Flower stitch attachment gadget!

 

This is our new toy! Looks like an instrument of torture but in fact, it is a little engineering gem! When you attach it to your sewing machine, put material under it and press the foot pedal...it whizzes off, turning the material as it sews. It sews with both straight stitch and zig-zag variations creating different patterns as it goes. (Tricot stitch works particularly well.) It was quite mesmerizing when we first used it. We have only played around with it once and these are the shapes it created!

There are three concentric sizes of shapes it can produce, the largest being just over an inch in diameter. With the combination of size and stitch, you can create various flower shapes. Apparently, you can create a circle of petals too (as in a daisy!) by using the transposition method but we only managed to achieve this once - more by accident and we haven't managed to recreate it - YET!

We tried both a solid colour cotton and then, the variegated gutermann thread that changes colour as you sew - the effect even when using the same settings, was quite different, in a good way!

 

 

 To prevent puckering of the material, they recommend you use either two fabrics together or use the stitch-n-tear stabiliser on the back. As we don't have any of that, we used a medium weight iron-on interfacing, this worked fairly well but we will consider buying some stabiliser when we're next able to shop! (being unable to drive with my plaster cast on my arm is rather inhibiting not to mention annoying!)

Reindeer prototype

When we saw this months Crafts Beautiful magazine in Asda, we just had to buy it! On the front cover was a beautiful reindeer made out of Tilda fabric. He was sooo cute, we were desperate to make one each! We immediately went onto their website to download the pattern and we were so disappointed when it said there was a technical error their end! We waited anxiously for a few days and finally, they sorted the problem and we were able to download said reindeer pattern!

We both wanted to make a reindeer for ourselves as soon as possible but unfortunately, my arm being in plaster sort of scuppered any chance of us going to Paulines Patchwork to buy some beautiful co-ordinating materials!   It also scuppered making them from a practical point of view, me being unable to use a pair of scissors or anything! But still desperate to make him, we decided we'd cobble together what we called a prototype! One where we could learn all our mistakes on!  So we grabbed three co-ordinated materials we did have (red!) and set about making him. 

 

Although he looks quite different from the one in the magazine, we still love him to bits! We think he looks rather Christmassy! We need to buy some bigger black beads for his eyes as the ones we have are not quite big enough. We still intend to make one each with nicer material but for now, we shall admire this one!

Sewing the base of the feet to the legs was quite challenging. We tried pinning it in position first but this made it rather impossible to sew. Then we tried tacking it in place first and this proved to be a better way of doing it. The legs have sand in the bottom. Normally, we'd make a little pouch to put the sand in first, then slip the pouch in the legs. This time, we just poured the sand into the leg and to our surprise, none of it poured out!



Bertie Bear and five more misfits!

Firstly, if I have been conspicuous by my lack of blog posts, it's because I have been on holiday for a week, then when I came back I had an operation on my right hand/wrist and currently have my arm in plaster! And yes, I am right-handed! Hopefully, the cast will be off on monday. So providing there aren't any problems lurking under there, I shall be back at my sewing machine as soon as! Meanwhile, I will attempt to slowly tap out a few blog posts about what we have managed to achieve!

On holiday, we assembled, stuffed and hand-finished various items. Firstly, we assembled Bertie! He is a bear I knitted in next to no time. He is knitted in one 200g ball of Marble Chunky wool. He's about 35cm tall when he is sitting, so he's really a nice size to cuddle! Marble chunky wool comes in a huge variety of shades and at just £5-£6 a ball, it's a reasonable priced wool. I've knitted a cardigan and a waistcoat in different shades and of course, being chunky wool, it knits real quick and is as warm as toast!

Then we assembled these five misfit animals: a frog, a sausage dog, a pig, and two snakes!

 

Have discovered that using old t-shirt's to make the animals with, means that when you stuff the animals, the material stretches - sometimes too much! The sausage dog had to have two operations after he'd been assembled, to bring his head back to a reasonable size! We love the snakes, made from a pair of old knee-high stripy socks. The pig is cute. The nostrils are drawn on with a black labelling pen. We did manage to find some Dylon black fabric paint for future animals, which apparently, once painted on, doesn't dry crispy! Bonus! As for the frog? Well, we don't like him very much! He stretched every which way possible when we stuffed him and so he looks nothing like a frog! He needs a little bandana around his neck yet but I'm not even sure that'll help with his looks!