Pretty Ribbon Pouch Sewing Tutorial

These Pretty ribbon pouches are perfect for the beginner sewer and a great craft project to do with a young child who is starting to sew. You only need a few centimetres of fabric and the pattern can easily be adapted to make bigger or smaller pouches. What is also great about this project is that you can machine or hand sew the pouches. I opted to machine sew these, as I had only a short time to make them.

I used all my spare pieces of fabric, including the fabric I received in a recent fabric swap.

We used these pouches for Easter presents for our family and friends, filling them with mini Easter eggs and shredded paper. They could equally be used for party bags, hair bands, rings, little toy figures, sweets etc.

What you will need:

1. Fabric

2.Ribbon

3. Sewing thread

Instructions

1. Measure and cut fabric (approximately 10cm by 20cm)

2. Sew a 3cm hem at the top of the long side of the fabric

3. Machine or Hand sew the hem

4. Fold the fabric in half (wrong sides showing) and sew around the edges.

5.Turn the bag right side out. 

6. Measure your ribbon along the top of the pouch and double it. Thread the ribbon with a safety pin through the hem at the top of the pouch. Tie a knot at the end of the ribbon. Or alternately hand sew a button at the end of the ribbon, tying them together.

5. Fill the pouch with goodies.

I hope that makes sense!

When I made these pouches over the Easter period, I had my girl and her two friends helping me. As they say many hands, make light work! We enjoyed giving the pouches away to our friends and family, and I made two extra ones for my two to keep for themselves.

Bxx

Fabric wreath and Fabric Swap Delights

Having a whole 10 days off paid work has been so great, in that I have finally found the time to start crafting and sewing again. I wanted to make something with a wire wreath. At Christmas I went a bit mad and brought a bulk order of twelve wire wreaths and only used 4 of them! I decided to make a fabric wreath,
 I had seen a similar wreath on the fabulous sewing blog Flossie teacakes showcased here on the Saints and Pinners blog. It shows instructions on how to make one (if you fancy it) NB: If you need a wire wreath send me a message and I will post you one!

They really are are so easy to make, and a great way to use up all your fabric scraps, if you do not have spare fabric, you could use an old pillow case or an old baby cot sheet. My two children loved cutting the fabric and tying them around the wire wreath.

You can be as neat or slap dash as you like with the arrangement of the fabric!

I have the wreath up above hanging on the window in my sewing/dining room.

I also received my first ever fabric swap in the post, organised by the lovely Very Berry handmade. Basically you are linked up to another swap partner and they send you fabric and you send someone else some fabric. It felt like Christmas when I opened up the parcel, and seeing all the lovely delights inside.

Inside were some beautiful crochet ribbon, and some very cute Easter egg ribbon.

Some gorgeous spring fabric, including this sweet strawberry fabric.

And this pile of lovely oranges and red fabrics. I think I am going to make some Easter egg pouches for my family and the children.

They were all given to me by the lovely Izabela over at Isamo Crochet 

Thank you very much!

NB: Very Berry Handmade are now doing a Spring scrap swap, here is the link if you fancy joining in!

Bxx

Knit Sew Love

There has been a noticeable lack of craft recently in the Hazel and Blue household, and to be honest I have been feeling a bit lost with out it,  so this week I have been making up for lost time!
I have been inspired recently to start knitting again, having brought some yarn recently from the charity shop. But after sitting down and knitting a few rows, I then decided that I need a pattern to follow. So I went browsing at the Charity shops again last weekend. I was delighted to find some very old knitting patterns and embroidery sketches to work from:

I found this fantastic little Swiss 1965 Knitting pattern magazine/book, full of beautiful designs and knits

I love this knitting pattern and the photo of the girl holding her Teddy is adorable.


I also found these retro 1960's knitting patterns and the most fantastic 1960's embroidery pamphlet with tiny transfers inside.
The Man in the shop said they had been in the shop for years hidden away in a Grey A4 ring binder.

With all these to inspire me I decided to do some craft with my little girl, she has been asking me for weeks to join in. She decided she would like to make a flower. We used this flowery fabric some wadding and lavender inside and a pretty pink ribbon to hang it with.

