Melly & me

Cicada Season & TT Tuesday.

Cicada season has well and truly hit!  Everywhere you go you can see the telltale signs of empty shells... This time always makes me remember my early childhood when me and my older sisters used to collect the shells . This green grocer cicada decided to make himself known to us today as we were heading off to school, he was just emerging from his shell when we found him in the driveway.

I had to show the kids how we used to decorate our clothing with cicada shell broches!!  I was almost tempted to wear a few myself!

Okay - enough of my bug nostalgia!! 

Today is Tuesday and I promised you a new tutorial.  I found it quite easy to get one organised today as I started whipping up a herd of Rudys.  I am finally being true to my intentions and making up a number of them as Christmas gifts for teachers and friends!  This would have to be my most organised Christmas to date! 

I thought the next mini tutorial could show you all how to ladder stitch a turning/stuffing hole closed to give a smooth and neat finish.  I will do a second part to this tutorial next Tuesday showing you how to also use ladder stitch to attach the antlers.  

With some of our softies, such as Phoebe or Magoo, there are parts of the design that cover any turning gaps; this of course is lovely, but is not possible with all softies.  Some softies have a turning gap that will be visible and since we are using flat cotton rather than fleece or fur, it is especially important to try and have a neat closure.

Here is the underside of my firmly stuffed Rudy showing the turning/stuffing hole.  Try to ensure as you stuff your softie to keep the seam allowance of your hole tidy and folded under - this will make a neat closure a lot easier.

Take your needle and thread it with a folded length of strong polyester thread.  Thread the needle so that the folded end is the longest length. Do not knot.

Now take your needle and thread it through a few fibres on one side of your stuffing hole.  Pull the thread through most of the way, and then thread the needle through the loop created by the folded end of your thread.  This will secure your thread without a knot. 

On the opposite side and right at the edge of your turning gap, take a small stitch along the folded gap edge.

Now take a small stitch into the edge on the other side of your gap.  Enter this stitch in line with where your first stitch exited. 

Continue on like this until you have stitched approx 1/2" in length.  Your stitches will begin to look much like the rungs of a ladder. 

At this point, pull the thread slowly but firmly in the direction shown, to pull the two edges together and close the stitched area. 

Continue to ladder stitch in the same way, pulling your sides together about every 1/2", until you have a small 1/2" gap remaining. 

At this point it is possible that you have a bit of a dimple along the softie edge that you have ladder stitched.  If this is the case, insert some small wads of stuffing into the space beneath your stitches using the flat end of a wooden skewer  Make sure that you keep the threat taut when doing this so that your stitches do not start to undo. 

Now continue to ladder stitch the remaining gap. 

Pull the thread to close the gap; it should now stay closed on its own quite well.  Tie a few knots close to the base of your thread. 

And then sink the knots into the softie (refer to previous tutorial if unsure), taking the needle out at another point in the toy. 

Trim the thread right against the softie at the point of exit. 

You should now have a nice neat and flat closure. 

And no dimple along that edge of the softie!

I hope that this tutorial will help a few of you!!!

Melly.

Giveaway Winners

Slack, slack, slack is all I can say to describe the week I have had!  And boy, have I enjoyed every second of it!  I had two days of feeling guilty and lazy but by now I am have well and truly adjusted to the pace! Now the question is, can I get back to work when the time comes??  

Actually, I have no problems answering that because I am feeling inspiration creep into me more and more as I relax - I know it is only a matter of days before I will burst into my studio in a designing frenzy.  

Since I have done nothing whatsoever, I have very little to share in the way of news or images, so best just get into announcing the giveaway winners!....

The four winners are Lynda, Alice S, Heather W and Katie B. Please email me with your postal addresses and choice of the 4 new patterns girls, and I will be sure to send them out ASAP.

Thank you all so much for all of your amazing comments, I love hearing your feedback about which design speaks to you most!  They are all my babies, and I love sharing them with you.

Have an amazing weekend,

Melly.

What's New?... (& giveaway)

Last night we came home from a fun weekend at AQM.  It was a great weekend full of laughter, friendships old and new, great food and wine, and of course a little bit of work (If you can call that work??!!)

