Lady Elgin's necklace for Christmas - tutorial 3

On Friday night I was tossing and turning about what I could make next... I thought about devising a pattern for a simple cable scarf, you would all have plenty of time to get that done by Christmas - but as a friend asked me out for a drink, I decided that I would have to make something that was a tad quicker, after all a G&T was calling.   So then it came to me, something quick, easy and attractive, a girlie Xmas gift - the fabric covered necklace.  

Lady Elgin's Necklace
Option A - Small boy with marble collection with about a dozen or so spare marbles
Option B - Marbles from the Pound shop or a defunct large bead necklace
A piece of fabric 44" long by 4.5" wide - just check that your fabric will wrap around your largest bead
A 60cm of narrow velvet ribbon
and as we are working with fabric, your iron and ironing board
Needle and cotton
Matches
If taking option A, explain to small boy that your need for marbles is greater than his, I did try this with my Godson but failed spectacularly so I bought a jar of Marbles from the local Pound shop!

Lay out your marbles in the order that you will want your fabric wrapped beads to lie... I chose three large marbles and eight small marbles.

Press the raw edge of the long side of the fabric under, about 1/4" should do it.  Now fold it in half so that you can find your centre point.  

Place your centre bead there, we will be using this as our marker as everything will fan out from there.

Twist the fabric as tightly as you can and tie a knot into the fabric or you might want to use some jewellery spacer beads/cuffs.  Now keeping the fabric wrapped around your marble, twist tightly again and tie another knot or place in your spacer.

Working alternately on the right, then left of the centre marble continue until all your marbles are wrapped up

Fold over the end of your fabric neatly and over stitch this in place.

Now cut your velvet ribbon into two equal pieces, remembering that velvet ribbon has an affinity with 100m runners, flame the ends to seal the ribbon.

Stitch the ribbon in place at both ends.

Tie your necklace in place with a bow... await compliments and requests for the shop address!


Now don't you think it is time to high tail it over to Wendy's Handmade Monday BTW, Wendy's plaques got an honourable mention in the Telegraph as a kitchen must have, and do you know they are are quite right!

9/11 - 10 years on

Tomorrow, we will remember the many people who died in the US and also remember those who died in the actions which followed on from those heinous acts.

Can I make a request, after you have spent your minute remembering the dead, will you honour them by getting on with your day?  Getting on and living your life to the fullest is a wonderful way to show that acts of terror will not make a difference, talking and listening,  considering compromising and giving way, and making acts of kindness to others will help us to make a better world of which we can all be proud to be a part.

Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries!

Some of my favourite memories are evoked by cherries, I can vividly remember getting off the bus on my way to school and buying half a pound of cherries from Smith's Greengrocers in Hamlet Court Road and with the help of my friends finishing them before we got to the school gate.  And thinking that my friends the Fridays were posh and rich because they had dessert everyday not just on Sundays... the first time I had lunch with them we had cherries and did "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Sailor..."  am not sure how many I had because I cannot remember which number correlates with Spinster of this Parish!


Now many of you will know that I really like Making Magazine 

But I wonder how many of you ever go and look on magazine websites, you really should try because sometimes you find little gems on there, sometimes it is something which has featured in the magazine and which you missed.  Anyway I spotted these lovely little crocheted cherries and with half an hour to spare, they were made up into a brooch and ready to wear before you could sing Neil Diamond's Cherry, Cherry!

A Zip-free Christmas Ribbon Cushion Tutorial

I love ribbons, for this I blame my mother and her putting my hair in plaits when I was a child.

This cushion is actually rather easy but looks very impressive
You will need for a 12" square cushion:

10 mtrs of  1" ribbons... if you change the width of your ribbon then the amount of ribbon you will need will vary
A separate 1.3m of 1" ribbon
1 piece of medium to heavy iron on interfacing 14" square
1/2 metre of fabric to complement your ribbon colours
A cork board which is bigger than 14"
Map pins or sewing pins with coloured tops
Cushion pad
Wait for it... iron and ironing board, with a pressing cloth
Box of matches
Chop stick
12 x 12" cushion pad - Merrick and Day are great suppliers



Place your interfacing onto the corkboard with the iron on side uppermost, secure each corner with a map pin.

Next cut your ribbons in to 13.5" lengths (this gives you a 5/8" seam allowance when you sew up your cushion) - use pinking shears to cut your ribbons, as ribbon when cut can rival Usain Bolt when he runs the 100m!



Now you have to decide how you will weave your cushion, for our first venture we will just use simple weaving.

Pin 14 strips of ribbon to the top of your interfacing, ensuring that each ribbon is side by side.  These vertical ribbon are your warp threads.  Now take your first ribbon to go across, pin it down on the left hand side and begin to weave it under then over each of the warp threads.  When you get to the right hand side, pin it down, you have now completed your weft row - there is a really easy rhyme to remember which direction weaves go in - weft goes right to left.

When you begin your next row, butt your ribbon right up against your first row and then  you do the opposite with your weaving, so when on the last row you went under, this time you go over and so on until you reach the end.  Pin it in.  Continue this until all of the 14 ribbons have been used up.


You will notice that despite being the world'sbest weaver some of your ribbons have shifted a little.  Work along all of the warp ribbons (the verticals) and secure them with the map pins, repeat this with your weft ribbons.