She was so good at hand sewing and she was very pleased to tell me, that 'Mummy, see I can do it'! (I previously been worried she would pierce her little fingers with the needle- doh!)

So with after doing the above with my girl, it inspired me to finally dust of my sewing machine and start sewing again. I decided to make little Lavender bags filled with dried Lavender, essential oil and wadding.

I do feel much better now and I have already had a start at making some hair accessories using wool and ribbon.

I love this saying:  Knit, Sew,Love. I am embracing my creative side this week and I am really enjoying it!

Becky
xx

Giveaway - Hazel and Blue Purse and beautiful ribbon

I have been sorting out my sewing boxes and bowls of ribbons and in so doing, I have realised that I have quite a lot of beautiful ribbons in stock. Ribbons are so versatile and can be used in so many different ways. For example here are five quick ideas:

1. Sewing projects
2. Bunting
3. Card making
4. Wrapping presents
5. Hair bow ties

I have also had some lovely comments about my little hand sewn pretty coin purses I make.
So I have had a brain wave and decided to have my first ever Giveaway! To thank all my readers, new and loyal for their loveliness. Up for grabs is a pretty Handmade purse made by me, made with Amy Butler material and pretty pink gingham inside. As well as (hold your breath) 1 metre of any spool of  ribbon you see in the photo below. Yes any one you like. You can choose : Pink, red, striped, dotty, satin or grosgrain.

The pretty coin purses are really useful, I have one and my little girl has one which she puts her pretty hair clips in, or they would make a great little gift. I will be offering  free postage and packaging to all entrants.
and I will send anywhere in the world (New Zealand included!).


If you would like to enter the giveaway, please leave a comment on my blog, telling me what you would do with your ribbon.

Please feel free to share with other fellow blog people or Tweeters!

Closing date will be Sunday 30th January at 12 noon GMT.

I will pick a entry from one of the comments given (most likely be out of a hat with Little girl and Older boy helping!) Please check back here, after this date to see if you have won. Once the winner sends me their address ( and choice of ribbon) I will post the next available day and the winner can enjoy them!

Becky
xx

Congratulations to Sew Scumptious! You are the winner of the Hazel and Blue giveaway! Please let me know which ribbon you would like? and let me know your address.

Pink bunting and presents

Do you ever have a moment, when you just have to make/sew/do something immediately? You cannot possible wait until tomorrow, or the next day but you need to make/do it now? I had a mad moment the day before Xmas eve (bad timing I know) when I wanted to make some Christmas bunting.
I have not made bunting before, but I had a idea whirling around in my head.
I used a cupboard template and cut out several triangular shapes with a pair of pinking shears, so they made a lovely zig-zag edge.

I quickly ironed the flags, tiresome but so essential as they will look lovely and neat.

Using some lovely baby pink satin ribbon, I sewed one neat stitch across the middle of the ribbon, holding the flags into place.

Viola....homemade 30 minute bunting. Mad moment extinguished.

Nm 2 and I have already decided this will be going in her room, when the Christmas decorations come down.

Christmas come and went and we had a lovely family time.

I am most excited about two presents I received at Christmas. This lovely Cath Kidson beautiful aqua blue buttons box, given to me by my secret Santa at work (thank you kind colleague, most stylish taste!)

And this wonderful present from my dear younger sister in New Zealand, I have been a fan of Tea pea since I first started sewing and I love her handmade items she sells on her website. When I found out she now has a online haberdashery, I asked my sister if she could get me some of her pink divine twine.  What excitement I had when a parcel arrived in the post all the way from New Zealand a few days before Xmas......

I love the colour of the twine, and the hand written note is such a lovely touch.

I am looking forward to the New Year, with lots of ideas whirling around in my head for up and coming projects.  I have had a great 2010, with lots of firsts happening - first family holiday in Europe, first day at school for my baby, first attempt at sewing on my own, first blog entry!

 I am looking forward to many more wonderful years ahead!

Happy 2011.

