Show & Tell #14

One of the best bits of my job is seeing what people have been making from my books and free tutorials. I love seeing the photos of finished projects that people share with me, and I love sharing them with you guys too as part of my ongoing (though somewhat infrequent) Show & Tell series.

It's been a while since my last Show & Tell post, so I've got lots of crafty goodness to show you...

Holly stitched a fab cassette phone case using my pattern from Mollie Makes #41.

Lisa shared this in-progress photo of an angel bear she was sewing from my first book, Super-Cute Felt. Her daughter helped trace the pattern and was "very insistent that the colours are as close as possible" to the ones in the photos.

Kate bought a big bundle of felt from my shop and used it to create two colourful patchwork projects, which she shared as tutorials on her blog.

Felt patchwork table mats...

... and a rather fabulous felt patchwork blanket.

 

Louise emailed me these photos of a cute woodland garland she'd sewn using patterns from my second book, Super-Cute Felt Animals. It looks like lots of happy hours of sewing went into this!

 

Liz used my vintage felt baubles tutorial to decorate her Christmas cards last year. Look at all those baubles!

Liz said she made the ornaments "then attached them to cards using a brad, so the recipients can take the ornaments off and keep them when they are done with the card" She "made the cards from a very heavy cardstock so they wouldn't tip over" and "sewed on the coordinating borders with my machine". Such a great idea.

Linda wrote a lovely review of Super-Cute Felt Animals. "The day the book arrived in the mail our granddaughter was here and we had a wonderful time looking through the book and picking out animals I would make for her. She chose a cat and a dog"

Instead of stitching eyes (which can be quite fiddly at this scale) Linda added cute googly eyes instead.

She also stitched a pair of blackbirds using my free pattern.

The delightfully named "A Foolish Twit" tweeted photos of a whole bunch of things she's been making from my books. She said "Without your patterns I would never have got back in to crafting, now I love it!" which makes me very happy.

She combined two projects in Super-Cute Felt to make this bee needlecase...

 

... stitched lots of safari animals from Super-Cute Felt Animals...

... and made a whole army of mice finger puppets (I wonder what the collective noun would be for finger puppets?). You can also spot one of my floral projects in the bottom pic - patterns for the mice and the flowers can both be found in Super-Cute Felt.
 

My previous Show & Tell post was all about the sky blankets other people have been making, inspired by my sky blanket.

Here's Leanne's finished blanket - congrats, Leanne!

 

Amy is making a fab crochet version of the sky blanket, crocheting a granny square a day and using cheerful yellow yarn for sunny days instead of sticking with shades of blue.

She's blogging about the blanket as it grows. It's looking great, and has a surprising amount of yellow in it.

Amy wrote "I can't actually say just how much I love this project - it is great seeing how it grows, as I have no idea what colour the squares are going to be from one day to the next" ... "this blanket is bringing me nothing but pleasure" - which sounds a lot like how I felt when making my sky blanket. Such fun!

And last but by no means least, Polly stitched a tree stump pincushion using this guest tutorial shared on my blog by the talented Manuela.

Polly adapted the pattern slightly, using French knots to add the white spots on the toadstools which look great. She says "I'm really pleased I made this! I like having practical items which are also visually pleasing, and this makes me happy every time I use it." What more can you ask for from a crafty project?

You can see see all the previous show and tell posts here. My archive of free patterns and tutorials can be found here and you can read more about my books here.   

If you want to share what you've been making from my patterns (or from supplies you bought from me back when I still sold them, or when I've done a destash sale) please do get in touch. If you just want to share your work privately and don't want to be included in a future Show & Tell post that's totally okay! :)

You can leave a comment and link here on this post, send me an message via my contact form or share a photo over on my Facebook page.

Please note: the Amazon links in this post are affiliate links. 

Retro Cassette Phone Case for Mollie Makes

The June edition of Mollie Makes is out now and, as I rather excitedly mentioned the other day, my project is on the cover!

I designed a retro cassette phone case you can stitch from felt...

... there are also templates included for making an iPod and iPad case, and instructions for making either a tape with a felt rainbow or a pretty fabric "sticker".

 

Ooh look, it's me! It's always a bit (okay, a lot) weird seeing my face staring back at me from a magazine, but it's so nice to find myself on a contributors page with a big crafty name like Kirstie Allsopp. 

It was lovely to get my hands on a copy of the magazine, and to see the fab layout the team have put together. There are step by step pics too of course, but to see that spread you'll have to buy a copy ;)

Mollie Makes Issue 41 is out now, available from UK newsagents and supermarkets or online. The digital edition is available to download through Zinio, Google Play and Apple Newsstand.

Gift Wrap Idea: Cassette Tape Gift Tags / Toppers

If you're like me, you've probably got some old cassette tapes sitting in a drawer somewhere...

I still play a lot of my old, beloved mixtapes (I actually bought a new walkman recently for this very purpose) but I've also got a whole load of old, totally random tapes that just aren't worth keeping - and which none of my local charity shops will take.

So, I thought I'd use some to make some gift tags / toppers!  This project would be a fun way to decorate gifts for the music lover in your life or if you've got loads of old tapes you could have a mixtape theme to your Christmas wrapping this year...

First up, you need to spray-paint your cassette tape. I chose silver for my tape (which looks great in real life, but which I have to admit is a total pain to photograph!), but bright colours would also look great.

Follow the instructions on your can of spray paint...

 

... and turn something like this...

... into something like this:

To attach the tape to your parcel, cut a length of ribbon long enough to tie around the parcel in the normal fashion. Thread the ribbon through the holes in the cassette tape, so the tape is in the middle of the length of ribbon.

Turn the tape over and knot the ribbon at the back.

Then carefully tie the ribbon around the parcel (you may need someone to help you do this, so one of you can hold the tape in place on top of the parcel while you turn it over) and finish by tying the ribbon in a knot underneath the tape.

If you've used curling ribbon, you can curl it and leave it in place. If you'd prefer to remove the ribbon ends, lift the tape up carefully and snip the ends away so they'll be hidden under the tape.

You can leave the tape blank, or add a paper label to turn the tape into a gift tag.

Measure the label space on your tape and cut out a strip of white paper to size. Position it on the tape to check you're happy with the size, write your message (remember to start with an A or B to mark the "side" of the tape!) and then stick the label in position with prittstick or double-sided tape.

You could also make mixtape gift tags...

Position the tape on a luggage tag and mark the position of the holes with a sharp pencil.

Use the pencil to poke two holes through the tag where you've marked. Then thread a short length of ribbon (the same colour as the tape) through the tape, and thread each end through one of the holes in the card tag.

Secure the ends of the ribbon with sticky tape...

... then stick a large address label or a piece of paper onto the tag to cover up the ribbon & tape. The tape makes the surface a bit lumpy, so if you want to write a message on the label or paper it's probably best to do so before you stick it in position.

As before, you can leave the tape plain...

 ... or add a label with a short message like "Happy Birthday!", "Happy Father's Day", or "Merry Christmas"

Please note: once you've spray painted the tape you (obviously) won't be able to play it any more! So only do this to tapes you'd otherwise throw away, and make sure your gift recipient knows the tape is decorative only.


Please feel free to borrow one or two photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire post on your site. Thanks!

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