Make it: Bucket Pincushion and Pretty Pins

Every sewer should have a cute pincushion, it's just no fun sewing without one. It is even better when you can use up some old bits and bobs to make one and pretty up your pins to match. I have used this cute little bucket to make mine, but you can use anything you have around the house, from ramekins to teacups and a pretty piece of fabric, I have used this yummy liberty print. 

You will need: stuffing, a bucket (ramekin or cup) a scrap of fabric, needle and thread, glue, scissors, glass pebbles or stones, pins and nail varnish. 

Start off by filling the bottom of your bucket with the glass pebbles. You can use anything for this, it is just to give the bottom some weight so it wont move when you pop your pins in. Next, take your fabric and cut a 25cm square. Fold the square in half and then in half again, trim the raw edges off in a curve. This should give you a rough circle of fabric.  

Take your needle and thread and sew all the way around about 25mm in from the edge. Before you gather up your stitching pop in a large handful of stuffing.

Once the stuffing is in the pouch pull up your stitches and secure it by wrapping your thread around the bottom.  Before you pop a couple of stitches in to hold it securely, put it into the bucket to make sure it fits snugly, then you can add or take out some stuffing to make it fit.

Take your glue and put a thick layer around the rim of your bucket. let it go a little tacky before placing your pin top in place.

Now to pretty up those pins. I have used nail varnish in some of my favourite Essie colours to paint my flower headed pins, I love the pins but the primary colours they come in don't fill me with joy.  This is a simple solution to make your dull pins look a little more fun and match with your pretty new pin cushion. Just make sure your polish is set before you use them.  I leave at least 24 hours before I use them, and as with any plastic headed pins never iron over them, just in-case.

I really love these pins! I cant wait to use them for a project. I love how using cute sewing supplies can make you feel happy about even the most mundane of sewing project.  I have some repair jobs to do this weekend and these will make doing those a little more fun.

How do you keep yourself happy doing those things that have to be done that you don't want to do? What's your favourite sewing accessory? If you have a go at making one of these do let us know, we love seeing pictures of the things that you make, and don't forget to #livelovemake.

Sammy xxx


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Makers Month Giveaway! (CLOSED)

Hey all, by now all the excitement of our Makers Month has been and gone :(  But we have been able to feature some amazing British Designer/Makers and some other cool brands along the way. We thought, what better way to round off the month than with a Giveaway. You could win all of this...

The Learn to Sew with Lauren Book - from our post on the 3rd September

 Charlotte Skirt Pattern from By Hand London - from our post on the 19th September

Fat Quarters from Dashwood Studios (Cable Cozy tutorial)

 and Liberty (Elbow Patches tutorial)

 Cloud Brooch by TigerLilly Quinn

All you need to do is tell us your favourite British Designer/Maker in the comments below and all this could be yours!

Don't forget to leave your email address in the comment and we can contact you if you are our winner!

Competition closes at midnight (UK time) on Friday 10th October and is open Internationally, so everyone can benefit from our best of British selection.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Lots of Love
H and Sammy xxx

 Live, Love, Make, Like, Share, Follow, Tweet, Pin, Add, Enjoy. 

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Makers Month: Make it: Liberty Print Elbow Patches

Obviously we couldn't go through our Maker's Month without using a little Liberty fabric!  We were lucky enough to be given some fabrics from the lovely people at Liberty, when we went to the event that The New Craft Society organised with them back in March, you can see our post here.

So what better way to use some lovely fabric, than with some elbow patches to jazz up a plain jumper.  I do love an elbow patch, maybe it's the geek in me! So I thought it would be great to update the look.

Our Liberty Adventure with The New Craft Society

I'm not sure that we have entirely recovered from the trip we went on last week, it was a little bit like a dream. H and I got invited by the lovely Rosie and Hannah AKA The New Craft Society to attend their blog birthday party, we had to read the email a few times before it sank in that their party was to be held at one of our favourite places in the whole world.... Liberty!

So last Wednesday at 6.30pm we headed to the 3rd floor Heritage Suite at Liberty, just off the Haberdashery department (we felt right at home), where we were met by the Liberty design team. They ushered us into the room that was once Arthur Lasenby Liberty's office, to enjoy the most beautiful afternoon tea and hear them talk all about the S/S14 Liberty Art Fabrics collection.

Each place was set with a Liberty fabric charm bracelet and (the most awesome) goodie bag from The New Craft Society girls. It was like we had stumbled into a secret Mad Hatters tea party, if the Hatter had worked exclusively in Liberty of course!

