Finding pins: finishing things off

So a while I posted about my unfinished projects. One of them was this quilt square, which only needed the binding finishing around the edges. I’ve finally got around to stitching it! Shame the baby I was making it for is now five years old. Luckily I have a couple of friends expecting so I’ve got one new baby present sorted! Also, look how many pins I have now they’re not stuck in this project

Clothes worth wearing are worth repairing

The cobbler where I used to take me shoes to be re-heeled had a little line of text across the ticket he gave to the customer to keep track of the shoes “Shoes worth wearing are worth repairing”. You could say the same about clothes too. I’ve been a bit quiet on the crafty front lately, because I’ve been tackling the Dreaded Mending Pile.
Step 1: remember where I have hidden the mending pile
Step 2: make a list of what I need to buy to mend things with
Step 3: actually get around to mending things.

Some of the things to be mended were actually small five minute jobs, like replacing a button. I had a dress where I thought the zip had broken but actually it was only the but that you pull that was broken, so I just made a new tag instead of replacing the zip.
I had a top that needed the elastic replacing on the smocking, that was also a smaller job than I thought once I got hold of some shirring elastic. It looks as good as new.

 The biggest job was one of my summer dresses - it has four belt loops and they had all pulled out of the bodice, ripping the fabric. Now I like this dress so I didn’t want to throw it away, so I decided to strengthen the bit where the belt loops attach to with some interfacing, and then I sewed the loops back on by hand.
It may have been a nuisance to have to do mending, but I’m glad I actually did it because now I can start on a new shiny project with a clear conscience!

Reversible toddler sun hat - free pattern from Oliver + S

It's getting to be that time of year again where the child needs a sunhat, so I decided to make her one out of some fabrics from my stash. I used this free pattern from Oliver + S. Here are my fabrics, I used two fat quarters that I already had and some ribbon that I also had so I have managed to make a project without buying any additional stuff (which I never normally do!)

Mainly I followed the pattern instructions, with a couple of variations: - I pressed the edge of the side pieces 1/2" to make it easier to create the seams between the side, crown and brim. It's quite tricky to pin otherwise.

- I added two ribbon ties at the side seams when attaching the sides to the brim so that we can tie it to her head (it doesn't actually keep it on her head much more that usual unfortunately) - Initially I hand stitched the final seam as the pattern instructed, but I don't like how the hand stitching looks so I am planing to machine sew a seam very near the join and take out the hand stitches. I am using a contrasting thread as I like the way it stands out.

And here we are! A reversible sunhat which can also double as a rain hat if it’s not too wet.

She even kept it on her head long enough for me to take a photo< Br/>

Yarn substitution

When I do crochet, I get quite a few free patterns from various sites online, however these are often sponsored by particular brands or suppliers and I can’t always source the same yarn especially if it’s a North American site rather than a European one.
I generally get around this by looking up the specified yarn on the manufacturer’s website, getting the length of yarn per ball and finding a similar yarn that my local shop stocks that I like. This is generally ok but can be a bit of a hassle. However today I discovered that somebody clever has made a site that does the substitute for you!
Yarnsub is the site - I’m not sure if they have all manufacturers covered but at least it will give you a good place to start. Hope this is helpful!

Where are all my pins? UFOs and the pile of shame

I'm sure many crafters have a similar problem to this: you go to start a new project, but your pins/crochet hook/ embroidery hoop are still being used for a previous project that's not quite finished yet. This year, I'm trying to finish off some of my UFOs (unfinished objects). So far I've completed three new projects and not finished any old ones! So here's a list of my current UFOs and how long it's been since I started them. At the end of the year I'll do a review post to see how many I managed. Crochet shawl - started Nov 2018 My friend was making shawls to give to a women's shelter near her, and I offered to help. However life got in the way and somehow this got abandoned. Hopefully I can finish it off before next winter. 40% complete.

