Christmas Cards with paper bunting

I found these photographs today & have realised I never uploaded them - from 2013's Christmas. Some Paper Bunting Christmas cards I made all that time ago.  Quite a lot of work, but they do look good at the end of it all.

White A5 card folded in half with a Christmas print taped onto the front half. THe first ones I did like the photo below - the Christmas paper covering the whole front of the card with about a 1-2cm overhang onto the back over the folded edge - looks a bit more finished). I think the cards looked better though leaving a small border of white card showing all the way around (see below).

Then cut out an assortment of small 'bunting' triangles from coordinating Christmas printed papers, thread a needle with gold thread, tie a knot in one end ...

... and sew them all together, leaving gaps between each one to string them out across the card, allowing a bit of slack so it looks a bit more like they might be hanging up.

Tie off the other end of the thread too and then use double sided tape to stick the triangles at each end down (and in doing so hide the knots).

Stamp out some sort of Christmassy word (like 'Christmas' for instance!!)...

...and stick that on the front too. (The card below shows the design I prefer; where I left a small white border showing all the way around)

Add a little something to the back of the card for fun - here a small punched out tree and a left over triangle. All Done.

Peg Dolly Angels

A chorus of Angels have been created this Christmas, although I have only photographed one.
Pattern courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

Felt, dolly peg and pipe cleaners are the main ingredients, with embroidery thread to hold the felt together/ embellish the wings and then some glue to hold the wings, halo and dress in place.

Pop the finished dress over the peg to dress the angel and thread the pipe cleaner through the sleeves to make the arms and then twist the extra lengths of pipe cleaner up behind the head to create the halo. Add a pen drawn face and some slippers to finish.

A simple dress or top

I’m still a bit wimpy when it comes to attempting sewing clothing, so I kind of forced myself to give this a go. Perhaps then it would have been wiser to start with a project where I had a pattern, but no – I decided to do what all the kids clothing super-sewer-bloggers tell you to do – “just work out a rough pattern from another piece of clothing that fits your child”. Easier said than done. Or maybe my mistake was trying to make the top a size bigger because it ended up maybe 2 sizes bigger!

Overall though, it has worked, and maybe I will have the confidence now to try something a bit more complicated….in the New Year. And either way, Little Imp is pretty happy with this version (and the benefit of my errors is that it will fit her next year too!)

This is what I did.

Worked out a pattern back and front as shown. The dotted line indicates where I cut the lining to.

Cut one front and one back from the main print fabric.

Cut one front and one back from the lining fabric (up to the dotted line shown on the paper pattern)

Cut 2 straps (11”x 2”) each out of main print and lining fabrics.

When cutting out the patterns I used my quilting ruler and rotary cutter to cut all the long straight edges – super easy and faster than scissors.

all the cut pieces of fabric - red for lining & Grinch print for the outer

 Straps: 

For each strap place lining and main fabric right sides together & pin. Sew straight stitch around 3 edges, leaving one short end open (I used a ¼” quilting foot to keep seams super neat).

 Clip corners as shown & then turn right side out through the open end. Poke corners through if needed to make them nice & neat and then take time and iron straps flat, working fabric with your fingers if needed as you iron to get nice neat edges.

Straight stitch around the same 3 edges with a ¼” seam to finish strap.

Lining:

Fold over the bottom raw edge twice, iron and straight stitch using matching thread to finish the bottom of both front and back lining pieces to prevent fraying.

Next, lay front and back lining pieces right sides together and pin down side seams, matching up top corner. Straight stitch together down each side seam with matching thread, starting from the top to make sure that this join is neat and matching.  My machine has a straight stitch that also finishes the edge at the same time - if yours doesn’t then also zigzag the raw edges after straight stitching.

 Outer:

Lay front and back pieces of main print fabric right sides together, pin and then sew side seams using matching thread as you did for the lining.

lining and main sections sewn and finished down both side seams

 Assembly: 

Turn lining right side out. Iron side seams flat, one facing toward the front and one facing toward the back.

 Iron side seams in outer layer flat too – but have these facing opposite directions to the lining seams. This will make it easier to achieve a neat join under the arms.

Slip the lining into the outer main fabric, so that right sides end up facing each other.

Match up & pin raw edges of lining & outer along top of dress, ensuring that the side seam joins match up. If you have ironed the seams facing in opposite directions they should lie nice and flat at the join of the side seams as shown in the photo.

Then stitch the main fabric to the lining around the front of the dress.

Turn the dress right side out and pin the straps in place at the front of the dress. Then, if you can, get your model (an unwilling model in this instance!) to try on the dress so that you can work out how long the straps should be. Mark this and then remove, leaving your model in peace! Turn dress inside out again.

 This picture shows the roughly marked line on the right hand side.

Remove both straps and, using a quilting ruler if you have one, or any ruler if you don't, mark  even, straight lines on both straps.

