October is a confusing month

October can be very confusing for the sewing enthusiast. We have Halloween rapidly approaching whilst Christmas is not far behind. Taking the fact that many think Christmas needs much longer to prepare for often means our Christmas sewing is blended in with vampire costumes and stuffed pumpkins. Having covered some Halloween sewing already I thought I would  begin with some festive stitching. Christmas sewing projects take all shapes and sizes from Christmas Stockings to gifts and decorations. However the one thing we need to have prepared first in many cases is the Advent Candler. The start of December is now only 6 weeks away so I think it's OK to start getting a little excited by it.
Whilst not on the website yet the shops now have their Christmas fabrics out on display. This includes the Stockings and Advent Calendars. Home made quilted advent calendars have many uses. Not only do they give you a choice what treat to pop into the quilted pockets but they can be chosen to compliment your other decorations. Not only are they fun and rewarding to make they can also become a family heirloom. They make great gifts and if you have a large family each child could have their own calendar stuffed with their personal favorite snacks or other treats.

Hosting a Halloween party.

Rainbow Halloween Star

All kids love Halloween, all kids from age 0 to 110. Making costumes is fun, but you need to show them off. Some parents are concerned with  letting their kids go door to door though. It is a shame to miss out on dressing up and having fun, so there is a simple answer. A Halloween party! Hosting a party can be as simple or as complicated as you like, but here are some tips taken from my experiences working as a party magician.

1) Find a venue for hosting your party.
If you have a large space at home or not many people coming for the party then you should have no problem hosting at home. However hiring a venue may be a lot cheaper than you realize . Club together with other parents to hire a village hall or even the school hall. (one school hall I know costs £20 for 2 hours, between 10 parents that isn't much at all). Many village councils are even offering a reduced rate for Halloween parties to help keep kids safe and off the streets.

2)Decorating your party space.
There are packs available for decorating your party place but these can become expensive. Now would be a great time to start Halloween Bunting making. Black and Orange Poly Cotton makes great bunting. For a added touch  cut out the pendants with pinking shears to give your bunting a zig zag edge. This will also help the bunting last longer. Covering furniture with white cloth can help stop it getting mucky, but also give the room an eerie Haunted house feel, like a house where everyone moved away long ago. Check on line for creepy stencils to download to make cardboard cut outs as well.

3)Music and Games
All the big shops do  mix cd's of Halloween party music and princes start for £5 or so. As for games, if possible keep it non-elimination. Many people have started to complain about the lack of elimination games in schools as they can prepare kids for the little knocks in life. This may be true BUT if you have elimination games in your party you will have a bunch of kids sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for the game to end. This will not be fun for anyone. Here are some games to try.

Esrella Amis Stars

Pass the Parcel  Take a price, be it a toy Dinosaur or a sweet treat and wrap in one sheet of paper, then take another treat and place that on your parcel then wrap with paper again. Repeat until you have a layer for everyone. Play music and stop it at random points, a child unwraps and ill have one small treat, continue the music and stop again, if your quick you can make sure everyone gets a prize BUT no-one knows who will get the big one at the center.

A Monster's tail. You need a long scarf or decorate a strip of fabric about 3 metres  long to look like a dragon's tail (think glitter for scales, or bright colour stripes. get the kids in a line and pop the hands of the kids on the shoulders of the kid in front of them. Wrap the fabric around the waist of the last  kid leaving a tail of suitable length. Now the head of the dragon has to catch the tail . A great game with lots of space. when the head catch the tail they become the new tale, leaving a new kid upfront to be the head. if you have enough kids split them into teams with a prize for the first team team where every kid gets to be the head and tail.

Skull and Crossbones fabric

The Balloon pass Challenge. Get the kids into two teams, and  get them to stand in a row. Get a balloon for each team and make them pass the balloon from the  front of the row to the back. When the balloon gets to the back the kid at the back runs to the front and then repeats the process. The first team where every kid has been to the front wins.Make the game harder by mixing up whether the balloons  have to be passed over their heads or between their legs.

Apple Bobbing. The classic apple bob. Some schools have banned this fearing germs. According to the Health And Safety executive though there is nothing to fear. If you are screamish about the idea there is an alternative . Cut out apple shapes on pieces of paper, on one side write a challenge like "3 press ups" or "recite Mary had a little lamb backwards". Then pop a paperclip on each one and  place them writing side down in a bowl. Attach a magnet to a piece of string and tie the string to a pencil to make a rod. Now the kids can go fishing for challenges.


Other things to Think about. 

