Lockdown Crafting: 12 tutorials for these troubled times

I got a really wonderful email last week from someone who'd been browsing my blog, stumbled on my box of sunshine tutorial and made a whole bunch of them as gifts for her friends and family. Such a lovely thing to do!

It feels particularly appropriate for this weird moment we're all in right now as rainbows have become such a powerful symbol of hope and care here in the UK. Sending a little rainbow box full of love to a friend or loved one you can't see in person seems to me to be a very powerful, wonderful thing.

Handmade gifts are wonderful things under ordinary circumstances, but at the moment they feel extra special. The power of a craft project to sooth and calm and distract and entertain also seems stronger and more important than ever while we're stuck at home amidst such stressful events.

So, here's a little round-up of projects from my blog that you guys might want to make right now. Click on the links or the photos to visit each tutorial. You'll also find lots more free crafty goodness in my tutorial archive and I share special freebies with my pattern newsletter subscribers, too.

Make a box of sunshine.

My box of sunshine tutorial includes templates and a step by step tutorial for making and assembling a rainbow box, and sewing a felt heart to go inside it. You could also use this box for gifting other things like a small brooch. This would be a great project to make with your kids, as there's lots of colouring involved and the sewing is very simple.

Sew a felt rainbow.

I shared this felt rainbow tutorial just a few weeks ago as part of a tutorial for making a weather-themed baby mobile, but I think the rainbows are a lovely project on their own. You could make these as brooches or ornaments, or sew them as they are and pop them inside a card to send to a friend.

Stay home and stitch a cute house.

I find embroidery so relaxing and really enjoyed stitching my recent Stay Home pattern. Stay home, sew stuff, save lives.

Or sew a felt house!

If embroidery's not your thing, why not sew a felt house instead? I think these would be a really sweet thing to send to a friend (from your house to theirs), or to commemorate our year of staying at home.

Embroider some self-care and positivity: be kind to yourself...

This is something I struggle with, especially when things get stressful! Stitch my Be Kind embroidery pattern for yourself, or send it to a friend who needs a reminder to look after themselves as well as other people.

 ... and remember that you're stronger than you know.

I bet you know someone who needs to hear this, too.

If you're spending a lot of time on Zoom lately, maybe you need some cute new brooches to accessorise with?

How about some plant lady brooches?

Or some fun cross stitch brooches?

You could also make a headband!

Bring spring to FaceTime with felt flowers...

... or go for more of a "I can't go to a party so I'm going to have one in my house" vibe.

Finally: sew a heart for someone you love.

There are lots of heart-themed projects in my tutorial archives for you to choose from but I think a heart brooch would be a particularly nice thing to make and send to a friend right now. They're small and easy to post, and your pal can pin them to their sweater or something in their house and think of you whenever they see it.

How about a mini cross stitch brooch?

Or a pretty layered heart, which I seem to have shared at a time when I was posting TINY photos on my blog. This sequinned heart would also make a cute brooch!

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How To: Appliqued Heart Bag for Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day in the world of crafting basically means LET'S STICK HEARTS ON ALL THE THINGS... and there's nothing wrong with that, right?

Sooo today I'll be showing you how to embellish a small bag with a felt heart patch and some simple embroidery.

This tutorial was originally designed for The Village Haberdashery's blog - visit their shop for lots of crafty goodness!

You will need:

* The template sheet from my Valentine’s wreath tutorial.
* A blank cosmetic bag or other small purse.
* Felt in the following colours: pink, bright pink, lilac, and dark purple.
* Matching embroidery threads (floss).
* Light pink sewing thread (i.e. to match the colour of the largest heart).
* Sewing needles and pins.
* Optional: an air-erasable fabric marker pen.

To decorate the bag:

1. Use templates A, B, C and D from the Valentine’s wreath tutorial to cut out four heart pieces. A = bright pink. B = lilac. C = dark purple. D = pink.

2. Follow steps 5 and 6 of the Valentine’s Wreath tutorial to sew the layers together, using contrasting embroidery thread (I used pink thread, then bright pink, then lilac then dark purple) to decorate the hearts and stitch them together. Use half the embroidery thread strands only – so for six-stranded thread just use three strands.

