Picnic Placemat

April 12, 2016 · 10 Comments

How to Make a Picnic Place Mat

When the weather is nice, my boys and I love to eat outside.

Sometimes we like to go to a park, or to the beach. Sometimes we just sit at our picnic table in the back garden.

A little problem with doing this however is the toilet habits of the wildlife. Nobody wants to eat the lunch at a table where there is bird poop.

Sometimes there is no bird poop but the table looks grubby.

Even if we are sitting on grass or sand, it’s nice to have a little picnic place mat all of your own to put your lunch! So here’s a tutorial showing how to make a picnic placemat!

Instructions for Making a Picnic Placemat

You Will Need:

Burlap or hessian (I used the coarser stuff, affiliate link here Minerva Crafts), cotton fabric, sew in interfacing, (another affiliate link here Minerva Crafts), lace or ribbon , usual sewing supplies. You you could use fusible interfacing if you don’t have any of the sew in kind.

Cutting Out

Cut 1 rectangle from the burlap 46 cm x 33 cm. This will be the size of your picnic place mat.
From the cotton fabric, cut 1 rectangle 30 cm x 33 cm and a second rectangle 17 cm x 33 cm. Sewn together they will be the same size as the burlap.

For the pocket, cut 1 piece of cotton fabric 13 cm x 16 cm.

From the interfacing, cut 1 rectangle the same size as the burlap less 1 cm all the way round, and one piece the same size as the pocket less 1 cm at the the top.

Sewing Up

Take the pocket pieces. Fold the top over the interfacing. Pin, then sew.
Pin the pocket to the smaller rectangle, making sure that the bottom edges are together.
Sew the 2 rectangles together.
On the wrong side, place the interfacing in the centre of the rectangle. Fold the edges over and pin on the right side. If you pin on the wrong side, you might end up with pins inside your picnic placemat that you can’t get out!
If you want to add ribbon or lace to the burlap, do it now!
Pin the inside of the place mat to the burlap. Fold a length of ribbon in half and tuck the folded end in between the burlap and the lining on the left side.
Sew all the way around the outside edge of the lining. You might want to sew over the ties again just to be sure of them holding.

Now you have a picnic place mat for your lunch, with a pocket for your cutlery!

Tips

For a left handed person, you could put the cutlery pocket on the left side instead of on the right.
I actually find the burlap quite difficult to sew as it didn’t keep its shape well. If you have difficulties, some lightweight interfacing will help to stabilise it.

Linking up here.

How to Make a Spring Wreath With Bunting

March 15, 2016 · 7 Comments

A Spring Wreath With Bunting

I’m on a mission at the moment.

That mission is to make as much bunting related stuff as I can.

Over the last couple of weeks I have made paper bunting and fabric bunting with the letters of the word spring appliqued to it. That’s still up in the garden from photographing. I’ve decided it looks nice there, so it’s staying!

My latest project is a spring wreath with bunting.

It came together pretty quickly. I used a willow wreath form that I already had, some silk tulips, some ribbon and some bunting that I ran up quickly.

How to Make a Spring Wreath With Bunting

You Will Need: a willow wreath form, scraps of fabric, fusible interfacing, bias binding, pencil, paper and ruler, silk flowers, ribbon, wire (these are affiliate links).

To Make the Bunting

1. Make the template for the flags by drawing a line 5 cm long. Find the middle of the line, then draw another line also 5 cm long at right angles to the first. Join the end of the 2nd line to the ends of the first to make a triangle.

2. Fuse the interfacing to the scraps of fabric.

3. Using the template, cut out triangles from the fabric scraps. I made 5 flags because an odd numbers of things usually looks better, but the bunting was probably slightly too long for my 25 cm wreath! Be guided by the size of your wreath form.

4. Cut your bias binding to the right length. It will need to be long enough to go across the wreath and to have the ends tucked in.

