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Needle Felted Cherry Blossom

May 8, 2021 · Leave a Comment

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Although autumn is my favourite season, spring comes a close second.

Springtime is like the earth waking up from a long sleep. I love spotting buds and snowdrops while it’s still winter. It’s like the earth knows, even though we can’t see it yet.

There’s a poem that starts, Her early leaf’s a flower/ but only so an hour. It’s not leaves that appear first but flowers, and they don’t last very long.

In Japan, they have a cherry blossom forecast for when the cherry blossoms hit their peak. They only last for a few days and people need to know when they are so they can have their hanami celebrations, which involve picnics and singing under the cherry trees.

Because spring has been slow to get going here (it feels like early April even though it’s the beginning of May), some of the cherry trees here are still in flower.

And even though the blossom doesn’t last for very long, the season of blossom lasts for several months.

Tree identification is not my thing, so I don’t know exactly which trees do what when. But I do know that cherry trees usually flower in April (I have one in the garden that’s still in flower now thanks to the slow spring), but there are other trees that flower in early March. Blackthorn in the hedgerows flower in March and early April, followed by hawthorn in May.

So the blossom might only last for a little while, but we have a whole season of it!

I think the best way to celebrate spring is to get outside and enjoy it, but spring themed crafts are fun too, especially if it’s cold and pouring with rain!

So I have made some needle felted cherry blossom.

Originally I was going to needle felt blossom onto the dress with princess seams that I have made, but I’m now thinking I might leave it. The dress is both warm and comfy, and I think I might want to wear it in the winter too! So I’ve left it for the moment and instead I’ve made it on a piece of the same fabric so I can put it up as a picture somewhere.

If you haven’t tried needle felting, it’s quite easy to do. The rovings are nice to work with and they come in all sorts of colours. The only thing is the needle, which is very sharp, but you can wear finger guards if you tend to be accident prone.

You Will Need

To make a needle felted cherry blossom picture, you will need:

A piece of fabric to felt into. I used the same wool suiting I used for my dress. A piece of felt would work well, especially half felted wool felt.

Rovings in pink and brown.

A felting needle

A foam pad or a wheat filled pad. A washing up sponge will do if you don’t have one.

Finger guards (optional)

This lady on Amazon sells felting stuff, including a starter kit.

Using the Rovings

It’s best to use a little bit at a time. The more you use, the more felting it will require. You can always start with a bit, then add a bit more if you need to.

Pull off little bits at a time. Separate out the fibres a little bit, grab a small amount and pull. It’s easier to do if your hands are further apart.

Stretch out little bits of it and decide where you want it on your fabric.

Using the Felting Needle

A felting needle is different to an ordinary needle because it has barbs on it.

Stabbing the rovings catches the fibres on the barbs and makes them fuse together.

It takes a little while and quite a lot of stabbing to turn the wool into felt. You’ll know when it’s done because it won’t be fluffy any more.

Making the Branch

Arrange pieces of brown rovings into a branch shape and start stabbing! Remember to use small amounts. You can add more as you go.

Start stabbing with the needle. You can twist it if you want to, but I’d try to avoid it becoming too bulky or it will be difficult to felt.

Add in more if you need to.

Making the Blossom

Blossom often has 5 petals, but if you make one that looks a bit odd with just 5, then make a 6th.

You only need a small amount. Twisting it once or twice makes it easier.

You can add as many or as few flowers as you like!

Easiest Notebook Ever! How To Make a Notebook

February 19, 2020 · 2 Comments

Easiest Notebook Ever! How To Make a Notebook

This post contains affiliate links. It doesn’t cost you anything but if you click on a link and make purchase, you’ll help to support Tea and a Sewing Machine.

Oh my goodness, who doesn’t love stationery??

Pretty notebooks, matching pens, washi tape, colouring pencils that are pretty to look at and colour nicely too, it all comes second only to a pile of fat quarters!

Notebooks are probably my favourite. I usually have several on the go at once, and I’ll buy another one at the slightest excuse.

One of the things I want to do with the home ed boys is nature journaling. (I’ll be writing a post at some point about how home education looks in my house!)

Writing is often an issue for boys in particular. During his time at school, Barnabas was put off writing, and I’m treading carefully with Cosmo as I don’t the same to happen with him.

Nature journaling sounds like fun. It’s one of those things where there’s no one way, so you can make it whatever you like! Cosmo has said that he wants to learn about space, so we’ve started using it to record stars and things that we’ve seen. With any luck, Barnabas will decide that he wants to do one too!

It’s also the perfect excuse for a new notebook, and what could be better than making one yourself?

These notebooks are made from stuff you may well have lying about already. Using elastic to attach pages makes it very easy (no faffing about trying to sew through paper!) and you can add as many different sections as you like.