3. Iron the cosmetic bag if required then position the felt heart in the centre. Hold or pin it in position then sew it in place with whip stitch and matching pink sewing thread. Take care to only sew through one layer of the bag!

4. To complete the decoration, fill in the space around the heart with embroidery. I stitched backstitch lines radiating from the heart, alternating between bright pink and dark purple and using half strands as before. Use an air-erasable fabric marker pen to draw guide lines from your stitching or just stitch freehand.

Make sure not to sew through the fabric edge of the zip (hold this away from the bag fabric when you’re stitching near the opening). Knot your thread at the end of each section of stitching and start afresh when sewing the next section, don’t carry threads across the inside of the bag (you don’t want whatever you put in the bag to “catch” on trailing threads!).

If you're giving this bag as a gift, why not fill it with Valentine's candy before wrapping it for a sweet (PUN ENTIRELY INTENDED) extra gift.

Enjoyed this free tutorial? Buy me a "coffee" and help support my blog!


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Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

Felt Hearts & Kisses Tic Tac Toe Set for Valentine’s Day

Instead of Noughts and Crosses, why not play a game of Hearts and Kisses!

Use colourful wool blend felt to make this felt game board and pieces decorated with hearts and X-shaped “kisses”. For even quicker crafting, glue the felt game pieces together with craft glue and make a board from colourful card.

This project is now available as part of my Patreon pattern library.

Click here to find the Tic Tac Toe tutorial and to sign up to my Patreon. 

Subscribers get full access to a growing library of PDF patterns and tutorials, and emails whenever new projects are added. You can unsubscribe at any time.

P.S. Visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more crafty projects.

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

A Year of Wreaths: August Felt Ice Cream Wreath Tutorial

UPDATE: my ice cream wreath tutorial is now available as a printable PDF pattern on Patreon.

Subscribe for a small monthly fee and you'll get access to a growing library of PDF patterns and tutorials, with an email whenever I add a new project. You can cancel any time.    

Click here to check out my Patreon page and sign up!

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This month’s wreath design is inspired by delicious ice cream, the trend for Instagram-friendly “unicorn food”, and the way we all share our holiday snaps on social media.

The wreath features a large, colourful felt ice cream topped with sequin and bead “sprinkles”, a pair of heart-eye emojis, an “OMG!” speech bubble, and lots of felt hearts.

If you don’t fancy making the whole wreath, the ice cream would look fab appliqued to a cushion cover or a bag, or worn as an awesome statement brooch. 

The emojis and speech bubble would also make cute brooches or patches - as well as stitching “OMG!” in the speech bubble you could also stitch “WOW!” or “YAY!” or other short words.

Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly(ish) free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

A Year of Wreaths: February Valentine's Heart Wreath Tutorial

UPDATE: this tutorial is now available as a printable PDF pattern over on my Patreon.

Subscribe for a small monthly fee and you'll get access to a growing library of PDF patterns and tutorials, with an email whenever I add a new project. You can cancel any time.    

Click here to check out my Patreon page and sign up!

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My monthly wreath project continues with a heart-themed wreath to celebrate Valentine’s Day, and to spread a little love and happiness!

This month’s wreath features embroidered felt hearts, pretty ricrac and some gorgeous berry-coloured yarn.

The hanging heart would also make a fab ornament on its own - simple add a coordinating ribbon loop and a matching backing heart (either cut a plain red felt heart or repeat the relevant steps to make two decorated hearts to join together).

Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly(ish) free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

Tutorial: Felt Hearts & Kisses Tic Tac Toe Set

UPDATE: this project is now available as part of my Patreon pattern library.

Click here to find the Tic Tac Toe tutorial and to sign up to my Patreon. 

Subscribers get full access to a growing library of PDF patterns and tutorials, and emails whenever new projects are added. You can unsubscribe at any time.


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Instead of playing Noughts and Crosses, let's play Hearts and Kisses!

My latest tutorial for The Village Haberdashery's blog is for sewing this cute Tic Tac Toe set from felt.

The game board and pieces are really easy to sew and they'd be a great project to make with your kids this Valentine's Day.

