Armchair slipcover

OK I've managed to peg out washing today and these little fellas are starting to show their faces.......

 


 .......so I'm feeling very Spring like, helped along with a generous dollop of sunshine onThursday morning and the fact that I actually went out without my coat yesterday!

Hello, my dear followers. Life has been busy, as it is for us all, but I'm still enjoying the wonderful world of Key Stage One, even though one of my pupils did ask me the other day "Mrs Lovis, why have you put your dressing gown on?" as I donned what I thought was my best cardigan in an effort to provide an extra layer of warmth in my classroom. Out of the mouths of babes....... :)

Lots happened since my last post. Obviously been busy with the job (Mr Ofsted is breathing down our necks -Oh Joy) Had a birthday. Yay! Attended a speed awareness course (naughty!), became a Great Aunt, been horribly ill, but not done much sewing until this half term, when I've been desperately trying to finish off a couple of long overdue projects so that I can put my design head back on again.

But first let me share with you what is probably the most perfect birthday present ever.
Just look at this gorgeous hand made card and matching gift tag.......!

Lets have a closer look.

and look what it was announcing.......

Big squeal! A sewing stamp set, which I haven't stopped stroking yet......


.....and then even bigger joy....just look at all of this......fabric!!!!

Regular readers of my blog will know Vicky, a fellow blogger and also my buddy. She had cleverly thought I could make use of the leftover bits of fabric she had. I was touched by the thoughtfulness of this present and wondered how exquisite her fabric choices have been. Such a great idea for a fabric freak like me. Thank you Vicky.

The birth of my niece's beautiful baby daughter has made me come over all babylike and I've been scouring shops for wool and have a few little fabric ideas which I hope to bring to reality in the not too distant future (who am I kidding!)

Let me show you the slip cover I made. If you're a follower you'll know that one of the things I made before Christmas was a roman blind and window seat cushion for a lovely lady who wanted to give her teenage daughter's bedroom a bit of a makeover. Don't have any pics I'm afraid as it was all very Hush Hush and I haven't had a chance to go round and take a few snaps since Christmas.

But what she also asked me for was a slipcover for a winged armchair.  As far as I'm concerned slipcovers are definitely not for the faint hearted. But a casual slip cover was what was required and before I could stop the words tumbling out of my mouth I heard myself saying "OK then,I'll give it a go." 

With great trepidation I started this project feeling a little (LOT!!) out of my comfort zone
and then I remembered the marvellous Miss Mustard Seed or as I like to call her now, 'my new best friend.' You simply must visit her amazing blog. Here is the link to the video tutorials I used for my chair. They were my saviour. Of all the incredibly useful things she said the thing that stuck most in my mind was 'Just think of it as making a dress for your chair'.  'Yes', I thought, 'I get that', and so with pins in my mouth and fabric rectangles at the ready, I started to make 'the dress' for the chair.

This is the result. I'm not expecting a round of rapturous applause but it has certainly whetted my appetite to do more slipcovers although I wouldn't recommend starting with a winged arncahir.

Joining the arms to the wings was the worst bit. I added a couple of ties on the back to keep everything in place......

.......using cotton twill tape. (I think I probably love this as much as I love my linen thread)

The cushion added the final embellishment and was made using some of the fabric I had left over from the roman blind.

I'm quite excited at the moment as my eldest son is due back from his school ski trip this afternoon. I can't wait to hear what he's been up to, although I expect I'll get the mum rated version :)  I think that's probably all for now. I'm off to pay long overdue visits to your lovely blogs and catch up on all your news.

Thanks for stopping by.
EDITED TO ADD: Have decided to enter this into Wendy's Handmade Monday so why not pop over and see what that talented bunch have been up to :)

Crochet Hearts, a birthday gift set and a crochet catch up.

When I started my little crochet adventure back in April, never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that I would be making a birthday present for a friend that involved crochet. OK what I've done is very simple but I think very effective and should encourage all you novice crocheters (like me) out there to have a go.

