U-handblog

Craft Mag with bag tut & kit giveaway!

This particular mag contains one of my early bag making tutorials and lots of other sewing tips, tutorials and info.

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This bag has free-moving strings of beads attached to the flap, a flat bottom, and a firm boxy structure.

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I called this bag 'Old Romantic' because I used some vintage Moda fabric and I made this bag for a tutorial for the Feb '07  issue of Sewing World.  A year on and I'm a little wiser (in bag making terms) so one thing I would change about this tutorial is that I would trim off your seam allowance off the extra firm interlining before sewing with it.  It makes for a much smoother result and it makes turning right side out so much easier.

Draw Details

I'll send this magazine and the necessary metal hardware and interlinings needed to make the bag to 1 lucky draw winner.

To enter all you have to do is comment on THIS PARTICULAR POST by:

• Giving me your suggestions for a simple bag making tutorial that I could submit to Whip up for Feb.  My mind has gone blank.

 

Contest Official-ness :

• I'll randomly draw the winner in a weeks time - 7th Feb and announce the winner the following day-ish.  Good luck! 
• Can you please make a donation for the postage? 
• Sorry I can't notify winners, so please keep an eye for the winner announcement.  This is made easier for you if you subscribe to this blog so you don't have to keep checking back, although it's always great to have you pop-in for a read :0)
• Sorry I can't reply to contest/draw comments, but I do love reading every single one :)

A blog editor that really works and is FREE!

I just wanted to tell you about a cool blog editor that I have been testing and using for the last 2 weeks.  I'm not being hired by these guys or anything, it's just that I really like when things work (especially when they're free!)

The editor is called Qumana.  Here are the things I like about it:

1. It's very easy to use.
2. There is a Mac & a PC (but not Vista - thanks for the tip Tina) **Update** Tina's asked around and it looks like this work fine on Vista :)
3. You don't need to log in to your blog in order to write a post, you don't even need to be online.
4. It looks pretty.
5. You can save posts to come back to later (which is relief for Typepad users).
6. Inserting pics and links is quick and easy.
7. It works for all the main blogs and you can use it for as many blogs as you want.
8. It has spell check (after all of these years I still can't touch-type!)
9. It has a good amount of editing tools.
10. It's free, free, free!

Here's a screen shot of me composing this very post with Qumana on my Mac. That's kinda mirror within a mirror isn't it?

Skating on thin ice

I hope you all had a lovely weekend.  I had a really nice weekend.  Yesterday it was my sister's birthday (hi Wendy!) so we went ice skating to celebrate.  We went to an absolutely beautiful (at least by London standards) outdoor rink which is set in the huge courtyard of historic Somerset House.  I was a bit nervous about going skating (it had been a good while since last time), but the site was so beautiful, I managed to not end up on my bum, and Wendy and I had a really great time. We finished the night off with a yummy dinner too...

The back of Somerset House courtyard.

Yep, she cuts a fine dash.  Spookily it turned out that Wendy's lovely green and grey outfit matched her skates perfectly.

"Sisters on ice are twice as nice" - or something like that.

The entrance to the  courtyard.   Fresh ice just waiting to be mashed up by arm-waving blundering non-skaters (like me).

On the way to the restaurant we saw this cool shop.  Of course you never know when you'll need theatrical make-up and a mask for a glamorous ball in Venice (hint hint Al!)

Dinner was a yummy Mongolian Hotpot.  You get to choose from a menu of raw meats, vegetables, fungi, and seafood, and you also get a pot of steaming savoury broth which sits on a burner to keep it bubbling.  You then cook the stuff in the broth and gossip as you cook.  The only thing is you end up eating loads because it's a slow relaxed way of eating.  Sooo glad that we didn't eat before skating!  My jeans feel rather tight today...

What are your biggest challenges regarding running your Craft Business? Tell us and win some Amy Butler goodness!!

'Scuse me, but this post is an extension of a contest post I'm running on my CraftBoom! blog.  I've asked readers to give me their input on what they'd like from an upcoming Craft Business meeting place website that we are working on.  In return for your feedback you could win 2 yummy Amy Butler Home Dec patterns!!

The reason that I've posted this contest on U-Handblog is that the contest in CraftBoom! is only open to USA residents (not my rules!) so I thought it only fair to give folks from outside the US a chance to give their precious input and win too.

To enter all you have to do is comment on THIS PARTICULAR POST in U-Handblog by:   

• Reading through this post on CraftBoom! and then answering both of the questions in the comments on THIS blog.
  

