A Long Weekend

We've had a long bank holiday weekend at home with lots of time for sewing and gardening.

 

The Jolly Molly is finished and the wadding will hopefully not shrink in the wash quite as much as the wool blanket did.
 

 

The appliqued flowers worked fine and provide enough quilting to hold it all together.

 

 

I added some buttons to finish the flowers,

 but avoided these being on the ends which will be used to pick up the hot dishes.
 

 

The reverse was some more of the grey with white dots,

 a cotton poplin that I used to back my recent  quilt, Flag it up.

 

Next up was the door stop.
 

 

This is a pattern that I have used before by Lotta Jansdotter in her book simple sewing.

 

I used some herringbone wool fabric which was lovely to work with, and a scrap of cotton dinosaurs to brighten up the top.



 

I filled it with scraps of fabric

and a packet of old dried black eyed beans that had gone well out of date!

The beans weight it down and the fabric  stuffing help it to keep it's shape.

 

And finally I snuck in a shirt that was luckily already cut out a few weeks ago.

New Look pattern 6104, again one I have done before here, but this time I made view c but with slightly shorter sleeves and no tucks in the sleeves or front panels.
 

 

The fabric was from Truro fabrics around Easter time.

It's another cotton poplin with a very slight sheen

 and I had second thoughts about it after cutting it out.

You wouldn't know but the pattern is lots of rows of tiny snails!  

 

 

Now that it's made up I quite like it.

 

I'm hoping the fabric will soften and wear a bit when washed.

The pattern is definitely a favourite and is lovely and quick, with no fiddly collar.

The shaping works well and I even managed to find some recycled buttons for the front.

Learning from my mistakes..

 

This is my Jolly Molly made and blogged here not so long ago.

 

I used an old blanket to pad it with as I have done before without any problem.

Unfortunately this  time it must have been 100% wool I think and it shrunk badly (or well!) in the wash and the result is fairly useless.



 

So now this little lot is sitting on my sewing table ready to be put together.

I have used some left over wadding from my last quilt instead of the blanket this time.

I am also planning to quilt it by appliqueing the flowers on through all the layers.

 

I will be following my usual method which I put in a tutorial here if you want to have a go too.

 

Results to follow. 

 

 

And this is the other thing sitting on the table ready to go..

a new doorstop for the back door.

 

A friend gave me this lovely herringbone wool fabric

 and it is just the right weight to make a sturdy doorstop.

Lots to share today...



 

 

Firstly a Sprocket pillow that I made as a Christmas present but didn't get to photo.
 Luckily my friend took some lovely pictures and sent them to me.
The pattern is one of my favourites, and is from an excellent tutorial by Cluck Cluck Sew and is found here.
I made this one from scraps of recycled cord trousers.
 

 

The reverse has a pocket detail which is a back pocket from one of the pairs of trousers!



 

 Next up, and again a favourite, this time a skirt.
New Look pattern 6053 view E.
Made from blue cord and involved my first attempt at a concealed zip. 

 

 

I haven't tried a concealed zip before but having liked the way they look on shop made skirts I thought it was worth a try.
 

 

I'm not even going to attempt to begin to explain how I did it (because I can't!!) but having read various tutorials and watched videos, I found the You Tube video here most helpful for me.

It was fiddly but I really like the result and will definitely use them again.
 

 

Then there was the Jolly Molly situation..
 

 

 

How sad is that!!

I have made a fair few as presents for others and had failed to look at the state of my own.

 

So I set to work with some strips from my stash.

 

I found the most amazing shirt to back it with, and felt grateful for the fact that my brother has such brilliant shirts to recycle my way.

 



 

If you fancy having a go at one yourself you can find my tutorial here.
 

Just had to make a couple of lavender hearts with the scraps and some purple linen/cotton scraps that are left over from the next thing on my 'to make' list- more soon.



  

And finally, my first bunch of narcissi from a local stall..
 

 

Have a good week.

