Confined Crafting

 How was your crafting year? For me, homeschooling in the first part of the year left little time for crafting - except with the kids, as part of learning. There was a lot of drawing, colouring, painting, box-modelling with a hoard of recycling, and decorating kindness stones to hide during our daily walks. I did find time to sew up fabric masks. I knew from the beginning of the pandemic that I would never want to wear a disposable mask - washable and reusable all the way! I've experimented with various styles and methods of making them, settling on a simple shaped design in the end. Friends and family soon asked me to make up masks for them, and I ended up making some for work colleagues using fabric custom-printed with images from the archive where I work. Making so many masks certainly gave me more confidence on the sewing machine, which I had bought in 2015 inspired by the Sewing Bee, but had never really got to grips with in a serious way. Masks were a gateway back into sewi

 This morning my daughter reminded me that it's her best friend's birthday today and asked if we could give her "a cushion like we gave her cousin at Christmas". Cue a quick rummage in the fabric tub! I had some Disney Princess fabric left from a fat quarter bundle, plus some butterfly patterned fabric that would work for the back of the cushion: First I ironed the fabric then cut a 16" by 16" square from each. I then folded the pocket fabric in half and topstitched along the fold to give the pocket strength. I next placed the pocket piece on top of the front piece of fabric, with the topstitched edge in the middle and the raw edges lined up at the bottom. I then placed the back piece of fabric on top, right sides facing, and pinned. I sewed around the sides and bottom of the fabric, leaving the top open. I trimmed the excess fabric off the seams, being careful not to snip the threads! I then turned the cushion inside out: I had some polyester stuffing to ha

Earlier today I made this little bag from a rectangle of scrap fabric. It's a very basic method - there are all sorts of ways this could be improved such as adding lining, a base or French seams. However, for a quick, easy make it works just fine! I wanted to make a little bag for a nerdy friend - what better than this awesome dice/RPG/DnD themed fabric (from Spoonflower ). I only had this rectangle left over from other projects. Step 1: give it a good iron! Step 2: fold in the ends, iron them down and pin. I folded them by 1/2 an inch. This fold will form the channel where the drawstring of the bag will go. Step 3: sew down the folds making sure to sew close to the raw edge of the fold so you have enough space to feed the ribbon through later. Now fold the fabric in half with right sides together. The edges you've already sewn should meet together at the top. Pin then sew up the open sides - make sure to stop at the fold or you'll sew up the channel for the ribbon! Step 4:

 I showed my daughters the jar I made and they wanted to have a go too! We taped up some more jars and had fun mixing different paint colours. This time I tried cutting out masking tape circles to make a dotty jar. These are our finished jars:

I am a hoarder of useful jars, I just can't help it! You never know when you might need one to wash brushes in, make a mini-terrarium or use as an emergency vase. So I knew I had to keep this lovely mayonnaise jar - such a pleasing shape! I put it through the dishwasher and cut off the plastic film label. I then used standard decorator's masking tape to make an outline on the glass. As it's Christmas I went for a simple Nativity of star, stable and crib with rays of divine light emitting forth. It was a little fiddly to snip up the sticky masking tape, ideally the design would have been a bit more delicate. I think it would work well with smaller shapes dotted across the glass (might try that next!) I then mixed acrylic paint (set of 20 tubes, £8 at The Works), using black and white to make darker and lighter shades of blue. I applied it to the glass with a dishwashing sponge which gives an even coverage and allows you to blend the different shades. Once dry (I left it for