Halloween Zig Zag Table Runner

I love Halloween! Before having a child, Halloween was my favourite holiday (now it's tied with Christmas) and I still love decorating my home with pumpkins and ghosts and other bits and bobs. 

About a month ago, I was online shopping for supplies for this year's Christmas Presents (more on those nearer the time) when this cute Halloween fabric caught my eye. Usually I knit or crochet the presents for my immediate family, however this means months and months of work. When you hear knitters/crocheters refer to "Christmas in July" this is what they mean - if you're making something for Christmas, you generally need to start it in the summer. Last year, despite starting early, I was still putting the finishing touches to stuff on Christmas Eve! So, I decided this year that I'd do fabric based presents, in the hopes that I'd be able to put them together a little bit faster and therefore cut down on the pre-Christmas stress. 

After I chose what presents I would make for everyone, I was on the internet ordering the fabric that I'd need. Of course what with it being near Halloween, I had to have a look through the seasonal fabrics they had in stock. When I saw the Cheeky Pumpkins Charm Pack by Studio E I just couldn't resist - it went straight in my shopping cart! The handy thing with charm packs is there's a multitude of simple projects you can make with them. They're a really great option for someone who's new to sewing and is a bit nervous about cutting, or someone who wants the 'patchwork' look for a project, but doesn't have a rotary cutter or quilting mat and ruler so cutting the squares could be a bit daunting. 

My initial plan had been to make cushion covers for the scatter cushions on my couch, however when the fabric arrived and I measured up the cushions, I realised that I'd have needed 64 squares of fabric. Charm packs come with 42 squares as standard, so I didn't have enough. Unfortunately I couldn't source that fabric anywhere locally, and if I was to order it from the States again, it wouldn't have arrived in time for Halloween (and let's not forget that I'd possibly get hit for customs charges again in Dublin, grrr!) I had a look on YouTube for ideas on what else I could make, and I found the Zig Zag Charm Pack Table Runner by the Missouri Star Quilt Company. It was the perfect project!

As you can see in the video, you can pretty much make the runner any length that you want. I've got a really small kitchen table - it does extend, but unless I've got people over for dinner, I leave it folded up - so I decided to go with 7 rows of squares. I didn't want anything hanging too far over the edges, seeing as I've got a 4 year old, and 2 crazy dogs who could very well get curious, and pull the thing down on the floor to play with!

my table is a mess!

I started off by separating out the charm squares and sorting them by pattern. (In this charm pack I got 3-4 of each fabric, other charm packs vary depending on how many patterns are in the range; sometimes you'd only get 1 or 2 pieces of each, other times 6 or more, but it will say on the pack, so you'll know before you buy.) Once I had that done, I started laying them out on my table, and playing around with colour and pattern combinations until I found a layout that I was happy with. 

When I'd settled on a layout, I made sure to take a photo with my phone so that I'd remember what way the pieces were arranged. This is a really good tip if you're making anything that has to be pieced together, whether it's knit, crochet, or sewing, and it's something I'd definitely recommend doing. In a lot of cases when you're sewing pieces together, you're sewing them with their 'right' sides together, and it can sometimes be a bit confusing trying to work out which edge you're supposed to be sewing along. Having a photo that you can refer back to just makes the process a whole lot easier and can save you the time and stress of having to go back and unpick stitches!

Once you have your patches stitched together in rows, it's time to hit the ironing board. I absolutely hate ironing, and I'm going to be honest and say that I never iron any clothes for my family - the only exception being stuff like dress shirts where there's no option but to iron them. I'm dreading when my little boy starts school and has a uniform, because that'll definitely have to be ironed! I've seen some videos and blogs where people don't iron their seams, but to me that's complete madness! Believe me, if there was a way to avoid having to iron stuff, I'd be all over it, but it's essential to iron out seams - it keeps your projects flat, secures your seams, and makes your stitch lines sit more evenly.  It's unfortunate, but ironing goes hand-in-hand with sewing projects, there's just no way around it. I like to iron my seams 'open' as opposed to ironing them all laying the one direction. Some people will swear by one way over the other, but I reckon it's personal preference. I find it a lot easier to line pieces up if my seams are open.

ironing the seams open makes it easier for me to line up my pieces. use pins to ensure they stay in place

When I had all my seams pressed open, it was time to start attaching the rows. I did mine 2 rows at a time. You could pin all your rows together and bring the whole thing over to the sewing machine, but for me there'd be too much of a chance that a pin could fall out, or something could go wrong. I find that doing them 2 rows at a time forces you to check your work, and also if you do go wrong, it takes a lot less time to unpick one row of stitches than it does to unpick the whole thing! When I'm pinning my pieces together, I like to line up the two seams, and put a pin vertically down through them to hold them together. Some people don't pin at all, and more power to them I say! I just find that if I don't pin, my seams are off by miles and it drives me nuts. I envy those who manage to get their seams all nicely lined up, while avoiding stabbing themselves with quilting pins over and over again!

