Very Berry Handmade

by veryberryhandmade | February 22, 2012

These are a few of my…

Inspired by Lynne’s post about her favourite things, I thought I’d share a few of mine…

My most favourite part of my sewing kit is my needle book. This is one of the first things I made after I started sewing again, 3 or 4 years ago:

Excuse the rubbish pic, just goes to show, my photography skills have improved a bit since then! It’s made with a little scrap of my favourite Liberty print (Bourton) and pure wool felt, and it has got to be the most useful thing I have in my kit.

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My favourite sewing inspiration is Suzuko Koseki. I love the fact that she blends traditional and modern styles so effortlessly without compromising either, and her use of colour and print rarely fails to intrigue and inspire. I was just searching for a nice link to her lovely books - Playful Patchwork, Natural Patchwork and Patchwork Style, and happened to find this interview with her at Sewing Under Rainbow - she sounds like a lovely person. Here’s a pincushion I made using her pattern in Playful Patchwork.

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My favourite sewing tool is my wonderful pair of Janome Soft n Sharp Dressmaking Scissors with micro-serrated edges. I bought them about 6 years ago, and I have lost count of the times when I have accidentally cut paper or felt with them, but they are still as sharp as ever. They’re so comfortable to use too. Love them! I just wish they came in a better colour than Germolene pink.

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My favourite, never be without it, utility fabric (can’t think how else to describe it!), is Vilene G700 medium woven cotton iron-on interfacing. Some interfacings can leave fabric with a nasty ‘crunchy’ feeling, which means that they crease easily and just don’t feel right. Because G700 is woven cotton, it works with the fabric, instead of against it, and converts quilting cotton into something approaching a home dec weight whilst keeping it soft and flexible. Brilliant stuff.

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I’ve been wondering about whether to try and pin down my favourite fabric line or designer, but that’s utterly impossible… I can tell you the favourite fabric I have in my stash just now though…

Free as a Bird from Cut out and Keep by Heather Moore

It’s the gorgeous Free as a Bird from the Cut Out and Keep Collection by Heather Moore. I bought it in spring last year – still haven’t cut it!

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I’m trying to avoid chocolate at the moment, so I wont follow Lynne’s example and name my favourite chocolates (they’re by Paul A. Young if you want to know… woops I said it!), so instead I thought I’d tell you about my favourite possession instead. I love it with a passion and can’t wait to get it out from under the stairs very soon. No, it’s not the hoover…..

It’s my beautiful Yukon River 4. Can’t wait for the spring to come!

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Tell me about your favourite things… you know you want to…

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by veryberryhandmade | February 19, 2012

Weekly Fabric News Update

Focus on Felt

When I first started selling bits and pieces of my handmade things, I used quite a lot of felt and really struggled to get hold of good quality felt sheets for my projects. It’s so different now – there are masses of options, here are the ones that I’ve bought from and can properly recommend.

Blooming Felt sell 100% wool sheets in 2 thicknesses. The 1.5mm pieces are 8″ square, and the 4mm thick sheets are available in 10″ squares or 1 metre squares. There are masses of colours available and the quality is great.

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I have a real affection for Handmade Presents as it was the first place I managed to find some 100% wool felt. They have a large selection of different sizes and thicknesses available. They also have a very beautiful selection of organic plant dyed wool felt sheets.

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The lovely Jenny and Joe at The Felted Rainbow sell a great recycled felt – this fabric is made in the USA from Eco-fi, a high-quality polyester fibre made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles. Although it’s a distant relation to wool felt, it’s a brilliant fabric to work with. It comes in a fantastic range of colours (they have 34 in stock at the moment(, and it has a fuzzy, bouncy character that is great for crafting with or for kids, doing applique and much much more. I love using it for pincushions – like I did here in my cupcake tute - because it’s fab for sticking pins into!

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The Eternal Maker have a lovely wide range of good value wool-rich felt (usually about 30% wool and 70% rayon) in a lovely big variety of colours. You can buy it in 10cm increments off the bolt, which is 90cm wide. They also have some very sweet charm pack bundles in coordinating colourways, like this one.

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Other News

Lovely Gwen at Celtic Fusion Fabrics is having a great fabric giveaway. I like this one, because there’s an element of adding up skills involved! The aim of the game is to guess the value of this lovely pile of fabrics. I’m planning to devote a bit of time to working this one out a bit later. Just pop round to the CFF blog (with your calculator at the ready!) before Thursday 23 Feb to enter.

