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Three reasons not to make one of these

 

Firstly,you have two stitch through three layers of fabric - one a very stiff cotton, one a very thick blanket, and all the while your sewing machine is protesting loudly and needle-breakingly.

  

Secondly, you then realise that you have to hand quilt the three layers of fabric together because the bloody thing still keeps sagging.

 

Thirdly, you have to hand stitch a sodding zip to it.

And you all know how I feel about zips.

 

Can you tell Puppy was terrified by my swearing whilst making this project ?

Never mind, it's done now, and this was made at the special request of my little nephew Harvey who is quite certain that I can stitch anything in the world .  Happy Birthday Harve !

I'm sure there must be a much easier way of making something like this, but if there's an arse-about-way of doing things - then I'm your girl.

I think I can safely say this is on my list of things I'm never going to make again, and thinking about it, I'd love to hear what you will never ever be attempting again.

(Unless you are emotionally blackmailed by a sweet 5 yr old of course).

Have a happy weekend all !

Love bird tutorial

A little quickie love bird.

I'm hoping if you click on the link below, and maximise the page, you will be able to print off the right sized template for this birdie.

View this photo

Gawd knows how long I spent trying to sort out a pdf for this, and then gave up, so hopefully inserting it as a file will suffice.If it doesn't you can scale up this (click on the picture to make it bigger).

 

Stitch one piece of plain fabric to one piece of patterned fabric along the long edge, repeat, then fold your 4" square of fabric in half and press as shown.

 

I've lined the body pieces with a medium weight cotton to make it nice and sturdy, just stitch together along the edges and trim. Don't do this to the pocket which is shown on the left.

 

Pin and stitch around the template on one piece of your plain/patterned fabric. This will act as a guide for your applique and subsequent stitchery.

Stitch his/her face in place, and then pin the folded over pocket to your birdie body, aligning the top of the pocket as below

   

(Sorry about the crappy photo).

Flip over, and following your previous stitch line, stitch the pocket to the main body.

Cut out the feet and hair from scraps of felt

 

 

Stitch in place.

I made my legs a bit shorter after I'd taken this photo, but it's entirely up to you how long they are.

 

Now pin your two body pieces right sides together, and stitch together just inside your original guideline leaving a gap to turn.

 

Trim and snip close to your stitch line to make it more bendy.

Turn right side out, and stitch gap closed.

 

Make some little paper love notes using the bigger heart template, and a fabric heart using the smaller template and pop into the pocket (or you could suggest to your loved one that this would be a very good place to hide a lovely surprise diamond ring for you).

 

As usual, I suspect this tutorial rambles on, but I hope it makes sense, do let me know if not.

Happy Valentines day !