Christmas Card and Treat Bag

Good morning. Today I am sharing a couple of Christmas projects – a simple card in non-traditional colours using the Pears and Baubles stamp set, and a pretty fabric pouch stamped and coloured using the Hark the Christmas Rose stamp (Chocolate Baroque).

A 6 X 6 inch white card blank was stamped with the lovely background stamp from the Pears and Baubles stamp set using pale pink dye based ink (Memories Baby Pink).

The sentiments were stamped with pink and Silver (Encore Ink) from the Let’s Get Festive stamp set.

An octagonal piece of pink card was embossed with a textured folder from my stash. A little Distress Ink (Tattered Rose) was applied across the surface with a sponge to enhance the texture. Versamark Ink was applied around the edges and embossed with white powder. This was glued to the card with foam pads for added depth.

The bauble was stamped with Silver Encore Ink onto plain white card and cut out. The bauble was sprayed with glittery varnish for added sparkle (Crafters Companion Spray and Sparkle) and Glossy Accents applied to the central star. The bauble was glued to the card with foam pads.

Finished with sequins, an organza bow, silver glitter glue (Dovecraft Silver) and silver PVA pearls (Tonic Nuvo – Silver Lining) – just couldn’t resist a bit more bling.

A scrap of cotton was trimmed into a rectangle approx. 13 X 34cm. This gave enough room for seam allowances and a fold over top to thread with a ribbon drawstring. Before sewing together the Hark the Christmas Rose was stamped onto one end using Nuvo Black Shadow Ink. The ink was left overnight to dry and ironed to fix (essential if you want to colour with water based media).

Rather than water based media I decided to colour the image with permanent alcohol markers (green, yellow, pink and blue). Colour was encouraged to bleed and give a soft blended effect using a clear alcohol blender pen.

When dry a little clear acrylic sparkly glaze was applied to the flowers (Silks Acrylic – Ice), and gold glitter glue was applied to the stamens (Pinflair Glitter Wand). Yes – just had to be more bling. The fabric was again left overnight before ironing with a hot iron to set everything.

A small channel for ribbon threading was stitched on each end, then the fabric folded in half and the side seams stitched (omitting the channel). Two pieces of ribbon were thread through the channels to create a simple pull drawstring.

I hope that you have enjoyed my Christmas makes xxx.

Quilted Floral Tote Bag created for Gina B Silkworks

Good evening. Gina Barrett is back on Create & Craft TV tomorrow bringing back her new Flower Comb Ribbon Ruching Tools. Show time: Friday 13^th April at 11am – Freeview Channel 23. You can also watch online live or on catch up via their website.

These are fantastic tools for quickly marking out ribbon with a variety of ruching patterns. Simply stitch along the marked lines and gather to create gorgeous ruched trims and flowers. Gina has also put up a Flower Comb instructional video on her YouTube Channel so you can see how the Flower Combs work.

The show is bringing a great deal on a Mega Bundle that contains everything. Gina’s new instruction book, all the new Flower Comb sets, ribbons, thread, fabric marker and Kanzashi starch. It’s on interest free Flexi Buy too which always helps to spread the cost of bigger craft stash ‘needs’. Individual comb sets are also available on the show or via Gina B Silkworks.

I have had so much fun creating samples for the show and have lots to share today with more posts coming later xxx.

Floral Tote Bag

I made this floral tote bag using recycled cream curtain lining, curtain interlining and old bed sheets. I love to recycle.

I dyed the lining using purple machine dye (Dylon). The fabric for the outer was first painted with dilute pink and purple fabric paints, letting the colours bleed together to create a mottled background (Vajello paints from Colouricious).

I then block printed with leaves and flowers (Colouricious blocks) using Vajello paints (purple and deep pink) and Starlight fabric paint (metallic gold). Tip: When block printing it is essential to use a foam pad underneath – the wooden blocks need a cushion to print properly.

Fabics were then heat set with ironing and washed to remove any excess colour.

The outer panels were laid over curtain interlining (cotton interlining is like a thin wadding/batting) and free machine quilted with beige cotton thread.

Handles were created by stitching strips together. I used a machine decorative stitch to embellish.

Recycled pink and yellow cotton strips were torn from old bed sheets and further colouring added using pink and purple alcohol ink markers. An alcohol blender pen was used to blend the colour. Colour was fixed with ironing. I enhanced the soft frayed edges by pulling away strands.

