Christmas Bow Decoration - Winner

Just quickly stopping by to announce the winner of my Christmas Bow Tutorial giveaway. I'm sorry its short and sweet today but my cold/flu has come back with a vengeance and I'm so ill I even had a little cry this morning.

Anyway to the happy bit.....I used the good old names in a hat system for drawing a winner. And that person is ::

Luciana Ferreira Damiano!!!

Congratulations Luciana, please contact me at emma@bagladee.com with a postal address so that I can get Chris to post your prize to you.

Thank you all for taking part and reading my tutorial. I was planning another on Thursday but I will see how I'm feeling.

See you soon.

Its OFFICIAL.....

....I LOVE FELT!!!!

Now I wouldn't normally say that felt was a type of fabric that I am drawn towards in making something. But feeling ever so festively inspired (and under the weather) I found myself sketching ideas for more Christmas ornaments. I had already figured out what I was going to make for the tutorials I wanted to post in the weeks running up to Christmas. Initially I thought I would set about making some for our tree but I think they turned out waaaay better than I expected, so off I went to get more felt, ribbon, brads and buttons and these are what I came up with.....

Very jolly Santa's, complete with pom pom hats.

Some very sweet gingerbread men, I adore these.

Some festive trees.

Some very handsome snowmen.

And last but not least some very heavenly angels.

They are all listed in my folksy shop (yes there is something in there at last) and my Etsy shop, you can buy them individually or as you can see below as a complete set of 5 Christmas characters.

I cant tell you how much fun I had making these....I don't think I'll be venturing into the world of felt characters as I know there are much more experienced peeps out there who already cover this and besides my true love lies with gorgeous colourful fabric so make sure you make the most of these cuties as once they are gone they are gone :D

Are you feeling festive now???

p.s. if you are looking for the tutorials, the links are to the right of this post.

Christmas Bow Decoration Tutorial (& Giveaway)

Sorry for the delay in the tutorial guys, a mix of feeling unwell and Internet issues has slowed me right down today (thank you for the get well comments yesterday x). Any way here we go:

Template


Materials you will need:

Felt
Template
Ribbon
Thread
Needle
Pen/marker
Scissors
Buttons (or any other embellishment)

For this tutorial its probably best if you pin your template pieces to the felt as they are quite long and tricky to keep straight.

Draw round your templates, for each bow you will need:

x1 of the large bow template decoration pieces

x1 of the bow middle pieces

x2 of the bow tails

Cut all the pieces out with your scissors, you should now have 4 pieces that look like this.

Take the large main section of the bow and lie it flat on a table (flat surface).

Take both of the ends and fold inwards.

Like so.....

Pin either side of the join so that it stays still while you thread your needle.

Sew a running stitch down either side of the join securing the bow in the middle, its OK if you sew right through to the other side as this will be hidden with the middle section.

Take your middle section and place over the middle of the bow, turn the bow over and lay it flat on the table.

Take the bottom edge of the middle section and fold inwards to the centre of the bow......

Then take the top edge of the middle and do the same so that its neatly tucked in (as above) make sure your needle is threaded before you do this as you will need to hold the bow in place while you sew.

Sew a running stitch along the joining edge.

Now your bow is securely fastened in place, we need to add the hanging tab.

Cut your ribbon to 18cm (or whatever length you'd like) and fold it in half placing the ends together, pattern sides facing up and stitch in place.

Stitch the ribbon loop to the back of your ribbon.

Now take the bow tails and overlap slightly at an angle (as above) and stitch together.

Make sure they are secure.

Stitch the bow tails to the back of the bow covering the ribbon loop with a running stitch again.....

.......this leaves the back of your bow lovely and neat. Turn your bow over and......

.....et Voila a pretty Christmas bow to go on your tree. You could also add an embellishment to your bow. I made a second set and added buttons.

So if you take your bow middle section and sew a button exactly in the middle.

Which will look like this.

You can add a little detail to your bow.

You could also make bows out of paper or card and add them to a string of paper garland for that extra something. Make them as big or little as you like......I'm thinking of making my own felt wreath and adding lots of felt bows to it :D

Happy sewing!!!

***GIVEAWAY***
If you would like to win the set I made for this tutorial, simply comment on this post. Please make sure I have a way of contacting you from your comment.
A winner will be drawn on Sunday 28th November.

Under the weather

When you're feeling a bit yuk as I am today (pesky sore throat has turned into a full blown cold, thankfully not Flu) and this scrumptious parcel arrives with the post man it certainly perks you up!!!

24 spools of yummy festive ribbon

And already the cellophane is off some of the rolls and its been cut up and sewn to pretty felt thingies, which I will show you soon :)

Speaking of the weather, we are supposed to be seeing some snow later on tonight early tomorrow. So that's me well and truly overdosed with Christmas already!!! Loving it.

This time last year I was frantically getting things ready for a Christmas Craft Fair. It was soooo hectic! This year I decided that it wasn't for me and that I would spend the time getting creative instead, which is exactly what I've been doing.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for the 2nd installment of my festive tutorials. See you then :D

Owee owee oweee

I have muddled through a morning at work with a piercingly sore throat today (without moaning too much). But now I'm armed with throat spray and Strepsils I thought it was time to tidy my studio. It looks soooo much better now, everything is back where it should be, rather than just all over the place (I call it organised chaos). The cosmetic pouches in the photo above were finished earlier in the week but its been so dark on an afternoon that I haven't been able to photograph them properly for my website. Fingers crossed Saturday morning is bright and photo friendly :D

I'm off to get snuggled up on the sofa now with some hand stitching, please, please, please go away sore throat!!!

