Fabric Origami Butterfly Hair Accessories

It's 'Ho, ho, ho and on we sew' time of the month again - the perfect link up to get you organised for Christmas. Last month I started thinking about making for a slightly more 'special' Christmassy table setting, and I'm sure I'll come back to that throughout the year. But this month I've been thinking more about gift making and I came up with an idea for Venetia - a basket, kind of a mini hamper really, of home made hair accessories. She loves pretty hair accessories, and they're forever getting lost or scattered around the house or car, so I'm hoping this plan might work in multiple ways. Plus it's a great one to be organised with and start now - a couple of hair bands or clips or whatever, made every month is very doable, but will hopefully add up to a really special present. And spacing them out is, I think, more likely to mean I come up with a wide variety of ideas, colours and fabrics.

So to actually get to the making point, quite some time ago I spotted a very sweet, fabric origami butterfly on Pinterest that I thought would be perfect for hair accessories. And that's what I've gone for to kick start this present. I followed the instructions here on Michelle Patterns, and found them to be quite straightforward. In not a lot of time I had a bright and pretty butterfly.

And they're slightly addictive!

 The top two in the photo below are still just 'loose' at the moment, but bottom right is sewn on to a hair clip, and bottom left, as you can see, is sewn on to a hair bobble.

I haven't decided what I'll do with the top 2 yet.

Then I made a couple of hair bands, one just plain from scraps of the fabric I used for Venetia's leggings last week, but one specially for another butterfly.

Just hand sewn on to a simple hair band.

Ho, ho, ho is over at Charly & Ben's Crafty Corner this month, with another giveaway to help persuade you to start thinking about Christmas good and early. As well as linking up there, I'll be linking up at Crazy Mom Quilts again for Finish it up Friday. And another finish here this week has been the incredibly cute 'Pixie Basket' that was featured over there last week. A really quick and cute make, it also seemed like the perfect place to sew another butterfly!

It's not really what I have in mind for the hair accessories, too teeny for starters, but the smaller ones are sitting there for the moment. And the basket itself has got definite gift potential.

In fact just the butterflies have lots more gift potential - I could imagine a little 'flight' of butterflies looking gorgeous on a cushion or a bag, or possibly on an item of clothing too. They could become my new obsession! What would you do with them?

Have a great weekend.

Sally.

Take 5

1) I did keep going with my 'finishing' plan last week, I just didn't get round to writing anything here. I made something very practical - leggings for the girls. This is something I've been meaning to do for ages - I've got a few non cotton, thrifted fabric remnants that I've collected over recent years and not done anything with yet. Generally quite funky, retro style patterns which I couldn't resist and with some stretch - so perfect for leggings. Plus both the girls seem to be wearing out/growing out of their leggings far too fast at the moment.

There are lots of tutorials out there for making your own leggings pattern (grown up as well as children's), and once you've made a pattern (which isn't too tricky), the actual sewing is incredibly quick and easy. If you're interested try here - So Sew Easy for a tutorial using measurements, or here - Make it, Love it for a tutorial using an existing pair of leggings.

I'll definitely be making a few more pairs now I know how easy they are.

2) Venetia also had a finish, she made a cushion for a friend who had moved house and so was changing to a new school.

We used a texty fabric I've had sitting around for a while for the detail. I can't remember the name of the fabric but it has happy, positive words all over it, so we just picked out these 2 most appropriate bits of text for Venetia to cut out and then sew on to a simple heart applique.

3) Time for a photo catch up, especially as we had a lovely, sunny trip to the beach last week!

First shoes off trip of the year - it was cold still though!

This is one of my favourites! Perfect example of the differences between boys and girls! Although the girls will happily battle as well, particularly Maria who wants to be a Ninja when she grows up!

4) The sunshine had us out in the garden quite a bit too, and back at one of our favourite activities - painting fabric, and in some sunrise inspired colours. These are scraps of muslin, painted with watered down acrylics.

I think I might have a plan for what they'll now become, so watch this space...

5) I've not been too bad with thrifting recently, but I couldn't resist a little stash of miniature baskets earlier this week. They're so cute!

I've popped a couple of mice finger puppets in there as well so you have an idea of the scale. Can you see the mini doll's 'crib'? I think I'm going to have to make something to go in there as a birthday/Christmas present for Maria. And there are 2 teeny picnic hampers too - perfect for a mouse picnic set!

Sally.

Wool Patchwork Baby Quilt

I'm starting to wonder whether this focus on 'finishing' things is good! I have finished something, and yes that feels good. But, starting random things on the spur of the moment and dipping in and out of makes is fun too! And I seem to be doing less of that recently! Is 'finishing' all it's cracked up to be? Even before I finished typing that question, the answer, for me at least, was already pretty obvious - it's got to be all about finding a happy balance. But possibly to redress my particular balance it is good to have a slightly stronger swing to the other extreme first.

Anyway, enough of my musing. Here is my finish...

This one is made from repurposed wools - blankets, jumpers and a stripey scarf.

It is a smallish, and lovely, warm quilt, backed with a soft, coral coloured flannelette, and with navy, corduroy binding.

I'm pretty sure I finished cutting and then hand sewing all the wool pennies to their squares for this well over a year ago. They've been spilling out of a little box in a cupboard ever since, so definitely a good thing to finally finish them up!

And it means I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts again. Happy Weekend to you all,

Sally.

Cathedral Windows Cushion

I've been feeling strangely drawn to trying my hand at a bit of cathedral windows patchwork for some time. And making a friend for Maria's hexie cushion seemed to be the perfect opportunity. I followed this tutorial on Moda Bake Shop, which was very clear.

Unfortunately it really didn't turn out as I had visualised! It's very, very red and yellow! Which might seem a stupid comment given that I picked the fabrics in the first place, but I just hadn't appreciated how little impact the other fabrics would have in the finished cushion. Have you ever made anything where the colours really didn't work as you had hoped?

Even apart from my serious disappointment with the colour scheme, it doesn't stand up to close, critical scrutiny. I stupidly cut my red, spotty squares too small and then even more stupidly thought I'd get away with it! But I did actually quite enjoy the making process, it was good to try something completely new and as a technique it wasn't as tricky as I had thought it might be.

I'm already planning another attempt with a very different colour palette!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts, and wishing you all a happy weekend.

Sally.