Sewing Projects Archives -

DIY Reusable Cloths

March 18, 2020 · 1 Comment

Making some DIY reusable cloths is a nice, quick and easy little project. It’s also one of these where you might have the stuff you need to make them already!

They’re easy to batch as well, so you can make a few in one go.

I made these last week in preparation for our trip to Japan, because apparently you have to supply your own little towels for drying your hands when you use a public toilet.

Unfortunately the trip is now off due to the current situation. We’re hoping we can still go, it just won’t be any time soon. The cloths are ready for when we do go, and in the meantime there are plenty of other uses for them.

Uses For Resuable Cloths

Diy resuable cloths are useful for all sorts of things. You could use them as wash cloths, dish cloths or for wiping little faces (especially if you’re trying to cut down on using wipes). You can take some out with you because they’re small and they won’t take up much room in your bag.

If you’re worrying about germs and things at the moment, you could put a little bit of hand sanitiser on one and wipe down door handles or anything else you think might be germy before you touch them.

You could even use them as dusters and for wiping up messes and stains at home.

What Can I Make Them From?

To make diy resuable cloths, I used some bits of cotton fabric that I had already, and a couple of terry nappies that I found in the bathroom while I was having a sort out.

If you don’t have old nappies lying around, you could use a towel that’s seen better days. Face flannels would work well too. Dish cloths and microfibre cloths are another option.

How To Make DIY Reusable Cloths

You Will Need

Towelling or something else absorbent
Cotton fabric
Ribbon for the tags

Instructions

Wash the cotton first! I’ve skipped this step in the past and regretted it when the cotton shrunk in the wash!

Cut your fabric into squares. It doesn’t matter very much how big the squares are. Mine are 15 cm (6 inches) square. If you’re using face flannels you might want to make them the same size as the flannels to save cutting them down.

Each cloth will need one towelling square and one cotton square.

Cut a piece of ribbon 5 cm (2 inches) long. Fold it half. Pin it to the towelling square on one side about 5 cm down from the top, with the folded edge inwards and the cut edges next to the raw edge of the towelling.

I put mine on the right hand side, which meant that the finished cloths had tags on the left. This doesn’t bother me very much, especially as 3 of my 4 boys are left handed, so this will seem like the correct side to them! If it bothers you, pin the tab to the left side.

Take a cotton square and put it on top of the towelling square so that the right sides are together. Pin them together.

Sew around the edge, about a cm (1/4 inch) away from the raw edges. Leave a gap in one side so that you can turn it out in a minute.

Trim the seams and cut off the corners. Leave a bit extra at the opening.

Turn it the right way out and pin the opening.

Top stitch around the edge.

If you’re wondering what to do with a damp cloth after you’ve used it when you’re out, you could make a waterproof bag. There are instructions for making one here. It’s for a palette if you like to paint outside, but it could be adapted and made a bit bigger.

Stay safe

Anna xx

Felt Mug Cosy Tutorial

February 2, 2020 · 3 Comments

Felt Mug Cosy Tutorial

Mug cosies are great. They keep your tea warm for longer when you’re out in the garden. They’re a good way of using up bits of fabric left over from other projects and they’re quick to make. Also they make nice gifts for people.

This mug cosy is made from felt. I used acrylic felt because that’s what I had, but you could use wool felt if you wanted to.

Felt is perfect for this project because it’s inexpensive, it comes in a wide range of colours, it doesn’t fray and it’s easy to work with.

Giving it two layers means that the felt has more weight, making the overall finish neater. The velcro means that you’ll be able to use your felt mug cosy on several different mugs, even if they are of different sizes!

Mug Cosy Instructions

You might like to make a felt mug cosy just like this one. If this is you, the templates can be downloaded at the end of the post. Please note that I ask for an email address. If you want to know why, you can find out here.

Alternatively, you may prefer to use it as a starting point for your own ideas. I love geometric flowers because they are simple but they look lovely. For more ideas, you might want to take at look at this Pinterest board here.

You Will Need

Felt in various colours. I used 3 for the flowers, 1 for the stem and leaves, 1 for the outer and 1 for the lining. This made 5 in total because I used the same pink for the lining as for one of the flower pieces.

