Bugs and Fishes by Lupin

Say Hello to my New Shop!

2012-05-23T14:46:00.003+01:00

After much tinkering, my brand new shop is finally finished!

As I mentioned last week, the new shop will be replacing the shop pages which are currently part of my website. The old shop is still live but it will be vanishing quite soon, once I get a change to update all my links and attend to all the other bits and bobs on my "website update" to do list.

When I've (eventually) got everything sorted, my website will be slimmed down to just a few pages about me and my work with pages that link to my shop, and to my blog, etc. If you prefer shopping via Etsy, Folksy or DaWanda don't worry! My shops there will all be remaining open :)

With perfect timing, all 65 of my felt colours are now back in stock after a few weeks of being sold out... so all my felt colour packs and "pick your own" colours are in stock in my new felt squares section. Most of my craft supplies are back in stock too, hurrah!

To help celebrate the launch of my shiny new shop, you can get 15% off orders of £15 or more, with the code NEWSHOP. Just enter the code when prompted during the checkout process and the discount should be applied automatically when you update your cart.This offer will run until the end of May, and excludes shipping.

Click here to visit my new shop!

A Surprise Parcel

2012-05-22T15:32:00.001+01:00

A lovely lady who won some felt in a giveaway on my blog sent me a surprise gift as a "thankyou" a few weeks ago... a pretty quilted bag, decorated with some of the felt she won:

The design was inspired by the pretty tape I use to seal all my parcels. There were many oohs over it when I opened the parcel.

The bag is totally gorgeous and perfect for storing & carrying my "in progress" knitting.

Such a lovely thing to get in the post!

Pretty Nostalgic

2012-05-20T10:32:00.000+01:00

Have you heard about Pretty Nostalgic yet?

It's a lovely new independent magazine, published in the UK, with a love for all things vintage. According to their website....

"Petty Nostalgic is a bi-monthly home and lifestyle magazine that celebrates vintage, traditional and sustainable ways of living. We passionately support independent British producers and love seeking out unique, eclectic homes and meeting people who love life and live by their own rules. The magazine is packed with inspiration to help make your house a home, to fill your kitchen with homegrown and foraged food, to inspire you to reuse and upcycle and to make every day an adventure. It is a handbook for creative, curious and resourceful folk who yearn for a simple, stylish and sustainable lifestyle."

I love the motto on the cover of the first issue: Spend wisely, Waste less, Appreciate more.

I got sent a contributor copy as one of my photos is included in a lovely A-Z of haberdashery:

Those vintage threads belonged to my grandmother :)

It's lovely to see them in such a nice magazine alongside so many pretty photos and illustrations...

Pretty Nostalgic is available to buy online, or from these independent stockists.

Look what I've been working on...

2012-05-16T11:01:00.002+01:00

... a snazzy new shop! Here's a screengrab of the "flower brooches" section:

This new shop will be replacing the shop pages which are currently part of my website. They've served me well over the past couple of years, and it will suck to lose all the links to the old pages, but it's definitely time to upgrade to something a bit fancier.

I love the layout of the new shop, & how each product will have its own product page for the first time... and hopefully it'll be a lot more user-friendly (for me, and for you!) and a lot less buggy than my website has been over the past few months!

It's still very much a work in progress, but I'm hoping to devote lots of hours to it this week to get it finished asap. I'll be sure to blog about it when it's done so you can all go take a look :)

Thirty Years

2012-05-13T14:16:00.000+01:00

I'm turning 30 next month (eek!) so I thought it'd be fun to do a bit of looking back through old photo albums. I picked out one photo from each of the last 30 years to make a mosaic & I thought you guys might like to see the pics :)

1. Pulling chunks of hair from a very long-suffering kitty! 2. Wearing some very snazzy red dungarees. 3. All dressed up ready to go to a wedding. 4. Visiting an awesome local model village. 5. With "princess" make-up at a local fair. 6. Ready for my first day of school (very exciting).

7. On the swings in our garden. 8. First day of junior school. 9. Dressed in rainbow colours for a friend's parrot-themed party. 10. Opening presents on my birthday. 11. Trying horse riding on a family holiday. 12. Another birthday, wearing a very Blossom-style hat.

13. Pulling a serious Judo face. 14. Dressed in 90s double denim & Doc Martens. 15. Explaining an apparently quite complicated handmade birthday card to my sister. 16. Eating an apple (om nom nom). 17. At a picnic with friends in London. 18. On holiday in Devon.

19. Revising for my History A-Level. 20. Making trifle with a friend at University (I remember this being hilarious but I have no idea why). 21. Dinner in my Uni flat. 22. With short hair at Uni. 23. Last year of University (I think this photo was taken at about 5 or 6 in the morning). 24. At my graduation.

