Snood DIY

Part two of my snood season is making a snood from scratch! This is such an easy sew make and because of that it is rather dangerous. I first learnt to make snoods out of my scarves, but that wasn't enough. It just made me want to make my own, and I did.

What you need is some fabric, a sewing machine (or a strong will and a needle and thread) and some corresponding thread.

When you look for your fabric, remember it is going to be around your neck so you don't want rough or too heavy pieces. The best and easiest way to get the size right is by going to the store, most fabric rolls come in around the same width, all you need to decide is the length. your snood is going to be doubled over so depending on the thickness of your snood double that length and add your seam allowance and that is what you buy. Done, and cut out for you by a lovely person :)

I hope that makes sense, the next steps involve the actual putting together of the snood.

1. Fold the two right sides together with the long sides together. Sew along this seam leaving 4 inches either end un-sewn.

2. Put your arm all the way through the long tube and pull inside out so that your snood is facing the correct way. Here comes the hard to explain bit, Now I read so many tutorials on this part that I just could not understand it, it may just be me not being clever so I youtubed a video instead. If you want the video that I used to see how to sew the two ends together then you can find it here.
 

 

3. Then you just need to stitch the hole in the middle where the two end gaps come together and you are done!

Good luck in the making of your snoods! :) X

Simple Scarf Change

Who doesn't love a scarf or a snood? I have so many of the things. But lately I have been preferring a snood. They just go on, hardly move and there is no annoying trying not to get them stuck in your coat zip moments. So I looked at my stack of scarves and wondered which I could improve after finding the most simple tutorial on how to make a snood. I thought, why have I not done this? This amounted in me making 3 snoods in just over an hour. Crazy. But also dangerous!!

So, how do you turn a scarf into a snood you ask? It is so simple...

1. Take your scarf...

2. Trim off the tasseled ends...

3. Then work out which will be your right side, then right side together pin the two raw ends together and sew and zig zag the edges. (Or overlock if you have a fancy machine.)

4. You could then leave it at that but to make mine a little neater I then folded that seam down and pressed it and sewed  it parallel to the fold seam to make it a flat seam. Like so...

5. That's you done. Grab and go for a fast paced lady!

X

Our Little House

Just before Christmas 2013 we got the keys to our first home. Huge smiles were upon our faces. Our actual own space has been a long time coming and we are so happy with it. It is a little cottage style terraced house just outside of Birmingham, almost in the country, so we get the best of both worlds. It has taken quite a lot of work to get to where we are now, but there is still plenty to come. But I thought I would share some corners of our home that I love, both things that I have done and features.
I hope you enjoy...

 Our first plant

 Organisation and storage

 It's mine, get out!

I do love a piece of wood 

 We can now grow our record collection quite nicely

I realised I am a wool hoarder, but I am okay with that. 

Bedroom fireplace and pom pom garland 

DIY ombre pillowcase and rocking chair grey update 

Hats 

Bunting 

My camera collection on display 

Our beautiful new fireplace and the main attraction for the house,

we have had many fires now and it is so lovely 

Dream catcher collection 

My man had his record player hooked up so we can listen all day

I am sure I will share so much more than this over the coming months and years, and all my makes so far will surely appear on here fairly soon too. I have been up to so much that I don't know where to start, but I am sure I can find something as I can't wait to show you it all.

X

Bracelets

I like a small make, I think you may have realised that, mostly due to the fact that I love the end result and if its a big make it takes a lot longer to get to that end result. This morning, in half an hour, I put together 3 bracelets. I used some seed beads and some small silver plated beads that I purchased at my local haberdashery (that place should give me some shares soon) and some linen thread which I have used previously.

It is simple really, just put the beads onto the thread with various knots, little charms and patterns along the way. Easy, and you can make them exactly how you want them to be.

Check mine out. I love the greens and the natural colours. :)

My Mathilde Blouse

So you may have noticed that recently I have been on a bit of a sewing kick. No? Where have you been? It is amazing what you can do with only a basic sewing machine. People spend hundreds of pounds on them, but mine is only a little Mini one (here).

Anyway, I decided to throw myself in at the deep end and see what I could actually do. So I decided on Tilly's Mathilde Blouse. What does worry me about sewing is that when I go shopping I try things on and it looks awful, so I would hate to spend hours on something only to find it looks terrible on. But this is fabulous, and looking at photos of other people creations it seems to fit all different shapes and sizes, so it's one to recommend.

I picked a lovely red cotton fabric that has a little stretch in it, who doesn't love a bit of stretch, and it has a cute little floral pattern on it. I was worried that the florals would hide the pleats but they don't at all :)

The cuffs were my main worry, I have never done a sleeve before, and these didn't look easy sleeves with all the gathers, but they really were!

