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

Halloween Blanket

I wish I was still young enough to trick-or-treat

Greetings folks! I'm back to give the skinny on my latest project!

If any of you read my Red Heart yarn review, then you may remember I mentioned that the reason I took the plunge and bought the yarn was because I wanted to make a blanket for my son. When I wrote my review on the yarn, I was a few squares in to the blanket, and I'm happy to say that having completed the whole thing, I'm still every bit as in love with the yarn as I was then. Phew!

So to get right down in to it, first I'll give you the basics of the blanket design (I'll link the pattern below for anyone who wants to have a crack at it themselves) it's a fairly simple layout - 9 squares and a border around the edges. Obviously there are varying colours and such, I'll get to that further down.

The squares are solid granny squares, and I have to say I really like how these are constructed. Usually in a granny square - solid or traditional - you increase when you get to the corner space where there's a chain2 gap, and into that gap, you put two double crochet, chain two, two double crochet. With this method you always end up with a little gap in the corners, so it's never completely solid.

there ends up being an X shape across your work

However, using the method in this pattern you get a completely solid, and in my opinion, much neater looking square. The difference is that when you get to the last stitch in a side you do two doubles and one treble in that stitch, then one treble and two doubles in the first stitch on the next side, which makes the point in the corner solid, while also increasing the number of stitches in the next round. 

Each round ends with a slip stitch and the next round starts with a chain3 and continues as before, the only thing you need to watch out for is that you don't accidentally skip the slipped stitch when you get to the end of the next round, otherwise that side will be one stitch short. Because of the way each row is almost fastened off before the next one begins, it made changing colours very easy, and the join between the colours is seamless.

The squares worked up quite quickly, I would be able to get a whole one done while I was sitting watching TV in the evening. Once the squares were done, it was time to start the faces.

The many faces of Halloween

As you can see in the picture above, four of the squares have assorted faces, and one says 'Boo!'. The faces were easy enough to make, although I found with some of them there were still a lot of gaps showing between the stitches when they were finished. For example, the triangle eyes and noses were quite 'gap-y' and so were the oval shaped eyes on the second face from the left in the picture above. The instructions tell you to leave a long tail after you fasten off, so I left an extra long tail and used a yarn needle to weave the yarn in and out of the stitches to fill in the gaps.

The 'Boo!' was slightly more difficult, to make. The two letter 'O's were fine, as was the exclamation mark. The 'B' was slightly trickier, and it ended up looking like a number 8. It took a fair amount of manipulating it, when I was stitching it to the square, to get it to look like a 'B'.

Once all the faces were done, it was just a matter of stitching them on to the various squares. One thing I will say is plan carefully when you're putting the face pieces on to the squares - I'll go in to a bit more detail about this further down. I found the easiest way to get the faces right was to lay the square out flat and then pin the pieces down before sewing them on. It would be extremely rare that I'd pin anything in crochet. In fact, I don't think I've ever done it before, however it was the best way to keep all the pieces in the places you want them, because I found that even the piece I was working on tended to move around a lot as I was sewing it - I'd leave the pins in right until I had the whole piece pretty much sewn on.

Never have I been happier to finish seaming a piece together

Next step was sewing all the pieces together. It said on the pattern to sew the pieces together using the back loops only. It didn't specify what sort of stitch to use, so I used a mattress stitch to give as seamless a join as possible. Mattress stitch is a fairly strong stitch - it's also used to sew sleeves and seams in sweaters, so I figured this would be a good robust stitch which would be capable of standing up to a vigorous toddler.

Sewing through the back loops only was a bit of a faff, to be honest. There ended up being a gap where 4 pieces intersected, which I had to go back and sew tighter when the whole thing was completed. The way I put it together was I sewed the top three squares together, then the middle three, and then the bottom three, so that I ended up with three long strips. I then sewed the strips together. 

I mentioned earlier about planning the layout of the faces carefully, the reason I say this is because when you're sewing the pieces together through the back loops, it's hard to weave in tail ends of yarn neatly. When you lay out your face pieces, do it so that when they're sewn on, the yarn tail from the square will be pointing towards the outside of the blanket. Similarly, when you're sewing the pieces together, rotate the multicoloured pieces so that their yarn tail is pointing towards the outside as well. Obviously, you won't be able to do this with the 'BOO!' square, because it's in the centre. The first round of the border is just double crochets, so the yarn tails from the squares can be woven in neatly and securely with those stitches.

Before your boder is on, the blanket should look like some sort of Halloween amoeba 

Once the pieces were sewn together, the border was a piece of cake. The first round was just double crochets using the grey yarn, then the second round was 'shells' using the black yarn. A 'shell' is when you make a single crochet, skip two stitches, put 5 double crochets in the next stitch, skip two stitches, then repeat all the way around.

So there you have it! The Halloween blanket is finished and my little boy is delighted with it. He's been sleeping under it every night since I gave it to him. I think overall it took me about 10 days to finish it. I really like this pattern, and I think it's something that could be adapted quite easily to be used for a different occasion, like Christmas, Valentine's day, etc.

