My New Sewing machine

For my up and coming birthday, my husband purchased a sewing machine from Lidl as it was on offer. It is a Silvercrest (SNM 33B1). I was going to ask for the very cute John Lewis sewing machine as a starter machine but what attracted me to the Silvercrest machine is that it could to a lot of whizzy things including button holes and embroidery. I know I can't do these things right now nor do I have the need but I may do in the future.





Well my birthday isn't until December but I had already enrolled on a "How to use your sewing machine" course at the local college. My sewing machine and I went off for a few hours on a Saturday morning to see if we could get to know each other. My sewing machine really scared me as I didn't know what to do with it or if I could break it if I did something wrong to it. My fears were unfounded as I learned how to wind and insert my bobbin as well as thread my upper thread which all seemed fairly easy until I came to try to use it. I had become unstuck because my machine had so many options and I had no idea what was the most appropriate settings for my fabric. After half an hour of messing around, the instructor managed to work it out for me and I was well on my way to completing my first project. 

We started off with a traditional lavender bag in this great little tutorial: http://www.handmadejane.co.uk/2011/03/lavender-bag-tutorial.html?m=1

After all of the messing around with my sewing machine I didn't get to complete it in class but I spent many evenings practicing sewing following the course and managed to make one effort at a lavender bag. Since then I have come on leaps and bounds managing to start making my lavender hearts for my Christmas stocking fillers. I've added a couple of sewing books to my Christmas wishlist as I'm having so much fun learning to use my sewing machine. I think this is the start of something special :)

Things I have learned via trial and error which may be useful to other beginners:

•  To go around corners, make sure the needle is in the fabric, lift up the foot and then turn the fabric.
• To sew shapes other than squares, use the foot as a reference to where you are on the fabric rather than looking at the needle. Don't try and pull the fabric through, just guide it. Go slowly until you get your confidence.
• To finish off pull the material out to the side and snip off the thread. 
• To secure your sewing on something like a lavender bag, pull one of the threads through to the same side as the other and knot it. If you don't, your stitching will become loose.
• Learn the slip stitch (loads of tutorials on youtube) as it is a really neat way to finish off your projects. 
• Finally have fun!

My Christmas makes

I realised I haven't posted in well over a month! I have had my head down planning out Christmas and as part of that I've decided to make some of my Christmas stocking fillers. I have been collecting materials together ready to start and some have already been started. Unfortunately I've realised I can't do as much as I would want to so I've had to be quite strict with myself. 

I've narrowed it down to these projects: 

• Earphones case (featured in Craftseller issue 25) - In progress
• Bag charms/Keyrings (featured in Simply Homemade issue 33) - Complete
• Gingerbread men
• Reindeer washcloths - Washcloths already knitted
• Lavender hearts 
• Personalised Christmas Tree decoration (Crafty Christmas makes)
• 3 x cross stitched Christmas cards (Cross Stitcher kit issue 272)
• Hand made Christmas cards for my family (Various Craftseller papers)

I'll be quite busy but I have a plan in place and will be crafting right up to Christmas day which is actually pretty fun!

 

Fancy a cuppa? Coaster kit

When I saw the coaster kit free with Crafty magazine (issue 6), I just had to have it! There were many designs that could be made from the kit which were a robot coaster, a dove keyring and a donut but I really thought the "Tea" design was very funky. 

 

 The materials that came free were:

• Corkboard circle
• 3 x felt 
• Embroidery thread

 I needed to add:

• Fabric glue
• Scissors
• Masking tape
• Paper and pencil
• Needle

I traced round the corkboard onto the felt and cut out the 3 circles. I glued a white piece to the corkboard. On a piece of paper I drew out the word "Tea" and cut out the letters. I found this next bit genius! I taped the letters into position onto my felt and then cut them out using a pair of tiny scissors. 