Velcro. I used a 6 cm piece (5 and bit inches), but check with the mug you are making the cosy for as you might need more or less depending on the size of your mug.

Cutting Out

Cut 1 large rectangle from your outer felt, and 1 from the lining.

For the flowers, cut 3 large ovals from 1 colour, 3 medium sized ovals from the second colour and 3 small ovals from the third colour.

Cut 3 small rectangles for the stems and 6 leaves.

Appliqueing the Flowers

Usually with applique I find that it’s easiest to start with the smaller things, ie flower centres, then build them up, before sewing them to the main fabric.

With this project however, the bits of the flowers overlap, which makes it tricky to sew in this order.

So you need to start with the largest ovals and applique them to the outer section before attaching the other pieces. Check that they are evenly spaced, pin then sew.

Then take the medium sized ovals and pin them to the larger ones so that the bottom edges meet. Sew them in place.

Do the same with the smallest ovals.

Position the stems underneath the flowers. Pin and sew.

Now pin and sew the leaves. It’s a bit of squeeze, but if you’ve spaced the flowers out evenly there will be room.

If not, don’t panic! Just trim the leaves down a bit until they fit.

Finishing the Mug Cosy

Place the outer piece with the appliqued flowers onto the lining.

Separate the piece of velcro. Tuck one piece in between the layers of felt on one side, and the other piece in the other side. Remember to have 1 half of the velcro facing up and the other half facing down.

Pin the two layers together, then sew around them keeping close to the edge.

Now your felt mug cosy is finished!

If you like this felt mug cosy tutorial, I have two more mug cosy tutorials here:
Quilted mug cosy
Crocheted mug cosy

And here is the form for the templates! Please note that by doing this you will be added to the Tea and a Sewing Machine email list. All this means is that I will send you an email, usually once a week over the weekend. It’ll be tips, updates, links and the occasional freebie. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Embroidery Hoop Christmas Decoration

November 13, 2019 · 17 Comments

Embroidery Hoop Christmas Decoration

It’s fun to make things for Christmas, but it can be difficult to find the time, especially when it’s such a busy time of year anyway.

I actually gave up trying to make a lot of things for Christmas a few years ago. I never managed to live up to my Pinterest fuelled expectations of having a perfectly decorated, tidy house full of calm, happy people, including myself!

Christmas is nice but not if you’re stressed. So now I focus on what is necessary, and do some other bits and pieces if I have time.

One obvious option when you’re busy is to make things that are straightforward and quick to make.

Another less obvious thing to do is to make things that aren’t too Christmassy. That way, you won’t feel too weird making it in October, hanging it up straight away and leaving it up until spring!

It also has the added bonus that it will help to reduce the horrible empty feeling in your house when you’ve put everything away.

This embroidery hoop Christmas decoration is one of these that you can get out when the weather turns cold and leave up until the clocks change back to summer time.

Tartan is cheerful at Christmas, but also in the autumn and the rest of the winter. And deer live in the woods all year round!

It’s easy to make and you might already have the fabric you need already.

To save time, the templates can be downloaded at the end of the post.

The deer was fiddly to cut out, but you could always use a precut deer instead, or cut your own if you have a die cutting machine.

How to Make an Embroidery Hoop Christmas Decoration

You Will Need

A 30 cm embroidery hoop (Amazon have them here. This is an affiliate link)
Net or tulle in white or pale grey
Scraps of fabric. I used tartan for the deer and grey for everything else.
Ribbon

Instructions

Use the templates to cut out the pieces. You’ll need 1 hill and 1 deer. Mine has 7 trees, but you can use as many or as few as you like. The templates can be downloaded at the end of the post.

Cut a piece of your background fabric that’s larger than your hoop. The hoop I used was 30 cm in diameter and I cut a square about 45 cm x 45 cm.

Using the hoop as a guide, position the hill on the background and pin. Turn it upside down so that the tulle is on the top and use a zigzag stitch to sew the hill in place.

Now position the trees. It’s up to you where you put them, but bear in mind that it will look most effective if there’s some space between the trees for the light to come through.

Once you are happy with the arrangement and you’ve pinned them on, sew the trees onto the tulle with the trees underneath and the tulle upwards.

