Personalised Bunting 

Durham University Garland

 

This week I have been upcycling 'Stevo Stash' in the form of well worn T-shirts and polo tops. Most were previously part of the bar staff uniform and had definitely seen better days!  My original plan was to create shield shaped badges which retained both the 'Durham University' and 'Stephenson College' text but the shirts were far too out of shape to allow for this!

Plan B was to blanket stitch just the main logo onto red felt and even then I still couldn't quite get them to square up! Thankfully using red thread, instead of the previous white satin stitch, proved slightly more forgiving.

 

Stephenson College is a relatively new college which proudly announces itself as "a modern, progressive, values-led college. Sustainability, innovation, global citizenship and civic engagement are the core pillars of Stephenson College life, and we believe that change starts with us".

My daughter graduated from Durham University last year, having originally applied to St. Cuthbert's College (I'm Hild and Bede so had no skin in the game!) but was then bumped to Stevo. She was pretty disappointed but as soon as she arrived at Stevo it was love at first sight!

The ethos of this fabulous college is very much echoed in the work of its current Vice Principal Katie Stobbs, and Alice's time there was definitely much richer due to Katie's amazing leadership and guidance.  It was therefore my pleasure to stitch up this little upcycled gift for her 💕  

Thank You Katie!

Applique Zipper Pouches & Bunting

 Personalised Teacher Appreciation Gifts

My daughter finishes school next week before (hopefully) heading off to university in the autumn. Schools in the UK, like many throughout the world, have spent much of the last year in lockdown. Those in the North were particularly affected, with far more closures than down South.  Some elements of the UK press would have their readers believe that teachers have been on an extended holiday over the last 16 months.  Nothing could be further from the truth, my daughter's teachers have been amazing and consistently delivered high quality lessons via Zoom whilst also being physically available in school for vulnerable students. 

It's therefore been a pleasure to stitch gifts marking our appreciation for the fabulous job they've done.  Sewing for women is pretty straightforward but I always struggle to come up with ideas for men.  After quite a bit of faffing (timewasting!) I finally decided to upcycle school badges, previously unpicked from outgrown uniform blazers.

The first 'male' gift was this pencil case.  I stitched the salvaged school badge onto one side and on the other the recipient's initials. I designed the letters in the style of an American Varsity font, which was perfect for both the school theme and masculine tone.

 

The second masculine gift also used upcycled school badges, this time stitched to pennants on each end of a string of personalised bunting.  It's for my daughter's very wonderful Head of Year and, whilst he may not have a use for it at home, he will hopefully find a place to hang it it in his school office.  As before I created the letters in an 'American Varsity' style also adding a red ric-rac trim and yellow tape to coordinate with the colours in the badge.  The flag fronts were cut from an old work shirt of my husband's whilst the backs used old school shirts! 

Once the men's gifts were completed I started on the women's and for these I used a cute pencil case design which I  had previously created as a pattern for a magazine.   

I wanted the gifts to be personalised, so embroidered names on the fronts rather than the original 'Write on' sentiment

 

Whilst I was stitching away I was usually kept company by at least one of our three cats.  Luna also seemed keen to make another appearance here at SewforSoul, so here's some bonus kitty spam!!

 

Thank You Teachers!

Upcycled Vintage Map Bunting

DIY Map Garland

As UK schools inch towards their six week summer holiday, teachers seem to become more creative with their homework tasks and the academic pressure eases off a little.  My daughter's geography class were put into small groups this week and told to create a recycled product for a 'Dragon's Den' style lesson!

She and her friends created this gorgeous upcycled garland using old maps, vintage lace and felt manufactured from 100% post-consumer plastic bottles.

It was an easy make and they only needed the smallest amount of help from me, so I thought we would share the process in this quick tutorial. 

Supplies

Old Maps

Cream Lace

Bias Binding Tape

Eco-felt

Pinking Shears

Step One

Cut a triangle template from thin cardboard (use a protractor and pencil or favourite computer programme!) and then round lower corner.

Lightly mark out map triangles, using your template and faint pencil. Roughly cut out each map triangle leaving at least an inch margin on sides.

Step Two

Layer map triangles onto backing felt and then machine stitch directly on top of your pencil lines.   Remove from sewing machine and trim just outside stitched line.  We used pinking shears but it would work equally well with regular scissors!  

Step Three

Unfold bias binding tape and place map flags and lace inside, with the triangles at approximately 2 cms intervals, lining up top edges.  Make sure you leave at least 15 cms of tape at both ends of the garland for hanging purposes, then machine stitch.  If you don’t have any bias-binding simply use some pretty ribbon or tape folded in half.

Step Four

Turn bias-binding tape to back of garland flags and hand sew into place using matching thread and a small slip or ladder stitch....and that's it!

