Some good old kid style finger knitting...

Summer has finally arrived so it seems quite strange that I would be making a scarf, especially as knitting is something I've never gotten the hang of!

However, I recently spotted this finger knitting kit by 'pinkyknits' in my local Hobbycraft and can never resist a bargain!

So the second I got home I was off... The tagline said "minutes", that would never be the case with me, more like days I thought!

But once I'd figured out how to cast on (the doodled instructions on the side were pretty easy to follow), I soon realised I wouldn't be able to stop so worked quickly, maybe 2 hours later, I was ready to cast off...

...I have big knuckles and funny shaped fingers, so the tensions a lot uneven, but it won't take anything away from my joy at managing to knit something!! Even if it's something a 5 year old can do!

But then it was time to get back into my comfort zone, sewing the 'noodles' together, first along the length and then the end...

And TA-DAH! 

A coil twist scarf!! (Apparently) 

I know my scarf won't win any beauty awards! I'm aware of how crude the knitting and joining is, and I know there are many flaws with the tension, I blame most of this on the fact that I made it up as I wen't along, but that's how I learn best, so heres hoping next time I try something like this it will look a lot neater... 

But for now, I'm pretty pleased, after all I've always said I cant knit! 

I would love any tips though on how I can make it a little prettier!

My DIY Wedding Stationary, Invites, Save the Dates and Thank You Cards...

Hey folks!

AS you know, I've just been very busy with our Wedding earlier this year! I told you when it was over I would share some of my crafts with you all so.... here goes!

(Ok so there weren't that many crafts, but this is a sewing blog so I don't want to be littering it with my wedding anyway... (lies.))


We started our invites as most couples do by sending out our save the dates, inspired by Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues video, black and white card pictures, unfortunately for us we didn't have a sexy US street background to shoot our video on, what with living in old Blighty so we made do with Mother in Laws wall...

We loved the overall final effect, simple and so easy. 

Step 1. Buy card and paint

Step 2. Paint said cards

Step 3. Make self look nice and get someone to take photos of you. 

Step 4. Edit them all into a picture and send said picture off to someone to print onto a postcard. 

Step 5. Write them and send them all out in the post! 

See easy! 

If only I could say the same for the invites, which, I have to be honest are my favourite invites ever!! (no bias there at all obviously!) I can't take all the credit though, most of it should really go to Lynsey, who features a lot on my blog and will continue to as she's so damn talented, but she blogs too... knotsewinteresting it's really very good! 

Anyhow I digress... 

The invites were a real labour of love both for me and Lynsey, we started brainstorming ideas a long time ago and struggled to narrow the ideas down, we had tea towels, balloons, cards that tied into a knot when you opened them and lots of other fully awesome ideas, but then practicality got the better of us.... 

So we came up with a colour scheme (wedding was fairly neutral up until then)

I knew I loved the idea of vellum stitched onto card with an image on the card and the details on the vellum (I had to get sewing in there somewhere!) and RSVP stickers, lots of fun for the guests I thought! I also really wanted string tied envelopes, which apparently you can't buy anywhere!!!! So I made them... 

Using a template and instructions from www.minieco.co.uk, I ordered some pink card and yellow A3 paper, I then photocopied the template from the site onto the paper getting it as big as I could 74% increase was the max I could fit onto each A3 sheet, then I cut, folded, glued, and split pinned it into place... Worth every hour spent on it!!!

I then stamped each of the names onto the envelopes! 

Lynsey then worked her magic to create the imagery, the instructions and the stickers, all the digital stuff that she does so well, and she even scaled it to fit my now rather random sized envelopes as well as the template sizes for moo.com where the stickers and postcards came from... 

She made a gorgeous background image, with 'festival and fun' as her rather vague brief from me... (Including all of my favourite things, bunnies, birds and bunting! Which all coincidentally start with B!)

I had these professionally printed onto card so they were of good quality, she then typed all the details of the day up so that they were ready to be printed onto vellum. 

Cute little RSVP buisness cards, which came with stickers and mini envelopes (I bought florist cards and stole the envelopes for this... 

She also created a map for us with all that important info on it, we had these printed as postcards...

And finally for fun, she made us sheets of tickets with our wedding date on which we then printed onto card and popped into the envelope. 

So then all that was left was the assembly of the invites...

Using yellow thread I stitched each vellum front to the background image, before writing the guests names onto them using pink gel pen... 

Paper clipped it together... 

Fastened it up... Then off it went for delivery!

And then it was all over...

After the stress of the wedding, we had one thing left to do, our 'Thank You' cards, the way we intended to do these was written from the start... 

Image courtesy of Amy Lewin Photography

(But I'll blog about her later...)

Thanks for your patience folks I know that was a long one, if it's inspired you at all I'd love to know! 

Making vs Mollie Makes

Trying to keep up with a full time job and craft blogging is hard work, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it with practise...

I thought I'd do a little blog post today about my two favourite crafty magazines inspired by conversations with a few friends. Recently I just can't seem to decide which one I prefer, and most importantly which one to get myself a subscription too!

I can't sustain this whole 2 magazines a month trend I'm currently indulging...

