Mail Organiser

It will be a bit quiet on my blog for a couple of weeks as we are going away on holiday tomorrow. But before we leave I will be popping into a fabric market. It happens once or twice a year in different parts of Germany and tomorrow will be in Frankfurt. I hope to buy some nice fabrics and make some photos to show you.

Together with the washing and packing today, I managed to find an hour to make something for Lovely Husband. The idea came to me last month as I dutifully “filed” a couple of bills under a big pile of Country Living magazines and somehow managed to forget all about it. So the unopened letters were finally discovered by Lovely Husband who suspected I had mislaid them, and I decided to make a mail organiser. It is strategically hanging in the corridor so theoretically letters should be placed in each pouch straight away.

I took photos while making it and it and it took just over an hour.

So here is what you need – 4 square pieces of outside fabric, 4 square pieces of inside fabric and 4 big and 4 small rectangular pieces for the straps. You can choose any shape for the pouches; I made squares simply because I did not have more space to hang it. Oh, and don’t forget a nice twig carefully chosen by your little one (preferably on a dry day) to hang the mail organiser.

I appliquéd each pouch with our initials.

I used the simple method of sewing the inside and the outside pouch face together, leaving a big bit open on the back side to turn it around and so to be able to insert the straps.

When both pouches were ready and attached to each other, I added the top straps before finishing it off. Don’t forget the twig!

I hope there won’t be any more lost letters in our house!

Wishing you all a nice summer break! Northern Germany here we come!

Love
Irina xx

German Handmade Culture

It’s been a while, but I haven’t deserted you, I’ve just been busy … I wish I could say I was busy crafting and making but unfortunately, that would be a lie.

A surprising meeting a few weeks ago resulted in a most unusual acquaintance as I bumped into one of our old neighbours. We didn’t have a lot of time to talk, or the means to exchange numbers, so as we parted I handed over one of my “business cards” as it contains all of my contact details. Little did I know that I was going to get a lovely comment on my blog as I had no idea that my former neighbour is a fellow sewer and maker, passionate about fabrics, colours and making things – from girl’s clothes, to stuffed horses, to cute tea cosies, to name a few. We have since seen each other a few times and it seems the time is never enough to discuss fabrics and designs, pattern making and bias tape tips, English sewing books and German handmade sites. I have had my first taste of clothes making – only theoretically so far, as clothes making is something which I have always avoided as it is so hard to make clothes, isn’t it?

So Lovely Former Neighbour has since opened up another world of fabrics and ideas. As my German is so poor, I hardly ever attempt to browse German sites, and although I suspected it, I was quite stunned to see all the creativity to be had among German fellow crafters, a truly inspirational community!

I would love to share a couple of sites which I hope you'll find interesting even if you don't speak German:

• A new craft community website has been launched recently called Handmade Kultur, it is full of projects and information, ideas and photos. It even prints its own magazine! Oh, how I wish I spoke better German, must learn!!!
• Farbenmix – translated Colourmix, is a shop crammed with tutorials and photos of items made using their fabrics and trimmings. By the way it is especially famous for its very beautiful colourful trimmings
• Sewing Cloths Kids Love - simply the cutest kids clothes book I have come across- lovely Dutch inspired fabrics combined together to create the happiest and colourful kids clothes

I hope you enjoy a bit of German inspiration! I know I do!

Love,
Irina xx

Free Motion Embroidery

Anyone who has ever attempted free motion embroidery on their sewing machine would know that it is quite tricky! Yes, believe me…quite tricky! In my case the bottom thread often gets chewed and creates lumps which stop me from moving the fabric. And since the stitch size has to be set to zero, it is all in the hands of the sewer, and despite the fact that my knuckles go white from gripping the embroidery hoop I always fail to follow the line I have pre drawn. What can I say, it is annoying…and what makes it even more annoying is that a man (OK, I am being a bit feminist here) has managed to master this not-so-easy-to-master technique and without any drawing or the use of a embroidery hoop is able to create the neatest free motion sewing!