A Year of Wreaths: February Valentine's Heart Wreath

UPDATE: my February Heart Wreath Tutorial is now available as a printable PDF pattern over on my Patreon.

Subscribe to get instant access to a growing library of PDF embroidery patterns and craft tutorials, and updates when I add something new!

 
Click here to see all 12 seasonal wreaths in this series!

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My monthly wreath project continues!

Each month this year I'm making a seasonal wreath for The Village Haberdashery's blog. With Valentine's Day being in February of course I simply had to cover this month's wreath in hearts.

This month's wreath is wrapped in gorgeous pink yarn, and decorated with felt embellishments and some simple embroidery. There's a large heart that hangs in the middle of the wreath - I think this would also make a lovely ornament on its own, or a fabulous statement brooch.

Then the top of the wreath is decorated with more hearts and layers of felt and ric rac. Super pretty!

 

Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

Three Easy Valentine's Day Craft Ideas

This is an advertorial and I received a fee to create some Valentine’s Day crafts for https://www.tescoliving.com/making-and-doing

It looks like we're in for a wet and windy weekend, doesn't it? Perfect weather for staying indoors doing some crafting for Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day isn't just about romantic dinners with chocolates and roses, it's also a great excuse to let your family and friends know you love them with a handmade card or gift.

I've designed three easy paper crafting projects that are lots of fun to make... wanna see them?

First up, there's a Valentine's printing project: use everyday things from your home like kitchen sponges and cotton buds to make pretty printed heart cards.

This is a great craft to do with young kids, but honestly I'm in my 30s and I had an absolute blast making these! Click here to see the cards and the step by step instructions.

Next up: make a Valentine's Day card with a secret, hidden message!

It might be because I read so many spy and mystery novels when I was a kid but I adore anything involving a secret message. Can you guess where the message is hidden? Click here for the full tutorial, including all the templates you'll need to make your cards.

Finally (and, not gonna lie, this is probably my favourite of the bunch), I made some bunny gift boxes.

Not boxes for putting bunnies in (sadly, as a box filled with bunnies would be pretty awesome) but boxes that look like bunnies. They have little fluffy tails and everything! For added cuteness, the bunny faces are made from heart-shaped pieces :)

The bunny gift boxes would be perfect for Valentine's Day gifts, or you could make a whole set over the next few weeks and use them for Easter instead.

I made a whole rainbow of bunny gift boxes, click here to see how they turned out and grab the templates for making your own.

Stitching a Heart for the Craftivist Collective & Mollie Makes

If you're a Mollie Makes fan, maybe you've spotted the little something I stitched for the latest issue?

It's a felt heart for the Craftivist Collective's new Heart on your Sleeve campaign!

This campaign is such a fun idea: asking people to stitch green hearts with what they love, wear them and share them online as part of a positive, inspirational, creative conversation.

It was quite tricky choosing what to stitch for my heart, but after a purr-filled kitty cuddle during my tea break I realised I had to pick my cats! I love those little furballs so much.

Mollie Makes #57 is out now. You can read more about the Craftivist Collective on their website and you'll find them on social media as @craftivists.

Thinking About Spring

I've been thinking about spring - or rather, more specifically, about spring-themed craft projects.

I've got a few ideas in progress, which involve sugar paper (construction paper) hearts...

... and green felt...

 

... although not at the same time!

P.S. The last few handmade pieces in my shop (teapot rosette brooches & swan masks) are now reduced to just £1 each. Grab a bargain and help me make room for some fun new things :) Update: these have now been sold! There are still some bargain copies of my books available though, along with some destash craft supplies: find them HERE.

Felt Hearts

Another project in my "work-in-progress" pile at the moment involves these felt hearts...

... I had a small bit of super thick handmade felt in my stash, left over from another project, and the bright pink just seemed so perfect for making something heart-themed.

P.S. Looking for crafty ideas for Valentine's Day? Check out the round-up I shared earlier this month of all my past Valentine's-inspired projects. 

