Christmas Candle Embroidery Pattern

November's free project for my monthly pattern newsletter subscribers is an embroidery pattern for sewing a winter candle!
 

You can use the candle and holly design to add some festive cheer to any sewing project, frame it in a 5 inch embroidery hoop, or embroider it on felt to make a fun ornament for your Christmas tree.

I stitched mine on cream coloured felt...

... and added a red ribbon loop to match the red candle.

I think this design would also look fab stitched all in white on a solid colour background (maybe red or royal blue - like these baubles or this snow globe ornament). You could also personalise it by stitching a name or year on the base of the candle holder.

 
November's pattern newsletter will also include a link to October's project: a tutorial for sewing a felt tree stump brooch.

 
Click here for more information about my newsletters and to subscribe!

Click here to visit my tutorial archive for lots more free patterns... including LOTS of Christmas projects.

Felt Tree Stump Brooch Tutorial

UPDATE: this tutorial is now available as part of a bargain bundle of PDF patterns in my shop!

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October's free project for my monthly pattern newsletter subscribers is a tutorial for sewing felt tree stump brooches.

 
These brooches were part of the woodland collection I used to sell in my shop back in the day. Tree stumps were to 2008 what monstera leaves are to 2018... but I feel like the woodland trend is coming back! Also, let's be honest, trees never really go out of style, do they?

(There's definitely a bit of a tree theme developing round here at the moment).

Click here to subscribe then look out for the email in your inboxes later this month.

This month you'll also receive September's free project (cute little teacup brooches) because September was such a busy month for me that I've not sent that newsletter out yet (oops!). Hopefully it will be worth the wait...

Click here for more information about my newsletters and to subscribe!

Click here to visit my tutorial archive for lots more free crafty projects, including spring leaf brooches and a cute tree stump pincushion.

Felt Teacup Brooch Tutorial

UPDATE: this tutorial is now available as part of a bargain bundle of PDF patterns in my shop!

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September's free project for my monthly pattern newsletter subscribers is going to be a tutorial for sewing cute little felt teacup brooches!

Those of you who've been reading my blog for a long time may recognise these brooches, as I used to sell them in my Etsy shop years ago.

I took that teacup-brooches-in-a-teacup photo during my Crafting 365 project to do something crafty every day for a year and share a photo of it here on my blog and on Flickr (remember Flickr??). It ended up representing Etsy in British Vogue's "Secret Address Book", which is easily the fanciest place one of my photos has ever been featured.

(I can't believe that was almost ten years ago, my goodness.  How time flies when you're busy making stuff out of felt!)

I've stitched lots of these little teacup brooches over the years...

 

... and some of them weren't even pink!

I always loved making them and I hope you guys will love them too. Click here to subscribe then look out for the email in your inboxes later this month.

September's newsletter will also include the link to August's free project: a tutorial for making some pretty floral hoop art.

Click here for more information about my newsletters and to subscribe!

Click here to visit my tutorial archive for lots more free crafty projects.

Floral Hoop Art Pattern

UPDATE: this pattern is now available as a printable PDF from my shop. 

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August's free project for my monthly pattern newsletter subscribers is a tutorial for making some pretty, folk-art-inspired floral hoop art:

 
I've really enjoyed working on this month's design, and I love how the felt and the little embroidered details work together in the finished piece!

As well as the templates and step-by-step instructions for sewing the felt hoop art, I'll also be including an embroidery pattern version of this design so you can stitch that if you'd prefer. You could also use your own choice of embroidery stitches to embellish the felt elements.

Some of the petite felt shapes were a little fiddly to cut and stitch but if you find working with small pieces difficult you can easily just enlarge the pattern and frame it in a larger embroidery hoop.

Of course, you don't have to frame the finished piece in an embroidery hoop at all - you could use it to decorate other things, maybe even enlarging it to decorate a cushion.

I'll be sending out the PDF pattern for this project to my pattern newsletter subscribers this week, and I'll also include the link in September's pattern email. I hope you guys will enjoy stitching it!