I was pretty speechless the first time I saw this video. The man in question, Paul Nosa, is an American artist who creates his own label and with the help of his solar powered sewing machine tours the world to show his skill – if only I could do it too! The sewing not the touring, although having said that, sewing touring is actually not a bad idea!!!




Love,
Irina xx

Love letter

Just wanted to share with you a photo which Lovely Mum sent me of the letter shaped cushion I made for her last week. It's the letter D, and mum requested that it was made in soft shades. She quite likes light browns, creams and pale greens. So I made it in beige gingham and chose linen fabric for the side. I also choose the dark brown piping to compliment the light colours and make the shape stand out! My mum loves it!

I love you mum!

Irina xx

Busy week

As you might have guessed already “T-shirt challenge” is officially cancelled! I will be making more nice tops for Little Daughter, no doubt, but in the mean time my inspiration is flowing in a different direction.

Well I am busy sewing patchwork balls and letter cushions. I will tell you why and show you photos as soon as I can…

I also wanted to share a blog which I found a while ago, and who has just won the Dorset Cereal Blog Award for April...and absloutley great read...it reminds me that at one point of life everyone could be / has been an Accidental Londoner!


Love,

Irina xx

A post in between

I have been thinking a lot since I read a post on another blog about what makes us read blogs. It has been quite an eye opener and it kind of really left me thinking, about a lot of blog related things. And I’ve decided that I can’t just get away with making average photos and post average posts, so I have been searching the internet for help on how to make good photos. Obviously I only have my camera – a Sony Cyber shot 7.2 mega pixels, which is great for “average, a bit blurry, but who cares” holiday snaps, but absolutely ( or maybe not so ) useless for lovely detailed photos in vivid colours ( or maybe I should research Photoshop instead).

Lovely Husband on the other hand has his Canon bladi-bladi-bla with two different lenses and who knows how many features. Well I have been gently asked not to use it and even if I did, he is the only one who has the software for downloading the snaps and also I think he still has all the photos since he first got the camera, a good couple of thousand.

So I have just found out how to take close up photos, and although the light isn’t perfect and there is still a lot ( a lot, a lot) to be desired, I had to share my latest project or at least bits of it. I hope to show you more very soon.

Also I would like to share the link to the blog Zuhause in Germany, where I read the post about 5 Reasons Why I Read Your Blog – a very thoughtful and actually funny read.

And here is a video I recently watched called The Story of Stuff, on a blog written by the husband of my friend Gingerbread Dough Mummy. This is a video about consumerism and although a tad long it is absolutely worth seeing ( if you haven’t seen it already on youtube).

I wish I could change the world!


Love
Irina xx

T-shirt Challenge - Part 2

So here is T-shirt No2 - Strawberry Jam.


I chose this one because I think Little Daughter will be too big for it by the time she will wear long sleeves again, and it is not too ruined, only slightly less red, from too many washes. Red is Little Daughters favourite colour and it actually suits her really well.

T-shirt before

So here is what I did. First I removed the sleeves. Ironed one of the sleeves and used it as a pattern (no surprise here). Initially I wanted a short puffed sleeve, but since I am not a seamstress, and don’t really know what I am doing, I cut it way too long and it ended up being sort of three quarter length.

The T-shirt after

I did puffed sleeve yesterday so today I wanted to make something different. It is funny how checks and dots shouldn’t really work together! I grew up being told that mixing colours or prints doesn’t work. I actually took this for granted, and never really tried! But today as I was playing with the different fabrics I realised that this is not completely true…and I think that the red gingham works lovely with the red polka dot!

The hardest part for me when making something is when to stop…should I just leave the sleeves, or should I add a collar or a cupcake appliqué, pockets or yo-yo’s or maybe some other kind of embellishment. Well as Little Daughter tried it I decided that sometimes less is actually more, so only sleeves!

"Yawn, oh mummy, can I go now!"

Another one on Wednesday!

Love ,

Irina xx

P.S. I have just received a permission from Lovely Husband to use his Canon camera, so I really hope I can produce some better photos.