Craft Ideas for Valentine's Day

I got very inspired by Valentine's Day and all things heart-themed this time last year, which was rather ironic given it was the first Valentine's Day I'd spent as a single lady in about 10 years! Creativity eh? It works in funny ways :)

Anyway... I thought it'd be helpful to do a quick round up of last year's projects, in case you were planning some Valentine-themed crafting this year.

(Clockwise from top left)

You could...
... make a Valentine's garland, counting down the days with 14 little love notes in 14 mini envelopes
... sew a mini cross stitch heart brooch (or a whole set of brooches as gifts for your friends)
... make a cute owl-themed Valentine's Day card (Owl Always Love You!)
... opt for something simple, with a mini envelope Valentine's card
... throw a party with a heart theme, using felt hearts + washi tape to decorate place cards, etc
... or embroider a romantic little heart and frame it in an embroidery hoop

I also wrote a very handy post last year with links to all my previous heart-themed projects (including the mini cushion (pillow) covered in buttons, a faux bois embroidered heart, a felt heart brooch and cute felt lavender sachets pictured below) plus ideas for adapting some of my paper crafting projects when throwing a Valentine's Day party.

Not a fan of St Valentine? Lots of these tutorials would also make sweet gifts for anniversaries or for couples getting married this year.

P.S. Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

DIY Wedding Ideas with Felt + Washi Tape

The third and final project this week is actually several mini projects - a selection of crafty ideas using pretty washi tape and little felt hearts.

I designed them with a DIY wedding in mind, but you could also use these ideas for engagement or anniversary parties, or for girly birthday parties... any occasion you want to make extra special with a bit of crafty love and lots of matching/themed details.

The basic how-to goes like this:

1) Choose a pretty washi tape that matches your chosen felt colour, or a felt colour that matches your favourite washi tape! I used "deep pink" wool blend felt (from the range I sell in my shop) and cute polkadot tape from Papermash.

2) Cut out lots of felt hearts using the template from this project. (Check out this post for tips on cutting out small felt shapes).

3) Stick felt hearts and bits of tape to everything paper-based to do with your party :)

You can tear the washi tape to give a lovely rough-edged look, or cut the tape to be slightly longer than required and trim any excess with scissors. I turn the tags/card/etc over first and use the paper edge as a guide when cutting, for extra neatness.

The felt hearts can be stuck in place with a dab of craft glue or small pieces of double-sided sticky tape.

Here are a few ideas for ways to use the hearts + tape...

Mini invitations or "Save the Date" cards. I handwrote these, but you could type a page of invites (leaving space on the right for adding the decoration) and print them onto blank card... or write one in your best handwriting, scan it in, copy and paste to create a full page of ready-to-decorate invites.

Add a strip of tape to the envelope - either on the front, or use the tape as a decorative "seal" on the flap (washi tape peels off quite easily so make sure your envelope is properly sealed if you're sending it through the post!).

Place cards. More mini cards, with a small space to write a guest's name. 

Bags of Confetti or Favours for your guests. Fill mini glassine envelopes with confetti, or with sweets / other small favours and seal it with a piece of the washi tape (extra bonus points if the contents match the colours on your chosen tape!).

I filled my envelope with cute heart-shaped polkadot buttons from Big Fish - a mini envelope full of buttons and bits of ribbon would be a lovely party favour for a craft-themed birthday party.

Food Labels. Make sweet and simple labels for piles of sandwiches, cakes or other food you're serving at a buffet. Put the details of the food on the front, with a line of tape along the bottom, and then tear a small piece of tape and use it to fix a cocktail stick to the back. You could use clear sticky tape for the back if you prefer, but I quite like the idea of the back looking almost as cute as the front.

Gift tags. Finally, if you're hosting a party for someone and you've got gifts to wrap, why not make some pretty tags? You could also use these at a wedding if you're giving little gifts to your bridesmaids, etc. Use plain wrapping paper in colours picked out from the tape.

Decorate large tags with tape and a trio of hearts (plenty of room to write a special thankyou message on the back)...

... or decorate mini tags with a single felt heart. 

Please note: this tutorial is for non-commercial use only. You may borrow one or two photos if you want to blog about my projects but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce entire blog posts on your site. Thanks! 

Fancy some more project ideas? Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

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