Happy Birthday to You!

A friend of mine teaches Baby Sign Language and commissioned me to make a set of Happy Birthday bunting to use during her teaching.

I wanted to make a unisex string of bunting which could be used for any group of children, but which kept a home-made quality. After raiding my stash of randomly acquired fabrics and rummaging through the fabric offcuts in the local fabric shops, I had a pretty good selection of old and new fabric (including some amazing Cath Kidston star fabric, orange and yellow checks from an old vintage dress and the trusty recycled Ikea pillow cases rescued from Karl's old bed!)

I printed the required letters out (Arial font) and used these as templates to cut out the fabric. I decided to leave the edges raw as it would add to the old fashioned style of the bunting (and because I couldn't dream of creating seams which would allow you to still read the letter!).

Once these were cut out and paired with a contrasting background fabric, I hand sewed each letter onto the triangles which will make up the completed bunting. This was then sewn together on the machine and attached to the bunting cord ready for hanging. Two snazzy felt ends later and it was ready to go!

I was really pleased with how it turned out (and so was she!) but I was amazed at how long it was compared to my usual 9 flag bunting! I attempted to get an image of the whole thing, but it shows off more of the garden than the bunting!

Belated Christmas Round Up!

As promised, its time for a slightly belated crafty christmas round up!

Several months before Christmas, my mum asked me to make her a set of Christmas bunting to hang in her front room to replace the non-festive bunting she has there all year round. We managed to find a cute robin print fabric in cream and green which was perfect for the christmas theme, and added a plain red to break up the quite busy patterns. I added this to some cream bunting cord and ta-da!

To finish off the ends I added some little holly leaves, complete with mini berries, to make it even more christmassy!

As for presents, my artsy craftsy ways meant I got a lot of making gifts! From my brother I got cookie mix in a jar - all I need to add is eggs! Holding off on making these until my waistline has got over Christmas itself, but they look yummy. And these a wooden snowflake ornament for the tree - ace!

We also received a slow cooker (and recipe book), Tatty Devine's How to Make Jewellerybook,Steampunk Softies (the follow up to my Zombie Felties book!) and an awesome skeleton gingerbread cutter!