You will need

16 count, white Aida

Embroidery thread – DMC 224, 368, 827, 3042 and 3078. Or pastel pink, green, blue, purple and yellow in your choice of brand.

A size 26 tapestry/cross stitch needle

A pattern (available to download)

A 5 inch hoop or frame to hold your fabric while you’re stitching and to frame it.

Scissors

A pen or pencil

A comfy spot to sit and stitch (preferably with good light).

Optional extras

A needle minder

Pom pom trim (approx. 16 inches/41cm)

A bag or box to keep your supplies in

A warm drink and yummy snack.

Starting your hoop

You always start stitching in the centre of your fabric and you can find the centre by folding your fabric/aida in half, length ways and width ways. Where they meet is your centre square and you can find the centre of your pattern by following the arrows. Then pop your aida in the hoop, trying to keep it centre. Pull the aida as tight as you can get it; this will make it much easier to stitch on.

Snip your thread ready to use. A good rule to measure it is to pull it from your finger tips to your elbow. Or a handy hint; if you take the full skein and snip all the loops at the bottom end you should be left with strands of thread the perfect length!

For this pattern I recommend using the knotless loop method to start. Take 1 strand of the 6 on your length of thread and fold it in half. Thread your needle where the 2 ends meet, and you should have a loop at the bottom.

Come up the top left hole of the square you are starting on and leave the loop sticking out of the back. Then go diagonally across into the bottom right hole and put your needle in the loop at the back. Pull your thread gently and you should have made a knot. Then continue your stitching.

Making your “X”

Each square on your aida is one full X stitch from your pattern. As I said above, for your first stitch come up the top left hole of the square you are starting on, then go diagonally across into the bottom right square.

Next, come back up the top right hole and back down into the bottom left. Repeat this until you come to the end of the thread or colour you are using.

There are of course other ways to do this. Some people prefer to start from the right hole first and down into the bottom left. And some people do lots of half cross stitches one way and come back over them the other way. Go with whatever you find easiest; the important thing is to be consistent and do each stitch the same.

Tying off your thread

When you come to the end of your thread or you need to swap colours then you need to securely tie off your thread. To do this, you just simply take your needle and thread it under some of the stitches on the back of your hoop.

If you have quite a bit of thread left when you come to the end the you can snip it off and keep it to use again or “park it” (slip it through an unused part of your fabric such as the aida outside of the hoop) to use later.

Backing your hoop

For backing your hoop you can choose to add felt or not. I don’t always add felt to my hoop if I’m hanging it on the wall, but if you are displaying it somewhere else you may want to add it.

And you also need to decide if you are adding pom-pom trim as you will need to glue this on before backing. To glue it on, craft or PVA will work fine. Glue it on slowly and in stages, holding each part down for 10 seconds so it doesn’t move as you continue around the hoop. Then snip any excess off before gluing the last part down.

To measure your felt, take your inner hoop and draw around the outside of it and cut your felt circle out.

For backing you hoop you will need to use 2 strands of thread. Start by doing a running stitch around the edge of your fabric. This is simply a normal stitch going in and out of your fabric. When you have gone all the way around pull gently and your fabric should bunch together, then tie a knot to secure it.

Next, come up through the edge of the fabric next to your hoop and place your felt at the back. Your felt may have pencil lines on from when you cut it. If this is the case then place the side with the pencil lines down so they are hidden.

Now you do the blanket stitch. Put your needle in the felt about an inch away from the edge of the hoop.

Come out right next to where you first came out and make sure your needle is in front of the thread. Pull gently and you will have made your first stitch.

For your second stitch put your needle in about an inch away from your first and an inch away from the edge again. Come straight up by the edge of your fabric and again make sure the thread is behind your needle. Pull gently and you will have made your second stitch. Repeat until you reach the end.

Ta-dah!

Your Easter hoop is ready to display! Thank you so much for this brilliant tutorial, Hannah – there are some really helpful tips here (I had no idea about snipping a skein to get the right thread lengths!). You can follow Hannah on Instagram for more lovely stitchy goodness, or listen to her podcast via her website. If you’re feeling inspired to get cross-stitching, why not treat yourself to a kit? You can also find Hannah Handmakes on Etsy and Not On The High Street.