Despite such a fabulous time, I am also a little glad that the weekend is over... AQM was the last major commitment in my 2009 diary and I am really looking forward to taking things a little bit easier over the next couple of months.  On the weekend I was able to release four new designs, so I think I can justify a little break - my body is telling me I need one.

With AQM over, I can now officially share my new designs with you - YAY!!  I am not good at all that secret keeping, so I am so glad to finally be sharing them with you.  All of those sneak peaks revealed and of course a giveaway!

First off is my newest creation and the most recent sneak peek.... Dahlia.  Dahlia is the sweetest little dolly, great for play or decoration and I am particularly partial to her.  She is my first ever dolly creation and she did take me a number of drafts to get just right!  I hope you love her too...

 

The next new design is a little girl's set that I just love to put on little Boo.  It is called "Little Miss Mouse" and I think that the mouse ear headband just tops it off perfectly...
 

The third new design is one that reminds me so much of my childhood and gives me those nostalgic warm fuzzies.  These hobby horses (stick horses) are the perfect gift for any young boy or girl and I have had trouble keeping Boo and Roony off these in the lead up to AQM!!..

 

The last of the new designs is one that was part of a "Stitchery of the Month" club recently, and this one is called "My Folio & Folio Jnr".  My folio is the perfect A5 folio to hold your diary, note pad and a couple of pens, and Folio Jnr is for keeping those kids entertained on the go! - perfect to fit a small sketch pad and pencils. The pattern has a full monogram alphabet so that your folios can be customised for anyone in your life....

 

So that, in a nutshell, is the four new designs that have now been officially released. I hope they will be available at your Local Patchwork Store very soon! In the meantime, of course, I need to give you all a chance to win a copy of your favorite. Please leave a comment on this blog post and you will go in the running to win one of the new patterns of your choice. There are 4 new patterns, So I am thinking there must need to be 4 winners, Good Luck!

I am now going to head off to enjoy a few quiet days, and as a result there will be no Tips & Tricks Tuesday this week. I can assure you that it will be back in full swing next week, and please keep emailing me with any tips you really would like to see featured.

Have a great week and I will be back again rested and relaxed on Friday,

Melly.

Only one week to go....

...until a bit of a break. This time next week the patterns will all be written, Australian Quilt Market will all be over and I think there will only be one small deadline left for the year - man, I cant wait!!!  I am looking forward to taking things a little easier and catching up with some much needed work around the house, not to mention all that Christmas shopping and socialising!  Ahhh it will be great!! (famous last words, as I know it is always when you say you are on a break that the best inspiration comes!!). 

This time next week, I will also be able to show you all my 4 new designs, which I am really looking forward to. This is a sneak peek of my latest new creation....     

As well as new designs, there is also a new look, with my new "low maintenance" summer do!

 

But of course I had better not forget that today is Tuesday which means it must be "Tips & Tricks Tuesday"!

This next tip is again based on softie making.  One question we often get is "Why do you attach eyes, nose, mouth etc after stuffing, and how do you do this so that knots aren't showing?" So here is a tutorial that is perhaps not easy to convey with pictures only or words only, but hopefully with the two combined it will make a lot of sense!

To answer the first part of this question, attaching applique pieces after stuffing a softie has two big benefits. The first is that a softie can be quite unpredictable and depending on fabric used, width/size of fabric pieces, firmness of stuffing etc, the end stuffie can be quite different in proportion than you initially thought.  With adding details after the toy is stuffed you have great control over getting the perfect placement and having a balanced toy.  The second reason is to avoid distortion or damage to your applique pieces.  One concern when doing your applique first is that the stitches could become damaged or pulled by your stuffing tool during the stuffing process. Another concern is that the fabric stretches (as it will do if you stuff firmly) and this may pull your stitches or even make holes in your backing fabric.  Of course this is not a hard and fast rule but it is the way we usually like to work.

For the second part of the question I will need to employ the help of some photos.  For this tutorial I am going to attach a nostril to this unfinished "Drake the dragon" by "sinking" the knots....

In preparation for this step, you will have attached the nostril to your softie with the use of fusible web and your iron.

Now thread your needle with the specified stands of embroidery floss (In this case I am use 2 stands of black floss), and tie a knot in the end as per usual.  I recommend that you tie a double knot in the case of 2 strands or as a rule, ensure that the knot is roughly the same width as your needle.

