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Crafty warmth
Nestling under the duvet on a chilly winter's night with a great book,
a mug of cocoa and a hot water bottle to toast your feet … Top textile
designer Lisa Stickley shows you how to keep snug
Things you need
Medium weight cotton (I have recycled an old soft cotton curtain) for
the main body, cut to size (see template below, where each square
represents 5cm x 5cm).
4oz polyester wadding, cut 2cm smaller than the main body all the way
round (see template – cut 1 front piece and 2 back pieces).
light weight fabric (cotton calico is ideal) for the lining, cut to
the size (see template – cut 1 front piece and 2 back pieces).
1m length of bias binding (2.5cm wide)
What to do
Bond the panels and wadding
Lay the front
outer fabric piece right side down on the ironing board. Lay the front
wadding piece on top and then the front lining piece on top of that,
rather like making a sandwich. With a hot iron, press the sandwich
pile so it flattens the wadding slightly and loosely bonds the three
layers together. Repeat for the two back pieces.
Add
the bias binding
Cut two lengths of bias
binding to slightly longer than the width of the back pieces. Fold
these pieces of bias binding in half lengthwise. Slot one binding
strip onto each of the straight edges of the back pieces. Pin in
place. Stitch the bias binding in place, trapping all three layers
neatly together. Backstitch at the start and finish to fasten the seam.
Join the panels
With right sides facing, lay the top back panel on to the front panel
so the top edges line up. Then lay the bottom back panel on top of
this so the two back panels overlap in the middle and the bottom edges
of the back and front panels line up. Pin in place through all the
layers. Starting at the bottom edge, stitch all the way with a 2cm
seam allowance. For extra strength, backstitch a couple of times when
sewing over the bound edges of the top and bottom back panels.
Backstitch at the start and finish to fasten the seam.
Fill the cover with the hottie
Turn the hot-water bottle cover right side out, pushing out all the
corners. boil the kettle, fill your hot-water bottle and slip it into
the cover.
Toasty!
• Made At Home by Lisa Stickley is published by Quadrille, priced
£16.99. Buy
a copy from the Guardian Book Store.
Crafty
warmth
How to make a zip-up purse
Turn leftover fabric into a neat little purse. It's quick, easy and
economical, says Perri Lewis
Sometimes I just want to whip something up in half an hour, rather
than slave over a project for weeks on end. So what's the best thing
to make? For me, it's those little fabric purses that you'd pay a
tenner for if you bought one from Accessorize. It puts small and
otherwise useless fabric pieces to good use, and it's a brilliant
stand-by gift for a lovely lady of any age.
You've got plenty of variations on the standard instructions all over
the interweb: this
one on the CRAFT blog has a zip on the side; this
one on Skip To My Lou is lined; and U
Handbag's tutorial has a rather neat travel card pouch on the side.
However, I reckon this method is the quickest and easiest. Using
upholstery fabric means that your purse will be sturdier and more
hardwearing than if you used cotton (although, of course, you can use
whatever non-stretchy fabric you fancy), and cutting it with pinking
shears means you don't have to worry about hemming and neat seams and
all that fiddly stuff. And if you've never had the confidence to sew
in a zip before, this is a cracking little project to start off with.
What it costs
I forked out £30 for my pinking
shears because I wanted to invest in a decent pair, but you can
pick them up for £9.99 in Argos.
A short plastic zip can be bought for about a pound if you go to a
market stall, or around £2.50 from a high-street haberdashery. I used
scraps of upholstery fabric, left over from some bunting
I made for my mum, using one
of my last tutorials. It was originally £7 a metre from John Lewis.
What you need
Upholstery fabric
Pinking shears
Zip
Iron
Pins
Sewing
machine, zipper foot and thread/needle and thread
Embellishments:
buttons, sequins etc to decorate (optional)
What to do
1. Buy a zip that is as long as you want your purse
to be wide, or a little longer (you can shorten a zip easily using this
tutorial).