I love it when a plan quilt comes together!

Once all the pins were in, I brought the piece over to the machine and started to sew. As you can see, the pieces are positioned 'right sides' together, and because I'm sewing along the edge, it's impossible to see the piece underneath. For me, this is really why it's so important to use the pins - so that when I get to the end, I don't discover that the piece underneath has somehow shifted and my stitches have missed a section. The tutorial calls for a quarter inch seam, and I'm actually using a quarter inch quilting foot on my machine, which makes it easier to see where I should be sewing. This is completely optional, I'm useless at 'eyeballing' stuff, so if there's some sort of gadget or tool I can use to help, I'm all for it! This foot was relatively inexpensive, and I've found it hugely useful, so for me it was worth it, but it's not really an essential. (I'll put links below to where I got mine, but remember that the different accessories are often machine spacific, so double check before buying!)

I leave the pins in right until the needle is about to hit them

As I'm sewing along and I'm approaching a pin, I'll slow down. This is for 2 reasons - firstly I want to make sure that my seam doesn't bunch up as it's going under the presser foot, and secondly I don't want to run over the pin with my needle. If the needle hits the pin as you're sewing, you'll blunt your needle, and that's the best case scenario. Worst case scenario, you break your machine! Generally what'll happen is you can break the needle, which isn't the worst thing in the world, but it's a complete pain in the arse to have to change a needle in the middle of a piece. The way I avoid this is by slowing down as I approach the pinned piece; then if it looks like the needle is going to hit the pin, I'll pull the pin out right as it gets to the needle. If the pin isn't in the way, I'll continue sewing slowly (in case I misjudged) and then speed up again when I've gone past it. Once I finished sewing the two rows together, it'd be back over to the ironing board to iron out the seams, and repeat the process until all the rows were sewn together.

Sewing the layers together was very straightforward, and the best bit was that once that was done, there was no need to put binding on the quilt! I just used plain black fabric for the backing, and I had a half meter of quilt batting left over from another project, so that fit nicely as the filling. 

stitch in the ditch

Next part was the top-stitching, which is always my favourite bit, because it means I'm into the home stretch, and I can really see how my project is going to look when it's finished. I did mine slightly differently to how they did it in the video; I did my 'stitch in the ditch' first, and then after I'd finished that, I did a quarter inch seam all around the outside edges of the runner. The only exception to this was the section where it was left open to facilitate turning it 'right sides out' again, after the backing and batting were sewn on. I did my quarter inch seam along that side first, just to secure everything.

quarter inch seam around the edges

And that was it! It's now sitting prettily on my kitchen table! I'm delighted with how it turned out, and also with how quickly I was able to finish it. I'm thinking of doing another one with Christmas fabric when that time of year approaches. I've also got a few other random charm squares floating around the place, so I might put those together and make another 'everyday' one for when it's not a holiday - having the runner on the table has been quite effective at stopping both me and my husband from coming in and dumping stuff on the table! There were a few squares left out of that charm pack, and I've got an idea in mind for what I'm going to do with them.....stay tuned!!

Fabric: Charm Squares ~ Cheeky Pumpkins by Studio E

            Backing ~ plain craft cotton from Hickeys Home Focus

            Batting ~ cotton lightweight batting from Hickeys Home Focus

Thread: Piecing ~ Moon plain white (any 100% cotton white thread will do)

             Top Stitching ~ Gutermann Black (any good quality thread will do)

Stuff you'll definitely need: 

    Sewing machine (unless you want to do it by hand like a loon)

    Good scissors

    Pins (the longer the better, ones with glass heads are great because you can iron over         them and they won't melt)

    Iron and ironing board - make sure you've got the steam set to full!

    Stitch unpicker (just in case)

    Measuring tape (ruler will do in a pinch)

Stuff that's not essential, but may be handy to have: 

    Quilting mat

    Rotary cutter

    Quilting ruler

    Quarter inch foot for sewing machine

    Stitch in the ditch foot for sewing machine

    Quilting extension for sewing machine

In case anyone is wondering, my sewing machine is a Pfaff Ambition Essential

Making Small Gauge Crochet Hooks More Comfortable

Have you ever tried to crochet something using very fine yarn or thread which necessitated the use of small crochet hooks? If so, did you ever find that your hands cramped up quite badly while you were doing it?