Ooooooh what are these......?

My very good friend is celebrating her 'girlie' birthday this week. She is a lover of all things 'hearty' and has an excellent eye for detail, creating lots of interesting little corners in her house. Anyway the 'hearty' thing was my starting point.


So where do you go when as a crochet novice you need a bit of handholding and advice? Off to lovely Lucy of course, where there was a lovely teeny tiny heart tutorial which was just perfect for my needs.

The hearts were so straightforward to make and I had purchased a white box frame for them to nestle into.

But then of course I had to make the card and think of a suitable wrapping. Here's what I came up with.

A tote'ish bag made from good old reliable wallpaper lining to house the frame, using hearts as my theme and working with the same colours as the crochet hearts.  Shall we have a closer look......?

A carefully placed sentiment and hearts randomly stamped onto a strip of white card which were then cut into squares and mounted onto card. I wanted a faded heart look, so I stamped some of the ink off before stamping onto the white card.



This might give you a better idea....



The ribbon was simply tied around the handle and the handles were made from red card and attached with eyelets.

Although this was for a birthday, what a great Christmas present it would make wouldn't it?

And talking of all things crochet, just in case you were wondering...............

........my crochet blanket is coming along nicely. I left off it for a few weeks as sewing projects took over but I'm determined to get it finished in time for Christmas. I'm aiming for a 10 squares by 12 rows blanket and I'm on row 10 now, I should make it shouldn't I?

Enjoy your day and thank you for stopping by x

More scrappy beach huts

Last week I mentioned that I was going to be making a fabric picture of beach huts for my lovely friend's birthday. I know that some of you are big fans of beach huts and indeed some of you are lucky enough to live by or near to the sea. Well, after a trip to the North Norfolk coast, my friend was inspired to makeover one of the rooms in her house using colours with a definite seaside feel and that was my starting point.

I had recently made a cover for a footstool for her,




Not the most inspiring of photos - sorry



......which I was really pleased with, but wouldn't be in a rush to repeat the experience as my poor sewing machine struggled to cope with all those layers of fabric. A no nonsense bruiser of an industrial machine would have coped much better . The footstool belonged to the sofa in 'said' room.




Lots of layers of fabric here

Anyway the point of me mentioning this is to say, I remembered I had some scraps left over from this project and I decided to use one of them as the background for the picture. A lovely, ribbed heavy cotton furnishing fabric in a neutral sandy colour, perfect!

Then came the usual playing around with colours and I did have fun with this one. Getting the combination right and waiting for that 'pop' moment. The weird thing was that when I gave the present to my friend she squealed out loud, as the blue in the picture is the exact same fabric that she also has on one of the cushions in 'said' room. What a coincidence!!

I must admit I loved the way these colours came together and will I ever stop loving this applique thing? I chose a clean white frame to set the picture off.

Then the wrapping. Regular readers will know I enjoy a good bit of papercrafting. I made a box to house the picture and decorated it very simply with white ribbon, linen thread and a co-ordinated gift tag.




Poor picture - sorry



Let's have a closer look.........



Little bit of sponging on the background and around the edge, you can just see it if you look carefully


It was lovely to see the delight on my friends face when she opened up the box and I've seen it in it's new home and she's right it co-ordinates beautifully.

Well, I certainly feel like a bracing walk along a beach this morning, so I envy you if that's on your agenda but whatever you've got planned for today hope you enjoy it and thank you for visiting and saying hello.



Gift set for a friend, a topical tip & a little bit of Downton?

Recently my lovely friend celebrated a birthday and so a decision had to be made as to what to buy for her. My group of girl friends and I are a little like the Queen in that we have 2 birthdays, our official family birthday and a girlie birhday, both celebrated with equal importance and aplomb. I thought you might like to see what I gave to her.

A while ago, I made bedroom curtains and cushions for her....

and as I had a little of the fabric left over, this was my starting point.

