Not letting comparison be the thief of joy

Recently I wrote about how I had been inspired to craft after spending some time on Instagram. I have my Instagram feed pretty well curated, and I'm regularly greeted with gorgeous finished craft projects and some great mini tutorial videos. 

I've always loved doing patchwork, and I found that I had been presented with a number of videos featuring a patchworking trick that is new to me. The reel below explains it much better than I can - basically you cut out your squares and lay them out on some fusible interfacing, meaning that you can iron them into place before you sew your seams. The edges of the patches should line up perfectly, and it's a really easy way to make beautiful patchwork fabric.

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A post shared by Maggie Eason (@sunshinestitches.bymaggie)

I have lots of odd bits of fabric lying around, and so I decided to try this method out. I didn't really have a finished project in mind, but I thought I'd quite like to have a mat to put on my table for when I have a project on the go, or some drinks and snacks out. I used mainly 2" squares, with a few 2" by 4" rectangles. Here are my squares after they've been ironed to the interfacing.

And here is my finished mat, once the patchwork squares are sewn together and a fabric backing has been added.

It's not that good! I hear you politely protest, but it really is very wonky - some of the squares look more like rectangles, and you can see the white backing around some of the border.

But do you know what, I am really proud of it. I've seen reams of finished projects on Instagram that are absolutely perfect, and mine isn't anywhere near that quality. But I have learned to remind myself that what I'm seeing there are the very best pieces that the maker can produce. They are often made by people that are selling their work, and an Instagram feed is their shop front. They need to show the very best that they can do - and what's more they are showing the final results after many hours of practice.

I expect their first pieces looked a lot like mine!

I'll keep practising here and there, and in the meantime I'll just enjoy what I'm doing.

Trying out crumb (crazy) patchwork quilting

I had been wanting to try crazy or crumb patchwork for a while now. It's a way of using up odd little bits and pieces of fabric to do a piece of patchwork that doesn't need to be as neat as patchwork quilts generally are. This appeals to me because I'm very bad at cutting and sewing fabric into regular shapes! 

As I understand it, crumb patchwork stitches together odd shaped pieces of fabric, and crazy patchwork is the same thing but using a mixture of different fabric types and embellished with extra stitching and so on to add more interest. 

I've been working on a few fabric projects recently and had collected together a pile of different fabric pieces so I decided to give it a go. There are lots of video tutorials on crumb patchwork with different methods and techniques. I watched a few and the one that made the most sense to me was this one, as it uses some more irregularly shaped pieces rather than just squares or rectangles.

I set myself to it, and it turned out that it wasn't quite as easy as I thought it would be! I had a few false starts and pieces that I had to unpick because I'd left myself with a hole. I found it quite difficult to work out what the pieces would look like when they were sewn together. It's also quite an active craft as you are constantly having to get up and iron flat the little pieces of fabric that you have sewn together! I had a reasonably large pile of scrap pieces but it took a lot more fabric than I expected to make my crumb patchwork piece. But I was delighted with the result! It measures about 24cm square. 

I've been making a few drawstring bags recently and they are very forgiving for a beginner sewer so I decided to make a small drawstring bag to hold my phone. The idea is to tuck my phone away at night so I'm not tempted to pick it up first thing. I was originally going to line the bag but I wasn't sure if the piece of fabric would be large enough so I didn't worry about it and it worked out fine!

I used some gorgeous shiny mermaid inspired ribbon for the drawstring. I recently bought some  drawstring toggle things which are really good for holding the bag closed - I don't know why but I only just realised that these are a thing that can be bought, they are going to come in very useful for lots of other projects like my drawstring shoe bags!

I really enjoyed working on this once I'd figured out the technique, I'm definitely going to continue saving all my scraps so that I can have another go in the future!

Sewing some simple scrunchies for our upcoming cruise

I almost always wear my hair in a pony tail, with just a plain band. But sometimes special occasions call for something a bit more standout, and recently I've been having lots of fun making some simple scrunchies!

My favourites are these two sets that I made for an upcoming cruise - a larger one for me and two smaller ones for Mia's plaits. The first set uses some anchor fabric that I received to review a few years ago. I used most of it for the lining of my beach themed tote bag and the leftovers were the perfect size for scrunchies. I found lots of tutorials for the scrunchies online but I ended up making my own version, it's basically just a long tube of fabric (14" in length and 4" or 5" in width for the smaller and larger scrunchies), a piece of elastic threaded through and the ends sewn together. It's not perfect but when it's tied in the hair you can't see the join.

