New in My Shop: 3 Fun Felt Brooch Patterns - Sew Teacups, Rainclouds & Tree Stumps

I added three new PDF patterns to my shop yesterday - another bargain pattern bundle!

 

 

With this trio of simple step-by-step tutorials you can sew three different felt brooches: little teacups, rainclouds, and tree stumps.

There are clear photos and instructions for each step of the process, and different size options for the templates so you can make bigger brooches than mine if you'd like.

I used the medium teacup templates yesterday to sew this floral teacup - isn't it cute?

 

 

 
These would be so perfect for using up scraps of pretty floral fabric you can't bear to throw away. I've had that scrap of Liberty Tana Lawn in my stash for years and am so glad to have found a use for it! If I still sold handmade items I would definitely be adding this version of my little teacups design to my product range and can't help myself from picturing a whole row of brooches with different floral prints and different colours of embroidered detailing to match the fabrics.

The good news is that this is something you can do if you'd like! When you buy any patterns from my shops (including the bargain bundles) you have my permission to sell items any items you sew from them, as long as you credit me as the designer.

Click here to buy the pattern bundle from my shop - it'll be available to download and print immediately after your payment goes through! For even more of a bargain, shop before June 27th to get this bundle at the launch price.

P.S. All of these patterns were originally shared with my newsletter subscribers - click here to sign up for crafty updates from me and/or a monthly free project!

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.

A Lovely Tea & Biscuit Tin

Check out the new addition to my growing collection of yummy tins from M&S:

Such a nice design, huh? Perfect for a tea and biscuit fan like me :)

It's by Kate Wilson of Little Doodles, whose work I love - I bought one of her birdie prints years ago, I unfortunately don't currently have the space for it but it used to hang in my old kitchen & made me happy whenever I saw it.

Plus the biscuits inside were pretty tasty too! Om nom nom.

A Very British Biscuit Tin

Gosh, it's been a while since my last blog post!

Things have been quite quiet here over the past couple of weeks. I've mostly been doing things like slowly catching up with my filing & accounts, and watching a bit too much TV.

I have also been eating far too many biscuits thanks to the purchase of this gorgeous biscuit tin from Marks & Spencer:

It's got a map of London on the top and then each side is illustrated with stuff from each country in the UK.

I did quite like the trio of square Diamond Jubliee -themed biscuit tins M&S were selling, but it was this one which stole my heart. Once all the biscuits have been eaten (which won't be long now, at the rate I'm getting through them) the tin will be put to good use holding in-progress craft projects or sewing supplies, I'm not sure which yet.

Talking of Diamond Jubilee stuff, I also recently treated myself to this "Royal Tea" tea towel designed by Charlotte Farmer (image from the Tate Gallery shop). You know how I love a nice teatowel! 

Have you bought anything as a "souvenir" of the Jubilee?

Bits and bobs

This week I have been...

... sorting out receipts for my tax return, and swearing that this year I won't just stick them all in a box and forget about them, but will do my best to organise them each month. Ditto doing my accounts at the end of each month instead of once a year. (Chances of this actually happening: slim to none).


... sewing some more lavender sachets, this time from an old blue & white striped pillowcase. Love those stripes.


... preparing for, hosting, and then tidying up after an "open house" we had for friends & neighbours to celebrate the launch of my book, Super-Cute Felt. It was a very lovely evening!

I didn't take many photos but I did get a couple of snaps of the pretty napkins (teacups, yum) and a rather blurry shot of a stack of copies of my book.


I've also nearly finished my giant granny square blanket - hurrah!

I took a break from crocheting the blanket over the warmer summer months as it was too hot to sit with it over my knees as I worked on it. I've just got the last few rounds left now, and then I'll sew in all the ends, and take some pictures of it to share with you all.

Because of the irregular pattern I was using for the blanket, I've used up almost all the yarn I bought in some of the colours, and much less of others. I've added the leftover yarn to my stash of random colours to be knitted into blanket squares.


My evenings this autumn will be filled with yarn!

Paperchase Pretties

We went to Bath for the day last week, for a bit of shopping and a lot of pressing our noses against the windows of shops so expensive we didn't dare go in them for the sake of our bank balances!

The boyfriend picked up a few bargain charity shop books and I bought a new dress and treated myself to some lovely paper goods from Paperchase. I can never resist a branch of Paperchase.

Letterpress notecards covered in teacups (I'm so predictable!) ...


... and a Sukie postcard covered in birds:


I've got a trio of large Sukie handkerchiefs which we use for wrapping our sandwiches for packed lunches and picnics, decorated with patterns of moths, leaves and birds. The birdie one is definitely my favourite, and the more times I look at that postcard the more I think it would be a good idea to keep it and frame it...

Teacup Factory

Yesterday I worked my way through sewing lots of teacup brooches, step by step until they were (almost) finished:I like lining them up in rows as I go along...