25. At a wedding. 26. I don't have many pics from this year, but I eventually found this one (I have no idea why I am pulling a face like a duck!). 27. Wearing a necklace made for my shop. 28. With a DIY haircut. 29. Having tea with a friend. 30. At another wedding, wearing what is apparently my "wedding necklace".

Ah, how time flies!

A Bit of Baking

2012-05-08T15:53:00.003+01:00

I haven't done any baking for MONTHS... but yesterday a friend posted on Facebook that she was spending the whole Bank Holiday baking tasty treats and, well, the urge to do my own bit of baking was just too hard to resist.

Nothing fancy - just some simple chocolate biscuits...

... but oh my goodness they were tasty. And so quick and easy and enjoyable to bake that it makes me wonder, why do I not do this every week??

Distractions

2012-04-30T17:13:00.001+01:00

This blog, my sewing pile, my inbox and the rest of my "to do" list have all been a bit neglected this week due to some family stuff. I haven't even got around to updating the shipping charges in my shops yet! Oops.

I'm hoping to get back to my usual slightly irregular blogging schedule very soon but apologies in advance if posts are a bit sparse for the next couple of weeks.

I've not done much crafting this week, but I've done a bit of simple knitting and am keeping up to date with my sky blanket. These are today's colours...

... after a week of grey, rainy skies it's very nice to see a bit of bright blue back in the mix.

Oh and great news, Heart-Felt Holidays (which includes 6 projects designed by me) is now in stock on Amazon UK. Hurrah!

Browsing craft books on Amazon this weekend I was also delighted to see that my book, Super-Cute Felt, has been given some lovely reviews on Amazon UK and Amazon USA... and check out this customer image of a needlebook made from one of the patterns in the book! It's always so ace seeing what people have been making from my book.

P.S. if you've bought Super-Cute Felt or any of the books featuring some of my projects - like Heart-Felt Holidays, or Fa La La La Felt - and can spare the time to leave a review on Amazon, it would be much appreciated :)

Super-Cute Felt Giveaway Winner

2012-04-26T17:18:00.001+01:00

A bit later than planned, it's finally time to announce the winner of the copy of my book, Super-Cute Felt.

The winner is: Saraccino, who said... Oh, I would love to get your book! :)

P.S. thanks for all the kind comments about my book, everyone xx

P.P.S. a quick heads up, Royal Mail postage prices will be going up early next week so I'll be updating my shipping charges in all my shops this weekend.

How To: Felt Cloud Mobile

2012-04-21T16:20:00.000+01:00

We've had lots of "April Showers" this week, so it seemed like a good time to share a tutorial for making a fun felt rain-cloud mobile. It's a perfect craft project for a rainy afternoon!

There's two versions to choose from...

A happy cloud with cute button raindrops:

Or a sparkly cloud decorated with lots of sequins:

Or you can skip the decoration completely and make a simple mobile from plain felt shapes. (I decorated one side of my mobile with a smiley face & buttons, and the other side with sequins).

To make your mobile you will need...
- the templates provided at the bottom of this post
- turquoise or other blue felt to make raindrops
- grey or white felt for the cloud
- matching blue and grey/white sewing thread
- white or light blue ribbon
- polyester stuffing or felt/fabric scraps
- sewing scissors, pins, a needle

- for the happy cloud you will also need pretty blue buttons, black or navy blue embroidery thread/floss and a large needle
- for the sparkly cloud you will also need turquoise or other blue sequins, and a selection of silver sequins

1) Use the templates provided to cut out two cloud shapes from grey or white felt, and lots of blue raindrops. You'll need two teardrop-shaped pieces for each raindrop you want on your mobile (I cut out 14 shapes to make 7 raindrops).

2) Decorate one cloud shape - this will become the front of your mobile.

For the happy cloud, cut out two small blue circles to form the eyes and sew them in place with a couple of small stitches of dark embroidery thread/floss (black or navy blue). Use more of the embroidery thread to backstitch a smile. You could sew the smile freehand or draw it on in pencil first and then sew over the pencil line.

For the sparkly cloud, just sew on lots of silver sequins. You could use all one size and shape, or an assortment like I have, and use as many or as few sequins as you like in whatever arrangement you fancy! Use grey or white thread and three stitches per sequin.

If you want to plan out the sequin arrangement before you sew them in place, lay out your sequins on the second felt cloud shape or the cloud template and transfer them to the first cloud shape one by one as you sew them in place.

3) Decorate half your raindrops - either with blue buttons or blue sequins. Use matching blue thread to sew them in place, using three stitches per sequin and two or three stitches with double thickness thread per button.