Yarns: RedHeart.com

2 x Red Heart Super Saver #312 Black

2 x Red Heart Super Saver #254 Pumpkin

1 x Red Heart Super Saver #356 Amethyst 

1 x Red Heart Super Saver #400 Grey Heather

1 x Red Heart Super Saver #672 Spring Green

Pattern: Pumpkin Face Throw

Amigurumi Unicorn

 

Hello again all! Today's blog is about this adorable little critter; the Amigurumi Unicorn. No prizes for guessing who I made this for :-) My little man loves the Despicable Me movies, and we saw a toy of Agnes's fluffy unicorn in the toy shop but it was giant and pink, which I thought might be a bit weird for a two year old boy. So I had a search online and found a pattern on Ravelry - incidentally, if you're into yarn related crafts and haven't already checked out Ravelry.com, you really should because there are tonnes of free patterns and some of the pattern creators have YouTube channels and have put up tutorials so you can knit/crochet along.

Now the pattern I used suggests 'Light Weight' yarn, (double knit weight is used in the video tutorial) and a 3.5mm hook. I wanted the toy to be a little bit bigger so I used chunky yarn and a 4.5mm hook. It also suggests 12mm safety eyes, but I only 9mm and it was around midnight when I realised I needed a different size so I just had to make do with the 9mm eyes. (Unfortunately my local 24 hour Tesco doesn't stock knitting supplies, which is just as well because I'd probably never leave otherwise) I think the 9mm eyes look fine though. 

Aside from the yarn weight, hook size and eye size, I did deviate from the pattern slightly in some other ways, also. On the pattern it doesn't say to stuff the hooves, or feet, or whatever you want to call them. However, since mine were larger I felt they needed a bit of bulk so I put a very small amount of stuffing in just before I worked the tube of the leg. I didn't stuff them firmly or anything, like you would for the head and body, I just put enough in so that they wouldn't collapse in on themselves. If you are making this and decide that you want to stuff the feet, I'd recommend putting in your stuffing before you crochet the narrow leg tube because it can be a bit awkward trying to push the stuffing down through the legs.

                        

For the mane and tail the pattern suggests using the contrast colour (the yarn you used for the hooves and mouth) and making the mane using chain stitches. I thought I'd make the unicorn a bit more colourful though, and I cut segments of rainbow coloured yarn and chained it with the blue to make the mane. Then for the tail I mixed the strands of yarn and plaited it, as the pattern suggested.

                             

I did use double knit weight yarn for the horn (and a 3.5mm hook) because when I first made it with the chunky yarn it came out huge and I didn't like how it looked, so I went with the lighter weight yarn. I didn't follow the pattern exactly when it came to crocheting the horn, I left out a couple of rounds so it's a bit 'stubbier' than the pattern would have it and rather than working a small bit of stuffing inside it before I attached it to the head, I just left the long tail from the starting magic loop, and tucked the excess yarn inside instead.

This was a nice simple toy to make, the pattern is good and very easy to follow. There is also a YouTube video where the designer makes the toy from start to finish, so if you get stuck you can watch it to see what to do. It took me about 3 hours from start to finish. The fiddliest bit was the mane, but once I got the first few bits in I got the hang of it. Other than that everything was pretty straightforward, and I'm very happy with how it turned out (most importantly, so is my son!)

Pattern: Amigurumi Unicorn by Eden Dintsikos

Main Yarn: Hayfield Baby Chunky from Winnie's Wool Wagon

Coloured Yarn: from Aimee Rose Store

Stuffing & Safety Eyes: from Springwools

Angry Birds!!

Twas the week before Christmas, and I was seriously stuck for something to get my son. Ok, Santa was all sorted with his gifts (he started with Amazon pre-orders back in June, the super organised fella that he is!) but I wanted something for under the tree for baba from my hubby and I. As any reader has probably already guessed, I love making stuff for him, so with that in mind and the fact that he was going to be getting tonnes of other toys between the jolly old St Nick and our extended families, I decided his present was going to be home made. Now, as I said, twas the week before Christmas, so I wasn't going to have time to make garments, but I figured I'd be able to knock out a decent toy for him in under a day and chose to make an Angry Bird.

I picked Red Bird because his basic shape would be the easiest to figure out - he's essentially a ball. The beak and stuff were going to be slightly more complicated because I didn't have a pattern. Now there are hundreds of Angry Bird crochet and knit patterns out there in internet land but honestly, none of the ones I looked at really jumped out at me. Some had elements I liked but then other bits that I hated so I figured I'd wing it (no pun intended) and see how things went. 

For the main body I just made one big sphere, now for this I did use a pattern - it's one I found on the internet a while ago on how to make a perfect amigurumi sphere, and it's amazing, the results are perfect every time. It's from Ms Premise Conclusion and she's actually got it as a free download on her site, which is really cool because she must have put an INSANE amount of effort in to figuring all of these out. I used the largest size pattern which was a 30 row sphere.

