Make it: Drawstring Laundry Bag

Its January and so what better time to clear out all your stuff, organise what's left and of course try your hand at that Learn how to sew, or Sew more things resolution you keep putting on your list every... damn...  year.  Don't worry we all do it, mine is make more clothes, currently have a stash of at least 4 patterns and fabric sitting in a corner... and that's from last year!

Simple No-sew Pen roll

Hey there and for some of you welcome to the summer holidays!  I hear all the teachers breathe a sign of relief and the parents start with the 'what do you do on those rainy days?' thoughts.  Well hopefully we can help over the summer.  We know that less of you are inclined to be checking out the blog in August, but hopefully we can give you a few smaller projects that you can do alone or with the kids to keep you going, whether they are yours or you are helping to look after them.

Make it: Cute Bunny Toy

Gifts for the little ones this time of year can be so hard, just another plastic toy so soon to be discarded seems such a waste of money. I always like to make something for my niece because although her parents aren't really 'handmade people' I know that she will love it. This year I have made her an advent calendar but she will have that before Christmas so to open on the day I wanted to give her a little handmade friend that she could play with. This little bunny toy is so simple to put together but makes a gorgeous gift for the little ones. Also, being made from cotton fabric there are literally thousands of options for colours and prints to choose from.

Whats on our desks October

We have a special What's on our desks for you this month.  It is just the one desk as we have been busy doing something a little different together at Sammy's desk.

Make it: Cushions 3 ways

We thought it was about time we upped the home factor here on the blog, after all Autumn is all about getting comfortable and perhaps nesting in your new home and so we thought why not give you three different ways you can change up your sofa style with cushions.

Make it: Faux-dori Notebook Planner

We are back with a fresh DIY for the new season; I am fast becoming a planner addict, but I needed to kerb my spending and find a way to use up some of my already huge stationery stash. When I got a travel planner as a gift a few months ago, I realised I could use up all those piles of thin notebooks if I made myself some of my own Midori style planners.  So today I am going to share how I made two of my favourite's.

Make it: Travel Fabric Dolls House

Last year I made a cute little dolls house in a suitcase which was more for me than anything, so this year I thought I would make one that my niece can actually play with. She loves her dolls house but is heading off on holiday next month so I thought a small fabric version that she could take with her would be the perfect compromise and wins me points to my Auntie of the year award!

Make it: Fabric Card Wallet

The summer holidays are nearly here and with that it means day trips with the kids, or day trips away from the kids! Even those of us who don't have the long holidays want to get out and enjoy this (finally) summer we seem to be having! Yesssss.

Sammy's Fabric Storage Makeover With Plastic Box Shop

I am eternally on the look out for effective storage solutions for my craft room. The one thing that always stumps me is my fabrics and dress patterns. No matter how much I de-stash and donate bits of my collection I can never seem to find the right fit for all my fabric.

Our Favourite Fabric Shops

This post has been a long time coming! This month was the month that I finally sat down and compiled our list of places we buy the thing we love more than anything else...fabric. You know that H and I both have a love for fabric, print and colour so it is only fair that we share our favourite places to go, to top up our stashes. We would love to know your favourites too, leave them in the comments below...

Espadrilles with The Makery

Yesterday we got the chance to visit the new workshop space for The Makery in John Lewis, London.  We are big fans of The Makery as you may know from our posts about our visit in 2013 and again in 2014 and so we were so happy when we found out they were opening a workshop space in London and even more excited when we were offered the chance to join a workshop!

We decided to go for the Espadrilles workshop as neither of us have ever made shoes before and so what a great workshop to try.  Also we thought we would let you join in the fun by showing you our photos as well as adding their You tube video as part of this post.  So that you can make your own at home if you can't get to Bath or London for a workshop.

We had to bring our own fabric to the workshop - but luckily we have our own 'little' stashes at home, ahem. I went for rockets and spaceships and Sammy chose colourful chevrons. Although as the workshop space is on the 4th floor in John Lewis, you can always buy a little something from their fabric department if you forget or don't have any to bring.

We started by cutting our fabric using the pattern pieces for the shoe size we are.  We cut 2 pieces of each and then 2 each of the lining fabric. One set is for the front and the other is for the back and sides.

Then, we made sure they were right sides together before sewing around the edge, making sure to leave a gap so that you can pull it through.

Once we had sewn around our pieces,  we cut notches in the curves of the front piece where our toes will be and the bottom of the back piece to make the curve lay flatter when turning them through. 

We then turned them through to the right side and pressed them flat, making sure to have points in the end of the front piece and turning in the gap and pressing down.  You won't need to sew this shut as it will be sewn in place when you construct the shoe.

Now time for sewing your pieces to the soles.  Starting with the back and sides piece, find the middle of the fabric and pin it to the middle of the back of the shoe, you then pin around the edge of the shoe at an angle (so the pin goes into the sole), with the fabric flat to the sole.  I am sure this is where the video above will come in real handy.

Then it's a case of blanket stitching around the edge of the sole, making sure the loops go to the inside of the shoe, not on the edge of the sole - again I am sure the video will explain much better than I can, but you can see below how the stitching sits.