I've certainly noticed that when I'm using a smaller gauge hook (like about a 4mm hook or below) my hands get very sore and I have to stop after a short time. It didn't happen to me with the larger gauge hooks so I figured if I had some way of making the handles a bit thicker it would go a long way towards making the small hooks more comfortable to work with. Now you can buy hooks with large size grips. Off the top of my head Prym, Addi and Clover are three brands that I can think of  who do hooks with handles. However, I already have a set of crochet hooks which work perfectly well, and I didn't fancy forking out a load of money buying more hooks with grips, because some of them aren't exactly cheap. 

I had a look on the likes of Amazon and there were grips that you could add on to your hooks, but most of them were kind of ugly and just not what I was looking for. I had considered using Fimo as I had used it a lot in my teens and knew it would be sturdy, however it needs to go in the oven to cure and I was concerned that the hooks might not react well to being cooked.

At Christmas, one of the presents I got from my husband and son was Sugru. It's like a very hardwearing version of Fimo, and it's intended use is for fixing and general life hackery as opposed to arts and crafts. Most importantly, it doesn't require cooking to cure - it hardens in 24 hours and is ready to use! They got me the multi pack, so I got some black, white, blue, yellow and red Sugru. You can mix colours too, so you can really have any colour you want - you can see in the picture that I've got a green and a purple.

The hooks I used the Sugru on were the 4.5mm, 4mm, 3.5mm, 2.5mm and 2mm hooks. For the 4.5, 4 and 3.5 hooks I used one sachet of Sugru on each, and two sachets on each of the other two hooks, the reason being that the bigger hooks didn't need as much bulking out in the handles as the smaller ones did. I also found that the handles of the very thin hooks were a bit bendy and flimsy, so the extra-thick coating of Sugru helped reinforce them.

When putting the Sugru around the hooks, I basically made a 'sausage' and held it up against the handle until I had the length I wanted, then I pressed the hook into the 'sausage' rolled it back and forth in my hands until it was wrapped evenly around the handle. I used my nail to smooth it down around the top and bottom so that it looked neater, and then, while the Sugru was still soft, I got a tapestry needle (anything pointy would do) and carved the hook size into the Sugru. This was because with the steel hooks the size is usually printed or stamped into the centre of the handle, and in this case I'd just covered it up with the Sugru. It says in the instructions to leave it for 24 hours to set, so once I'd done that, I just took some nail varnish and dabbed it in to where I'd carved in the hook size so that it would be easier to read at a glance.

I have to say that since doing this I've noticed a huge improvement in the comfort level of the hooks - I'm not getting cramps in my hands at all now, so I'm delighted! I've started a new project recently using fine crochet thread and it would have been pretty much impossible for me to work on for longer than a few minutes with just the plain hooks, however I've spent lots of time happily crocheting away in front of the TV so hopefully I'll be finished it before too long and I'll be posting some pictures of it up on here!


Hooks from: Home Focus at Hickeys (part of an 18 piece set)
Sugru from: my lovely hubby and son, who bought it at Sugru.com

Knitpix 2014.....Now With Added Crochet Goodness!

image credit

Greetings and Happy New Year to you all!

Once again, I have been absent for the world of the blog for many weeks, however they were not fruitless weeks, oh no! They were weeks filled with crafting festive gifts for those I love, so I've got lots of lovely things to post about on here in the coming weeks. Hurrah! 

In a change from my gifts last year, this year's lot were crocheted. I only learned how to crochet very recently. It was something I'd always wanted to do, but could just never get my head around how it worked. One of the reasons for this - I think - is because of the way I knit; I'm a thrower. "A what?", I hear you ask, I'm a thrower. That means that when I knit I hold my yarn in my right hand and it's my right hand that loops or 'throws' the yarn around the needle. This is also known as 'right hand knitting' or 'English knitting'. 

In crochet you hold your yarn with your left hand, and your hand movements are more similar to 'left hand' or 'Continental' knitting, so for those that use the continental knitting method it's not such a huge jump to crochet, because you're already used to holding your yarn and controlling your tension with your left hand.

I'd tried to learn how to knit continental style before and it was a complete disaster, much the same way my previous attempts to crochet went, however one of the main reasons I wanted to learn crochet was that you can make any size project you want; you're not limited to the length of your needles the way you are in knitting. 