Click here for more information about my newsletters and to subscribe.

Click here to visit my tutorial archive for lots more free crafty projects.

TAKE TO THE SEA Hoop Art Tutorial

July's freebie for my newsletter subscribers is a step-by-step tutorial for sewing some nautical embroidery hoop art!

I took a break during July itself, so I'm catching up this month by sending out two patterns. I'm sending out the offical (albeit slightly belated) July edition of my free pattern newsletter to subscribers today... but if you're not yet signed up, there's still a chance to grab this pattern.

I hate the idea of people signing up slightly too late to receive one of my monthly patterns, so in each free pattern email I send I'm including the link to download the new pattern and the previous month's project. So, if you sign up before August 25th you'll get the link to download the TAKE TO THE SEA Hoop Art tutorial as well as August's floral project. Hurrah!

The TAKE TO THE SEA tutorial includes templates and a step-by-step guide for sewing the felt version of this design, plus an embroidery pattern in case you fancy replicating my original project or putting your own stitchy twist on it.

Click here for more information about my newsletters and to subscribe!

Click here to visit my tutorial archive for lots more free crafty projects.

Floral Hoop Art Pattern: Coming Soon!

UPDATE: this pattern is now available as a printable PDF from my shop. 

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Sometimes you get a bit of inspiration out of the blue and you just have to run with it.

At the weekend I'd planned to finish up July's (slightly delayed!) free project for my newsletter subscribers but ended up working on August's freebie instead. I thought it would be nice to do a floral embroidery pattern, sat down to sketch a few ideas during my teabreak, got totally sucked in to the process, and now my desk looks like this:

As you can see the planned embroidery pattern is turning into a bit of felt hoop art (you know how much I love a nice bit of felt), but there'll be plenty of embroidered details as well. I love how this design is developing, and I hope you guys will love it too!

I'll be sending out July's sea-inspired pattern later this week, then later this month subscribers to my pattern newsletter will get this floral design in their inbox. As well as the templates and step by step instructions for making the floral hoop art I'll be including a version of the design as an embroidery pattern so you can sew that if you'd prefer.

I'll share photos of the finished design sometime soon, but in the meantime you can sign up to my monthly free pattern newsletter here.  

Long Time No Blog!

Things have been a bit quiet on my blog this summer, but I've been busy behind the scenes planning lots of fun new stuff that I can't wait to share with you guys.

Because of my break, if you're signed up to my monthly free pattern newsletter you'll get two emails in August with two free projects.

First up: I'm working on a felt version of my "Take to the Sea" hoop art.

I stitched this for a friend a couple of years ago and, as an embroidery project, it was pretty labour intensive! I've been thinking about making a simpler felt version of this design for ages and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to give it a try.

I always include a link to the previous month's freebie in each of my free pattern newsletters, so no matter what time during the month you sign up you'll definitely receive that month's pattern.

(Actually, when I send my "July" newsletter, you'll get the links for June's rag doll project AND May's felt flowers tutorial because I got so distracted worrying about the formatting of my June email having switched email providers that I forgot to share the previous month's link as usual - oops!).

Not yet subscribed? Click here for all the details! For more crafty goodness you can also subscribe to my weekly crafty newsletter, or updates about new patterns in my shop and special offers.

Retro Rag Doll Tutorial

This month's freebie for my newsletter subscribers is a tutorial for sewing a decorative rag doll from felt and fabric.

I designed this doll for a magazine a few years ago, but since the issue is long out of print I thought it'd be nice to share the pattern with you guys!

The doll has lots of cute details - a beehive hairdo complete with a flower, pretty eyelashes, a beaded "pearl" necklace, and Mary Jane shoes. You could also easily adapt the basic doll pattern to give her a different look, or make a set of dolls with different hair colours and patterned dresses.

 

Please note: this doll is designed as a decorative item, not a toy. Make sure you display it well out of reach of young children!

