WIP Wednesday

I've been working on my May sewing challenges.  The paper piecing project is well underway.  All of the rectangles have been 'papered' and sewn into strips.  The next step is to sew the strips together and then to add a border.  The final piece will eventually become a cushion cover.

I was going to give the crazy quilting a miss, but at the last minute I decided to take Queeniepatch's advice and try a small project, so I'm making a pincushion.  I've used old jeans and sewn the patches together.  Now I just need to decide on the embellishment.

May Sewing Challenge - Try Something New

My sewing prompt for May is "Try Something New". I have a couple of things in mind for this. The first is English Paper Piecing. I've seen many examples of it; some of it I like, some not so much, but it does seem to have many possibilities to be creative. One of the main reasons that I've avoided it is because of how fiddly it looks, but I thought a small cushion cover would be a manageable project.

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The second is crazy quilting.  Again this is something I've seen around a lot but I'm not quite sure that I like. However it does look like with the various layouts and fabric, colour, stitch and embellishment choices the ability to put your own stamp on things is pretty much infinite.  I did find this example on Pinterest which I think is very pretty.

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Both of these projects are fairly outside of my comfort zone so would be worth trying to help develop both my stitching and design skills. I'm not sure if I'll get the chance to try them both, but I'll give it a good try.

Christmas Pudding Brooch

Last year my friend asked me to make her a Christmas brooch for an event that she was going to.  I made her a Christmas tree, which was cut from green felt with sequins sewn onto the entire front surface, and was finished off with small gems for baubles and metallic yarn for tinsel.  I did take a photo of it, but my skills were not enough to really capture the brooch and the whole thing looked flat, whereas in reality it was so dynamic with all the reflections from the sequins and gems.  Anyway, I also made a Christmas pudding brooch as a back-up, which photographed a little better.

To make it I cut a two rounds of brown felt about 2.5 inches in diameter, and then I cut a piece of white felt to mimic the frosting and sewed that to one of the brown circles.  Then I sewed the sequins onto the white felt, being sure to cover the whole area.  The sequins I used were very pale purple with what I think is called an Aurora Borealis (AB) finish, which gives a greenish hue to the reflected light and I used invisible thread.  A little bit of wadding was sandwiched between the front and back to give it some body, and the whole lat was simply sewn together with a whip stitch.  Two holly leaves cut from metallic card and flatback rhinestone berries finished the brooch off.

The sewing of the sequins took a while, but it was a labour of love.  If you didn't have the time or inclination then I suppose a clear-drying fabric glue would also work, but I love the meditative quality of hand-sewing.  I will be sporting my pudding brooch this year, and I might even make up a few more to hang around the house.

Scrappy Gift Tag

Oh my goodness, was it really March when I last posted?  Time is really racing by!

I have been dabbling in card making, in fact I've started a new blog to keep track of my card making and papercrafting exploits.  One of the projects I completed recently was this simple, but pretty gift tag.  While sitting in the park, looking through the photos on my phone I thought how well the design would lend itself to being reproduced in fabric. 

It would be a great hand sewing project and the perfect way to use up fabric scraps. Strips of fabric stitched together and embellished with felt flowers or shapes, a few sequins, a bit of wadding to give it some body, and embroidered wording. What could be simpler? In fact, I don't know why I haven't tried it yet!