Enter the needle into your toy at a point a short distance away with the tip coming out at the exact place you want to start your stitching...

Pull the thread through and you will notice that the knot will catch at your point of entry, but of course we do not want to leave an ugly knot at the back of our toy. 

Grab a hold of the thread, close to its exit point, and give it a quick short tug...

...this will cause the knot to pop through the weave of your fabric and "sink" inside the softie. You need to ensure that you do not tug too hard or violently or your thread will also come through the top side and you will need to start again.

....Now you can complete the sewing required on your softie. Of course this is not limited to just applique but is also the method to use for any stitching or attaching of limbs/ears etc etc....

Once you have completed your stitching (in this case, I have button-hole appliqued the nostril in place) and are ready to take your last stitch, tie a knot close to the base of your thread. Again ensure that the knot is roughly the same width as your needle as shown.

Take your last stitch, threading the needle through to the same area that your entered before stitching (I recommend the back of your toy)..

Again your thread will snag when the knot reaches the fabric.  Tug the thread again to sink this finishing knot into the softie...Cut the thread right at the fabric and this cut end will also sink into the toy..

...resulting in an appliqued nostril with no visible threads or knots!!

I hope that this tutorial has again helped someone and I look forward to the next installment!!  

You will probably not hear from me again until Monday when I will be back to show you the newly released designs. 

For the next few days I will be knee deep in pattern writing and getting prepared for the weekend. I am actually a little excited, as a few of us designers are going to grab a fancy room in the city during AQM to cut out all of that travel and have a great girls weekend (OK - there will be SOME work) which I am really looking forward to!  I hope you have a great week and I will be back to see you on Monday, unless of course I get to see you on the weekend - I do hope so!

Melly.

Tricks & Tips 1 - Turning small parts.

Well it is officially the first "Tips & Tricks" Tuesday.  Thanks so much to all of you that sent me suggestions for mini-tutorials, I hope that I will get to them all over time and also please keep them coming!  

As this is the question we get asked most often, it just had to be the first cab off the rank. Mrs Perkins' horns and other small parts can be tricky to turn and we often hear of people having piles of frayed horns after attempting again and again to turn the little fiddly pieces.  I actually find it quite easy to turn the horns with just the use of a wooden skewer, but this has come with practice and re-use.  This trick that I am about to show you it fool proof and so quick, some of you will give big sighs of relief, I am sure!Firstly, the sewing foundations need to be right to get the desired result.  With all small and fiddly bits you would be sewing on the traced line as this gives you much greater control as you work with a larger piece of fabric. We recommend that you always use a small stitch of 1 - 1.5 when sewing any parts that are to be stuffed.  It is also a big help to always use polyester thread for softies due to the added strength.  Cotton thread will break easily and may not be able to handle the strain of firm stuffing.

Once you have sewn your small shape, cut it out approx 1/8" outside the sewn line.

The next step is to grab yourself a drinking straw.  I suggest getting one that is a little sturdier that your "bulk pack" variety. The ones that you get from fast food stores or a re-usable plastic straw would be perfect.

Take your horn between your two fingers and twist the fabric against itself to open it up.

And then slide the horn over the end of your straw.

Now you need to get your second tool (an essential tool for softie making!!) which is a standard wooden skewer - the type you find in your supermarket for skewering meat.  Making sure that you are using the flat end of your skewer, push the sewn end of the horn into the straw opening.

Keep pushing the horn into and through the straw so that it is turning the horn right side out.

Continue pushing the horn through to the other end of the straw....

And Voila!!!  A perfect turned horn - without the sweat and tears!!!

And while you are equipped with your wooden skewer, it is the perfect tool to stuff your horn as well!

So there you go!!!  The first installment of Tips and Tricks Tuesday!  I hope that this proves to be a really helpful tip for a lot of you and that I may have ended a little bit of frustration.

I have created a categories link on the left hand side bar which is labeled "Tips & Tricks Tuesday Tutorials" You will be able to find this and all future tutorials there for easy reference.  

Now I need to go spend the rest of my Melbourne Cup day writing patterns - oh joy!  Have a great day!

Melly.