Once all the edges are in place, you need to straight stitch up the side of the back and side piece to the front piece so that it all stays together when you put them on.

Then voila, you are done - new shoes!  I can see how these would be really addictive to make, Sammy has already bought another pair of soles to play with.

What pattern would you choose?  I think if I was going to make another pair,  I might go for classic on the outside and then a fun print inside, or slightly different prints for the back and front pieces.

Thanks again to The Makery for giving us the opportunity to attend the workshop, we had great fun!

H,xxx

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Make it: Fabric Storage Bin with Zazzle

If you saw our post on Wednesday about designing fabric with the lovely guys at Zazzle you will know haw much we are loving the site, so today I am showing you what I made with the fabric I designed. When I saw that Zazzle.co.uk offered a heavier weight twill fabric in their 'design your own fabric' range I knew exactly what I wanted to make. I had my design printed on the heavier weight fabric so I could have a go at making some cute fabric storage bins.

To make your own fabric storage bins you will need: Medium to heavy weight cotton fabric, felt, cotton to line your bin, thread, scissors and a sewing machine. 

As I always say you can of course sew this project by hand if you don't have a machine. 

Step 1. Cut out a 20cm square of all your fabrics to use as your base, then cut an 80cm by 25cm piece for the strip that will make the sides. Place the felt at the bottom, the lining next then the main fabric on top and sew around the edges leaving a small gap to turn it right side out. 

Step 2. Do this for the base and the side strip, sewing up the gap that you used to turn it through. 

Step 3. With right sides together sew the two short edges together with a large zigzag stitch.

Step 4-5-6. Open out your tube that will be the sides of the bin and position the back seam to the back of the bin, using quilting clips attach the bottom of the bin to the sides. 

Step 7. Stitch all the way around the base removing the clips as you go with that large zigzag stitch as before. 

Step 8. Turn the whole bin right side out and turn down the lip to create a more stable top.

And there you have it, a cute little storage bin for sewing supplies, stationery or well whatever you like really. I am using mine on my sewing table as a handy catch all for my fabric scraps, so much more glam than the plastic bag I was using before! 

Check back to see what H has made with her fabric in the next few weeks. Don't forget to share your photos if you have a go at making some of these with #livelovemake we would love to see your versions and what you use them for! 

Have a lovely crafty weekend

Sammy xxx

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Design your own Fabric with Zazzle

A few weeks ago the lovely people at Zazzle got in touch to tell us about their fabric printing service. Having recently said farewell to the fabric printing service from By Hand London, Sammy was so excited to have a try and see what Zazzle had to offer. They offered us a free sample of the fabric to have a play with so watch out for a tutorial coming on Friday using the fabric Sammy ordered. Sammy has bought t-shirts and merchandise from them in the past so she knew that their quality was great, but we were not sure how simple it would be to design our own fabric with Zazzle or how it would turn out.  

We both started by having some fun in Photoshop and created a .jpg file that we could upload to the site, this is Sammy's above.  H had fun with the background eraser tool on Photoshop so she could use one of the colours from Zazzle - more on that below.

Once on the Zazzle site it was then super easy to upload the image we had designed into their fabric creator.  H used one of the background colours on file, whilst Sammy's was all together on the .jpg file.

Then you get to play around with tiling the pattern, rotating your design and playing with the size of your print.  You can use the tiling options or not, so that's always good for choice.

We love that you can view your design in lots of different sizes, it loads the images with your design on really fast so it is easy to get a real idea of what your fabric will really look like with the handy thumbnails underneath the main picture.

There are seven different types of fabric to choose from, but don't get too excited, some of them are priced at over £60 per metre, which we feel is a little pricey, even for high quality custom printed fabric. The combed cotton is the cheapest option at £26.95 per metre, The pima cotton that H chose was £30.40 per metre and the cotton twill Sammy chose was £37.90 per metre. You can order by the fat quarter though which would keep the cost down for smaller projects. 

When our fabric arrived we were really happy with the quality of the fabric and the quality of the printing on H's fabric was beautiful as the colours were very true to her design. Sammy's fabric on the other hand was sadly not so perfect.

She was a little disappointed because the fabric looked like it had been double printed, it makes the design look a little blurred. She would have been more disappointed if we had paid the £37.90 that it would normally cost. 

When Sammy spoke to the team they said that they would absolutely replace the fabric, if we wanted, as it was gifted to us anyway, She decided that it would be fine for the project that she had planned. Good to know that if there was a problem as a paying customer that they would go the extra mile to sort it out. 

The Zazzle team said:

We have a 100% satisfaction policy at Zazzle, so if a product is unsatisfactory, and the customer provides a photo like you did here, they would be offered a replacement or refund. Customer can call our freephone number 0800-6-929953 10am-6pm Monday to Friday or email us here http://www.zazzle.co.uk/about/contactus.

So overall we would highly recommend Zazzle if you had a special project in mind that you need some bespoke fabric for. We would say that the price makes it a little risky if your not 100% sure you are going to use it for something really worthy of it. 

