Tis the season for strawberries...

I've noticed there is a lot of jam making happening in Blogland lately, plus with Wimbledon also on, and so thought this tutorial for a really easy jar jar topper might be useful, if you have jam left over you'd like to give as a gift.

To make one for strawberry jam (the pattern can be easily adapted for other fruit), you will need - 

 

a jam jar with lid (mine is 8.5 cm across, and notice, once again for the purposes of photography, I have 'stunt' jam, not homemade!), a circle of felt measuring 16cm across (you will need a larger piece if your jam jar is larger than mine), two pieces of red felt 2.5cm x 4.5cm, another piece of red felt cut into a strawberry shape about 3cm tall, a small amount of green felt for leaves, about 58cm of narrow ribbon, some red, green and yellow embroidery thread (I've used pearl cotton 8), a small amount of stuffing, pencil, pins, sewing needle and some scissors.

First, scallop around the edge of the large felt circle, I just used normal scissors for this and did it freehand, but if you have some scalloped edge scissors, you could use those.

Then, place the jam jar lid centrally, and draw round it with a pencil to mark its position.  Thread the needle with the ribbon, weave it in and out all the way round, 1cm away from the drawn circle.  You may need to poke a small hole with some sharp scissors first, just make sure that both ends of the ribbon come out on the top side of the topper so they can be tied in a bow.

Next, to make mini strawberries to decorate the ribbon with, fold the red rectangle in half, and sew down one of the open edges which is at a right angle to the fold.  Trim the open side to a curve,

turn the shape inside out so the seams are on the inside, fill with a little stuffing, then sew running stitch all the way round the open edge, and pull to gather.

Before you sew it up, poke in one end of the ribbon, then secure the top with a few stitches.

Next, decorate the strawberry with a few yellow french knots, cut 4 small leaf shapes out of the green felt, and sew them to the top with the green thread.  Repeat, for the second strawberry.

Place the topper on the jam jar, and gather the ribbon, then pin the felt strawberry shape centrally to the top.  Applique it on by sewing blanket stitch around the edge, leave a small gap at the top, fill with a little stuffing, continue stitching to close it up.

Again, decorate the strawberry with some yellow french knots and add some more green felt leaves.  Then pop your topper back on your jam jar and tie the ribbon into a bow.  The good thing about making this in felt, is felt is quite forgiving, it is really easy to sew with, doesn't fray, and has a little 'give' in it so will stretch to fit if it's a little tight.

There you go, all you need know are some scones, clotted cream and a pot of tea!

Owl egg cosy tutorial

'Hey, little egg, why so sad?' (notice, it's a stunt egg, not a real one!), 

'What's that?, you'd like a little jacket to keep you cosy, well, look no further, how about an owl egg cosy?...'

You will need felt (various colours), patterned fabric, 2 buttons, embroidery thread, pins, needle, paper, pencil and scissors.  First, print out the templates below so the owl body is 10cm wide at the bottom.

Using the templates, you will need to cut, 2 body, outer eye, and eye shapes in felt, 1 beak shape also in felt, 1 tummy shape in patterned fabric, and for the wings, cut 1 in felt and 1 in patterned fabric, then flip the template and cut the same again.

Position the tummy fabric on the bottom edge of the front of the owl and applique on using random straight stitches,

place one button in the centre of the smaller felt eye shape, with the outer eye shape underneath.  Sew on the button and then fix the eye, again using random straight stitches.

 

Repeat for the other eye, and  then attach the beak between the 2, by firstly folding it in half, then sewing 2 or 3 tacking stitches.

Pin each of the wings together, patterned fabric facing front, felt to the back, and sew around the edge in blanket stitch.

Once both wings are complete, sandwich them, at either side of the body, between the front and back of the egg cosy and join everything together with a running stitch, through both layers, all the way round.

When you get to the bottom edge, stitch the running stitch so it only goes through the top layer which will help to anchor the fabric appliqued tummy.

And there you go, one owl egg cosy!

(Smallprint, as always, please remember any tutorials I offer are for personal use only, and are not to be used commercially, thank you)

Toadstool tutorial (and some big news)...

