Christmas Inspiration

Ok ok, Im sorry if you're getting sick of reading about Christmas in blog land, but Im in serious need of some inspiration at the moment!  So what do I do?  I turn to Pinterest! 

Doing accounts have dulled the creativity in my brain of late so I needed a little crafty eye candy to get my imagination working again.

Here are a few of my favourite festive projects I've found on Pinterest.

This would make a perfect gift for a sewing friend, or you could even adapt it for a child who wants to learn to sew!

From grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com

I want these for my little ones!

From thismamamakesstuff.com

I've got so much left over card stock from when I used to be into cardmaking, this project would be perfect and you could make baubles in almost any colour theme!

From Homemade gifts made easy

Perfect stocking fillers for a friend who travels or even for your childs school bag!  Definitely going to give these a go as I have so many scraps that would be perfect...

From Project Naptime

I love these trees!  Have seen them several times around the interweb and always say Im going to do them.  This year, I might even get round to it!

From UK Lass In US

So those are a few of my favourites.  I'd love to see any inspiring Christmas makes you have going on at the moment?  Please feel free to leave a link in the comments.

If you want to see more of whats inspiring me, all our Pinterest boards can be found....here!

{Giveaway} Merry Christmas Craft Pack

Ok so now that Halloween and Bonfire night are officially out of the way, surely I'm now allowed to talk about Christmas?!  Especially as the weather has taken a decidedly wintery turn and a lot of people are already talking Christmas decs!!

Bearing this in mind, I decided to have a little giveaway to get you feeling festively creative.  The giveaway is being hosted over on our Facebook page but if you're not on Facebook, please feel free to enter here!

The prize is one of our Merry Christmas Craft Packs (as the title would suggest!) which contains a FQ of Christmas fabric and a selection of co-ordinating buttons and ribbons.  Simply follow our blog and comment below to say you'd like to enter!  The giveaway winner will be announced on Sunday at 8pm.

Of course if you cant wait until Sunday to find out if you've won, you can always purchase direct from the site.....here and all our Christmassy goodies can be found....here!

Good luck!

{Tutorials} Lots Of Reasons To Sew!

Do you follow our boards on Pinterest?  If you do, you may have noticed me pinning lots of sewing tutorials lately (as well as lots of other things....its so addictive!).

 

In particular, I've been looking for projects using Fat Quarters.  My love of sewing started with a fat quarter of fabric I picked up from my local fabric shop just because I fell in love with the print!  The possibilities are endless and you can do so much with just a fat quarter of fabric.  Ok, you're not going to make thirty metres of bunting with it but you can make a fair bit!

 

So, if you are looking for an excuse to buy fabric (and lets be honest, who needs a reason?!) here are some of my favourite tutorials from around the web, using fat quarters.

 

Monograme Hoop Décor by Crystal from A Pumpkin and A Princess

A Fat Quarter Drawstring Bag by Amy of Diary of a Quilter
 

Pretty up your desk with a fabric mouse mat!  Tutorial by Funky and Delightful

These would look so cute in this fabric for my nephew! A quick tutorial
by Very Homemade.
 

A very useful kindle cover by Skip to My Lou

And last but not least, a cute little tutorial by yours truly! 

So there you have it, lots of very good and valid reasons to buy fabric this weekend!



 

The Sewing Directory Exeter Meet Up

I was really delighted to be invited to a meet up in Exeter organised by the lovely Fiona of The Sewing Directory way back in May.  The time has whizzed past since so I was really excited when Fiona emailed with directions and info about the event at the beginning of September!  

It was the second event Fiona has organised following the huge success of the first one and I was invited to bring along some lovely fabrics to tempt all the lovely sewists that would be attending!  Exeter is only a two hour drive from South East Wales where Im based so I packed up my little shop and off I went!

Tempting fabrics!

Habdash section

I met some really lovely people who were all their for the same reason...because we all love sewing.  We were sewing bags for Making For Charity and I can honestly not think of a better way to spend an afternoon...surrounded by like minded people, sewing and drinking coffee (there may have even been a cake or two!)