The pirate scrunchies are made using Disney pirate fabric. If you go on a Disney Caribbean cruise they usually include a pirate themed night and you each receive a pirate bandana to wear. I used the fabric from some previous cruises to make the scrunchies so they will match our new bandanas and those of the other passengers. It's a little difficult to see the fabric, but everyone else on the cruise will recognise it!

I have lots of fabric in my stash which I'm slowly working through, and this is a great way to use up odd scraps of fabric. Scrunchies might not be a desperately cool fashion accessory these days but that  doesn't bother me!

My sea themed simple tote bag

It's definitely getting cooler now here as we head towards the end of the year, and I'm busy working my way through my list of ten craft projects to complete by Christmas.

Next up on my list was a sea themed fabric project. I bought some lovely fabric while I was in the US this summer, and I intentionally chose some that had a beach or ocean theme or was blue and green in colour. Most of the fabric in my stash was pink and flowery and so I wanted something a bit different. I wasn't sure what to make, but after searching for inspiration online I decided to try a simple tote bag.

From my new fabric I chose the blue camouflage, seahorses and turtles and different shells. I already had some fabric with anchors on which I knew would be perfect for the lining.

I searched for simple tutorials and found this one from Skip to my Lou - How to make a tote bag. It's an excellent tutorial for a simple lined and reversible tote bag and I found it pretty easy to follow. The only place I got a bit caught out was with the straps, I'm not very good at visualising how a pattern will come together, and it took me a while to work out how I needed to place them! Next time I would manage the placement a bit better with an extra twist.

And there will definitely be a next time because I was so pleased with how this turned out! I already have an order lined up for Mia, and I'm thinking about making a few smaller ones for some younger family members. It's gong to be a great way to work through some of my fabric stash!

Working through my fabric stash

Recently I wrote about my fabric stash, and I've also shared some of the projects that I have been working on. I thought I'd do a little round up of some of the things that I've made so far!

The garden bunting was my first project. It hangs at the entrance to my vegetable patch and I love seeing it when I go in to do the watering. I know that it won't last forever but I'm hoping it will make it through a few seasons.

 

These were my first large zipped pouches and I'm very pleased with them. They make great project bags, and use up scraps of fabric which I really like to look at. The flowery one is for Mia, she uses it to take her iPad and notebooks round with her if we are going visiting. I am using the other one for my current long term cross stitch project.

I've already shared these next projects - the first is a small fabric storage bin. I'd like to make more of these although I will need to buy some more interfacing. Interfacing isn't too expensive, but I want to work with what I have already first! These are a pretty way to store things, and I might also use some of my less loved fabric to make storage bins for inside drawers.

Secondly, these laundry bags were a great way to use some of my larger pieces of fabric. They look a bit mismatched but they are very practical, I've been using the smaller one to store the dirty clothes for my weekly white wash instead of having a heap inside the wardrobe. They are very sturdy and will be great for travelling as they can be washed when we get home.

Then I made a third patchwork zipped pouch which you can see in the picture below. I'm using to store my current craft project. It's made using smaller strips of fabric, I sewed a selection of long strips together to make each side, then cut each piece in half and swapped them over (I think it's called strip piecing if that description doesn't make sense!). It makes it look more complicated than it really is!

I really love my beach hut fabric and I wanted to use it for something for the home, so I decided to attempt a fabric bowl. I used this tutorial Charmed Fabric Bowl and it's very simple, basically you just cut out a circle of outer fabric, interfacing and lining fabric, sew them together then gather the edges to pull it up into a bowl shape. You finish the bowl by sewing around a long strip of fabric to hide the gathers at the top. I didn't manage to get the neatest finish on this bowl, but it looks fine from most angles!

While making the bowl I really liked how the fabric looked when it was sewn together in a circle before it was gathered up. So I decided to make a small circular mat for my round table. There's no interfacing in this one, it's just two circles of fabric sewn together. But then I decided to try stitching some random loops across the top to practice using the sewing machine for curves. I was really pleased with how well it worked!

I'm rather impressed with how well I've managed with these projects. I've learned some new techniques - how to use a zipper foot, sewing curves, simple patchworking. I've also become a lot more confident with using my sewing machine, for example how to thread the machine and how to wind bobbins.

I still have an unopened Christmas print fat quarter bundle which I bought with a voucher last year. I have a few ideas but I'm a bit nervous because I really like the fabric! I'm wondering about a patchwork table runner or place mats, or perhaps some way of incorporating a display for the gorgeous Christmas cross stitch kits that I need to get on and finish. 

I also now have a bag of fabric scraps which need using up, so I can see some more patchwork projects in my future!