Just after my son was born I made a massive blanket for him, it's 150cm x 150cm, and the trouble I had trying to get a circular needle to accommodate a project that size was unbelievable. The longest one I've been able to find is 180cm long and 4.5mm thick. Once you start getting into bigger thicknesses it's impossible to find a cable that long, also if you've got a piece of work that has 500 odd stitches in a row and you suddenly find you've made a mistake and have to rip it out, you'll pretty much lose the will to live because on projects that size a single row can take up to 40 mins to knit.

So with that in mind, I went and bought a set of 5 chunky crochet hooks and a book on how to crochet. First and foremost I'm going to say that, aside from containing some lovely patterns to get me inspired to learn, the book was largely useless as far as teaching goes, so I did what I always do in times of craft related confusion - I checked YouTube! 

Now there are millions of videos on how to crochet on YouTube, in fact there are also videos on how to perform colonic irrigation on your self (don't ask) but after looking through a few of them I found a great one from Staci on VeryPink.com which was part of a series she did called 'Crochet for Knitters'. After watching a couple of her videos it was like a light went on in my brain and suddenly I could crochet along, too!! Huzzah!!

That was back at the end of September and since then I've made lots of crocheted projects, and at the risk of making an utterly, utterly dreadful pun, when it comes to crochet you could say I'm 'hooked' (cue laugh reel). I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. 

There are a few things I really like about crochet in comparison to knitting, the main thing being that you work takes shape so much faster, I could finish a crochet hat in about one hour whereas it might take me a whole afternoon or more to knit the same thing. Also, if you set your work down and it starts to unravel, it's not catastrophic the same way it would be with a knitted piece, since each crochet stitch is 'closed' before you move on to the next. 

That being said, I've found that some projects just don't work as well in crochet as they do in knitting - for example I recently crocheted a sock which turned out grand, only it's not really something you'd realistically wear - it's insanely thick, and the nature of crochet stitches mean it's not quite as smooth as a knitted sock would be.

All in all, I love crochet and I'm so glad I finally got the hang of it, but I'll never give up the knitting - I'll just have a wider range of projects to choose from in the future. So for any of my fellow knitters out there who are considering learning a new skill, I'd definitely say go for it, you won't regret it! And if anyone's interested, I'll list my favourite YouTube crochet channels below.

VeryPink Knits

The Crochet Crowd

Crochet Geek

YarnYard

nerdigurumi

How To: Pyjama Case/Sock Bag/Blanket Bag/ Nappy Holder Thing

Lately I've noticed that my son's wardrobe has been looking a bit messy, and seeing that he's only a toddler, he can't be blamed for it. So when I checked in the wardrobe to see what was going on, I noticed that the little basket where I used to store his socks had gotten far too small for the job. It worked grand when his socks were teeny tiny and would have fitted onto one of my fingers, but he's getting a lot bigger now and the socks were overflowing out of the basket and all over the wardrobe. 

I realised that it was time for a sock storage overhaul, which led me to make this cute sock bag!  It's actually pretty versatile, because it can also be used to hold a multitude of different things, for example: pyjamas, socks, undies, bibs, muslin squares, kitchen tea towels, dusting cloths, nappies, toys, or you could even store a spare set of kiddies bed linen in it and hang it on the end of their bed so it would be close to hand if there was a night time 'accident'. 

This is a fairly easy project to make. I didn't have a pattern or anything, I just had an idea of what I wanted and went from there. I'm going to outline the steps below, so if anyone who's interested can make one if they want. If you're a child, or just not good with sharp objects or sewing machines, make sure there's an adult around to help you with this. (I had my mum on standby for sewing help, and my husband on standby to drive me to Accident & Emergency in case I cut myself with the scissors or ran my hand through the sewing machine - both things have happened before).

So here's my how-to guide! I hope you enjoy it and if you've got any questions then leave me a comment and I'll do my best to answer!



What You'll Need:

• 1.5m x 1m fabric of your choice
• 1.5m x 1m wadding (I ended up with a bit left over but it's better to have extra in case of mistakes)
• A needle, thread, pins and a good sharp scissors
• A sewing machine (doesn't have to be super fancy, a basic one is fine)
• A button (optional)
• Ribbon (optional)

Before You Start:

I'd allow about 2 hours to complete this project, so if you can, try to do it at a time when you can just go from start to finish with minimal interruption. Make sure you have enough space to work in; I used my mum's dining room table to work on which meant I had enough room to lay out my fabric and have the sewing machine set up at the same time. Also, make sure your work space is somewhere that has good light so you can see your stitches more easily, this is especially important if you make a mistake and have to do unpicking.