4) Cut a length of narrow blue or white ribbon, fold it over to form a loop and sew it in place to the back of your decorated cloud piece using thread to match the felt cloud. I used 6mm wide ribbon & cut a piece of ribbon approx 32cms long.

Use whip stitches and sew slightly into the felt instead of all the way through it so your stitches don't show through on the front. Alternatively you can sew the ribbon loop to the undecorated backing cloud piece - make sure you sew it to the side which will be hidden when the two cloud shapes are sewn together!

5) Then cut three pieces of ribbon to sew your raindrops onto (I cut three 25cm lengths of ribbon). Make sure you include enough so your ribbon can overlap onto the felt cloud shape!

Arrange the raindrops how you want them, and then sew them in place along the ribbon. First sew the ribbon to one raindrop shape using thread to match the raindrops. As with sewing the loop to the cloud, use whip stitch sewing into the felt instead of through it.

Then put the second raindrop shape in place and sew them together by whip stitching around the edge with more matching thread. Finish your stitching as neatly as possible at the back of the raindrop, then move onto the next raindrop...

6) You should now have three strands of ribbon, with felt raindrops sewn onto them. Pin the ribbons in place so they're hanging from the bottom of one of your cloud pieces. It doesn't matter which cloud piece you sew them to, just make sure the decorate side of the raindrops is facing towards the side which will be the front of your mobile.

Sew the ribbons in place with whip stitch, remove the pins and trim any excess.

7) Put the front and back cloud pieces together so the "right" sides are facing outwards (i.e. the sides you want visible when the mobile is finished) and pin them together. Use matching white or grey thread to whip stitch around the edges (or use blanket stitch if you prefer) leaving a gap large enough for adding the stuffing in the next step.

8) Stuff the cloud lightly with polyester stuffing or small scraps of felt or fabric - just enough to give the cloud a nice shape without becoming overstuffed. I added small pieces of stuffing bit by bit to make sure each curve of the cloud had a bit of padding in it, and to ensure the cloud was evenly stuffed.

Then sew up the hole with more whip stitching (or blanket stitching) and finish your stitches neatly at the back. And you're finished!

Remember that all mobiles should be hung well out of reach of young children, and that if you hang your mobile in direct sunlight the felt will fade over time.

Double click the template / click to open it in a new tab / or click here in order to view it full size and print. To print the templates full size, make sure to set the image to print at 100% and your page to be "landscape".

This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it for as many mobiles as you like for yourself or as gifts for friends but please don't make any for sale. It's okay to borrow a few photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial on your site or sell it in any form. Thanks!

Like clouds but want to make something slightly smaller? Try this tutorial for a raincloud brooch.

Giveaway Winner: Zodiac Felties

2012-04-21T14:46:00.001+01:00

It's time to announce the winner of the copy of Zodiac Felties which I reviewed last week.

The winner is...

Emma, who said: "Looking at the other comments, it seems I'm the first Sagittarius to enter! Lovely book :-)"

Thanks to everyone who entered! Remember there's still time to enter the giveaway to win a copy of my book, Super-Cute Felt.

P.S. Hello Janey Millar! You left a comment on the Sewing Made Simple giveaway asking about how to cut out neat felt shapes, but I couldn't find a way to get in touch with you to reply so I hope you see this. Please check out this post (and all the comments) about cutting out small felt shapes, hopefully you'll find it helpful but do let me know if you have any more questions :)

Sky Blanket, Days 1-106

2012-04-19T10:03:00.000+01:00

I finally managed to get a snap of the whole of my in-progress sky blanket at the weekend!

My sky blanket is based on Lea Redmond's sky scarf project. I'm knitting a square a day for (almost) a year, based on the colour of the sky at midday.

Here's all the squares up to (and including) the one for April 15th:

The squares go horizontally, left to right along each long row (like the days on a calendar). I'm just holding it this way round in the photo cos it's easier! The first square is in the top right hand corner.

I'm writing the sky colours on my calandar each day, and then marking all the squares off on this chart as I sew them on.

The squares are very quick and easy to knit but there are SO MANY ends to weave in as each square is knitted with two strands of yarn so the colours can be blended together ... so that's 4 ends per square and several hundred sewn in so far!

Blog Love: LovePaperFish

2012-04-18T09:28:00.000+01:00

My crafty chum Kirsty of LovePaperFish had her email hacked last month by some very nasty people, and lost all access to her blog as a result! Eek! Such a horrid thing to happen :(

(Here's a pic of Kirsty & me -with the lovely Lu Summers in the middle- at the Festival of Quilts last summer)

If you're a fan of all things crafty and felt-y you may well have visited Kirsty's blog before or bought something from her website or from one of her Etsy shops (I always recommend her as a supplier of awesome felt balls & colourful buttons).