Click here to subscribe and get a monthly free pattern! For more crafty goodness, you can also subscribe to my weekly crafty newsletter, or updates about new patterns in my shop and special offers.

For lots more free tutorials, visit my archive.

My Newsletter Has Moved!

Your inbox has probably been filling up this week with emails from everyone from big multinational companies to individual bloggers and makers like me, getting in touch with you about updating your newsletter settings. As you probably know, this is because there's some new EU data protection legislation (GDPR) which came into effect today and we all need to make sure our mailing lists comply with the new rules.

I've been busy behind the scenes getting ready for the new legislation (which covers lots more things than newsletters!) which has felt a little like doing my tax return - quite boring, rather complicated, a bit stressful, but very important!

I used to use a service called TinyLetter to send my email newsletters. TinyLetter was lovely and simple to use but when I looked at how best to manage my mailing list to comply with GDPR I realised I needed to switch to a service with a few more features.

So, I've moved my newsletter to TinyLetter's parent company: MailChimp. I know it's a bit of a faff for my current readers to have to resubscribe to a new service but I'm quite excited about the possibilities offered by MailChimp (well, as much as it's possible to be excited by newsletters, anyway).

I've set up four different newsletter options, so you can choose how often you want to hear from me and about what topics. You can subscribe to just one, or all four, or any combination you like, and easily manage your subscriptions at any time in the future via the handy links which will be at the bottom of every email I send.

For example, I love writing my chatty weekly-ish newsletters and sharing lots of links with you guys but I know not everyone wants to hear from me that often! Now you can choose if you want a weekly-ish update about everything I'm up to or just get emails when I add new products to my shop and/or run sales and other special offers.

I'm also making my monthly free patterns a separate newsletter that you can subscribe to without having to receive any of that other stuff. This month's free pattern is a tutorial for sewing the felt flowers pictured at the top of this post.

As well as giving you guys more choice about what you subscribe to (and me more tools behind the scenes to help me manage my lists and comply with the new legislation), MailChimp has lots more tools to help me make my newsletters look nice - hurrah! They might be a bit funny-looking for a few weeks/months as I get my head around all the settings, but hopefully my newsletters will soon be lovely and bright and colourful.

The new service will also give me lots more room to grow my mailing list long-term: I'm not sure if I would ever have actually outgrown TinyLetter's 5K subscribers limit (I just hit 500 subscribers on my old list this week, which felt like a pretty huge amount to me!) but a girl can dream, right??? It's always important to have goals to work towards, haha.

Still interested after all that newsletter-related waffle? Click here to see the new newsletter options and subscribe.

P.S. I've also added a new Privacy Policy to my blog this week, giving you more info about how I collect, use, and protect your data here on my blog and throughout my business. 


UPDATE: That felt flower design is now available as a sewing pattern in my shop! Visit my shop to see all my printable PDF patterns

Felt Flower Brooches Tutorial

UPDATE: this tutorial is now part of a set of printable PDF flower patterns, available from my shop.

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Another month has rolled round, which means it's time for another free pattern for my newsletter subscribers - hurrah! May's freebie is a tutorial for sewing pretty layered felt flower brooches.

This design isn't based on a specific flower, but it was inspired by the lush many-petalled flowers of summer: camellias, peonies, roses, etc. They're quick and easy to sew and would make a bold addition to any outfit.

You can add a contrasting button to the centre of the flower or sew a cluster of seed beads for a more delicate effect.

 

The tutorial also includes templates and instructions for adding leaves to your brooch, and mixing in some patterned fabric for extra detail.

I send out my free email newsletter about once a week with updates of what I've been making and doing lately, plus links to my latest blog posts and tutorials and lots of creative and colourful things to inspire you.

Click here to subscribe!

UPDATE: My newsletter has moved! Click here to sign up and see this month's free pattern.

 

For lots more free patterns, check out my tutorial archive. 

Make a Felt Bird Mask

This month's free pattern for my newsletter subscribers is... a felt bird mask!

 

I used to sell these bird masks in my shop, they're really fun to make and even more fun to wear.

