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Finished fabric wallet

Make your own mini wallet

Jennifer D Begg —  August 27, 2012 — Leave a comment

I’m fed up of my plastic Oyster card holder looking crappy after only a couple of weeks (maybe I’m just really abusive to them). So I decided to make myself a more durable, and let’s face it prettier, fabric one:

First I made my template

Measuring

TemplateI left a 1cm seam round the edge and 2cm in the middle but I only sewed about a 0.5cm edge which gave me more room to stuff cards and receipts.

I then cut out 1 template of lining fabric, 1 outer and 2 pocket. All the templates are the same because you double over the pocket fabric (cut a 1cm off the bottom so that there’s a gap between them.

Fabric and templateLay out the inner backing fabric and folder pockets the right way round with all edges aligned. Then place the right side of the outer fabric directly on top, right side against right side. Pin around the edge and sew all around leaving the 2 cm gap between each set of pockets un-sewn.

Pin and sewTo turn everything the right way round, push in both pockets and squeeze through one of the 2cm gaps.

Turning the right wayWhen you’ve pulled the whole thing through, use the holes to push out all the corners and lay the wallet flat. iron flat making sure that the middle un-sewn edges are seamed.

Push out all the cornersSew both edges and pack full of all your wallet stuffs.

Fabric WalletEt voila!

Finished fabric wallet

Finished fabric wallet

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i_2012081310464489

MONSTER!

Jennifer D Begg —  August 13, 2012 — Leave a comment

Last week I shared my Top 5 Crafty Web Tools so this week I thought I’d share the fruits of one of the websites mentioned.

Ravelry. Oh how I love you. Whenever I am lost in a sea of confusion over what to give as a gift, you have the answer.

Monster

My niece just turned 3 and I knew she would get a lot of toys and clothes and I wanted to get her something different, something that might outlast the Peppa Pig / Hello Kitty obsession (though these look set to continue for many years to come).

This is the first project I’ve done on circular needles and I was a bit nervous but I have to say the pattern from Rebecca Danger was very easy to follow and she even pointed me to YouTube for specific technique videos (you can see why this would appeal to me).

When Isla informed me that she would also need a Daddy monster and two babies, I knew it was a success. Now where did I put those circular needles…

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letter in the flowers ready for sending

Guest Post: Fairy Dust

Jennifer D Begg —  August 7, 2012 — Leave a comment

Guest post from Fairy Rosa who’s working for a lovely little crafty start up:

Hello and a big thank you to Jennifer for letting us do a guest blog post. This is about a small startup called fairy letters. A girl called Emily came up with the idea of us sharing our fairy letter magic with others. She received letters from fairies when she was little and they were a magical part of her childhood. She arranged for us to make fairy letters for her friends and family and then decided to make us a website so that others could share the magic of fairy letters too.

letter in the flowers ready for sending

I am Fairy Rosa and make some of the fairy letters that get flown worldwide. People e-mail us saying what message they would like; some are for children who have lost their teeth, some for people who are nervous about going into hospital or exams and some are just for friends who would like a bit of fairy magic in their lives.

All of the letters are handmade and we start by writing a personalised message on a piece of carefully selected paper, we then attach a gem and add some of our fairy dust (with a bit of glue to keep it there!) The next step is to wrap each letter in a different piece of coloured tissue and tie a ribbon around.

Teeny tiny letters

The little letter then gets put in a bag with fairy hearts, stars and lavender. A little fairy or star charm is tied to the top and they are flown all around the world overnight. We try and make the fairy letters on the same day that someone places an order so that they have to wait for as little time as possible!

We have an old treasure chest filled with ribbons, glitter, gems and a wide variety paper. Emily’s parents also let us pick lots of lavender from their garden, which we dry out and put in letters in the UK.

We are about to get some help from the elves to start making Christmas letters for boys and girls and are also starting to make some fairy letter bags as wedding favours. There are some limited edition wands coming soon too :)

We love making fairy letters and if you have any comments or questions we would love to hear from you at fairyletters@strawbug.co.uk or on twitter @fairyletters.

Little lavender letter

Lots of love and fairy wishes

Fairy Rosa xxx

For more details please have a look at our shop

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Pinterest

My top 5 crafty web tools

Jennifer D Begg —  August 4, 2012 — 3 Comments

I can’t tell you how much it pleases me when my two worlds of craft and technology come together. There are so many websites that help to fuel my craft addiction, here are my top five:

CraftGawker

A bit like Pinterest but gives the impression of being full to the gunnels of craft which makes it stand out for me.

Craft Gawker

StumbleUpon

I use StumbleUpon for many things, craft is just one of them. If I’m feeling crafty but not sure what I want to do a quick play with StumbleUpon never fails to spark an idea.

StumbleUpon

Pinterest

The obvious one and for good reason. Like StumbleUpon, I use Pinterest for many things but it’s great for craft patterns and ideas. I tend to take inspiration from a few sources then make something to my own design and Pinterest is great for that.

Pinterest

Ravelry

This is like having your uber knitter nan in the room with you. So much great advice in the forums, free patterns and project tracking. It really is the most essential site for beginners and experts alike.

