New website

I am excited to let you know that I have a brand new website with lots of new content over at Gather & Grand. I'm continuing my persuit of living a creative life and I'll hope you'll join me there for inspiration and ideas. Emma x

Hand stitched belt loops

I just spent some time this morning stitchining belt loops to my new dress and just thought I'd quickly share the technique here because it's a nice way to be able to adapt an item of clothing and make it suitable for wearing with belts. Belts are a fun way to dress up an outfit or to create different looks. And these belt loops are very subtle, so you can still wear the dress without a belt too!

1. Thread a double strand of cotton onto a needle and knot and the end. You will need more thread than you think, so cut a generous length at this point.

2. Mark where you want the belt loops to begin and end, above and below the side seam, with two pins. 

3. On the underside of the top marking, take two small backstitches, then pass the needle through to the front of the garment.

4. Bring the needle down to the bottom marking, allowing for some extra slack so that the belt loop isn't tight against the fabric. Sew a few of these loops (I did it 4 times) and each time allow the same amount of slack.

6. Blanket stitch over the loop you created, pulling the stitches tight against each other. (This is why you needed to cut a long length of thread in step 1)

7. To finish, secure the thread with two backstitches on the wrong side.

Roly Poly Pinafore

I've been wanting to sew up the Roly Poly all summer long, and I finally got around to it a few days ago. This pattern is by Rachael at Imagine Gnats. It's a pattern that has been popping up on a great number of sewing blogs recently and now that I've made it, I feel officially qualified to tell you how wonderful it is.

Super quick and very easy (so for those beginner seamstresses among you - this would be the PERFECT project). It's also reversible, which of course means FUN for your little one and NO EXPOSED SEAMS for you!

It has just two button holes, which after sewing 13 buttons on my Hawthorn dress, was a welcome change! If you've never sewn buttonholes before, this would be a good place to start. The buttons are big enough that there's room for error, should you happen to make any...

I particulary love the cross over back and it'll be roomy enough for Tegenn to wear a long sleeve tee underneath once the weather gets cooler. Can you tell how much she likes it?!!?

You have the option of adding pockets, which is something I chose to do. My chidlren like hiding things in their pockets - I find all sorts of treasures rattling around the bottom of my washing machine...

If you're interested in the pattern, here's the link : http://shop.imaginegnats.com/product/the-roly-poly

Labeling your work

I know I've mentioned this before, but it's something I feel is really important when it comes to producing and finishing, lovingly, handmade items. Whether it's a piece of clothing, a home decor item or a handmade card, I think it's important to label your work in some way. Not only does it look professional, it gives you ownership of your hard work AND allows you the opportunity to express your creativity and individuality in yet another way. Labeling your work can really be an extension of the work itself.

I don't know if you know this, but my personal blog is called Hello Beatufiul. The reason I picked that title was because when I first got into the creative scene I was making bags and selling them. I wanted to create a label to sew inside the bags that would make people smile when they saw it. I wanted people to feel good and happy. About themselves. About life. I thought that opening your bag and being told 'Hello Beauftiul' would be one way to create smiles. And smiles are contageous, you know :-)

So....that leads me to the label on my new dress. With a handmade item, you don't have to see boring manufacturer's labels or suffer depressing size tags (I'm sure I'm not the only one who hates THOSE...) You have the opportunity to create a space in the back of your clothes that makes you happy.

For this dress label, I cut a square of fabric and pinked the edges with my shears. I prefer this method to hemming the edges, which can create bulk on lightweight fabric like this. I then used a ribbon printer (mine is the LabelWorks 300 by Epson) to print the phrase 'you look lovely' and sewed it to the square of fabric. This printer also prints symbols, so instead of that annoying dress size tag, I printed a little heart design and added it, vertically on a contrasting pink ribbon.

Ahh, and now my dress is complete!

What little message would YOU like to read inside your clothes? 

Tea party birthday cake

There was a birthday this week in our house (my husband's) and I made this cake for him. As you can see, I just about managed to snap a few photos before it got polished off. I'm sharing the recipe because it's so simple to make, and quick too. I decided to make this and less than 2 hours later we were eating it, still ever so slightly warm. It's a chocolate cake with chocolate chips that I adapted from a Jamie Oliver cake recipe and a butter frosting in between the layers and on the top.

Ingredients
Cake
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
7 oz butter
3 eggs
1 2/3 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Butter Frosting
1/2 cup butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line the bases of two 8" cake tins with brown paper or parchment paper.

Mix the cocoa powder into 5 tbsp of boiling water and stir thoroughly.

In a mixer, beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the cocoa mixture, eggs, flour and baking powder. Fold in the chocolate chips and divide the mixture evenly between the two cake tins. Bake for about 30 mins and allow to cool.

For the butter frosting, beat the butter until light and fluffy and gradually add the sugar. Slowly add the milk and vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Spread it between the two layers of cake and on the top. Add a few sprinkles to decorate.