Red Spider Web 

If some kids are going to be at your party without their parents then make sure you have contact details for them. If you are partying in your own home  spend 10 minutes taking the breakable items out of the room first. You will be a lot more relaxed if  you're not panicking about your favourite vase. Chocolate is lovely but can be messy. If you avoid chocolaty treats you will be spending less time the next day trying to clean the carpet and sofa.

Being at parties is always fun, but hosting them can be amazing fun. So get together with friends and family now and start planning a little adventure for yourselves and those around you.

Halloween preparations.

Halloween means many things to many people. For some it's a chance to grab some free sweets whilst for others it's a chance to let rip and show off an alter ego. For me it's all  about the chance to make the sort of costumes I love to make, but would not normally fit in at  say a wedding.

Halloween Organza Fabrics 

 There are many advantages to making your own costumes as opposed to renting or buying. For example it CAN be cheaper, in my case it tends to cost about the same BUT it's of a much higher quality.

However for me the main advantage is it helps show my creativity. This isn't something to stress about. No-one really judges you, it's more about how you feel about yourself. Looking at an insane black and purple petticoat laying under layers of  organza can give you a great sense of achievement.But creativity is not just a case of using fabrics we would normally not use, or extreme design. Halloween is an excuse to colour outside the lines, to through caution to the wind and to make yourself, or someone else, something spectacular.

Moonlight Web in Bronze

There are many wonderful costume ideas in the pattern books, but you cold also make a plain outfit into a Halloween masterpiece by just adding trimming, ribbons or layering it with one of our translucent spiderweb fabrics

To help  you on the way to creating your own master piece we have some free tutorials on the website
at http://www.fabric8online.co.uk/free-stuff
Here you can learn to make a cape, a cravat (for the CLASSIC Vampire, none of this sparkly stuff)  or a Tu Tu or a cape.

Also on this blog we have "how to make a pirate shirt" and "How to make Pirate pants". The pirate pants make great Genie pants.

To help you with your Halloween preparations we will be running a few mini blogs in the next week. From making petticoats and wings to organizing a Halloween Party!.

A quick and easy Gymbag

 As we aproach the start of a new term we begin to get parents coming into the shop asking for help. Many schools say that the children need a drawstring bag to keep thier gym shoes in. Such bags can be tricky to find but they are simple to make. A lot of schools have no uniform colour scheme for such bags so you can make one out of fun and funky fabric to keep your little one in good cheer.

  As with other simple projects I've included a little extra technique that can help make your sewing neater and longer lasting. In this case I'm referring to the bias binding. You don't need to do this but it may be a good chance to give it a go on a simple project.




You will need
Fabric -2 rectangles of fabric approximately 30cm by 45cm
Scissors
Thread
Needles
Bias Binding 
Pins
Cord or ribbon for the draw string.

Place the rectangles on top of each other so all the sides match. Pin and sew one of the shorter sides. Use a seam allowance of 5/8th on an inch. Press the seam out flat

Bias Binding  has a crease along the middle of the ribbon. This makes it much easier to wrap the bias around one of the raw edges of the  seam. carefully sew along the the bias making sure it's secure along the  raw edge of the fabric. This will protect the seam from wear .

Repeat the process for the other side of the seam

Sew along the longer sides and repeat the seam binding.

Fold the fabric down over itself twice as in the picture. This will create the casing for the draw string. Pop the seam open with a seam unpick-er to allow enough space for the cord. pin a safety pin to the cord and use this to help guide the cord though the casing. and there you have it, a very quick and easy bag.

The improved Velcro Cable Tie

A while ago I made a few cable ties out of Velcro (or other Hook/Loop tape). These worked very well but I've been thinking of a few improvements.

To begin with you will need.
Velcro loop (fuzzy side) 16cm
Velcro hook (bristly side) 6 cm
Narrow Elastic (around 11cm
Ribbon same width as Velcro or a little l narrower, 2 cm longer than your fuzzy loop side (so around 18 cm)
Scissors 
Sewing Needle
Thread.

Make a loop with the elastic and sew it on the reverse side (smooth side) of the strip of "Loop" Velcro

Turn the ribbon over for 1 cm at raw edge and sew onto the reverse side of the loop Velcro, As you get to the end of the strip turn the Velcro under on this edge too, so no raw edges are visible.

Sew the strip of bristly "hook" Velcro over the ribbon at one end. Here I sewed it on the opposite side of loop of eleastic. I've sicne descided that's a mistake, (see everyone makes them from time to time). It is better to have the Velcro next to the loop.