Hello! Hooray! for Hannah Handmakes

I said earlier that this was a blog post swap, and these are the hoops that I designed! I ended up with two because I had two ideas and I couldn’t decide which one would be best, so I made both. The colours that I have chosen are inspired by mini eggs, which are my favourite Easter treat! I love the colours and thought they would be a perfect colour palette. These colours have inspired my latest post for #craftycolourpalettes which will be live on my blog later today. You can find the templates and tutorial for both of these hoops over on the Hannah Handmakes blog – and they are super easy to stitch so you can make a last-minute Easter project. Yay!

We would LOVE to see your creations if you make our hoops – so do tag @hellohoorayblog or @hannahhandmakes if you share on social media

The post Happy Easter Hoop from Hannah Handmakes appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

The felt that I used is made from recycled plastic bottles, so it’s vegan-friendly and good for the environment too! I was really surprised at the selection of colours – they are so vibrant, and the felt is lovely to work with. It was important for me to work with materials which fit with the ethos of the magazine, and together with the design I think it compliments it well (I hope you agree with me!). You’ll find all the details along with downloadable templates on the Bibelot Magazine website. If you missed my interview with them a few weeks ago, you can read that here.

A really big thank you to Chloe Owens and Bibelot Magazine for featuring my work. I have been a big fan of Chloe’s for a really long time, so it feels amazing to have created this retro floral felt hoop with Bibelot Magazine in mind.

For more creative inspiration you can check out the crafting category on my blog. And do let me know if you have a go at making this project – I’d love to know how you got on, and to see your brilliant design of course!

Post updated 12th February 2020.

The post Retro floral felt hoop tutorial with Bibelot Magazine appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

Crafty Colour Palette #2: Colour list

Yellow: DMC 3078 / Anchor 292

Orange: DMC 3856 / Anchor 1010

Pink: DMC 3689 / Anchor 49

Purple: DMC 155 / Anchor 1030

Blue: DMC 3811 / Anchor 1060

Mint: DMC 966 / Anchor 206

These colours immediately made me think of the amazing wool felt colours from Cloud Craft. They are definitely the best colours in wool felt! So I got in touch with Nicole from Cloud Craft, and she very kindly sent me the felt for this project. I have such a large collection of embroidery thread that I had all the DMC thread that I needed! If you would like to purchase the thread or the felt in these colours, you can find the links in the project list below.

Crafty Colour Palette #2: Enamel pin holder

When I was thinking about what to make with these felt colours, I knew that I wanted to showcase each shade and I thought that a rainbow effect would be the best way to do this. I have recently started adding to my pin collection and thought it would be great to have something to keep them on. Ta-dah!

Materials

Templates (click here to download – prints on A3 paper)

7″ embroidery hoop

Needle and pins

Sharp fabric scissors

Paper scissors

A pencil

You will also need wool felt in the following colours (with matching thread in brackets):

Buttery (no matching thread needed for this layout, but matches DMC 3078)

Barbie (matches DMC 3858)

Ascot (matches DMC 3689)

Lavender posie (matches DMC 155)

Spearmint (matches DMC 3811)

Pistachio (matches DMC 966)

Step 1

Print out your templates and cut them out using your paper scissors. Lay out the template pieces next to your felt colours, so that you can work out which one goes with which colour.

Step 2

Carefully pin each pattern piece on the colour you want to use, and cut around them using your fabric scissors. Then layer each piece with about 1cm overlap on each side (I went from left to right putting the next piece on top each time). Pin in place. Don’t worry if it doesn’t make a perfect circle, we’ll sort that out shortly!

Step 3

When all the pieces are in place, check the positioning by putting the outer ring of the embroidery hoop over the top. Make sure you can see enough of the outer colours, and adjust the positioning if you need to.

Step 4

When you’re happy with the positioning, you can start to stitch! You only need one stitch for this, which is back stitch. Using the thread colour to match the felt (I started with apricot), thread your needle with 3 strands. Come up through the fabric and make a small stitch, a little way from the edge (see 1 and 2 in the photo below). Then bring your needle up one stitch length away from that (photo 3), before bringing the needle down through the felt at the point where your first stitch ended (photo 4).

Step 5

Repeat all the way along the line, following the line of the felt as a guide. Then do the same with the other colours, matching the thread colours each time.

Step 6

When all of the stitching is complete, turn the felt over so the wrong side is facing up. Put the outer ring of the hoop over it, and draw around the inside with a pencil. Use your fabric scissors to cut out the circle. You might cut some of the knots off at this point, but that’s ok!

