Many a way to use a Suffolk Puff

We all scream for ice cream

Another 3 Suffolk Puffs get put to good use atop an ice cream cone....

Basic Tutorial:

• Draw a cone shaped triangle on your 'heat-and-bond' or similar iron on adhesive product & cut out.  Iron this triangle onto the fabric you've chosen as the cone.  I had some stripy orange-ish fabric that worked well for my waffle cone. Then cut out the 'heat-and-bond' backed fabric triangle.
• Using a water soluble fabric pen, rule lines parallel to the long edge of each side of the triangle.  These will form the guiding 'waffle' lines to sew along on the cone.
• Next sew 3 Suffolk puffs out of plain coloured fabrics - these will become the scoops of ice cream.

• Iron the cone in place onto the garment you've chosen to use (I've used a baby grow).
• Using a short length (2.0) straight stitch sew around the edge of the ironed on cone & then along each of the ruled lines to create a waffle pattern ( I later ended up using a close zigzag stitch around the border of the cone to help it stand out once the Suffolk puffs were stitched in place- you can see this in the finished ice cream cone at the top of this entry).

• Pin the Suffolk puffs in place overlapping each other and the cone & then hand stitch each one using matching thread.
• Almost good enough to devour!

Springtime flowers

There is a definite chill to the air, finally.  Winter is here and the rains have also fallen for the last few days, finally.  The plants in the garden are perking up again, and the kangaroo paws are beginning to flower. Perhaps this is what prompted the flower design of today's creation with the aim of using up some of the Suffolk Puffs I had lying around.

I discovered how to make 'Suffolk Puffs' in a craft magazine late last year, and since then have found a number of applique uses for these handy, and very quick and easy to make, little circles of fabricy-puffiness.

Springtime Flowers

Basic Tutorial:

• Make 3 Suffolk puffs, one slightly larger than the others as follows:

• for each puff, cut out a circle of fabric approximately 2/3rds larger than you want the finished puff to be
• using a needle and thread, use a running stitch to sew all the way around the circle, turning over a small seam as you go 
• pull up both ends of the thread to form a little pouch, knot ends together and then flatten fabric to create the puff.
• Sew 3 stems onto the baby grow using straight stitch on a machine
• Cut out 3 pieces of green fabric with 'heat and bond' ironed onto one side to create the leaves and then iron these in place
• Machine applique the 3 leaves using a small straight stitch and stitching around each leaf twice.  Don't worry about sewing a perfectly straight edge, as long as you catch the edge all the way around to prevent excessive fraying.
• Hand stitch the Suffolk puff 'flower' heads in place & you're done.

How many ways to use a Suffolk puff?

I do like these quick to make little yo-yo's or Suffolk puffs as they are otherwise known, so many uses!

Balloons floating in the breeze

Owls in a tree of blooms

Springtime flowers

The wheels on my bike go round & round

Some other Suffolk Puff ideas rattling around in my brain....ice cream in an ice cream cone... caterpillar...'bunch' of flowers, surrounded by single leaves.  Something I saw - a plain skirt with vintage fabric puffs all around the bottom edge.

The Beginning

Craft something inspiring.


Create something new.

Capture something on camera.

A year at home in the new role of looking after a little one leads to new ways of maintaining sanity. There has to be an outlet somehow, and for me I have returned to creating and crafting whenever I have a spare moment.  The capturing of images in photographs has become a little more portrait focused with a baby around, and improvements could be made.  The crafting has also largely taken on a baby focus with the creation of designs for appliqueing on clothes for all the little ones I know.  But there are other ideas and projects to be made as well, and time to enjoy craft and time with my best-est 'hootchie' girlfriends too.

My aim in this endeavour of joining the world of blogging is more for me than anyone else.  A place to store my ideas and completed projects in one place instead of on sticky notes, jotted on random scraps of paper or just forgotten.  A place to reflect on what I've done in the past and maybe even a place to be inspired to begin something new.

One of my first applique creations