Spring has sprung fabric noticeboard

After yesterday's delightful weather (highs of 16 degrees C on 5th March!) I thought it was time to post this blog on how to make a fabric covered noticeboard, after I recently made this floral and blue-ribboned one for Jim's sister's 18th birthday. It would also make a great Mothers' Day present :)

Take one old/new/borrowed (I don't know if you can get blue ones) cork pinboard and some wadding, and cut the wadding so that it is 3 inches bigger than the board all the way round.

I laid the board face down on the wadding and folded the edges round onto the back of the board. I also removed the tiny hooks and pins and kept them safe to re-attach later on.

I cut all four corners off the rectangle of wadding, so that it would fold better and sit more neatly on the back of the board.

Initially I tried using a staple-gun to affix the wadding, but the staples fell out. My very good friend and craft advisor Stephanie Lewis recommended using double sided carpet tape to stick it on. Carpet tape is truly the stickiest and best "attatcher" I have ever come across.

I then cut the fabric I wanted to use to size, again, about 3 inches larger all round than the board. Next I placed the wadding-covered board face down on the underside of the fabric and used the corner-cutting and carpet tape method as above to attach the fabic, making sure it was pulled quite tight.

Next I cut the ribbon to the different lengths required in order to make a nice diagonal criss-criss pattern and pinned them in place. I used a glue gun to stick down each ribbon end to the reverse of the board, again, ensuring that the ribbons were quite taught.

With the back of the board looking a bit scruffy what with the layers of wadding, carpet tape, fabric, ribbon and glue, I took an extra large bit of cardboard, trimmed it down to size and glue-gunned it onto the back to hide the mess.

Using a hammer I gently re-attached the hooks to the back of the board, ensuring the pattern on the fabric would be hanging the right way up.

Last but not least, I sewed some pearly buttons onto each ribbon crossover, also sewing through the fabric to make the ribbons a bit sturdier to hang things on.

This is an example of another board that my beautfiul mum made me a few years ago.

 

It's where I keep all the pretty cards and notelets that come through the post :)

Valentine's Heart Decoration

 

This is a bit of a cheaty post as I originally made this hanging heart decoration to give to my lovely friend Sally as a Secret Santa Christmas present back in December. However, this time of year sees the rekindling of all heart-shaped things in celebration of Valentine's Day.

Ahh lovely.

So, if you are in need of some inspiration for a simple and effective Valentine's gift that won't break the bank, or just fancy sewing a delightful little decoration regardless of the time of year, then follow the simple steps below!

1. Cut a heart shape out of old newspaper to the size you want. I wouldn't go much smaller than 10cm in height otherwise it might bet a bit fiddly sewing on the letters, but would be absolutely fine if you wanted to leave the hearts plain.

2. Use the heart template to cut out hearts (double the number of finished hearts that you so desire) from your chosen fabric and keep them together in pairs.

3. Using a contracting fabric, or many contrasting fabrics, cut out the letters of the word you want to spell out on your hearts. I used letters printed out from the computer so all my letters were the same font and size.

4. Using blanket stitch, I sewed each letter onto one fabric heart.

5. Now pin one lettered heart to one plain heart and use a basic running stitch to sew all the way around, about 1cm in from the edge. But don't sew right the way round to where you started - you need to leave a gap about 2 inches long to stick the stuffing into to make the hearts 3D. Once they are as fat as you like with stuffing finish off sewing round the heart.

6. Cut a length of ribbon about 15cm long for each heart. Fold the bits of ribbon in half and pin them to the top of the heart inside the two bits of fabric. Attach the pieces of ribbon with a single sturdy cross-stitch running through the ribbon and both bits of fabric.

7. Now thread a piece of string or more ribbon through the ribbon loops you have sewn onto the hearts and voila! A hanging heart decoration to add a bit of country loving to your home, or to give as a Valentine's Day present.

Time for tea birthday card

For my Mum's birthday recently I wanted to make a unique card that was celebratory and also special. Tea time is the epitome of life at my family home - it's when we all come together and have a nice warm drink, probably a biscuit or bit of cake and catch up. And the best thing is it happens any time of the day! So choosing a theme that was so regular, but physically and literally heart-warming and comforting, and making it special by hand-stitching fabric on to card to make the image, seemed the perfect thing to do.

I began by cutting out shapes of fabric from templates I had drawn roughly on paper to make the components of the teacup, handle and saucer. After hemming each shape with a light running stitch so the frayed edges were all hidden I simply glued the cup and saucer sections together with PVA.