Please do check out her brand new blog & show her some love by leaving her a comment, following her blog, linking to her new blog in your blog sidebar, etc, anything you can do to help kickstart her new blogging adventure :)

(All photos in this post have been borrowed from Kirsty's blog).

Giveaway: Super-Cute Felt

2012-04-17T10:15:00.000+01:00

I hope you guys have enjoyed my slightly extended "book week"!

To finish off this book-themed fortnight, I thought it would be nice to do a giveaway for my own book, Super-Cute Felt which was published last autumn.

The book contains 35 cute felt projects, all designed by me.

I may be a teeny bit biased (haha!) but I love this book! :)

It includes small projects (like pansy hair clips) and large projects (like a toadstool hot water bottle cover) in four sections: accessories, gifts, homewares and celebrations. Each project has illustrated, step-by-step instructions, there's also a short guide to materials, equipment and techniques at the start of the book, and most of the templates are full size (hurrah!).

Here are a few of my favourite projects...

A lion coffee cosy:

A hedgehog phone case:

A snowglobe doorhanger:

And cat, mice and cheese puppets:

I'm giving away one signed copy of Super-Cute Felt, and (because I love you guys) I'm happy to post it internationally so anyone can enter.

For your chance to win, just leave a comment on this post before 10pm on Tuesday 24th April. I'll pick a winner at random on Wednesday 25th April.

Please make sure you leave a name or pseudonym (no anonymous comments please!) and leave a blog link, Twitter username, Etsy username or email address so I can contact you. If I'm unable to contact the winner within two weeks, I will pick someone else.

Update: this giveaway is now closed.

Book Review: The Liberty Book of Home Sewing

2012-04-16T15:30:00.000+01:00

Are you a fan of Liberty fabrics? If you are, then the pictures of today's book - The Liberty Book of Home Sewing - will probably make you say "oooh" a few times.

It's a gorgeous looking hardback with a fabric-bound cover, embossed silver lettering for the title, double-page spreads of Liberty prints dividing the chapters, and lots of smartly styled photos.

There's a short introduction that covers the the history of Liberty fabrics, and there's a guide to the fabrics used throughout the book at the back providing a bit of information about the patterns and giving you all their names.

There are 25 sewing projects - each with step by step illustrated instructions - and a few pages on basic sewing techniques at the back of the book. The templates for the very small projects (like a fabric corsage) need enlarging and the others are drawn out on a grid for you to draw out onto paper at the sizes shown.

Most of the projects are the standard "sewing basics" you find in other "home sewing books" (an apron, a blind, some cushions, etc), just made up in lovely Liberty fabrics and presented with photos that could be straight out of a glossy interiors magazine.

There's also a no-sew project to make a "keepsake board" which is a nice idea but I'm not sure how relevant it is in a book with "home sewing" in the title...

... and this peacock pincushion which is gorgeous but I'm not sure how well it would work if you couldn't find (or afford) the exact fabric used:

Overall, this book feels a bit like a sewing book trying to be a coffee table book, if you know what I mean, it's a little bit of both.

If you want a glossy coffee table book with lots of info about Liberty fabrics, or a sewing book with exciting new project ideas or lots of detailed information for beginners, then you might be a bit disappointed. But if you love Liberty prints and the style of the photos in this book and want some relatively simple sewing projects to work on, then you'll probably find this a very lovely, inspiring book both to flick through and to sew from.

The Liberty Book of Home Sewing is published by Quadrille. RRP £20. It's available from Amazon UK and Amazon USA.

[Disclaimer: Quadrille sent me a free review copy of this book, and the Amazon links in this post are affiliate links which means if you click on them and then make a purchase I get a very small % as a referral fee.]

Book Review: Sew it, Stuff it

2012-04-15T18:21:00.000+01:00

Today I'm reviewing Sew It, Stuff It by Rob Merrett, which includes 24 soft toy designs to sew from fabric.

This book has been in my "to review" pile for a while... when it first arrived I took it along to my old knitting club to see what everyone thought of it, and it was a big hit, especially with the ladies who love to make special presents for their grandchildren.

Not having kids myself (or any nieces or nephews) I feel a bit out of touch with the sort of toys kids like, but there seems to be a nice mix of designs in this book. The toys are divided into five sections: toys for babies, toys for the nursery, "activity" toys, animals and dolls.

Lots of the designs have a slightly retro feel to them - there are some "traditional" dolls & some animals that remind me of picture books from the 1970s - but the book also hits several recent trends on the head with an owl and a trio of little Matryoshka dolls.

