Back with a vengeance!

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Sally

It’s been so long since I blogged, that you may have forgotten who I am. Hopefully this post will serve as a reminder of my crafting prowess (if we understand prowess in this context to mean lack of skill and technical ability…) and this picture as a reminder of my face…

I’ve not crafted for a while, mainly with learning to drive, things being very busy at work and a lack of motivation and inspiration.  So, when my mum texted me to ask for a steering wheel cover to keep her hands warm in the morning, I thought it would be an ideal opportunity to get back on the crafting horse, so to speak, and use my lovely Riley Blake fabric.  

I used this tutorial by Jasmine T, which I found fairly easy to follow, up until the point of adding the elastic. This may have been made more difficult by the fact I decided to veer from the accepted pattern, and quilt the steering wheel cover.

The addition of the elastic subsequently turned into quite a saga, with me and Todd using wooden skewers, sellotape and A LOT of elbow grease trying to insert the elastic, whilst under the siege of our cats, Chomsky and Bison. I was really pleased with the result, as it actually looked like what is was supposed to (a rare attribute in my handmade goods!), so I parcelled it up and sent it to my mum. As well as an enthusiastic thank you, these were the photos I received back:


Oh dear… I can always use it as a prototype!!

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Baking successes!

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Sally

Since the stress of the craft fair, I’ve taken a bit of a break from sewing. My life has been filled with the far more fulfilling pastimes of watching Desperate Housewives and checking Facebook. So when I reunited with my sewing machine this week, it was a little bit of a shock to find that I’d forgotten, well, everything… Following the relative success of my foray into entrepreneurship, it brought me back down to earth to realise I am still a ‘novice crafter’, lacking in technical skill and an eye for design. My straight lines were crooked, my seams were full of holes and my slip stitch left a lot to be desired. The results, quite frankly, were so disastrous that they deserve their own blog post – which they will get when sufficient time has passed that I can see the humour in the balled up mess on my desk!

In the meantime, I’ve decided to focus on some recent baking successes to make myself feel better. At the request of one of Todd’s friends I made Millionaire’s Shortbread for the first time, which worked surprisingly well. I’m too scared to make it again, in case it doesn’t work as well so I’m resting on the laurels of this picture! The plate didn’t last long looking like this, and Todd’s friends went home full, happy and with a much higher blood sugar content than when they arrived at our house.

I’ve just finished these toffee and banana cakes for a ‘bake-off’ that we’re having at work. There are prizes for best tasting, best decorated (not sure I’ll be in the running for that one) and best effort, amongst others. The cakes are then sold and all money raised goes to St Gemma’s Hospice. Me and Todd have enjoyed tasting them (just to make sure they’re OK, obviously) but I’ll have to see how well they go down at work – and if I win anything!

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Craft fair! (Finally…)

Posted on June 12, 2011 by Sally

Sorry things have been a bit slow on the blog front recently – as expected, I left everything for the craft fair until the last possible minute and ended up more than a bit stressed! Then, for the past week, me and Todd have been on holiday in Northumberland with (very) limited internet access. Cue obligatory photograph of me and Todd looking happy in the rain… Continue reading →

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Beginning a collection…

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Sally

This week marked the beginning of me knuckling down to get some stock ready for my craft fair – I now have 7 clutch bags dangerously close to completion and some chicken door stops in pieces on my bedroom floor. With no finished product to show off however,  I decided to write an interim blog post about one of my favourite sewing box stalwarts: the humble tape measure.

I’ll admit, it’s unusual to find someone who gets excited about the metric scale, but those of you who will know me may be familiar with my love for ‘things in the shapes of other things’ such as this carrot shaped like Buzz Lightyear. No other item in the sewing box allows the designer such creativity and freedom to create a useful mechanism, hidden under the guise of something completely different. Continue reading →

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Corsage Calamity

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Sally

Well, it’s been a bad week for me in terms of crafts. I am wavering in the little confidence I had in my abilities. Not only am I losing (by quite a large margin) in mine and Todd’s competition as to who can get the most hits on their blog during April, but on my visit to my parents for Easter, I found out that the chicken doorstop I made at Christmas has come apart at the seams and the laptop cover is too small to fit a laptop in. Boohoo. Then, as I am finally getting round to creating stock for my craft fair, this falls apart too. Woe is me. Continue reading →

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