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Backstitch continues go from strength to strength when it comes to being a brilliant source for sewing patterns. Alice is now stocking a lovely range by designer Megan Nielsen – including some very pretty maternity and nursing tops and dresses.

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Whilst we’re on the subject of patterns – are you a Japanese craft book fan? When I first encountered the idea of buying books in Japanese, I admit my reaction was ‘huh??’, but after I’d bought my first I realised that a picture really does speak a 1000 words. Kate at M is for Make has a really great collection in stock, including a couple of new ones. I really love this dress on the front of My Favourite Everyday Clothes.

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Bargain hunting is a little bit more difficult at this time of the year now that the January sales are over, but Doughty’s have some Annette Tatum Soleil and Erin McMorris Weekends fabrics at £7.49/m on clearance. The Eternal Maker also still have a very healthy looking sale section, with lots of very desirable fabrics at excellent prices.

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There are so many lovely new fabrics out at the moment that I haven’t got the time or space to oooh and aaahhh over them tonight, but I’ll try and do a bit of a round up later in the week.

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Filed under craft, fabric, fabric news, folksy, sewing

by veryberryhandmade | February 18, 2012

I need your help…

How shall I quilt this? I just can’t decide – it’s disturbing my sleep!

It’s the front panel of the pouch that I’m making for the Mouthy Stitches zippy pouch swap. I am thinking of making closely stitched square spirals on each of the drunkard’s path blocks, and on the plain linen blocks too, like I did in the centre of this block:

but am wondering if this would be just too much. I really don’t want to mess it up because the tiny curves on those DPs were HARD, and I don’t want to start again… Another option I’ve considered is doing some straight horizontal lines of quilting across the DPs – certainly a less dramatic options. Hmmm. Any suggestions gratefully received.

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And finally as promised, the winner of the Sweat Shop book giveaway is:

Comment number 9 was left by the lovely Hadley of Flying Blind On A Rocket Cycle – a very sensible woman who likes a cup of tea and a slice of strudel to be on hand when she is busy at the sewing machine. Well done Hadley, will be in touch!

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Tagged as giveaway, mouthy stitches, pouch, The Sweat Shop

by veryberryhandmade | February 15, 2012

Some completed commissions

I’m all done with some commissions. First up, lovely Joy of Pixie and Joy, asked me to make a crochet hook wrap and matching pouch. Joy asked me to use one of my favourite fabrics of the moment – Dandelion Hatch from the Just Dandy collection by Josephine Kimberling. I’ve used a very pretty linen by Valori Wells for the trim and lining of the pouch, and the lovely spotty linen is a Life in Japan polkadot.

I hope you like them Joy – they should be with you tomorrow!

My friend Emily and I have been talking about her birthday commission for months now. She is a great customer because she knows her mind so well, and it’s been a pleasure chatting with her about getting things just right. She fell in love with the Dandelion Hatch too (but preferred the pink version) and the fabulous Heath (Farmdale) and asked for a wallet and a matching pouch.

I’ve used the brilliant tutorial by Fabricaholic (who very kindly allows limited commercial use) for the wallet. I think you can just see in the bottom photo that the it is heavily quilted with straight lines – fun to do!

Em also asked for a crochet hook wrap made with fabrics in her favourite browns & pinks, with a natural feel. We finally decided that something from Nel Whatmore’s Sleeping Beauty collection would fit the bill. Here’s the inside:

and the outside:

Sophisticated isn’t it? As I was making it, I was thinking that it would make a lovely clutch bag!

Happy Birthday Em!

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Filed under crochet, handmade, selling, sewing, shop

Tagged as crochet hook wraps, Josephine Kimberling, Nel Whatmore, pouches, wallets

by veryberryhandmade | February 13, 2012

Review & giveaway: The Sweat Shop Book

I have a feeling that, as a 40-something work-at-home-mum who can’t afford the fare for a trip to Paris, I’m not really in the demographic that the authors of The Sweat Shop Book (Ivy Press) are aiming at, but I completely appreciate and understand the concept and ethic which drives the authors – “Stop shopping and start making!”.

The authors, Martena Duss and Sissi Holleis are the founders of The Sweat Shop Sewing Cafe in Paris. The Sweat Shop is a cool cafe / sewing shop where sewing machines are hired by the hour, sewing and crafting skills are shared along with the good coffee and cake. Check out the good cake:

One of my favourite sections of the book is the collection of cafe recipes. Yummy!

