Shortcuts To Sewing Forum – The Way Forward?

For some time members of the Shortcuts To Sewing Forum have been experiencing difficulties posting items and logging in. Consequently, activity on the forum has been slowing down and is now almost at a standstill.

As a stopgap, Hazel (also known as Muralou) set up a group on Facebook where members could keep in contact and post pictures of their makes.

The following is a post that I put on the Facebook group, which has also been posted on the forum. I am writing about this here so that members can discuss how they feel about what should happen next with the forum.

If you are a member of the Shortcuts To Sewing Forum, please feel free to share your views in the Comments section below, on what the forum should be or do next. It would be helpful if you could include your Forum Username at the start of your comment so that we can keep track of who is saying what. Could I also request that readers who are not members restrict any comments they wish to make to offering practical advice / information about how to put proposals into effect, please?

Thank you.

This is what I posted earlier:

One problem that has already cropped up with having the Shortcuts to Sewing group on Facebook is that many people do not have (and do not want) Facebook accounts.
Debbie and John have not been able to get the problems sorted on the forum and Debbie has reached the point where she has had enough. (I can’t say I blame her. It costs her money for the forum to be administered so she is getting all the hassle and paying for the privilege.
I suggested to Debbie a couple of weeks ago that I thought it might be a good idea for the forum to move to another provider/server/host. She agrees with me.
So…
We need to think about where the forum goes from here.
It was a great idea of Hazel’s to start this group – we needed someone to do something. However, I don’t think Facebook will be the answer for hosting the forum as it needs to be somewhere that allows us to have different sections.
Obviously, someone or some people, needs or need to do some legwork finding somewhere to set up the forum. We also need to let members on the existing forum know what is happening.
If anyone on here is able to post on the forum at the moment (I can’t get logged in wherever I try) it would be really helpful if you could spread the word, please.
We need to discuss what we want regarding the forum. As some people can’t get on Facebook, we could use my blog as a place to discuss and leave comments, if that would help 

Can’t See The Forest For The Trees.

Simple Christmas tree decorations

I have been fiddling again!

Whilst thinking about all things Christmas I was looking through my file of Christmas-related bits and pieces and found a template of a Christmas tree that I used several years ago. My eye was also caught by a box of Christmas-themed ribbons. “Aha!” thought I, “I could use those things together”. And so I did. It may not have been my most successful playtime but, no matter, I enjoyed myself.

I used a rectangle of paper-backed fusible web and ironed lengths of the tartan ribbon onto it. I flipped the whole thing over and, after removing the paper backing, I ironed more lengths of the ribbon at right angles to the first side. When I had done that the whole piece was rather flimsy. Oops! However, it became more stable as it cooled. I used my template to cut out four tree shapes. [You will notice that the trees don’t look symmetrical but that is due, in part, to the fact that the pattern on on the ribbon is an asymmetric one.] I then threaded each tree with a length of two strands of red embroidery cotton, ready to hang them somewhere suitable for Christmas.

So there you have another easy, no-sew decoration to make for Christmas using up odds and ends that you have in your craft room!

Your own ‘forest’ of Christmas trees!

Something Other Than A Hat Or Scarf

Child’s jumper

At last, I have gotten round to knitting something other than hats, scarves or socks! I seem to have spent an awfully long time knitting all of those, using up scraps and odd balls of wool. However, I have now completed a small child’s jumper. Phew!

I used Sirdar Denim yarn

The pattern I used was this one from Red Heart. I like the broken rib design on the sleeves. However, I used only one colour and knitted it in Sirdar Denim Tweed double knitting. Unfortunately the yarn is now discontinued. I really liked the feel of the yarn, which is 60% Acrylic, 25% Cotton and 15% Wool. It goes a long way, as well – there are around 170m [186 yards] per 50g ball! This jumper [which I knitted in the smallest size – would fit about age 3-4 years] took just three balls.

Child’s sporty jumper

The yarn I used was given to me by Elizabeth. When I began the jumper I wondered if it would fit either of my grandsons, but it doesn’t, so it will help to keep a Syrian child warm, instead.

Tutorial for Crazy Patchwork Christmas Tree Hanging

As I have been thinking about Christmassy things recently, I thought I would show you this Crazy Patchwork Christmas Tree again. It was made using using fabric from Abakhan. If you fancy having a go at making one, read on for the tutorial.

