Sewing World Magazine ~ SewforSoul Feature!

Front Cover Star ~ August 2015

August's Sewing World Magazine is in the shops now and I'm absolutely delighted that my camper van journal is its cover star! 

The projects in Sewing World are always such high quality, so it really is an honour.  If you haven't read the magazine, do take a look - It's one of my favourites as it has a great mix of features and makes.  Some of the others seem to concentrate on dress-making but I want the fun and quirky projects too!

Camper Van Journal

If you do pick up a copy of the magazine look out for the 'Next Month's Makes' page as I have another project in September's issue......You might recognise my style! 

Appliqued Journal Cover

You might remember this appliqued linen gardening journal which I made for my father-in-law's birthday last year;

Well, he loved it and it now seems someone else did too......

Tania used it as the inspiration for her new tablet cover!

Isn't the blogging community great?  I just love that we can all visit gorgeous blogs and find stitching inspiration from every corner of the globe!

Elephants never forget.......

Appliqued Fabric Journal Cover

It was one of my dearest friend's birthday last week and, oh the irony, I forgot!  As soon as I realised my error, I got stitching and made her a little notebook cover.

It fits an A6 pad and is just the right size for jotting down notes or shopping lists.  I based the little elephant on this stamp from Handmade Harbour, but substituted three hearts instead of the birdie. 

I used some cute elephant print fabric from my stash to create the cover flaps which hold the notebook in place;

Happy (belated) Birthday Naoko!

'Diamond Geezer' Journal Cover

Freestyle Machine Embroidery

Get your thinking caps on as it's time to enter the second Cuddly Buddly design challenge and there is a lovely £25 gift voucher on offer for the best creation.  This month's theme is 'Diamonds' or 'Pearls' and you have until Wednesday 14 May to get your entry in.  The only 'rule' is that you use products sold in the Cuddly Buddly shop, but with over 12,000 products stocked this won't be a problem. Apart from this anything goes and your creation could be sewing, painting, mixed media, card making, paper crafting........etc! 

I decided to put a masculine spin on the diamond theme and stitched a 'Diamond Geezer' journal cover; 

I based it on this set of digi stamps but made a few changes so that it looked like our nephew Henry.  I wanted to stitch him a little present and, as he has recently received an offer to study History at Oxford University, a notebook cover with beer on the front seemed the perfect reflection of study and socialising!

I used Bondaweb to attach the pieces and then dropped my feed dogs and free motion embroidered around the outlines in black adding depth and definition. 

The wording was stitched in exactly the same way and this technique gives quite a 'modern' feel to projects so is perfect when creating gifts for teenagers.

I have written a full tutorial which you can see over at the Cuddly Buddly Blog and it can be easily adapted to suit any size of notebook.  The blog also has lots of other tutorials from my fellow design team members all intended to inspire you to get crafting and entering the competition! 

You also have until Monday to enter my Egg Cosy Giveaway, to take part you simply have to leave a comment on this blog and sign up to follow it either through Blogger or Bloglovin'.  The winner will receive a handmade pair of linen egg cosies lovingly appliqued in any design or colour scheme chosen from these. 

Fabric Journal Cover Tutorial

 

This tutorial is for a cute little fabric notebook cover.  I used an A7 jotter which is the perfect size to slip into a pocket or handbag.  I had picked some up in the sale at our local supermarket and they look really lovely with a little hand stitched jacket! This one is a thank you for a teacher at the local senior school who has been coming into the junior school, after a full day's teaching, to offer enrichment lessons to some of the more able students, including Alice.

Materials

The project only requires small amounts of fabric, so is perfect for using all of those scraps from your stash. The only other element I used was a length of red elastic which came from a box of Christmas chocolates!

