Sewyeah

There’s a real craze for oversize hair clips this summer and these Swarovski crystals are perfect for a super special and super speedy DIY.

There’s something about these crystals that reminds me of the boiled sweets my Nanna used to bring back from Germany. The colours are so bright and well, just delicious!

YOU WILL NEED

Two pear fancy stones 14 x 10 mm, four cushion fancy stone 12 mm plus settings with holes for each. Try here for a nice selection, thin beading wire, pliers for cutting and bending the settings to secure, E6000 glue or similar (GemTac is also good), hair clip blank

STEP ONE

Spread a thin layer of glue across the hair clip

STEP TWO

Place each of the settings onto the glue. you will be able to reposition them for a short while to make sure you are happy with the placement.

STEP THREE

Though the glue will hold the settings in place I like to use wire for extra security as the hair clips can bend when being placed in your hair. Open the hair clip. Cut a length of wire about 30 cm and fix it at one end by winding it around the clip and twisting to secure. Next thread the wire through the holes in the settings and around the top of the clip. Work your way down the clip securing each setting.

STEP FOUR

Place each of your fancy stones into their appropriate setting and then use pliers to bend down the fastenings to secure.

YOU’RE DONE!

If you don’t want to make a fully covered clip then just one fancy stone and setting on an oversize kirby grip looks lovely too.

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Over on my Instagram @sewyeah (where I do most of my business these days!!) I am running a Photo a Day challenge entitled ADVENT ALPHABET, where everyday I am offering a christmas themed prompt to inspire my followers to showcase their festive preparations. (It’s fun you should come and join us!!)

Today is day 5: E IS FOR ELF and I’ve created this jolly little chap. I figured he would be good to entertain at the dinner table when we’re all sitting up waiting for the grub! As you can see instead of legs he’s got someones fingers – who knew knuckles make great elf knees!

Here’s everything you need to know if you want to have a go at making him

You will need

Felt in a variety of colours, matching embroidery threads, needle, scissors, small bells or buttons for decoration, toy stuffing, bondaweb or fabric glue, air erasable pen.

TIPS:

• Use an overstitch to sew all the pieces together and a straight stitch when stitching decoration.

• I have taken time to change the colour of my thread to match the felt colour. This isn’t necessary and you could just sew in one colour all the time, but I think it looks nicer with different coloured threads.

• To make my stitches finer and smaller I like to separate my embroidery threads out so I use just two of the normal six threads.

* Cut out all template pieces as directed. I have provided them at 100% and the booties and shorts fitted my fingers – before cutting the felt check they fit yours and adjust accordingly

To make his body

First fix the stripes to the jumper pieces. You can do this bey either using Bondaweb (a heat fusible webbing) or fabric glue.
Sew each hand to each sleeve piece.
Take one pair of arms and hands and place together stripes outer. Begin sewing the arms together from the shoulder down.
Sew around the hand and before you start sewing up the underarm stuff the hand with a small amount of toy stuffing.
Sew up the underarm, keep stuffing the arm as you sew – as the arms are quite narrow this is easier than trying to stuff when you have finished sewing. Repeat with the second arm.
Take the two trouser pieces. On the front piece sew a decorative line vertical line as shown on the template. Place the front and back pieces together and sew together where indicated by the horizontal line. Then sew around both the inner and outer leg holes.
Take one of the jumper pieces and pin to the front of the trousers. Stitch together. Then repeat at the back.
Place the front and back pieces of the body together and Sew up one side. When you reach the line marked on the template insert one of the arms. Pin in place and then sew through all layers of jumper and arm to secure.
Repeat on the other side. Leave an opening at the top and then firmly stuff.

To make his head

Place the front hair piece onto the face piece then draw two eyes and a mouth on with tailors chalk or an air erasable pen. Embroider the features.
Sew the hair in place using a straight stitch to fix to the face. (Make sure when positioning the front hair and face that they match the shape of the back hair piece when lain all together) Sew some extra decorative hair lines if you wish.
Line the back of the head up with the front and sew together from one side of where the hair and face join to the other. Then stuff.
Line the back of his head up with the jumper opening and then sew together. Flip over and sew his face to the front of the jumper. You may want to add or remove stuffing as you close the hole depending on how many chins it looks like he has!
Take the two ear pieces and pinch at the bottom and sew a couple of stitch to hold the shape. Then sew in place.

To make his clothes

Cut the jacket shape from one piece of felt. Carefully fold and press the collar piece in place. Dress the Elf and sew a bell to secure the jacket closed.
Cut the two hat pieces. Sew the main hat piece into a cone shape. Add a couple of bells to the top. Keeping the piece of thread you sewed the bells on with attached, sew one big stitch halfway down the hat and pull tight to make the hat fold over. Sew a couple of stitches to secure and then sew on the brim.