Then slip the straps in between the lining and the outer fabric, lining up with the strap marks you made before to get the right length, and position so they will line up evenly over the shoulders. Also make sure that the main print side of the strap is facing upwards.

 Pin in place, and then stitch across the back to join main fabric to lining, catching the straps as you go. I didn't trim the straps down as this way I could potentially extend them in time if Little Imp grows!

Then open out the dress, so that you see the right side of the main fabric & the lining. The lining will be on one side & the main fabric to the other. Now you need to understitch the lining to help stop it rolling over to the outside where it can be seen. Slip the lining under the presser foot with the seam allowances facing the lining. Stitch through all these layers (lining and all seam allowance layers) about 2mm from the seam as shown.

When you fold the lining back into the dress you will have a nice neat edge (a bit hard to see the understitching in this picture as I used matching red thread). Iron to get really crisp edges.

You can also top stitch all the way around the top of the dress. Use thread that coordinates with main fabric & then stitch all the way around about 1/4 inch from the edge on the right side of the fabric, catching the lining as you go.  This just finishes the edges nicely.

Hemming

Iron hem over twice (about 1cm for each fold) to enclose the raw edges.

And then straight stitch to secure. I used my 1/4 inch foot to help stop wobbly stitching!

Finishing
Sew buttons (or pom poms) onto the front edge of the straps as shown. These are purely for decoration.

On one of the straps add a press and a matching stud in the corresponding spot on the dress itself. Finally, stitch the other strap down securely. I find that you only really need one strap able to be opened to get the dress on & off.

Hopefully your model will be a bit more willing to wear it now there are no pins in sight!

Feeling Christmassy!

Someone is a bit excited about Christmas this year...

and so am I! Any excuse to be extra crafty & creative:) A Christmas Grinch dress/top for Little Imp that received the seal of approval.

Of course a Christmas hair clip is also required to finish the look. Same technique I've used before to make a felt hair clip. Simply cover a clip with felt sewn together with blanket stitch & then glue on something Christmassy - a wooden tree decoration in this case.
                               

Some Christmas 'stocking' drawstring bags. I had thought I would make proper stocking shaped stockings, but where would I hang them and what if the presents were too big to fit in the small opening? A drawstring bag seemed far better & this pattern for a lined drawstring bag by In Colour Order was fantastic. I just adapted the sizes a bit to suit what I wanted.

I think we are almost ready for Christmas day!

Just now it is time for another fruit mince pie though!
Instructions for the dress are here.

Fabric covered baubles

It isn't Christmas without festive baubles now is it!?

Here is one way of making your own fabric covered versions to pretty up the tree.

Gather your supplies:

Polystyrene balls (the ones I used were 50mm)

Coordinating fabric pieces

Matching 5mm ribbon

Scissors

Pencil & felt marker

Sharp knife to cut polystyrene

Butter knife (I used my pocket knife)

Gold stars (ones with the hole in the middle) or bead

Dressmaker pins

Elastic band that fits snugly around polystyrene ball

Template cut out of card (see pic below) – a pointy ended oval shape 9.5cm long & 5cm at the widest point (this will cover 50mm diametre balls)

Using template, mark and cut out 4 pieces of fabric for each ball. Depending on the fabric pattern you may want to position the template to get the part of the print you want. I cut 2 red print and 2 white print for each bauble.

Next you need to mark lines around the circumference of the ball to divide it into quarters. I used the circle on my mathomat to mark the points of the quarters and then slipped an elastic band over along these points to use as a guide to then mark the line. If you don’t have a mathomat you could probably just use 2 elastic bands and judge this bit by eye before marking these lines onto the ball.
 

 Using a sharp knife, cut along the lines you have drawn, about 5mm deep all the way around. Then take the first piece of fabric, place it over one of the quarters of the ball, lining it up so that it will cover all of that quarter when poked into place.

 Use a blunt edge such as a butter knife (or pocket knife tool) to begin to poke the raw edge of the fabric into the cuts in the polystyrene you made before. Starting this at the middle / widest part and working your way towards the point at each end in turn makes it easiest to keep the fabric nice and smooth. If you make a mistake, just pull out a bit and re-poke it in.

 Repeat until you have all 4 pieces of fabric poked into the ball. If you end up with excess bulk/fabric that you can’t poke in then just snip away some of the excess – make sure not to snip too much though!

 

Cover up the raw edges of the fabric using the ribbon. Start at what will be the top of the bauble and run the ribbon around one circumference line.

 When you reach the top again, twist the ribbon as shown and then track down the other circumference line – covering up all of the raw edges.

 I found it easier to pin the ribbon once it crossed over at the base, and similarly at the top to hold it in place. Snip the ribbon.

 Take a gold star (or bead) and thread it onto a pin. Tie off some gold thread and then poke the pin through the knot.

 Place this threaded pin into the top of the bauble & voila – now you can hang it on your tree...

 ....or box it up with all the others you will make as gifts!