Step 7

Once trimmed, place the felt back in the hoop and tighten the screw to secure it. You can leave the back open to see the pretty colours! I thought about adding an extra circle of felt at the back to cover it up, but this makes it too thick to put the pins through. No-one can see the back anyway! You may notice that I’ve painted my hoop to add a bit of extra colour.

Ta-dah!

Your hoop is ready to display all of your lovely pins on! Or just leave it plain if you prefer – that’s the beauty of this project

The pins on my hoop are by the following makers: Sally Sunshine pin by Leslieanne Made It, Fuelled by Tea pin by Samantha Eynon and I Love Tea pin by Kate Garey.

Want one of these enamel pin holder hoops?

If you’re not a crafter but you’d like to get your hands on one of these, fear not! They are now available in my online shop, where you’ll also find a vegan friendly version too. Also, head over to @hellohoorayblog on Instagram for details of a giveaway coming this week! You could win this hoop! Give @cloud.craft a little follow while you’re there too as Nicole has a super inspiring feed!

If you want to get your hands on some pastel highlighters, you can find them here.

Thank you so much to Nicole at Cloud Craft for providing me with the felt for this project. All other materials and tools my own.

Post updated 11th November 2019.

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Out of the other things that I roughly sketched, this little fox was my favourite. I wanted to do something a little different for the actual feature, because I know that foxes are everywhere right now! But every time I opened my sketchbook, there he was, and I just had to make him. The making principles for the fox brooch are the same as the bird, although there is a little less embroidery on the fox in terms of different stitches. I kept the border of this brooch a little simpler, but you could do a scalloped edge like I did on my bird brooch if you prefer.

Materials

Felt Fox Brooch templates – click to download

A brooch back and a small piece of plasticard

You’ll also need a needle, possibly a pin or two, as well as some sharp scissors.

The felt I used for this brooch is from Wool Felt Company in orange and turquoise.

The threads I used are: Anchor 433 (blue), Anchor 333 (orange), DMC 712 (cream) and black thread too. Just make sure that you match your thread and your felt, whatever you make on your brooch!

Get stitching!

For the most part you’ll need to follow my tutorial on the Craftseller blog, but here are a few additional tips to help you with this design, relating to stitching the fox on to the front felt piece:

• You’ll need to position the body over the tail piece, and then neatly stitch them on to the circle of felt (the bird felt piece doesn’t have to be neat as it gets covered up!). Once they are secure, stitch the head on.

• Stitch the nose on using black thread and satin stitch, then stitch the cheeks (do foxes have cheeks?! You know what I mean, anyway!) using the same stitch but with cream thread. Outline this first as shown on the bird brooch tutorial.

• I stitched the eyes last, using some small French knots.

• Once the fox is stitched, follow step 6 of my bird brooch tutorial to finish it, and then it will be ready to wear!

This is my little bird brooch – be sure to let me know if have a go at making this, the fox, or your own version of a felt brooch! Share them with me via Facebook, Twitter or tag me @hellohoorayblog on Instagram. I’d really love to see what you make!

The post Felt brooches appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

So I had a little think (and a cup of tea to help) and decided that a loop type thing with velcro would be great to keep it all together. I’ve designed it so that the loop is a little wider than the ear pieces, so it should cover and protect them when they are wrapped around the edge. Yay! I had these lovely fabrics in my stash – the geometric print is from the Helen’s Garden collection by Tamara Kate for Michael Miller (not sure if it’s still available) and the plain is a Moda solid colour, but it has been in my stash for ages and I can’t remember the shade! Anyway, you can use any contrasting fabric that you like for this project, and you don’t need a lot either which is great. I made this in a couple of hours, and that included stopping to take photos, so you’ll be able to make it in no time! Adapt for any phone that you have too, and leave out the headphone loop if you’d rather

You will need:

A fat quarter of two different cotton fabrics (although you actually use much less than this, so raid your stash!)

A 21 x 21cm piece thin cotton wadding

Some bias binding (I used fabric to match the lining and made my own, but you could use a third fabric for this if you like)

Thread to match your fabrics

Sewing machine

Fabric scissors

A pencil

An iron

About 5cm velcro

Pins and needle

Step 1

Cut a 21 x 21cm piece of lining and outer fabrics. Put the outer to one side for now and then fold the lining in half. Place your phone on the fabric, about half a centimetre from the folded edge, and draw around it lightly with a pencil.

