NHS rainbow

During the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown, rainbows have been appearing in windows across the UK as a sign of support, solidarty, and appreciation for our NHS frontline workers, so I decided to make my own using scraps of fabric. Didn't take long to do at all, here's how I made it...

You will need...

 a sheet of paper to make a templete

pencil

scissors, pins and a hand sewing needle

scraps of fabric in rainbow colours  

 sewing cotton

embroidery thread

STEP 1 Decide how big you want to make your rainbow. I used a sheet of A2 paper, folded it in half and drew a freehand rainbow shape. Cut out and mark out each colour band on the template, I went with 6 (pink, yellow, orange, green, blue and purple, but actually added an extra red one to the outer edge when I'd finished). Start cutting up your fabrics, laying them out on the template as you go so you know they will fit. I cut my fabrics to the width of the bands but the lengths varied. I also kept frayed edges, selvedges etc, as I liked the unfinished random look. Each scrap of fabric needs to overlap slightly, see below.

 

STEP 2 Once you've built up your rainbow, pile up each colour out of the way. Begin with the outer strip and just loosely tack each strip together using the sewing cotton to create each colour band of the rainbow arch. I didn't do mine very neatly at all, but that was deliberate.

 

Infographic 1 Press play on the video above

STEP 3 Once you have all your coloured bands joined together, lay them together again, with each arch slightly overlapping. Join them together using the embroidery thread, I used Pearl Cotton 8 in a spacedyed rainbow colour, by sewing a running stitch.

Diagram 1 Joining the strips with running stitch

STEP 4 That's about it!, I stuck mine to our sitting room window using clear sellotape. It looks like stained glass when the light shines through.

I could have made one using coloured paper but chose to make mine in fabric for dual purpose. When lockdown is over and life returns to some sort of normality, I can add a backing to the rainbow and stuff it to make a cushion!

Stay safe x

Offcuts!

I have been eyeing up leather offcuts on Ebay for a while, attempting to make an educated guess as to which would be the colours I was after (as in browns, grey, off white), and given I only need small pieces, took the plunge earlier this week...

...and here they are.  This bag is 100g in weight and was only cheap, less than £3, and the colours are just about perfect.  Now to see if the idea I have for them works!

Photographing your feet,

...is actually quite hard when you're doing it yourself.  Now, why would I be trying to photograph my feet?  Well, yesterday, it was cold, shocking I know, but at this time of year, the weather in the UK is pretty yukky.  So, there I was, sat at my desk, shivering, when a visit to Pinterest reminded of the cosy knitted wool socks and leg warmers I had been coveting, you know, the kind that can cost a small fortune.  But here I am, sat in a room full of felted jumpers and cardigans, some still with the sleeves attached.  There was the answer, sleeves.

After a bit of rummaging around, 2 matching sleeves were pillaged.    

I used the cuffs for the top part, so they can be turned over,

took them both in down the side to make them straighter and a bit narrower,

(note to self : must clean boots)

and edged the bottom with a zig zag stitch (or you could overlock it if you have one) to stop the knit from fraying or unraveling.  And there you go, legwarmers.  I feel very 80's, but very warm!

It's f-f-f-freezing...

...in our house during the day.  When I'm the only one in, I simply can't warrant putting on the heating just to warm up the smallest room.  So this evening have just whipped up these...

wrist warmers!

As I have so many felted jumpers lying around, all I did was chop off about 22cms worth of sleeve for each, cut a slit in the seam for my thumb, took it in slightly on the sewing machine (I have skinny wrists!), then blanket stitched round the raw edges (ie, the thumb hole and the bottom edge).  I also added a final bit of decoration, a (chocolate coloured, naturally!) flower.  The cuffs have been turned over to give me a bit more finger room for sewing (and breaking my bar of chocolate into chunks), and can be turned back to warm my hands up again, nifty hey!

Now my hands are toasty, I can get on with writing up the next steps of the softie tutorial and the christmas robin too, oh and a new Sew Hip project, oh and then there's the american magazine, the list goes on, and on, and on...!