Each product has step-by-step instructions with illustrations, and then at the back of the book there's a techniques section which is referred to throughout.

One of the big selling points of this book is the tear-out patterns section. All the patterns are printed at full size so it's easy to trace the pattern you want and get sewing without having to enlarge patterns at a print shop or your local library, etc. The patterns are also colour-coordinated and include seam-allowances on the templates.

Sew It, Stuff It is published by CICO Books. RRP £12.99. It's available from Amazon UK and Amazon USA.

[Disclaimer: CICO Books sent me a free review copy of this book, and the Amazon links in this post are affiliate links which means if you click on them and then make a purchase I get a very small % as a referral fee.]

Giveaway Winner: Sewing Made Simple

2012-04-15T16:00:00.002+01:00

The winner of the copy of Sewing Made Simple is...

... Maria of Dinki Dots who said: "I'd love a chance to win, many thanks!"

Thanks to everyone who entered :)

Giveaway: Zodiac Felties

2012-04-13T09:01:00.000+01:00

I've got one copy of Zodiac Felties to give away... and because it's a relatively small and light book I'm happy to post it internationally so anyone can enter. Hurrah!

For your chance to win, just leave a comment on this post telling me what star sign you are. Leave your comment before 10pm on Friday 20th April, and I'll pick a winner at random on Saturday 21st April.

Please make sure you leave a name or pseudonym (no anonymous comments please!) and leave a blog link, Twitter username, Etsy username or email address so I can contact you. If I'm unable to contact the winner within two weeks, I will pick someone else.

UPDATE: this giveaway is now closed!

Book Review: Zodiac Felties

2012-04-12T09:46:00.000+01:00

I loved astrology when I was a teenager (I'm a Gemini, how about you?) so I was quite intrigued when I was a sent a copy of Zodiac Felties by Nicola Tedman & Sarah Skeate.

This is a cute little book that shows you how to sew 15 "astrological characters" - 12 characters based on the signs of the zodiac, plus 4 "planetary felties": the Sun, the Moon, Mars and Venus.

It probably goes without saying that if you think astrology is a load of old nonsense or you've got no idea what star sign you are, then this is probably not the book for you! If all your friends and family are similarly minded, you're probably also not going to have much need for this book as primarily I think you'd use it to make little star sign "mascots" as birthday gifts for other people.

The book actually includes a special page at the back that you can scan or colour copy to use as a background when making a card to present your felties as gifts, and the small size of the characters mean they could easily be turned into fridge magnets or brooches for gift-giving.

The designs are cute and quirky. Some of the star signs are interpreted quite literally - a lion for Leo, for example...

... and others are a bit more more abstract, like this sweet little lady that represents the moon:

There's a few pages at the start of the book explaining how to do all the different stitches, how to stuff the felties and how to use the different types of glue needed for the projects (rubber cement and superglue). The felties are all rated by difficulty (1-4 stars) and each project includes full size templates, a bit of information about the star sign, a detailed materials list...

... a page of step by step instructions and a page of step by step illustrations.

As the templates are full size it's quite easy to trace them, but if you prefer to scan or photocopy your pattern pieces you'll end up needing to copy 16 pages as the pattern pieces are scattered through the book (appearing on the relevant project page) rather than all together at the end of the book.

The designs are all embellished with things like sequins, mini pearl beads, pearl droplet beads, seed beads, bugle beads, etc. I have quite a reasonable stash of sequins and small beads but there's a lot of stuff required to make these felties which I don't have in my stash including things like "gold metal eye pins" and "brass craft wire" and really specific things like "2 gold leaf-shaped pendant beads, 10mm long" and "1 bronze metallic ring from a toggle fastening, 15mm in diameter". You'll also need jewellery-making tools like round needle-nosed pliers, eyelet pliers and metal snips. Maybe all these things are essential parts of a jewellery-maker's craft stash? I don't know.

Some of the beads and sequins could be substituted for similar things, but many of the other embellishments are pretty central to the design/construction of the felties. They do look lovely, but you may find that you have to do quite a bit of shopping to find all the necessary bits and pieces - this is not a book you can just sit down and craft from with a pile of felt and thread.

Zodiac Felties is published by Ivy Press. RRP £8.99. It's available from Amazon USA and Amazon UK.

Like the look of this book? I'm giving away my copy of Zodiac Felties to one lucky crafter... Check back tomorrow for your chance to enter the giveaway :)

[Disclaimer: Ivy Press sent me a free review copy of this book, and the Amazon links in this post are affiliate links which means if you click on them and then make a purchase I get a very small % as a referral fee.]