Step 2

Pin a little away from the line you have just drawn, and then stitch along the bottom and up the open side – remember to leave the top open! You can stitch along the line here, but no need to stitch along the folded edge. Once cut, trim the seam allowance to half a centimetre.

Step 3

Next, if you want to include one, start making the headphone loop (or skip to step 8 if you don’t want to!). Cut out a 12.5 x 21 cm piece of your outer fabric, fold it half with right sides together and press. Then stitch along three edges as shown, with a seam allowance of half a centimetre. Trim this to 3mm once stitched and then turn out and press again.

Step 4

Place the 21 x 21cm square of outer fabric face down on your surface, with the wadding on top. Place your phone inside the lining and then put it on top in the position it needs to be in. Fold over the wadding and outer fabric in order to work out where the loop needs to go.

Step 5

Place the loop on top of the fabric – I put mine towards the bottom, but you can put it where you like really. Then, position your headphones so that the ear pieces are in the middle, and wrap the wire around the phone. Adjust the loop to get it in the right place – the fabric size is generous, so trim off any excess if you need to.

Step 6

Pin the loop in position at one end once you are happy, remove the headphones and then stitch together. Remember to only stitch one end of the loop!

Step 7

Measure and attach the velcro pieces – remember that you don’t want to stitch the other end of the loop to the rest of the cover.

Step 8

Next, fold the fabric right sides together, and if you’ve sewn on a loop make sure that the stitches face upwards. Place the phone and lining inside and work out where it will sit in the cover – you may find it helpful to draw lines where you need to stitch, especially for the curved edges. Pin down the long edge, remove the phone and then stitch. Trim the seam allowance to half a centimetre and cut notches out of the curved edge, before turning right side out. Press to remove creases.

Step 9

Push the phone and lining into the case, and then remove the phone. If you need to make your own bias binding, do it now! Then attach the binding to the top of the cover. I did this by hand because it was just a bit too small and fiddly to do on my machine, so I tried to keep the stitches as small as I could.

Ta-dah! I’m so glad that I designed this headphone loop – no more tangles! And I can put my phone in the cover whilst I listen to my choons… What should I listen to first?!

The post DIY iPhone cover appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

You will need:

Some mini glass baubles

About 125cm baker’s twine (this was the length I needed – alter as appropriate!)

Sharp scissors

Tape measure or ruler

A couple of pins to hang it up

Step 1

Match up the ends of your twine, and then thread one of the baubles through one side so it sits in the middle of the whole piece. Tie a knot so that the bauble stays in position.

Step 2

Thread another bauble along one side of the twine. Using your tape measure, position the second bauble so that it is 10cm/4″ apart from the first. Tie a knot to secure it in position.

Step 3

Repeat step two with your other baubles – I found it easier to do one side and then the other so that I could spread out the colours evenly. Make sure that you leave enough twine at each end to be able to make the loops in the next step.

Step 4

To make the loops to hang your garland, make a small loop at the end of the twine and tie a knot. Cut off any excess twine so that it doesn’t look messy, and then you can hang it up! I used a couple of push pins in our wall which makes minimal mess.

We hung our garland underneath Reggie, who is our lovely reindeer – he also has some of these lovely baubles on his antlers!

What have you been crafting for Christmas?

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To get me started, I was kindly sent some vouchers for Hobbycraft so that I could get some supplies for my wreath. I decided that I wanted to make an indoor wreath so that it can be used again each year and become part of our Christmas traditions, and so felt seemed like a good choice! I already had some lovely wool felt in my stash, and so I used my vouchers to buy everything I would need to try out needle felting. As many of you know, I’m always keen to learn something new, and this seemed like the perfect time to have a go! You can find the links to the supplies I bought in the list below.

You will need:

A polystyrene wreath (mine was 350mm)

About a metre of wool felt in dark green

Some 1cm red pom poms (I cut them off some pom pom trim!)

Mod Podge (or other glue that will work with felt) and a paintbrush

Paper, pencil, marker pen and paper scissors

Sharp fabric scissors

Needle felting tool

Wool roving (I used this Christmas pack)

Needle felting mat (optional – you might find it easier without one)

Some craft wire

Step 1

Draw out a few holly leaf shapes and choose the one that you think is the best shape. Draw around it with a marker pen and then cut it out with your paper scissors.

Step 2

Pin the template on the felt and carefully cut around it. You will need a lot of leaves to cover this size wreath – I cut out 120!

