Coming soon...

Welcome to my blog!

As you can tell, I only recently started it so there's not a lot here at the moment, but I do have a load of projects photographed that are waiting to be written up.

Among the things that I'll be writing about soon are:

How to make your own mermaid pinata with pull string opening (it is awesome if I do say so myself!)

A tutorial on making a fully lined kids' apron with double pocket and elasticated straps

Lots of knitting projects: headbands, doll dresses, baby hats, baby cardigan, toddler dress, cable bag and a winter snood/circle scarf.

Children's card making

Children's chocolate slab activity

Full how-to on making a traditional Tunis cake for Christmas

Nail art ideas and how-tos

A quick and easy children's alien costume

A Pirate Princess costume from Jake and the Neverland Pirates, a full tutorial on that inclduing hat and wand

Making pretty and quick party decorations

And I have plenty of sewing projects in my head that just need to get made and photographed! Including easy-sew toddler dresses and thrift refashions.

I also post my projects on Pinterest so you can follow me there. These projects will specifically get put on my Fretty Chervil crafts board but you can also follow my other boards where I collect ideas and tutes from other creative people.

If you want me to proritise writing up any of my projects then leave me a comment and I'll get to it!

Thanks for stopping by!

TUTORIAL easy yet clever lined drawstring bag

I love fabric. I can easily go into a fabric shop and stand drooling at all the patterns and textures on offer; it's my equivalent of a sweet shop.

Often, I'll buy a metre or two of some gorgeous fabric with no idea of what I might make out of it, just because I can't make myself leave the shop without it.

The same with buying things from thrift shops - often an item is made of such a lovely material that I have to buy it, even though it won't fit, or isn't my style.

So I end up with a stash full of fabrics with no destination.

Which would be fine if I had a huge house, or even a craft room, but as what I do have is the sewing machine in the understairs cupboard and an ottoman stuffed to the gills with patterns, fabrics, notions and my sewing kit, it's good sometimes to just make something, to make a little room.

Inspiration can come from anywhere, but my main source is Pinterest. I love all the varied ideas that come up on there, and the amazing tutorials that often accompany them.

But just before Christmas, my inspiration came from necessity. Having had both feet operated on in early December (read about that here) I wasn't able to get to the shops, and time was getting tight for ordering online, but I realised we didn't have a bag to put my daughter's presents in.

We don't do Father Christmas/Santa, but we still wanted to fill a bag with small gifts for our preschooler to open in the morning, but there was no suitable bag.

I knew I'd prefer for her to have one bag that she has every year, to create a tradition, so I had a root in my stash for inspiration and found this fabric.

Gorgeous, no?

The picture doesn't entirely do it justice, as it isn't simply a gold pattern on red, but there is also a more subtle gold brocade pattern behind the main design.

Despite not really liking red, I bought it when I saw it in a shop in the bastakia in Dubai some years ago. I actually could have bought the entire shop, and I dream of going back to Dubai just to get more beautiful fabric.

Once I rediscovered it in my stash, I knew it was perfect for making the Santa sack for my little girl. you don't get much more Christmassy than red and gold.

I'm not a new sewer, but I've never really progressed much because although I bought my sewing machine in 2009, I have barely used it and pretty much everything I've sewed since school has been small and simple, done by hand.

As a result, I lack confidence, so I decided to find a tutorial online that I could follow to make my bag, particularly as I wanted a lined one with hidden seams and I could not work out how to do it.

I hunted around, and eventually found this amazing tutorial which was exactly what I wanted.

The way in which the bag is constructed would never have occurred to me in a million years, at least not at this stage in my sewing career, so I am very happy to give it full credit here.

What follows is my version of the bag, done more simply with one fabric for the outer and one for the liner, but I want to give Jeni full credit for her design and tutorial, and encourage you to go over to her blog and have a look around at her inspiring ideas.

If you are an experienced sewer and just want a list of steps of how to do it, scroll to the bottom of the tutorial and there is one there.

Ok, so here's how I made my bag.

My fabric had a pattern on it that meant it looked very different depending on which way up it was.

I spent quite a lot of time deciding which way round I preferred.

Here's a view of each, side by side.

See? Leaves up or leaves down, it looks lush either way.



Even the reverse looks stunning:

I am definitely going to use the 'wrong' side for a project soon, it's just so luxe-looking.

In the end, after discussion with my husband, I decided on the leaves pointing down, but it was a very close call.

Then I needed a lining fabric, because no way was I wasting this lovely satiny gorgeousness on a lining!