Contest Official-ness

   
• Only open to residents OUTSIDE of the United States.  If you're from the US you can pop over and enter the same contest here.    

• I'll randomly draw the winner on the 1st Feb and I'll announce the winner the following day-ish. Good luck!
   
• Sorry, I can't notify winners so please keep an eye for the winner announcement.  This is made easier for you is you if you subscribe to this blog (although it's always great to have you drop in for a read).
  
   
• Sorry I can't reply to contest comments, but I do love reading every single one.    

I can be weird, maybe even amazing...

Here are some cool sewing tunes, this time it's all fab female vocalists.  Please feel free to help yourself to Dusty Springfield, or Feist, or Amy Winehouse.  Enjoy!

Thanks Sweet Jo for thinking that I am both weird and amazing; I'm happy to take both as  a compliment :) So in return for my kooky award I'm supposed to list 7 weird things about me...

   
1. Numbers freak me out.  I detest math of all kinds.  I shy away from doing most all sums, and I don't count my change in shops (when the cashiers count down the change for me it all goes over my head while I smile like a idiot) .  It took me 4 attempts to get my basic math cert (GSCE as it's known in the UK) and that was just so I could get into Uni.  In the end (at aged 24) I needed to pay for private tuition to get me through the math exam that is designed for a 16 yr old!  And here I am running a business?!??  If it wasn't for my numerate hubby, I'd be stuffed!
   
2. I hate clothes shopping.   Some of you may know this already, but what I've never mentioned is that it's gotten to the point where going out is often a real brain ache for me because I genuinely have nothing to wear and I mean that literally.  Every time just before I go out I rifle though my pitiful wardrobe and I think to myself 'this is insane, I MUST go clothes shopping (or sew loads of lovely clothes'). But being short in the UK makes for miserable clothes shopping so I studiously avoid it.
   
3. I might have too many 'favourites'.  I know lots of us have fave craft tools and a fave mug (one for coffee, and another for tea) etc., but I also have fave cutlery, crockery, pans, knives,  utensils, dining table place, side of bed, place on sofa, pens, pencils, washing up liquid.  At home I'm irritatingly uncompromising about these things and I have been known to ask dinner guests to surrender their (my fave) cutlery to me because it's mistakenly been given to them to use (I mean, really!)
   
4. I eat things in a weird way.  I'm very prescriptive about the way I eat certain things and I can't seem to stop, for example: corn on the cob: eaten in straight stripes from fat end to thin and then back again, prawns: eaten in 3 bites from head end to tail (I don't eat the head itself), chicken wings: skin side eaten first before underside, jacket potato: lots of butter mashed into potato, then potato scooped out of skin and eaten before eating skin last,..there are many more examples, but I already sound weird enough....
   
5. I am ridiculously easily distracted. This drives me up the wall, for example: whilst writing this post I have: made myself a cup of tea and a ham and lettuce sandwich, bought a calendar from ebay, answered 5 emails, and chosen what fabric I am going to use to make my next bag (which will be Amy Butler's Kimberly Bag).  Gaahh!  It's amazing I get anything done!
   
6. You should see my WIP box...I don't want to talk about it.
   
7. I am a shy exhibitionist - like Jo I'm very happy in  my own company, but when I'm out I  enjoy socialising.  That said I'm actually quite shy when meeting new people (I don't drink or smoke so I don't get any social lubricant and nothing for my hands to fidget with).  I do manage, it's not like I walk around hiding behind my fringe, it's just that mostly I'm kind of awkward in new company.  This isn't at all weird in itself, the thing that is weird is that I'm a ridiculously confident dancer (I didn't say good, though I have been told lots of times that I am. Heh!).  I'll be first on and last off the dance floor and if there was a pole in the middle of it I'd probably shimmy up and down that too.

OK, who else fancies being weird and amazing?  No offense meant, but if Joanna, and Wendy, and Kathi, and Simone, and Anina, and Anna, and Zoe, would like to pick up the award it's all yours.  In fact, if anyone else wants it go knock yourselves out.  I'll happily give it to you as long as you share how weird you are (weird is good, spread the weird).

And the winner of the Artist's Cafe journal is...

Okeydoke, so there were 49 entries Today the Random Number Picker (so you can blame it; it's nothing to with me!) chose the number 41.

So will Brenda who wrote:

"My fav sewing tools-my ginghers are awesome, fabric tac glue. and my assortment of vintage lace!
Thanks for entering me in the contest,
Bliss Happens,
brenda bliss"

Will you please step forward and send me your mailing address?

