pinnies and trees

I put on my tartan bee hat this morning and (finally) got the holly leaves pinnies loaded into my Etsy shop.

Whilst I was there, I loaded in a couple of wee tree hangings which I made a good while ago.

I love them both but, since I have a whole forest of these hangings myself ...

... I really don't need any more! :o)

the winger is a winner!

I am sooooooo proud of this runner, it's just not true! As you know from my last post, I was just winging this design - no pattern or tutorial was being used. I just cut some Christmas fabrics into 9½" x 2½" strips and joined them in a braided pattern.

Here they are all joined up.

I cut off the start to make it a straight edge and trimmed off the sides to straighten them too.

Pinned and ready to quilt.

The quilting - the front:

and the back:

The binding is sewn on the front:

I dug this binding out of the box where I keep spare bits. This is all that was left. Talk about cutting it fine!

And here it is all finished. I *LOVE* it.

I'm so happy that it's not long before I can get this one out to use. I'd hate to lay it away for a year before I could enjoy looking at it again! :o)

Editing to add: I used 32 strips of Christmas fabrics (2 pieces each of 16 fabrics) cut to 9½" x 2½". The finished measurements are approx 100cm/39" long by 28cm/11¼" wide.

more pinnies and a winger

I've been busy sewing some more Christmas pinnies. These ones will go into the tartan bee shop sometime this weekend - hopefully!

This next batch aren't for sale. I made these pinnies way back in 2010 and, at that time, I made them double-sided. See here for the post where I unveiled them. I never liked them with the double layer of fabric, though, as the fabrics never sat properly together. One side would lie flat and the other side would be all crunched up as if there was a different amount of fabric on that side. Weird!

Anyway, I decided to take them apart so, instead of 4 double-layered pinnies, I now would have 8 single-layered ones. It took a while to cut them apart, overlock them, hem them and add new tapes on but they're now all just waiting for the hand-sewing of the waist ties.

The eagle-eyed amongst you might notice that there aren't actually 8 pinnies in that pile - there are only 7. Why? Well, one of the sides of one of them looked like this:

Can't see what's wrong with it? Try this close up.

When I noticed it, I laughed out loud. I wonder how I didn't notice that when I made them? How daft can you get? :oD

My next project is kind of a make-it-up-as-I-go-along type thing. I've admired lots of blocks, quilts and table runners made using this broken herringbone block but, to be honest, I just couldn't be bothered doing all that "cutting, sewing together, cutting apart repeat until done". So I just cut some strips from some Christmas fabrics and laid them on my table in a pleasing combination and will sew them together like that, trim, quilt and bind and see how it works out.

Sometimes winging it is a cool thing to do! Let's just hope it works! :o)

11 pinnies made

I got 11 of the Christmas pinnies finished today. Yay! They're now all photographed and are loaded into the tartan bee shop. Double yay!!

Yes, you're right, there aren't 11 photos - that's because there are 2 of some of the designs and only one of others. :o)

I've got a few more cut out and ready to go so, since I'm not bored making Christmas pinnies yet, I hope to get them made soon. I love each and every one of these pinnies. If they don't sell, I just might have to keep them for myself! :oD

unfinished

The problem with sewing lots of pinnies at once is you sew and sew and sew and never seem to have very much to show for it. This is all I have to show for all the sewing I've done today - a basket of unfinished pinnies waiting for the ends of the waist ties to be hand-finished.

Mind you, the good thing about sewing lots of pinnies at once is that when you do finish them, you have a LOT of them finished all at once. Hopefully that will happen tomorrow and I'll be able to take some good photos of them and get them listed in my wee shop. Fun times! :o)

22 pinnies and the overlocker foot pedal

Debbie commented last week that I didn't seem to have many pinnies (aprons) in my tartan bee stock so I decided to set to and make some. I cut out 7 "ordinary" ones:

And then thought I could make some Christmas ones. 15 Christmas pinnies later ...

I then decided on the colours of tapes for them all and sat and overlocked all the edges of the Christmas ones.

I've now stitched down the edges on one pinny but my back hasn't been too good since I did all the cutting out and overlocking so I'm trying to listen to it and not overdo things. I hope to get back to the sewing over the weekend.

In the process of all that overlocking, the pedal for my overlocker got really, really hot. I mean *seriously* hot. Almost couldn't touch the pedal hot. Very, very scary!! (I'd been worried about the pedal making funny noises for a while but it was intermittent so I didn't do anything about it.) I thought it might be a good idea to see what I could do about the pedal and did some detective work online. After reading a few things about what could be wrong, I decided I'd probably save myself a lot of time and worry if I just got myself a new foot pedal. Ordered it yesterday, arrived today - not too shabby!

All I have to do now is take the leads from the old one and put them in the new one. I think I might leave that for Douglas to do. It's not that I couldn't do it myself but I like to make Douglas feel useful. :oD

4 out of 7 made!

I've now made 4 of the 7 blouses I cut out a few weeks ago. I made the first two before I got caught up with the rice bag making for Debbie's stall last week. Sorry about the bad photo - I had to use the flash. The fabric isn't really blotchy like that!

They are both made with my remake of New Look 6407 and both made with remnants from the remant table in my local fabric shop. A blouse for £4 isn't to be sneezed at!

I made this one yesterday. It's my all time favourite blouse pattern - McCall's 5359. I had originally bought this fabric to make a dress with but I was honest with myself and knew I'd get more wear out of a blouse than a dress so I listened to myself and made the blouse!

This one isn't finished in this photo as the buttonholes aren't cut and the button threads aren't finished off but you get the idea. This was another £4 remnant.

I've still got 3 blouses cut out and ready to sew but whether I make them next or not all depends on how I feel when I get into my sewing room tomorrow. :o)

heat bags, pocket warmers and the wee soap shop stall

After a busy week of sewing, here are the results:

20 heat bags - 10 plain (just rice inside) and 10 with a mixture of rice and lavender.

24 pairs of pocket warmers - these just make me smile, they're so cute! They sold well too so other people must have loved them too!

And here are a couple of photos of the stall. The lighting isn't that great but you get the idea. That's Joanna on the right - she helped Debbie with her stall.

And this is Debbie ready for the customers to come and beat down the proverbial door.

Between my stuff - Debbie took some of my bags with her - and hers, the stall made just under £100. Not too shabby! And, she got asked to do another fair in Edinburgh. Also not too shabby! :o)

So what will I be sewing next? Not rice bags or pocket warmers! I'm all riced out for now! :oD

the wee soap shop ... in my living room

My living room is a wee bit cluttered at the moment. Actually, that's a lie. It's a LOT cluttered at the moment. Why? Well, Debbie has been testing her layout for her wee soap shop stall for the ladies' charity evening she's doing this Friday.

This is how it looks on a piano and a coffee table.

And close-ups of various parts of it.

There's still some stuff to go on the stall including some rice and lavender bags which I'm sewing for her.

So far I've made 6 with a good few more to sew. At least they're fairly easy to make!

I wonder what it'll feel like to have my living room tidy again? :oD

a new Nora

I got my copy of a brand new Nora Roberts book yesterday.

I know what I'll be doing this weekend! :o)