New baby quilt

The fabric world is full of fat quarters and they are in the most fun patterns, colours and styles! It was time to find out what the patchwork world was about.
Our friends Joe and Hannah were expecting a baby so what better time to make a quilt/baby blanket/play mat than that.

I spent ages searching for the perfect fabrics and finally chose six fat quarters from My Fabric House.
Patchwork is fun, but you do have to be accurate in your measuring and cutting! In my first year of my degree we had to cut squares out of calico, these squares had to be perfect! Perfect angles, perfect lengths and not off grain... a lot harder than you think!
This is not a project too be rushed, something I'm working on in life, apparently I'm turning into my mother - a self confessed rusher of life! So if you look closely not all the points meet up and some of the stitching is out of the ditch... but altogether I'm pretty pleased!

  

  

Three things I have learned...

Take the measure twice cut once rule very seriously!
Use lots and lots of safety pins (not normal pins... they fall out) to pin all the layers together when you are sewing.
Bias binding is a great way to finish the edge quickly (or in my case when the baby arrives 2 and half weeks early and you need it finished ASAP!)

Beach robe

Finally the summer is on it way and so is my holiday!

I have high hopes for my holiday in France this year (last year we had no sun all week... lame!) So I'm dreaming of days by the sea, in and out of the swimming pool and the smell of suncream on my face! With all that in mind Amelie needs a swimming towel, even better... a beach robe!

This pattern is from Dana made it. I particularly like her blog and videos. The bright colours and super friendly tutorials are right up my street! And obviously I like her blog name too :)

You can buy the beach robe pattern for about £5 on her website. She sends you a PDF with everything you need to know and links to tutorials on all the potentially tricky bits!

What I loved most about this, is I didn't have to source the fabric, I just hit Primark and bought the biggest towel I could find. The bias binding and striped fabric are both from Dunelm.

This is a great little project for any sewer with a little person. I used my overlocker to finish off all the inside seams, otherwise a zigzag stitch will be fine. Make sure you buy double fold bias biding, I didn't so I ended up pressing it all before I pinned it in place.
Don't look too closely at my bias binding round the curves of my tie - its not the neatest by far buuuut its fine for the one summer Amelie is going fit into it!

Really looking forward to its debut, hopefully on a hot sunny beach in France in a few weeks!

             

Free pattern playsuit

I love a free pattern, why buy a pattern when there are loads online!

This free playsuit pattern was from here, a little Pintrest find! The pattern is really simple with instructions and pictures to follow. You can print off the size 12-18Months pattern, however she does show you how to make your own pattern from a pair of shorts and a top!

I used this soft denim and pink polka dot cotton both super easy fabrics to sew with. I overlocked all my seams which saves a lot of time in finishing seams. Im all for making things quicker! It's fastened with poppers on the shoulder seams, I ran out of silver so I have used one white popper on each shoulder. Quirky!
Poppers aren't the easiest of things to put on, I want one of those industrial popper machines which they used on the GBSB for the eyelets on their corsets. But I don't have one of those so I used the handheld one which was fine, but the poppers are a little dented!

Im planning on making a few more of these for the summer, with a few variations! Watch this space... or my Instagram! :)

     

Summer bucket hat

Today I made a summer hat.

I have had this fabric in my stash for a while, hoping to find the perfect project for it. It didn't take me long to come across this free Oliver+S bucket hat Pattern and I knew this fabric would be perfect.

Super easy to follow instructions and a few little diagrams to look at. I had to do a fair amount of easing which isn't my favourite thing but all good practise. Loved sewing all the lines of stitches on the brim, totally makes it look more professional. And I was amazed at my neatness! 

Unfortunately I managed to make the hat a little small for Amelie I'm not even sure how?! So I will be giving this one away to a little lady with a smaller head! Tomorrow I'm actually going to measure Amelie's head and make it all over again... I don't mind, this make is fun and I'm excited for summer!

Oh and did I mention its reversible! Bonus!