Jess’s Quilt

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I was asked to make a gift that could be given from a boyfriend to his girlfriend – Jess. The brief was…pretty brief (I know he won’t mind me saying that!).

The brief consisted of a list of all the things that Jess liked including elephants, rabbits, Cath Kidston and warm cuddly stuff…sounds like a lady after my own heart.

After mixing these idea ingredients together in a big pot, the result was an explosion of colour and a hand-made, thoughtful gift that was created out of love of one person to another.

I think that’s enough photos…you get the idea.

(And I really enjoyed making this too…although a bigger table would have come in really useful!)

Ethan’s Quilt

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Bunting is pretty and all but when you have to do such large amounts like 45m, 48m and even 75m, it starts to get a little same-ey.

Which is why, when I get asked to make a one off, something a little bit different, I really enjoy it, especially when I get to be a little creative – within limits of the brief of course!

Remember Emily’s quilt? Well, little Emily’s mum asked if I would make another baby quilt for her friend who had a little boy a couple of weeks ago. Since Emily’s quilt turned out a bit on the large size, we thought smaller – more cot-sized – would be better and the colour scheme was orange, red, yellow and greens to fit with a range the new parents had decorated their nursery in.

I based the size and layout of the quilt on a cute pattern in Cath Kidson’s Sew book – this was to make sure the size of the finished quilt was just right.

On each of the large square patches, I sewed a mixture of pictures including animals, a kite, and a hot air balloon – I drew this out first so I knew where to position them in a way I thought they would tie in together.

I sewed the shapes on using a range of hand sewing, machine zig zag and straight stitch applique, and running stitch by hand using embroidery thread.

In the alternate diamond shapes I used a mixture of lovely boyish printed fabrics, in the same colour pallet, including a yellow train fabric from Riley Blake‘s Scoot range and also ‘Making paper hats’ and ‘On the Go’ designed by Sarah Jane.

All of the fabrics I used on this quilt I will be selling via my partnership business, on my online shop, Love Me Sew, which is due to go live in the next week or two (exciting!) – there are some super gorgeous fabrics…currently stocked up in my sewing room…it is almost the same as holding a plate of chocolate brownies infront of me and saying I can’t eat them!

Anywho, the finishing touch was obviously little baby’s name: Ethan, date of birth and weight.

Like I said I really enjoyed making this quilt as, other than the colour pallet, I was left to just get on and make it how I wanted…which is always nice.

Pinocchio and Robot.

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There is always going to be new babies and, like my previous post, it’s lovely to give a gift that is personalised making it a little bit special.

Because I like to make items for people that are tailored to what they ask for but also made to suit the little person, I like them all to be a little different. While I’ve made a number of similar pandas and bibs before (they seem to be pretty popular), I am always asked to pop their name, date of birth and/or weight on their somewhere.

For a recent baby gift set that I made, there was the said popular panda and bib (still mega cute though), there was also a little laundry bag for baby’s little mits, booties and baby grows. As far as laundry bags go, they’re nothing special, so I thought I would jazz it up with of felt applique.

This [always my favourite] Japanese printed fabric, which I got from Etsy,  has little robots printed (as well as Pinocchio…cute!) so I decided to pick out the robot and use this as my applique shape. I used felt which I find really nice to work with, also adding a bit of a different texture to the fabric item. I finished off my robot by added some buttons for buttons.

It’s all about the name.

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I’ve made plenty of personalised things before, and they are still proving popular – I guess if you are having something made from scratch, to your preferred spec, then why not?

Lately I’ve made more bunting but this time it’s all been about the names…

Hannah’s bunting was made to match her freshly painted bedroom and her favourite colour.

This next set of bunting I was asked to make as I new baby present – complete little lady’s name, Lucia, and embroider her date and time of birth, and weight. Although this is a gift for a little baby, I was asked to keep the colours and prints not too baby-ish, so it can be kept and used as she grows up…

Bridesmaid Bags.

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One of my oldest and closest friends, Laura, got married just over a week ago and I was one of eight bridesmaids.

The beautiful bride and her hubby Al.

Being a lovely, out-going, very bubbly and caring person, Laura and her now hubby got married on the banks of the beautiful Loch Lomond in Scotland in front of a massive 170 guests. The colour scheme for the wedding was along the Easter theme of pastel pink, blue, green and blue, complete with personalised egg cups and chocolate eggs.