I used the Rococo Flower Comb set to create the ribbon flowers and ruched strips. I added a felt circle and seed beads to the centre of the flatter flower. The bell flowers were created by wrapping ruched strips around stamens making a cone shape. Note: the stamens are not really washable but I did check that they did not run colour if dunked in soapy water and wet under a tap. There would be nothing worse than colour running everywhere or transferring to clothes if caught out in a rain shower.

Finally I stitched it all together. I made the lining panels slightly taller than the outer so that the lining created a border along the top, then top stitched through all the layers to hold neatly in place.

I have one more ribbon flower sample to blog later and it’s a wowzer – even if I say so myself. Back soon xxx

Patchwork Cushion and Bag Block Printing and Quilting Done

A little something that I am working on. Recycled curtain lining dyed and stamped with wooden print blocks (from Colouricious).

Patchwork and quilting done (with recycled curtain interlining), now to stitch into a cushion and a bag and embellish further.

The theme for this weeks Simon Says Stamp Challenge (Wed) is ‘anything goes’ so I have entered the cushion front.

Patchwork Bag Created from Vintage Fabric Lyon Silk Samples

I made this bag a little while ago but thought that I would share. A friend gave me a lovely fabric pattern book of samples containing beautiful embroidered vintage silks from Lyon (c 1960’s ?).

Stunning fabric samples but how was I going to use lots of smaller offcuts? I decided to create a patchwork bag. I hope that you like it.

Firstly I cut out 22 X 4.5 inch squares using a quilting ruler and rotary cutter. Every square was a different combination of background and embroidery colour, many with a cream background and others with a variety of pastel colours. The embroidery also varied from pastel shades through to intense browns, greys and purples. I laid them all out to decide how best to combine them together. I also decided to alternate the embroidered flower orientation – just thought it looked better.

Next I joined rows of the squares stitching with a quarter inch seam allowance, creating 4 inch finished patchworked square blocks. I stitched them on my overlocker to ensure that the seams were well finished and edges enclosed. Silk can fray easily and I needed it to be hard wearing for a bag. Many domestic sewing machines will also have a version of an overlock stitch for finishing the seams.

Looking at the picture I joined the top left squares to create a row of 2 blocks. Working down from the top left I then stitched a row of 4 squares, then 2 rows of 5 squares, another row of 4, and finally a row of 2 squares from the bottom right. Next I joined the rows lining up the seams to ensure neat aligned junctions where the points of the squares join.

To make the patchwork fabric more robust and stable to function as a bag I then pinned it to some cotton curtain interlining (think it is called cotton bump) and added quilting. I used a variegated embroidery rayon and quilted swirling contour patterns following the outline shape of the embroidered elements. To achieve this I dropped the feed dogs on my machine and used free machine embroidery/quilting with a fine polyester thread in my bobbin.

On the upper left of the pic is a sneak peak of some other embroidered fabric samples in my stash – I really must make something with them soon.

Quilting around the embroidered elements made them puff up slightly. This then gave me the idea to accentuate this. I made small snips in the backing fabric and stuffed the back of the embroidered flowers with a little polyester stuffing. I then hand stitched the holes with herringbone stitch to hold in the stuffing. Finally I trimmed away the excess cotton bump from the edges.

I made a quilted lining in cream fabric to match the shape of the front fabric. I added some pockets for the inside.

I sewed small leftover blocks of fabric together to create the handles, 2 inches wide by approx. 20 inches long. Again I quilted these using cotton bump as a backing. I cut strips of lining to match and stitched them together with right sides facing, and turned them through (finished size 1.5 inch X approx. 20 inch).

The construction of the bag is not what you might expect. I got the idea from a lovely book by Sue Hawkins (Heavenly Handmade Bags 2006). Looking at the picture: First join edges A together, again with a quarter inch seam, repeating for each bag side. This forms the base of the bag. Then join D to D leaving block edge E free. Finally join B to B, and C to C – stitch across as one seam. Repeat on each side. You now have the bag shape.

I constructed my lining shape in a similar way but left one of the A to A sections unstitched. With right sides together and handles in position at the points on the bag top I then stitched the bag and lining together and turned through the gap left in the lining. The gap was then hand sewn using a ladder stitch (so not visible).

I was delighted with my bag and being able to show off those lovely vintage fabrics.