Upcycling tiny fabric scraps and jewellery making

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A bit of an unscheduled blog post , but I am really excited about a new line I am creating in my shop so wanted to share, plus the vapours from the Epoxy glue may have infiltrated my brain.
I have started venturing into fabric jewellery making, yaaay, what's not to love fabric and jewellery combined.
If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen a few weeks ago I ordered some new supplies , pendant trays and cabochon glass tiles , only one type and size at the moment to see how things go, as being a small business I just can't afford the outlay of a 1000 different types of supplies , as much as I would love to.
This little foray started with a small piece of fabric I found in a charity shop, a lovely print with such pretty flowers but too small really to make much from but too pretty not to take home, so off it came with me, where I had this little idea of making it into jewellery , it's beauty forever frozen behind a glass tile.
So here is the story of my fabric pendants, first I gathered my supplies, you can see just how cute the fabric is and why I had to have it.


Supplies at the ready

And a closer look at the floralicious fabrilicious flowers on the fabric.


Floral fabric for pendants

 

 

The pendants have been handmade by me , hand cutting the circle of card that backs the fabric, hand cutting and individually selecting the area of the fabric to go into the pendant.

 

The pendants are then constructed using a strong glue to bond all the layers together and you have the finished result , individual original floral fabric pendants , preserving that tiny scrap of fabric that would have ended up in the bin.

These pendants really show what my Etsy shop is about, handmade and constructed , and using up bits that would normally go to waste , upcycling and giving a tiny little scrap of fabric 1 inch in diameter a new lease of life.

These pendants will be available for sale in the shop shortly .


Finished pendants

How to make your own pin cushion from a face cream pot

I have a nasty habit of leaving sewing pins and needles lying about in my office then moan that I can't find anything, so when one of my face creams ran out this week leaving me with a cute little plastic pot that I loathe to throw out , this got me thinking and the pincushion and storage pot for my needles came about.

 

To make a similar pin cushion you will need the following

Scissors

Paper

Pencil/pen

Empty plastic pot

Scraps of fabric 

Scraps of felt

lace trim (optional)

Scraps of quilt wadding or cushion stuffing (cheap option buy a really cheap cushion pad and use stuffing)

Hot glue gun

Gather your supplies and give your pot a good clean out and dry it, my pot was pre clean out , I was just loving the coconut smell at that point.

Use your pot base and lid to draw round and cut two pieces of felt in a circle , one for the base (mine was yellow) and one for the top, I used white for mine.

Put these felt circles to one side for the time being.

Next measure the diameter of your pot lid mine was (7cms).

For those that left  school a long time ago like me, the diameter is the measurement from one side of the circle to the other crossing the centre point.

You now need to draw a circle on your paper that is approximately 2 1/2 times the diameter of your pot lid, you can use a compass or like me you couldn't find it , I used a plate to draw around.

Cut your paper circle out

Yep my paper looks greasy, I used a bit the kids had grabbed with crisp fingers , waste not want not.

Fold your cut out circle in half, half again and half again , I have drawn on this one to show you where your fold lines will be, your circle will be divided into eight equal sections.

Fold your paper circle up again and use it as a template to cut out eight fabric shapes

Use different fabrics .

Now place one fabric piece on top of the other right sides facing and sew along the straight edge using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Carry on  and do this for all eight fabric circle segments and you will end up with a circle with a gap this is fine.

Next sew your two open edges together again right sides facing 1/4 inch seam allowance and sew slightly past the centre to make sure you have no hole in the centre, your fabric circle will be domed a bit like a bra cup, this is all good.

Turn your fabric circle over wrong side facing you and grab a needle and thread and sew a running stitch all the way around the outside.

Pull on one end of your stitches and gather it all together but leave a gap because we still need to add the stuffing.

Grab your quilt wadding or toy stuffing and stuff it in the gap to poof out your fabric circle, you want it quite firm so get as much in as you can.

When you have stuffed as much as you can, pull your threads tight and knot together trapping your stuffing in there.

I sewed a strip of lace edging around my felt circle for the pot lid , this is up to you if you want to add it or not.

Now grab your hot glue gun

And glue your felt circle for the lid and glue it down to the pot lid.

And glue your poofy stuffed circle of fabrics on top of the felt , gathered side down , press hard , you want it to sort of mushroom out a bit.

Glue your felt circle for your pot bottom into the bottom of your pot, sorry I forgot to take a shot of this .

I also glued a strip around the edge of my pot bottom from bias binding to jazz it up a bit, and there you have it a pincushion and sewing needle pot combo.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial , if you enjoyed this you will love my sewing tutorials in my Etsy shop, if you can't be bothered making a purse, or bag or zip pouch and would like someone else to do all the hard work , I got that covered too, you can buy premade fabric gifts 

See you all soon .

