March 14, 2014

Offcuts!

I have been eyeing up leather offcuts on Ebay for a while, attempting to make an educated guess as to which would be the colours I was after (as in browns, grey, off white), and given I only need small pieces, took the plunge earlier this week...


...and here they are.  This bag is 100g in weight and was only cheap, less than £3, and the colours are just about perfect.  Now to see if the idea I have for them works!

March 11, 2014

Sewing Bee...

The Great British Sewing Bee has been a fantastic vehicle to encourage home sewers to pick up their needles and thread, and with Series 2 in full swing and Series 3 already recruiting, it was decided to give a sewing themed fundraising day a try at my son's primary school.

I am a member of the 'PTA', albeit on the periphery as I am often unable to volunteer due to logistical issues and other commitments, but I do stick my hand up if and when I can.  When the Sewing Bee idea was floated, we did initially want to go down the Softie route and make something from the book, but in the end it made sense to go with a simpler project, as when working with little ones, you really can end up spending the whole time just threading needles.  After a bit of googling, the often used idea of a finger puppet and an easter egg fitted the bill nicely, so I quickly knocked up my own version.   


The idea is to have different projects for different skill levels,


the chick being the easiest as we can just glue the eyes and beak on,


 followed by the rabbit, 


and then the easter egg for the parents to make which opens up at the back to house a bit of chocolate.

It's hard to gauge how well attended these things will be.  The last time I taught in school, I had a class of 31 year 9's, but they didn't have a choice, a captive audience!  We made ladybirds, from the pattern I put together for Whip Up


they finished them off the week after I was in but my daughter was allowed to take some photographs for me of some of the ladybirds.  They all did really well.

I will report back on the Sewing Bee, fingers crossed it is a Sewing Bee and not a Sewing Zzzzzzzz!