I first discovered this perpetual paper chains project a couple of years ago when I bought a copy of Stitch the Halls by What Delilah Did.

I fell in love with all of the projects in the book, but especially this one. It’s such a wonderful idea! You can see the perpetual paper chains I made for Tom’s Mum here. Since I made these, I have wanted to make some simple ones without the embroidery as I thought that would work really well. As with lots of projects, they are on my ‘to-do’ list for a while before I actually get around to making them! But they seemed perfect for Little One’s first birthday, and I started in January to give myself plenty of time!

I had my eye on some lovely wool felt from Cloud Craft for this project, and was lucky to receive some for Christmas. I decided to add in an extra shade of pink (links below). You can cut 6 strips from one 20 x 30cm sheet, which makes 3 links of the chain.

You will need

Sheets of wool felt cut into 25 x 3cm strips – I used the Macaron collection, plus one sheet of Bonbon (all from Cloud Craft)

Matching stranded cotton (all available here)

9mm snap fasteners (2 for each link of the chain)

Needle and fabric scissors

Plasticard, 0.5mm thick and cut into 24.5 x 2.5cm strips

Paper scissors or a craft knife for cutting the plasticard

Ruler and pencil

Instructions

Step 1

Having made a batch of these perpetual paper chains once before, I decided to make a template for the felt out of some plasticard. This made it easier to cut out the felt at exactly the same size. Measure 25 x 3cm and cut out your template.

Step 2

Once you have made your template you can cut out your felt pieces. Place the template on the felt and lightly draw around it. Carefully cut out the felt using your fabric scissors.

Don’t the pieces look lovely all cut out?

Step 3

Take two pieces of the same colour, and position the snap fasteners. Using two strands of embroidery thread, sew the base side of the fasteners 2.5cm/1″ away from the end (see photo in Step 4). Sew the two top parts of the fasteners to the very end of the other piece of felt at the same distance apart. I found it helpful to double-check they lined up before moving on to the next step!

Step 4

Layer the two strips of felt together so that the snap fasteners are facing out. Join them together by sewing along the edges, using two strands of embroidery thread. You might find that the felt stretches a bit here, but don’t worry – we can sort that out later. Try to keep it lined up as much as possible (I found it easier not to use pins but you could if you wish).

When you have stitched along 3 edges, place a strip of Plasticard inside. You might find it helpful to make a Plasticard template too, which will need to be 24.5 x 2.5 cm. I found that I needed to trim the Plasticard down a little when I placed it inside, just to ensure a snug fit.

Step 5

Once the Plasticard is in position, stitch along the open edge to close it. Secure the end of the thread with a couple of back stitches and then finish off. Join the snap fasteners to turn it into a chain link, and then repeat with your remaining pieces of felt.

I hope that Little One will always have these – it’s so nice to have something special that will come out every year!

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I wanted to make a pillow for tummy time because I had all the materials and it seemed a bit bonkers to pay a lot of money for one! So I had a look online and found this Poppy pillow pattern from Made by Marzipan. It is actually for a much larger pillow for feeding support, but a friend had already bought me one of those. So I reduced the patterns by 50% to make a more suitable baby-sized one. There is a pattern to make the cover for this pillow form, which you can find here (at full size they will fit a Boppy pillow).

The pattern is super easy to follow, and even with a huge baby bump which meant I could hardly reach my machine, I was able to make the cushion and a cover in a morning. Pretty good going considering how long it had been since I had made anything! I did make one other change in addition to the size – the original pattern says to insert a zip fastening. But to be honest, I really couldn’t be bothered with that at the time! So I decided to use Velcro instead, leaving a large opening on the top side to be able to attach it. It’s a baby friendly Velcro, so she won’t scratch herself on it!

I made a couple of spare covers with some other fabric from my stash. Having a large stash comes in handy sometimes! I love the zebras, and the little people are on the back of the quilt that I made (see more here).

I’m really pleased with how this pillow turned out – if you’re wanting to make something for your own baby it’s an easy project, or it would make a lovely gift. Little One seems to be enjoying it too!