How To Make a Notebook

You Will Need

Thick cardboard. Amazon boxes are ideal. A cereal packet might be a bit thin, but you could stick to pieces together to give it some more weight.

Pretty paper. I used scrapbooking paper that I had already (this from Amazon). You could try wrapping paper as long as its quite thick. The cheapy thin kind probably won’t last long. Paper packs that come free with papercraft magazines would be just the thing, although you’ll probably need to patch pieces together to make it big enough.

If you don’t want to use paper, here are some other things you could try: fabric, felt, an old map, your own artwork, pretty much anything that you could fold round a piece of cardboard and sew it or glue it!

Glue that will stick whatever it is you are using. I used a glue stick. For fabric or felt you’ll need to use PVA.

Elastic. I used this from Amazon. The kind you might put in a waistband probably won’t do. It needs to be the stringy kind. At a push, you could use long elastic bands.

A button. You’ll need this for the closure so a largish one is best.

Paper for the pages. The easiest thing to do is to take some sheets of printer paper and fold them in half.

Instructions

Decide on how big you want your notebook to be.

For the pages I was planning to use sheets of A4 folded in half, so the cover needed to be slightly bigger than A5 so as to protect the pages inside.

Cut a piece of cardboard so that it will be a little bit bigger than the pages when folded in half. I cut the cardboard 32 cm x 23 cm. Yours can be whatever size you like, but ideally slightly larger than the pages.

Cover the inside of the notebook. I used a piece of plain paper, cut to the same size as the cardboard, and glued on using a gluestick.

Cut a piece of scrapbooking paper (or whatever you’ve chosen to use instead) a couple of cm (about an inch) larger all the way round than the piece of cardboard. This is so that you have enough to fold over the edges.

If you are using bits of paper or fabric that are of different sizes, you could glue them on as you go or stick them to a piece of paper the correct size first. You could even sew them straight onto the cardboard. I haven’t actually tried this, so you might want to experiment a bit yourself first!

Don’t forget to cut a little square out of each of the corners!

Attach your covering to the outside of the cover, then fold the edges over and stick them down onto the inside.

If you’re using paper and a gluestick, you might want to leave it for an hour or two under a heavy book so it has a chance to stick properly.

When everything has had a chance to dry, fold the cover in half.

Adding Pages

Cut some pieces of elastic about the same length as the distance round the spine of your notebook. I’ve started off with three. It will be easy enough to add more later if I need them.

Tie the ends together and slip them over the notebook so that they sit in the spine of the cover.

Add some pages. The easiest way to do this is by taking some sheets of A4 and folding them in half. I used black paper for the first section because I’m going to be recording space stuff too! Slip the pages under one of the pieces of elastic so that the elastic is in the fold of the paper.

Making the Elastic Closure

Having some way of keeping the notebook closed is handy. The cover of mine springs open, but even if yours doesn’t, you might find that if it gets very full, you might want an option for keeping it closed.

Cut a piece of elastic long enough to go all the way round your notebook widthwise doubled.

Slip a button onto the elastic and knot the ends. Move the button down so that it hides the knot.

To keep your notebook closed, pop the elastic round the it and loop the end of the elastic over the button.

If you’re worried about losing it, you could make a couple of little holes in the back of the notebook and thread it through.

Now your notebook’s ready to use! If you find yourself running out of pages, or if you need another section, just add some more elastic to the spine and slip some more in.

If you liked this post, you might also like this one showing how to make a fabric diary cover.

DIY Autumn Wreath

October 31, 2019 · 2 Comments

DIY Autumn Wreath

One of the things I really like is coming home and seeing a wreath on my door.

To be honest, there’s not an awful lot of other things to like about the outside of my house at the moment. But if nothing else, at least my front door is pretty!

My latest wreath is one I made from some bits and pieces I bought from Dollar Tree while we were in the USA in August.

For those of you who are fellow English people, Dollar Tree is a lot like Poundland, except there’s more craft stuff.

The lovely leaf lights that are now on my dresser came from Dollar Tree, along with the flowers and the ribbon I used to make this DIY autumn wreath.

The wreath form is the one I used to make this wreath. I just pulled the flowers off and put them in a safe place in case I want to use them again in the future.

It was very easy and it didn’t take me very long. An hour would be plenty of time! If you live in the UK and you’re not likely to be visiting a Dollar Tree any time soon, you might find similar flowers and things in Wilko.

Instructions For Making a DIY Autumn Wreath

You Will Need

A willow wreath form
Artificial flowers and leaves
Wired ribbon (I used just under 3 metres)
A pipe cleaner or wire (for the bow)
Twine or similar for hanging your wreath up
Old scissors or pliers

Instructions

Make the bow. Doing this first will allow you to work out how much space you have to fill with the flowers on either side. There’s no point sticking flowers into your wreath, only to find that you can’t see them because they’re covered up by the bow!

