Dog Blanket

I'm fairly new to Machine Embroidery, but it didn't take me long to find out I could do other things with it! And one of those things is applique!  I found an applique file for a dog bone, and of course thought dog blanket. So along with a couple of paw prints and the name of my brothers Dog I came up with this.

A friend of mine saw it and immediately asked for one for her dog and one for her daughter!

I have added 'Dog Blankets' to my Etsy shop to be personalised with the recipients name!

The pooches have never had it so good LOL!

Sarah xx

Peacock Cottage Peg Bag

Whilst blog hopping last week, I came across a blogger that had made a Bag out of a piece of fabric from Hillary's Blinds...  It was a competition entry, and the competition was still open. There's nothing like a piece of free fabric and a comp to get my mojo flowing again...  find out about the Hillarys Blinds Country Crafts competition here.

I chose the rather striking 'Bird Parade Teal' and was inspired to re-invent my Beach Hut Peg Bag, into a Cottage!

My cat was very interested in the project and of course came to inspect the fabric and the co-ordinating fabrics I had selected to make the roof, windows and door.

Not wanting to chop a bird in half a carefully positioned my pattern to incorporate mainly the 'tree' for the front and a whole bird for the back.

After making the opening in the front of the peg bag, I appliquéd the door and windows, using a bit of pale blue with clouds fabric for the window panes. I added a small button for the door knob.

The roof is two strips of fabric, hemmed and sewn together and then sandwiched between the front and back whilst sewing them all together.

The whole peg bag is finished with a heart under the eaves of the roof.

Front

And of course the Peacock in all its glory is on the back!

Back

I'm quite pleased with the result. A fresh, bright design, fit for anyone's clothes line!

Sarah xx

100th Post and a Little Owl

I have been meaning to post for a while, I noticed I was up to post no. 99, so this is no. 100 congrats to me LOL!

I browse Pinterest from time to time and of course anything of interest I repin...  I have noticed that sometimes pictures have been hi-jacked and lead to something totally different, so I always check the link before I re-pin! (Its a bit naughty of Pinterest to allow this, don't you think?).

One of the items I pinned was this lovely little owl cushion/softie. 

It has taken me some time to make this, I started it a couple of weeks ago, however in between an extremely busy week at work and having some time to myself this afternoon, I finally finished it.

I decided to hand applique the pieces using a variety of stitches, just to see which worked well and which didn't. I added some hearts to the body and I lost the original beak template so I just cut out a triangle, all be it a bit small, however I am relatively pleased with this.  I am tempted to make another and double the size of the pattern to make a large owl cushion. Alternatively I might applique the front of the owl to a cushion square!

Sarah xx

My 1st Crafty Make Of The Year

I have finally got around to making something this year.  I had the flu over New Year and the first couple of weeks of January, so haven't felt like making anything. However, I have kept up with reading my blog list and have been blog hopping to my hearts content.  I came across a tutorial to sew a pouch with the zip on the front. (it may have been from a link on the MSE Sewing forum). I mulled it over in my mind until it made sense, and yesterday I made the pouch with a bit of applique on the front and lined it with the same fabric as the applique.

The applique is a bit dodgy, sewing around the curves on the flower wasn't quite as easy as I thought, having thought the flower was a simple design. I think a bit of practice would put this right.

Still, I am quite pleased with this pouch, and I plan to make a some more using some fabric I spied in Dunelm Mill at the weekend, although I may try hand sewing the applique with a blanket stitch instead.

Sarah xx

An Appliqued Bag!

Inspired by Kandipandi over on MSE (moneysavingexpert.com) sewing thread. I decided to try some Applique this morning. I had some iron on 'HeatnBond' which I had bought years ago and never used, found an old pair of jeans and cut the leg off, and a piece of pretty cotton material from my stash. I cut out the heart shape from the HeatnBond and iron it onto the cotton material, cut around the heart shape and then ironed it to the Denim. And then, I sewed slowly using a zigzag stitch all the way around... really easy! WOW!

I then of course had to make it into something, so I made it into a bag with zip and matching lining and zip pull.