening a pair of curtains

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some red corduroy cushions with a zip in the seam (I just learned how to do that from a youtube video)- these are to go on the back seat of my car.

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an envelope fold t-shirt cushion (tutorial to follow)

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and then finally not sewn, but crocheted, a really simple crochet cushion with a zip in the back.

cutaway layered t-shirt (reverse applique)-tutorial

I saw some t-shirts similar to this in a french market, and thought "ooo I could do something like that with my own designs". I had never heard of reverse applique, so didn't know what this technique was, but it seemed quite obvious. I like that it's a full t-shirt over another, so you can get away with using cheaper t-shirts as you don't need the thickness. The two t-shirts are only held together by the design, but you could add extra stitching if you prefer.


So I bought a couple of £2.50 t-shirts from primark, to fit my teenage son. He wanted a skull design so the first thing to do was to design the skull (I was originally hoping that he'd choose something simpler!) please note, it's me modelling it in the picture though, NOT my teenage son!


I then drew around this onto the outer t-shirt.


I carefully positioned the inner t-shirt inside the outer one and pinned them together around the design.

I stitched over the design using a sewing machine, set to a stretch stitch.


I then cut away just the top layer inside the design. I purposefully kept the edges rough and unfinished looking.



and that's it, all that remains to do is tidy up the ends of the thread (I just used a sewing needle to pass the thread to the back and tied it off inside.

reversible Cath Kidston style tote

I found these gorgeous fabrics at Leeds Market, for £4 a metre. They are just gorgeous and I love the contrast the two fabrics.

I have used the "tea towel tote" method to make this bag, which makes it totally reversible.

so the decision is... which way to use it

I love making cushions

I have a real thing about cushions at the moment. One of the recent additions is one made from my son's favourite sweatshirt, when he grew out of it. I thought it was a nice touch to leave the pocket.

and another is a knitted cushion, with fancy cabling. I found this cable pattern in a magazine and thought it would look good on a cushion,

how to crochet a Lei..

I recently went to a Hawaiian night and thought it would be fun to crochet my own Lei. I thought "I bet there's loads of patterns on the internet"".....wrong I couldn't find any.

So I decided to make mine up. Unfortunately, I've lost the bit of paper I wrote it down on so I'm doing it from memory....

Create a chain the length you want your completed lei to be. in the third chain from the hook Treble crochet 2 stitches (british stitches) then 3 tr into each chain all the way across, this will cause the lei to twist a little but will still be quite stretchy.

at end turn, and perform 1dc 1tr 1dtr 1tr 1dc into EACH tr of previous row. This will naturally curl into a spiral and be very firm.
at the last stitch run the thread down to the chain row. you should now have a loose thread at each end, just tie these together and work in the ends.

This uses a lot of yarn. I bought 100g of cheap yarn and had just enough left to make a flower hairclip to match, which ended up as a gift decoration!
I also made a quick bag from a tea towel from a pack from poundland. The pattern said Hawaiian to me, so I had to make it..


This is not one of the reversible ones, so I made a special effort to sew the straps on neatly.

more quick knitted gifts: hot water bottle cover with lavender sachet

I saw something similar to this recently in a knitting magazine, but for a larger hot water bottle and knitted by a completely different method (in two parts and top down)

The first thing to note about this pattern is that it uses the magic loop method.


I have no intention of explaining it here. Just watch this video from youtube


One of the best things about this pattern is that it is a "less than one ball" pattern. you should easily be able to make one of these with a 50g ball of yarn (unless it's a spectacularly heavy yarn)

I saw these mini hot water bottles in poundland recently and decided that I had to make lavender hot water bottle covers for this years book club presents, so I immediatley bought 10.
Yes they are a horrible colour, but I intended to cover them so that was okay.

This picture shows how small they really are.

Materials
1x mini hot water bottle
1x 50g ball of DK yarn (about 100yd) if doing in just one colour, or you can easily use up oddments.
1x 4mm circular needle
scrap of fabric
dried lavender (I got mine from ebay)


gauge (important) 21st and 23 rows over 10cm square stocking stitch.

instructions
cast on 40 stitches, and divide in half on your circular needle, using the magic loop method. each of these halves I will call a "section" and two sections make a "round".

increase one stitch at each end of both sections on next three rounds. Knitting every row (creates stocking stitch when knitting in the round) - I increase by knitting into the front and back of the first and last stitch. (46 stitches)

continue knitting for 43 rounds ( 46 rounds in total)

decrease 1 stitch at end of each section for next two rounds ie :( K1 KSPO K to last 3 sts of section K2tog K2 KSPO K to last 3 stitches K2tog k1) twice

k 1 round

k1 p1 rib 34 rounds, cast off in rib.

to make the pocket
pick up 16 stitches in the middle of one side of 11th row, as shown.

stst 18 rows (ie k1 row p 1 row - you are not knitting in the round anymore, just using your circular needles as normal needles)
k1p1 rib 2 rows
cast off in rib.


sew sides of pocket to main piece.

sew up bottom of case.

The neck of the case is stretchy enough to insert the case from the top. you can then tuck the neck in to disguise the hot water bottle,


or fold it back on itself...

if you manage to get a nice coloured one!

now make a lavender bag. decide what size you want (do you want it to poke out of the pocket?)
and cut two rectangles slightly larger (seam allowance) sew right sides together leaving small gap for turning. turn right side out and stuff with lavender. sew up gap.