Step 3

When all of your leaves are cut out, add a little texture to them by machine stitching along the leaf. This is really effective, but you could leave it out if you don’t want to. Theres no need to tie the thread at each end – just cut it close to each leaf.

Step 4

A little while later (when you have cut out and stitched all your leaves!) you can start to stick everything on to the wreath. Cut out 2 long strips of felt, about an inch thick, and stick them around the bottom edges of the outside and inside of the wreath – this will make sure that you can’t see white bits around the edges.

Step 5

Brush a little Mod Podge or glue on the back of each leaf and then stick it on to the wreath. I found it easier to work from the outsides up to the top, so stick leaves along the edges first before layering up like this:

Once the edges are covered, your layered leaves will begin to look more wreath-like!

Step 6

When the whole thing is completely covered with leaves, add the pom pom berries. Place them first and then add a little glue on the back and press down firmly.

Step 7

Now to make the robin! As I said, I had never done this before so it was trial and error really. I have a lovely book called Wool Buddies by Jackie Huang which I used for a technique guide, but I made up the design as I went along! I started by taking a ball of white roving, and prodded it a bit to make it into an oval shape. Then I covered this with brown roving, leaving the front white.

Next I attached the red wool, and at this stage the robin needs quite a bit of prodding to make sure it is attached. I’m not sure if that’s the technical term, but hopefully you know what I mean!

Step 8

The eyes and beak are made next using tiny pieces of black roving. Position them first before carefully attaching with the needle felting tool.

As I said, my design kept changing as I went along and at this point I decided that his head and wings could be shaped out of his body. I did some serious prodding to do this – please mind your fingers here!

Ta-dah!

Step 9

The final thing to do is to attach the robin to the wreath, and I wound some craft wire round and round to do this. Poke it into the bottom of the robin (sorry, robin!) and then poke the other end into the wreath. You may wish to glue the wire in to the robin too – I did this just to make sure it is really secure.

Then attach a wire loop at the back of the wreath so that you can hang it up, and you’re finished!

I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial – if you have a go at the wreath or the felted robin, then I would love to see them! Feel free to leave a link in the comments box below. If you are looking for more inspiration, you can visit the Direct Blinds inspiration blog for more ideas! What are you crafting for Christmas?

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So here’s my bag before I got started:

It has a large main pocket, with another one at the front and one at the back. I cut out the main pocket, leaving a couple of centimetres of the lining at the top where it was sewn in. Once this was done, I did the same with the other pockets.

You’ll need to cut out the pockets that you need to replace – don’t throw them away just yet, because you’ll need to use them as templates. I unpicked the old pockets so that I had flat pieces to work with. Lay out your new fabric and place the pieces on top, cutting around them leaving a little excess around each edge. I used this fab Amy Butler fabric from the Hapi collection.

This first piece had a zip pocket in – you don’t have to put one in if you don’t want to though! First, I measured where the zip should go based on the template piece. I marked where it should go with a dressmaking pencil.

Then I used a seam ripper to open it up, and cut diagonally at the either side of the opening to be able to fold back and press to create a rectangular opening.

I stitched the zip in on my machine, and then began attaching a pocket on the back. I made this using a rectangular piece of fabric, which I folded (right sides together) so that the top was a couple of centimetres higher than the bottom. Then the pocket can be made by machine stitching down each side.

To attach the pocket, I stitched the bottom to the bottom zip tape, and then repeated this with the top.

With the other half of the large main pocket, I made a simple side pocket by stitching some bias tape over the top of a rectangle of fabric. Then I stitched this onto the side piece, making two pockets out of it by stitching a line slightly off centre.

My bag also had a long strip of fabric to create the bottom of the main pocket, so I pinned it and then stitched it all together.

Next I made the final two pockets, which were far easier in comparison to the first! I cut out rectangles using the old pockets as templates, pressed about 1cm back on both top edges and stitched down the side edges with right sides together. As with the previous pocket, one side of each pocket was higher than the other to be able to attach them to the bag.

The next step was to pin the pockets to the bag. I started with the smaller pockets because they had to be stitched in before the main one. I used a small running stitch and pink thread to attach the top of the pocket to the original fabric I left attached in the bag.

Once attached, it looked like this:

I repeated this with the other pockets, making sure I didn’t sew right through to the front of the bag. Ta-dah!