Crazy Patchwork Christmas Tree

Materials

• An assortment of Christmas fabric scraps
• A piece of plain fabric for the bucker [I used green]
• Plain fabric for base to sew patchwork onto [this could be a piece of old curtain lining or sheeting]
• 2oz wadding
• Fabric for backing [I used plain red]
• Brass ring or ribbon for hanging loop
• Thread
• Rotary cutter
• Self-healing cutting mat
• Ruler
• Marker pencil for fabric
• Scissors
• Stitch unpicker [I needed mine several times!]

1.            With your base fabric and using your ruler on the cutting mat, cut a rectangle – this piece will be used to make the triangle for your tree. The tree can be made to whatever size you wish, although I found it difficult to be sure what the exact finished size would be. My rectangle measured 13” x 11”. The finished patchwork section measured 11.5” x 10”.

2.            To create a triangle, fold the rectangle in half along its longer sides. Place it on your cutting mat with the fold going from top to bottom. Place your ruler on the fabric beginning with its edge at the top of the fabric fold and angled out towards the long cut edge of your base fabric, leaving 0.5” between the ruler and the cut edge of the fabric.

3.            Using your marker pencil, draw a line along the edge of the ruler. This pencil line is a useful indicator when sewing the patchwork to ensure that the entire surface of your tree is covered.

4.            Slide the ruler across the fabric to leave a half inch strip between your drawn line and the edge of the ruler. Using the rotary cutter, cut the fabric. You now have your triangle on which to sew the patchwork.

5.            Open the triangle and lay flat with the pencil line showing. Mark a similar line, half an inch in from the second long side of the triangle.

6.            Using the template attached to these instructions, cut one piece of green fabric, one piece of red fabric and one piece of wadding to make the bucket. The hatched areas are the seam allowances. The cross-hatched areas will be hidden when the tree is completed.

7.            Sandwich the three layers together: wadding at the bottom, then red fabric and topped with green fabric.

8.            Stitch together as shown in the photograph. Trim the bottom edge and bottom corners.

9.            Turn the bucket right sides out.

10.       At this point I decorated my bucket with a pre-programmed decorative holly stitch on my sewing machine.

11.       Begin sewing pieces of Christmas fabric to the base. The method I used was ‘stitch and flip’ – see instructions below.

12.       Take a piece of fabric and place in the middle of the triangle, right side facing up. You may sew this in place if you find it easier, using a fairly long straight stitch on your machine.

13.       Take your second piece of fabric and lay it, face down, with one of its edges along one of the edges of your first piece. Stitch in place using a long straight stitch. You may trim the fabric once it has been attached.



14.       With your third piece of fabric and working around the first piece, attach it along the second edge of the first piece, ensuring no fabric edges are left showing.

Sewing it the wrong way!

        **I made my first mistake here, attaching the wrong side of the third piece of fabric to the edge of the first piece! Hence the need for the stitch unpicker!

Sewing it correctly this time!



15.       Continue the process of sewing on scraps as shown in the photos, working around your patchwork rather than concentrating on one area. If you are unhappy with how it looks just unpick it and try another piece.

16.       Note: When working towards the top of the tree, I found that I had to unpick and reattach several pieces as I had miscalculated what they would cover. If this happens to you, don’t panic, unpicking does not show on the finished item!

17.       When all pieces have been stitched in place, stitch along all joins using a decorative stitch – I used a zigzag stitch 5mm wide and 3mm long in red thread.

18.       Press the tree and the bucket firmly

19.       Using your patchwork as a template, cut the backing fabric and a piece of wadding.

20.       Pin the three layers of the tree together with the right sides of the fabrics facing each other and the wadding at the bottom.

21.       Insert the bucket between the two right sides of the tree fabric, with [i] the front of the bucket facing the right side of the tree, [ii] the widest end of the bucket [i.e. the top] lined up with the base of the tree, and [iii] the narrowest end [i.e. the bottom] pointing towards the top of the tree. [* The bucket must be inside the sandwich, not on the outside!]

22.       Pin the bucket firmly in place.

The two blue pins inside the triangle are securing the bucket

23.       If you would like a ribbon hanging loop, insert the ribbon at this stage, between the patchwork and the red fabric, at the point of the tree, pointing down towards the bottom of the tree. [* The loop must be inside the sandwich, not on the outside!]

24.       Pin the ribbon firmly into place.

25.       Stitch the layers together, leaving a gap of about 3” along one of the sides.

26.       Trim the seams and corners.

27.       Turn the tree the right side out, taking care to neaten each of the points. Press.

28.       Neatly slip stitch the gap closed.

29.       If you are using a ring to hang the tree, stitch it firmly into place on the back of the tree, near the top point, making sure that it is not visible from the front.