Book Review: 201 Knitting Motifs, Blocks, Projects & Ideas

2012-04-11T13:15:00.000+01:00

Back to the book reviews... did you see I've added a "book reviews" tab to my blog header? Now you can see all my book reviews in one place, if you want to, of course!

Today I'm looking at 201 Knitting Motifs, Blocks, Projects & Ideas by Nicki Trench who also wrote Cute & Easy Crochet which I reviewed last year. As the title suggests, there are a lot of different projects and patterns included in this book.

There's a brief "basic techniques" section at the back of the book, but the main content of the book is divided into "blocks" and "projects".

The "blocks" section includes 150 blocks divided into different sections: basic stitches, textured motifs, cables, ribbing, lace, stripes & colour, intarsia, fair isle, ripples, embroidery, beading and patterns for squares in the letters of the alphabet and the numbers 1-10. A few of the variations are quite similar (e.g. several of the "stripes and colour" blocks are just variations of the same stitch in different stripey colour combinations), but there's still a huge amount of information crammed into this section.

All the blocks are based on a 6 inch (15cm) square so if you wanted you could mix and match them to create something like a cushion or a blanket, or you could just use them to practice / develop your knitting skills.

The "projects" section contains 51 simple knitting projects including dishcloths, fingerless gloves, mug cosies, cushions, and scarves. Some of the projects are more detailed & complex, but most look like very accessible patterns that would be relatively quick to knit.

I rather liked the look of this fun cupcake pincushion...

... and this stripey draught excluder (love those giant pompoms!)...

... but the blocks section is the part which really appeals to me. I've got a similar book called How to Knit (now out of print, I think, my dad managed to find one for me second hand after I'd got a copy out of my local library) which contains lots of different stitch patterns and I really enjoying picking a new one and testing it out. The sheer number of blocks contained in 201 Knitting... and the fact that the blocks can be mixed and matched makes this a book I can see myself referencing again and again and spending many happy hours experimenting with the different designs.

201 knitting motifs, blocks, projects & ideas is published by CICO Books. RRP£14.99. It's available from Amazon UK and Amazon USA.

[CICO Books sent me a free review copy of this book, and the Amazon links in this post are affiliate links which means if you click on them and then make a purchase I get a very small % as a referral fee.]

Giveaway Winners: Heart-Felt Holidays

2012-04-11T12:30:00.000+01:00

It's time to pick the winners of the two copies of Heart-Felt Holidays!

The UK winner is Jacqui who said said... "Looks like a lovely book. Please enter me for the uk draw."

And the US winner is Janet, who said "I love your felt-tastic creations and would love a chance to win your book. Don't you love Lark books?"

Thanks to everyone who entered! I've got a couple more book giveaways coming up this week, so keep your eyes peeled :)

Birds, PDFs and a Sky Blanket Update

2012-04-10T19:26:00.001+01:00

Being self-employed, Bank Holidays don't automatically mean "no work" for me but because my local Post Office was closed for a few days over the Easter weekend I couldn't post any parcels so I got a chance to work on some other projects instead.

I tackled lots of "almost finished" projects in my WIP box and got them actually finished, including a whole bunch of robin and greenfinch brooches. It's always so lovely seeing a whole bunch of finished birdies all lined up together:

In between sewing, I made a start on something that's been on my To Do list for a while - putting together PDF versions of some of my most popular tutorials. All the free tutorials I share here on my blog are for non-commercial use only, but I know some of you guys would like to be able to sell what you make with them at craft fairs or in your Etsy shops, etc... so I've decided to sell PDFs which will allow you to do that.

The new PDFs will be a few £s each, and when you buy one you'll then be able to sell the things you make from it (as long as you credit me for the design in your shop listing or on your packaging) and to use the templates to teach sewing classes.

I'll announce it here on the blog when they're available, but in the meantime I'd love to know if there are any particular tutorials that you'd be interested in seeing in PDF form! You can leave a comment on this post or get in touch via my website.

I also got to spend some time working on my sky blanket. I was so busy in March that I got a bit behind with my blanket-square-a-day project, but I made sure that I was still looking at the sky every day and taking note of the colours. I had a big catch-up knitting and sewing session over the past few days and now I'm totally up to date with my knitted squares and I've sewn the blanket together up to the end of March - a quarter finished already!

It's still quite tricky photographing a long narrow strip of blanket, but I took a quick snap so you can see how it's progressing.

I am continuing to love how the blues and greys look together, and the pretty patchwork effect that's developing. It's also quite surprising how many blue skies we've had so far this year. Who knew the skies in England were so blue??

Giveaway: Sewing Made Simple

2012-04-07T09:48:00.000+01:00

As promised, the publishers of Sewing Made Simple (which I reviewed yesterday and loved) are giving away a copy to one lucky reader.