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You will need

Banner templates (click to download)

A craft knife or scalpel

Cutting mat

Sticky back vinyl

1 fat quarter of fabric

Some lightweight interfacing

An iron

Fabric paint and a paintbrush

Pins and your fabric scissors

A 22cm piece of thin dowel, with the edges sanded to smoothen a little

Some baker’s twine

Step 1

Stick your piece of vinyl to the cutting mat with some washi tape (this is easier to remove than something like sellotape). Then stick the word template on top and very carefully cut out the letters with a craft knife. Watch your fingers! Keep the outer edges of the letters nice and neat – there’s no need to worry about the actual letters as they will be discarded. When you have cut out all the letters, leave the backing paper attached.

Step 2

Take your fabric (pre-pressed) and fold it in half, wrong sides together. Position the banner template and pin in place before carefully cutting it out. Notice that I have left an extra couple of inches at the top – you’ll need to do this too.

Step 3

Cut out one piece of interfacing the same size as the banner template (no need to add the extra couple of inches at the top of this). Take the front piece of banner fabric and attach the interfacing to the reverse – make sure you have the bobbly side of the interfacing matched up with the fabric, and that you iron on the smooth side. Otherwise you’ll make a mess on your iron! Trim the edges if any excess is overlapping, and then fold over the extra bit of fabric at the top and place right side up on your cutting mat.

Step 4

Now for the fun bit – painting! Make sure you do this on your mat or another protected surface, as the paint will soak through to the other side. Peel the backing off the vinyl and position the template on your fabric (the bit with the interfacing). Make sure that you take time to ensure that there are not gaps between the fabric and the template, as you don’t want the paint to run and mess up your lettering. Use a little bit of paint and start in the middle of each letter, working it into the fabric.

Step 5

When you have painted all the letters, leave it to dry for 5-10 minutes and then carefully peel off the template. If you let the paint dry completely it will be more difficult to take it off, as the paint may crack as you do so. Once removed, leave it to dry completely before fixing according to the paint instructions.

Step 6

Once the paint is dry, the banner can be constructed. Place the front and back pieces right sides together and pin around each edge. Stitch along the side edges, but not the top.

Step 7

Trim the seam allowance to about half a centimetre, and the cut a few little notches along the curved edges – this will just help to avoid bunching up inside when you turn it inside out.

Step 8

Turn the banner inside out and press.

Step 9

Trim about 1.5cm off the top of the banner to remove rough edges and loose bits of cotton. Then fold over the top edge, tucking underneath to create a gap for the dowel to fit through. Check that the dowel does fit and then stitch along the bottom of the fold, close to the edge.

Step 10

The final thing to do is to add the baker’s twine to be able to hang the banner. Tie the end of the twine to the dowel to pass it through the gap in the top, and untie it again once it is through. Measure the length of twine (as long or short as you like) and then cut to length. Tie the ends together and then pull it through so that the knot is hidden.

Ta-dah! Your banner is ready to display You can make banners for all occasions – this is one I made for a friend’s birthday last month, which used this cool balloon fabric and gold fabric paint:

If you’ve enjoyed this tutorial, you can also watch the video on my YouTube channel here:

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If you have a go at this then I’d love to to see what you make! Share on Instagram or Twitter and tag @hellohoorayblog using the hashtag #hellohooraymakes

The post Painted fabric banner appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

On Thursday I had lots of crafting planned (I’d been thinking carefully about it all week!) and was really looking forward to making the most of my part time days. But I woke up with the most horrible migraine and ended up staying in bed for the whole day! Needless to say, I didn’t get anything done – never mind any crafting! I do get migraines every now and again and I’ve been meaning to get around to making an eye mask to help when I get one. I really could have done with it on Thursday, but at least I’m prepared for the next one!

Aimee Ray has an embroidered eye mask in her book, Doodle Stitching, and I used the templates from that but designed my own pattern on the front. I have looked to see if the templates are available online but they don’t seem to be – but the book is worth investing in! If you don’t want to buy it, I found another template and tutorial from The Red Kitchen which is slightly different to this one but has really clear instructions.

I used some scraps of fabric left over from our wedding waistcoats to make the mask, so it was good to put some left over bits to good use! Once I’d finished the embroidery on the front of the eye mask, I was able to cut out the remaining pieces and sew it all together. The important thing to remember is to put the right sides together so that it’s the right way around when you turn it inside out!

I decided to use some elastic instead of ribbons (as suggested in the book), and had this gorgeous chevron elastic that I got from Etsy a while ago. I had to get a bit of pink on there somewhere!

A mask would be a really good gift and if you used some pretty patterned fabric instead of embroidering the front, they would be even quicker to make. Perfect for a relaxing night’s sleep!

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