2. Cut your fabric using pinking shears. You need two
pieces that are the same size. The width should be 2cm longer than the
zip, and the height 2cm longer than you want the final purse to be.
3. On one piece of fabric, fold one long side over
1cm and iron the fold in place.
4. Pin one long side of the zip to the edge you just
folded. The fabric should be about 2mm from the zip's teeth.
5. Sew the zip in place (using a zipper foot if you
have a machine, or using a strong needle and thread and a backstitch
if you don't).
6. Repeat steps three, four and five with the other
piece of fabric. When laid flat, your purse will look like a zip with
a piece of fabric sewn on either side.
7. Do the zip up. Position the purse so the right
sides of the fabric are facing. Pin them together. Make sure the tops
of the two pieces of fabric are aligned so the purse is nice and neat
when you sew it up.
8. Sew down each side of the fabric, 1cm from the
edge. Unzip the zip.
9. Sew the long bottom shut, again, 1cm from the edge.
10. Turn the purse the right way round. Use a
chopstick or pencil to poke the corners out (if they don't make a nice
right angle, chop the corner off the inside seam).
11. Decorate if you fancy (and have the time).
• Perri blogs about making stuff at makeanddowithperri.wordpress.com.
How
to make a zip-up purse
A Memory Rag Bag
My children form very strong attachments to their clothing, I'm not sure
why - I only remember feeling that strongly about the three bears
embroidered on one of my pillowcases when I was little. The pillowcase
wore out and I was devastated, so my Mum cut them out and appliqued them
to a t-shirt for me, I was over the moon when she did.
My daughter just has a huge growth spurt, going from age 10-11 years
clothing to 13-14. She's managed to miss a whole age range in the
middle! However, this meant that her favourite clothing would no longer
fit her. She was really upset by this as some of the clothing had been
given as a gift for her birthday, other jeans she had bought herself
with money she had earned. She had memories of playing in park, my 40th
birthday party and her Grandma, all in what would appear to anybody else
to be a pile of ripped and stained play clothes.
I wanted to do something nice for her, something that would mean that
she wouldn't lose those memories. So I came up with an idea - I'd make
her a tote bag. Tote bags are fashionable at the moment, and a nice size
tote bag would be great for when we go out on day trips, so she can
carry her artists pencils and sketch books, plus other things.
To start with I gathered a selection of clothing who's colours and
textures complimented each other. Then I washed and ironed it all - 4
pairs of trousers, 1 blouse and a t-shirt.
I then sat and cut out all the useful pieces of fabric. Splitting the
trousers up the seams, cutting around the pockets, rescuing the stud
fastening on the front of the blouse and the embroidered sequin motifs.
 
I knew I wouldn't use all of the fabric up - I kept a large amount of
grey denim back to make her some slippers - but I was still quite frugal
with what was deemed unusable, mainly just the waistband, hems and fly.
I decided that the t-shirt, being very soft, should be used to line the
bag.
I looked through the various scraps of fabric and decided that the
central feature of the front of the tote bag would be a large button
fastening pocket (from the back of her jeans) this would give her a
secure place to keep her inhaler, phone and purse. From there I just
kept adding panels of fabric.
Next I started to muck about with a sort of rough patchworking. I didn't
measure anything out, just stitched stips together, cut across them,
turned them around, stitched them back together again. I made some
interesting panels, which I then attached on either side of the pocket
panel.
I decided that was the right size for a tote bag and stopped there. I
then made a rough patchwork back panel. Again, no measuring as such,
just stitching bits together, cutting, turning and stithcing again.
I then stitched the two panels together and started work on the handles.
I wanted something soft and strong, so I opted for padded plaits. These
took longer to make than the rest of the bag! First I made 6 long tubes,
placed three of them together and stitched across the end to hold them
together. I then used some reclaimed wadding from an old cushion and
stuffed each tube. The stuffed tubes were then plaited, and stitched
into place on either side of the bag.