If you’re wanting to have a go at this, you might need to adjust some of the steps depending on the size and shape of your bag. I bought 1 metre of fabric for this project and that was plenty – the zip was 7″ long. Although it seems like a tricky project, as long as you use your old pockets as a template you should be fine. It’s a great way of updating a bag that may otherwise be thrown away because of a damaged lining. Yay!

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I love embroidery and I love badges, so this little project is perfect as it combines the two! It’s also a really good way of using up fabric scraps – I hate having random little bits of lovely fabric left over with no idea what to use them for. I’ve made these badges using coverable buttons – the small one is 29mm and the larger one is 38mm – and they are so versatile. I’ve got lots of ideas for these badges, so look out for more projects to come soon!

You can get a tool to make coverable buttons, but the biggest size on the tool is 29mm. I was worried that this would be a problem, but the larger buttons are really easy to pop together so it doesn’t matter. When choosing fabric small patterns work best, and I’ve chosen contrasting colours so that the embroidery stands out. To mark out the letters you could use an invisible pen (mine disappeared too fast for me to be able to see it!) – here I used some parchment paper and embroidered through it as I find this much easier. This paper is actually baking parchment but it makes amazing pattern paper – this is my top sewing tip!

You will need:

Metal self-cover buttons (I found these on Ebay)
Parchment or pattern paper
A pencil
Some fabric and embroidery thread
Sharp scissors
Needle and pins
Tweezers
Some brooch backs
Superglue

Step 1:

Remove the wire from the inside of the front of the button, and draw around it on the the parchment/pattern paper, leaving a bit of room around the edge. Then write your word(s) so it fits inside the circle (don’t go too close to the edge – and keep your word choice short enough for your button size!). Cut out the paper and pin onto your fabric.

You may wish to use an embroidery hoop to keep the fabric steady – I find it easier to hold a smaller piece, so I cut it out. Do whatever works for you!

Step 2:

Thread the needle with your chosen colour cotton and then sew over the letters. I prefer to use a split stitch, but you could use any you like as long as the letter is clear.

Make sure that when you change a thread, tie a knot and trim the excess as close as you can to the fabric.

Step 3:

Carefully remove the parchment paper. You may need to hold on to your stitches at times! Use tweezers to remove any small, tricky pieces.

Step 4:

Place the fabric face-down on a flat surface, and then line up the front of the button over the embroidery. Hook the excess fabric over the back of the button and adjust as necessary. Once lined up, place the back of the button over the top and pop into place.

Step 5:

Very carefully, use the superglue to attach the brooch back to the button, making sure that it is horizontal in relation to the embroidery. Make sure that you don’t get any on your fingers! Leave to try for a few minutes.

There will be a little bit of discolouration with the superglue, but it is on the back so who will know?! I’ve tried loads of other glues and none of them hold, so this is the best option by far!

That’s it – as soon as the glue is dry, your badge is ready to wear! There are so many options with this project, and the possibilities are endless. I have some others in the making but I can’t share them with you just yet…you’ll have to keep looking out for them!

The post Fabric button badges appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

Today’s post is a wonderful DIY tutorial: how to line a vintage suitcase. I bought this gorgeous vintage teal suitcase last year with the intention of re-lining it – in fact, I looked at my original post about it and realised that I got it in March! I had a bit of practice at re-vamping a suitcase when I made my travelling craft suitcase, but that was made from a new case rather than a vintage one. So this was new territory for me and I really didn’t want to mess it up! I spent ages looking for the perfect fabric, and eventually found this tape measure fabric on Ebay.

If you want to have a go at this yourself, you’ll need the following:

A vintage suitcase
Some fabric for the lining
Some ribbon to compliment the fabric
Paper to make the templates
Mod podge
Fabric glue
A paintbrush
A pencil and scissors

Step 1

Place the paper inside the lid of the suitcase and draw around the edges. Cut around the lines and double-check that the template is the right size! Repeat this with the base and sides, and with any extra pieces that you may need.

Step 2

Carefully remove any fabric or paper within the suitcase (I couldn’t get the paper out of the base or lid because they were sewn in below the trim around the edges, so I removed what I could!). Then wipe clean the suitcase with some antibacterial spray, making sure it is dry before you stick anything in.

Step 3

Lay out the lining fabric and pin the templates, before cutting out the pieces. Press the fabric to get rid of any creases.

Step 4

Next, starting with the lid, place the fabric inside the suitcase and trim off any excess. I made sure that the fabric covered up the ugly black trim, but left lots of the teal on show (any rough edges will be covered up with the ribbon later, but try to keep it as even as possible at this stage).

