Monday 27 May 2013

Sweet Little Buttons

So a couple of weeks back I was at the Redland May Fayre in Bristol where I found the cutest stall of handmade things, including these darling buttons:
They're handmade and hand painted, and as you can see totally gorgeous! I hesitated in buying them to begin with, as I didn't know what I use them for, but after some thinking I've decided they would look really good on this Blanket Skirt by Tilly and the Buttons.
The seller assured me that they're very durable, but I'd be happier using them on something like a skirt where they are more decorative than functional, just in case.
Now to find the perfect fabric....

Tutorial - Earring holder

For about a year I have had this vague idea, and this weekend I've finally pulled out my finger and put those ideas to use!

I don't know about everyone else, but I have always kept my stud earrings in a little box and wondered if there was a better way of 
a) seeing what I have to choose from
b) finding a matching pair 

I am now very pleased to present to the world, my new shiny Earring Holder!


I started with an old frame where I'd broken the glass during a house move - sad times.

But, it's what finally spurred me to make this, so it's not all bad news, right? Also, it was very very easy to make.

I started by cutting the fabric pieces like so, about 8cm tall and as long as the frame widths plus about another 6cm to allow room to wrap it around the back. I used some leftover wadding to make "sausages". These started out the width of the frame (as you don't want this to be in the way of the wrapping, only inside the frame) by about 25cm. This length made the fatter sausages, and about 15cm will give you skinnier sausages.
Simple roll the wadding into a little sausage....

Then pin, and sew as close to the edge of the sausage as you can get. I found it easier to do this with the zipper foot.


Start arranging your sausages within the frame, to get an idea of how many you need. As you can see, once you pull them up to one end you can fit a lot more in! You want to get in as many as you can easily get in after pushing them all to one end, as you need them to hug your earring snugly in place.

I didn't take any pictures of the final stage, but I cut a piece of thin card the same size as the frame back and placed over the ends of the sausages which wrapped behind the card, and then replaced the frame back. You might like to glue the fabric ends down, but I didn't feel like I needed to.

A few minutes later and I went from this...

To this...


Much better, yes?

Down the rabbit hole?

Hiya!
So, this is the first post of my first blog. I decided it was enough silently watching the rest of the sewing community proudly showcasing their tremendous efforts and wishing I also had something to contribute, so here we go I guess!
Jodie