Next, I made the lining. I placed the t-shirt over the bag and cut the
lining to the correct size. I stitched the side seam, leaving the bottom
and top of the lining open.
I reinforced the top of the lining with a strip of denim and then
stitched it into place, taking care to stitch the straps in between the
lining and outside of the bag.
I pulled the lining the correct way out and then stitched across the
bottom seam of the bag (which was the hem of the t-shirt)
The final step was to stuff the lining back into the bag, and stitched
across the handles on the outside just to reinforce them.
Voila - one frugal, memory, rag bag - and isn't it beautiful!
Make your own table linen
Appliqué is an easy way to completely transform a plain, vintage
tablecloth into something contemporary and stylish
Appliqué is an easy way to completely transform a plain, vintage
tablecloth into something contemporary and stylish, and at the same
time cover up any stains! You could also use a vintage linen or heavy
cotton sheet – I used an embroidered Swiss cotton sheet which was in
perfect condition and wonderfully heavy. If you want to start with new
fabric, organic cotton sheeting is ideal – it is extra wide,
2.85m/112in., so you can easily buy a piece big enough for even the
largest dining table.
What you need
A hand sewing kit
Safety pins
Items to use as circle templates –
plates, jars, CDs
Large piece of organic cotton, vintage tablecloth
or vintage sheet
Scraps of medium-weight, washable fabrics which
don't fray too much
Embroidery threads
Note: You may prefer to iron lightweight interfacing
onto the fabric scraps before cutting them out. It stops the fabrics
from fraying and wrinkling
How to make it
1. Pre-wash the base fabric and all the scraps you
use for this project as you don't want colours running in the wash.
Also use a dye grabber when you wash, to catch any excess. Wash and
iron the tablecloth/sheet/fabric. Mark any stains with safety pins so
you can easily find them to cover with appliqué. If you are using new
fabric, cut to the required size and hem all the edges.
2. Cut circles from medium-weight fabrics in a range
of different sizes, from 6-20cm/21/2-8in. I used about 60 for this
project. Spread out the cloth and pin the circles in a nice
arrangement over the cloth, covering any stains if necessary. Pin in
place, again using safety pins.
3. Starting at one side of the cloth, sew the circles
down. Sew around the edges of each circle using either slipstitch
(a) or blanket
stitch (b). Slipstitch is much faster, so it depends how long you
are prepared to work on the tablecloth! Tack or use more pins if
required and smooth out each circle to ensure it doesn't wrinkle as
you sew. Press when all the appliqués are attached.
It is quick and easy to make vintage linen napkins to match by sewing
just a few small circles onto one corner of each napkin.
• Buy
Sew Eco: Sewing Sustainable and Re-Used Materials at the Guardian
bookshop
Make
your own table linen
Crocheted Rag Rug
This is a project I completed some time ago so unfortunately I don't
have any work in progress photographs. I will be making another rug
soon, so I will document that with step-by-step instructions.
To make the rug you will need a lot of old cloth - the rug above
contains old pillow cases, flannel pyjama trousers, a pair of velvet
jeans, some lining material, an old valance, a bit of an old curtain and
a t-shirt. It was the first rug I ever made and I was aiming for an oval
shape, unfortunately I was making the pattern up as I went along and I
mis-counted which is why it is somewhat mis-shapen. Next time I am going
to either make a circle or square/rectangle.
You will need a really big crochet hook to make a rug (a 10mm / number
000 is good) and be able at form a chain and single crochet stitches as
described here.
To prepare the rags they will first need to be thoroughly washed and
dried. Cut the rags into 1" wide strips as long as possible.
The rags will need to be stitched (or knotted) together so that you can
use them in the same way you would yarn. There is a particular way to
knot the rags, if you choose this method, which I will detail later when
I make the next rug - it is not a straight forward knot as it needs to
lie flat when the rug is crocheted.