A fabric storage pot for a bedside table but it needed a friend and something to sit on.

I don't think your can ever go wrong with wicker and as my friend is a language teacher I thought these little bits would be the perfect combination for her bedside table.

But then how to wrap it all? I must admit I did huff and puff on this one. In the end I used a tip from my Stampin' up chum. Wallpaper lining paper! Yes you did hear me correctly not the most inspiring thing in the whole world but when you stamp, or roll in this case, an inked image onto it, it comes to life. So that's my topical tip for the day! I always keep a couple of rolls it's like brown parcel paper, so versatile. So about half an hour and 3 metres of linen thread later.....

....... her gifts were all packed and ready to go and thankfully she seemed quite pleased :)

Had a glorious evening last night with the TV all to myself I decided to have my own little 'Downton Abbey' fest and catch up on all those recorded episodes I had not seen, the problem is ever since I saw the skit that Victoria Wood did for comic relief, I can't quite take it as seriously as I used to.

Now I'm actually going out to celebrate another friend's birthday tonight who specifically requested "a fabric picture of beach huts please", when I asked her what she would like. So I'll share that one with you next week until then have a great weekend x

A young man's birthday!

Good morning lovely people! It's birthday day in our household today. So as it's a school day we were all up at the crack of dawn to wish my youngest son a happy twelfth birthday and smother him in cards, prezzies and affection. So far the day has consisted of.....

A card from an older brother.....

...complete with cute little tiny tag sentiment tied on with my lovely linen thread .

A card from doting parents.......(had lots of fun on photoshop with this one).... I think he was going for mean and moody.....

.....using masculine colours and a metal edged tag to hold the sentiment....



....and a teetering pile of prezzies.

Of course, fellow crafters, they're all handmade. I never buy cards now and I'm starting to prefer my own wrapping paper. I don't think there's anything quite as nice as brown parcel paper stamped with a simple image and dressed with a luxurious ribbon.

Anyway the request was for "Chocolate Fudge Cake please", so spare a thought for me as you read this as I'm probably knee deep in cake mixture.

Hope you're all having a good day. I will sit down with a slice of afforementioned cake and a cuppa later and do some perusing of your blogs. Have fun.

Nature Birthday Gift Set

Hello all, slightly late in the day, but here is my contribution for today. It was my very excellent and lovely friend's birthday last week. Much merriment was had over a few glasses of wine and platefuls of curry (as us girls do) and of course lots of present giving.
My friend loves nature and has very exacting tastes so it's always a challenge to come up with the 'perfect' present for her. However, luck was on my side this year and I happened to be with her when she went into raptures over a very lovely Emma Bridgwater mug - problem solved! I sneaked back a couple of days later feeling very pleased with my self.

Anyway here is the card......



I embellished the top left hand corner with a simple pearlised button and some linen thread.

........ and the gift tag, taking the same design from the card and using that wonderful linen thread again secured by an eyelet.



...... and the set. I wanted a very simple, natural design. The bag is made from lining paper and is stamped in a gorgeous earthy brown with the same image as the card and gift tag.



But what was the mug like.......?



Lovely isn't it?

Well I hope you're all enjoying your half term breaks. I'm spending a couple of days soaking up the history of York with my lovely family. Hope you're having fun and thank you for visiting me today I do love reading your comments. 

Coordinated gift set

It's my lovely friends birthday today and so a card was called for and suitable gift wrapping.  This is what I came up with.

I was going for a 'basket from a French market' feel with the bag and I was quite pleased with how it turned out.

Would you like to see what's inside ....?

A beautifully ornate bird cage - isn't it lovely?  I placed a little sweet pea inside with the idea that it will grow up and through the bars of the cage.
The card picked up the embellishments, design and paper from the bag and I love how these colours work together.

It's a gorgeous day here today. I've already been on a bike ride and I'm just off the tackle the weeds at the front of the house now. Have a great weekend, whatever you're up to and thanks for stopping by.

Caroline