Simple sketches to comfy cushions

Last month I had the chance to try out the new minky fabric that's available through Spoonflower and here I am belatedly sharing the project I made using it in case you missed it. I took my little girl's sketches, which were already impossibly cute if I do say so myself, and transformed them into cushions for her room. Full disclosure : they didn't ALL end up in her room. I accosted my favorite (the queen) and it's in the dining room, which is the center of our home, so I can see it every day.

A few simple steps and some very basic computer know-how can take you from this :

to this :

in very little time. I've outlined all the simple steps for you so that you can follow along and make your own. Read the full tutorial over on the Spoonflower blog here.

DIY Headboard

Spoonflower have recently added a lovely new fabric to their collection. It's called faux suede, and I had the chance to work with it for this headboard I made for our bedroom. We've lived without a headboard since buying a new bed about 18 months ago, for two reasons: 1. headboards are expensive!! We got a kingsize bed are those kingsize headboards are damn pricey 2. we never found an in-store headboard we liked. The wooden headboards we considered were too overwhelming in a room with a lot of wooden furniture already. The fabric headboards were too fancy or too plain, too tufted or  frankly, just too boring. Making your own is not only a much more economically viable option, it's a lot of fun and endlessly customizable. Ultimately, you end up with something that is completely unique.

Spoonflower's faux suede is the perfect upholstery fabric. I can't wait to tackle a few more projects like this. Rest assured, I'm scouring the local Craigslist ads for potential upholstery projects.

You can read the full tutorial of how I made ours over on the Spoonflower blog. I also used the faux suede in a couple of contrasting prints to make the front of these cushions. The print I used for the headboard is a design by Jennifer Flannigan and I can't tell you how much I love it. I notice she has a gorgeous shop full of her artwork, as well as a colorful collection of fabrics on Spoonflower.

Sewing project - Romper

Fabric from the Ipanema Collection by Birch Fabrics. Romper is the free Playsuit Pattern by Elegance & Elephants.

Life is too short not to have fun.

Read more here.

Playtime

I've been anxiously waiting to share this project I wrote for Fiskars, because honestly I love it so much! My kids do too, of course. Which makes it such a success, at least in my eyes.
This teepee was inspired by the fact that the kids and I have been reading the entire series of Little House on the Prairie books. We started with the first book - Little House in the Big Woods back in October and we've slowly been working our way through them all; I read aloud to them a couple of chapters most nights before bed. The three of us lay on our big bed and the kids can't get enough of the stories. Both my kids are very able readers but there has been something very special about sharing the experience of reading these books to them. We're not quite done. We are on Little Town on the Prairie right now and with two more books after this one to go, I have to say I'll be sad when we come to the end.
Even though they are children's books, they have given me (us) a greater understanding of the history of this county and it has tied in nicely with my son's 4th grade social studies theme this year at school too. I certainly have a better understanding of the American gung-ho, can-do attitude.
My kids want to have a 'Pioneer Summer' this summer, and we are all planning crafts, recipes, gardening and activities that will embrace the pioneer way (at least in the modern sense). My husband just bought me this book which has inspired me further.

This canvas teepee is actually very easy to sew, because I worked out all the measurements for you! You can read the full tutorial here.

Minecraft models

I'd be willing to bet a reasonable amount of money that I'm not the only person living with Minecraft fans. I'm also guessing (hoping?) that most parents know as little as I do about the game. I'm not even down with the lingo, though I WOULD recognize Creeper if he, y'know, crept up on me (or whatever it is Creepers do). I honestly can't even look at the funny pixilated screen when my kids want to show me something they've made - it makes me cross-eyed and confused. I can't really understand what I'm looking at. I must be old. Really old.

As much as I like to try and embrace my children's interests, I REALLY like finding ways to do so, offscreen. So last night I had them pick out some colored card stock and they made their own little paper Minecraft models. They are perfect characters to replicate because they are just so…block-y.

Little Fox

I recently sewed up this little jacket for my daughter - Simplicity 1477 designed by Molly Goodall from Little Goodall. It's adorable! One of my favorite creations of late. There's something about children in animal clothes - and with ears! - that makes my heart glow. You can read more about the jacket here and here.

Figgy's Patterns

I recently took part in a pattern tour for the latest collection of sewing patterns by Figgy's Patterns. You can find all the info about the patterns and Spoonflower's lovely new modern jersey I used to sew up the tees, over on the Fiskateer blog.

Caterpillar to chrysalis

Neighbor Don, or "The Dude" as we shall now call him, brought us over a large monarch caterpillar last week. It spent about 5 days eating milkweed and exploring a homemade habitat made from a cardboard box, wooden skewers and netting made by by 9 year old.