Please note that this giveaway is open to UK residents only. Apologies if that doesn't include you - don't worry, there'll be a couple of giveaways next week which everyone can enter :)

Want to enter? Just leave a comment on this blog post for your chance to win. Leave your comment before 10pm on Saturday 14th April, and I'll pick two winners at random on Sunday 15th April.

Please make sure you leave a name or pseudonym (no anonymous comments please!) and leave a blog link, Twitter username, Etsy username or email address so I can contact you. If I'm unable to contact the winner within two weeks or the person I pick turns out not to be from the UK then I will pick someone else.

UPDATE: this giveaway is now closed.

Book Review: Sewing Made Simple

2012-04-06T13:52:00.001+01:00

I was talking yesterday about "instructional" vs "inspirational" craft books, and today's book- Sewing Made Simple by Tessa Evelegh - definitely falls into the first category. It's an almost textbook-style beginners guide to sewing, jam-packed with facts and diagrams and detailed instructions, but it's also a very lovely looking book which made me make an actual "oooh" noise when I got the review copy in the post!

It's out in hardback at the moment (with a paperback edition due in May)... the hardback edition is bright pink, with a pretty dust jacket and even prettier floral endpapers.

Most of the pages dedicated to information and techniques are also framed with a floral border (with a different print for each chapter). If you really loathe "girly" things this book's styling is probably not going to be for you but I found it pleasingly pretty without being too twee, with a focus on bright colours and fresh-feeling patterns.

The book starts out with detailed guides to sewing supplies, including explaining the difference between all the different types of needles and pins available...

... then moves on to a short "sewing machine primer", a stitch guide, a guide to pattern making & following and using paper patterns, and information on the different types of fabrics and how to choose the best ones for your project.

The focus then switches to skills, with step-by-step instructions (all fully illustrated) on different techniques like sewing seams, adding zips and quilting. After each new skill is introduced, you get 1-3 simple projects to make to test out the technique (20 projects in total). Some of the projects have templates provided at the back of the book (most of which need enlarging by 300-400%) and the rest just require you to cut pieces of fabric to certain sizes.

The first projects are a simple blind and tote bag (when you're just sewing straight seams)...

... and the others include a mix of homeware, clothing and accessories - from a washbag (with a zip), to a cushion (with buttons and button holes) to a girls sundress (with a gatherered skirt) to an apron (with an appliqued design). Each project has a photo of the finished item, and step by step instructions with clear illustrations.

Overall, I really liked this book and I expect that my younger sister (who is just learning to sew) will attempt to permanently "borrow" it from me next time she visits! If you've just got your first sewing machine or want to branch out a bit from just sewing straight lines all the time, this may be the book for you.

Sewing Made Simple is published by Jacqui Small, RRP £25. The hardback edition is available to buy from Amazon USA and Amazon UK, and the paperback edition is available to preorder from Amazon USA and Amazon UK.

I'm also delighted to be able to say that the lovely people at Jacqui Small are giving away a copy of Sewing Made Simple to one lucky reader in the UK. Pop back tomorrow for the giveaway :)

[Disclaimer: Jacqui Small sent me a free review copy of this book, and the Amazon links in this post are affiliate links which means if you click on them and then make a purchase I get a very small % as a referral fee.]

Book Review: Learn to Crochet

2012-04-05T15:03:00.002+01:00

My review copy of Learn to Crochet (by Sue Whiting) has been sitting on my "to review" pile for quite a while. I reviewed a book from the same series - Learn to Quilt - last year and was quite impressed by it. It wasn't an exciting or a fashionable book by any means, but it seemed to me to be a great beginners guide - lots of detail, very clear instructions with lots of images, and a nice variety of simple starter quilting projects.

Learn to Crochet however left me feeling a bit "meh". This is not a very technical term, but I'm sure you know what I mean! I wasn't sure if I was going to review it at all (because if you can't think of anything nice to say, don't say anything at all, right?) but it made me think about what I look for in a craft book and how nowadays, with so many crafty how tos available online for free, a book has to have something special about it which makes it worth buying.

Generally, I like my craft books to either be instructional (detailed guides to crafty skills or techniques) or inspirational (creative projects, gorgeously photographed and nicely presented). The best craft books are often a mix of the two, but I find that I'm either drawn to a book for the one reason or the other: it either makes me go "oooh, how lovely, I want to make that!" or it seems to be a great resource for a craft I want to try / want to develop my skills in and I buy it because it looks really "useful".

