cute buttons and things

I went to spotlight last week and couldn't resist these cat themed buttons. They would look great on a bag - not all on the same bag though :)

This first button says 'Queen of the Jungle' underneath the kitty. It's a bit blurry because my camera wouldn't zoom in properly on the small button.


I love the colours and designs of these buttons:


I saw this felt for 50c and thought that it would be great for applique.
The hanger is for a christmas card holder I'm making. I just noticed that the wire hanger cat shape looks a bit weird. I wonder what the bump under the cat's face is supposed to be? It's chin? Stump from a missing leg?

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Ooooh, Pleated Beauty is complete!

I finished sewing the bag together last night. I was like a kid at Christmas when I finally got to turn the bag inside out to see what it finally looked like. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. The pattern & instructions for the Pleated bag were from Amy Karol's Bend-The-Rules Sewing book.



No show without punch of course. Milly had to climb in and investigate.

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What is it going to be??

I started making this yesterday. I'm really happy with the way the cat stitching turned out. The butterflies were raw edge appliqued from some pretty material I had in my stash. I roughly cut around the butterfly and then ironed some double-sided interfacing onto the back. Then I carefully cut around the butterfly, peeled off the interface backing paper and ironed it onto my material. I then used a beige metrosene thread and made made tiny stitches all the way around so that it doesn't fray too much. I used a gold metallic thread and backstitched the butterfly antennas. I'm still halfway through making this project so I will keep you posted - literally!

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I made this xmas tree skirt on Saturday. It was really easy. I didn't have any major problems at all. When I was trying to sew a decorative stitch on the fleece, my needle kept jamming. I just left it as straight stitch. I need to get a 'blue tip' needle - so my sewing machine manual says.
Anyway, other than that it was super easy. The snowmen and holly were mostly glued together which was really quick. My tips: Don't put too much glue on the back of the fabric as it can seep through to the front. The glue says it dries clear but you can still see it on felt.
The fabrics I used are really nice and soft. The cats thought that it was awesome and everytime I turned around one (or both!) would sneak in and curl up on it.

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Felt Bunnies

I got the pattern for these bunnies from 'The Cute Book'. They are really easy to make. The instructions say to hand sew it all together but I machine stitched mine. The larger one was going to be for a toddler so I wanted it to be strong.

I photocopied the patterns from the book and then enlarged it by 200% for the small bunnies. For the larger bunny I just free-handed it bigger when I cut the pieces out. I stuck the pattern pieces onto cardboard and then cut them all out. That way I can re-use them.
Tip: I save bits of cardboard from packaging, boxes etc and put them in my sewing room to re-use for making templates.

I traced the pattern pieces on to felt and cut them out. The instructions say to glue the legs, arms and ears to the dress & head but I just pinned them. I used the small buttonhole stitch on my machine to stitch around the dress and head leaving an opening for stuffing. Then I stuffed the two pieces and buttonhole stitched the openings closed. The stuffing makes it a little difficult on the machine but if you stretch the opening out, pin it and hold it stretched while you sew the ends meet up. For the small bunnies I just sewed the head to the front of the dress. But I didn't like the look from the back.

For the larger bunny I cut the dress slightly longer at the top and slipped it into the head opening. Then I sewed it together. The head is a little floppy though so I sewed a couple of hearts onto the neck and that stabilised it a little better.

The felt I used was just cheap craft felt. I think proper felted wool would be a lot nicer, fluffier and softer if you are making them as toys. I'm going to get some real wool felt and see how that turns out. I'll have to enlarge the pattern again though as they are still too small.

Here they are ...

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