 

I then glued the blue felt on top of the yellow felt. With the embroidery thread I made a decorative stitch around the edge of the circle and sewed around the letters in three different colours. The result is a very funky tea coaster which I love so much, I might make some more. For this coaster, I'm going to send it to my sister in Canada who loves English tea.
 

Card Making - New home card

My brother in law moved home last week which I thought was the perfect opportunity to try my hand at a bit of card making using the papers that are usually supplied in the CraftSeller magazines. For this project I used the paper from Issue 27 September 2013.

 

I have a pack of plain wedding cards and envelopes left over from my own wedding so I used those and cut the house piece of paper to the same size as the card and stuck that with glue to the card. I then cut a rectangle of the key pattered paper and stuck that in the middle of the card. The magazine comes with little tags that you can cut out and use so I cut out the house "New Home" tag and stuck it in the middle of my card. Voila! My card was done and ready to send to a pleased brother in law.

 

Russian Doll Decorations Part 1

I picked up a copy of "Stitch craft create" Spring 2013 which included a Russian Doll Decoration kit. The magazine itself is excellent and although a little more expensive than I usually pay for a craft magazine (£9.99), it has a lot of fab projects for me to try out. 

The kit comes with material, templates, thread, ribbon and felt for 3 russian dolls. I must admit this project was a lot more difficult than the cross stitching I had been doing as there was a lot of fiddling around trying to cut out and position the felt pieces ready to sew on. The sewing itself was quite difficult to push the needle through 2 x felt and then material. The material was very fragile so you have to be careful not to tear it. I managed one doll before deciding that I really must get on with the Christmas gifts so I will return to this at a later date. 

First doll isn't perfect but I'm sure I'll get better as I go along. I will show the steps for the next one instead of just the end result.  





 

Funky Felt Owl Keyring

My second "magazine" project came once again from CrossStitcher Magazine. It was the very cute funky felt owl keyring. I have a real thing about owls since they became fashionable and am now banned from purchasing any further owl cushions! 

The kit from the magazine included pre cut felt, soluable canvas, threads, needle, keyring and ribbon which basically is everything you need. To get going I had to pin the soluable canvas in place on one of the owl shaped pieces of felt and get stiching! 

Once again just like the previous kit, I did not have enough purple thread to finish the owl. I managed to grab some from my stash and finish it off without it looking too weird. I did learn a couple of new stitches in completing this project, the first being the backstitch which I must admit I didn't do perfectly but I have now got the hang of. 



Once the cross stitching was complete, it was time to finish off the owl and learn my second new stitch which was the blanket stitch. I got on OK apart from when I reached the wings. I saw on the CrossStitcher Facebook page that others were equally as confused! I finally managed to figure it out and complete the project not before buying some toy stuffing and making my owl really fat! 

Vintage Rose Keyring

I have to admit to getting a little obsessed with craft mags. It all started with CrossStitcher issue 264 April 2013 when the free gift of a vintage wooden rose keyring tempted me. I was on a few days holiday from work and thought it would be a nice little project to get me going and keep me occupied. 

This was going to be my first attempt at cross stitching but I found I took to it quite easily. I did have a bit of trouble with the free kit in that it didn't provide enough blue thread but a quick trip to my local craft store with my unfinished keyring to match thread was successful and I finished my project. I didn't like the back of the keyring as it looked messy so I cut out a piece of felt and added a running stitch around the circle and glued it onto the back of my keyring. It now has pride of place on one of my bags and I am really pleased with it. 

Hello and welcome

Hello and welcome to my new blog "I'll try anything crafty" 


 

I'm just about to start on adventure into the big wide World of crafting - never to return :) I started with knitting a couple of years ago and dabbled on and off with it but found the pressures of work plus other life events got in the way. I am now learning other crafts to broaden my horizons. 

I have so far attempted cross stitch, sewing and knitting. I'm going to try sewing with a machine (just bought my first one!), crochet and card making. I have a few Christmas projects to be getting on with which I will share. 

For now - onwards and upwards!