Personalised pillowcase presents

Patterned, personalised pillowcases make great presents. They're useful, used everyday and everyone has a pillow to put them on. Plus they brighten up a bedroom. I've made a number now. I turned a patchwork dress into a pillowcase here and made some for Alex here.

I've made three recently. The first was for Pete's 30th;

The second and third were for Claire and Will who are off to Norway for six months. I chose some  material to remind them of London and England.

London town for Will

And English gardens for Claire

Here they are in their (almost all packed up) flat with their pillowcases.

And here they are in situ in a very plush looking Oslo apartment. Hope they're comfy!

A card box for the Bensons

Old friend Olly asked me to make a card box for his wedding. He gave me some pink and white material to use (which also topped the lovely little marmalade jar favours on the tables). I went for a postal theme with brown paper base and envelopes and cards hung from a ribbon with mini clothes pegs.

It's been a while since I've done much crafting so it was good to have a reason to get back into it.

Roses United - Best Kit challenge

Each year the Towersey Tournoi takes place in an Oxfordshire field. My brother and his mates are always involved. As far as I can tell, the whole thing is one massive in joke, with a LOT of Strongbow thrown in.  This year, Paul was determined to win 'Best Kit' for his team Roses United (formed from northern Leeds and Manchester uni friends). For this, he enlisted my sewing machine - and my help. Apparently last years winners had one shirt with the number on the front and the logo on the back - a last minute hungover ironing mishap. Stiff competition then. 

He bought a bunch of cheap shirts online. I told him to go for blue for the goalie, but he decided salmon would clash 'better' with the red stripe. We went down Brick Lane for 3 metres of slightly silky red fabric.



To fit the stripe into the seams, we had to cut open the shirts on one side, and cut into the seam on the other sleeve.

Paul made cardboard templates for the numbers while I was adding the stripes. He then cut them out of cloth and I appliqued them on to the backs.

Al got sent out for more red thread from SewAmazing on Roman Road  - sewing shops are almost worse than chippies for badly punned names.

While I was going through the final massive sewing slog (six shirts!), Paul and Al updated the logo on Photoshop and printed it onto transfer paper which Paul ironed on.

Roses United logo

Almost finished fronts

Numbered backs (looks better at this distance than close up!)

Paul bought some fake roses to pin on the front. And here's the team, ready for action;

Paul's haircut is also a tournament special..

Dream team

In action... shirts holding up...

No victory on the pitch, but the (much more coveted I'm sure) Best Kit award!

Accepting his dues..

Who needs ball skills when you can win this beauty with a sewing machine, some photoshop and an ironing board...

Towersey Best Kit trophy

Patchwork dress for a 'P' themed Party

A 'P' themed fancy dress party seemed like a good opportunity to experiment with a dress pattern without worrying too much if it went wrong.  It was also a good way to use up a lot of odds and ends of material I had left from projects this year.

I started by making a big sheet of patchwork.

Spot the old projects...

Going to need a slightly bigger piece of patchwork.

That's better.

Dress pattern came from The Village Haberdashery - it was the Peony pattern (although I made some adjustments). Here is is in progress - that's the top half and sleeves there. Putting the sleeves in proved the trickiest part.

Finished off with a patchwork flower...

... and a belt and a couple of bangles.

I initially put in a zip, but it made the back of the neck flop outwards and wasn't really needed - so I took it out and added a seam along the back. It was my first time adding darts too, and I was actually quite pleased with the fit and shape at the end. 

That black mark is mascara on the mirror ;)

Some of the projects you can see here are the fish pillow, the swirly skirt, the first pattern skirt, the pillowcase for Izzy, the Christmas cushion, the cushion for Jo and the patchwork quilt for baby Josh.

And here it is along with a Pilot.

Other 'P'costumes included a Punk, Pokemon, Portobello mushroom, 2 Penguins, a Pixie, Peter Pan, a Passport, a Parrot, some Pollen, lots of Pirates, Monty Panesar, a Peacock, the Phantom of the Opera, a Plastic bag, the Periodic table, a Peace sign, the Pope, a Porn star, a Pharmacist and a Parisian. Some excellent costume creativity.

A Penguin, Pixie, Parrot, Parisian and Pilot watch Panesar and Plastic bag at the coconut shy.

The Periodic table

A Portobello mushroom and Panesar again..

Passport

After the party I decided I probably wasn't going to wear the dress again so I made it into a pillowcase. I like how it is still sort of shaped like a dress.

Pillowcase still begins with P :)

Making felt toys with Feltmistress

For a long time, Al and I have admired the wonderful felt characters Feltmistress creates through Instagram and Twitter. So when we saw she was running a toy making workshop at Somerset House Pick Me Up exhibition - and that it was the day after the marathon when I had a day off - we had to go.

Groam (right!)

We met two of her felt gurus G'goob and Groam - whom we'd previously admired from afar.

G'goob

Then we started trying to make our own.

There were lots of templates and suggested features - or we could try making our own. Still high on the marathon, I decided mine was going to be some kind of bemedalled superhero...

Feltmistress showed us how to add the eyes and we started sewing our toys features on to their bodies.

You'll have someones eye out with that ;)

We'd arrived early but while we were working the workshop got incredibly busy, with some amazing creations going on..

Here's our two. We couldn't stay to finish them but they're ready to be sewn together and stuffed back home.

Just love the expression on Alex's (left). Mine just looks insanely happy to have got a medal!

Later that evening I finished them off..

And photographed them next to my own felt creations - a robot and blackbird cushion for Al's worrisome warrior... 

..and the Elmer cushions for my toothy medal winner...

And here they are enjoying the sun together. Awww.

A border collie and a bicycle

Al turned 30 today and I made him a few homemade things to go with the money I was giving him towards a bicycle frame making course in the summer.

Here's a present from Watson - I found a black border collie model and painted him Watson colours with acrylic paints. I made his favourite toys - a ball and a milk carton - out of Fimo and found a suitable stick in the garden. The grass and bush are modelling greenery from 4D model shop.

Watson and all his favourite toys

I also made him a bicycle birthday card with pastels (it's been a while since I used them!);

Turns out bicycles are not that easy to draw with pastels!

A pillowcase under the sea

It's been a while since I've had my sewing machine out. I blame the small but very sweet ball of fluff pictured below who has recently come to live with us. He's taking up a lot of my time at the moment! However, before he arrived, I had chance to make a quick pillowcase for Alex as a simple Valentines present. I found the fabric in the fabric shop Beyond Fabrics on Columbia Road ages ago and it reminded me of a silly fish based song Alex often sings when feeling cheery...

After the complexities of following a pattern in my previous skirt project, pillowcases are deliciously simple. They don't even need a zip, just one side of the case folded over and sewn inside.

Hopefully I'll be able to get my sewing machine out again soon - when this little one  has got more settled in...