The book takes inspiration from the people and style of their little bit of Paris – there’s a lovely sense of place and friendly community in all the patterns, ideas, recipes and music suggestions. There’s a funky, punky, diy ethic here that I really love. It’s not about spending money on a heap of new fabrics to create something perfect but sterile, it’s about working with what you can find, feeling free to customise and follow your own path. The patterns kick off with some very clear looking instructions on how to create your own T-shirt pattern – in 3 different styles:

The pictured T-shirts might not be quite my style (do I sound about 400 years old rather than 40??!), but the basic shapes and pattern cutting ideas are really useful. And you’ll be glad to know that some of the patterns are absolutely me… I adore this floppy hat with its Annie Hall style:

and check out these funky slippers (see, I do slippers rather than heels these days…):

There’s knitting too – I love this cool fishnet sweater – and even my knitting skills are probably up to this one.

And how about these totally bonkers knitted wigs?!

There’s also some fab ideas for recycling and customising, like creating a cape from an old tartan blanket:

So, I really like this book now because it’s so confident and exuberant, but it’s also the kind of book that would have appealed to the teenage me. It’s all about getting fast but stylish results on a limited budget (essential to me back in the mid-80s – when my clothing allowance allowance was about £20 per month – I really struggled!). Get it for yourself, or as a fantastic gift for a cool, creative teen.

So, would you like a copy for yourself or for someone you know? Because I have one to give away! You just need to leave a comment on here before midnight on Friday 17th, and tell me what your ideal crafting snack is. Personally I love a good freshly ground coffee and a big piece of fruit cake (preferably surrounded by marzipan please)… Will let you know who has won on Saturday… good luck!

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Filed under books, craft, giveaway, handmade, reviews, sewing

Tagged as Paris, Sewing book review, The Sweat Shop

by veryberryhandmade | February 12, 2012

Fabric News Update

I am awfully behind with my work (we had a slight drama over the weekend when our boiler malfunctioned and kept tripping out the electricity!!), but would hate not to do my fabric update… so here’s a very-quickly-pulled-together collection of snippets that have caught my eye over the last week…

There’s 10% 0ff felt until Tuesday at Seamstar, and don’t forget their Flickr competition – you need to enter before Tuesday. The prize is £100 in vouchers for Seamstar.

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Alice at Backstitch has put together some lucky dip scrap packs (oh how I love scrap packs!) – 100g of scraps for just £6. A bargain and surprise all in one..

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There’s a clearance offer at Doughty’s on the Fabric Freedom All About Colour fabrics – these are available at £5.99 per metre. There’s some excellent blenders here at a great price.

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The busy bees at Blooming Felt have been working hard at adding loads of functionality for customers to their website. This is the kind of stuff I love! So they have a new loyalty scheme earning 1 point for every £1 you spend – you can read more about the scheme just here. They also have a new Wish List facility which is really useful.

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Fabric Rehab have a wonderful giveaway of Carolyn Gavin’s lovely new collection Soul Garden (see pic!). There are 15 (fifteen!) FQs up for grabs – if you leave a comment before Wednesday the 15th.

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Meanwhile Lynne at Lily’s Quilts is giving away a most amazing prize – a Colourbox (that’s 100 Fat 8ths) of Oakshott shot cottons. Brilliant prize – I have everything crossed.. Meanwhile, check out what Lynne has been making with her shot cottons – isn’t it gorgeous?!

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The Sewing Directory competition gives you a chance to win a bundle of Fat Quarters from the Sleeping Beauty collection by Nel Whatmore – you have until Tuesday 21st Feb to enter this one.

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I’ll be back tomorrow with my own little giveaway of this uber-cool book.

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by veryberryhandmade | February 9, 2012

More finishes..

I’m doing nothing much more than sharing finished projects at the moment… so sorry! Because I have yet another bout of the dreaded toothache (how I wish I could go back to the 70s and tell myself to clean my teeth properly and lay off the boiled sweets… ) I have been spending time when I have the energy for working on finishing commissions rather than thinking up interest blog posts… Here’s what I got finished off today:

A cute pair of booties:

I would make so many more of these if the final seam (sewing round edge of the sole – with all the bulk of the shoe to work round) wasn’t so flipping tricky! I have a couple of pairs that have been waiting for their final seam since before Christmas now..!

A crochet hook wrap – outside :

I’m rather pleased with the binding on the fastening section! And the inside:

And finally, yet ANOTHER zippy pouch:

I’ve just realised that I can enter the Seamstar Valentine’s Day competition on Flickr with this one, because the stripy linen and the cute bird and trees (both from Circa 60 Beach Mod by Monaluna), come from the Seamstar shop. There’s a brilliant prize if you have been using Seamstar fabrics recently, it’s worth checking out.