Then, for about 2 days, it hung in this "J" position you see here in the first photo. After successfully catching a hatching butterfly on camera a couple of weeks ago, I was determined to catch the metamorphosis into a chrysalis, so yesterday I set my alarm to remind me to check on it every 5 minutes.

Sure enough, I caught the whole weirdly wonderful process on camera. For lack of any technical terminology (I am not a scientist) I can tell you that it really looked like a miniature, slimy, green, alien brain breaking through the skin of a caterpillar and wriggling around. It had no eyes, head, legs or arms, but once the caterpillar skin was completely shed, the chrysalis did a strange spinning and very deliberate dance, until finally hardening and becoming immovable. There, I told you I'm not a scientist. I'll just let the photos do the talking, shall I?

Hatching butterflies

Some pretty amazing things have been happening around here lately. Our neighbor asked us to adopt some of his monarch butterfly chrysalises that were growing on plants against the outside of his house. He was having his house painted and the plants would have to be moved, so to protect the forming butterflies, he removed the twigs and branches that had chrysalises attached, took them into his house for safe keeping, and gave us some to us to look after too.

New cushions - sewing tutorial

I've been spending much of my time writing the Fiskateer blog for Fiskars over the last 18 months, which leaves little time left for writing here. You know how it goes.

Today I'm sharing a project I just posted for the Fiskateers and you can see it here. There's a full tutorial and instructions on how to sew these up. There's piping detail on the side seams, and my new favorite closure method - an invisible zipper in the back. Go and take a look.

Tripod floor lamp DIY

We used an old farm surveyor's wooden tripod (I say farm, because when we first got it is smelled like it had spent time on a farm..) to make this standard lamp. This project was a year or so in the making, simply because it took us that long to find just the right tripod - and luckily for us we eventually found this one at a garage sale about 5 houses away from ours. I think we paid $60, which whilst a fair amount of money for something you'd find at a garage sale, it's less than the average asking price for similar items on ebay plus we got to see this in person before purchasing.

Fuse Hexagon Design Set & Expansion Pack Blog Hop!

Fiskars have added a great new design to their collection of Fuse dies and this one is going to be a hit! Who doesn't love hexagons?!? They are so popular right now, and I've seen them popping up literally all over the place.

  

This dies comes with two letterpress plates but there's also an expansion pack available that gives you 4 extra letterpress designs.

They are currently available at Joann stores and you can click on the links below for more info.

Hexagon Design Set

Hexagon Expansion Pack

Today some of the Fiskars designers are sharing their ideas on using this die - and I'm excited to see what the other ladies have come up with. Here's the list of designers and their blogs.

Fiskateers blog: www.fiskateers.com/blog
Emma Jeffery (ME!) : http://hellobeautifulblog.blogspot.com/
Smitha Katti: http://www.smilingcolors.com/
Lisa Storms: http://lisastorms.typepad.com/
Kim Garner: http://kimgarner.blogspot.com/

Finished Hawthorn

I have been participating in the Hawthorn sewalong by Colette Patterns, and here's my finished dress. I opted for the sleeveless version, but the pattern also has directions for two lengths of sleeve and also a peplum top too. I think I'll be making up a sleeved version when (if) time allows....

I used Entangled in Navy by the fabulously talented Heather Dutton through Spoonflower, in Kona cotton. LOVE this print - it's fun and a little quirky - but extremely wearable, which is important to me.

I sewed the contrasting collar in white cotton and added white piping at the center fronts. I like the break in the pattern it creates. Here's I'm wearing it with a (Target) blue belt I own, but I might keep my eyes open for something a little more bright - I'm thinking yellow, or my color of the moment - chartreuse.

Colette Patterns sewalong - Hawthorn

Anyone else joining in with the Hawthorn sewalong over at Colette Patterns? I'm quite pleased to be sewing along for once - usually I discover a sewalong just as it's drawing to an end, and though the info and photo directions remain extremely useful, it's a nice feeling to also be doing it in real time, along with others, too.

I've been working on perfecting the fit of my muslin. So far I've done a SBA (here's the corresponding tutorial which has some amazing photos and very clear directions). In the photo of the muslin front below, you can see that the white fabric (on the left) is the section with the SBA and I think (even though I should have ironed out the dart before I took this photo) it has really helped to take out some of the excess fabric that you see on the right side of the bodice.

I assumed I was also going to have to make a wide shoulder adjustment but reading the symptoms of wide shoulders, I have thinking otherwise. I don't have any tightness across the back of the bodice and the armholes seem to be fine. If anything, the back is a little loose but that might be because I've not sewn buttons or buttonholes onto my muslin, I've just pinned it together. 

Which brings me to a good questions. Do YOU sew buttons and buttonholes to your muslins? It seems like the best way to get a proper fit, but it also requires an amount of patience and perfection I am not known to possess.

We'll see...

Baggy back...

There's nothing like using up all those cotton scraps to make a patchwork muslin.