Because of the gold and red colour theme, I only really had one choice - a lemon yellow polycotton sheet - in my stash, which wasn't entirely right (I think orange would go better) but I figured I can always unpick it and sew a different lining in later. I may have to do that anyway, because I realised too late that my main fabric was not prewashed and I didn't have time to wash and dry it, as well as make the bag. So I might have to redo it after the first wash anyway.

Here are the two fabrics together.

It's not the worst colour combination, but it's definitely not perfect.

So, on to the bag itself. I decided I wanted a sack just smaller than a pillowcase, so I went for a rectangle of 17ins by 15ins, just off square.

I added 1 in seam allowance throughout, so I cut out two rectangles of my main fabric, and two of my lining fabric, measuring 19 by 17 ins.

This is my first lining piece. I then used that as a template for cutting the other pieces out, as you can see here where I'm using it on my main fabric.

If you are using a main fabric that doesn't have a nap or a pattern with a definite 'up' then you can cut one piece measuring x by 2y, where x is your shortest measurement.

However, I still prefer to use two pieces, as a bottom seam helps when boxing the corners later.

First, you need to sew your main fabric pieces together along one short edge. This will be the bottom seam of your bag. Make sure that if your fabric has a nap, or a pattern with a direction, that you have them the right way round.

The way I do it is put them side by side the way up you want them to look when the bag is done. Flip one over onto the other one, sideways (on a vertical axis), so the short edge is still facing you. Then pin the bottom short edge and sew it.

It should look like this:

See how the pattern is running away from the seam? This way, all my leaves are pointing towards the bottom seam, which means they will point down when the bag is finished.

If you want, you can press your seams as you go along, or press them all together later. I do mine as I go along, which is probably more time-consuming but I find it less tedious that way.

Now you need to attach your lining pieces.

They go at each end of your outer fabric piece, on the short ends. Just pin and sew.

If your lining fabric has a nap or pattern with direction, make sure they face the right way. The seam where they attach to the main fabric is the top of your bag.

When they are sewn on, you will have one long piece of fabric like in this picture:

I had to drape mine over the ironing board and chair, it was so long. But don't worry about how unwieldy it has become - now you will start to sew the sides up.

Fold it in half on the middle seam (the one in between your two main pieces of fabric) right sides together. If you used a single piece of your main fabric, then just match up the seams where the main fabric joins the lining fabric.

Now you will need to do a little bit of working out where you want your casing to be.

This is where I hold my hands up and admit that I made a mistake with my bag. I didn't put the casing far enough down the bag, so the ruffled top bit when it's done up looks a bit meagre compared to the size of the bag.

I did mine 1ins down from the top edge of the bag but if you do something of a similar size to my bag then I'd recommend at least 2ins.

So, what you need to do is decide on how far down you want it, then measure and mark (I used a pen that disappears when ironed but it will be on the inside anyway) that distance from the top seam on both the lining AND main fabrics. So four marks in total.

Then measure again the width you want your casing to be. I did mine 1.5in and I was happy with that. Whatever size you choose, make sure it is deep enough for two strands of your drawstring to go through comfortably.

Then measure that amount away from the marks you just made (further away from the top seam).

Here's a picture so you can see what I mean. You should have eight marks in total.

But you're not done marking yet.

On the open end of your fabric piece, where the two far lining pieces will be joined, mark a 3in gap in the middle, either with pins or a pen. I used pins.

Next you need to sew all around the edge of your pinned fabric but leave the marked areas unsewn, and remembering to sew back and forward a little at each start and end point.

Basically, you are leaving the casing ends open, and a gap in the lining for turning your bag later.

Once, that's done, trim your threads and then press the casing opening seams back. This is tricky, but makes it all look nice and neat later, so it's worth it.

There is just one more step before you turn your bag - you need to box your corners.

If you haven't done this before, don't panic, it's really easy and creates a bag bottom that looks super-professional. But if you prefer, you can just skip this step and go straight to turning your bag.

If you do want to box your corners, then pick a corner and begin!

Fold your corner so that the seam runs down the middle of the triangle your create. It's really hard to explain in words, but the picture below should be easy to follow.

Get it?

Line up the seams front and back and flatten the corner out. It can help to press it but you don't have to.

Then you need to decide how much you want to box. Again, this is where I made a mistake. I began by measuring 3ins across, which would make the bottom of my bag 3ins deep. But once I'd sewn and cut one, I realised it needed to be deeper, so I redid it to be 4ins across.

This is also when I realised I should have taken the boxing into account when deciding on the size of my fabric pieces. Basically, boxing takes both width and height from your initial measurements, so you need to add on the boxing size so you don't end up with a smaller bag than you wanted.