 

Jolly Molly Tutorial

 

Here goes..

You will need..

17 x 82 cm piece of old curtain lining or other fabric

17 x 82 cm piece of blanket (or wadding)

17 x 82 cm piece of cotton fabric or recycled shirt

2 x (17 x 20)cm pieces of blanket

2 x (17 x 20)cm pieces of medium weight fabric for pockets

Scraps of cotton fabric for stitch and flip

Bias binding to coordinate

Small loop of ribbon or fabric loop

Method:

Take a piece of medium weight cotton fabric (I used an old curtain lining), and cut to 17 by 82cm.

Use this as your base and cover the entire surface using stitch and flip.

This is a well used method and there are some pretty good tutorials around if you need one.

 

 

                            

 

 

Basically it involves stitching strips to a backing fabric and each time you add another strip, you sew it to the last piece right sides together, and then flip it over to show the right side and iron it down before adding the next strip. I think this is the fun bit, picking out scraps of fabric and matching them up together to suit the person you are going to give to. Are they bright and bold, calm and quiet, pretty in pink, or keen on purple!!

Once you have covered the fabric, trim any uneven edges.

Then cut a further two pieces 17 by 82 cm, one from old blanket (or you could use wadding), and one from cotton (I use an old shirt here although you may need to join two pieces of shirt to make it big enough unless you know a very big person!).

Now it's time to put it all together.

Place the main piece of stitch and flip on a flat surface right side down.

On top, place the large piece of blanket.

Then place the smaller blanket rectangles one on each end (these are for extra padding to stop you burning your hands).

Then lay the piece of shirt fabric (or whatever you are using) right side up on the top.

Then you should have what looks like a long fabric sandwich.

It is at this point that I have to admit how lazy I am when sewing. I would like to say that it is because I am pushed for time, but actually I am just keen to get it all finished.

You could pin (with big quilting pins or safety pins) the sandwich together and then tack it all. Sometimes if it's going to someone as a present I 'glue' the layers together using temporary fabric adhesive spray.

 

But if it's just for me I shove in a couple of pins and wing it!!

 

So then you need to quilt together the layers. It doesn't really matter how and 5 or 6 short stripes will hold it fine, but you could also do wiggly lines, circles, or any old pattern of quilting that you fancy.

 

Then cut two rectangles 17 by 20 cm. These will form the pockets on either end. They can be made from any fabric but need to hold their own, so if you use a thinish cotton I would line it ie make it double. Bind the top edge of the pockets either with bias binding or a strip of fabric.

It is at this point that I usually slightly round the corners of the main piece and the pockets as shown above.

Next place the pockets on either end (wrong side of the pocket to the right side of the shirt material) and pin and/or tack in place.

The aim is to sew all the way round the edge, about 1cm in, attaching all the layers together. 

Go for it.

Finally use the bias binding to bind round the edge. Tuck in a little loop of ribbon or fabric to hang it up with as you sew on the bias binding.

I sewed the bias binding on to the shirt side first, following the stitching line from previously sewing the sandwich all together, and then hand sewed it down to the front, but you can do it either side first really.

Ta da.

 

Please let me know if you make one and if there are any bits of the tutorial that don't make sense and I will try and clarify.

Happy sewing.

Misty morning and a Jolly Molly

It was a very misty morning here today but the sun is now out.
 Hooray.

I have been working on a Jolly Molly for a present.

 It's another one of the things I like making because we all need one but they can be very boring, a bit like the peg bags.
They are another good way to use up leftover bits of fabric too.

I am attenpting to put together a tutorial but that may take a bit longer so for now, here it is..

 

and the other side..

 

The other WIP I have is the ripple blanket mentioned here, which is growing steadily.

 

 

There is something about crocheting a blanket on cold evenings that I really enjoy.

 

 

The hellebores and snowdrops are flowering well despite the wet weather..

 

 

 

And my yarn supply is going down more quickly than expected.....

 as my daughter has caught the bug..

I love it!