This is a project I've been meaning to try for a while, and decided this morning to give it a go and photograph it at the same time.  So, if you'd like to make a little toadstool all of your very own, you will need...

fabric, size 10x8cm for the stalk

circle of felt, size 3cm diameter for the base

2 ovals, roughly 9cm wide by 8cm tall, one in felt, the other in fabric for the toadstool top

embroidery thread

polyfil stuffing

small smooth pebble

selection of buttons (optional)

Take the fabric rectangle, fold in half, right sides together and sew 0.5cm in from the edge, then turn the 'tube' the right way round,

turn the raw edge inwards and pop a little polyfil into the open end to help it hold it's shape,

place the felt disk over the end and oversew with the embroidery thread.

Next, remove the polyfil and replace with a small, smooth pebble wrapped in some more polyfil to weight the base.  Continue stuffing the stalk until it is full.

Now you will need the 2 ovals shapes, cut a small circle in the centre of the felt one (this is for the stalk to sit in)... 

place them together, right sides out, pin and then sew all the way round the edge in blanket stitch.

At this stage, you could add some buttons on the top for decoration.

Turn the toadstool top upside down and stuff with polyfil through the hole, careful not to overstuff as this will make it top heavy.

Place the toadstool top over the tip of the stalk, and attach by oversewing,

you can also add some extra, decorative, stitches underneath...

and voila!

Have fun!

EDIT TO POST, BIG NEWS...

The two latest craft kits I have designed for Anchor are now available to buy,

PATCHWORK ELEPHANT

PATCHWORK OWL

and all going well, and my small owl will also be available as a kit later this year!

Eye patch tutorial

My daughter is the unfortunate owner of very poor eyesight and also a squint, both are corrected by wearing glasses, which she has done, with very little complaining, since the age of 18 months old (proud Mummy moment!).  In addition to all this, we are exercising her weaker eye (the left one), with 2 hours of patching a day.  The sticky patches the hospital gave us were, to be honest, useless, and kept peeling off, but why use something like that, when Mum can make one of these... a cute, pink eye patch, out of felt.

I decided to post this as a full tutorial, so many craft bloggers have children, I figured there will be others out there who may find this useful.

You will need - light pink felt, dark pink felt, yellow felt, black felt, a button, embroidery thread, pins, a needle, and a pair of scissors, and of course, ...some glasses!

Print out the templates so that the basic eye patch shape is roughly 7 x 10 cm, and the flower is 5 cm wide.

Cut the patch template, making the 3 slits as indicated.  Fold over, as below, and sew (I have done this on the machine, but you could stitch it by hand)

Pin together the 2 edges of the center slit, trapping the folded over arm holder loop in between, and sew.

Trim off any excess felt from the inner seams and turn the patch the right way round.  Try it on the glasses for size, and also trim the outside edges if needed (probably a good idea at this stage to get the person who will be wearing the patch to try it on to check the fit)

Pin the lense sleeve into position,

and sew.

Repeat the basic patch shape in black felt, remember to sew it the reverse way round this time, as the 2 need to fit together with all seams on the inside.  Trim any excess off the black and blanket stitch both pieces together, all the way round the edge.

Attach the flower decoration using the button by sewing onto the lense sleeve. Place the patch on the glasses, and using some sharp scissors, poke a small hole through the whole patch, for the nose pad to slot through.

The patch can be used on either the left or the right side of the glasses simply by turning it upside down, Lucy's goes on the right, covering up her good eye, so she is forced to use her left one.  This is the girly version, you could easily make a boy's version by using red and blue felt, and decorate it with a star sheriff's badge, or a bug shape.

No doubt, in the future, I will be making more of these as Luke also has a slight squint, and it's best to catch these things early, that's when patching has the most effect.

Easy peasy elf hat!

I had to make Lucy an elf hat last night, she is an elf in the school christmas play and, only having a couple of days notice to come up with a costume, had to think of something quick. So, after a bit of pondering, I went up in the loft, rummaged around in the bags of old clothes and found a pair of Lucy's red cropped leggings from last summer. Here is what to do -

You will need, an old pair of childs leggings, felt strip - about 8cm deep and enough to go all the way round the hat, scissors, a pom pom, needle & cotton.

1. Turn the leggings upside down and cut all the way round the inside seam
2. Open out the legs flat, sew a triangle shape and trim off the excess fabric
3. Then turn the whole thing right side round, trim off any clothing labels, cut the felt to give a decorative zig-zag edge and attach using running stitch in a contrasting colour, sew on the pom pom to the point of the hat

You could also add buttons for decoration and a bell instead of a pom pom, couldn't be easier!