So with a 4in boxing measurement, you are taking 2ins from each of your flat fabric measurements - my bag size was 15 by 17, but once I'd boxed the corners it ended up 13 by 15, with a depth of 4ins (2ins from each measurement).

So really, you need to add the boxing measurement to your finished bag measurements (divide the bag depth by two then add that number to each measurement and THEN add the seam allowance).

I hope that makes sense.

You need to draw a line across where your ruler is, then sew that line using a straight stitch.

I then sewed a zigzag next to that line, and cut the excess fabric off.

Of course, I had to do it twice on the first corner so here's the pictures showing that (the last picture is one of the lining corners because the stitching showed up better. I used the same red thread as for my main fabric as it will not show when the bag is finished.)

You need to box all the corners in the same way - four corners in total.

Phew!

You're on the home straight now.

The next step is to turn the bag. Simply pull it the right way out through the gap you left in the lining seam.

This was my bag halfway through turning.

And here it is pulled all the way through but not yet with the lining pushed into the bag.

Next you need to sew the lining closed. I did this by just sewing really close to the edge all along the seam. If you prefer, you can fold it over to one side and sew it down, which will make it lie flat inside the bag. My seam has a slight ridge but as it's inside I don't mind too much.

You can see how close to the edge my needle was.

Once, that's done, flip your lining inside your bag and flatten it out.

Now you need to create the casing.

You already have the casing openings, so all you need to do now is sew around your bag twice, at each end of these openings.

To keep my sewing even from the top edge, I used an elastic band to mark the distance from my needle to the top of my bag, then i just aligned the fabric along the band. It worked brilliantly.

I did my next line the same way, about 1.5ins away from the first line.

When you do this, set up your sewing machine so your top thread is the colour of your main fabric, and your bobbin thread is the colour of your lining fabric, That way the thread colour will match on both, like this.

Now all you need to do is thread your drawstrings through your casing.

You need two lengths of whatever you are using as a drawstring. Make each of them a few inches longer than twice the width of the bag. So if your bag is 15ins wide, your drawstring needs to be about 32ins (15x2+2).

You can use cord, or ribbon, or make your own matching ones from fabric.

It's time to thread.

The first time I did it, I tied the cord around a safety pin like this.

Note I said first time. Three quarters of the way round, my knot undid and my safety pin came out alone.

So I pulled the cord back out, and pinned through the cord like this.

That was much more secure.

Thread your drawstring in through one hole, all the way around the bag past the other hole, and back out again, then secure. I tied mine because by this point it was at least midnight and I wanted to go to bed, but you could sew them, or tie them and add beads, whatever takes your fancy.

Then put the other drawstring in through the other hole, all the way round, and back out, and secure.

Done!

Now admire your beautiful, fully lined, drawstring bag.

I think these would be great made smaller as gift bags, or long and thin to put a bottle of wine in, or medium as a Santa sack like mine, or big as a gym bag - the possibilities are endless!



If you're an experienced sewer and don't need the tutorial, just some basic instructions, here's a list of the steps.

1 - Cut out two rectangles each of your main and lining fabrics (four in total)
2 - Sew the two main fabric pieces together at one short end
3 - Sew the lining pieces onto the other short ends to make one long piece of fabric with your main fabric in the middle
4 - Wrong sides together, sew around this rectangle, leaving spaces for the drawstring in both the main and lining fabrics, on both sides, and leaving a gap in the short end of the lining fabric for turning
5 - Press the seams on the drawstring opening
6 - Box all four corners
7 - Turn the bag and sew across the short end of the lining to close the turning hole, ith almost no seam allowance. Or sew by hand
& - Flip the lining into the main fabric
8 - Press flat, then sew across the top of the bag 1-2 ins down from the top seam
9 - Sew across the bag 1 in below the line you just sewed to create your casing
10 - Thread your cord/ribbon through the casing all the way round to the hole where it began, then thread another piece through the other hole and all the way round. Knot all ends
11 - You're done!

I hope you all enjoy your darling drawstring bags!

TUTORIAL Christmas bead and bell icicles

It's a family tradition in our house that the Little Lady makes tree decorations which we give to close relatives.

I started the tradition because I thought it was a lovely way to have a tree full of joy and memories, and I wanted to share that with her grandparents and uncles.

I started it her second Christmas, when she was 17 months. She made scribble stars as all she could do then was use wax crayons. And last Christmas she painted and glittered salt dough decorations.

I'll write up both those as tutorials and post some pictures of the finished items when the Christmas box comes down from the loft.