Dress - started May 2016 After I finished my vampire cosplay, I was all enthusiastic about sewing and I found a pattern for a summer dress that I could do as part of a sew-along blog. I was most of the way along (though the instructions were a bit frustrating) and then I found out I was pregnant so it seemed kind of pointless trying to make a dress that might never actually fit me. I packed away my sewing machine into a cupboard as we needed that room for the nursery. However I'm now more or less the size I used to be, so I'm going to try to finish this off and adjust the size a bit if I need to. 75% complete

Quilted Square - started Feb 2014 I intended to make this for a friend's baby when it was born. The child is now five. I have the quilting all done, I even made a label but somehow I didn't manage to finish hand stitching the binding around the edges. 90% complete

Fabric baby book - started 2007 I got a kit to make a baby book with embroidery when my niece was born. She's eleven now and I still haven't done it! I would have made it for my daughter if I had remembered where it was. 5% complete

Camp blanket - started 2000 ish You could argue that a camp blanket is never finished as you keep collecting badges throughout your life. This is true, but I have quite a lot of badges to sew on in a bag somewhere. Priority low as I don't go camping any more! Kingfisher cross stitch - started 2003 This was a Christmas present from my sister as my name when I helped with Brownies was Kingfisher. The main part of the picture is done, but I have quite a lot of awkward stitches on their own to finish the picture. This has been packed away in a cupboard for about eight years. 60% complete.

Last but not least - the mending pile There are several things gathering dust on my mending pile. I should really get around to fixing them - if I could remember where I tidied it away to. I'm not going to bother listing the projects that I bought things for and never actually started. That would be too long of a list...

More children’s backpacks, and an adjustment to the ribbon ends

I've been busy lately making more backpacks for my friends children. Here they are all together:

I also noticed that cutting the ribbon ends diagonally wasn't enough to stop them fraying, so the ones that were already done I sealed with clear nail varnish. The ones that weren't done yet, I cut a small square of iron on interfacing to iron to the end and folded over so that when the snap was attached it would be through a double thickness of ribbon.

Hopefully this will stop the ends from fraying, though on reflection I should have used hemming tape not interfacing.
Anyway that's enough bags for now! Next on the list is a sunhat for the small one.

Vibes & Scribes, my favourite shop!

I’m still making more of the drawstring bags so not much to update on the crafty front, but I thought I’d write a little post about how much I love my local crafty shop. There are other crafty shops in Cork but Vibes & Scribes is the one that caters to the biggest variety of crafts so whatever you are wanting to make, you can probably find things to make it there. (This isn’t an advert, just a review by a happy customer).
There are actually two Vibes and Scribes shops, one is a book shop (which is also great) but the crafty shop is my favourite. It’s over three floors, which can be annoying as there’s no lift, so if you need to go in with a pram or pushchair it’s best to have a friend with you to mind the pram if you need something that’s not on the ground floor. If you were unable to manage the stairs, I’m sure the staff would help find what you were looking for but you would miss out on being able to browse.
The ground floor is the sewing floor - it has all the ribbons, notions, buttons etc and at the back is all the lovely fabric. They also cut the ends of the fabric rolls up into fat quarters along with having the coordinating fat quarter bundles, so sometimes if you just need a little piece of fabric you can have a little rummage through the fat quarters box for some pretty fabric for smaller projects.
Down in the basement is an Aladdin’s cave of yarn. Lovely wool and cotton of all different colours and weights and lots of patterns to turn it into blankets or jumpers or whatnot. The shelves are floor to ceiling with a wonderful array of colours and I love just going in for a look (though that can be dangerous as I always accidentally buy something). Upstairs on the first floor is the paper crafting, painting, all the other kinds of craft that you might want to do that doesn’t involve fabric or wool basically.
Other things I love about Vibes & Scribes include their workshops that they run so that people can learn a new craft or develop in a craft they already know. They even have a loyalty card so that I can pretend to myself that I am spending less money than i actually am! Oh, and if somebody nice gets you a gift voucher, they don’t have an expiry date. They will honour the voucher however long ago it was bought.
They have even been featured on a stamp By An Post!

I forgot to mention how nice the staff are too. The only problem is leaving without buying the whole shop.