Sewing it this way means that you won’t catch all of the long edges of the trunks if you have some overlapping. So turn your work over and sew those long edges.

The next step is to pin the deer on and sew him in place. I used a straight stitch and I appliqued him on the right side up. The antlers are fiddly, so I sewed straight up past his ears and made a line of stitches up into each antler.

It might seem at this point a little bit bumpy and uneven. But how many times have you been in a wood and everything’s been perfect? As Bob Ross says, a wonky tree has a story and at least it won’t be cut down and made into a telegraph pole! Any imperfections here are what will give your embroidery hoop Christmas decoration rustic charm :).

Put your design into the embroidery hoop. Check that the metal screw is at the top. Gently pull at the edges so that the fabric is taut.

Trim the excess off so that you’re left with about 2 cm all the way round. With a needle and thread, sew a running stitch around the excess tulle, keeping close to the hoop. Pull it tight to gather it and tie off the ends.

You might need to trim it down a bit more, but like I’ve already said, the aim here is rustic and charming, not perfect!

Tie some twine to the metal part of the hoop and attach a bow. I had a bow already that I used from this wreath that I found in my cupboard of Christmas decorations!

Hang your embroidery hoop Christmas decoration up in a window and enjoy it until well into February!

If You Have More Time…

You could sew more trees over the deer so that he’s in the forest, not just standing in front of it.

You could embroider branches either by hand or with the sewing machine.

Using the sewing machine or by hand, you could add more stitches to the tree trunks to give them some texture.

If you have some white or gold embroidery thread, you could embroider some stars.

If You Have Less Time…

Cutting out the deer was fiddly and took some time, so another option would be to use a precut deer (a felt one would be fine), or if you have a die cutting machine, you might be able to make your own more quickly.

You could glue the farbic into the hoop instead of gathering it.

If you make one, I’d love to see it! You could email me a picture at teaandasewingmachine@gmail.com, or post it onto the Tea and a Sewing Machine Facebook page, or post it on Instagram and tag me (@annaatteaandasewingmachine) so that I’ll see it.

To Download the Templates

Please fill in the form below. Please note that by doing this, you will be added to the Tea and a Sewing Machine email list.

I won’t send spam, email you repeatedly or share your information. I will however send you a weekly newsletter with updates, links, tips and the the occasional freebie. You can unsubscribe at any time.

For more information about why I require an email address, please click here.

Kids’ Stationery Giveaway

October 17, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Kids’ Stationery Giveaway

One of the things that makes a huge difference to the amount of sewing I do is being able to keep my sewing machine out.

I did have a corner of the living room, but we needed the space. Now I use the kitchen table. We have another table that we use for mealtimes, but on a Sunday hubby makes a roast dinner. This usually means gravy everywhere and, much as I like a roast dinner, I don’t want it on my sewing stuff! So I’ll move it upstairs on Sunday morning and get it out again later in the week.

Having access to it is what makes the difference. As well as being able to get to the sewing machine, I have fabric, thread, buttons, craft books, zips, elastic, pretty much everything I need to get started when inspiration strikes.

When it comes to kids, we want the same for them! Whether they are our children or our grandchildren, we want them to have access to the things they need.

Some of you will know that I have 4 boys, 2 at school and 2 who are home educated.

The ones who are at school have homework to do, and it’s much easier for them to get on and do it if they have the stuff they need to hand.

One of my kids is very arty. He loves to draw, so I do my best to make sure he has a supply of mechanical pencils and fineliners.

With the home educated boys, although they spend a nice amount of time at drama, forest school, rollerskating, karate and other home ed meetups, they do need to write sometimes! I want to encourage rather than coerce (it’s much easier for everybody if they actually want to do it!), and having nice stationery to use makes a difference.

Officestationery.co.uk are offering a chance to win a full stationery set and pencil case for your children or grandchildren. It includes the following:

2 x HB Graphite Pencils

2 x Ballpoint Pens (1x Black, 1 x Blue)

1 x Pencil

1 x Lead Refill

1 x Self-Centering Compass

1 x 15cm/6” Rule

2 x Set Squares

Large Sleeved Eraser

Sharpener

Yellow Highlighter

Helix Timetable

The giveaway will run from Thursday 17th October 2019 until midnight BST on Thursday 24th October. The details for entering are below!