5. Fold the bias binding in half length ways. Starting in the middle, slip the flags into the bias binding and pin.

6. Sew along the bias binding so that the edges are sewn together and the flags are secured inside it.

Putting the Wreath Together

1. Cut the silk flowers so that you have about 8 cm of the stem remaining. To do this, gently cut through the plastic with a pair of scissors (not your best pair!) and then bend the stem back and forth until the wire snaps.

2. Tuck the flowers in at the bottom of the wreath, on one side going one way and on the other side the other way.

3. Make a bow. The best way to get a perfect bow is to fold a length of ribbon into a loop and secure with a couple of stitches. Gather it a little bit in the middle to give it some shape. Then wrap a small piece of ribbon round the centre of the loop. Sew it in place. Next, cut a piece for the tails and sew that to the back.

4. Thread a piece of wire through the back of the loop and twist. Push it into the wreath form between the tulips.

5. Tuck one end of the bunting into the wreath form. Take the other end and tuck that it on the opposite side.

One spring wreath with bunting!

If you enjoy making wreaths, you might also like these posts:

Burlap and Lace Tied Wreath

Linking up at these parties.

How to Make Spring Bunting

March 11, 2016 · 14 Comments

How to Make Spring Bunting

It will probably come as no surprise if I tell you that I love bunting.

I have bunting hanging up in my living room, in the kitchen and on the dresser. I did have bunting on the front of my house too, until some clown or other decided to swing on the brackets and it ended up adorning the pavement. I even have bunting on my blog header!

There’s something very cheery about those little flags and it’s possible to decorate the flags for a particular purpose, to spell out a word or by appliquing pictures to them.

So this week I have made some spring bunting.

How to Make Spring Bunting

You Will Need: card (a cereal packet will do), a ruler and a pencil, cotton or polycotton fabric (I got mine from Ebay but there are some nice fabric packs on Hobbycraft that are not too expensive Hobbycraft), fusible interfacing or Bondaweb, bias binding (affiliate links).

Making the Template

If you don’t want to make your own template, you can download one for free here!

1. On a piece of card, draw a line 20 cm long.

2. Find the middle. Draw a second line 20 cm long from middle of the first line and at right angles to it.

3. Join the end of this line to the ends of the first line to form a triangle.

4. To make the lettering, you could either draw them, or you could find a nice, simple font on the computer and print out the letters. Cut your templates out.

Making the Bunting

1. Decide how many flags you will need. Obviously you will need 6 for the word spring, then how many extra flags is up to you. 8 or 10 in total would be good.

2. For each flag, cut 2 triangles. If you are using the free template, you will need to add 1 cm to the sides for the seam allowance.

3. Decide on the order for the flags. Put them to one side.

4. Iron on some fusible interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric you will be using for the lettering. If you have Bondaweb, fab! If not, don’t worry.The interfacing will do the job, It’s just that the Bondaweb will make things slightly easier as you can fuse it to the flags before sewing (affiliate links).

5. Cut the letters out.

6. If you are using Bondaweb, fuse the letters to the flags. Otherwise pin them on. Then applique the letters to the flags.

7. To make the first flag, take 2 triangles. With wrong sides together, pin, then sew the sides, leaving the top open.

8. Trim the seams and cut across the corner, Turn the right way out.

9. Repeat for the other flags. Run the iron on them so that they look neat.

10. Take the bias binding and start folding it in half lengthways. It is easiest to leave it on the roll and unwind it as you go.

11. Sew along where you have folded. Make sure that you allow enough to tie your bunting onto something. Then slip the first flag in where you have folded. Continue sewing along the bias tape until you have sewn the flag in place.

12 Leave a gap of a cm or 2, then slip the next flag in between the fold. Sew.

Keep going in this way until you have sewn in all the flags. Leave a similar length of bias binding at the end for tying and sew along this too.

Making Easter Hats

March 31, 2015 · 4 Comments

Holidays offer the perfect opportunity for making stuff, and as we were required to make Easter hats for church, the boys and I had some craft time after school last Thursday.

