Fabric Book Cover

Well this has taken a long time to produce!  My sister and I have wanted to make one of these for a long time and we have tried a couple of times before with limited success.  We finally came up with a pattern that worked for us and this is my first attempt.  Her one turned out a lot better but I'm hoping that the next one will work better.  As ever, my daughter got her hands on it and has now claimed it as hers!

Bag for me!

I realised recently that although I had made lots of bags for other people, I didn't have one for myself yet so I thought I should remedy this.  I came up with a slightly different design for this one which meant that it had 3 small external pockets and then I added two small internal pockets suitable for a mobile phone and a purse or similar.  I will attempt to do a tutorial for this one shortly but for now, here is the final product in use!

Flowery Bag

Time for another very belated present!  This time for my sister who chose the fabric ages ago and then I said I'd make her a bag.  The design has changed a bit over time so it now has an outside and an inside pocket. It was harder sorting that out as normally the straps hold the pocket down so I had to stitch the inside pocket down first.  It seems to have worked though so I'm pleased.

Pink skirt

Well the gorgeous little monster went to sleep for a while today so I was able to finish off this skirt I had started for my daughter.  Sewing clothes is not something I am very good at as I don't know how to follow a pattern but this skirt is so easy it doesn't need one really!  The fabric is a little bit thin, but will last her for this summer and I may have to make some more when I get a chance.

Tutorial: Ribbon Blanket

Well I thought I'd try a tutorial as I've never done one before.  It's for the ribbon blanket I made originally for my son as I've just made another one for his new cousin who should be born soon!  

Ribbon Blanket Tutorial

You will need:
- two pieces of fabric of a similar size (I used a pink piece of cotton material and a soft one)
- 8 pieces of ribbon all the same length

1 - Take the front piece of fabric and lay it down right side up

2 - Fold each piece of ribbon in half and pin it in place with the ends sticking out over the fabric

3 - Stitch it all in place then cut off the excess ribbon around the edges

4 - Put the backing fabric on top of the front piece right side-to-right side and pin in place

5 - Stitch around the edges leaving a gap to turn inside out

6 - Cut any excess fabric away and trim the corners

7 - Turn the blanket the right way round and push the corners out

8 - Sew around the whole blanket edge to finish off and seal the gap

Post-it Note Holder

Well as it is my birthday today, I decided I wanted to try to do something crafty but my gorgeous little monster didn't want to sleep so I only had time to do something quick!  When I was sorting through my craft stuff recently, I discovered some beer mats that I had covered previously for calendars.  I also found some post-it notes so decided to make some holders for post-it notes. I bought some mini Sharpies to go with them and added ribbon to the sides to make holders for them. Not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, they might end up as stocking fillers at Christmas!

I used decopatch papers to cover some beer mats in different colours.  Once dry, I used double-sided sticky tape to fix Post-it notes to the covered beer mat.  I then used double-sided tape again to fix a small piece of ribbon to the back of the mats and stick the ends together.  The pen can then be slotted into place.