It was unfortunate that Sammy's fabric wasn't perfect, even big companies make mistakes sometimes but at least they offered to sort it out properly. Everything about the process was easy and fun. Sammy love's designing fabrics and she is looking forward to having a go again soon as she already have a few deisigns and projects in mind.

Have you tried the fabric service from Zazzle? Are you looking to get some fabric printed for a special project? Let us know in the comments below and don't forget to come back to see what Sammy has made with her fabric on Friday.

Sammy & H, xxx

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Make it: Fabric Weights

Ever since seeing Matt use Fabric weights in the Great British Sewing Bee last year, I have been meaning to make some for an upcoming project using silk.  I don't want to pin the pattern on you see, as I am worried that I will get holes in it and so I thought what better time to actually make these weights!  This version uses the very humble washer as a starting point.

You will need:  Washers with a hole in them (I got mine from Robert Dyas, but Homebase and B&Q etc also have them), fabric scissors, Strong Glue (I used Gutterman HT2), Fabric.

I found choosing my fabric the hardest part to this project!  So many different fabrics, so little time as they say.  I went with something with a small print that I could rip, as I quite like the effect it has on the weights.

Firstly you need to rip strips up of your fabric, I made mine roughly about the length of a fat quarter which I thought I needed to wrap the whole thing in one go and it worked!  But you can always add extra lengths if it doesn't quite go all the way around.

Then pop some glue on one of the washers and press the end of your strip down.  I chose to put 2 washers together for these weights so that it gives them a bit more substance to hold down my pattern.

Now, its a case of wrapping the fabric through the hole and around the edge of the washers, going all the way around as to cover the washer.  I added a blob of glue every now and again so that it doesn't unravel on me.

Once you have wrapped all the way around your washer, just glue down the last bit and cut off any excess, so that it sits neatly on the flat edge of the washer.

Now you are ready to use your weights to keep your pattern on top of your fabric, so that you don't have to use pins all the time.

I love these weights, they will come in very handy for pattern cutting and also currently keep all my paperwork down on my desk for the windows all open in this nice weather!

H

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Hayfever Free Fabulous Faux Flowers

Clockwise from top left: Felt Bouquet / Paper Hydrangeas / Pompom Stems / Fabric Florals / Magazine Blooms / Felt Flowers / Polyester Peonies / Story Book Roses / 

I love a good bunch of flowers around the house, it makes the place feel so fresh and happy. I am however lazy... and a little cheap, I just hate that they die so fast. I love my succulents too but sometimes you just need some colour don't you think? Another issue for me is that our H is allergic and my Steve gets hay-fever! I am hoping these amazing crafty creations might just be my salvation. The links above take you to the tutorials to make all of these beautiful faux florals, a good compromise for my house hold, now just to choose which ones to make first. 

H and I are off to see the Alexander McQueen exhibition at the V&A today, We are sooooo excited! Check out our Instagram as we will be posting live all day on our little London day trip. 

Have a lovely weekend

Sammy xxx

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Review: Printing My Own Fabric with By Hand London

Last year we started stocking By Hand London patterns at Sew Crafty, I loved the unique styles they offered and the packaging is to die for (I am a sucker for good packaging).  A month or so later I supported their Kickstarter campaign to start a new branch of their business, bespoke digital fabric printing. A few weeks ago I got down to designing and printing some fabric for the first time.

I thought it would be a great idea to share my experience with you guys, *spoiler alert* I am a little bit addicted to designing my own fabric and have lots more designs planned!

You will need to start by creating a digital design, you can do this by scanning a drawing or creating digital artwork through Photoshop or other image software. I created this simple geometric design in Photoshop.

Once you have decided on your design you would upload it to the By Hand London website and start laying it out

You can choose different tiling options and enlarge or reduce your image to get the best look for your design. This view shows my design over a fat quarter with the smaller tiled option.

And below is the design at the biggest tiled option again over a fat quarter.

I found the website really simple to operate and easy to experiment with tiling and size options for my fabric. At the final stage you can choose the amount you want to buy and if you choose to, view your fabric over a metre area. 

Now some of you may think that £19 per metre is a lot of money for fabric, but if you think how much you pay for normal designer cotton prints for instance about £12-18 per metre? Getting your very own design digitally printed onto high quality cotton is a very good price.

I was so happy when my fabric arrived, I am totally in love with the print and the colours were just as I had imagined them to be, they are a very good match for the colours I chose on my computer screen. The quality of the fabric is just lovely and the printing is crisp and clean.

I said at the beginning that I was in love with designing fabric and I am totally in love, I am starting a sketch book just for fabric designs. I would absolutely recommend By Hand London for fabric printing in the UK. The process was fun and easy. The results are brilliant and the quality is beautiful. I can't wait to make my fabric into the skirt I have in mind for it, I will share when its ready.

I hope that has made you excited to have a go at designing your own fabric, Have you ever done anything like this? Are you waiting for your delivery? Let us know if you love By Hand London as much as we do!

Have a great weekend
Sammy xxx



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