Pretty Pastels

I've just added 3 new colour button mixes to the shop ::

First is Lace.  A mixture of white, cream & ivory buttons...

Second :: Baby Blue -

and third :: Baby Pink -

The Baby Blue & Baby Pink mixes are all small buttons, and the Lace mix has buttons of all sizes.

Aren't they pretty?
The prices are good too - just £1.25 for 50g ....or £2 for 100g!
They are on the website here

bright birds

this weekend was a weekend of two halves - Saturday I spent HOURS doing the accounts *yawn*, but it meant I had the whole of Sunday to sew - yippee!

 This past week I had a little flurry of orders for these little bird decorations - so I decided to make extras too in case the flurries continued

  It is so satisfying to see them all piled up in their cheerful little piles

The pattern for these birds is in my tutorial section, up the top there - or you can find it by clicking here
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special offers update ::
sale felt is still available on eBay (but it's going fast!) click here and here to see
the buy 3 for the price of 2 offer on sewing threads is still live but will be gone tomorrow, so best be quick if you need some bargain threads.  click here to read the details.  click here to see the threads.

SALE felt

All my discontinued felt has now been reduced ... it's all brand new 30% wool felt....
...there are 12" squares that work out at 50p each...

...and felt pieces (50cm x 90cm) that are £2.50 each

They are all only for sale on Ebay and once they are gone they are gone! ::
squares are here
pieces are here

About Time Too + special discount codes

When I launched my 40% wool felt last year it also meant that I changed the colours of threads I sell - but I didn't update the photos and, as all my website shoppers will know, when they bought threads the photos were of felt colours, rather than reels of cotton.
Which is, quite frankly, a little bit rubbish.

But today I have finally rectified this - I have photographed all 45 threads, alongside the felt they match,  AND I have a special offer too!

 If you buy two reels of thread you get a third for free - it's a wonderful way to celebrate right?

To claim your free threads you need to enter a code on the website (this is the only way I could workout how to do it) - and the code you use is dictated by how many threads you put in your shopping basket ::
if you buy 3, use the code Ibought3 and the price of one reel will be discounted (£1.65)
if you buy 9 the code Ibought9 will give you a discount of three reels (£4.95)
make sense?
I hope so!
All the thread colours are well stocked as I type, but it is first come first served - offer ends on Monday 29th April (or before if all the thread is sold!!)  I will definitely be re-stocking all the colours so you'll always be able to get matching threads.

SPECIAL OFFER
buy two reels of thread and get the third for free!
Use ONE of the following codes at the checkout:

Ibought3 

Ibought6

Ibought9

Ibought12

Ibought15

Ibought18

Ibought21

Ibought24

Ibought27

Ibought30

Ibought33

Ibought36

Ibought39

Ibought42

Ibought45

See my threads by clicking here
PS you can see all the codes on the website too!
PPS if you fancy stocking up and buy a thread rainbow please use the code Ibought45 it will reduce the price from £69 to £44.25.  Which is a total bargain!

Felt Flower Tutorial

I think this tutorial has been waiting for some sunshine - sewing all of these colours whilst sitting in the sun was so much fun - the perfect crafty pick-me-up!

If you would like to make your own bunch of ever-lasting flowers then this is the blog post for you!
You will need ::
felt - in all your favourite colours
buttons - in all sorts of sizes and colours, the more the merrier I think!
fabric scraps - if you wish
jug/vase - anything to display them in
glue - if you prefer to glue, or you can stitch
thread - in pretty colours
scissors - of course!
felt stems - in various shades of green

wire & wire cutters - so you can be a florist for the day

AND this pattern ::

which needs to be printed out as an A4 sheet

To start - cut out lots of felt flower shapes using the templates.  There are no set colour combinations, or any limit to which shapes to use - the choice is entirely yours - when cutting the felt out I cut two layers for each flower shape, but only one for each circle - the circle flowers are all made with 3 different size circles which makes them sturdy.

To give the circle flowers some more oomph I stitched all three layers together in the centre with a ring of running stitches (imagine there is a 2p piece in the middle of the flower and stitch around it)...pull the thread tight and the flower will gather and become 3d.

Once all your flower shapes have been cut out and you've gathered your circle flowers you can start embellishing - you can add buttons, fabric scraps, fabric yo-yos, embroidery stitches - whatever you fancy doing will work!

fabric yo-yo with a teeny tiny button inside & stitches on the petals

two colours of thread alternated

ric rac poking out between the layers
Once all your flowers are embellished you need to attach the second layer (the back) of your flower shapes (remember you cut 2 of each earlier?) I used felt glue but you can stitch them together round the edge if you prefer.
To attach the flower to the stem I used a big slip stitch - it's easy to sew through the edge of the stem but impossible to sew through the centre of it because it's so tough!  If you are careful you won't see any of this stitching from the front.  Obviously I did it in beige so you can see it - green thread would look better ;-)

Next you need to wire them - just like a florist would.  I had some wire & wire cutters in my old art box, if you don't have any ask around - someone you know will have some in the shed somewhere!  I cut a long length and folded it in half, carefully poked it through my stitching (see the little loop on the left?) and then wrapped and wrapped and wrapped until the whole stem was wired.