The elastic loop is to slip over the plug. This keeps the  cable tie in place when it isn't wrapped around the cable. I've found that this works a lot easier of the loop of elastic and the bristly Velcro are NEXT to each other.

And why are we using ribbon? Well for one it's prettier than just the backing of the Velcro. But also this means you can colour code your cable ties. Make a whole batch of red for example and use them for all the sound cables you need, and another colour for computer cables. This way you keep your draw or other storage vessel   tidy and you don't need to pull out all the cables trying to find the one you need.

Making a soft toy from free online patterns

At Fabric8 we ran a  Toy Making Competition some tinme ago. I've been inspired by some of the entries to make a little stuffed toy of my own. Although I've made stage costumes, wedding dresses and other wonderful things I've never made a teddy. I decided to use a pattern thats freely available to download off the net from http://www.wyrm.org.uk/cuddly/index.html . After reading the instructions I assembled the materials needed.

Scissors and thread snips  

Pins

Toy Stuffing

Machine Needles

Hand Sewing Needles

Thread 

 and fabric 50cm x50cm 

The pattern I downloaded was the beanbag Dragon and I have to admit I'm very impressed. The instructions are very clear. I used the seam guide to find the seams are 1/4 of an inch. The first step as ever is to cut out the pattern pieces and to lay them out on the fabric. I decided to recreate the dragon from my childhood back in Wales, "Magon the Dragon".  I used red fun fur for the top of his body and pink for his underbelly and the inside of his ears. 

Some pieces such as the wings need 4 copies cut instead of two. When working with such small pattern pieces it's easy to lose a piece  when you clear out the scrap fabrics, so make sure to keep all the pieces safe including the wing and ear pieces which you had to unpin from the pattern paper so you could cut out the second copies (yes I DID accidently throw my wings in the bin when tidying away the scraps).

The head is the first piece to be assembled and I think looks very cute. I found it amazing how much shape the neck piece adds to the face. This picture was taken BEFORE the head was stuffed which I think goes some way to showing how much shaping the neck piece does. 

The wings are made next, and the lines of the wings are top-stitched on. This gives them a lot more definition. The two top sections are then tacked onto their wings and then the top sections are sewn together, leaving a small gap  for turning out. One of the two tail pieces is sewn on the top section as well. 

Next the inside of the back legs are sewn onto the bottom of the body. Care must be taken to make sure the right leg is on the right side. Here you can see that I didn't take enough care and thus the feet wouldn't not match up when sewing the top to the bottom. (never learn from mistakes, learn from someone else's :) ) 

Once the top and bottom of the dragon are sewn together you need to sew the head on. I found it easier to push the head into the neck cavity and sew along the neckline by hand. (right sides together of course). I always use a machine were possible but even I found it much quicker to do this short bit of sewing by hand. 

And there you have it, one very cute fuzzy dragon. Of course this one wont be in the toy competition as I'm a staff member. But anyone else can download a patterns and make one for the competition. You can express your creativity in many ways with these and other patterns. Try different fabrics, add embroidery, maybe use beading as well. You have 3 more weeks to get an entry into us and this little fella only took a few hours to make. Surprise us, and maybe yourselves as well. 

Summer Sale

The Summer Sale continues at Fabric8 so I thought I'd post a couple of the  fabrics in the sale here for people to find easily. To begin with some furniture fabric.

 The sale is a fantastic opportunity to embark on larger furnishing projects. Many of the fabrics on sale have lots left on the bolt so you can make a full set of curtains for a room. 

Antique gold Ossani, only £6.63 per metre.

There are also many craft cottons available in the sale such as this Cream Sea Side Beach Huts craft cotton (112cm wide) only £7.65 per metre. Remember the summer holidays are only a few days away. This fabric could make a great bassist for a craft project, or notice board.

There are some Christmas Fabrics in the sale as well giving you a chance to get a head start on your festive sewing projects, or helping you spread the cost of Christmas Crafting into  Summer.


With the weather we've had these past few weeks it's easy to think we're in Autumn. This is the best time start thinking of Christmas as our Christmas craft cottons have been greatly reduced. This festive landscape is only £7.02 per metre.

As you may suspect there is a huge range of dressmaking fabrics in the sale, from cottons to pollys to silks.





Ballerinas otton dressmaking fabric. This very artistic print would make for a fantastic dress or skirt, o now only £5.67 per metre








These are just my favorites from the sale, with hundreds of fabrics on offer it would be impossible to list them all. Just remember that fabrics is selling fast, now is the time to go into Colchester or Felixstowe and visit your local Fabric8 for a bargain.