I wanted to keep things simple while at the same time giving them some freedom to make what they liked. The hats needed to be wearable as there is an Easter hat parade at church on Easter Sunday!

I decided to investigate Poundland as this is often a good place to get seasonal crafty bits and and pieces. I was not disappointed! There were several racks of Easter craft stuff, including hats for boys. Hooray for the Land of Pound!

So £20 and two carrier bags full of stuff later, I had enough to make 5 Easter hats and we actually had quite a lot left over!

The boys had a nice selection of things to choose from, including chickens and lambs, flowers, ribbons and stickers.

I put out the PVA glue but we actually found that it was easier to use double sided tape. We used ordinary double sided for the ribbons and foam tape for the chickens, lambs and flowers.

Here are the hats we made!

This is Boy 1’s hat…

Boy 4’s…

Boy 2 refused to model his…

And here is Boy 3. He was very happy to model his hat!

Not to be outdone, I made one too! I also used a hat from Poundland. As it was a bit too small even though I have a tiny head, I made some cuts in the rim so that it would expand a little bit to fit my head. I also added a ribbon so that I could tie it on.

Instead of putting a ribbon around it, I used the flower garland I made a few weeks ago. You can read about that here! To attach it to the hat, I secured it with a few stitches at the front and at the back. Then I added chickens, lambs, flowers and stickers.

Now we are all set for the Easter hat parade!

Turning a Dress into a Skirt

March 27, 2015 · 10 Comments

This is a dress I made last summer. The pattern came free with a magazine. Despite some misgivings I decided to have a go at making it.

However, I should have heeded the warning on the packet. “Easy” is usually a synonym for “completely shapeless and won’t fit. You might get away with it if you are stick thin but if you are a bit chunky, forget it”.

I am definitely on the chunky side and there was no getting away from the fact that the finished dress looked like a sack. I made a little belt but it still looked dreadful. It was utterly shapeless and the facings wouldn’t behave. I pressed them the right way and understitched them, but it made no difference at all.

I do not like having clothes in my wardrobe that I do not wear because it is an inefficient use of space. So I set about turning this horrible, shapeless dress and its ridiculous facings into something I could actually wear without needing to cover most of it up with a knee length jumper.

I decided to turn it into a skirt and here is how to do it if you want to do the same!

How to Turn a Dress into a Skirt

1. Try the dress on and mark where your waist is.

2. Remove the zip

3. Cut off the top part of the dress along where you marked with the pins. Fold it in half to check that it is symmetrical.

4. Add the zip. The zip I used in the dress was quite long, too long for a skirt. Fortunately I had another, shorter zip in the same colour. Otherwise I would have cut down the original zip I used in the dress.

I pinned it over the back seam as this was where the zip was in the dress and some of the seam was still open. Then I tacked it, then sewed it in place. Then unpicked the rest of the back seam to free the zip.You can find a more detailed tutorial in how to put in a zip here!

5. Try the skirt on. If it needs adjusting, you could either gather it or take it in at the sides. I took the sides in as it only need altering a little bit.

6. Make a waistband. It will need to be 8 – 10 cm wide and long enough to go round your waist, plus a bit extra. I used the belt I had made. You could use fabric from the top part of the dress or make the waistband out of different fabric altogether.

Fold the waistband half lengthways and press. Fold the raw edges into the middle and press again. Attach the waistband to the skirt by sewing the raw edge of the waistband to the raw edge of the skirt on the wrong side. Then fold the waistband over and top stitch all the way round, remembering to tuck the raw edges at the ends underneath.

Transformed! From this…

To this…!

How to Make a Picnic Place Mat

Instructions for Making a Picnic Placemat

You Will Need:

Cutting Out

Sewing Up

Tips

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A Spring Wreath With Bunting

How to Make a Spring Wreath With Bunting

To Make the Bunting

Putting the Wreath Together

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How to Make Spring Bunting

How to Make Spring Bunting

Making the Template

Making the Bunting

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How to Turn a Dress into a Skirt

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