I’m wondering about entering the Modern Mini Quilt Challenge… I have never made a mini quilt, but there’s a fabulous prize, so it’s very tempting to have a go… Is anyone else being brave enough to have a go?

I promise to get back to you over the weekend with something more exciting than show and tell posts!

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Filed under competition, craft, fabric, patchwork, quilting, sewing, shop

Tagged as Booties, completed projects, crochet hook wrap, finishes, pouches, zippered pouch

by veryberryhandmade | February 8, 2012

Pincushions new and old

A while back I got a request from a US-based cross-stitch magazine to use one of my pincushions in its ‘Fab Finds’ section. I was a bit surprised because this particular item and been languishing in my Etsy and Folksy shops for a good 18 months (if not longer…!) and I had fallen totally out of love with it (as you do!). Anyhow, I sent some high-res images off to the Editor and didn’t think any more about it until this arrived:

And here’s my pincushion on page 10:

Almost the same day that magazine arrived, I sold the pincushion..! So I guess there’s a lesson there – never give up on something selling to somebody somewhere…

Meanwhile I have finished another pincushion and have been doing a bit more experimenting with my photos. I took this one using the RAW setting and used the software that comes with the camera to edit the white balance and the colour.

I also played with a few props! I’m quite pleased with this one, although I think I might have done a bit too much fiddling around with the tone. Once you sort-of-know how to do things with a camera and photo-editing software, it’s quite hard to know when to stop…

I don’t think I’ve shown you another pouch I finished recently.. Pouches are featuring large in my life at the moment because of the tute I’ve written for the 2nd issue of Modern Quilting and because I’m in the Mouthy Stitches zippered pouch swap. I’m certainly having plenty of practice at putting in zips… even attempting to explain how to do it!

I was really pleased with how this one came out, and even better, it sold the same day I put it on Etsy…

By the way, I wonder if anyone would like the cross-stitch magazine I mentioned earlier? I don’t do cross-stitch, and it would be great if I could send it to a good home. First come first served…

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by veryberryhandmade | February 7, 2012

Fugly Fabric Party Swap

Swap Parcels all gone now – thanks so much everyone! Will be in touch!

So it’s Fugly Fabric Party Swap Time… if you haven’t caught up with this before you can read all about it here on Lucy’s blog.

I’ve been looking forward to this! It’s definitely therapeutic to go through your stash and identify those fabrics that you just know you’re never going to use. Some of these I have been feeling guilty about for some time…

Yesterday I had people complaining that my fabrics weren’t Fugly enough. Cheeky things – I can’t help it if I have exceptional taste.. haha! Is this any better for you?

Swap Parcels all gone now – thanks so much everyone! Will be in touch!

This is one of 5 packs of scraps I’ve put together.. I am happy to swap for another pack of scraps, or a couple of nasty FQs if you like! I reckon there is about 2 FQs worth of fabric in each pack and they’re all pretty much the same, content-wise, as the ones pictured here (you wont get any nice suprises!).

Just leave a comment if you’d like to swap (I’ll give priority to anyone who has already volunteered). And don’t forget to check out Lucy’s Fugly Fabric Link Party to find lots of other people who are hosting Fugly Fabric giveaways and swaps.

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by veryberryhandmade | February 6, 2012

Turning Fugly around?

I’m joining in with Lucy’s Fugly Party (the fun starts tomorrow) and will be hosting a very small Fugly fabric swap with a few volunteers, of which more tomorrow… In the meantime I got to wondering how easy it is to turn Fugly fabric into something not quite so Fugly. So I started with this:

And ended up with this..

Not sure what I think of the experiment..! It’s slightly disturbing see dismembered birds in there (but maybe that’s just because I know they are there), and also perhaps they wont be so noticeable when it’s quilted. I was wondering how this would look as a panel on a pouch (it only measures 6″x4″), but then as I was editing the pic, I started to wonder how it would look if I added another row, and added a plain border to make a proper square quilt block. What do you reckon? I’m not sure at all, but I AM very sure that there’s a place for every scrap, no matter how nasty… I have a feeling that more careful positioning of the fabrics to create an underlying pattern is going to be the way forward.

Something that I know WILL be good is the next issue of Crafteroo magazine that’s now in the pipeline – check out the preview. It wont be out until the beginning of April, but if you’d like to buy issue 2 (a bargain at £1.50), which is chock full of amazing projects, just click on the magazine cover: