Tag Archives: sewing

Win Tickets to Sewing For Pleasure, Embroidery & Stitch and Hobbycrafts!

Posted on by Abi

Win tickets to Sewing for Pleasure, Hobbycrafts and Fashion, Embroidery & Stitch!!

Between 21-24 March, Birmingham NEC will once again play host to three wonderful creative shows.

This year the show will include a selection of costumes that have featured in some of the most famous Jane Austen adaptations including the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth (they have the white shirt!).

Sewing for Pleasure features more than 150 stalls filled to bursting with irresistible products, inspiring displays and expert advice.

For those interested in ‘Make Do and Mend’ a visit to the Sewing Hub is a must. Experts are on hand to give valuable advice and practical workshops.

After all that you can pop into the second show Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch where you can enjoy free catwalk shows throughout the day.

Finally a trip across to Hobbycraft where you can indulge in workshops covering everything from beadwork, jewellery making, stamping, card making, embossing, pyrography and papercraft.

To top it all you can even visit for free if you are one of the 10 lucky winners of our latest competition.

We have 10 pairs of tickets which gives you access to all three shows to giveaway.

How to Enter

Leave a comment on this post, it’s as simple as that!

For an extra entry do any of the following:

  • Tweet about the comp using hashtag #aecomp
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Like our page on Facebook
  • Follow using Feedburner or BlogLovin

The competition will end at midnight 7th March 2013.

For full details on all the shows visit their website here.

Note. Images kindly provided by the organisers.

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Advent Calendar Sewing Tutorial

Posted on by Abi

With the festive season fast approaching I decided to share my tutorial to sew your very own advent calendar! I originally wrote this for the Boden Community which has now become the Boden Blog. You might just be able to find it if you scour through the archives, but it seemed far simpler to share it direct with my readers over here.

You Will Need

A hanger (I chose a lovely old wooden one)
2 pieces of fabric to make the background (mine measured 34cm X 48cm but this may vary depending on the size of your hanger)
1 piece of fleece fabric 34cm X 48cm
4 pieces of ribbon approximately 28cm in length
35cm piece of ric rac or ribbon
5 pieces of fabric measuring 12cm X 36cm each
24 mini luggage labels
24 mini gold safety pins
24 Sweets of your choosing.

Step 1

Begin by pinning the two background pieces of fabric together (right sides facing). Then place on top of the fleece fabric (I used an old blanket to cut the fleece from). Sew down one long side, across the bottom and back up the other side, leaving the top free. Iron the pieces together and then trim the fleece back close to your stitches, also trim the corners to aid turning.

Step 2

Turn the fabric the right way out and iron flat again, tuck in approximately 1cm of fabric at the open edge and iron ready for sewing. I chose to hang the calendar using pretty ribbon. Fold the 4 pieces of ribbon in half and tuck into the top open edge of your calendar. Sew across the open edge of the calendar, making sure to catch the ribbon as you go. For a little extra decoration I laid a piece of matching ric rac across my stitches at the top and sewed into place (ribbon would also work). You’ve now completed the background piece.

Step 3

Time to make the pockets! On each piece of fabric turn over 1cm of fabric along one of the longer sides. Iron and then turn another cm over and iron again, this is the top edge of each set of pockets. Now turn each remaining edge over 1cm and iron. Machine stitch just the top edges of the pockets, leaving the other edges free.

Step 4

Position each set of pockets evenly across the background fabric and pin. Machine stitch across the bottom of each pocket and then around the entire edge of the calendar. You will now have 5 large pockets. In my example the first 4 rows have 5 pockets and the final row has 4 larger pockets. To create this you need to machine across each large pocket several times to make smaller pockets. On the first four rows I did this at approximately 6 ½cm intervals. On the final row I sewed at approximately 8cm intervals.

Step 5

To make the calendar numbers I bought some small luggage labels from a Stationary shop. I cut them down just slightly to make them smaller. Using a red and green crayon I then stencilled a number onto each label. These are then pinned to each pocket on the calendar using mini gold safety pins (again picked up from a Stationary shop).

Step 6

Decide who the calendar is for and fill each pocket with an appropriate sweet or gift. It could even serve two or three lucky recipients, just pop a couple of extra sweets in each pocket. Now you have an attractive and reusable advent calendar that should serve you for many years to come.

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Notebook, Photo Album, Sketchpad Cover Tutorial

Posted on by Abi

I orginally wrote this tutorial for the Boden Community, which has now changed into the Boden Blog. If you scour through their archives you can probably still find it, but I thought it would be great to share with all the readers over here, especially with the potential to make Christmas presents!

We’re going to make a covering for a book in this tutorial, I personally made a notebook cover. But this method works equally well to cover photo albums, Sketch-pads or any other kind of book.

What You’ll Need:

An old pair of jeans
Paper
Lining Fabric (I used an old pair of curtains)
Notebook or similar to cover
Measuring Tape
Thread
Sewing Needles
Pins
Ribbon, tape and/or buttons for embellishment

Step 1

To start you will need to create a paper pattern. With the book closed measure top to bottom and then add on 4cms (this is height of your rectangle). Next lay the book down flat and open. Measure from the inside of the book cover, taking your measuring tape over the back of the cover, across the spine and to the other edge and back inside. Take a couple of cms off the total length (this is the width of your rectangle). Now using these measurements, draw a rectangle onto paper and cut out.

Step 2

Get ready to cut into your jeans! Lay down and pin your paper pattern to the denim fabric and cut out. Then cut an identical rectangle from a piece of fabric to be used as lining.

Step 3

Now it’s time to add the decoration. You can be really creative here, so don’t hold yourself back. In my example I used some ribbon, tape and ric rac, buttons look fab too. Lay the embellishments onto the right side of your cut out piece of denim. I used three long pieces running the entire width of the cover and one shorter piece running top to bottom on the front. Pin down your ribbons etc. and sew into place securely.

Step 4

Lay down the lining fabric with the right side facing up. Place the denim fabric down right sides facing and pin together. Machine stitch around the edge, remembering to leave a gap approximately 10cms wide which you’ll use to turn the cover the right way out.

Step 5

Before turning, cut the corners of the cover diagonally. This will ensure crisp corners once turned (remember not to cut into or too near your stitches).

Step 6

Turn the cover the right way out through the un-sewn gap. Carefully tease out the corners, a knitting needle is useful for this purpose. Fold in the edges around the un-sewn gap in the cover, iron the entire cover, then sew up the gap.

Step 7

You should now have a very pretty rectangle of fabric. Fold this in half and iron it to find the centre. Then lay the spine of your notebook onto the centre crease. There should be fabric extending past the notebook on both sides. Fold the fabric over the notebook’s cover to the inside and pin (this will create your inside flap). Make sure that your book closes comfortably and the cover is snug enough. Once happy, machine stitch your flaps close to the edge on either side.

Step 8

Your cover is now finished! Fold the cover of your notebook back (as in pic.) to slip the cover on. If you can bear to give it away, then this would make a fabulous present. But I’m convinced you’ll love it so much that you’ll never want to part from it.

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