Then you will make a few chains stitches to form the centre of the rug
(it is the equivalent of casting on in knitting) and carry on with the
single crochet stitches until the rug is the size you require. The rug
above is just over 80cm long.
Some instructions for crocheting rag rugs say to stitch the edges of the
rag strips over to limit any loose threads and make the rug neater,
personally I find this time consuming and boring. I like the odd stray
thread and a bit of knot showing through - I think it adds to the charm!
The photo below shows in more details the different fabrics used and how
closely the stitches are formed.
When you look at the back of the rug you can see the knots where the
fabric strips have been joined together. The loose ends can just be
pushed in between the stitches to hold them into place.
How To Upholster A Cheap Chair
Reupholstery and a little TLC can transform a cheap chair into a
statement piece of furniture. In this extract from Revive!, a new book
on recycled interiors, Jacqueline Mulvaney shows you how
Try working with a piece of furniture that you find at an auction
house or junk shop. When I talk about furniture picked up at auction,
I'm not talking antiques. Consult your telephone directory to find a
saleroom in a small town rather than one in a big city, which can be a
lot pricier. Most sales have preview days, and it's worth having a
browse and looking closely at any pieces that catch your eye.
Check for basic soundness: is it fit for purpose, is it riddled with
woodworm, is it more trouble than it's worth?
I have found a wooden-framed chair with a back and seat that need
replacing. The chair is a lovely shape and will work well with my
other furniture. It's not an old piece, cost just £8, and as it only
needs stripping and small areas of fabric replacing it's perfect in
terms of time.
Obviously, if you are feeling brave and have the time you might well
want to try something more ambitious. If you decide to use a chair,
try to find a chair with a removable seat.
What you need
Old chair
Paint stripper
Mask
Rubber gloves
Furniture wax
or limewax
Fabric
Tracing paper or pattern paper
Pencil
Scissors
Upholstery
tacks
Ribbon
Sewing machine
Embroidery thread
Textile or
craft adhesive
Pins
Staple gun (optional)
What to do: Stripping and cleaning
Before I strip and clean the chair I'm going to remove the pieces of
fabric so I can use them as patterns. The chair has been coated with a
thick, dark varnish and is generally a bit grubby. I'm using a product
called Nitromors,
which is a powerful paint stripper. If you are going to use a
substance such as this you need to work outside or with very good
ventilation. Wear a mask and rubber gloves, keep it away from pets and
children and try not to splash it on your skin. Just follow the
instructions and you'll be fine.
I'm going to wax my chair once I've finished removing the old varnish;
this will bring out the grain and protect the wood. You can also
limewax your piece; this will stain your furniture slightly and give
it a chalky appearance. Limewax can be purchased from most good DIY
stores or picture framers.
Upholstery
Try to use the existing upholstery as patterns for your new cover.
Think about the type of fabric you are going to choose. I want this
chair to be functional rather than merely decorative, so delicate
fabrics won't work. As the areas to be recovered aren't huge I'm going
to treat myself and buy some fabric. This is cheating, I know, but the
website I'm going to use to source my fabric specialises in
reclaimed fabrics. It's run by a lady called Donna Flower who is
incredibly knowledgable, her website is a pleasure to use and she is
constantly adding new fabrics. As I only need a metre of fabric and
the chair was so cheap I think I can justify this little diversion.
Patterns
Using tracing paper or pattern paper make yourself a pattern. Cut out
your shapes from your selected fabric. I need to ensure that I cut
sufficient material to allow me to pull it taut over the chair frame,
but I don't need to hem the fabric because any uneven edges will be
hidden by the trim.
My next step is to replace the seat cover and back of my chair.
Starting with the chair back I am going to secure the fabric with
upholstery tacks. As the tacks are visible I'm going to create a trim
to cover this edge.