Method

First measure your notepad including the front and back cover and spine, then add 2cms to the measurements as your seam allowances.  My pad was 24 x 7.5cms so I cut my two main strips to measure 26 x 9.5cms.  You will also need to cut out at least two pieces of fabric for your pockets.  I actually cut three as I wanted an extra pocket to tuck a tiny thank you card in.  The two main pockets serve to hold your cover in place on your notebook and they need to measure 9.5 x 6 cms.  They require a tiny hem so simply turn the fabric over and stitch so that they look like the picture below;

You now need to make a 'sandwich' with all the fabric pieces.  First lay the outer cover down, right side up, then place the two pockets on top, right sides down, and then pop the lining piece on top.  This sounds a little complicated but if you look at the photo you'll see it's actually really easy!  If you're using an elastic closure lay it between the back cover and pocket about 2cms up from the bottom edge.

Machine stitch the whole way around your fabric sandwich, remembering to leave a gap for turning.  Now simply turn the cover through the gap, push the corners out using a knitting needle or chopstick and press firmly.  The final step is to hand sew the little gap closed and that's it.  A cute little fabric covered notebook in less than an hour!

I chose to applique the outside of my cover but it would look equally lovely stitched in a piece of your favourite 'statement' fabric, with a contrasting lining and pockets.  If you are making one as a teacher appreciation gift please feel free to use mine as inspiration;

Appliqued Sewing Journal

 Being thankful for acts of kindness

Today's journal cover is for the mother of a colleague.  I work with her son and he makes time to generate random acts of kindness as he goes about his daily life, those small things which make the world a happier place!  She is a talented needlewoman, so a sewing journal should be the perfect little gift. 

The printed fabric is a design called 'Sew Retro Montage' by Makower UK and was a gift from 'Style at Home' magazine.  I have a couple of metres of it and am looking forward to using it in many more projects.  The sage green material is from a pair of second-hand upcycled curtains.  I put them through the wash which thankfully removed the 1990's style glaze.  Do you remember when shiny cotton was used as an accent fabric in 'swag and tail' window and curtain treatments? 

'Sew Retro Montage' fabric by Makower

 As the notebook cover is for a sewing journal, I drew a vintage inspired sewing machine for the applique.  I then traced the pieces onto fusible web and ironed them into place.

Next I used black thread to outline the design which really makes it stand out.  This is the fun part of the process and I use my regular sewing machine and a technique called 'free-style machine embroidery'.

I embroidered the recipient's name using the same technique 

Happy Christmas June

 ...and Phil!

What a guy!

Appliqued Music Journal

George is part of a production of 'Guys and Dolls' this week.  It is a school performance and they're famous for the fabulous quality of their shows.  It's been a very demanding rehearsal schedule, with after school sessions for the last year, as well as all day Sunday for the past three weeks.  Now if this sounds a lot for the children, just think what it must be like for the teachers - No wonder they only put on a show once every three years!   We therefore really wanted to show our appreciation to the main staff involved and so I've been stitching a couple of personalised journals.  

Our children attend a Catholic school and as we also go to Mass in the same parish there is an overlap between school, home and church.  We are blessed with a beautiful church family, they have teachers who are their god-parents and we've shared so many holidays and wonderful times together in a large group since they were babies.  The upshot of this is that I was not reliant on George attempting to describe what the Head of Music looked like for this journal cover.  However, I'm still not actually convinced that I have captured Mr GB's likeness as, whilst he is perhaps a 'little thinning' on top, in real life he has quite a boyish charm going on!  Just think Matthew, you only have to wait ten or fifteen years before you grow into your journal cover!

The design was hand-drawn and all the pieces individually cut before being attached to the main fabric with fusible web.  I then used a pencil to gently mark the facial features before 'free-style' machine stitching the whole design with black thread.

  

The design was completed with the recipient's name and a very obvious pun based on the name of the show!

****

The second gift was a little more difficult as it was for a teacher I haven't yet met, so I therefore decided against attempting another likeness and instead stitched a cute teacher owl.  