Learn to Crochet includes introductory info on crochet materials and how to follow patterns and diagrams, and then a series of step by step guides for different stitches and techniques, and 10 simple projects for testing out your new skills. It definitely falls into the "instructional" category - the projects included in it are quite boring, and I could find some much nicer simple crochet projects online with just a few minutes of Googling, and there are some lovely modern crochet books available (like Cute and Easy Crochet which I reviewed last year) so the only reason I'd buy it would be for the "how to" parts... to help me learn crochet and then to give me something to reference if I came across something in the other patterns which I didn't understand.

The step by step guides look great, with lots of photographs but when I was trying to follow them last year when learning crochet for the first time I found them a bit confusing (although this could be a fault on my part not on the part of the author!) and I've read a few complaints about them not being beginner-friendly enough in other reviews online which makes me think that the book wouldn't actually be that useful to me after all.

The 10 beginner projects also take up many more pages of the book than the "how to" sections, and they feel a little padded with photos. I don't have an issue with picture-heavy craft books as long as the photos add something to the experience (e.g. if they're gorgeously styled and inspiring, or if they show lots of different details of a finished piece so you can see how seams etc fit together), but one page worth of simple blanket instructions padded out to four pages with photos like these?

This definitely doesn't feel like value for money to me (especially compared to the quilting book). I feel a bit mean writing a bad review, but I do think it's important to be honest about these things and, being totally honest, if I flicked through this book in a shop I'd put it back on the shelf and look for something else.

What do you guys look for in a craft book? Are there any that you've bought or been given and been disappointed in, and if so, why were they diappointing? I'd love to know your thoughts about this!

Learn to Crochet is published by New Holland, RRP £7.99. In case you've looked at these photos and totally disagree with my thoughts, it's available from Amazon UK and Amazon USA :)

[Disclaimer: New Holland sent me a free review copy of this book, and the Amazon links in this post are affiliate links which means if you click on them and then make a purchase I get a very small % as a referral fee.]

Book Review: Everything Alice

2012-04-04T13:10:00.001+01:00

Time for the first book review of "book week"....Everything Alice: The Wonderland book of makes, by Hannah Read-Baldrey and Christine Leech.

As you'll probably have guessed from the title & the cover, this is a craft book inspired by Alice in Wonderland. I thought this was a really fun these for a book and couldn't wait to see how the authors had interpreted it and what projects they'd come up with.

The book itself looks lovely - in my experience Quadrille are pretty reliable in this respect, you know you're going to get a nicely presented book with lots of attention to detail -with lots of pics snapped at a teaparty in a park / fancy garden, and lots of yummy vintage threads and other nice props used in the indoor shots. The design (and the projects themselves) feel young and fun and slightly quirky, definitely more the sort of things you'd find on a trendy blog and less the sort of projects you'd find in a more "traditional" craft book.

The only downside to the styling of the book is that the templates look like they've been hand-drawn with pastel coloured chalk. The pale, rough lines would definitely make it harder to trace those templates which are provided at 100% and may even make it harder to photocopy the ones that need enlarging (I often find that black & white photocopiers have trouble picking up pale lines). However, most of the projects don't require templates, and several just include a sketch on a grid which you can then use as a guide for drawing full scale pattern pieces.

The blurb on the back of the book says it includes "50 makes" but "50 creative makes and activities" might be a bit more accurate. There are a whole mix of different crafts included - sewing, jewellery making, baking, papercrafting, etc - but there's also things like paper dolls and cupcake toppers to colour photocopy and cut out, and ideas for several Alice-inspired party games to play.

The addition of things like the party games is quite fun, and would be great if you were hosting an Alice-themed birthday party, but I think I'd feel a bit miffed buying this book and discovering that one of the "50 makes" was a double page spread with instructions on how to play an ordinary game of musical chairs! The 50 makes also include some very simple things like cutting a fabric circle to make covers for jars of homemade jam/marmalade.

Most of the projects in the book are fun crafty ideas that would suit people who like trying different crafts and having fun making things either on their own or with friends, rather than really experienced crafters or bakers. The projects are obviously going to interest you if you love Alice in Wonderland, but since most of the designs focus on one element from the book many of them could easily be made by (and for) people without much interest in Alice.

For example, here's three of my favourite projects from the book which all have that Alice connection but don't shout "Alice in Wonderland themed item" when viewed on their own...

Cute lavender dormice:

Envelope pillows (I adore these!)

And fabric-covered teapot planters:

Overall, this is a really fun book! Lots of great ideas for tea-parties (Alice-themed or otherwise) and lots of easily adaptable designs for things to make as gifts for your friends.

Everything Alice is published by Quadrille, RRP £14.99. It's available from Amazon USA or Amazon UK.

[Disclaimer: Quadrille sent me a free review copy of this book, and the Amazon links in this post are affiliate links which means if you click on them and then make a purchase I get a very small % as a referral fee.]