Ravelry

YouTube

I took up knitting again after inheriting my mum’s knitting patterns. My sister handed them to me with a look of “well I’m not going to use them” so I knew I needed to make sure they didn’t go to waste. Where did I go to remind me where to start? You know the answer.

I’d also like to give an honourable mention for Flickr. I hate the interface but it is a great place to find pictures of different types of crafts and a fabulous source for Guerilla Knitting.

If you’re into craft you’re probably also thinking “wait, what about Etsy“. I love Etsy, it’s great for buying unique gift or selling your own hand made creations. This post is meant for inspiration and sharing ideas which is why I haven’t included it but it is a great site none the less.

What are your favourite sites for crafty inspiration?

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Snug as a bug in a rug

Geek Craft: Your iPad needs a cosy jumper

Jennifer D Begg —  June 26, 2012 — Leave a comment

I love a geek craft opportunity :)

So, when the lovely @SimonBegg treated me to a new iPad, I immediately got my knitting needles out. Now, I love a bit of tech but it doesn’t really feel like mine till I’ve knitted it a jumper (just ask my phone, kindle, iPod etc etc)

Knitting done - sewing next

Knitting done – sewing next

For my iPad I wanted to make sure the end product was thick and snug enough to offer a bit of protection from bumps. I found the best way to do this was to use super chunky wool with 5mm needles. It was a real pain to knit with because the needles were so small for this gauge of yarn (I should have been using at least 10mm) but worth it!

All sewn up

All sewn up

I used two and a bit balls of wool for the whole thing and because I had to use different colours, decided to contrast the stitching completely.

Snug as a bug in a rug

Snug as a bug in a rug

What I like about the end result is that it’s like a blank canvas where I can embroider flowers n stuff as I find the time… I feel a craft hour coming on :)

PS: Have a squiz at my Android phone cover for the Samsung Galaxy SII

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Pin in a pocket

Jennifer D Begg —  October 2, 2011 — Leave a comment

I knitted this for a friend’s birthday present. I always find little pockets handy for keeping stuff separate in my handbag and a little flower never fails to add a bit of colour :O)

Handy little pocket knitted with garter stitch

 

Peeking out is a little crochet flower pin brooch

 

Both pin and pocket have matching teal button

 

The flower is backed by two knitted petals as seen in previous post "Mrs B's Brooch"

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This IS the droid you’ve been looking for :O)

Jennifer D Begg —  September 21, 2011 — 2 Comments

 

Simon has had his new phone for a few months now but has been using his old knitted (or actually, my old knitted) phone cover which wasn’t quite long enough. So, for our anniversary, I decided to surprise him with a new custom made one.

Finished phone cover

Finished phone cover

He’s been asking for me to knit a cover with an android logo on it for a while now but I’m afraid I wimped out and went for the trusty felt and cross stitch option instead:

This is my little graph paper plan of the Android logo.

Android pattern

Planning out my pattern

 

I then cut out cross stitch fabric according to my pattern. I pinned and tacked the fabric in place and then cross stitched my Android according to my pattern.

Pin and sew

Pin and sew

Lining

Lining the cover

 

The lining I’ve used is actually an old pencil case that I ruined by leaving it on the windowsill next to a candle… I cut out two rectangles the size of simon’s phone and used running stitch to attach them to the felt.

Fitting the phone

Fitting the phone

 

I then made sure the phone fit inside the case and sewed both sides together leaving a .5cm space along the edge for blanket stitching.

Finished phone cover

Finished phone cover

 

Tad-ah!

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Stitchin it up at Tate Britain

Jennifer D Begg —  September 3, 2011 — Leave a comment

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=104087

Just your usual Friday night… knitting up a storm with Stitch London at “Late at the Tate” :O)

For more information visit Stitch London

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Lunch Time Crafting

Jennifer D Begg —  August 24, 2011 — 2 Comments

I’ve been looking for a business card holder for a little while now and have been largely disappointed with what’s on offer so… Channelling my inner Blue Peter, I grabbed a cereal box, some spare fabric, a pair of scissors, multi purpose super glue, ruler, pencil, masking tape and a spot of velcro and this is what I did:



I then cut out my design and scored along the folds using my ruler and a penknife. I covered one side with the glue before placing it on my fabric (making sure the design was in the correct position). I left the glue to dry then folded over the edges and covered the whole inside with strong masking tape (to ensure the glossy surface would stick to the inner felt fabric)

I then covered the masking tape in glue and placed the whole template on my sheet of felt

When the glue was dry, I cut the felt close to the edges and folded the template over my cards. Using a velcro circle as a fastener, I simply folded my new business card holder and fastened.

Perfect for my new addiction to moo.com  :O)

* 1cm border holds about 10 cards

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Better than a pair of socks

Jennifer D Begg —  August 23, 2011 — 2 Comments

I love sock toys! So quick and easy to make, you can do them in a lunch break (like I did today). This one is for a young man who has a little bit of an Owl fetish (shh, we try not to talk about it).

SO, happy birthday to Paul De Gregorio! Paul turns 40 very soon and instead of pressies he would love donations for the Alzheimers Society in memory of his Grandad who would have been 99 on the same day. Click here or text PAUL71 £10 to 70070 to donate – much better than socks :O)

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