My Weblog

Hello, is there anybody out there ?

If there is HELLO !

After a ridiculously long break, due to lack of time (damn having to work), I'm trying to figure out how to use typepad again.

Ive chucked the job in and am going to have a go at being self employed, wish me luck !

I'll be back soon,, in the meantime I've set up a new page on Facebook and instagram ,just type in mollychicken, I'll post links when I remember how to.

I'll be making stuff, selling stuff and providing tutorials, just like before.

If you reading this, thank you, you are  awesome !!!

I'll try and upload a pic...

View this photo

hmmm, not sure if you can see it, if you can, it' a very crappy photo of a quilt I made for my little great niece. More pics when, when I figure out how to do it.

:  )

Happy New Year

Me and Licky have just popped in to say hello and to wish you a Jolly new year.

I lost my blogging voice there for a while and I'd like to thank everybody who asked after me and for anybody still checking in on my poor sorry blog.

I've had a weird year - will that do as an excuse ?

: )

back soon and I've missed you.
 

Log Cabin Cushion

Dipping my toe into the mock log cabin world.

 

Spud likes to bounce on it,

 

and then have a little rest.

 

I blame Amanda for making me stray away from the house painting road.

Bad Amanda.

Here's wishing you a happy weekend all !

UPDATED - Half yard bag Parts 1&2

I've changed the dimensions on this tutorial so you can make a bag from half a yard of fabric and lining. The bag I made previously, used half a metre, but I know a lot of you gals out there work in feet and inches so I very thoughtfully thought of you and altered it to only use a half a yard of standard 44" wide fabric.

I'm so very kind and lovely like that.

I'll just let you take the blame that I haven't tidied up today because I've been obsessed with doing this.

O,k, you will need a large piece of paper measuring 26" x18" ( I taped a load of A4 pieces together) fold the paper in half so that it measures 13"x18".

Mark out the measurements like so

 

Cut away the 4" strips on the left for the base and straps like this.

 

On the right hand side of your main piece, make a little mark 12" up from base. On the left hand side, make a mark 11 and a quarter " up from base, and then scoopity scoop your bag shape something like this.

 

on the right hand side, flatten out the scoop on the bottom edge so it fits in underneath your arm nicely.

 

You should end up with something like this.

 

Keep one of your 4" straps intact for the base, the other, slice in two measuring 18" x "2 for the straps as above.

At this point I have to stop and continue early next week, because it's my eldest boy's 21 st birthday tomorrow and I have to make a chocolate cake.

Although if you saw me, you would never ever believe I looked old enough to have a son that age - contrary to the opinion of my daughter, who once again says it's embarrassing to have the oldest and quite possibly the fattest Mum in the class - one day I'm going to poke her right in the eye.

 

Hmphh,

I'll be back early next week, (tuesday or wednesday I should think) to show how I put the pieces together.

Bye for now

xxx

fatty.

Part 2.

Sorry for the delay, but it got sunny here and the kids were on half term hols, so needless to say,there was no crafting for me.

Anyhoo, here goes with part two,

cut two straps,1 base and two bag pieces from your main fabric and the same from your lining.

 

Next, using those scooped out pieces between the handles, make the pockets. Lay two pieces right side together, you can put lining with lining and main with main or mix it up if you like - it's up to you. Pin and stitch together leaving a gap for turning. Turn right side out, and stitch gap closed. For a nice clean finish, machine stitch along the top edge or hand stitch as I did later if preferred.

 

Stitch pockets in place about 3" down from the top. Let's hope you make a better job of this than I did, mine looks crap to be honest.

 

Now stitch your straps to the left hand side (as you're looking at it) of the bag pieces like so.

For the lining - stitch the straps to the RIGHT HAND SIDE of the bag pieces, DO NOT I repeat DO NOT forget to do this, or things won't match up when you go to sew them together and you will have a lot of unpicking to do. I'm stressing this point , because I'll give you one guess as to who may or may not have made that very mistake first time around.

 

Stitch the base to your bag pieces and repeat for the lining.

Place one of your lining and main fabric pieces right sides together, and pin and stitch all along the top of the bag and straps. Repeat.

 

Now here's the fiddly bit, turn the strap and strap base right side out, and tuck into the pocket so you don't nearly stitch over them later. Cough cough.

 

Next, with right side together, matching up the seams, pin and stitch your bag together leaving a 4" gap for turning on one side of the lining as shown below.

 

 

Next up, flatten all four corners of the bag, and pin and stitch across the previous seam line

 

It should look something like this. trim excess, turn right side out and stitch lining gap closed.

Ladder stitch the free end of the strap to the bag.

 

Then machine or hand stitch all around the top and the handles pressing first for a nice crisp edge,

 

and hand stitch across the top of the pockets if you didn't machine stitch earlier.

 

Just for a bit of fluffy girliness, I then cut some simple flower shapes from the scraps, made little slits in the middle to thread through some linen tape, knotted the linen tape at the front, did a few anchoring stitches at the back, and then stitched the tape to the pocket.