Step 1:

Take your fabric and fold it in half, then in half again. Cut along the side and the top so you now have four pieces of fabric that are the same size. Set two of the pieces aside for now, then take the two remaining pieces and cut them in half, lengthways. These pieces will be the front part of your project, and from now on I'll refer to them as 'front pieces'. 

Step 2:

Take two of your front pieces and put them together with the patterned sides facing each other. Tack the two pieces together down one side (it's better to do your tacking in a different colour thread so it's easier to see and pull out afterwards). Next, use your sewing machine to sew the side that you have tacked. Use a normal straight stitch. Once the pieces are together, pull out the tacking thread. Repeat this step with the other two front pieces. 

Step 3:

Now we're going to stuff the front pieces. Take your wadding and cut a strip slightly smaller than a front piece, then lay it on the front piece as shown above. Wrap the front piece around the wadding, so that the patterned sides of the fabric are now on the outside. 

Step 4:

Using the sewing machine, sew the open side of the front piece together so that your wadding is secured inside. Leave the ends open. Repeat step 3 and 4 with the other front piece. You should now have two pieces that resemble cot bumpers. One side will have a nice invisible seam, and the other side will have the slightly messier seam that you just sewed to seal the wadding inside.

Step 5:

Now take the two stuffed front pieces and lay them on top of each other, make sure the neat seam is on top of the other neat seam, and the messy seam is on top of the other messy seam (as shown above). What you're going to do now, is sew the two pieces together along the side that has the neat seams. This can be quite tricky, so take your time. Using the sewing machine, start running the two pieces through so that they're joined together.

Once you get about halfway up, stop the machine and leave an open gap of about 5 or 6 inches, then continue sewing until you get to the end of the fabric. When you've finished you should be left with something that looks like this:

Set this piece aside for now and proceed to the next step.

Step 6:

Grab the two large pieces of fabric that you set aside earlier, these will now be referred to as the 'back pieces'. Cut a piece of wadding that is roughly the same size as one of the pieces (it doesn't matter if it's slightly bigger because we'll be trimming off any excess at the end). Sandwich the wadding between the two back pieces so that the patterned sides of the fabric are facing the outside, as shown above. Now use the sewing machine to sew the sides together. Leave the ends open, like you did with the front pieces.

Again, this can be quite tricky so take your time. It doesn't matter if this isn't the neatest sewing you've ever done, these edges aren't going to be seen in the finished product, so if it looks a bit messy, don't worry. Once you've sewn the sides together, if there's any big bits of wadding sticking out beyond the edge of your fabric, then trim them back so that they're in line with the fabric edge.

Step 7:

This is where things start coming together. It's very important to remember that you will be sewing this together inside-out, so place it together with the 'outsides' facing each other. For the back piece this doesn't really make much of a difference, unless there's a bit of your pattern that you would prefer to see on the outside. For the front pieces, you want your seams to be on the inside of the bag when it's finished, so lay the front piece on top of the back piece with the seams facing up.

Now bring the project to the sewing machine and carefully sew the two pieces together. As with steps 5 and 6, take your time doing this and make sure that the stitches are going through all the pieces of fabric. Leave sewing the top part together until last if you plan on hanging the bag up, because this is where you attach your ribbon. If you don't want to hang the bag, then once you've sewn up all the sides, turn the piece right-side-out and proceed to step 8.

If you're adding the ribbon, wait until you've gotten both of the sides and the bottom sewn together. Now take your ribbon and fold it in half to make a loop (the loop can be as long as you want, it's up to you). Insert the loop in between the front piece and the back piece of the project, and leave the two ends of the ribbon sticking out. Sew the top part together, so that the stitches secure the ribbon between the front and back pieces. Now turn the piece right-side-out, your ribbon loop should be sticking out the top of the bag.

Step 8:

This step is optional, but I'd recommend it, especially if you're planning on hanging the bag up because it'll stop your stuff from falling out. 

To make the loop for the button closure you can either use some scrap fabric, or some ribbon. I used scrap fabric. I took two small pieces of fabric about 1 inch wide and about 4 inches long and sewed them together with the patterned sides facing each other. I only sewed the sides and left the ends open, so I had a little 'tube', which I then turned inside out so that the pattern was on the outside. 

Pick a spot around the middle of the opening at the front of the bag, then hand stitch your ribbon or fabric loop to the inside of the bag, as shown above. Make sure your stitches only go through the fabric on the inside layer of the bag, that way they won't be seen on the outside, and everything will look neater. Next, sew your button on to the opposite side of the front piece, at the same level as your loop so your bag now has a fastener.

Step 9:

Fill your bag with whatever you plan on putting in it, then step back and admire your handiwork!

Fabric & Wadding from: Hickeys