         At this point I also tied the three layers of the tree together with knots spaced

         evenly, but widely across the back, to keep the tree looking neat.

The finished tree

Template for bucket

Ooh, la la! Lacy Top Stockings!

I wonder if the title of today’s post misled you? My first title for this post was very boring so I opted for something that sounded a little more risqué! Just look at the photograph below and you will see just how naughty I am being today…

Lace-topped Felt Stocking

Hmm. Not very!

Being without a sewing machine and, also, with very little energy, I have been doing a lot of pottering and fiddling, all of which has led to me spending quite some time looking at Christmas tree decorations. This is quite a departure for me as I don’t actually ‘do’ Christmas. Oh, I give presents to my close family [including Little Sis] but that’s about all. Sending Christmas cards is very hit and miss – usually miss. I have absolutely no interest in celebrating what, for me, is a very sad anniversary. [Please don’t comment below about it being an important religious festival – I’m well aware of that.]

Anyway, all of that aside, I have been thinking about decorations and this idea came to me. I have lots of tiny lengths of lace and thought how pretty they could be at the top of some little stockings, hanging on a Christmas tree.

A hanging stocking [N.B. Peter does have all his fingers, they are just folded in this photo!]

I drew a small stocking measuring about 6cm wide by 7cm deep and cut out two of them. I oversewed them together using two strands of red embroidery cotton. Then I wrapped a 7cm length of 1.5cm wide lace around the top and stitched it into place. I decided that I wanted my stocking to hand straight, rather than tilted, so I attached two strands of the embroidery cotton as a loop, about a quarter of the way in from the inside edge of the rim.

Et, voila!

One scrappy felt Christmas stocking to hang on the tree!

No-Sew Christmas Napkin Ring

No-Sew Decorative Christmas Napkin Ring

Materials

1 x 9” square piece of red felt

1 x 9” square piece of green felt

Paper-cutting scissors

Fabric scissors

Marker pen

Template sheet

Instructions

Print the template onto card.

Using your paper-cutting scissors, cut out each of the shapes from the card template sheet, including the centre circle on the leaf and petal pieces.

Use paper-cutting scissors to cut out templates

The cut-out templates. Note that the centre circles have been cut out

Place the spiky leaf shape onto the piece of green felt. Draw around it carefully with the marker pen. Make sure you have marked the centre circle.

Ready to draw around template

Ready to cut out template

Cut the shape, including the centre circle, out of the green felt. 

Cut out the template

**Tip** Cut a rough square out of the felt around the leaf shape as it will make it much easier to cut out the detailed shape.

**Tip** Roughly cut out a square of felt to make cutting the details easier

Place the green felt leaf shape to one side.

Note the centre circle has been cut out.

Take the sheet of red felt. Place the petal shape at the corner of the sheet and the long shape along the opposite edge of the felt, as shown in the picture. 

Ready to draw the first two shapes

Draw around both shapes with the marker pen, including the centre circle of the petal shape. Move the petal shape along the piece of felt towards the long shape. Place it so that it does not overlap either of the shapes you have already drawn. Draw around the petal shape for a second time, including the centre circle.

Cut the three shapes out of the red felt, remembering also to cut out the centre circle pieces.

**Remember the tip mentioned above.**

The three red pieces have been cut out

Gather your four cut felt shapes.

Long red piece of felt and spiky green piece

Take the long red shape and the green spiky leaf shape as shown in the photograph above.

Pushing and pulling the ball-shaped end through the centre circle gently

Push one rounded end of the long shape through the centre hole of the spiky leaf shape.

One ball-shaped end has been pushed through the centre circle

Take one red petal shape.

The first red petal shape is ready to be attached

Take the rounded end of the long shape that you have already pushed through the centre of the leaf shape and push it through the centre of the red petal shape.

The first ball-shaped end of the band is going through the centre circle

This is how the ball-shaped end will look

Take the other rounded end of the long piece of felt.

The other end of the long red shape is ready

Push it through the centre hole of the green leaf shape.

Manoeuvre the felt gently

Then push it through the centre hole of the red petal shape.

It has gone through the centre of the green shape

Take the second red petal shape. Place it on top of the partly constructed napkin ring.

The second red petal shape is ready to be attached

Push one ball-shaped end of the long shape through the centre hole.

One end has been passed through the circle

Push the other ball-shaped end of the long shape through the same centre hole.

Both ends are through all layers

Gently neaten the two ball-shaped ends.