I wanted the body to be fairly substantial in size, about the size of a small football as opposed to maybe a baseball or tennis ball, so I used a 4.5mm hook and also two strands of yarn at the same time. This made the fabric nice and thick and also ensured that I could stuff it nice and firmly without having to worry that the stuffing would be visible between the stitches. When making the sphere, I find it easiest to crochet until you've got about 2 or 3 rows left, then stuff and continue crocheting. If it's starting to feel a bit loose as you're about to close the sphere you can work in a tiny bit more stuffing as you do the last round. NB: if you're using 'safety eyes' you'll need to attach these BEFORE you stuff and close your sphere.

The whites of the eyes were fairly straightforward, they're just plain circles. I used white DK weight yarn and a 3.5mm hook, then I made two circles with 36 stitches around. To attach them I firstly positioned them on the body before it was stuffed and then applied the safety eyes going through both the 'eye' and the 'body' fabric. Then, after I'd stuffed and closed up the body, I took some black yarn and the same 3.5mm hook and worked a row of single crochet around each eye and then took a tapestry needle and used the black yarn to secure the edges of the eyes to the body. The eyebrows were just two pieces of 14 double crochets, and then I did another row of single crochet halfway along each of them to give the 'frowny' expression. They were also made using the 3.5mm hook.

To make the 'tummy' of the bird, I got some beige coloured yarn and just made a flat circle. To figure out how big to make the circle, I checked how many stitches the body had at the widest part and used that as a rough guide. My bird had 59 stitches around it's middle, and I wanted his 'belly' to be a bit smaller than that so I worked until my circle had a 54 stitch circumference. I attached the tummy after the body had been stuffed because it made it easier to hide the stitches holding it on.

The beak was a bit of a challenge, I couldn't figure out whether to do it two dimensional or three dimensional. I checked a load of patterns online and there seemed to be a fairly even split between both, so I actually made one of each and held it up on the bird to see which one I preferred. In this case I used the 3D one (as you can see) but I actually held on to the 2D one also because I'm planning to make an Angry Bird hat for my son and the 2D beak would be perfect for that. The 3D beak is basically just a cone shape, which I stuffed and then attached on with the yellow yarn. I got some black yarn and sewed up along each side to give it the illusion of being more pyramid shaped. I also did a bit of sewing at the top of the beak to improve the shape between the eyes.

For his weird little doo-dads on the top of his head I again used the 3.5mm hook and crocheted two 'tubes' that tapered off towards the end, one slightly shorter than the other. Then I put a teeny bit of stuffing inside them before I sewed them on.

The tail was the finishing touch, and it was news to me that Angry Birds even had tails but that's another story. Don't laugh, but the tail is actually a shamrock, I just used black yarn and sort of smushed it about until I liked how it looked.

And that's it! One Angry Bird! My son loves it and has a great time throwing it around the living room while yelling 'angeee birds!'. Thank god it's not made out of anything harder than yarn!!!

Sphere Pattern from: Ms Premise Conclusion

Stuffing from: Springwools

Safety Eyes from: Springwools

Yarns and hooks from my own stash.

Entrelac Hat!

Hi All!

Well first, I must once again apologise for my lack of posts over the summer. What with the unexpectedly warm summer we had, I found it very difficult to actually get any knitting done. I love sitting out in the sunshine (ok, under an umbrella, but watching the sunshine) and knitting along, but it was just so hot that trying to knit anything was like sitting under a woolly blanket, so I ended up packing away my knitting for those lovely sunny days.

A couple of weeks ago, when the weather started to turn, I picked up my needles again and started a new project - Entrelac. This was something I'd never tried before, and any time I'd looked at pictures and videos of it, it looked terrifying! I decided I'd give it a go, so after watching many, many youtube tutorials, I grabbed some chunky wool and thick needles and knit up a sample piece.

It actually turned out to be easier than I thought, once I got into the rhythm of it. The main thing I found was that it was really important to keep count of your stitches, seeing as it's not like knitting straight along until you reach the end of a row, but once you remember to do that then it's a lot less complicated than it looks.

Each winter I've knitted a hat for my son. Unfortunately for him, he inherited my slightly large size head, so it can be difficult to find nice hats to fit him. I decided that this winter's effort was going to be in Entrelac. Knitting it in the round actually turned out to be easier than knitting a flat piece, and I was surprised how straightforward it was, once I'd joined the two sides together. 

I used double knitting wool that I had in the house already, and 4.5mm circular needles. It took me about 2 days to complete, but that was two days of doing not-a-whole-lot else. 

I'm very pleased with how it came out, and most importantly, so is my son! I'm currently knitting one for my husband and one for my mum, so my knitting schedule is going to be nice and full for the next few weeks!

Here's my handsome little man modelling the finished product!

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