I was lucky enough to receive several cones of Zpagetti yarn from the lovely Gwen at Hoooked, I’d been curious about it for a while and was delighted to give it a try. It’s made from fabric off cuts from the garment industry, so it’s a sustainable product that defers textiles from entering landfill.
I am in desperate need of places to store all my crafty bits and pieces, so making some baskets was the logical option.
These baskets work up quite quickly and if you make them in graduating sizes, they can nest into each other. I’ve included basic instructions and a video, but I do assume you have some experience with crochet. Continue reading →
Ok, put your hand up if you dread sewing buttonholes. Most sewing machines have a either a manual or automatic buttonhole setting that can make your life a whole lot easier.
My old machine had a manual 4 step buttonhole, which meant I had to manually change the settings between each stage. It was simple to use, but getting a consistently sized buttonhole was difficult.
Now my new machine has an Automatic buttonhole setting which uses a special buttonhole foot to measure the size of the buttons and makes a perfect buttonhole every time. I recently made a duvet cover with a button closures (will share a How To soon), and fell in love with this little contraption.
It looks a little complicated, but once you see how it works, you’ll love using it too.
I’ve created a video to explain how to use it.
I have so many delicate silver chains sitting in the bottom of my jewellery box, unloved and unworn. I’m not one for dainty jewellery pieces and thought adding some colourful beads to this silver chain would be fun makeover. Paper beads are easy to make and will only cost you pennies, but make quite a fashion statement. Why not make a whole bowl of different coloured beads, then mix and match to add a fun twist to any outfit. The kids will have fun playing threading games with these too. I’ve made a video showing how to roll the beads…
You will need:
Colourful paper strips, the wider the strip the longer the finished bead Quick dry craft glue A pencil A long chain with fastener (look in your jewellery box)
How To: I’ve made a video which shows you how to roll your beads. They are fun and super quick to make. The longer the strips of paper, the thicker and more durable your beads will be. The ones I’ve made here are quite light weight and sit well on my delicate silver chain. If they get squashed I’ll just make another quick batch.
I’ve been experimenting with my free motion quilting foot this week and I wanted to show you how fun it can be to have a little play and add an extra dimension to fabrics that can then be used in other projects. This same technique can be used on bigger projects like quilts. I’ve quilted a pretty vintage linen tea towel and made a fun video so you can watch the whole process. If you’ve always wondered what a ‘darning foot’ or free motion foot was for, this is the tute for you!
You will need:
Darning Foot, also called a Free Motion Quilting/Embroidery Foot You may already have one in that box of sewing machine attachments that you’ve never used, but they can also be purchased from sewing stores. Yours may look slightly different so you may need to check your manual to see how it attaches.
A tea towel or piece of fabric with large graphic flowers Poly batting (nice and lofty) Backing fabric (I’ve used a thin cotton voile) Batting/Applique adhesive spray (optional)
How to:
Preparing the fabric- If you are using a batting adhesive spray make sure you are working in a well ventilated area. Lay down your backing fabric and spray lightly. Lay the batting on top of this, spray then place the tea towel on top. The idea is to sandwich the batting in between the two layers of fabric, and the spray makes the layers grippy so things don’t slide around. If you don’t have the spray, you can also pin the layers together.
Preparing your machine- Attach your Darning foot Lower your feed dogs Set your stitch length to zero
Now it’s time to have a play on some scraps of fabric. Presser foot down (although the foot looks like it is up, it moves up and down with each stitch) Move the fabric slowly under the foot sewing at about medium speed. It takes a little practice to get used to.
Here is my Before and After:
I’ve made a video to show you how I have used the floral design as my guide for the quilting pattern.
How much fun was that? Here is the back
And a close up of the front
Tune in next week to see what I make with this quilted panel…
If you’ve been following me on Instagram I’m sure you’ve noticed I’ve gone a little loopy for making Blythe doll clothes. Had so many failed attempted early on that I lost my Blythe sewing mojo until it was rekindled by an impromptu swap organized via twitter. Anyhoo! I crocheted Perty this beautiful raspberry beret and thought you may like the instructions to make your own…
It’s very simple if you know some basic crochet technique and stitches, and I’ve made a video showing you how to do a decrease treble stitch.