The lovely people on my sewing table

We were given excellent tuition by Kerry from verykerryberry who demonstrated different appliqué techniques we could use to decorate our bag.  I'm afraid I wasn't very adventurous due to a huge amount of time spent talking so my bag had some raw edge appliqué and that was about it!  

The finished results!

Kerry gave us a set of templates to use for the appliqué and it's amazing how many different variations people came up with.  

All in all, a very lovely day was had by all and Im very glad to have made the trip down, if only to have met some wonderful people.

 

{Spooky Bundle Giveaway} We Have A Winner

I was going to use the random generator to work out the winner, but there was just too many ways to enter and too many people who entered!  So I went back to the trusted method of writing out all the names (three times in some cases) and pulling them out of a hat, or in my case, a very pretty heart shaped basket!

The were given a good mix before I picked.  I would have asked one of my little helpers but they were in bed.  You may have already seen the winner over on our Facebook page but incase you didnt, the winner was....

Congratulations Hannah!  Your prizes are winging their way to you as we speak!

{Whats New} Bake Sale

So we're back to our routine, kids are back in school and for the first time in a long time, all is quiet at The Sewing Boutique HQ.

Good job I've got lots of orders and new fabrics arriving to keep me busy!  I might even try and squeeze some sewing time in soon as our latest range of fabrics that arrived today has got me thinking of kitchen projects!

Its full of summer brights, flowers and fruit with a bit of spotty fabric thrown in for good measure!  

So what am I going to sew with this??  The first project on my mind is this for my youngest....

From youcanmakethis.com 

My youngest adores her dolly so Im thinking she would love and apron for her and a matching one for "baba".  I think these fabrics would be perfect for that!

Im also putting together an oven mit tutorial with some matching pot holders so watch this space for those!

What would you be inspired to make with this range?  Does it say anything to you?  Would love to hear your thoughts on our latest range!

p.s. pop back tomorrow as we'll be announcing the winner of our Spooky Giveaway Bundle! 

Pretty Patches Magazine

One of the (many) things I love about being a fabric shop owner is that every now and again, Im lucky enough to receive copies of the latest crafty magazines.

The newest kid on the block is a magazine called Pretty Patches.  The title alone is something that grabbed my attention and straight away I knew it was going to be right up my street!

Their website says..."If you love fabric, you'll love issue 1 of Pretty Patches magazine. A 100-page bundle of pretty projects, easy-to-follow tutorials, fabric collections, haberdashery, shopping, chats with designers and fellow makers, must-try sewing courses, and all the latest from the world of quilting patchwork and appliqué."   They're not wrong! 

The cover is exactly as you'd expect it...so pretty and as the tag line says "If you love fabric, you'll love...." indeed you will.  There's loads of inspiration for fabric lovers and sewing enthusiasts out there.

There are a number of projects in the magazine that come with easy instructions so, although they may look complicated, I reckon even a beginner could give them a good go and end up with some fantastic results.

This is the project on the cover of the magazine and this photo alone would make me pick it up!  Its a simple enough project, I reckon the big patchwork would make this come together so quickly you could probably do it from start to finish in an afternoon. 

There are also a few really inspiring interviews from crafters and quilt makers and all round crafty peeps from the industry.

Ooh look, there's even a crafty little advert for your favourite sewing shop ;) 

I dont know why, but sometimes when I've bought crafty magazines, I've been left feeling a bit...dare I say, deflated.  The cover promises so much and looks so tempting, but the projects are never something I'd try and the interviews just dont inspire me.  So many of them are trying to be "edgy" and appeal to a younger market group.  Not so with Pretty Patches.  Now Im not saying that will be the case for every issue of this really new magazine, but so far, very good and I hope it continues.  

So, to conclude, I LOVE the new Pretty Patches magazine, a lot!

p.s. I was neither paid nor asked to write this on my blog.  Just thought I'd share how happy I am to have found a new favourite magazine :)