Turn on your iron to a cool setting but sufficiently hot to fuse the interfacing to the ribbon, take the cork board to your ironing board - pop your pressing cloth on top of the weaving (if you do not have one, use a clean cotton tea towel - now gently iron the square of weaving until the interweaving has fused to the ribbons.  Now remove one side of pins, press this down, and repeat for the other three sides.


Cut out a 14" square, pin and sew it to the reverse side of your weaving using a seam allowing of 5/8", this will give your cushion front more body. Trim the excess fabric away and you should have a square of 13.5".

Cut two pieces of fabric 13.5 x 10".  Turn over and 1/4 in seam.  Take one piece of fabric, and fold back 3 1/4", then with right sides facing pin it to your cushion front, now take your other front and pin it to the other half of your cushion, it will overlap the piece that you have just sewed but don't worry.  Now sew all around with a 5/8" seam allowance.

At each corner, snip off the dog ear triangles (so that there is no bulk when you turn it out), turn the cushion inside out and use the chop stick inserted into the corners to give you a nice crisp corner.

Taking your left over ribbon, cut it into four equal pieces, measure along your opening and divide it by 3, mark (as your cushion is 12" this should be 4") and place a pin at 4" and 8". Take you ribbon and fold it in half widthwise, cut it into a point (of less than an inch) and seal along the edge with a match to stop it fraying at the other end cut out a triangle and repeat your trick with a match or if your prefer not be arrested for arson use your pinking shears.  Fold the pointy end under and pin to the cushion as shown in the picture, and sew to the cushion, repeat on the other side of the opening.

Now you have not only a ribbon woven cushion but an original and easily closer too!

This cushion is great on beds... but history tells me they are useless in cat households...

Yes, I know the window box has died - please send flowers :)

And now pop over to see what everyone else has been up to on Handmade Monday - it has to be one of the best craft linky parties around!

No better way to start the weekend

Really, there is only one way to start a Saturday and this is it

As made by my chums at The Coffee Bean Company, a quirky little coffee shop just round the corner, yes I think any shop that acts as an official shelter to the Blue Lady pics from the 1960s deserves the accolade and they also make the best coffee this side of the Thames.


I am then off to collect a PE bag to do some emergency back-to-school embroidery... odd, isn't it, I never thought to see emergency and embroidery in the same sentence.

Squaring Up

Sometimes I really need instant gratification and I get that when I do blanket squares.  It's funny how when you decide that you will do something, a bit like a bus, another one turns up.  Originally I was going to work on a blanket for The Knitter's project for the Refuge charity - if you don't know anything about this, it is a charity that works with families that have to leave their homes due to domestic abuse, often they will arrive with their whole world in a carrier bag - the plan is to give everyone who has to stay in a refuge this year is given a blanket of their own.


However fast on the heels of this came an appeal for a Mumsnet blanket, made in memory of a mum who had died unexpectedly... non-knitters send a couple of balls of wool through to knitters and we knit up squares which are sent off to be made into the final blanket.

So as I blocked out the squares there was only one piece of music I could listen to... and here it is Dave Brubeck's - Unsquare Dance

So here are the five squares I have made up for the Mumsnet blanket, which are taken from a special e-zine  which can be bought for a charity donation to Refuge and a revised version of patterns from Nicky Epstein's book Knitting Block by Block

So I will be off to the Post Office tomorrow to send them on their way.

We are going to talk about the 'C' word - our first Christmas gift tutorial

Right, I have a plan, we are going to be on top of Christmas this year... yep, you heard me I have used the 'C' word before the end of August... so I am going to feature a tutorial for a gift that you can make in a couple of hours and we will even make the Christmas stocking to put it in.  If you have anything you would like to make for Christmas then let me know and I will see if I can include it.


Well let's get started with something really simple, an easy ribbon hair grip (OK, yes it is another flower but it is so easy :))

You will need:
Just under a metre of ribbon
An ironing board or cork board
Map pins / needlework pins
A button
An hair clip
Scissors, cotton and a needle

Set up your ironing board or cork board and fold over a piece of ribbon about 3" long, tucking under about 1/2" to give a tidy end.  Pin it securely to your board with one of your map pins.

Now, leaving the red pin in situ, bring the ribbon back to the centre and using another map pin secure it in the centre making sure you go through all the layers of the ribbon, you have two petals already!

Now, lay the next ribbon petal down over the centre, carefully remove the first pin that you used to hold the folded ribbon in place, always remembering to go through all the layers on ribbon. 

Continue working in this way, building up your layers of petals.

I find that eight petals are sufficient... especially when I remember that I will have to get a needle through all these layers.  As you get to your last petal, finish in the centre by neatly folding the ribbon over on itself and holding it in place with your two map pins.

Carefully lift your flower off the board and using your needle and thread, catch the ribbon at each corner sewing all the way through each layer... otherwise you will be wearing a wierd ribbon bunch rather than a flower.


Sew a decorative button onto the top of the flower but do not go all the way through the ribbons as you will want to slip your hair grip through the lowest flap of ribbon at the back of your flower.

Job done... and your first little stocking filler is complete.


And I have just made it under the wire to add the flower to Wendy's Handmade Monday and I know that you all know the drill, click on the linky to see what everyone else has been up to.


Finally, if you have any ideas about what you would like to see included in our Christmas tutorials, do let me know... and now my very first ad trail, next week, we will make a ribbon cushion, so keep that cork board downstairs in readiness!


And honestly, this is really the last bit, I have put all my tutorials under the  Tutorials tab on the top of the page so all you have to do now is look down the list to find a pic of the item that you want to make.