To make my bow I used this YouTube video.

Cut the flowers, leaving 8-10 cm of stalk. With artificial flowers there’s usually wire inside the plastic. If you’re using scissors, you probably won’t be able to cut right the way through. Just cut through the plastic then bend the wire until it snaps. I’d recommend not using your best scissors! Otherwise use pliers.

Push the flowers into the wreath. I started with the big ones, then I added the smaller ones. Lastly I added the leaves.

Tie a loop for hanging.

Tips

Wired ribbon is best because it’s much easier to shape the loops and bend them into where you want them to go.

Odd numbers look better than even, so try to use an odd number of flowers, especially the larger ones. It’s less noticeable with smaller flowers. I used 2 of the larger flowers, but as there’s one each side of the bow, that works!

Remember that the wreath is a pretty thing in itself! It’s fine to have some of it showing.

When it comes to larger flowers, you only need a few. Space them out and fill in the gaps with smaller flowers.

Decorating a Cake: How To Make Washi Tape Bunting

July 26, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Decorating a Cake: How To Make Washi Tape Bunting

Although I’ve like making things all my life, when it comes to being creative in the kitchen, I’m definitely a work in progress!

When my mum taught me how to sew, knit and crochet, she also taught me how to bake.

My mum made amazing birthday cakes. There was the blue one when I was 4, in the shape of a 4 with jelly diamonds, and the Mr Happy cake when I was 5. Also the rabbit cake she made for my sister, with grass made from coconut that she dyed green.

I like baking, mostly because I like eating, especially cake! But when it comes to decorating, my efforts are closer to Nailed It than The Great British Bake Off.

One way to make a cake pretty without losing your mind or it taking ages or making a huge amount of mess is with washi tape bunting.

Washi tape bunting doesn’t take long to do, it’s easy and your cake will look pretty enough for any kind of celebration (or even if you just want a pretty cake!).

You Will Need

Washi tape. One design will do, but you could use more if you wanted to. I used 2 this time.
Bakers’ twine or embroidery thread
Skewers
Scissors

Instructions

Cut a length of bakers’ twine, allowing enough to tie the ends to the skewers. About the same length as the diameter of your cake is a good guide. If you cut it a bit longer, you can always trim the ends if you have too much.

Decide how many flags you’ll need. If you’re using more than one design of washi tape, you’ll also need to decide on what order they’ll be in. It’s worth bearing in mind that odd numbers of things usually look best.

Cut pieces of washi tape about 5 cm long. They don’t need to be perfect because you’ll be trimming them down, but it makes things easier if they are of a similar size.

One of the good things about washi tape is that although it’s sticky enough to stick to things, it’s also easy to pull off! I cut all my pieces of washi tape and stuck them to the table.

Find the middle point on your piece of bakers’ twine. Take the bit of washi tape that you want in the centre of your washi tape bunting and fold it over the twine.

Do the same with the pieces of washi tape either side of the centre. It will hang better if you leave a little bit of a gap between the flags.

When you’ve stuck all of your washi tape to your bakers’ twine, trim them so that they are all the same size.

Now cut the flags into triangles, or you could leave them as they are if you prefer.

Tie the ends of the twine to the skewers and it’s ready to decorate your cake!

Washi tape bunting can also be used to decorate a handmade card, and I have a post about this here!

How To Make a Tied Wreath

July 18, 2019 · 2 Comments

How To Make a Tied Wreath

Last week I decided it was time to make my front door a present in the form of a tied wreath.

A few years ago I made a new wreath for my door every couple of months.

What with everything else that was going on, I’d stopped doing this and my poor door was wearing a wreath that I made 3 years ago!

Making some more bunting to hang off the front of my house, it occurred to me that the bits left over could be cut up to make the pieces for another tied wreath, and I could get two things done at once (almost!).

Here’s the bunting. I made it in the same way that I made this last year. The lacy looking bits are cut from an old net curtain. My funny old house looks so much more cheerful!

And here are the instructions for making the wreath.

Instructions For Making a Tied Wreath

You Will Need

Wire (I used garden wire, but a wire coat hanger would work too)
Strong tape
Scraps of fabric

Instructions

Bend the wire round into a circle about 25 cm in diameter. If the wire you are using is quite thin, wrap in round several times to make it stronger.

Secure the ends with the tape.

Cut your fabric scraps into pieces approximately 2 cm by 10 cm (3/4 inch by 4 inches).

Choose one of the prints and tie pieces to the wire, spacing them out evenly.
Just tying them once is enough. I wasn’t fussed about having mine with the different prints all in a certain order, but I did want them spread out a bit.