My pattern writing skills are terrible so this is more a how to than a strict pattern, but I hope it’s easy enough to follow.
Yarn: 8 ply (I’ve used 100% wool) Hook: 4.00 Stitches: AUS/UK terminology. magic ring (explained), sl (slip), ch (chain), dc (double crochet), tr (treble crochet), anything in * * means repeat, inc (means work 2 stitches in one ie. inc 1 dc = 2 dc worked into one stitch of previous row), dec (means work one stitch in two). Optional- stitch marker
1. Make a Magic ring (slip knot) 1 ch then work 7 dc into it, pull the end to close
2. 2 dc into each dc of row 1 (14 stitches) 3. * 1 dc then inc 1 dc* repeat till end of row working in a spiral (21 stitches) 4. * 2 dc then inc 1 dc* repeat till end of row working in a spiral (28 stitches) 5. 3 ch then * 3 tr then inc 1 tr * repeat till end of row then sl
6. ch 3, 1 tr * inc 1 tr, 2 tr * repeat till end of row then sl 7. ch 3, * 3 tr, inc 1 tr * repeat till end of row then sl 8. ch 3, * 5 tr , inc 1tr * repeat till end of row then sl 9. work 2 rounds of dc 10. ch 3, dec tr all the way around (see video for instructions on this stitch) 11. work one round of loose dc, sl then tie in loose end.
I hope that was clear enough. My tension is pretty tight so you may need to adjust for your tension. The idea is to work a flat circle till round 8 (shouldn’t have any cupping or waves) then 2 plain rows before decreasing.
Here is how to do a decrease treble stitch (sorry you tube has added ads because of the music licensee)
Enjoy! Please leave a comment if you have given it a try and have an questions or suggestions
This video is an impromptu conversation with Jodie from The Haby Goddess who has been a long time friend of mine. In this video we talk about how we met, our creative business styles and how the relationship we have formed has helped improve our crafty businesses. We also talk about the importance of creative collaboration and how working together can make great things happen. Essentially, How Building Creative relationships can help your business.
I hope you enjoy the video. It’s a little bit long, and thanks to Emma’s many interruptions we may have repeated ourselves once or twice.
There are lots of take away points that may benefit you in whatever field you are in: - Get to know people in your industry - Build relationships based on friendship and trust - Share your knowledge and talk about your ideas - Collaborate on projects - Identify your skills and share workload accordingly - Motivate and be accountable to keep the project moving along. - Don’t try to film a vlog post with a 2 yo around!
I would like to thank Jodie for taking part in this vlog post with me, she was a really good sport. You can check out Jodie’s blog here and her shop here.
The Haby Goddess is a sponsor of the My Poppet blog but in the interest of full disclosure I need to point out that this was NOT a sponsored post. I just thought it would be fun to share.
Do you have a friend like Jodie that you’ve worked together with to ‘get things done’?
You’re gifts will always look professionally wrapped when you add this pretty gift bow to it. I used to do a lot of gift wrapping when I had the store, and customers would always appreciate the extra effort I went to, but really it was not much effort at all. I’d make the bows up in advance between customers, then whip them out at a moments notice.
My video tutorial explains the process really clearly, all you need to have on hand is a roll of Poly Ribbon (Florist Ribbon) and a pair of scissors.
Hope you enjoyed the video, please leave any questions you have in the comment section below.
***Unfortunately picnik has ceased to exist as of April 19th 2012. RIP picnik, we miss you*** You all know I’m a big fan of picnik.com, and now I love it even more because I’ve worked out how to use PNG image files, that are designed for use in Photoshop, on picnik. PNG images have transparent areas on them which allows you to overlay multiple images like a collage.
It’s really easy, but you will need to have a Premium account in picnik.
I have created a screen cast for you, with some helpful hints along the way that you can apply to heaps of your photo projects.
I have used the free downloadable photo overlays created by Katrina from PuglyPixel.com. Her website is just choc-o-block full of great downloadable files that you can use to jazz up your images as well as great blog design tutorials and craft projects. I just love her washi tape strips, you can my tutorial on how to use them here.
Hope you enjoyed my screencast, leave a comment if you have any questions. x Cinti