The multi-coloured fabric was cut from a little girl's dress by British designer Jasper Conran. It was a car-boot sale buy last weekend and was just 50p, it's also going to be perfect for Easter egg appliques.  The dress featured a very full skirt so offered up yards of gorgeous material.

The little shape you can see in the top right corner is a matching mirror compact.  I was sewing late into the night to get this second journal finished so the photos were taken in very poor light, the colours and weave look much nicer in real life - Honest!

A little bird told me.....

Upcycled Fabric Journal Cover

My niece has just started her first term at Nottingham University, so I thought I would mark the occasion by stitching her a journal cover.  I altered the original design a little, so that it included both her university and field of study as well as her name.  The birds were created using raw-edge applique and freestyle machine embroidery.  The writing is also freestyle (freehand) machine stitched.  It's such a great technique, no wonder Kirstie Allsopp has described it as 'the crack cocaine of the crafting world'! 

 

Yes, Ellie is off to study Politics at Nottingham and we're all very proud of her. Although, I can't believe that she is old enough to be going!  I can still remember how excited I was when I first went off to university and how much I valued getting letters and parcels.  I'm not sure that people send so many letters these days and today's youngsters could easily miss out on the thrill that comes from checking the post each day.  With this in mind it was lovely to stitch a little gift to package and send.  I purchased an academic diary to pop inside the cover, but ensured that it was not such a snug fit that she couldn't swap it for a notebook or journal if she preferred. 

The lining was cut from this adorable piece of soft vintage cotton lawn in muted tones of pink and blue,

as you can see it's a 'Laura Ashley' classic from 1977.  I'm sure that to Ellie this will seem absolutely ancient!

  

The cute design I used is extremely versatile and is both easy to sew and very effective when finished.   

Well done Ellie xxx

"Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly"

Personalised Butterfly Journal

Last week, whilst at a local carboot sale, I found a lovely butterfly duvet cover made by "Their Nibs", an online company similar to Boden and The White Company et al.  I decided that it would be perfect for a journal that my sister had requested for a friend of hers.

 The linen is from the same pair of upcycled curtains that I have been using for my tea cosies.  Once you get used to the dirt and pushing at a car boot sale you'll never find a more economical way to purchase fabric.

The pink polka dot wings look quite pale in some of the photos, but the picture below provides a better representation of just how bright it really is!

I used the butterfly print as a starting point to chose the rest of the fabric, it was then simply a matter of creating a complimentary applique design.

  

I drew in the details to be stitched with a 'Frixion' pen as the marks disappear when a warm iron is run over them.  These pens are now widely available in most supermarkets and stationers and they're much cheaper than those sold specifically as quilting pens.

  

I also use these pens to create a guide when stitching letters as my own handwriting is not all that great.  Just open a font on your computer, place your fabric over the screen and trace directly onto it.

However, when I attempted this method with this project the linen was too thick to see through, so it was back to the tried and tested 'tissue paper' method. 

Trace the font and wording of your choice onto tissue paper, embroider, then tear away the paper.

The back of the cover is decorated with an appliqued butterfly, cut from the duvet, which I then free-motion embroidered in black to really make it 'pop'

The back also features a 'SewforSoul' label!

After I had finished sewing up the cover I remembered that I had intended adding a ribbon border between the two contrasting  fabrics.  So I had to grab my unpicker and have another go!  This one glitch aside it all went pretty smoothly :)

Embroidered Leather Notebook

School's out!

Yippee, tomorrow is the last day of the school year and we've finished all of our teacher gifts on time!  Today's post features a personalised leather journal for George's form tutor.  I don't normally work with leather, but this is sourced from waste materials which would otherwise go into a landfill or incinerator.  

George helped me with the free-motion embroidery on the front, so it has that authentic student (messy) style handwriting!

The elastic closure keeps the journal nicely closed without obscuring the message 

Also included in the gift is a small bottle of wine and Fair-trade chocolate bar.  By this time of year I imagine even the most patient of teachers could find a use for alcohol!