Sorry if you didn't get lucky this time. As ever I have another nice giveaway in the works coming real sooon.

New yummy Bag Eye Candy

Hi Everyone!  I hope you all had a nice weekend.  I had a full weekend myself.  It was my best friend's birthday so I made her a pair of long lounge/pajama pants out of this pattern and this fabric.  I added a  ribbon tie, a ribbon trimmed back pocket, and they came out pretty groovy :)  I was in too much of a rush to take a piccy, but I'm going to make some for myself so I'll take a pic of those.

Hmm I'm not too sure about the cow print...

We went to see some stand-up comedy as well, but the comedian seemed to rely mainly on talking about toilet humour and men and lady bits to get a laugh out of the audience.  It's alright for the first few times, but to keep on and on and...yawwwn.

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I have just posted the first Bag Eye Candy of the year in Flickr (click on any of the pics to enlarge and read/make comments). 

To see this and more luscious bags made by you clever folks look here.
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Have you entered the draw for the Artist's Cafe Journal yet?  Closing date is tomorrow (22nd Jan). Good luck!

Amy Butler's 4 New patterns have arrived!

I'm really glad that you're liking the Ironing Board Cover tutorial - why shouldn't we have cute IBCs too?  :)

Ohhhh YEAH!  After days of camping by the front door Amy's patterns finally arrived from the US today and they were all worth the wait.  I now stock all 4 of Amy's new patterns.    Woo Hoo!
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All four of Amy's patterns are available here - yum yum!

SUPER Easy Ironing Board Cover Tutorial

Thanks for your ironing board cover (IBC) tutorial requests. Calling this a tutorial might be pushing it slightly as it is outrageously easy, but then, really easy is really good right?  This one is for everyone who asked for it (especially Ian, because I love it when fellas drop in for a read).

You won't need to make a casing, obtain cord for ties, or even thread a cord for the casing (which is fantastic for lazy busy ol' me) because we are going to use the casing from the old IBC. Of course, in order to follow this tutorial the casing on your old IBC will need to be intact.  If it isn't you will need to make a cover with all new casing - and if that's the case check out Anna's IBC tutorial where she shows you how to start from scratch and not be lazy like me (and hers is a funky orange 70's number).

My old IBC removed from it's frame.  The old cover has gooey fusible interfacing adhesive all over it, (I'm always getting that stuff on the flipping ironing board), and anyways this cover isn't very good looking.  I'm keeping the fleece padding, it's worn in the middle, but I can do something about that.

'Well hello there pretty thing, let's slip and slide together...!"   Here's my travel iron getting fresh with the new IBC.  The fabric is some Kaffe Fasset which I've had in my stash for yonks.  Perhaps it's a little extravagant, but ironing is so tedious that a cheerful IBC might just make it a bit more bearable...perhaps not.

Here’s How I put it all together

Shopping list (as if you were shopping and not using your own stash fabrics)

• 100% cotton fabric (quilt to medium weight works best)
• Some heavy-ish weight 100% cotton furnishing (home dec. weight) fabric
  

 NB: all seam allowances are 1cm (3/8”) unless otherwise stated. Pattern includes 1cm seam allowance.

1. Remove IBC and padding from ironing board - IMPORTANT: do not cut the ties or the casing, we need to keep them in one piece for later.  Smooth out the IBC completely flat and press (heh! now you've no ironing board to press the IBC on: you can use a towel on the table).

2.   Mark a 1" margin all around the IBC -  measure 1" (2.5cm) from the outer edge of the casing all around the IBC.

Measure & mark a 1" (2.5cm) margin all around the old IBC.

3.  Cut the 1" (2.5cm) margin off from the old IBC -  be careful NOT to make the first incision from the outer edge of the IBC.  Keep the precious margin for later.

Make the first incision straight into the 1" (2.5cm) margin.  Don't cut through the casing and string.

4. Cut out the new IBC fabric - lay  the old IBC (minus the margin you've just cut off) onto your new IBC fabric and using the old IBC as a guide cut out the new IBC plus a 1" (2.5cm) margin.  Set aside the old IBC, you're done with it now.

Snip snip all around the old IBC adding a 1" (2.5cm) margin.

