Tag Archives: Create

Create An Embroidered Lavender Bag With Maggie Robb of Made by Maggie

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Create a prettily embroidered lavender bag to pack away with your summer wardrobe with Maggie Robb of Made by Maggie

The seasons have certainly changed and it’s time put away summer clothes until next spring.  What better way to keep your favourite frocks fresh and protected than with his cute little birdy lavender bag?  The herbs inside not only give off a lovely scent, but will also guard against moths. And when you come to unpack everything next year, you’ll be greeted by a lovely upbeat message.  Or, why not create your own designs or even personalize the message to make the bag for a friend.

 

To find out about downloading a template of this little bird, please visit https://www.facebook.com/MadebyMaggie07

 

You will need:

 

  • Plain fabric to embroider your design onto. I used calico because I like its rustic feel
  • Pretty backing fabric to match your embroidery
  • Household baking parchment to trace your design
  • Sharp pencil
  • Embroidery threads in 2/3 different colours, black and a metallic thread, if you want a bit of sparkle
  • Fairly sharp embroidery needle
  • Scissors
  • Embroidery hoop

 

Sharp needle, and cotton thread. A sewing machine will speed up the process but isn’t essential

  • A mix of dried lavender and dried rice for the filling
  • A little bit of toy stuffing

 

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Step 1

 

Choose your design or create your own. When you’re happy with it, place the parchment paper over the top and with a steady hand trace around the design using a sharp pencil.

 

Step 2

 

If your design includes text you will now have to turn your tracing over and using some scrap paper to rest on, trace your drawing from the opposite side. If you’re not using text, and don’t mind your image facing the opposite way, skip to Step 3!

 

 

 

 

Step 3

 

Turn over your tracing so that the pencil outline is face to face with your calico fabric. Making sure that you have a hard surface underneath your work as you will need to press quite hard, carefully trace over the design again. When you remove the parchment paper you should be left with a pencil outline of the design on the fabric.

 

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Step 4

 

Now for the fun bit!  Place your fabric into an embroidery hoop to keep it nice and taut. Select your first embroidery thread and separate the 6 strands so that you are working with just two together.  Thread these through your sharp embroidery needle and get stitching!  Use a variety of different stitches to add interest to your design. I’ve used satin stitch for the bird’s eye, beak, the spots on his chest and the metallic tips of his tail. Running stitch, backstitch and vine stitch (used on the legs) are great for outlining. And for the turquoise around the birds face I used just one strand of thread in long stitch. The feathers along his wing were done in my latest stitching discovery, Roman stitch. Find tutorials for all these and more on the internet.

 

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Step 5

 

Remove your finished embroidery from the hoop and press with a hot iron. Sketch a rough pencil outline, about 1cm from the stitching ONTO THE BACK of the fabric, to act as a guide for sewing up. Now place the whole thing onto the top of your backing fabric, right sides together. Pin the two together and stitch around your outline leaving a 2 cm gap unstitched for turning.

 

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Step 6

 

Trim your work to about 0.5cm from your stitching and with a sharp pair of scissors make some little nicks in the seam allowance so that when you turn it through the seam excess doesn’t bunch up or pull your birdy out of shape.

 

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Step 7

 

Turn your work through and press with a hot iron. Now you can fill your little cushion with a mixture of lavender, dried rice and a little bit of toy stuffing too.  The rice adds a satisfying sense of weight, but will also help the lavender to give off more scent by rubbing up against it when you give the bag a squeeze! The toy stuffing helps create a nice smooth finish.

 

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Step 8

 

Using a needle and thread, hand-sew the gap closed. Your little scented friend is now ready to get to work. Nighty night little bird, see you in the spring!

 

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For more lovely pretty things stitched by hand visit https://www.facebook.com/MadebyMaggie07

 

 

How to Create a Clutter-Free Modern Living Room

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HK_Government_House_Living_RoomIt is imperative that you keep a tidy, neat living room in your home. The living room is where you’ll entertain guests and where you’ll want to hang out after a hard day at work. Inviting guests over to a cluttered living room is embarrassing, and coming home to one after work will only stress you out instead of calming you down.

 

If you’re really stumped about why your living room is in a constant state of clutter, you should probably think about re-organising it into the room of beauty and comfort that it’s meant to be.

 

Restructure your entertainment system

 

If you have a large television, or a nice audio entertainment system, or both, it probably takes up a lot of space in your living room. It doesn’t have to be this way. There are a number of solutions. You could get a TV cabinet that neatly stores your sound system as well as your TV in one compact area.

 

Alternatively, if you really want to save space, TV wall brackets are the best way forward. Your TV will no longer take up any ground space whatsoever, and will be neatly and beautifully displayed on your wall.

 

Display your books in an efficient manner

 

Instead of having small piles of books and magazines all over the place, you should probably invest in a sleek-looking bookcase to neatly stack all your books and other items there. Put the big classics that you’ve already read at the top, with everything else that you read often on the lower levels for easier access.

 

What you could also do is invest in a coffee table that has storage cabinets beneath it, where you can store some of your other magazines and books for curling up on the sofa with.

 

Impose laws

 

This is essential if you’re a family with kids. You have to understand that your living room is never going to be uncluttered unless you enforce rules about keeping it tidy. The first thing to get through to your kids is that they need to respect their own house, and all the rooms in it.

 

Next, you need to lay down specific rules about them leaving their toys and belongings all over the place. Adults should be able to follow rules too – there should be no dumping of jackets, shoes and hats when you come in from work – use the coat hooks!