Gently neatening the end pieces

Gently move the leaf shape and each of the two petal shapes to make an attractive finished item.

Moving leaves and petals into positions

Your napkin ring is ready for use.

Beautifully arranged leaves and petals

The napkin ring in use

Embellish as desired, for example, do some hand stitching on the petals, stick glitter or beads onto the ball-shaped ends.

An alternative is to use green felt for the band. This picture shows the result of doing so.

Napkin ring using green felt band

TEMPLATE SHEET

Manipulated Fabric Christmas Tree

It’s that time of year again when crafters’ minds are concentrating on Christmas and all the goodies they can make for family and friends, as well as for themselves, or even for sale.

The tutorial I created for the Folded Fabric Christmas Tree proved so popular that I have decided to repost it. it will save anyone having to trawl through my old post to find it! [That’s my good deed for the day!]

I still haven’t figured out how to include a link to a .pdf file so, if you want a printed copy, I’m afraid you will have to copy and paste it all. Apologies but I am not able to deal with requests for a .pdf file for the foreseeable future.

Have fun making the tree and I hope you will send me pictures if you do make one.

Manipulated Fabric Christmas Tree

Materials required:

• Two different designs of Christmas fabric (I have used a red design and a green design and will refer to these throughout.)
• Cotton thread in complementary colour(s)
• Scraps of brown felt and red felt
• Beads for embellishment (if desired)
• Rotary cutter
• Quilter’s ruler
• 60° triangle template
• Pins
• Hand sewing needle
• Beading needle
• Fabric glue

Tools and materials needed to make a Manipulated Fabric Christmas Tree

Additional items required to make the tree

Trim the ends of each piece of Christmas design fabric to ensure they are straight.

Creating a straight edge on fabric

Cut a strip of fabric measuring 33” x 6” from the green fabric and from the red fabric.

Measuring and cutting fabric strip

Using your 60° triangle template or, alternatively, the 60° line on your quilting ruler, cut ten triangles measuring 6” on all three sides from each strip.

Measuring triangles

Cutting triangles from fabric

Cutting fabric using rulers and rotary cutter

You will now have 10 red 60° triangles and 10 green 60° triangles, all with sides measuring 6”. This photograph shows ten pairs as I cut double thickness.

Red and green fabric triangles ready for folding

Place one red triangle and one green triangle right sides together. Pin them together as shown by the red triangle in the picture below.

Place one triangle of each colour together with right sides facing

Stitch the triangles together, leaving a gap along one side of approx 2.5”, for turning.

Stitching triangles together

Leave a gap in the stitching for turning

Snip off each of the points being careful not to cut your stitching.

Snipping the points off the triangles

Turn the triangle so that the right sides are on the outside.

Turning the triangles inside out

Ensure points of triangle are neatly turned

Press the triangle, making sure that the opening is neat and level.

Press the triangles

Neatly hand stitch the gap closed.

Hand stitch the gap closed

Repeat these steps for all the triangles. You will have 10 double-sided triangles.

Take one of the triangles and fold it in half so that you have a right-angled triangle with points 1 and 2 together.

Finger press the fold.
Fold in half into a right-angled triangle again so that points 2 and 3 are together.
Finger press the fold to find the centre of the triangle.

Finger press the fold

Fold one of the points so that it touches the centre of the triangle, where you have made your creases. Stitch in place.

Fold one point over to the centre of the triangle

Likewise, fold and stitch the second and third points in place at the centre. This will create a hexagon shape.

Fold second point into centre

Repeat with third point

Turn the resulting hexagon over. Find the centre of one of the edges of the original triangle (rather than a new folded edge) and fold it in to the centre of the hexagon. Stitch in place.

Folding the first edge to the centre

Repeat the previous step with the other two original edges.

Fold second triangle edge to the centre

Repeat for third edge

You will now have a piece as shown in these two photographs below.

Front

Reverse

Make each of your triangles into this shape, making sure that you fold the fabric in the same way each time so that all finished triangles have the same fabric on the front.

**The two shapes below have been folded in the two different ways to show the contrasting end result.**

Triangles folded from front and from back

Now begin to construct your tree as follows:

Take two of your triangle shapes and place them side by side with one red fold on each lined up as shown in the picture below.

Place two triangles abutting at one corner edge

Place the triangles with right sides facing and stitch the red fold line firmly together.

Tutorial for Stitch triangles together firmly

Repeat this step to stitch all the triangles together to create the tree shape below.

