New Sewing Machine

I was very lucky this Christmas and I got such lovely presents, particularly exciting was my very own sewing machine.   This is a very new craft for me, I've never been a seamstress before.  I have tried, but never really got on with sewing machines, or anything that has needed sewing.  Since having children, I've had to learn how to hand sew a bit - sewing on buttons and badges.  I've even managed a couple more complicated sewing projects, you can read about them here and here.  My poor Mum did try and teach me, but it never seemed to click, my siblings could manage fine and then I would mess up whatever it was that Mum was trying to get us to do.  But now, finally I'm going to crack it, well at least that is the plan.  I tried learning knitting as my New Year's  Resolution three years running and never mastered it, but I have my fingers crossed for sewing.

I got the same machine that my daughter has, and it is fab.  I love that they come in different colours, mine is yellow (my favourite colour).  It also helps that when I get stuck she can help me and it made threading it for the first time a breeze. It is a little embarrassing to have to ask your 9 year old for help, but she has been very good.

So far I have made a toddler dress out of an old shirt, it was meant to be big enough for my daughter, but doesn't quite(!) fit. The idea came from here, and I loosely followed the instructions on the tutorial.  

My daughter did try to squeeze into it, but I would guess it would fit a 2 or 3 year old.  You can see the quality of my work in these pictures.  It is going to take a while before I can produce something really beautiful.  Now it is hanging up in a cupboard and I'm not sure what to do with it, it isn't good enough to give to someone, but it is the first thing I did on my machine so I don't want to chuck it either!  

I also turned an old t-shirt into a shopping bag.  The top had a stain on it so I used the parts I had cut out to create some fabric flowers which I attempted to sew onto the bag, and then promptly broke the needle on my sewing machine.  

Doh.  In the end I reverted to a glue gun - this is probably an improvement on some of the materials I've been known to fix clothes with - sticky tape, staples  and paper clips...

Anyway, despite breaking the needle on my machine I'm really pleased with this, it is actually usable, and it gave me a chance to try sewing something stretchy.  It was easier that I thought - no doubt some false confidence for when I next try making something!

I'm planning on something a little more adventurous next time - outfits for World Book Day dress up for the kids for school.  I need a princess cloak and some wizard robes.  Could be interesting! 

Owl Bags

Did I mention that I liked owls?

I saw this little project a while ago and knew I would have to make it immediately!  I've made a couple of minor adjustments to the pattern, mainly because I can't be bothered to sew on the crocheted circles and beak when I can glue on felt equivalents.  I also have used an i-chord for the strap I found a fab video tutorial for this here and I was too lazy to add the little pigtails to the sides. 

Since I've made a lot of them, normally for my daughter's friends' birthday presents.  As always if I'm making them for presents the photos tend to be a bit rushed, especially if they were on my phone like these:

These were two I made for my nieces.  I like that you can make them so they all look completely different depending on the colours you use.

Recently I wanted to try and make a bigger owl bag, so I used the same pattern principle, but added a couple of extra rows.  To add extra rows on a circle you simply add one more Half Double Crochet  on its own before putting two in the same space.  So following on from the pattern, the next row would be 2 hdc in the first space, 1 hdc in the next 3 spaces all around.  The next row would be 2hdc in the first space and 1 hdc in the next 4 spaces all around.  I hope that makes sense.  I think I got to 1 hdc in the next 5 spaces for the owl bag below.  For my equivalent of Row 5 from the original pattern I did 1 hdc in the next 20 spaces as it needed a larger area because it was a larger bag.

I had also seen that you could create a chunky yarn by using two strands of a normal DK wool, so I tried that too, and I was very pleased with the results.  I did use a slightly bigger hook, but I can't remember which one exactly now (maybe a 6mm, or 6.5mm).

As I've made a few of these, I've started lining them with felt.  I roughly draw around the bag, and then cut 2 slightly smaller versions on felt and blanket stitch around them before slotted it into the completed bag and sewing around the top of both openings.

This time I didn't use an i-chord for the strap as I felt it needed something a bit wider.  I just did a long length of  5 single crochet.  I played around with the colours that made up the bag for a bit of interest, and not because I ran out of one colour, or two colours before I got to the length I wanted.  Honest!