Bxx

Homemade food gifts

Every year I like to encourage the children to make a Christmas homemade food gift for their teachers and school friends. The tiny mention of baking, biscuits,cakes,chocolate and they normally drop what ever they are doing and happily join in. Sometimes it is good to give money towards gifts for teachers, and yes normally I am the first to do this (been a busy working Mum!), but this one special time of year, when for me food becomes a central part of every day life, I truly love to do this with the children for lots of reasons.
Last year we made Chocolate biscuit tiffin, the year before that we made homemade chocolate fudge, each year we wrap them in cellophane with tie them with red and purple curly ribbon bows.
This year we decided to do Christmas cookies.

My little girl and I made the mixture in our Ken wood mixer, rolled out the dough and cookie cut them out.

                                                      Pumpkins biscuits with pink icing.

All wrapped and ready to go.

Back in late summer of this year, we went foraging you can see it here and harvested some delicious Victoria plums in a field close to where we live. The recipe we followed explained that we had to store the chutney for 3 months in a dark, cool place, so for 3 months we have had 10 jars of plum chutney under the bed!

Last week we pulled them out, cleaned them, labelled them and decorated them with fabric, ribbons and Christmas twine.

Another homemade Christmas food gift made and many well deserved people to give to.

Do you have any festive homemade food gifts that you have made? I would love to know!

Have a great weekend.
Bxx

Ribbons

I am finally writing a blog on one of my favourite craft items - ribbons. When I first started rediscovering sewing earlier in the year, I brought a book called 'Sewing in no time' shown here in a previous post  http://goo.gl/a9Aqu

Most of the sewing designs required ribbons, so along with buying fabric,thread and buttons, I needed to find some ribbons. Away I went shopping and when for the first time I set my eyes upon the rows and rows of beautiful ribbons in a local craft shop, I felt like a child in a sweet shop. I love the fact that with ribbons, you do not need to be a experienced 'crafty' to make something so pretty. By adding some ribbon to say a coin purse, cushion cover, lavender heart or a wreath, it can add that special

something to a handmade piece.

I have slowly added to my mountain of ribbon and I am now seriously contemplating buying a second hand wooden ladder to store them on. I love sourcing ribbons and have brought them from various places, in store haberdasheries, online specialist ribbon shops, eBay, and Christmas Fayre's.

I do love to co ordinate the ribbons with different sewing projects, and currently due to been so close to Christmas, their is an abundance of red ribbon(present wrapping and wreaths) The gingham ribbons are great for other projects, I am currently using them to put in my little girls hair - she loves them. My next sewing project I am about to start will be for my lovely in laws for Christmas. They have asked for a cover for their new kitchen blender, I have some lovely Amy Butler retro 60's looking fabric, with dark orange, browns and greens, a sewing tutorial from sewmamasew, thread and some time this week to make it.
I will keep you informed in my next post.
Happy sewing. Bxx

Ribbon wreath tutorial

Over the last few weeks, I have noticed how you can create and make beautiful things with ribbons. Whilst researching buying ribbons online I have seen the most lovely idea in which to display your ribbons- a ribbon wreath.
Ribbons wreaths are really very easy to make and quite relaxing at the same time.
So on Saturday afternoon (after going to pizza express for lunch, I will tell you about this in my next blog) my children and I excitingly sat down and we made a ribbon wreath.
I have put together a quick tutorial to show you how to make one.
All you need is - some ribbon, a wire wreath frame, a pair of scissors and plenty of helping hands.

You can buy a wire wreath frame from any local florist for a very small amount.

Cut several 6-8inch pieces of different colour ribbon (or in my case 2 little helpers taking turns at cutting)
Tie the ribbon pieces around the edge of the wire and tie into a bow- several times.

And basically that's it, keep putting the ribbon pieces around the wreath until it starts to look like this..

When you are happy with your design and the ribbons look puffed and pretty. Attach a thicker piece of ribbon in the middle of the top of the frame and hang accordingly in your favourite room.
Voila......

I have hung the ribbon wreath in my living room amongst my other treasured things.When I look at this it makes me feel happy.
Now all I have to do is order some more ribbon as I have ran out of two colours...but I do not mind as I am now a ribbon addict!
Bx