So, contender number one...

Making.

With do-able projects which encompass a wide range of skills and a host of issues which have included, 'Retro', 'Scandi' and 'Festival' (my 3 favourite words when considering design), whats not to love? Lots of fun sewing patterns each time and a whole host of recommended suppliers who've served me well... 

Photo stolen from sewrecycled.blogspot.co.uk, and in doing that image search 

I found another fab blog to explore, I hope she doesn't mind!! 

Thanks again Making! (Albeit indirectly)

That was until this newcomer snuck into my life at the Clothes Show Live back in December, contender number 2...

Mollie Makes.

Oh my, Mollie Makes, with your vintage styling, heavy weight paper, and beautiful monthly free gifts... well I have to admit, it's tempting... I'm not always won over by their projects, but when I am, they really are amazing... Also, I got me a free Belle and Boo needle case with the above issue, now that IS a surefire way to my heart!! 

As for my subscription... Well, the jury's still out... 

I'd love to hear your thoughts?

Keep Calm and Cross Stitch...

The hardest thing about being a creative with creative friends is when it comes to present giving. Not because they're hard to buy for, but because they always give lovely handmade gifts, to which I cannot possibly respond with something from a store; no matter how well intentioned.

For this reason I store every idea for when it is most needed. So when I received this free chart from 'Cross Stitcher' magazine at the clothes show (incidentally the same moment I rediscovered the craft with my little cross stitch guard) I knew I was saving it for a gift, and I knew who for...

So I used the pattern for the crown, although I needed to make mine smaller so edited it a little. I also missed out the backstitch.

I then, in my mission to shrink it down, made the words up as I went along, shrinking each letter...

Whilst I recorded the process on instagram, I was mildly tempted to take one followers advice to 

"Leave it. The suspense will infuriate OCDists"

But, it IS a present... so I couldn't, however I do intend to bank that idea for later! 

It was indeed a gift for a bride to be... 

...Once framed, the perfect keepsake of her special day! 

I love being a creative type. 

You can find me on instagram as 'charliesewsstuff'

Incredibly, there are lots of photos of me sewing stuff, as well as having some fun!!

Felt Mistress workshop at Foyles and Lola...

When Lynsey of knotsewinteresting invited me along to a workshop with Felt Mistress, there wasn't a very long space of time between her asking and me saying 'hell yeah!', not only is Felt Mistress awesome (if you don't know what she does, then I seriously recommend you find out) she also uses, well, felt.

A lot.

And I LOVE felt. It's just so easy to work with and also comes in such a great range of colours!! So off I toddled off to London on a rare sunny morning to go to a monster making workshop at Foyles...

We were given all the tools to make a monster like this...

When we arrived there were bags with different colourways to choose from, typically me, I could not decide, I think I picked up every colour before deciding on the pinkest one of the lot. Again typically me. I'm still not sure I even like pink, but well I must do... I mean look at the blog... Anyway I digress...

Then we were given sheets to come up with our own designs, I doodled cut out and moved things around, I then rummaged into a box of extra felt, at one point I had bright pink lips and 3 eyes, but then I stumbled upon some lovely blue felt and I decided it had to happen... After mumbling to myself for about 20 minutes and banging my head against the desk, I had a plan... (Serious creative block!) 

The only thing I was sure of was that she had to have eyelashes...

And 'Lola' was born! 

I didn't want to call her Lola at first, (I love the name so much it was in my bank for future kids) but she went from being a girl to a boy to a girl to a boy so many times that it seemed highly appropriate and "Lola" by the Kinks became her theme tune. 

She also met a boy... he's called Lance, it must be love, he even got a tattoo...

I think it must have been her beautiful lashes that won him over... Made the same way I did the whiskers on my Bunny birthday card...

Lola is also a famous showgirl as I'm sure we're all aware... So I used some of my leftover felt to give her a showgirl style skirt, before embroidering her name on her back... No going back now!

Once I'd finished the decoration, I decided to cut off her ears and give her a more rounded shape, yes, she has a bit of a hunched back!! 

Finally I was ready to assemble the two sides together with a blanket stitch, this kept me occupied on my train journey home... 

...Where she was stuffed ready to meet her adoring public! 

My niece and nephew loved her, I can definitely think of two small people who'll be getting monsters this Christmas!!

The session was such a great day, and it was lovely to see kids getting stuck in on the table next to us! We met some lovely folk, 2 of whom were so lovely they bought us Hummingbird Bakery Cupcakes, I tried my very first Red Velvet Cupcake... It was lush, thanks!

Until next time....

Bunny Birthday Card...

I've been getting a little obsessive with instagram of late, can you tell? I don't have a good camera so it hides the shame of poor quality photos well!

I thought I'd share this cute little card I hand sewed and embroidered for my friends 30th, she loves bunnies too so i thought I'd get that into her card...

I love the little whiskers and it was pretty easy to do! I just used stranded embroidery floss, tied a knot in one end, pulled it through, trimmed it and split the floss down again into individual strands, finished off with a little pink french knot nose!

I really enjoyed making this card, and am really pleased with the finished results! What do you think?