The bridal party attire was (of course!) kilts for the men, cream lace dresses for the bridesmaids, and Laura’s beautiful Stephanie Allin wedding dress. Topped off with pink, blue and white hydrangers for the flowers.

A little while back, amongst the wedding-organising craziness, Laura asked me to make purses for the bridesmaids as a little surprise gift. We initially were going to go with a pink fabric, but after my other good friend and co-bridemaid Sarah told us she was pregnant and her baby started to grow, we ended up a with a spare bridesmaid dress which I cut up to make the bags.

I got some gorgeous antique-style purse frames which had a decorative flower (that I thought looked appropriately like a thistle!) from Etsy.

From bridesmaid dress...

...to bag!

With one test bag complete and approved by the bride, I got started on the other seven.

With enough fabric left to make another, I decided Laura couldn’t go without, so I made her a surprise bag also with the addition of a little hand-stitched label spelling out the bride and groom’s names and their wedding date – as a little keep sake.

On the morning of the wedding, Laura gave all the bags to her bridesmaids, which she had filled with a whole range of girly goodies including a little mirror, nail file, hand cream, bracellet, flower hair clips and more.

The girls loved their bags which also recevied plenty of nice comments from wedding guests throughout the day.

As well as the bags, I made a few little extra bits and bobs including a ‘Mr and Mrs’ banner and mini cake bunting with ‘hitched’ embroidered on the little flags.

As a thank you for making the bags, Laura gave me a lovely little silver star charm, with my initial. This charm was not only gorgeous, it was super special as it was also hand-made by my equally crafty friend Jane, who has recently starter her own jewellery business: Love Bird Love – please check out her website, it’s worth it!

Wedding season has arrived…

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As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been pretty busy with orders for weddings and one of the first was just delivered to the bride…

A whopping 75 meters of bunting and 42 meters of table runners!

Lisa, the lovely bride-to-be, contacted me at the end of last year after visiting my little blog site, to enquire about table runners and bunting for her wedding in April 2012, with which she was planning on aiming to create a similar vibe to our own rustic, marquee-style wedding.

With a colour scheme brief of sage green, pale country rose pink and ivory, I set to work on sourcing some fabrics, making sure Lisa was happy with my choice before cutting into it. With Lisa’s good choice of colours, it wasn’t too difficult to find some florals and spots which looked lovely together.

Once the bunting fabric was decided and the hessian for the runners ordered, the snipping, ironing and sewing got underway.

I worked on this project over a number of weeks (not constantly! Inbetween other, smaller orders, as well as working my normal job) and, while it was a large order and took a lot of time, I did it in small chunks and it was great to see it coming together at the end (even if I did have a slight panic when I ran out of green stripe and couldn’t find anywhere that sold it!).

All boxed and ready to got (hessian runners complete with little ‘Emily Carlill’ lables telling Lisa how long each of the runners were) to say thanks, I added in a couple of little heart decorations with some of the left over bunting fabric and embroidered some words, which I thought Lisa and her h2b might want to use also at their wedding.

I hope they have a great day and look forward to some photos.

Cowboy treat for my Texas Pete.

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It’s been a little while since I posted anything on my own blog due to the fact that it is coming into wedding season and I am full to bursting with making hessian runners, men’s wedding ties, bunting, bridesmaid bags, banners, cutlery pouches, and cake bunting!

That, and the fact that I am working on getting my partnership business, Love Me Sew, up and running – which I might post about soon when (fingers crossed) our website will be live! Yeahy.

Amongst all the wedding craft craziness, I’ve managed to squeeze in a few extra bits and bobs; two of which have been pressys for my family. Granted, not the most exciting of presents but I enjoyed making them (as they were nice, easy and stress-free!) and, most importantly, they were liked…

The first was a cushion for my mum for Mother’s Day. Not only was it patchwork (which I love of any kind due to its crazy random-ness) but it was a little bit more special as I made the patchwork pieces out of the fabric left over from my wedding bunting.

The second was also a cushion but this time for the hubby. I know it’s a bit of a rubbish present for a man but it’s so difficult to think of a suitable, manly gift that is sewn or hand-crafted (and I made a not-very-strict-resolution to give a hand-made gift at every possible birthday opportunity!). While I also got him some other more interesting gifts, I knew he would like this as it’s made with cowboy print fabric (of the Cath Kidston variety) and anyone who knows Pete knows he has the biggest back catalogue of country music and loves to styles himself on a bit of the American Old West!

Pete, second from right with the appropriately named Hank Williams-style band 'The Lovesick Cowboys'.