If you have used a lot of buttons and your flowers are heavy you will need more wire - less heavy flowers don't need so much

I left all of my stems quite long and folded them at the bottom so they are the perfect heights for my vases - that way I can re-arrange in the future and none of them will be too short - of course I only figured this out half way through, but most of them are left long!

I filled my vases with buttons because I like buttons, but you don't need to do that...nor do you need to get out in the sunshine and take photos of your flowers, but if you do I (and my readers!) would love to see them!

 

So there we have it - my long time in the making tutorial -  it's not really a tutorial with photographs of step by step instructions, more a gathering of ideas and methods to achieve them, but I hope it inspires you all the same :-)

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links to the shop

felt - click here

buttons - click here

fabric - click here

felt stems - click here

...it's coming....

...finishing touches, photographs, some instruction typing and the tutorial will be ready - after all this build up i just hope you like it!

inspiration

John cut, folded and wrapped these packs for an order yesterday...

 ...they are Brights & Pastels - and each bundle has half a metre per colour. 
The packs come in 10 colour ways and 5 different sizes -  6", 12" or 24" squares, mini rolls or half metre cuts - I sell tonnes more 6" square packs than I do half metre packs!

 I think they look glorious like this - even though I have tonnes of felt in every colour (of course!) I took one look and said 'I want them'

 Naturally John raised his questioning eyebrow at me and thought I was crackers - but I stick by it.  I do want them.  I think they are inspiring - two bundles of colour just waiting to be cut and sewn into amazing things....

If you had one (or both!) of these what would you sew?

order sewing

look at all these bright colours!

It was fun making this little cheerful group of goodies :-)

tutorial planning

my voice is  back - hurrah!
I still sound like a croaky frog and I still feel full of cold but I can talk - lost voice has been replaced with a cough, which woke me at 5am and i cough, cough coughed for over an hour and even though I stayed up I'm still full of beans - it's the craziest thing, but I'm not complaining :-)

Since I last mentioned my latest tutorial here I have made no more progress *sigh*- but today felty colours and buttons have been selected and patterns/templates have been drawn up - and tonight, after a little sewing for orders, I will make a start....and so far this weekend is free for sewing and I plan to use it fully !
There will be a tutorial - soonish!

a different kind of button

I figured that whilst I am stuck in the land of silence (oh yes, I am still voice free!) I may as well tackle the VAT return....it's the last one as a sole trader and the first one with EU sales that are zero rated so I really had to concentrate!  I have done it but it's not submitted because I have asked my accountant to check it - I think it's OK but it's good to make sure!
Tomorrow I will do something fun.
With proper buttons, not fake-o pretend-o calculator buttons.

working in silence

This weekend the nasty cold/virus thing that's doing the rounds came and found me.
It was particularly bad timing because yesterday was John's birthday -  we did still manage a couple of hours out and about in the sunshine with some nice birthday food and some cold beers (for John).  I also did a lot of napping and some resting on the sofa in Pj's...... and today I feel fine, full of beans and ready to work - but my voice has gone!!  Sometimes I sound like a goat, sometimes like a squeaky thing, other times there's no sound at all!!
It's a bit weird because I like to talk.
A lot.
Even when there is no one else here I talk to myself - one good thing is that  I don't need to be able to talk to pack the parcels, and boy did I do a lot of that today!

PS chocolate birthday cake doesn't work as medicine and magically give your voice back.
PPS nor do Custard Creams!

The teeny tiny buttons ta-dah!

The Teeny Tiny Buttons are finally back!
They are now available in 45 colours - which are dyed especially for me, to match all my felt colours.
The ever popular 2 hole version has been joined with a teeny tiny 4 hole version, which also come in all 45 colours - did I mention that the colours match the felt I sell?

 Oh how I am loving the rainbow of colours ::

 They still come in bags of 25 per colour ... 

...although I think you'll have a hard job picking a single colour! They are all so glorious!

 They also come in packs which match my felt colour packs - good idea huh?

 The brights mix and the pastels mix look particularly scrummy, but I don't have a favourite ...

...I just love them all!
Quick Links::
all teeny tiny buttons can be seen by clicking here

the buttons are coming...

a long awaited delivery arrived today (first mentioned here)

glorious, amazing, fantastic new buttons!

I have a LOT of counting & bagging, sorting and tidying, photographing & website listing to do, but when it's all done you'll be the first to know ;-)
PS: there are 202, 500 buttons on that table - I'm in button heaven!!

embellishments for blinds

 at the beginning of the year I posted about making items just like these for the first order for a new customer ....

...and they recently placed their 2nd order so - ta-dah, 180 embellishments all cut & stitched by me.  The company makes blinds and these are part of their Children's collection - felt accessories that can be added to roller blinds to brighten up a room.  You can see them on the companies website here if you would like to :-)