Sewing machine

I would really love to have my own sewing machine, I've borrowed my mother-in-laws old singer machine a few times for card making in the past, but it's now not working. I've got so many ideas of things I would love to be making right now! My mum mentioned she might get me one for my birthday, so the other day I read millions lots of reviews and decided on this Janome it is the exclusive model for John Lewis and is the same as the 525s. This is a Which? Best buy and was on the Great British Sewing Bee too. There is a guide to buying your first machine on The Thrifty Stitcher Blog and you can view videos from Sewing Machines UK about the 525s here and here.
 

Janome 7025 by John Lewis

Janome Sewist 525s

 

John Lewis are fantastic on Customer Service, and having dealt with them from a company point of view with other electrical items, know that they are a good place to buy from. Also mums know best, and that's where she wants to take me ;) tehe!

I need a pincushion

After starting to work on the ATC swap, and trying to sew with two babies running around, I thought I need a pincushion! I saw this tutorial on the Very Berry Handmade blog and thought I'd give it a go with some scraps of material.

It was prooving hard to concentrate with the two girls, but followed the instructions and began to hand sew the pincushion. One of the stips of fabric had ended up not being straight (more tools required I think -  have started an Amazon wishlist!)  but thought I'd carry on anyway as not enough fabric to start again! Just needs stuffing and to close the hole after. Not perfect but I know where it went wrong, pictures aren't great quality either oops sorry!

 

 

Very Berry Handmade Textile ATC Swap 2

I have signed up for The Very Berry Handmade ATC Swap this time, which is to make Artist trading card from fabric. I really like the idea of doing this, but never done anything like this before. I followed the swap last time and had looked in to a similar thing a few years ago when card making, but was worried about deadlines and they seemed a bit more complicated with how you'd be eligiable to take part! On the sign up details it asked for a blog, which I hadn't started but had been meaning to, so here it is!

Details from Very Berry Handmade blog;

In case the concept is new to you, Artist Trading Cards take inspiration from collectible trading cards that have been popular since tobacco manufacturers hit upon the idea of giving them away free in the 1880s.

The idea is to create a stitched/textile work of art to send to your partner. You can use any techniques that you like – it’s a fantastic opportunity to have a go at something new, on a very small scale. Before you decide to sign up, please read the rules and essentials very carefully… (Now Closed for Sign-ups)

ATC Essentials

·         Your ATC must be 6.4cm by 8.9cm (2.5″ by 3.5″), but you can use the card in either portrait or landscape orientation. Don’t make the card too thick though – no more than 3-4mm (1/8″) please.

·         The ATC must be predominantly textile, but you can use any techniques that you want to try, e.g. embroidery, patchwork, beading, cross-stitch, fusing fabrics, colouring fabrics, using fabric paints or ink stamps. There’s masses to choose from – here’s a link to the Flickr group for our ATC swaps – there is some brilliant work here.

·         The back of the ATC needs to include, at the very least, your name and the date. It is also preferable to include your email address, and, if you have given the ATC a title, you can include this too.

The Theme

Autumn has been chosen as the Theme

 

I started a practice one by hand, (as no sewing machine yet) to see how I got on making the card. I started with a leaf shape the size of the card and began to create different sections for the veins of the leaf and was going to do different stitches in each section. I then had some birthday cards to make so put this to one side. Shortly after I saw this post about how to construct a card, with a leaf on. I have a few other ideas to try, so wish me luck!