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!

Patchwork

I am the first to admit that I am not the most patient of crafters. I like to see things come together quite quickly. Instant gratification is pleasing to me :)

It is with the utmost respect then that I look at those who do intricate cross stitch and patchwork and know that I am unlikely to ever have either the skills or patience to do either, and make sure a wonderful job of it as they do. With that in mind, please don't judge me too harshly on my latest endeavour.

A little while ago I got a new sewing machine, but to date I've not had the chance to use it much thanks to catching pretty much every bug going since the New Year. It's a little more techy than my previous model and not generally being all that good with technology, I have to say I'm a little intimidated. I do know that the best way to learn and lose that fear is just to plunge in.

So, with this in mind, I went rummaging when I had some spare time and found a bunch of pre cut patchwork squares I'd got off Ebay a couple of years ago. I fiddled about, laying them out into a pleasing arrangement and started sewing.

I did my best to keep the edges together but it seems that some still went a bit askew. I think this is due to a bit of fraying having taken place on some of the squares which made them a bit smaller, but I'm sure a little is also down to me too.

All, in all though, I'm fairly happy with how it turned out. I like the pattern certainly. I haven't decided exactly what to do with it yet. There is a possibility of building on it with other fabric, and making it into a quilt or something, but I'm not sure where I'd put it right now, or perhaps a cushion front. The other idea that came to me this morning was making it into some oven gloves by cutting the shapes out of the made up fabric but I'm not sure there's going to be enough, certainly not for both sides but I could do one side plain. That would give me a chance to do some freehand quilting (bearing in mind my lines are straight enough to do plain quilting!). I'm not sure yet.

If anyone else has any ideas, I'd love to hear them!