This year, I fancied something a bit more complicated as she is nearly three-and-a-half and capable of following directions a bit more, so long as she wants to of course!

Now, one of my rules of this tradition is that it must be relatively cheap. I don't want to end up paying loads of money, partly because me stressing about her 'ruining' pricey materials is not a fun way for either of us to spend our time.

I wanted something she'd like to do, that wasn't going to cost a lot of money.

Something she's been really into for quite a while is threading beads - you know, those sets of wooden beads and laces where they just thread the beads on?

So I hit on the idea of using real beads to make our decorations, but I wanted a bit more. I thought about our craft cupboard, and remembered that last year I bought some silver jingle bells in two sizes that we never ended up using for anything.

I thought the bells would be perfect threaded with the beads.

We went to Hobbycraft (probably similar to Joanns in the US) and had a search around for beads. They had a bead pick 'n' mix which was about £5 for a large pot, so I searched through and collected all the white and clear beads I could find.

Another lady came along and started to do the same thing, but there weren't loads of white and clear beads, and we nearly had a stand off! But then she saw the Little Lady, and I emotionally blackmailed her in a passive-aggressive way by saying "Oh sweetie, I hope there's enough beads here for you to make your decorations with for Grandma and Nanny" and the lady went away.

I hope I'm not going to hell for that!

Anyhoo, we got our pot of beads and then I grabbed a skein of embroidery silk. In fact, I wanted a ball of lurex yarn but even with an assistant's help I could not find what I was looking for, as they seemed to have sold out of silver lurex thread, so I bought a white embroidery thread with a silver thread through it.

Later, you'll find out why I could have just bought plain white and saved myself a lot of searching.

So here are my supplies:

SUPPLIES:

beads
jingle bells
embroidery thread/thin yarn to match your beads
tapestry needle
scissors

Depending on your design, you will need to work out how many beads and bells you will want, but we ended up doing three large bells, three small bells, and 4-6 beads per decoration.

So to make ten (one each for grandparents and uncles/aunts, and a few for you) you need 30 large bells, 30 small bells and 50-60 beads. But you might want to make more or less, or have more or less beads and bells on each one.

I just had a pot of beads and a bag of bells, but I ended up with 49 usable beads, 36 small bells and 35 large ones.

I say usable beads, because my tapestry needle wouldn't fit through all of the beads - they had different-sized centres. I did try when picking them to get the ones with large holes, but when I tried them all out before getting the little Lady involved (essential to avoid frustration and tantrums) not all of them would fit the needle through.

I could have used a thinner needle, but then I'd have had to use a sharp. I wanted to use tapestry needles so that the Little Lady wouldn't prick herself. If you're doing this alone or with an older child, you might feel comfortable using a sharp, but still check it will go through your beads!

See how the needle won't go through?

I tried out a few design ideas, but the only real rules I came up with were:

* Hang bells in threes

* Have bells at the bottom so you can secure the thread (or I guess you could use a seed bead, but I don't have any)

* Use thread to match your beads

That's it!

Oh, expect for * Don't bother with fancy metallic thread!

Why?

Have a look at the finished icicles - you can't really see the thread!

Just play around with a few design ideas before deciding what you're going to do. Here were our ideas:

If you're using coloured beads, you can experiment with how you mix the colours up.

When threading, work from whatever end of your decoration you like. Use about 40cms (16 ins) of thread and pull it through your beads and bells. Then, put the bottom bell at the half way point on your thread (you can tie a knot halfway before you start threading to make this easier) and loop the thread through that bell so it is secure.

Then, simply thread back up to the top of the decoration and both your strand ends will be sticking out of the top, with plenty to spare.

Tie two knots (a reef knot or just two granny knots) right above the beads/bells to secure the decoration. Now is ht eitme to shuffle things around a bit till it is pleasing.

Then tie the very ends of the thread together in a reef knot as that will be most secure and least likely to come undone. To tie a reef knot remember 'left over right and under, right over left and through, pull tight'.

That's it! You now have a loop of thread which enables you to hang it on your tree. Just trim your ends (or even attach seed beads) and get decorating!

Originally, I had planned to do three strands tied together to make a cluster, but that didn't work for two reasons: 1 - I didn't have enough beads and bells! 2 - They were going to be way too heavy. Even a strong tree branch would have bent under their weight.

But I really like how these ended up. They are like icicles, and as well as hanging them on the tree, they would also look great strung along a fine cord to make an icicle garland which you could hang along a shelf, mantlepiece or even just on a wall.

Do leave a comment and share your design ideas!