Bi-festival decorations

I am very happy to say that my blog has been featured in one of my favourite design and craft blogs. On the main page of Bloesem today you can see this very post. Thanks Irene!

Here in our own little melting pot the festivities are underway. Like so many Londoners we celebrate two festivals: Hanukkah from my side of the family, Christmas from Mr Year's. Two excuses for lights, presents, feasts and fried stuff. And of course handmade goodness.

The beautiful scene above the shop last week as Hanukkah ended...

...and today as I got the tree (still alive, just a bit bald) out from the garden:

The crochet snowflakes and mushrooms are very quick and very easy. The cotton reels are old wooden ones that I have saved. The owl is from Caravan in Shoreditch, east London and the things on our mantlepiece are treasures (painting by  my grandad, Miss Piggy car from my 70s childhood, ceramic cube clock from Brussels flea market, vase and coffee pots from here and there, the Sherlock Holmes face complete with moving quizzical eyebrow I made in woodwork aged 11. Oh yes) made and found.

If you feel so inspired to make your own - and you really don't need to be an expert crocheter - please find tutorials for the snowflakes and mushrooms below. Do let me know how you get on.

Crochet mushroom pattern

You will need:

Red wool (can be any kind really, even acrylic is fine)

White wool

Knitter's sewing needle

Any size crochet hook

Old tights or clothes to cut up for stuffing

This pattern is worked in the round. The size of your mushroom will come out depending on the size of your hook ie. large hooks make a big fungi, small make a small. You might find it helpful to add a little marker at the beginning of each row to keep track of where you are.

row 1  (white yarn) chain 6 stitches and slip stitch to the first stitch to make a circle.

row 2  chain 1, double crochet (dc, US triple crochet) 1 into each stitch: 6 dc

row 3  ch 1, 6 dc

row 4  ch 1, 6 dc

row 5  (add red yarn) ch 1, 6 dc

row 6  2 dc into each dc: 12 dc

row 7  alternate your increase as you make 1 dc then 2 dc into each dc so you end up with 18 dc

row 8  dc 2 tog, then 1 dc into next, so you decrease back down to 12 dc

row 9  dc 2 tog all round: 6dc

row 10 6 dc

Then, using a little running stitch, or better still a french knot, do three white spots. Point your needle up through the mushroom to the tip to make a hanging loop. Tie a little knot in the base of the loop to secure it. Sew the end of the white thread through the mushroom to hide it. If you are making bigger mushrooms, pause around row 9 to stuff with fabric scraps.

I made a few of different sizes, sometimes I changed the increase and decrease a little, giving me different shaped mushrooms as shown above. As with most crochet these got quite addictive so I had to stop as it was getting a little out of hand.

Crochet snowflake pattern

You will need:

Any kind of white wool, acrylic or cotton. Mohair would be especially nice.

A medium sized crochet hook (UK 4-7 mm)

You can make these as long or as short as you want. They are a sort of bobble stitch joined by roughly 30 chain stitches. You just keep bobbling then chaining until you can do no more. It is nice to keep the tension loose so don't worry too much if you only have a big hook.

Make a bobble circle like this:

Chain 5 then slip stitch to first chain to form  foundation circle.

Chain 3, yarn over, insert hook through foundation circle, yarn over, hook back through stitch (3 loops on hook), yarn over and pull through 2 loops (2 loops left on hook).

Then yarn over and insert hook through same stitch again, yarn over, hook back through stitch (4 loops on hook), yarn over and pull through 2 loops (3 loops left on hook), yarn over and pull through all 3 loops.

When you have finished the bobble circle, slip stitch to the first stitch to secure the circle then ch 30. Begin the next bobble with the final 5 ch of the 30 chain making the new foundation chain.

If all that leaves you stumped there is a video here:

http://www.nexstitch.com/v_bobble_stitch.html

and a very clear pictorial explanation here:

http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/summer-garden-granny-square.html 

the bobble circles are the used as the centre of her granny squares.

Swedish sewing

I saw this Almedahls fabric in Skandium and it was love at first sight. Only one metre mind, beautiful Swedish design does not come cheap. I wanted it on the sofa in our kitchen, but I have wasted enough of my life straightening crumpled sofa throws. So I made it into a sort of quilt-throw. A thick one so it would hold its shape and not need any attention. 

This was going to be a world speed record project. I did not even measure up, I just chose the other pieces from my stash and cut to size by pinning them right sides together with the Almedahls piece. I then sewed the backing pieces together, added the 'filling' layer of the batting, and did a couple of lines of quilting to keep the whole together.

The large black patterned piece was brought back from India by my mother years ago. It is hand block printed and still smells of sandalwood.

I spotted this elegant linen round the neck of a dapper friend who kindly sent me an identical piece. To finish off I bound the edges with chocolate brown linen. And this is what it looked like yesterday:

Oh dear. I recently discovered the joys of the bias binding maker. A little gadget that helps you make your own trim, giving you nice neat and strong edges. 

I used the one on the left  to bind this quilt-throw with chocolate brown linen. It was too thin, and I am not a skilled and patient enough seamstress so it did not bind properly. So I found the larger, 50 mm one (the site I got it from does not seem to be around anymore but you can find one here) and it worked brilliantly.

Lovely mitred corners.

Here it is in action:

So yesterday I made the above pile of bias strips and re-bound it. And here it is:

There are a few tutorials out there to do this properly, which all seem to involve a lot of hand sewing. I bet that is a lovely job to do whilst watching a film. But as I said, I tend to make things in a hurry so I just pinned around and sewed it and that was that. Very smart, comfy and low maintenance.

And for the new baby

A sleepsuit. Or a daysuit. He's two weeks old, he can mix it up a little.  Freezer paper stenciling is brilliant: quick, easy, cheap and addictive. At first it was hard to get hold of the paper and I eventually found it on ebay. It seems it is much more widely used in the United States.

What you are doing is making a stencil on the matte side of the paper, ironing it face up so that the glossy side adheres to your canvas, creating a very user-friendly stencil for you to paint on. 


So without further ado I bring you the first ever a year above the shop tutorial: 


Making a freezer paper stencil and print.
You will need:
Scissors
Scalpel
Pencil
Self-healing cutting mat (not essential but it makes life easier)
Freezer paper
Item to be printed
Fabric paint
Brushes
Iron 


1 Make your design. You can print on freezer paper so the possibilities are endless, but I think freehand is best, this is handmade after all.

2 Cut. Keep a firm grip on reality as you turn positives to negatives, discarding where the motif will be. It sounds fairly straightforward but strangely it isn't. Keep your islands (in this example, the spots on the toadstool) safe. I find it easiest to use both a scalpel and a small sharp pair of scissors.

3 Iron your stencil to your base. This is the time to position the islands. It will look like this:

4 Paint. Put a piece of card underneath to prevent the paint seeping through to another layer. Leave it to dry for a few hours as per instructions. If you can bear to wait, leaving it overnight is best. Iron to fix the paint, again following instructions.

5 The best bit: peel off your stencil and ta-da!. Now is the time to do any touch-ups.