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!

Precious Baby Boy Garland DIY 

Personalised Bunting Garland Tutorial

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Yet again over a year has flown by since my last post!  It's been a busy 12 months, with a complete remodel of our downstairs but the builders have finally left now. My sewing machines were safely stowed away for the whole time and now they're not only unpacked but also newly serviced. I wonder what excuse I can use next year, if this pattern continues!

Anyway apologies over, Let me show you the adorable bunting I stitched for the newest addition to the lovely La Spada Ristorante family. We are so lucky to have this wonderful Italian restaurant just five minutes away, the food is gorgeous and the atmosphere welcoming. The family who own it treat their customers like family and even gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers when I was undergoing surgery and treatment for breast cancer.  I was therefore delighted to take the opportunity to create a gift for the chef's new baby boy.

Our house renovations included a new kitchen and TV lounge, along with a complete refit of my sewing room. I'm only letting you see two sides of that at the moment, as I haven't finished unpacking the cupboards and shelves on the other walls yet!

I'm delighted with all three rooms, their design and quality exceeded my expectations, so Paul and the team from Dragonville Interiors will also be doing our bathrooms next year!  

Sewing Room

(Still waiting for the oak bullnose bottom step!)

TV Lounge

Tutorial 

The first step is to make a template for your fabric letters and bunting flags. Simply use Microsoft Publisher/Word, or similar software, to create a 14 cm equilateral triangle and then resize your chosen font until the letters fit nicely in the middle of the triangle.  Print onto thin card and cut out.

Now take your card letters and turn them over before tracing around them onto the smooth side of a sheet of Bondaweb.  Iron onto the wrong side of the navy polka-dot fabric and cut out.....They will now be facing the right way round!    Cut the required number of pennant flags from the light blue and beige fabrics, not forgetting to cut out the same number of linings.

Peel the backing paper from your letters and place centrally onto the flag fronts and, once you're happy with the positioning, fix with a hot iron.

Using white thread sew around each of the letters at least twice to create a 'sketchy' feel.  Don't worry if you have a couple of wobbles as this all adds to the appeal of raw edge appliqué!

Place each appliquéd flag onto a triangle cut from your lining fabric, right sides together, and stitch the side seams leaving the top open.   Trim seam allowances and clip the bottom point to reduce bulk. 

Turn the flags right side out and use a chopstick or blunt stick to gently push out the points.  Press and then trim off the little 'ears' at the top of the flags creating a nice straight edge.

We now need to enclose the raw edges, the easiest method is to use pre-made purchased binding or even just fold some ribbon or canvas tape in half.

To apply bias-binding, open it out and stitch to the right side of your flags matching up the raw edges at the top.  Carry on sewing whilst placing your flags with an even spacing and leaving at least 10cm of tape at each end for hanging.  Then fold the binding over to the wrong side and catch into position with little hand-stitches, using the machined line as your guide.

This method ensures a neat finish on the right side of the flags with no visible stitching.

....and that's it!

If you can sew a straight line, you can sew adorable personalised bunting!

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Finally, no blog post would be complete without

Lola, Luna, Digby and Orla 

 

Felted Wool Hot Water Bottle Cosies - Applique Fun!

Love Sewing Magazine September 2021

September's Love Sewing Magazine is now in the shops and features lots of gorgeous autumn projects including these pure wool hot water bottle cosies, designed by me!

Like the majority of my creations they're made from upcycled materials, in this case felted wool sweaters.  Producing your own luxurious pure wool felt is easy, as it actually just shrinking things! Any wool jumper marked 'Hand Wash' should felt but those labelled 'Washable' or 'Superwash' have been pre-treated and  therefore aren't suitable. I source my jumpers and scarves at our local charity shop, where they also put by for me any that have already been inadvertently shrunk!  Once you've found your chosen items simply chuck them in your washing machine on a hot (60° or above) programme.

As autumn is now fast approaching, I decided on a cute 'Woodland Critters' theme using natural toned wool and fabrics.  They would also make super Christmas presents, as each family member could have their own design and they'd look equally good stitched up in much more vibrant colours.

The most exciting part of the process is adding the machine stitched details, it really brings the appliques to life!  I usually just use a reduced length straight stitch and an 'open toe' foot but you can also drop your machine's feed dogs and then free motion embroider to your heart's content.  

 

As ever our cats couldn't bear to be left out of anything going on, however mundane.  I was going to get a couple of pictures of the full magazine spread to share but ended up thwarted by Digby who decided to give the pages a good chewing instead!  Luckily Lola is far more well behaved and was happy just to watch his daft shenanigans.

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!