My only real issue was that my sewing machine doesn't do buttons. Now really this isn't a big worry as when you think about it you can't do the buttons up when you are wearing it yourself, well I can't anyway, haha. So I just sewed the buttons on holding the top together. My idea is that when I get a sewing machine that does do button holes then I will unpick the buttons and do the holes properly.

So what does my finished garment look like?
Ta Da!!

I am so proud of myself for completing this and loving it! I say thank you to Tilly for creating such an easy to follow pattern, great for all shapes and sizes!

X

Patches

I recently purchased some denim dungarees and I have made them my comfy crafting clothes. They are really comfy but not a lot to look at, so I decided they needed an update. I went for some crochet patches. Just teeny tiny versions of granny squares and flowers that I stitched to the front.

To find out how you crochet a granny square, have a little looksie here. But crochet flowers are even more simple!

Here is how you put them together...

Tools you will need:
* Yarn
* Suitable crochet hook for your Yarn

Recipe (UK terms):
1. ch 6 then sl st to the first ch in row

2. dc 16 times into circle, sl st into first dc on row

3. *ch 2, 1tr into next 2 sts, ch 2 sl st into next st. Repeat from * 4 more times. Fasten off and you are done!

I am planning on adding more as time goes on, maybe some fabric patches too. The yarn I used was this really beautiful cream with a little added sparkle. Cute!

X

The Year-Round Skirt

I love an item that you can wear all year round. Jeans, t-shirts, layering up in the winter, and down in the summer. This skirt is one of those items! It would look great with a t-shirt or a vest in the summer, in the winter a chunky knit and some boots!

I made this skirt after seeing the pattern on Tilly's website here. It was so easy to make, much easier than the Sorbetto top. I put pockets in mine and made smaller gingham fabric buttons for the front. But as my sewing machine does not have a button hole stitch I was a bit sneaky and I actually used poppers down the front on the inside. I love how Tilly used gingham too, I actually purchased the fabric before I found the pattern! Great minds hey!

I suggest you all should have as many of these skirts in your wardrobe in as many different colours and patterns that you can. It is also a great skirt to fit all shapes and sizes! :)

X

Sorbetto Blouse

Okay, so yesterday I got all excited purchasing my gingham fabric and printing my pattern out that I just plain forgot this is my first attempt at a proper garment. I still think I did pretty darn good, but there are a few obvious mistakes looking at it. But here it is!

With all this hot weather I wanted a looser top, which didn't quite go to plan, it meant extra darts which misshaped the arm holes, but not too badly! It does flare out a little at the bottom too, which is okay.

I finished it with a white trim around the collar and a little white button detail at the top of the pleat.

Look at my pleat, its a pretty straight one! Proud of that :)

Now what shall I make with my large gingham fabric? Any ideas?!

X

A Day Out and a Quick Make

This weekend was so glorious and sunshiney! It was beautiful. So I had to take advantage so me and my man went for a walk along the canals in Birmingham and for lunch at a lovely Italian restaurant. It was lovely, and I only burnt a little...

I love taking a walk along the canals in Birmingham, there is so much character and history around there and the atmosphere is great.

I even treated myself to a scrummy raspberry meringue which didn't last very long.

I also made myself a little bracelet using lots of natural fibres. I love all the friendship bracelets that you can get around in the summer. But why spend £8 when you can make many for a lot less!

So I raided my stash and found five different colours of linen threads, red, orange, cream, brown and black.

To be honest you can use whatever threads to make your bracelets. My bracelet is only thin because I used these thin linen threads. I would also recommend embroidery threads. That is what most friendship bracelets are made with. I measured out 50cm of each thread twice. So in total I had 10 strands. But you could have as many colours as you fancy just make sure you do two strands of each!

Tie a knot at the top leaving enough threads at the end to be able to tie your bracelet. Then using a safety pin I pinned the threads to a cushion and spread them out, the two blacks in the centre, brown either side then cream, orange and reds on the outside.

To make the bracelet take the left red strand and move into the centre between the two blacks. Do the same with the red strand on the right side and move it over the top of the red strand in the centre, repeat with the orange strands and carry on going until you reach the desired length.

When you get to your desired length tie a knot and tie your two ends together around your or a friends wrist or ankle. I love the chevron effect and so easy with no knots or fussiness. Easy!

X

Tilly's Bow Belt

After watching the Great British Sewing Bee, I of course had to buy the book and learn more about all the sewing things that I am missing (like millions of others)! I found Tilly's blog (from the show) and looked into her makes and found this cute little belt. I have wanted a black belt for ages and never even thought of making my own. But here it is! My own belt :)

My only tweak will be to make it slightly smaller, I think I overplanned. Usually my items turn out too small, this time too big, ahh deary me! Anyway, I used a basic black cotton fabric, and followed her instructions here. I am thinking of making many different colours and combinations. Maybe even a plain strip with embroidery, ooooh embroidery!!

I am working my way up to something more serious in the sewing region... but if it's like my grand knitted jumper, I am not sure anything will come of it! We shall see...

X