Dashwood advent

After making a stocking last year for a friends little girl, I decided an advent calendar would be perfect for this Christmas. I picked out the dashwood studio panel, with a very cute illustration, and little pockets for chocolate coins.
 

 

After I’d cut out the pockets, I decided to wundaweb all of the sides down to help stop it fraying with use. I top stitched across all of the top edges and then stitched all the pockets on to the panel.
I cut a piece of backing and wadding to the same size as the advent panel. I also cut out 4 rectangles of backing fabric to create hanging loops. With these, I stitched 2 pieces of backing fabric wst, then turned it out and repeated to create 2. I topstitched the two pieces in place to the upper section of the backing, leaving a gap between them. I then stitched the advent rst to the backing and wadding pieces, trimmed some wadding from the seam allowance and turned out. I stitched up the turning gap and added some top stitching/quilting to the advent to hold the layers together. I cut a piece of dowel to size and threaded it through the tubes. I then ladder stitched both outer ends closed to stop it falling out. The gap in the middle means you can just hang it up or add a ribbon if you need too. 

 

This is one of my finishalong projects, you can check out the rest of my list here.

Mx

Easter bunny bag

I made this cute drawstring bag as an Easter gift for a little girl. I bought the ‘bunny tales’ by lucie crovatto by studio e fabrics and some carrot fabric (I don’t know the name and my fq doesn’t have a salvage), a while ago and knew it would be perfect for this project. I added some dashwood twist fabric and some pale blue ribbon that I thought matched the fabrics. I made the pouch with a boxed base so that a bunny soft toy would sit inside and in years to come there is space for plenty of chocolate eggs. I took extra time and care to stitch the turning gap up neatly so the bag is also reversible.

This isn’t a tutorial but if you're interested in the measurements (also so I have a reference point) I have written them below:
4 @ 7” x 9” with a 2 1/4” square cut from all the bottom corners
2 @ 1 1/2” x 8”
2 pieces of ribbon approximately 25”

Mx

my #sew6organizers sewalong

This year I decided to host a sewalong on instagram, with the help of a friend zena. We chose to do 6 projects each from the Aneela Hoey stitched sewing organizers book, one per month. Everyone who joined in could choose their own patterns and make any little adjustments to the projects to suit them. The idea was to share our projects and we had a little group chat for any questions or help, making the most of the lovely sewing community on Instagram.

These are the six projects I made for the sewalong: I used the distant dreams collection from dashwood studios. I split the collection into 3 mini collections and added some dashwood twist fabric, (indigo and cherry I think).

 

I kept the first project simple with a little fold up pouch. This is a great little project that doesn't require a zip. It is an simple pattern to follow and can easily be adjusted to make other sizes.

The second project was this handy needle book. I liked this pattern, although I did make a few changes to the suggested pockets used in the pattern. In the book it shows 2 different sized pockets at the back, at the front is a single pocket with the addition of a small pin cushion. I changed the back to just have the 1 large pocket and since I didn't need a pin cushion, I chose to just do one large pocket at that side too. These work out perfectly to hold all the needles I keep in packets.

 

 

 

The next project was the see-it-all pouch... this is a very useful pouch and quite simple construction although the use of binding does make it slightly harder. I used sparkle vinyl as I liked the look and fussy cut the back to ensure I had a full peacock in the centre.

The fourth project was the 2-in-1 case. I love this case and I am using it to hold all my tools. This is made in a similar way to the see-it-all with the addition of a fastening tab. I had a few options for fastenings; I did try a button first but the button hole on my singer machine was not very neat and I was struggling with placement, I also considered using a magnetic clasp, but decided against this option as they are very strong and I didn't want my tools attracting to the magnets. The best solution I found worked as a fastening was a kam snap, both simple to fit and to use.  

 

Next was the fold up sewing folio. I found this project slightly tricky, not because of construction but directions. I kept getting very confused about the direction of things, so my layout differs slightly from the one pictured in the book. It is still fuctional though and my mum has taken it to store her sewing supplies.

 

The final project was the boxy pocket pouch, I like this pouch and it is definitely bigger than I expected it to be. Since it was the last project and I had been avoiding it slightly (I'm not sure why, maybe because I didn't want the sewalong to end) to give me a little nudge, I added this to my  finish-a-long list of things to make. You can read more about that here!

 

Overall, I enjoyed hosting the sew along and would definitely do another one. It was a joy to see everyone else's projects and make some friends along the way too. If you're interested in seeing all the projects for yourself, you can visit the #sew6organizers on instagram.

Mx