 

All done !

  

Just about the right size for a picnic blanket, some strawberries and a bottle of Champagne.

There are probably easier ways of doing this (there normally are when I do something) but I hope this makes sense to you.

Ta-ra for now,

xxx

Not-so- Fatty.

(I'm on a diet)

A bit of this and that

Well, that's another month gone. So much for my posting more often, but I'm guessing that nobody wants to see pictures of the door and window painting I've been busying myself with.

In between the rain that is - I'm not going to whinge on about the weather, BUT, if we have another wash-out of a summer like we did last year, then I'll be having very stern words with the Big Man upstairs. Probably from the local mental health hospital, which actually seems like quite an attractive alternative to last year's ' being trapped in the house with two crabby kids for 7 weeks summer holiday ' nightmare.

Anyhow there has been a little bit of crafting,

     

A little bunny for Molly's friend, although I've now been told I'm not allowed to make birthday presents for her friends anymore because it's embarrassing. Charming daughter that I have.

 

Showing Molly how to quilt and quickly realising that a lot of her stitches are better than mine. This will be a little wall hanging when we finish.

 

A bit of bag making. I can't afford any Cath's of so I bought a half metre of furnishing fabric for £6 at my local shop and managed to squeeze this roomy bag out of it. I winged the pattern and will post up some handy hints and tips next week. The biggest tip being - don't think to yourself  ' I really ought to move that cup of coffee before I knock it over my sewing stuff ' and then not bothering to do so.

That's a good handy tip that is, I had to wash everything, fabric,scissors, pin cushion,cutting mat, etc etc etc. I am a daft-ass sometimes.

Anyway, I hope you have a lovely weekend with no daft-assness in your world.

See you next week.

Definitely.

Bunnypins

Molly-Mummy crafting -

We put some blue linen backed with white cotton onto an embroidery frame.

Drew some bunnies with one of those disappearing pens,

and stitched stitched stitched.

  

We drew around the bunnies.

and then stitched on top of our drawn line

   

Laid our bunnies face down onto scraps of wool felt, and then stitched together on top of our other stitch line.

  

Cut off the excess and snipped those curves.

  

Carefully cut a line in the felt (with Mummy trying desperately not to interfere here), and then turned the right way out.

Stuffed them, stitched closed and then added a brooch pin.

 

Mummy pinned them to a cushion,

(left click pic to view bigger and you'll be able to see them - silly me)

 

Then Molly pinned them to her bag.

My poor neglected blog. I've not been doing anything exciting, in fact that's the first bit of stitching I've done in weeks and weeks. Instead I've been spring cleaning - bleughh. If you got caught in a big dust cloud hanging over the south-west of England last week - that would have been me - cleaning my kitchen cupboards.

Sorry about that.

Anyway I shall be back after Easter posting a more regular basis now that my house is sparkling (ish).

I hope you have a lovely break with lots and lots of chocolate and sweeties.

xx

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 !

Bit late.

 Ummm, - Merry Christmas ?

No, far too late for that.

Happy New Year then ?

Still a bit late.

How about ' A FANTASTIC REST OF THE YEAR' wish to you !

Yes, that will have to do. 

 I'm sorry about not getting back to you with the Christmas Angel pattern, she's half done, honestly, and I will finish up the tutorial so you can make her for next year, or you can say she's a fairy and play with her anytime.

 

She looks a bit cross at having been abandoned doesn't she.

I hope you are having a great start to this new year, I haven't felt like doing much til now, but I have at least finished my version of these ( using Rowan Cashcotton, 3.75 mm needles and casting on 42 st . Also for the thumb I replaced the 4st with 6st, therefore ending up with 18 st instead of 12 )

  

Lovely and snuggly. I'm also in the process of knitting a smaller pair for Molly, so if anyone wants the details of those I'll post them up next time. 

Feeling all crappy and January-ish, I decided to do a bit of web drifting last night, and I know I've linked to these before, but they've updated their websites and goodness me, I nearly keeled over at the cuteness.

Apolline a Paris - which looks like new stuff is going to be added soon, but very cute anyway.

Petit Pan  - which has the sweetest intro to a website ever.

And Helen Manche - via The constant gatherer  you have GOT to look at that little video.

Ok, now back to doing something, I'm going to repair a thrifted patchwork duvet cover for Molly, and finish painting a dresser which has been cobbled together from some old mdf units and a bookcase, I feel very much in an applique and decoupage mood at the moment, using scraps of things so I don't have to spend any cash that I haven't got,so we'll see what happens from here.

 

duvet wip

 

dresser wip.

Wishing you a lovely weekend !

Bunny

Hop

Hop

Hop.

there's a bunny in my shop.

This is the last thing I will be putting up for sale before Christmas, because I really need to think about gift and Christmas card purchasing, and I really really need to tidy my house. And I also hope to put up a Christmas angel tutorial within the next week.

So I'll see you soon.

kiss kiss.