Lavender Heart Stuffies

I don't know if any of you subscribe to or buy 'Sew' magazine. I've been a subscriber for quite a while now but the last couple of months have left me disappointed. It seems to be going over to more craft than dressmaking. I love sewing craft as much as the next person, but that's not why I subscribe to what is a fairly expensive magazine. For instance, last month's was a Patchwork Special.

I'm all for reading, and trying new techniques but I don't really want a whole magazine devoted to it, when I buy that magazine for its original subject, ie, dressmaking. What also bothered me with last month's was that there was no 'proper' pattern. Sew's big draw is that it always includes a dressmakers' pattern, quite often Simplicity. This works well for me as they are usually patterns I'd like to try so that addition helps justify the subscription (as it's not the cheapest mag on the market). I like that it is modern, and looks at fashion as well as dressmaking. At least it used to.

Last month's pattern was for an apron (not exactly a shortage of these around), and a little girl's dress. Both are sweet, and both have to be downloaded. The thought of sitting there printing out bits of pattern that I need to use both time and ink up on as I churn it out and then try and work out what goes where does not fill me with glee. So far I haven't bothered.

Anyway, I'm hoping for a return to its roots for Sew very soon.

Along with the 'free download' offered last month was a pack of a few patchwork squares of fabric. I wasn't inspired at all by the projects shown in the mag so washed and ironed the pieces and put them away. Yesterday I felt like a play so ended up making these:

I drew a heart shape freehand and cut out eight larger size hearts, then drew around a biscuit cutter to make the smaller ones for the applique. I spray tacked the little one on the fronts and zig zagged around to hold it on then sewed two big ones together, sandwiching a little piece of grosgrain ribbon inside so that there would be a hanger for it. I tried it with some thicker ribbon to start but it was really hard to get it to hang right, so I unpicked and went with the thinner one. I then stuffed them with a mixture of pillow stuffing (quite literally from a pillow) and dried lavender.

I think they came out ok for a little bit of playing and for some fabric that I wasn't terribly inspired by to start with. I'm keeping the first one (which is a bit wonky!) and then giving away the rest. Yet another project to help me get used to my new machine.

I hope you like them and would love to hear your views on Sew if that's a magazine you read!