...A Little More Sewing.

I meant to do this ages ago but Life (in general) and Holiday plans got in the way and I figured that visiting Hubbie's parents and mine in our hometown while the commemoration of 100 years since the first fleet of soldiers to fight in the First World War sailed from our port and then spending a week with our daughter in Brisbane was probably more important than cobbling together a short spiel about another crafty do-dad of mine.

Needless to say, both weeks were wonderful. But now we're home.

Before we left I'd been experimenting with gifts to make for family instead of buying everything...unfortunately we have a lot of men in our family. It's relatively easy coming up with a gift I can make for the women in the family but I don't think there's a man in the world who wants a tatted lace doily or a knitted garment in the middle of the Australian summer!

So I just concentrated on our Mothers. Both knit a fair amount, both for personal pleasure and for charity and I thought a knitting roll to store their knitting needles and oddments in would be a good idea. So I looked around Pinterest and found a lovely tutorial by Made By Loulabelle for a simple but pretty roll. And I had all the material on hand so I drew up the template and started.

The first one was a bit rough but I got better as I tried to take time and not rush them as I tend to do with sewing projects. I made up 3 rolls, digging through my boxes of fabric. It's astonishing how you can have a lot of fabrics but never just the right colours to blend nicely together while offering a bit of contrast. I needed a solid or semi-solid, a small print and a large print. Was much harder to find than I ever thought it would be!

But the final result were well worth the effort.

The First Knitting Needle Roll

 I learnt with the first roll that the decorative ribbon I chose wasn't a great choice. It isn't double sided and the back of the ribbon doesn't look as good as the front. But everything else worked really well.

Second Knitting Needle Roll

So with the second all I changed was to make the ribbon from the bias binding I used around the edges and that worked fine.

Third Knitting Needle Roll

So my final one I used up all the pinkest stuff I could find and made up one overloaded with devastating cuteness. I love how cheerfully bright it is and although some of the stitching is a little dodgy I'm still quite happy with this.

Actually, I'm happy with all of them and I'm looking forward to being able to gift these to people I know will appreciate the time and effort I've put into them.  And it wasn't so difficult getting the sewing machine out even though I had to pack it up again when I was finished. Our house is too small at the moment to leave anything like that out. I feel like I've achieved something worthwhile and it might be the first Christmas I'm almost prepared for before December.

But let's not get too hasty! Now to recuperate from all the travel and try and get my bearings...

I'll have more later. Don;t know what. I'm at a bit of a puzzle at the moment with crochet, cross-stitch and knitting all cluttering around me.  I'll clear my head eventually!

See you all later!

Dx

Compulsive...

Sometimes I have doubts that it's really a strong enough word to describe how I tend to do things to death when the fit takes me. But I now have quite a few needle books to give away as gifts...if I can think of anyone I know who'd actually use them!

This was the first one that set me off. I was sure I could do this better!

The first one was using fabric for the outer face and various off-cuts of felt for the inside. I used scraps of fabric to cover the press stud but when it was all folded up I didn't like the bump the press stud made. I was sure there must be a neater way. Also edging the fabric and felt with bias binding worked but it wasn't something I wanted to have to do every time!

This was my second attempt using only felt.

I like this one with just the felt as material much better. I only needed the sewing machine for attaching the felt sheets in the middle and to attach the inner and outer parts of the needle case together. After that it was all hand sewing. I really liked the back stitch I used for the heart motive on the face but I used blanket stitch on the outer edges and it worked really well. You'll notice the first test using a button closure? Yeah, I ended up removing it because it wouldn't sit straight and I covered a large press stud in felt and sewed it on instead. Again, still don't like the lump the covered press stud makes!

And the cheery Orange Needle Case AND first experiment with button closure!

I felt I was getting closer to what I wanted, so with this one I went ahead and hand sewed a button hole in the top flap. Discovered that it's a good idea to cut the buttonhole first since the chances are pretty good if you cut it after you've sewn around it you will snip the threads...no matter how hard you try not to!

This Needle Case looks pretty good considering how it got chopped and changed about!

With the Star Needle Case I thought I'd see if I could make a button loop closure out of the top flap instead of cutting a buttonhole into it...the quick answer is...No! It pulled the whole thing out of skew and didn't hold the side flaps in as well so I ended up having to cut the flap off and re-sew a new one in, for both sides! The outer one looks much nicer than the inner one since after doing the inner one by hand I realized even I couldn't pull that off as a design element on the outside of the case! So I used the sewing machine. Much better!