This years Spring/ Summer collection was inspired by the store itself. Head designer, Emma, had discovered a map of the building from the seventies and it sparked the idea for the overall theme. Each of the 40 prints in the collection is inspired by a department within the shop, and designed to reflect the mood of the area and what is sold there. The colour pallets were inspired by the artist materials. They took the most iconic art materials and used the colours and tones from those to create the pallets that were then applied to the collection.

The beautiful Keighley, Liberty print designer, was on hand to show us some of their original art work.

After enjoying the tea and cakes we got to hear the story behind each of the 40 designs in the new seasons collection, along with getting to see some of the original artwork from the designers and collaborative artists they invite to design for them. We got to hear from Anna Buruma who is in charge of the archive (amazing job!) Who told us about how a lot of the fabric designs from the early years were never properly labelled or cared for, she calls them orphans.  I was stunned to hear that until Anna was put in charge 15 years ago the archive was mostly uncared for and when she arrived it was basically a pile of books and papers on the floor of the warehouse!

H and I are both fascinated by print and design, so it was amazing to see the processes that each design goes through from initial sketch to final print.  We got to hear from David who designed the print 'Queue for the Zoo' a quirky animal print including a giraffe wearing trainers to represent the children's department.

We were also treated to a sneaky peak at the Autumn/ Winter 14 collection.  This was a paper cut by Helen Musselwhite was just one of the artists asked to collaborate with Liberty for this collection. This paper cut had been photographed and digitally printed onto fabric to create the design.

As if all that wasn't awesome enough we were then taken on a tour of the shop to see all the departments and inspiration behind each of the designs.

A teapot in the gift department by the designer Fornasetti, who's design house has had a long relationship with Liberty.  A scarf using a similar sun design was chosen to create the print that represents this area of the store on the map.

A stack of amazing carpets that inspired the print for their department and a wall of V.V.Rouleaux ribbons in the Haberdashery department.

We got to see the collection for real on the shelves of the fabric department. It was so neat and tidy after all the customers had left the store.

We visited each department and got to see the fabrics in context of the department they had been designed to represent.

We got to visit areas in the shop that we had never been to before, I had never been to the shoe department (for fear of a credit card meltdown) or the Men's department in the basement.

It felt so special to be taken around by the design team, each of them has a great knowledge of the shop, as well as the fabrics, it was a pleasure to be able to ask questions and hear their stories of their time at Liberty.  We were shown around by the gorgeous Jacinta from the marketing department, she was wearing a silk shift made up in Wild flowers, one of the amazing paper-cut inspired A/W14 prints. You can read about the paper-cut Su Blackwell created on her blog.

We had the most amazing time and are hugely grateful to Rosie and Hannah AKA The New Craft Society for inviting us to their party and to the design team at Liberty for throwing such a lovely event.

We were not the only bloggers who got to go on the tour, as well as meeting up with Rosie and Hannah, we got to meet with some girls we really admire, shout out to Leanne at Knit me a Cake, Lotts from Lotts and Lots, Katy from Apartment Apothacary and the girls from the pattern company By Hand London. We were so overwhelmed by it all that we didn't get to meet everyone who was there, if we missed you, give us a shout and a link to your blog in the comments.

Sammy and H x

Liberty of London

Photo courtesy of Channel 4

H and I need no more excuses to go to our favourite London store, Liberty, but if you need persuading, look no further than Monday nights on channel 4, the documentary 'Liberty of London' will give you about a million! This series has been a refreshingly honest look behind the scenes of this iconic home of the extraordinary. From the staff, to the product, to the customers, it is fascinating. Episode 2 that aired last Monday gave an insight into the design proses of the world famous Liberty print fabrics, which in my opinion could fill a series itself.

The thing I love most about the show is the brilliant honesty that is relived from the staff and the GM himself that Liberty, like any business struggles to stay current whist classic and to stay out of the red with the bank. You don't expect to hear that a store of this stature and age, only five years ago was struggling to make payroll. Like many of the shows before it though, it is that characters within the staff that make the show. From the floor staff in the haberdashery department, to the fabric designers, to the sales lady who has worked for Liberty for 40 years (and as their top sales person makes over 1/2 a million for them in sales every year), each of them is a gem and more than anything is truly in love with their life within Liberty. 

Photo courtesy of  Vogue Italy

So if you have never visited the store before, or if you are a regular visitor like H and Myself, tune in this Monday 9pm Channel 4 to catch episode 3 of three (Channel 4 please make more!!!) and catch up with what you have missed on 4OD, you will not be disappointed.

Hope you have a lovely weekend
Sammy xxx