This year I'm sending out an email newsletter about once a week, with an update of what I've been making and doing lately, plus links to my latest blog posts and tutorials and lots of creative and colourful things to inspire you.

It's free to sign up, and each month this year you'll get access to a free crafty pattern that I won't be sharing here on my blog.

I had to take some time off in February due to illness and took a little break from sending my weekly newsletter, but I don't want people to have missed out on February's mallard duck pattern. So if you sign up this month (March 2018) you'll get access to February's duck AND March's bird mask... then if you stay subscribed, you'll get a new free pattern each month as the year progresses.

 

 

Sounds good? Click here to subscribe to my newsletter!

UPDATE: My newsletter has moved! Click here to sign up and see this month's free pattern.

Make a Felt Duck Brooch

This month's free pattern for my newsletter subscribers is... a tutorial for making a felt duck brooch!

I send out an email newsletter about once a week, with an update of what I've been making and doing lately, plus links to my latest blog posts and tutorials and lots of creative and colourful things to inspire you.

It's free to sign up, and each month this year you'll get access to a free crafty pattern that I won't be sharing here on my blog.

Each newsletter I send out in February will include the link to download the printable felt mallard duck tutorial... then in March, I'll be sharing a new pattern, and so on through the year.

If you fancy making your own felt duck, click here to subscribe to my newsletter.
 
UPDATE: My newsletter has moved! Click here to sign up and see this month's free pattern. 

New: Monthly Free Tutorials for Newsletter Subscribers

UPDATE: my sunflowers tutorial is now part of a set of printable PDF flower patterns, available from my shop.

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Happy New Year!

I'm starting something new this year: free tutorials just for my newsletter subscribers! (Yay!)

My weekly(ish) newsletter is a chatty email from me, with my latest news (what I've been making, doing, blogging, etc) and a whole bunch of links to crafty, creative, colourful and generally interesting things I've loved lately and want to share with you guys.

I've been really enjoying writing the newsletter each week but I wanted to make it something extra special, like a fun crafty club. So, there'll be a new crafty tutorial (or embroidery pattern) to download each month... starting with a tutorial for making these sunflower brooches:

(I know sunflowers aren't exactly in season right now, but I thought these gloomy January days could do with a burst of yellow!).

Click here to sign up!

My first newsletter of 2018 goes out on Wednesday (Jan 3rd), and the link to the sunflowers tutorial will be included in all the newsletters I send out this month.

UPDATE: My newsletter has moved! Click here to sign up and see this month's free pattern. 

More Crafty Destashing... and a New Newsletter!

I'm having another crafty clearout!

A whole bunch of stuff has sold already, but there are still lots of bits and pieces available (sorry for not giving you guys a heads up this time round - it was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment thing inspired by a sudden urge to declutter).

Colourful card...

... old postage stamps...

 ... double-sided crepe paper...

 

... a vintage pillowcase...

... snowflake buttons...

... embroidery threads...

... beads...

 

... and more! I've also got a few things left over from the last sale, including some bargain craft books:

Click here to see all the available listings, with more info and photos. 

You can leave a comment on an item to claim it, but if you don't use Instagram don't worry! If you see things you want to purchase, just send me a message via my contact form to let me know what you're interested in.

I've listed the price and UK postage of each item, but I'll combine the postage for each parcel and only charge what it actually costs to post (in the UK you can send a shoebox sized parcel weighing up to 2 kilos second class for just £2.90).

IN OTHER NEWS, I am finally (after literally years of meaning to get round to it) starting a weekly newsletter.

It won't be a flashy, sales-y thing with lots of embedded pictures and fancy formatting, just an email with updates on stuff I've been making, doing, and blogging about lately... plus links to interesting stuff I've been reading, inspiring Instagram accounts, cool tutorials, etc. Sometimes it'll be long and chatty when I've got lots of stuff to share, sometimes short and sweet.

The first newsletter goes out on Friday. Click here to sign up!


UPDATE: My newsletter has moved! Click here to sign up.