Year Of Bunting Challenges: October’s Nature Themed Bunting

October 12, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Year Of Bunting Challenges: October’s Nature Themed Bunting

Despite declaring back in January that 2019 was to be the Year of Bunting, I have managed to fall off my own bunting bandwagon.

Julie and Hazel in particular have joined in almost every month, so with a combination their enthusiasm and the Flylady’s, “You’re not behind. Just jump in where you are,” I’ve leapt back onto the bunting bandwagon with some nature themed bunting.

An Instagram/ Pinterest thing that I’ve adopted is decorating my dresser for the seasons. Probably like most other people, I look at other people’s gorgeous houses in internetland, then look at my own tatty, messy house with lego everywhere and cat food stains on the kitchen floor in despair!

But anyone can have a pretty dresser! Mine cost £25 at a junk shop. After we’d bought it, I installed it in the kitchen and there it stayed for a long time, a horrible shade of orange and barely visible under a pile of post.

But it’s amazing what a bit of a tidy up, some paint and some new handles will do! And it’s been years since the post situation has been as bad as it was, because I like being able to see my nice dresser.

It’s a perfect blank canvas for some seasonally themed bunting and some other bits and pieces.

The inspiration for the bunting came from this. I liked how some of the flags were layered. I had all the fabric already (bunting’s great for using up scraps of things!), and I can’t walk through a wood without picking up pine cones and things, so I had those too.

So here are some instructions if you want to make some nature themed bunting yourself. Although I used autumn colours and pine cones, you could always use different fabric, and pompoms or silk flowers.

Instructions For Making Autumn Bunting

You Will Need

Bits of fabric
Pine cones
Twine, string or bakers’ twine
Paper, pencil and a ruler

Making the Templates

You’ll need to decide how big you’d like your flags to be. As I was making bunting for my dresser, I needed them to be quite small.

You can either make your own or you can download these templates that I made for another bunting project. Please note that I do ask for an email address, and if you want to know why, you can find out here.

To make the first template, draw a horizontal line 8 cm long. Mark the half way point, then draw a vertical line from this point 9 cm long. Join the end of this line to the ends of the horizontal line.

I made a second template in the same way, just a little bit smaller. This one was 7 cm x 8 cm.

Being unable to make my mind up, I cut out 10 larger flags and 3 smaller ones, then decided once I could see how they would look.

Sewing the Bunting

How I finish the bunting depends on what kind of thing I’m doing. Quite often I don’t finish the raw edges of the triangles, and this is what I did here. The cotton won’t fray very much and the other flags were cut from felt, which won’t fray at all!

You might choose to hem your flags, in which case you’ll need to do that first.

Next, decide which flags will have 2 layers, and which order they will go in.

Take one of the flags (or pairs of flags) and fold the top edge behind. Pin it, then sew. You’ll need to get your twine through here, so bear this in mind when you are sewing!

Repeat for the other flags.

Making Loops For the Pine Cones

If you turn the pine cone upside down, you’ll see where the little leaf like things are no longer separated.

Take a piece of twine and pull it through between 2 of the leaf things, then between 2 on the opposite side. Pull the twine and it in a knot.

Assembling the Bunting

Thread the bunting and the pine cones onto the twine. You might like to tie some loops at the ends for hanging.

Now it’s all done! Find a place to hang it and enjoy your October bunting!

Uses For Resuable Cloths

What Can I Make Them From?

How To Make DIY Reusable Cloths

You Will Need

Instructions

Share this:

Felt Mug Cosy Tutorial

Mug Cosy Instructions

You Will Need

Cutting Out

Appliqueing the Flowers

Finishing the Mug Cosy

Share this:

Embroidery Hoop Christmas Decoration

How to Make an Embroidery Hoop Christmas Decoration

You Will Need

Instructions

If You Have More Time…

If You Have Less Time…

To Download the Templates

Share this:

Kids’ Stationery Giveaway

Share this:

Year Of Bunting Challenges: October’s Nature Themed Bunting

Instructions For Making Autumn Bunting

You Will Need

Making the Templates

Sewing the Bunting

Making Loops For the Pine Cones

Assembling the Bunting

Share this:

Join the List

Privacy Policy

Instagram