Zakka Wool Applique Book Tour

Welcome to the Zakka Wool Applique book tour! This is the fourth book by Minki Kim, published with C & T Publishing, and it is a pure delight. The name "Zakka Wool Applique" speaks for itself, this book is filled with darling projects and cute felt applique motifs. What I love the most about this book is that it sparks your imagination and gives you sweet ideas that you can easily include in your own projects. This book is available in both digital and paper formats.

Molly and Mr Mouse

It's all about tiny details. Making a pouch or an envelope or anything else is always fun, but adding the final finishing touches is my absolutely favourite part. Working on tiny stitches, choosing the right small fun print, picking the ribbons and threads all add to the pleasure of sewing. It seems like April was mostly filled with making small fabric labels for me. How simple and cute is that label? Just a piece of the right fabric and a few tiny stitches.

Oh, These Bunnies!

Don't you think they are the cutest little things ever? They just asked to be made into something special and ended up on top of this linen envelope. I love making these envelopes. Quick, easy, fun and always useful for carrying around or storing some stationary bits and pieces or sewing projects and notions, or some special keepsakes.

Goodbye Year 2016!

The year is pretty much over. With just a few hours left before we begin a new journey through 2017 I look back and feel that the year for me has gone by too quickly. Sometimes days and even weeks were rushed by without much realisation or productivity, they came and went in some kind of a sleep deprived haze. I know it's just a phase and it will pass like everything in our lives, but my goal for the next year is to slow down and concentrate on the happiness of every single moment no matter what I do or how tired I might feel.

Hexagons, Hexagons and More Hexagons

Or shall we simply say "Hexie Love"? Just look at this beautiful splash of pastels! The most beautiful "Woodland Clearing" line by Liesl Gibson parading here in hexagons. Pink, aqua, beige...beautiful prints that almost look like watercolours or cross-stitch designs.

Rainbow of Flying Geese

It's been a while since I made any fabric envelopes. They were some of the first projects I worked on when I just started sewing a few years back. So simple and so pretty at the same time with any details you like to add. This latest envelope features my first ever attempt at the flying geese paper piecing pattern. When I bought a box of fat quarters in solid colours, I knew what I wanted to make right away. These colours are beautiful on their own without any complicated patterns, so flying geese seemed like a good idea.

A New Home For...

... my reading companion KOBO. It is so much easier to buy any case at the shops. The choice is great, the prices are not that high and I could have saved a lot of time that is so precious these days. But we all know that there is something special, heartwarming and wonderfully pleasant in handmade things. Right? It gives you a chance of choosing that particular colour and that particular print and style that you love so much.

Fabric Stash: Useful Scraps

I bought some scraps. Yep, fabric scraps. Two bags full of small bits and pieces and a few bigger offcuts. Oh, and a few handmade buttons as well. These scraps are not something that you might want to call delicious or pretty. These are upholstery and furnishing fabric scraps. Mostly screen printed linen and hemp. Not my usual choice of fabric but something that might be used quite creatively I think. I was hoping to find some medium weight linen for my envelopes at that particular store, but found this instead.

Sweet Childhood Memories

Long time ago, when I was a little girl, I owned a pair of shoes. My absolutely favourite and the most beautiful red and white shoes, with tiny golden snap fasteners and decorative rings on the front. Why do I remember this particular pair of shoes? I don't really know.

Some spots and dots, and houses with pots

Remember the houses? And the thinking they caused? They even inspired a short poem.

Well, no more thinking... it's a fabric envelope at last. I have made quite a few of them since the beginning of this year. I like the fact that with just a few adjustments you can create anything from a simple pocket for papers to a padded iPad cover. You can add any type of a fastener and you can decorate the envelopes any way you like - there are no boundaries for your imagination here.

I really like the colours of this cotton, they make me think of Autumn. Warm, sunny days with carpets of red, yellow, orange leaves spread around and a particular cool autumn air filled with mushroomy smell. It's something I would call an Autumn Palette with deep cadmium, crimson lake, rose pink and flesh pink shades. I love Autumn! Do you?

If you are interested in making your own fabric envelopes, you can find a tutorial here. Have a great day everybody!

Tutorial: Fabric Envelope

Today I am going to share with you a way I make my envelopes. With this quick and simple tutorial you can create your own personalised Fabric Envelopes of various sizes. I am using linen with hand embroidery for the shell and cotton for the lining. If you would like to use the same embroidery pattern Houses, you can find it here. The measurements bellow are for the envelope 18cm x 27cm in size. Generally I use Magnetic Snap Fasteners for my envelopes but in this tutorial I am going to skip the step of attaching the fastener. You can use any type of fastener for your envelope or leave it without it.