5.  Pin the 1" (2.5cm) margin (with casing and tie) of the old IBC to the new IBC fabric - bring the right sides (and raw edges) of the margin and the new IBC fabric together.   Match the position of the flat edge and pointed ends (of the IBC) on the margin to the new IBC as best as you can - it doesn't have to be exact as all of this will be on the underside). 

Start pinning the two fabrics together at the flat end (or bottom end) of the IBC working your way up evenly on both sides (in other words do not pin one side to the pointed end before doing the other side).  Stop pinning before you reach the tip (see pic below).

I have stopped pinning just before the tip and there doesn't appear to be enough old IBC margin for the new IBC fabric.  That's OK; it's all part of the plan Stan.

I have made a pen mark at the approx centre of the tip of the new IBC.  I have also made a corresponding centre mark on the tip of the old IBC margin.  I'm am now going to pin the 2 centre points together and continue pinning the margin to the new IBC fabric....

...as you pin the margin to the new IBC you'll notice that the new IBC fabric ruffles up (can you say 'ruffles' up?  Maybe it should be 'bunches' up...achh. You know what I mean).   Ruffling up is OK, just keep the ruffles reasonably equal in size and be generous with the pins.

6.  Stitch the margin to the new IBC fabric - I would suggest no less than a 1cm (3/8") seam allowance, and stitch on the margin side, it's easier.

If you have a stitch on your sewing machine (like the one that my scissors are pointing to) use that because it does a straight stitch and a zig-zag all in one go which is handy because it stitches fabrics and prevents the raw edges from fraying at the same time.  Use a short length stitch for strength (because the margin is going to take a lot of tension from having the ties pulled taut in side the casing) with a wide zig-zag.
   
If you don't have a stitch like this on your sewing machine just sew using a short length straight stitch and then go over the raw edges with a zig-zag stitch.

7.  Cut furnishing fabric to fit ironing board frame - this heavyish fabric will bulk up the old ironing board padding and will prevent the grid of the frame coming through on my ironing  (which is sooo annoying!)

Use your ironing board as a guide and cut around with approx 2cm extra.

8.  Assemble your brand spanking new ironing board - righty, starting from the bottom: lay the new IBC wrong side up, then the old padding, then the furnishing fabric piece, and finally the ironing board frame on the table.  Jiggle the layers around until all is even.   Pull the ties until your fingers go white, tie into a bow, and you're all done.  I bet you can't wait to attack that mountain of ironing now...hmm... perhaps you can.

One new IBC using old casing and ties; clever eh?

I hope you enjoy giving this tutorial a go, if you do I'd really love to see a pic of it in the new "Bags made from my tutorials' Flickr group.  I'll be checking it regular!

   

Shop, don't shop.

The weather is particularly rubbish, which makes it even nicer to be warm indoors with my itunes and sewing machine.  Here are some fab 'you know 'em and you love 'em' classics that I'm listening to.  Feel free to help yourself to Nina Simone, or Neil Young, or Etta James...mmm cosy :)

Have you entered this giveaway by telling us what your fave crafting tools are yet?  Quite a few of you (who have entered the draw) mentioned Gingher shears and cutters. I've never heard of Gingher so I went to check out their website...and drool (you have great taste!)  I'm in the market for a pair of pinking shears, but these 8" flowery jobbies are also delish.

More shopping around:

• Karina makes amazing one off handmade leather bags all by herself - she used to be a costume designer and maker for pop and film stars (so she's knows a thing or two).
• Zoe has designed a stylish print - she is selling it in her Etsy and she is donating £2.50 ($5) of each sale to the MS society.
• Very delicious handmade jewelry by Close to the bone - bold and individual pieces some of them making use of these rings (which look fab, it's great seeing them used jewelry like this)
• Nice Czech vintage buttons - lots of them going for a song.  The shop is based the Ukraine and Karina (see above) assures me that the lady who runs the shop is very nice and reliable.

How dinky doo is this button = 60p ($1.20)

I love this one, I'd put it on  champagne or teal coloured satin clutch = £1.50 ($3.00)

And NOT shopping (as I will be making myself):

• I need some pedal pusher pajama bottoms - to keep my bum warm in bed, but short enough to leave my legs free.
• I'm going to make something wall mounted and pretty to display my necklaces - because I'm so fed up with having to untangle them just as I'm leaving the house and I'm like 20 minutes late already!!!  I think I will post a tutorial for this.
• My table top ironing board needs a new cover  - If you would like me to make up a tutorial for this (which I'm sure would be appropriate for most any ironing board) please let me know in the comments and if enough of you folks do, I'll get one together :)