See, it was easy!

The felt backing not only adds beauty to the finished garland, it also protects the paper maps from tearing.  I just love the addition of the cream lace too, so shabby chic!

Quick to stitch bunting makes a perfect present, and a garland using maps that hold special memories for the recipients would make it even more precious, especially for a wedding or housewarming gift!

   

The geography teachers obviously liked the project and voted it as their winning idea - My daughter's group graciously allowed them to keep the finished garland, hopefully not as a bribe to win! 

Happy Stitching!

Appliqued Paris Pouch

Eiffel Tower Embroidery

I've been pretty busy at the moment renovating a flat for my elderly parents-in-law to move into, so blogging has taken a backseat.  I have done a little bit of sewing though, mainly finishing the last of the teacher appreciation gifts for the wonderful educators who have guided my son towards his GCSEs.  This Paris themed pouch was, not surprisingly(!) for his lovely French teacher.  The lovely Paris map fabric was kindly sent to me in a online swap by 'Quirky Hannah' who blogs here.

Suede and Fabric Pencil Pouch

Our Next Teacher Appreciation Gift

 

My latest zipper pouch is for a rather wonderful music teacher, who I previously wrote about in this post when I made him a gift thanking him for his triumphant school production of 'Guys and Dolls' - As you can see that journal had a somewhat 'quirky' feel to it, so this time I wanted to stitch up something rather more sophisticated!

SewforSoul Fabric Portrait

I chose a fabric with a lovely antique pen nib print, which cried out to be a pencil case, and for some added texture and interest contrasted it with a suede panel along the bottom.  I then whipped up a matching tassel for the final finishing touch. 

 Thank You Mr Grehan-Bradley!

Upcycled Shabby Chic Tin Cans

Vintage Book Page Pen Pots

I took a little break from sewing this week and instead indulged myself with lots of lovely cutting and sticking, making these vintage style pen pots from old tin cans.  I used the same basic technique as my decoupage book page eggs, which remains one of my most popular posts of all time.

Would you believe they started out as cheap and tacky plastic eggs?!  

As the tin cans are intended to be used as desk tidies for stationery supplies, I decided to theme them around novelists and works of literature.  Not surprisingly I was unable to source any suitable printed paper napkins, so instead I stamped plain white serviettes using the stamp sets below;

The sets are 'Writers' by Cherry Pie, 'Jane Austen' by IndigoBlu and 'Gentleman' by Viva Decor

I used an old book of quotations, which had seen far better days, for the script background and then gave the cans a quick colour wash of watered down brown paint to enhance their 'foxed' antique finish. After this I carefully trimmed the stamped tissue images before sticking them to the cans with thinned white PVA glue (USA - Elmers).  This is sooo much cheaper than Modge Podge, just add water until the glue is the consistency of thin single cream.  The final step was to give each can a couple of coats of polyurethane varnish.

Unique upcycled craft storage tin cans!

A Gift For A Geography Teacher

Appliqued Globe Zipper Pouch

Our eldest child left school last week and that old cliché 'it only seems like yesterday he was a babe in arms' has never felt so true!  We have been incredibly lucky with all his teachers and we wanted to show our appreciation to the wonderful educators who have given him so much over the last five years.

This little applique zipper pouch is for his Geography teacher, who also teaches our daughter History and they both love him!  In fact Geography is one of the subjects George is hoping to continue for 'A' level in September.

A few years ago I made this pencil case for a friend, who had been promoted to Head of Geography, and the children suggested that Mr Mitchell would like a similar design.  

I took the children's idea (but made it a bit less fussy as it's for a man!) and whipped up a personalised pencil case.  I find it quite challenging stitching for men but hopefully he'll like it - And as a Geography teacher he will at least appreciate the fact that the fabric for both the main case and the lining came from upcycled work shirts which had seen better days!

Good luck to everyone sitting exams!

Linen Zipper Pouch

Appliqued Violin Pencil Case

My son has taken violin lessons at school since Year Four (he's now in Year Eleven!) and sadly his lovely violin teacher is leaving this week.  He wanted to give her a personalised gift to thank her for all those wonderful years of lessons, so I designed this linen zipper pouch featuring a cute little violin applique.

The beautiful sky blue linen was a gift from my bloggy friend Jude and if you haven't visited her page then get there now, you're in for a real treat!  She posts far more regularly than me and most months can also be found published in lots of  magazines.

The brown linen was salvaged from a pair of Mr. Larkin's shorts which had seen much better days.  The initials were then cut using some old table napkins, carefully avoiding the more marked patches!

Thank you Ms Jones ~ You'll be missed!

See More SewforSoul Pouches Here