Important Note: Fabric with one way design won't work for this pattern because it will appear upside down on the back of the envelope. A better choice is a solid colour fabric or fabric with no direction pattern.

Material:

• Piece of fabric for outer shell measuring 29cm x 44cm
• Piece of fabric for lining  measuring 29cm x 44cm
• Fusible light weight interfacing measuring 29cm x 44cm
• Embroidery floss
• Sewing machine
• Pins, scissors, sewing needle
• Optional Fasteners of your choice: magnetic snap, sew on snap, prong snap, Velcro cercles, Button

Note: For a more structured envelope, use fusible batting instead of interfacing or even fusible foam.

Step 1: Fuse the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric you are going to use for outer shell. I am fusing the interfacing to linen with embroidery. Make sure to set your iron to the right temperature and gently press and glide the iron from the centre to the edges.

Step 2: Place the outer shell and the lining right sides together. Pin in place.

Step 3: Mark about 1cm allowance around all edges leaving a 3-5cm gap on one of the long sides for turning the envelope right side out.

Step 4: Stitch around leaving the gap open. Back stitch at the beging and at the end to secure the seam.

Step 5: Cut off the threads. Trim all four corners.

Step 6: Turn the envelope right side out carefully pushing the corners out with a chopstick. Iron well with a lot of steam.

Step 7: Lay the envelope with the lining facing up.  Measure and mark about 7.5cm from the top for the flap. Measure and mark about 17.5cm from the marked point for the bottom fold of the envelope.

Step 8: Fold up the bottom part on the 17.5cm mark and iron well. Pin in place. Make sure that back and front parts of the envelope are well aligned on top of each other.

Fastener: If you are using one of the fasteners,  make marks and fix it in place now. I am working on a separate tutorial for a few different types of fasteners.

Step 9: You can hand stitch the gap close or leave it as it is and try sewing the sides very close to the edge as I do. Stitch the sides with 0.4cm allowance. Start about 1cm above the body of the envelope. Back stitch to secure the seam at the beginning and the end. Cut off the threads.

Step 10: Remove pins. Close the flap. Iron well.

Step 11: Now is the fun part. Using the embroidery floss of your choice, hand stitch around the right, bottom and left edges of the flap of the envelope using a running stitch. You can mark each stitch to make them even. Make sure that you take the floss of the right length.

Step 12: Depending on the type of a fastener you are using, you can add an extra decoration to your envelope. I like using yo-yo or fabric covered buttons on top of the magnetic snap fasteners. You are done!

I hope you enjoyed this project. Have any questions? Please feel free to leave a comment or email me.

Happy stitching!

Fabric Envelope

The Little Girl chasing butterflies... The envelope has been completed. The colour of Molly's dress and the lining is so bright and vibrant, it almost glows. I am sure Molly is very happy now, she is surrounded by flowers and butterflies. What else a girl might need?

This simple envelope is a great storage solution for a sewing corner. It's pretty enough to be displayed on a working desk or on a shelf. It's perfect for keeping fabric, sketches, notes or any other supplies you might have in your studio. It can be easily made with old offcuts of fabric that are not big enough for anything else and can be decorated with any stitching design or appliqué. The possibilities are endless.

I am working on a few projects at the moment and one of them is going to be a fabric envelope tutorial. If you are interested, please keep your eye out for it.

The Bird, the Oak and the Summer Forest

The cuckoo bird fabric envelope has been completed.

As I mentioned before, it takes me quite some time to decide on the fabric for the lining. This time I stopped on two choices - sky blue flowers with a hint of gold and brick red with white and orange flowers. Both fabrics look nice in combination with the bird embroidery but the blue one made me feel sad and melancholic for some reason.

The red one on the other hand had an opposite effect, it made me think of warm summer days and walks through forests in search of wild berries and flowers. So I decided to go with the red flowery fabric and I am quite happy with the result.

The envelope is big enough to fit a couple of books or maybe a notebook or a sketchbook and some pencils.

Fabric Envelope

Do you take books with you when you go to work or a park? Do you carry around some papers or photos or maybe sewing material? Do you simply throw them in your bag?

I don't. I always put my books or papers in a small plastic folder before I put them in my handbag. I thought that it would be nice to have something special and of course handmade for that purpose. So I came up with the idea of this fabric envelope that can be easily sewn in any size; you can add a velcro or a magnetic snap fastener and it's a great way use up some leftover bits and pieces of fabric.

Sunglasses Case

For a long time I did not have a proper case for my sunglasses, I used a very thin drawstring bag that did not really protect the glasses inside the handbag. I wanted to make something different, something cute and simple at the same time and of course handmade. The owl started as a basic pencil sketch or better to say a scribble, then the pink tummy was added to make her look pretty and cheer her up a bit but she still looks a bit lost or maybe confused. Poor little thing.