Busy Behind the Scenes

I have been busy doing very dull admin-y things, sending emails, filing, tidying up, rearranging stock, planning things, etc and neglecting to blog! I have been sewing things too, and tinkering about with my plants a little. Here's one of my current faves - a tiny home grown jade plant growing in a teacup I inherited from my grandmother:

An English Summer

It is absolutely chucking it down with rain outside (as it has been all weekend) and it's making me very glad to be stuck indoors with lots of sewing to do! Not great weather to take photos in, but luckily it was quite sunny for an hour or two yesterday morning and I managed to take a few product shots and also (finally) get some pictures taken of my beard disguises being modelled (this is what happens to you if you owe me a favour...) :
It was actually so sunny outside that when I tried to take pics of myself modelling one of the necklaces I made with all those circles (well half of them anyway) I ended up scowling into the sun rather too much (less "fierce" and more "slightly frightening) so a dark and grainy indoor shot will have to do: In half decent light, this is the full necklace:
The black cord is elastic, to make it easy to take on and off. I rather like the collar effect - it's not shown off very well on my t-shirt but it would look ace with something with a scooped neckline. And then this is the necklace I made with the rest of the circles - the've been sewn onto a long loop of ribbon, very dangly and fun: The observant amongst you will notice that I skipped a day's blogging (sorry about that). I was going to write about those necklaces yesterday evening but we went to a BBQ instead (an indoor one, obviously, given the rain!) and then afterwards I watched Doctor Who and did some sewing and forgot all about it (oops). I didn't actually get that much sewn during Doctor Who because I was a bit absorbed in the excitement of the finale (literally can't wait for the Christmas episode now...) but I did manage to get a few teacup brooches sewn and to try them out in blue which I've wanted to test out for aaages and just not got round to it...

Counting Down the Days

We've made the switch to a new internet supplier after WEEKS of no internet and terrible customer service from our old supplier they've finally given us the code we need to make the switch and our new modem etc is in the post! Hurrah!

In the meantime please buy lots of things from my shop to cheer me up, haha :P

No, seriously, in the meantime check out these excellent visual treats from Etsy...

Awesome teacups and cake stands decorated with amazing and whimsical illustrations from EstherCoombs. Quirky pictures by laurennassef - I particularly love the collectors with their thought clouds brimming with their obsessive collections. Sweet tea-themed pictures by whatkatydoes and jenskelley. Oh, and great teatowels (I do like a nice teatowel) featuring buttons and dishes from new find annabelwaterman and old favourite showpony.

365 / 203 & 204 - Getting Better, plus: Buttons Galore!

Thanks to much rest, and many a cup of soothing tea I am starting to feel better. It is most marvellous. While I've been feeling under the weather, my crafty pace slowed rather a lot... all I've managed to get done is sewing the backs onto the teacup brooches:
(Two one day, the rest the next) It's not much, but it's great to see them all finished. As I started the teacups when I needed a "poorly" project, it just goes to show what you can get done even when you're not up to doing much and how a little bit of daily crafting can go a long way! I still haven't decided which brooch to keep for myself, but I've narrowed it down to these two:
While I've been taking time off from chores and work and tiring things like that, I've been enjoying lots of cups of tea whilst reading round a few lovely blogs and catching up on my Flickr contacts' latest photos. The theme this week in the crafty universe seems to be buttons, as they seemed to pop up everywhere I looked! RaspberryFairy blogged about lovely buttons, as did TheBlackApple ... Ladyfort enjoyed some "button therapy" with these lovely glass buttons...
... Memake washed some buttons ...
... Seaurchin made some buttons... and LilfishStudios was working on a gorgeous vintage button bouquet...... such a charming idea for a wedding bouquet, and the thought of that big bowl of buttons makes my brain almost explode with buttony delight! Yum yum.

365 / 200 - Distracted by Teacups

Oh, it feels so good to have reached day 200!

Unfortunately I wasn't feeling too well yesterday. Luckily I had plenty of cherry blossom brooches to finish (nice simple task for the sleepy-brained), and plenty of Poirot dvds to watch (great stuff). I tried to make a start on clearing out some random crafty supplies from the spare room (you know, to make room for all this felt I keep buying) but instead got totally distracted...

I found an old tea-towel which I'd thrifted aaages ago for crafty purposes and just shoved in a drawer. I thought "I really ought to actually use this instead of just putting it back in a drawer again", took it downstairs and began to turn it into embroidered brooches:
I've stitched round all the cup and saucer outlines, "quilting" the images I guess, although they're sewn onto layers of felt not fabric and wadding. Each brooch is rather large (the saucers are all about 12 cms across), making them seriously striking, and each teacup is different. I love teacups so much that it will be very hard not to keep them all for myself, but I will try to be strong and start listing them in the shop very soon.

365 / 177 - Being Disorganised

Today I was too disorganised to remember to take my 365 photo, and now there is no light. Checking my camera, I realised that I wouldn't have been able to take photos anyway as I forgot to put the batteries on to charge yesterday. Oops. A double helping of pictures and crafty musings tomorrow, hopefully!

In the meantime, a small "yay!" as I noticed that 2,500 people have my shop marked as a favourite on Etsy...
... a medium-sized "wow!" because my Flickr photos have been viewed over 40,000 times (though most of those were probably my mum ...
... and a big "hurrah" for the nice mention my teacups got on the Craft blog yesterday (hello to anyone following the link from over there!). My sitemeter has been quite overwhelmed today thanks to that one, lots of visitors :)