Step 5

Using a thin layer of mod podge, glue small sections at a time – it dries pretty quickly and doing it in small sections means that you can flatten it out much easier too!

Step 6

Next, brush some mod podge around the tops of the sides of the suitcase. Carefully place the side pieces in, smoothing out the fabric as you go. Continue around the bottom and cut two slits in the fabric in each corner to be able to fit it in. Trim any excess overlap, fold over to neaten and then glue.

Step 7

Repeat step 4 with the base of the suitcase. Then, using the fabric glue stick the ribbon around the edges of the lid and the two edges in the base (this velvet ribbon I’ve used here comes from RE in Corbridge).

Step 8

The final pieces from me to stick in were the pieces that support the lid – I used mod podge to secure these. The rectangular piece at the front has some thin card sandwiched in the middle to give it more support.

Ta-dah! That’s it! Now it just has to dry completely before I can put some of my fabric stash in it. I love the contrast between the fabric and the teal velvet ribbon and I’m really pleased that I didn’t wreck this lovely suitcase!

Post updated 14th August 2016.

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Earlier this year I decided to share my trade secrets about how to make envelopes, and I was really pleased with how popular the post was! So I thought it was about time that I do a second envelope tutorial, but this time showing you how to make lined envelopes. They are really good for a special occasion and you can customise them to any colour scheme you want to. I used tissue paper for the lining, but you could use any pretty paper – just make sure that it isn’t too thick, otherwise it will be difficult to fold the envelope.

You will need:

Paper for the outer and inner envelope
An outer envelope template
An inner envelope template
Scissors
A glue stick
A ruler
A pencil
Double-sided sticky tape
A cutting mat (or flat surface for drawing on)

Step 1: Make your templates by finding an envelope in the size that you want, and make the inside template by drawing a smaller shape of the outer envelope (see photo!). Cut out your templates on to some fairly thick card – this will allow you to use them again and again! You might need to use a craft knife to do this, depending on the thickness. Then draw around each template on the paper that you have chosen, cutting them out really carefully.

Step 2: Rub out the pencil marks on the top of the inside of the outer envelope (there’s no need to do the others as you won’t see them once everything is stuck together). Place the lining on top and then lift up the top edge and glue a line where the lining will be placed (see photo above!). Then fill in the rest of the gap with glue and then carefully smooth out the lining (see next 2 photos!).

Step 3: Repeat this gluing with the rest of the lining (it’s easiest to do this in one go). Leave the lining to dry for a while – a good opportunity to put the kettle on…

Step 4: When it has dried, you can fold the envelope – the ruler will come in very handy here! Start with the sides first, then the bottom and then the top. Make sure you’ve pressed each side down carefully.

Step 5: Measure a length of sticky tape to stick the bottom to the sides (I usually cut a 1cm strip in half). Place the tape carefully along the bottom of each side edge, remove the backing and then stick.

Step 6: Finally, measure another length of sticky tape for sealing in the same way as before. Stick as close as you can to the top edge – but remember not to pull of the backing this time!

Ta-dah!

I made the plain coloured linings as part of a rainbow set, which would make a really nice gift. But there are so many lovely patterned tissue papers that you could use – these ones are my favourites!

I was hoping to include the templates with this, but I’m having computer issues – ugh! I want the templates to be actual size but they’re printing a few millimetres smaller than they should. If I can figure out how to fix this, I’ll post them!

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Before our wedding, I had hoped to make these lovely little bunting cards to use as our thank you cards – but by the time we got back we were back at work in a flash and I didn’t have the time. But they would have made excellent thank you cards! In fact, they’re great for any occasion, because, let’s face it, you can’t beat a bit of bunting! You can customise them for any colour scheme, or make smaller bunting – the options are endless. If you’re using patterned paper then try to pick smaller patterns to get as much as you can on the card.

You will need:

A5 card (for as many cards as you want to make, folded in half)
Some paper scraps in colours and patterns of your choice
A glue stick
Scissors

1. Fold your card to the desired size – I’ve used white card because it makes the bunting stand out really well. Select the paper for your bunting and cut out some small triangles.

2. Open out the card (face up) and lay out the triangles so that you can work out where they should be. I’ve used 6 triangles here, but use as few or as many as you can fit on the card, depending on the size.

3. Glue the triangles to the card, starting from the triangles in the middle. Don’t glue right to the point of the triangle so that you can curl it up a little at the edges.