 

When it was fully dry I then glued the whole thing onto the front of a folded piece of A4 card and waited for that to dry too.

I then lightly wrote the words on the front with pencil to make sure they all fitted in before starting sewing...

 

...and using contrasting thick thread I sewed over the letters.

And this was how it looked when I gave it to my Mum on her birthday!


PS. A Christmas post to follow soon hopefully!

How not to re-cover a vintage armchair

This is the final result of a project that began about two years ago when my kind Aunt gave me a lovely, comfortable old vintage armchair (see original upholstery below). The original colour was so vibrant and fresh, but we don't really have a lot of velvety materials in our living room, so I planned to tone it down and blend it in a bit from the moment that it crossed the threshold into our little flat, rather than having such a bold centrepiece armchair.

 

With no previous experience of re-upholstery I googled, searched, asked friends and family, and watched numerous youtube videos to work out how I should begin the project, while the poor green armchair hid under various interchangeable blankets and throws. When I felt I had some understanding of what a vast undertaking it was and the lack of specific tools I had, I decided to just go with the flow and create a sort of throw-come-cover that would have more of a relaxed appearance than proper re-upholstery would have.

I measured the surfaces of the armchair to try and work out the total amount of material I would need to cover it, and when that proved far too numerate and difficult I simply covered as much of it as I could with make-do newspaper templates, roughly worked out how much material I would need, and visited Fabrics Galore down the road for a soft-toned and neutral fabric.

 

I found a nice, reasonably priced, stone striped material, thick enough to withstand begin sat, bounced, and occasionally slept on, and proceeded to use the newspaper templates to cut sections of fabric to cover the chair.

In order to prevent any rips or tears in the fabric, I realised I needed to cover the top of the seat seperately to the seat cushion so that the material didn't move or get stretched when the chair was sat on.

With something resembling an armchair cover skeleton, I began hemming and pinning it into something more permanent and structured.

I covered the seat cushion in the fabric, positioning the seams along the edges of the cushion and leaving a gap for a zip to be inserted in case of washing emergencies if something were to be spilled (most likely by me) on it.

I lightly tacked the cover together by hand using a brightly coloured thread, then used the sewing machine to go over all the seams, and then cut away all the tacking thread.

This is a slightly cheating blog post due to the fact that I have tacked the rest of the armchair cover together by hand, but haven't yet finished sewing it together with the sewing machine. But as you can see below, it has started to resemble a completely new armchair, one that fits with the rest of the living room and only cost me the length of the material (about £15) and time (roughly 9 months)...

Paris Grey painted chairs

Over the past few months I have been building up quite a collection of dining chairs. As useful as they are for sitting on, standing on, storing and displaying things on, and generally making the place feel more homely, there are only so many that we can fit into our tiny flat. I have now conlcuded that this number is five. We have two lovely spindly ones from my mum and dad, an even spindlier one that used to belong to Jim's Grandma, and an extra, younger, chunkier one we picked up from a charity shop when the need to seat 4 people became absolutely desperate.

The latest acquisitions came from the one and only freecycle.org and were a lovely sturdy pair of wooden dining chairs:

They were painted lovely colours, but had seen better days. I wanted to make our mismatched dining chair collection feel slightly more uniform and part of the same family, so looked into painting them, or at least a few of them the same colour. I began by giving these two a good wash down in the front garden and waited for them to dry while sitting in the last bit of autumn sunshine back in September.

That morning I had dragged Jim to The Forest Bailif a beautiful interior decoration and furniture shop in Raynes Park, where I picked up a sample pot of Annie Sloane's chalk paint in Paris Grey. This composition of paint is absolutely amazing. It has a rugged appearance but soft texture to it and you don't need to sand down or prime the item you are painting before applying the chalk paint. A brilliant time saver for impatient people like me!

Having confirmed that I loved the Paris Grey - this was a mighty achievement as I am so indecisive, but loved the colour for it's name (a sentimental reminder of our trip to Paris earlier this year) and also because it goes with everything in our living/dining room - I dragged Jim to a second Annie Sloane stockist - Tomlinsons in lovely Dulwich Village, where I splashed out on a whole litre pot of the Paris Grey chalk paint and some protective clear wax.

And this was the final result, after two coats of the paint and one of the wax:

Next on the list - two more Paris Grey chairs, and possibly a purple one thrown into the mix??!