Two rows of triangles stitched together

The reverse of the tree shape when all triangles have been stitched together

Take your scraps of felt and pinking shears.

Cut a bucket shape from the dark brown felt, a tree trunk from the light brown felt and two decorative strips from the red felt, using the pinking shears.

Cut trunk and bucket shapes from felt

Stick the red decorations and the trunk onto the bucket.

Stick stripes onto bucket

Place trunk onto the back of the centre of the bucket

Secure trunk with PVA glue

To create the hanging loop, cut a strip of dark brown felt measuring 4” x 0.75”. 

Cut felt to make hanging loop

Fold it in half along its length then form a loop, as shown above.

Front view

Rear view

Stitch in place at the top of the tree.

Stitching hanging loop in place

When the glue has dried on the bucket, sew two lines of running stitch on each red stripe. (Sorry, the stitching does not show up very well.)

Stripes on bucket

Attach the trunk and bucket to the tree by stitching on the reverse.

Stitch trunk into position

The tree is now complete but you may wish to embellish it further.

The completed Christmas tree

I decorated my tree by threading four beads together and hanging them in each gap, as shown.

Stitching bead embellishments to tree

Hanging bead detail

Hanging bead embellishments on tree

Manipulated fabric Christmas tree complete with bead decorations

** This tree was made using fabrics generously supplied by:

Abakhan Online Shopping

It Was There One Minute…!?!

Singer Brilliance 6180

Who knew what an eventful day today would be?

As I was up fairly early, I decided to begin sewing another fleece hat before breakfast. No, I’m not mad! Honestly! I am having some problems with lack of energy at the moment and have found that I can manage it better if I do a little then rest.

As I began to sew the Singer was rather clunky. This had happened a couple of times yesterday but I had not really thought much about it. However, it didn’t sound happy. Hmmm. Anyway, I only did a little sewing then decided to check my emails whilst having a cup of coffee. How lucky was that? Actually, luck seemed to have been on my side this week!

I had received an email from a Brother sewing machine dealer which said that, for the duration of the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace, there are reductions on some of the Brother range. Woohoo! The Brother NV1250 sewing and embroidery combination machine, which is the one I had decided on when I was at David Drummond’s shop in Edinburgh, was reduced from £1299 to £899! That’s a massive £400 reduction.

Brother NV1250 combination sewing and embroidery machine

Well, it took me about three seconds to decide to buy it. Although I had been wondering about buying the new model when it is released, I couldn’t see any sense in paying more than double the cost of the NV1250 – especially as I am only buying a combination machine in case I want to use the embroidery function.

The decision also included returning the clunky Singer to Lidl. It was only ever a stopgap but I had already realised it was likely to start playing up. In fact, it did play up when I finished sewing the hat a little later.

I rang David Drummond after breakfast and bought the machine and some other bits and pieces to start me off and then promptly tried to use the credit card I had paid for the trip to Antarctica with – and payment was declined! Oops! Thank goodness I have another credit card. Phew, disaster averted… for a while.

After lunch I returned the Singer to the Lidl store where I had bought it. I was surprised and impressed with how easy it was to return the machine. I had anticipated reluctance to deal with the matter but the process was very easy. The assistant asked if I had changed my mind or if there was a problem with the machine. When I explained that it was making a clunking noise they immediately offered a refund. 10/10 for customer service, Lidl.

I returned home to be told that there had been two phone calls for me whilst I was out. The first was from the credit card company. Suffice to say that when I rang them back their service was not as good as Lidl’s! When I rang the second caller, I discovered that my good luck had run out. I was told by David Drummond that Brother are unable to deliver my new machine for about a month. Apparently, the company had set up a promotion on the NV1250 for the duration of the Ally Pally show, but didn’t have any stock in the UK! How’s that for forward planning?

Now I have to wait for ages and ages and ages and ages for my new machine to arrive. So, the Singer was there one minute and then it went back to Lidl. And the Brother… well, it was nearly there one minute…

Sewing Machines

Picture the scene. Bossymamma sitting at her lovely new sewing table. Earlier in the day she had cut out the fleece fabric for six or seven hats for children in Syria. Lots of lovely, bright colours which would be a joy to sew and, subsequently, to wear. Hmph! Except the joy was missing!

Brother Super Ace II

My lovely sewing machine, which my Little Sis gave me, was being naughty. It decided it didn’t want to stitch all the layers together. It had a huuuuuggggeeee hissy fit. It did the sewing machine equivalent of stamping its feet – it kept snapping the thread.