Trim
Taking a bundle of ribbon, I'm going to join a variety of lengths and
widths to make enough to fit around the fabric on the back.
When you have the desired length of trim, set your sewing machine to
embroidery mode. Using contrasting machine embroidery thread, stitch a
trailing motif along the length of your ribbon. Don't feel you have to
use an embroidery hoop for this; any distortion created through
stitching will add rather than detract from your final trim. Using a
good quality textile or craft adhesive, stick your finished trim in
place. Allow the glue to dry thoroughly.
Fitting the seat cover requires the fabric to be stretched tightly
across the pad making certain that the corners are neat. If the seat
is removable, then take it out first. Pin the fabric in place as you
work before tacking the fabric in place on the underside. The new seat
can now be replaced. If you want to you can use a staple gun to secure
the new fabric to the base. It's sometimes easier to get a tighter,
more professional finish if you staple rather than tack. You should
now have a unique piece of furniture which is both useful and lovely.
• Revive! Inspired Interiors from Recycled Materials is published
on 10 May
How
to reupholster a cheap chair
Tea Cosy Craft
Brighten up the breakfast table with a handcrafted tea cosy. Top
textile designer Lisa Stickley shows you how
Tea, cake and a little Herbie Hancock on the radio in the background
are all particular favourites of mine. This is a nice easy project to
ensure that your tea will be steamy hot even after the cake is gone!
What you need
1 sheet of paper or newspaper, A3 or larger
2 semicircular pieces of mediumweight cotton for main body (I have
used a damask)
2 semi-circular pieces of lightweight cotton for lining
1 rectangular piece of cotton for loop, 4cm x 10cm or thereabouts
2 semi-circular pieces of 4oz polyester wadding for insulation
What to do
Click
here to download some helpful illustrations (pdf)
Step one: Cut out the pieces
To make sure the cosy fits, lay your teapot on its side on to a large
piece of paper. Draw a semicircle around the teapot, adding an extra
5cm on all sides to make the pattern for the main body and lining. To
cut out an even shape, fold the semi-circle down the centre lengthwise
and use the best drawn line as the cutting guide. Using this paper
pattern, cut out the fabric for the main body and lining. Cut the
wadding 4cm smaller than the template all the way round.
Step two: Make the loop
Fold a 1cm hem on each long side of the fabric piece and press. Fold
the fabric down the middle lengthwise so the two turned edges meet.
Press and pin. Stitch along the open side, stitching as close to the
edge as possible for a neat finish. Backstitch at the start and finish
to fasten the seam. Stitch the same line along the opposite side to
finish the loop.
Step three: Make the main body
Place the two main body pieces right sides together. Fold the prepared
loop in half and sandwich it between the two main body pieces at the
centre top, with the raw edges of the loop in line with the raw edges
of the main body. Pin in place. Pin the two body pieces together along
the curved edge. Stitch together with a 5mm seam allowance, catching
the loop into the seam as you sew. Fold a 1cm hem over to the wrong
side around the base and press, but don't stitch this just yet. Turn
the tea cosy right side out.
Step four: Make the lining
Place the two lining pieces right sides together. Pin in place along
the curved edge. Stitch together with a 5mm seam allowance. Press.
Fold a 2cm hem over to the wrong side around the base and press, but
don't stitch this just yet.
Step five: Finish the tea cosy
With wrong sides together, slot the lining inside the main body. On
each side sandwich a cut piece of wadding in between the main body and
lining and flatten into place. Pin the base of the main body to the
lining, making sure the pressed hem is neatly lined up and any stray
bits of wadding are tucked in. Stitch the base together all the way
around, stitching as close to the edge of the hem as possible for a
neat finish.
Put the kettle on for a cup of tea, and I recommend a generous slice
of angel cake!
• Made At Home by Lisa Stickley is published by Quadrille, priced
£16.99. Buy
a copy from the Guardian Book Store.
Tea
cosy craft
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