Sewing projects for beginners

I am qualified to write this blog post as I am very much a beginner sewer!
I have done some hand sewing in the past (mostly mending, sewing on buttons etc) but this weekend I got to grips with a mini sewing machine and really enjoyed it. I bought some pretty patterned fabric from Birmingham's RAG market (£2 a meter!) and had a go at some bunting and homemade cards. I was amazed by how quick it is to make projects compared to knitting, but then, they were very simple projects.

Homemade fabric cards

Kitchen bunting

Simple bunting

The first project I tried was simple bunting. You can incorporate a lot more sewing into bunting but as it was my first go I thought I would keep it simple. I won't include instructions for setting up a sewing machine here as it should be included in the manual. I would recommend doing a few practice runs on some scrap fabric or thick paper first though!

You need:

Pinking shears (scissors that cut the fabric in a zigzag so it doesn't fray)

1/4 meter fabric in 2 or more patterns / colours

2 meters bias binding in a pretty colour

Sewing machine threaded up with colour of your choice (contrasting with fabric could be nice or if you want to hide uneven stitches choose the same colour for now!)

My friend gave me her mini sewing machine after upgrading to a proper one. Using the mini was no problem for these projects and she said it cost about £30 so definitely worth it so far!

Instructions

1. Cut out fabric triangles, about 4 inches long. Make sure they look the same. Cut out enough to fill your 2m bais binding with a good length left over at each end for tying (I did 8). 
2. Fold your bias binding with an edge of the triangle trapped between and as far in as it will go, so the finished bunting will have triangles hanging straight all to the same length
3. Use your sewing machine (I used straight stitch as my mini one only does that!) to sew all along the length of the bias binding, trapping the fabric triangles in as you go. Voila!

Finished bunting

Handmade cards

For these cards I cut out little bits of fabric and used the sewing machine to stitch them onto plain cards, much like in my other homemade cards posts. I think these are my favourite though and by far the quickest to make. I'll be looking through Pinterest for some more inspiration for my next batch!

Little heart with balloon string

Bird - two different types of fabric

My bunting in miniture!

Letter card for my friend Isobel

Homemade cards

My friend and I felt the need for a relaxing evening in with tea yesterday so I cooked and she brought round some blank cards and coloured cardboard and we had a great time seeing what we could do.

What you will need

Glue

Scissors

Letter stamps and ink

Coloured card

Blank cards and envelopes

What you might need

Knitting stuff

Wool

Ribbons

Buttons

Marker pen

You can buy all this stuff online cheaply but in terms of what you stick on the cards, I would encourage you to keep a 'bits and bobs' box with crafts things for occasions like this. 

Making the cards

We got quite a lot of inspiration from 'Pinterest' but also just had a go at things to see how they turned out with mixed results.... Generally we found that simple was effective!

Simple red card cut out and letter stamps....

Triangular coloured card bunting, wool and letter stamps

Thick ribbon, card heart shape and letter stamps

Knitted strawberries, ribbon and letter stamps

Coloured card shapes and letter stamps

 As you can see, we made a lot of use of simple card shapes. I really like sewing cute knitted shapes on too, previously I have done a little knitted mug ('You're my cup of tea!') and my friend received a card with a little knitted house on the front when we moved in together. I'm definitely going to try ore of those in future.

Friends, expect a homemade card soon!

Christmas wrapping

Hi again! Given the lead up to Christmas I'm going to share my tips for creating (what I think are) beautiful wrappings on a budget....
I'm not really a fan of shiny or glittery wrapping at Christmas time and prefer to go for a 'rustic' approach to make my presents stand out!

Christmas Wrapping
Brown paper is inexpensive and looks striking under the tree when partnered with nice ribbon or even coloured wool if you're on a real budget.
Present tags can be made out of the fronts of old Christmas cards or can be made out of nice card as shown below...

Homemade cards and tags
This year I tried making my own Christmas cards for the first time and found it surprisingly easy! I bought some dark green cards and envelopes from Hobbycraft (£2 for 5 but you can buy them cheaper in bulk or online) and decorated them simply with ribbons and buttons. This is all you'll need:

• Nice coloured cards (pre-bought or made yourself from card if you don't need envelopes)
• Coloured wool in a contrasting colour to the card
• Large-eyed needle (for wool) and thread needle
• Assorted buttons
• Ribbons
• PVA glue
• Scissors
• A sharp pencil

It would be more arty and authentic to collect your own buttons (or raid your Mum's/Granny's sewing box) but you can also buy a big bag from Hobbycraft for £3 which will last for ages.

To make the cards I cut a length of ribbon and stuck it about 0.5cm from the edge of the card. I then arranged the buttons in a heart shape and used a pencil to draw around the buttons to mark where they should be. It looks nice to use different coloured buttons for this.

I then took the buttons off the card and put them on the table in the same shape. 

I then took the buttons one by one and used a thread needle to pierce the card under the holes in the buttons to make it easier to fit the large needle through. 

I then used coloured wool to sew the buttons onto the card. 

I then used a bit more if the wool to make a small bow and sewed this above the buttons. 

                           

I was very pleased with the result and decided to branch out a bit and try doing a 'Santa hat' version as well although I'm not sure this was as effective! It might be nice for a younger recipient however. For this one I used a pencil to draw a santa hat shape and then used the thread needle to pierce holes around the pencil line. I was then able to sew around the shape using the large-eyed needle and red/white thread. I used a large white button for the pompom at the end of the hat and sewed some buttons at the top as before.

At this point I ran out of cards but was rather in the swing of things so decided to try some tags too. For this I just cut out some pretty card and sewed on buttons and ribbons as before. I then threaded some ribbon or wool through the tags and tied then around the wrapped parcels to make a great finished Christmas gift!

Time and cost effectiveness

Once I got the hang of getting the wool needle through the card these cards were quite quick to do and took about 20 minutes each. The tags were quicker and took about 10 minutes. The cost depends a lot on what bits and bobs you have already but could be the price of a few ribbons and cards! I calculated the cost of my cards to be about 75p each which I think is well worth the time and it was great fun.  

I hope some of you feel inspired to try this. I think I'm going to do this every year!

Helen x