How to make a Christmas advent calendar

A few pics of the Christmas advent calendar I made for my niece:












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How to make a Christmas stocking

A few pics of the stocking I just made for my niece:









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Recent crafty projects: How to make a tea cosy

I'll upload some pattern templates for the cosy and giraffes soon...



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Recent crafty projects: Barking bags

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Recent crafty projects: how to make a table runner

Table runners actually couldn't be easier to make - you just need coloured fabrics (that go with your dining room...!), wadding and a backing fabric.

Here's one I made recently:






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Recent crafty projects: Tweet bag

This cute bag for life is fully lined and therefore reversible, which is a bonus in this household!

The little bird and her wing have been sewn onto the front and back panel using satin stitch- with a button for her eye.

A pretty easy project once you've done the appliqué:






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Recent crafty projects: Christmas Tree Decorations

Here's a very cute Christmas tree decoration- simply stripey fabric filled with wadding:




And this little chien is made with thin white felt stuffed slightly with wadding and a woollen red neck-tie. Woof:



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How to make a baby's patchwork quilt

To make a baby's patchwork quilt you will need some time, some patience and some more time. And a bit more patience.

This is an endurance project - you're not going to get this finished in a day, probably not in a week. But when it's finished you will be left with a piece of art which will see a child through from baby to toddler through his or her most formative years - so let's make it a good one!
The finished quilt will measure 90cm long by 70cm wide. The patchwork made of of triangles and hexagons is called baby block.

First thing's first, you will need:
3 different colours, light, medium and dark - to be sure, get a metre sq of each fabric.
Backing material - 92cm x 72 cm
Cotton wadding - 92cm x 72cm
An equilateral diamond shape card with 6cm sides plus a 1cm seam allowance (you can buy these as templates - it has to be accurate!)

Cut out plenty of diamond shapes in each of your three colour materials:

Using a 1cm seam sew the backs of three diamonds together to form a hexagon

Once you have several of these, start to join the hexagons together:
It will look like this on the back:
Once you have a shape that is roughly 80cm x 60cm, stop:
Now you need to create a 5cm boarder out of dark and medium coloured fabric - 3cm light sandwiched between two 1cm dark strips (each with a 1cm seam allowance)

Sew the boarder to your hexagons, then sandwich the wadding between your patchwork and backing fabric and sew together with a 1cm seam. You're back hurts, your eyes are bloodshot and you've got pins and cotton all over the floor, I know. But just look at what you're left with:

How to make a pleat skirt

Not to be worn on a Cornish windy day (of which we have many) this gorgeous pleat skirt is actually a doodle to sew. Stick with me. This is what you'll end up with:


You will need:
Pretty skirt material and matching cotton thread: width 3 x your waist (size 12 = 135cm) height = 50cm
Matching bias binding: 2 x width of waist (90cm)
Matching zip: 20cm

Lay out your material and every 12 cm overlap a 4cm section and pin in place - that will leave you with 8cm, then a 2cm pleat, 8cm then a 2 cm pleat etc. Try it for size around your waist and adjust as necessary.

Sew these pleats in place along the top of the fabric horizontally, and then vertically 8cm down each pleat.

Fold in half right side to right side, and seam together to make a tube - sewing in the zip at the top. Then sew your bias binding along the top of your skirt to hide your top seam:






Hem the bottom of the skirt:


Sew a hook and eye to the top of the zip on the underside:


Et voila - your very own pleat skirt.

How to make Beautiful British Bunting

Bit late with this as the Royal Wedding was last week - but really it's never too late to have bunting up, is it?

First, cut yourself out a card template that is 7" from top to tip, and 6" wide.
Pin this to your swatches/ leftover pretty materials and cut yourself a pile of, er, bunts using pinking scissors... Take a length of ribbon and zig-zag stitch your material to it, leaving an inch gap between each triangle:

Et voila! Now hang and if required, sing Jerusalem! at the top of one's voice:

How to make Crafty Curtains for your home

Patience is a virtue. Never more so than when making curtains.
First thing's first, get some space. Floor, table, wherever you can find it - the more flat space you have at your finger tips, the easier it will be.

What you'll need:

• Curtain material (see how much you'll need below)
  
• Lining material
  
• Sewing machine
• Curtain tape (I used this one. The longer your curtains, the thicker your tape should be. Up to 2m drop = 2" tape. Up to 3m drop = 3" tape, and so on)
• Thread - similar colour to curtain material

Helpful:

• Tailors chalk
• An iron

Each curtain will be the length of your window + 20cm x the width of your window +5cm.
Here's how to work out how much material you'll need:


Lay lining material out, right side up.
Pin your curtain tape along the top of the lining, 7.5cm down.
Lay your curtain material on top of it, right side down and pin all layers in place.
Sew 2.5cm around both lengths and the top of the fabric.
Repeat with second curtain.

Turn inside out (to right side) and iron flat.
Sew top and bottom lengths of tape through both lining and curtain material - in order to avoid wrinkles, sew both in same direction:


Gather the tape on one end so curtain is half the width it was (half the width of your window):


Slip hooks through the tape at even points about 8cm apart and hang:


Once your curtains have hung in place for a good 4 weeks, hem by12.5cm and re-hang