I rethreaded the machine. It did it again. Play that scene in your head about a dozen times. I checked the bobbin. It did it again. I used a different bobbin. It did it again. I already had a ballpoint needle in the machine but I out in a new one. It did it again.

Can you spot a pattern developing here?

Another Brother Super Ace II

I switched off the machine, took off the cover and cleaned all around the tensions discs then carefully replaced the cover. I switched the machine back on and tried again. It did it again. So then I cleaned the bobbin area and, guess what? It did it again!

Next, I checked the manual. I went through every suggestion that was made, except the final one. I didn’t like that one! It said to contact the service centre. When I had to have the machine repaired last year I decided that if it needed any further work I would replace it. So, instead of contacting the service centre, I went online to double check the machine I had settled on during my visit to David Drummond’s shop in Edinburgh. That was a mistake as I was distracted by looking at the Brother NV2600 which is due for release next month.

I realised that I wasn’t going to be able to make a decision but then I remembered a special offer that I had seen advertised. I jumped in my car and drove to Lidl where I bought a Singer Brilliance for £99! It was the last one in the shop. I couldn’t believe my luck!

A big box – but not hugely enormous.

I had decided that I could use the Singer whilst I decide which machine I want to buy. I hope that I will then be able to sell it for a reasonable price once I have my new machine installed.

The Singer Brilliance 6180

The machine itself doesn’t look vastly different from the Brother, on first inspection. However, it doesn’t take long to see the inferior quality of the Singer. When Little Sis and I were checking out the Super Ace II before she bought it, it was the latest all-singing, all-dancing model and the price reflected that. The Singer Brilliance is not at that sort of level but it’s a good little machine for the money. It was certainly worth paying £99 for it!

Singer Brilliance with table

Not only that, but it even has a small extension table included in that price! That’s something the Brother didn’t have.

I have tried the Brilliance today and it stitched the fleece easily – thank goodness. You will probably hear more about the machine, depending on how I get on with it.

Dafney Is Getting Ready For The Cold Weather

Dafney sporting a fleece hat

Have you noticed how the temperature has fallen several degrees today? It’s time to check your winter wardrobe to ensure that you will be well-protected in the winter.

Perhaps this angle is better?

Dafney is very lucky as she has had a chance to try on some new fleece hats. I have made two such hats in the last few days. I have been using some pieces of fleece that I was given by Abakhan Fabrics at the Exeter Sewing Meetup in March of this year, organised by Fiona of The Sewing Directory.

Or maybe this angle?

I have already used some of the pieces as backing for one of the quilts I made for Siblings Together in the summer but this week I decided to use some of it to make snuggly hats for children in Syria. With winter fast approaching I decided to start immediately.

A slightly different design

The first hat I made was this one, with contrasting band and crown. As I began cutting out the pattern from the monkey-patterned fleece, I decided to include some plain fleece in the design. I was using a hat template that I had downloaded from the internet but I had forgotten to print the instructions!

Does my head look big in this?

I stitched together the four sections of the crown then attached them to the band. At this point I realised that the hat would need to be lined so I made an identical hat then stitched the two together. I turned them rights sides out and stitched the opening closed, then sewed a single row of simple stretch stitch on the machine, around the rim. That row of stitching added more definition and helped to keep the hat and lining neatly together.

Is this my best side?

Yesterday I began cutting out the fabric for another hat. Due to the size of the piece of monkey-patterned fleece remaining, I needed to make the second hat slightly smaller. This meant adapting each section of the crown of the hat. I ended up with six smaller sections which fitted beautifully onto the band.

Dafney modelling the purple side of the contrasting hat

For this version, I attached the sections to the band before stitching them together to make the crown. That ended up being an awkward way to make the hat so I shan’t do it that way again.

How much longer do I have to wear a hat?

Again, I made two identically sized hats and stitched them together. I decided to have one side completely plain and the other completely patterned so that whoever receives the hat will, in effect, have two hats to wear.

Dafney the Dog in her final pose!

I am pleased with how these two hats have turned out and hope to make more of them. I hope that the children in Syria won’t mind that Dafney has been modelling them!

As with so many other things that I have made, I will be donating these hats to Syria Relief. I have previously donated items to Hand in Hand for Syria who are currently collecting donations of goods at various collection points around the UK as part of their Big Winter Aid Drop 2014. To find your nearest collection point, please CLICK HERE.

To watch a video showing how to make hats such as these, click HERE . (With thanks to Meg on the Shortcuts to Sewing Forum who posted the link on that forum.)