Card Wallet Free Easy Sewing Tutorial

First of all I want to apologise for not posting as regularly as I should , I have been working on my Etsy shop
retaking photographs, improving my seo (searchability on and off Etsy) and working on a new product line , and something had to give, unfortunately it was the blog. So I have come to the decision that instead of trying to post once a week and failing miserably, I will aim to post twice a month and make it count, although if something exciting comes up in between , I will post it .

So what is this new product line I here you say ........................................................
I talked about in my last post here about finding focus and getting my sewing mojo back , this new product line is part of this. I love love love sewing and I love love love designing and working with numbers figuring out the dimensions and construction for putting a purse or wallet or bag or dress together, so I have decided to combine both of my loves and start a line of digital downloadable sewing patterns in pdf format.
I make the items in my Etsy shop from scratch , figuring out a pattern and how best to put it together so this seemed like the next logical step, but please be patient these sewing patterns are not just thrown together they take time to design the item, work out how best to make it, photographing as I go, tweaking where necessary and writing up detailed step by step instructions, so rest assured I am working on them, they just take time to put the sewing patterns together.

To celebrate the start of the new line I thought I would share an easy free sewing tutorial to make a fabric card wallet, and here is the card wallet

 To make this card wallet you will need the following

A piece of medium weight cotton fabric at least 10 inches x 19 inches
A piece of medium weight interfacing, fusible or sew in
A scrap of fabric for heart on the front medium weight cotton approx 4 inches x 3 inches
A sheet of A4 paper
Pencil
A 2 inch piece of  self adhesive hook and loop tape

You will need to start by drawing out your pattern piece on your paper, please note for patterns sold in my Etsy shop you will not need to do this , you will receive a digitized sewing pattern to print but due to not having the capabilities on this blog to offer you a downloadable pattern I will guide you through drawing it out, it is simple so please don't be put off at this stage. Here we go then .................

 Now you have your paper pattern pieces all ready I will refer to the house shaped pattern piece as
"Body A" , you are ready to start cutting your fabrics, you will need to cut the following by pinning your paper pattern pieces to the fabric and cutting around.
You will need
 1 x heart from your paper heart shape, use your small scrap of fabric for this
2 x pieces of fabric and 2 x interfacing pieces using "Body A" as a template

If you are using fusible interfacing fuse it to the back of your larger pieces of fabric now following manufacturers instructions, if you are using sew in then I will explain further on what you are doing with this.

Next step is to attach our heart fabric to the flap of the card wallet, if you are using sew in interfacing, gather one piece of this and one of your "Body A" pieces of fabric and layer them sew in interfacing down first, then "Body A" fabric on top and then your heart on top , with the point of your heart base lined up with the point on your "Body A" fabric and pin in place, you now need to set your stitch on your sewing machine to a small zig zag stitch and slowly stitch around the edge of your heart enclosing the raw edge of the heart , you can see this in the photograph below.

                                           The finished result will look something like this.

Next we are going to make a card wallet sandwich, place your other "Body A" face down on top of the one we have just sewn and if using sew in interfacing place this on top.

Line up all your edges and pin through all the layers , notice on the shorter flat edge two pins are placed in opposite directions to the others these are placed approximately 3 inches apart and are our marker pins.

Now you need to sew using a straight stitch using 3//8 inch seam allowance starting at one marker pin and ending at the other all the way around our pinned together wallet pieces. You will be left with an approximately 3 inch gap , this is fine , I will explain this in a minute.

 To make nice sharp corners on our wallet you need to clip the corners of the fabric this reduces bulk in the corners , clip close to the corners but be careful not to clip your stitches.

Next you need to turn your wallet right side out, reach in the gap and pull your wallet right side out through the gap, and poke out the corners using your fingers or a pencil.
Sew a stitch line 1/8 inch seam allowance across the open straight edge ensuring the raw edges are tucked inside the wallet.

Fold this flat edge you have just sewn up 3 1/2 inches towards the triangle end of the wallet  ensuring your wallet is all square, lining up your side seams, you don't want a wonky wallet , when you have done so well so far. Pin in in place.
You now need to sew using a straight stitch and a 1/8 inch seam allowance all the way around your wallet , start from a bottom folded corner , sewing through all layers then along your bottom, up the side around the triangle and back again.

You now need to press your wallet shut with an iron , folding the flap shut , this will help keep it's shape, now just to add the self adhesive hook and loop tape, place one side on your wallet flap, do this first then line up your other side of hook and loop tape on the front of your wallet to form a closure and your wallet is finished.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial , and look out for more sewing patterns/tutorials in my Etsy Shop

And a sneak preview , I have just finished writing up  and digitising the pattern for this wallet which is now available as an instant download in my Etsy shop

Wallet sewing pattern pdf

Wallet sewing pattern pdf