4. Ta-dah! That’s it – easy peasy!

Here are some others that I’ve made to give you some ideas:

You could send these little cards in handmade envelopes – check out my tutorial here.

The post Tutorial: How to make your own bunting cards appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

It’s National Stationery Week this week, and to celebrate I’m giving away my trade secret – how to make your own envelopes! They’re super easy and make really great gifts, although if you choose paper that you love you might not want to give them away! But as my friend Emily put it, envelopes ‘must fulfil their destiny’, so why not write to a friend this week?

You will need:
A sheet of thick wrapping paper (thin stuff doesn’t work very well)
Some double-sided sticky tape
An envelope in a size and style which you would like to make
A pencil
A ruler
Scissors
A cutting mat (or flat surface for drawing on)

Step 1: Lay the paper on a flat surface and decide which way to fit the most envelopes out of the sheet. Draw around the envelope and then cut them out carefully (save the scraps for other projects!).

Step 2: Next, you need to fold the envelope – the ruler will come in very handy here! Start with the sides first, then the bottom and then the top. Make sure you’ve pressed each side down carefully.

Step 3: Measure a length of sticky tape to stick the bottom to the sides (I usually cut a 1cm strip in half). Place the tape carefully along the bottom of each side edge, remove the backing and then stick.

Step 4: Finally, measure another length of sticky tape for sealing in the same way as before. Stick as close as you can to the top edge – but remember not to pull of the backing this time!

Ta-dah! There you have your very own envelopes! When choosing paper, try to go for smaller designs as they’re really effective. These ones are my favourites:

You can make them in any size too!

You can also make them for any occasion – we made them for our wedding invitations I’d love to see photos of your handmade envelopes if you decide to have a go, whatever the occasion!

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ipad case

Yesterday I posted a tutorial about how to make your own ipad case, but due to a technological hitch I couldn’t include all of the photos that I wanted to (sorry – maybe it was the person doing it rather than the technology!). So I came up with the idea of creating a pdf document with the instructions and extra photos to help – fingers crossed this works…

If you’d like to download a copy, please click on this link SMCSLT Make Your Own Ipad Case Tutorial.

The post How to make your own ipad case – pdf download appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

You will need:

A piece of cotton 38 x 60cm for the lining
4oz wadding, measuring 40 x 60cm (I split it in half so it wasn’t quite as thick)
A piece of cotton duck fabric (or other fabric for the outside) measuring around 44 x 64 cm
Cotton (in a colour to match or contrast with your material)
Ribbon (enough to loop around the button when you’ve sewn it on, so measure later)
An iron
Sharp scissors or pinking shears
Pins

Step 1: Cut out your piece of cotton for the lining. Place the ipad on the fabric and work out where the top of the hem should be (I allowed a couple of centimetres to make sure that the case covers the ipad). Pin securely along the top hems and then sew, before pinning the sides together and sewing them together.

Step 2: Place the ipad inside the lining and then wrap the wadding around to fit. Trim off any excess. Then place all of this on top of the outer material that you would like to use, and cut to size (allowing excess for hems).

Step 3: Take the outer material and fold so that the patterned sides are together. Turn back to make the top hem a couple of centimetres higher than the lining, pin and press with an iron (I didn’t sew the top hem here – I did it when I attached the lining to make it a bit neater). Place the ipad with the lining and wadding in the middle of the material and pin down the sides. Remove and sew down the side edges.

Step 4: Turn the outer layer inside out and place the ipad, lining and wadding inside (this may take a few minutes as you need to make sure that everything is in the right place before sewing!). Pin the lining to the outer layer, making sure the the top hem of the lining overlaps with the outer layer a little.

Step 5: Before sewing the lining and outer layers together, place the button where you would like it to be and sew it on. Then measure out a length of ribbon, making sure that you can tuck it in between the lining and outer layer and that it will be secure around the button. Hand stitch it in place.Step 6: Now you need to attach the lining. Don’t be worried if the lining seems much smaller here – hand stitch or machine stitch as far along the straight edges as you can, without stitching over the side hems.

Step 7: The final thing to do is to sew over the top of the case, from the outer edges until you reach the hem of the lining. This should be hand stitched, and you probably only need to sew around a centimetre in. Make sure you go over the top of the case (see photo).

Ta-dah! You now have your own unique ipad case! I like the contrast of the vintage style fabric with the ultra modern technology

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