Pretty little Busy Bee Needle Case!

So I now had the design I was most happy with. I'd also finally addressed my issues with the inner flaps by adding a hook and eye to latch them together. It bothered me that the flaps may fall open. I cut a long buttonhole in the top flap and blanket stitched closely around it. I made a pretty little bee motif with scraps of felt and plain back stitch and sewed it in the centre of the face and then blanket stitched around the outer edges.

Tatted Motif Needle Case

Now the creative juices were really flowing so I wanted to explore a few different faces. This was one that turned out really nicely. I used one of my medium sized tatted motifs, sewed it onto a pink circle and then back stitched that onto the face. Lovely bold impression without being fussy. Love it!

And finally...Leaf Needle Case!

I could feel the ideas running down though so I knew this one would be the last...for a little while at least! I drew a pattern on the back of the outer cover and cut it out (which turned out to be a MUCH harder job than I ever imagined!) and then back stitched around the design with a piece of black felt behind it. It makes quite a bold impact, doesn't it? I'd do more like it if I can come up with a method of cutting out the design that doesn't drive me crazy! and if I could sew a consistent line around the design that doesn't look like it was sewn by a giddy drunk!

But over all, I really liked these needle cases! Yes, I may be a bit compulsive but at least I now have some lovely gifts to pass on when ever I may need to...so there!

I think my hands have finally recovered from the charity knitting I did so I may pack up the threads again and get out the knitting needles! 

See you all later!

Dx

Okay, Let's Sew!

I've been really interested in making some needle cases lately, mainly because I'm beginning to get overwhelmed with pin cushions! So I've been scanning through Pinterest for ideas and this is what I've come up with so far.

Needle Case Buttoned Up...

I borrowed a bee image off Pinterest and then made it up the way I wanted it in felt and sewed it on a large circle of felt. I think it looks really good and I like the neat running stitches and backstitches I used to put it together instead of blanket stitch, which is more usual. It never seems as neat as I'd like it. I sewed together the body of the needle case (I had to get out my sewing machine which I hadn't wanted to do but there really wasn't any other choice!) attaching the elastic loop at the same time and then inserted the padding to give the strip some body.

...And Unbuttoned!

I used the machine to sew in the felt sheets inside and then sewed around the edges...badly to be honest. I've not used my sewing machine for a while and I couldn't get the tension right and I lost patience. Anyway, it's all together. I hand-sewed on the felt patch with the bee on it and sewed a nice vintage button I had on. 

Ribbon to attach Scissors and Fine Needles.

 After all that, I sat back and admired it (while dishes remained undone and clothes piled up unfolded!) and realized I needed a couple more features. I added a strip of ribbon on the inside of the front cover to tie a small pair of folding scissors...

Back Pocket for Needle Packets.

 I also added a felt pocket at the back to hold the few packets of needles I have as well as a knitting needle size gauge that I also always carry around. I felt it was a very complete little unit now. Just what I wanted.

Felt Inner Sheets for Needles

And of course, a sheet of felt to hold loose needles. 

I like this but I wanted to make something a bit smaller that I could give away as gifts. Something that allowed a bit of creativity but didn't take quite as long as the Bee patch on the first case.

This is what I came up with.

Little Needle Case Shut

 It's a little folded needle case. Really sweet and cute! The fabric part was cut out in one piece with interfacing ironed to it to stiffen it a little.

Little Needle Case Open

On the inside I used two pieces of felt because I wanted to match some of the colours of the outer fabric and I didn't have a piece big enough. I hand sewed everything with fine white crochet cotton so the felt and the fabric are kind of quilted to each other. I sewed two pieces of felt in the centre for needles. I also covered the press-studs with scraps of fabric to make them look neater.

Little Needle Case Face

I sewed the felt flower on the fabric before I sewed anything else to it so the stitching wouldn't show on the inside. And to join the two fabrics I sewed bias binding around the edges. It was really a very neat little design! If I did it again I think I'd copy out the main template on cardboard and use that to trace the pattern onto the fabric required. There are things I'd change and elements that need a bit of fine tuning but over all I really like it! I might even get out the sewing machine and try and work out the tension problem...bit of a task since I think I've lost the manual...of course!

Okay, I think that's it so far. See you all later :)

Dx