Sunday 23 January 2011

Baskets & Doorstops

I've been asked to take a few more classes at Oasis Caring in Action Centre this year.  I spent an amazing 12 months with these wonderful ladies last year, and got so much satisfaction from helping women from the local community learn new sewing skills and get excited about their very own makes.

This time around, we want to encourage some of the ladies to grow in confidence and become facilitators/tutors of future Quilting classes in Oasis.  We'll be getting the ladies inspired to have an Easter sale of the items they make to help raise further funds for the Quilting Project, and will be doing some old favourites - log cabin cushions & Amy Butler Swing Bags, as well as some new cutsie projects - check out the baskets and doorstop ideas below.



There are various tutorials available for the smallest sized basket.  Check out Pink Penguin and Vlijtig for fabric basket tutorials.

I sized up the measurements for a medium sized basket and a large basket (not shown), which was a bit tricky (not being a mathematical whizz!) but I got there in the end.




These little hostess boxes are a quick and easy make, although you do need to be spot on with your measuring and cutting for these.  Check out Sew Mama Sew for a great wee tut.


Door stops need to be sturdy, so I recycled my denim scraps to make this small pyramid shaped one.  The tut for this one is found on Bake and Sew.  It's another simple project, and as it doesn't involve zippers or fiddly velcro, I'm sure the ladies at Oasis will have fun making these.  It may be small, but it still took almost 1kg of dried peas to fill it!  Small but effective!

Esther's pressie!

My friend's daughter turns 9 at the end of this month.  She lives in England so when I make her presents they always have to be things that are easily posted.  This year I decided to make her a pencil case, after my success with making them for my own daughters. 


Teamed up with cutsie bunnies and characters (& a few secret sweeties hidden inside!) I hope she'll enjoy these 'little girl' treats.  Happy birthday Esther!

Thursday 6 January 2011

Pincushion Pleasure!

Sometimes a girl just wants to indulge herself with a glam wee make that sits on her table and makes her smile!  At least that's what I get when I look at my newly crafted pin cushions, made from recycled fabric - as sweet as pumpkin pie! 


Made from a pillowcase!

Made from a child's jacket!


I've been meaning to 'upgrade' my shabby old pincushion for a while (I made it when I was pregnant with my first daughter - she's 15 now!).  I find that I need different size pins depending on the project I'm working on so I made a larger one for my long, flower headed pins, and a smaller one for smaller pins.

They are simply made by sewing together 2 circles of fabric, leaving a 1" gap for turning.  Turn right side out and stuff with toy stuffing, chopped up bits of left over wadding, or even old tights (washed of course!).  Hand sew the gap closed.  Using embroidery floss and a long needle sew from the centre outwards, creating the 'pumpkin' like segments.  Finish off with a cute little button in the middle.

For similar tutorials, checkout Thecraftbegins and Stitchinmission.