Make it: Super Easy Quilt

If you want to impress someone this year with a super easy, yet really impressive, gift this year make them a quilt blanket. Everyone loves snuggling up under a cosy blanket, they make great gifts and you can make them really personal by picking fabrics that you know the recipient will just love. I have to be honest, I am not the worlds greatest quilter, I think it stems from not wanting to cut up beautiful fabrics into little pieces just to sew them back together again. However this easy quilt requires very little cutting and you still get that lovely cosy blanket at the end of it.

I chose once again to use my some of my current favourite fabrics from Dashwood Studio to create this 'quilt' These are from the Retro Orchid collection.

You will need: 6 x 30cm strips of your choice of cotton fabrics (at least 110cm) wide, 150cm x 100cm of fleece fabric, Fabric Scissors, thread and your Sewing Machine.

Start by pinning and then sewing together two of your cotton strips. Pin them right sides together making sure you are sewing a nice and straight seam. You can use your machine foot to help guide your stitching. Then un-fold and pin and sew your next strip in place.

Continue until you have sewn all your strips together. Fold your quilt front in half length ways and mark the centre line with a row of pins. Then be brave and cut up the middle line you have marked, removing the pins as you go. You then want to take your two halves and flip one so it is facing the opposite way around. Line the two pieces up and sew them back together to create the chequered front piece.

If you have been neat, all your squares should line up nicely, if not don't worry too much, mine didn't, I think it adds a bit of quirkiness to the finished piece. It made it look more handmade! So next, is to add the fleece backing, I have not added any wadding to mine as I like my blankets to be a little more floppy and snuggly. Stitch all the way around the edge of your cotton and fleece. Make sure you leave a gap around 15-20 cm open at the end. Use this opening to pull the whole of your quilt right side out.

Folding in the raw edges, start at the opening and sew a line of top stitching all the way around the edge of your quilt about 1-1.5 cm in from the edge. And  you are all done, see I promised it would be easy!

If you can bear to part with your new cosy blanket it would make a great gift for anyone this Christmas, It would be so cute for a new arrival in baby colours and equally in fun boy fabrics for any Kiddos you need gifts for, a great alternative to more plastic toys. I am gifting mine to my Mother-in-Law who loves handmade presents and always admires the quilts in our home.

Who would you make one for this year?

Sammy xxx


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Make it: Unicorn Hobbyhorse with free PDF download

This month of DIY gifts is so exciting for us because we get to share so many things to make for your family and friends. Today I'm going to show you how to make any of the little princesses in your lives squeal with joy. We are making a Unicorn Hobby Horse!  We have included a PDF download for this too so you can print it off and keep it handy for birthdays as well as Christmas time.

You will need: 1/2 metre of white fleece, 3 x 15cm by 75cm strips of coloured fleece, ribbon, toy stuffing, thread (normal and extra strong), a pole or stick, scraps of felt or fleece in black and a pretty colour, pins, scissors and a sewing machine (optional) glue (optional).

Start by drawing out your pattern or use the one we have provided and scale it up to size. Place the unicorn head piece on top of two layers of fleece and cut around the template leaving a 1.5cm seam allowance all the way around. Do the same for the ears and horn, making sure you cut two extra ear pieces from a pretty colour of felt to make the inside of the ears. Stitch all the way around your head shape leaving the bottom open and snip into the seam allowance at all the curves. Next, fold over the horn, pin down the straight edge and stitch it down to make a cone. Also stitch the ears leaving the flat edge at the bottom open, then turn everything right side out.

Next, take a square scrap of fleece and a handful of stuffing and make a ball on the end of your stick by wrapping some thread around the base, I have used an old fabric pole, ask at your local fabric shop if they have any spares you can have, or head to a DIY store and pick up some dowelling. Start to stuff your unicorn head until you reach the bend at the top of the head then insert your pole. Continue to stuff down the neck until you are about 7-9 cm from the base of the neck. Take some strong thread and stitch around the neck pulling it in tight at the base, wrap some pretty ribbon around to cover the stitching and to help keep it in place on your pole.

Next you are going to make the mane. Layer up your three colours of fleece strips and pin them together along the centre. Stitch all the way down the centre of the strips. Take your super sharp scissors and start to snip the strips all the way along both sides leaving 1.5 cm between the end of your cut and the centre line of stitching. You should end up with a lovely fleecy hair do for your unicorn.

Stitch the mane to the base of the neck and tack it in place along the neck seam until you get to the forehead of your unicorn, then fold it back on itself and carry on tacking it on until you reach the end of your mane piece.

It should look a little bit like a horse now, so it is time to make the horn. Take the cone you stitched earlier and stuff it. Stitch up the bottom of the cone with some strong thread and without cutting the thread take it and wrap it up and around the cone, pulling it tightly to create the spiral up the horn. Finish off by stitching through the tip of the horn and tying off your thread.

Fold the ears in half and taking your strong thread again, stitch them to the head either side of the mane, then stitch around the base of the horn. Lastly take a scrap of black felt and cut yourself some cute eyelashes and stitch or glue them onto the unicorn's face.

Here is a picture of the template I drew, you can easily download this picture (right click on your mouse and choose save as or download our PDF) scale it up and use it for your own template.

I am in love with this girl, I am going to be hard pushed to let her go, but the little girl who is getting her for Christmas is going to just love her even more than me I'm sure!

We would love to see what gifts you are making for your loved ones this year, link in the comments or #livelovemake on Instagram or twitter to show us your goodies. 

Sammy xxx

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