To make the shoes

Line up point B on the sole with point A on the bootie back. Sew together. Work your way around the bootie to the front on one side until you get to the point of the sole.
Fold the other half of the top of the bootie around the sole until the two curls of the bootie line up then sew the two curl pieces together.
When you reach approximately half way up the bootie stop sewing and then sew back down the same seam till you reach the tip of the curl again.
Then finally sew to join the other half of the sole and bootie.
Decorate with a bell on each bootie tip.

Visit my instagram to see him dance!!..

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It’s Summer, It’s hot and it’s silly season when it comes to footwear! These pompom wonders are a little makeover I gave a simple pair of Primark sandals for the lovely folk at Loveknitting.com. For the step by step instructions and to find out how I made them click here

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Easter will soon be upon us and for my Velcrobrand Blog post this month I’ve created a sweet little bunny outfit complete with shoes and bunny ears (above). If you want to know how to make the costume and decorate the shoes then head over to their blog here. If you want to know how to make the bunny ears then read on!

These bunny ears are made from my favourite material of the moment- grey marl sweatshirt fabric… I love it because its easy to work with, doesn’t fray and give everything that little bit of casual cool. I’ve decorated them with felt flowers – because everything looks better decorated with flowers!

YOU WILL NEED:

for the headband: 2 pipecleaners, 1 plastic headband, grey marl fabric or similar about 30 x 20 cm, bondaweb or fabric glue, fabric for inner ear – patterned cotton or similar, glue gun, various coloured felt, needle and thread.

instructions after the pic …

Fold one pipe cleaner in half and shape so it looks like a bunny ear.
Place two pieces of the marl fabric together right sides facing and then place the pipe cleaner onto the top piece and draw around approximately 1cm from the cleaner. Draw the base of the ear as a wide opening (about 4cm) (you should be drawing on the wrong side of the fabric)
Repeat for a second ear
Machine sew around the ears following your drawn line. Stop and start about 2cm up from the base of the ear. Trim away any excess fabric and notch around the curves.
Turn both ears right side out and press.
Fix the Bondaweb to a piece of the inner ear fabric then cut two ear shapes smaller than the main ears by about 2cm all round.
Iron these in place on the main ears (instead of Bondaweb you could use fabric glue)
Insert one pipe cleaner into each ear.
Bend the ears to give them some character.
Take one ear and wrap the two ends of the pipe cleaner around the headband.
Pull the marl fabric down over the pipe cleaner ends and the headband and use a glue gun to fix in place.
Repeat with the second ear.
Make lots of felt flowers (see instructions below) and then use the glue gun to fix in place around the ears.

TO MAKE THE FLOWERS

To make the primrose:

Cut a 12cm x 3cm rectangle of yellow felt, concertina this into 5 sections and then cut an arch across the top.
Unfold the rectangle and trim to neaten the petal shape if necessary. Cut a 7 x 2cm rectangle from the cream felt, then from this cut a freestyle wobbly shape similar to the one in the photograph. Finally cut two leaf shapes from the green felt.
Roll the cream petals into a tight roll and sew a couple of stitches across the bottom to hold them in place. Take the yellow petals and using a needle and thread sew a medium size running stitch along the straight edge. Pull the two ends of thread to gather the petals up, knot the thread to hold the flower closed
Insert the cream petals into the middle of the yellow ones and fix with a couple of stitches or a blob of glue.

To make the Chrysanthemum:

Cut a 10 x 3cm rectangle of felt, fold in half lengthways and snip into it at 5mm intervals. Make sure you don’t cut all the way through!
Keeping the felt folded in half and starting at one end roll into a tight bud shape. Fix at the outside edge with a small dab of glue or a couple of stitches.

To make the Rose

Cut a felt circle approximately 6cm in diameter. Starting at the outside cut a spiral shape into the circle, you can cut with a straight line, or a wavy one.
Don’t worry about being too perfect as a wobbly line adds to the uniqueness of the final flower. Starting from the outside of the circle again roll the flower up.
Then fix the middle of the spiral to the bottom of the flower with a blob of glue.

Remember if you want to make the shoes and Bunny dress click here for the instructions.

DID YOU KNOW … I am way more prolific on instagram than on here … I’m sorry but how ever hard I try my blog posts are never as frequent as I’d like. For daily craft inspiration, mini projects and basically fun then click here to see my @sewyeah instagram and follow me. Thank you I love you all! x x x x

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