Festive Gift Fair

Right before you go and think that I've totally lost the plot by posting photos of Star Wars characters with a title "Festive Gift Fair" let me explain.

On Saturday my friend Andrea and I travelled to Birmingham to have a browse round the Festive Gift Fair at the NEC (which was not that good to be honest but I'll get to that bit in a minute). When we arrived these chaps were walking around the main entrance, as in the next exhibition hall there was a Memorabilia show.

I'm not that much of a Star Wars fan but I have to say I was quite excited that we saw them as these were original costumes from the film. And to make it even better all the characters had voice boxes so they sounded like storm troopers too :D

But I have to say that the high light of my day was meeting the man himself!!

Emma walking up to Darth Vader:

Darth: (breathing as he does) "I've been waiting for you".

Emma: "Oh have you, that's good, my you are tall"!!

Yes that was all I could think of to say......well what do you say to the man himself ;) What a strange day, we certainly didn't expect to see this when we booked our tickets :D We also saw Lara Croft : Tomb Raider, the Matrix, The Stig, Predator (who scared the life out of both me and Andrea), R2D2, Xena and lots more.

Right back to the Gift Fair, well we went last year and it was full of handmade gifts, but sadly this year there was more of what I would call 'Tat' than handmade goodness. To say we were disappointed doesn't even come close, I bought a couple of handmade Christmas cards but that was it. We were more excited about meeting the Star Wars characters so that just about sums it up really :( hey ho I'm sure the Festive Market we are going to in December will be loads better.

One last thing before I pop off and do a bit sewing.......I will be posting another tutorial on Thursday this week so make sure you don't miss it. Still lots of festive goodies to come too.

Christmas Star Decorations - Winner!!!

A huge thank you to all of you who left me such lovely comments about my little star tutorial, and hello to all my new readers. I was so excited when I checked my emails and saw that there were lots of people that I had not had the pleasure of meeting before. I do hope you come back and visit every now and then. (**Super big thanks to Sarah, Miss Paper-and-String as I'm sure most of my new readers followed from her very lovely post about my tutorial**).

Right down to business! I used the Random number generator to find a winner and the winner of the set of Christmas Star decs is.................................................... Comment number 18: earthlyjewels YEY!!!! Congratulations. Your stars will be in the post to you very soon, I hope they look lovely in your home.

Thanks again for taking part, I do hope there are going to be lots of star decorations out there this Christmas.......and if you weren't the lucky winner don't worry there are more tutorials coming soon with prizes so watch out for those.

I'll be back tomorrow to post about my day on Saturday which didn't quite turn out how I thought it would but all the same a very good but 'interesting' day!

Quick quick!

You still have time to enter my tutorial giveaway to win a set of Christmas Star Decorations. Entries will close at 6pm GMT today, I will pick a winner and announce it tomorrow.

Look out for some more tutorials coming soon.....more decorations and some other festive stuff too. I'm having so much fun getting into the festive spirit :D

Speaking of which I am off to the Festive Gift Fair today at the Birmingham NEC....cant wait to see whats on show!! I have a small budget but I'm sure I'll come back with a bag full of goodies :)

Good luck with you entries!!!

Star Decoration Tutorial (& Giveaway)

***this give away is now closed***

38 days until Christmas, not that far away now is it!

I have been having so much fun lately finding my feet with the extra time I have for bagladee stuff that I thought I would write a couple of really easy and fun tutorials to get us all in the festive mood. (Listening to Christmas songs while making them is compulsory)


Here is your template, make them as big or as small as you like, you could even make a variety of sizes.

Materials you will need:

Template

Felt
Scissors

Ribbon

Markers
Stuffing (not pictured here)
Thread

Needle

Using your template draw your star shapes onto your chosen felt you will need two stars for each decoration. I used fabric markers which disappear after 24 hours but you could use whatever pen/chalk you like.

Carefully cut out each star.

Now you have all your stars cut out, pair them up in two's. Take your chosen colour thread and double thread your needle. This will make the stitching detail stand out rather than single threaded.

Starting at the bottom inverted point of your star stitch a running stitch all the way up to the top point.

When you get to the top of the point turn your star over so you can see the back.

And as you just slightly catch the felt feed the needle back down to the middle of the star, making sure that the thread is not visible on the front as you don't want to spoil that lovely stitching you have just done :)

Once you have reached the middle make your way back out to one of the inverted points to start your next line.

And as before stitch a running stitch line to the top of the point. When you have completed all the lines finish in the middle and tie off your thread.

You will be left with two stars with lovely stitching detail. I like to put a pin at the top of each star so I know which way up they go when you sew them together.

Cut your ribbon to 18cm (or whatever length you'd like) and fold it in half placing the ends together, pattern sides facing up and stitch in place.

Stitch the ribbon loop to the back of the top point of one of your stars.

Now with the good sides (lovely stitching) facing out pin together.

Now using your thread but single threaded this time stitch all round the outside of the star again using a running stitch, make sure its quite close to the edge so that you create a cavity inside for stuffing.

It will look something like this.....stop when you get to the last point of your star.

Take a tiny bit of stuffing and poke gently into each of the points, stuff the centre generously. Stitch the last point and add stuffing to it, you can now add a little to the top point and hold in place as you continue to the top of the star where you started and tie off your thread.

You will now have a little star that looks like this......

You can add what ever detail you like you could cover the star in glitter or add a little rhinestone like I have. If you'd rather not stitch the lines onto the stars you could stick sequins or buttons on as embellishment. You could even add a smaller star in the middle out of jazzy Christmas fabric.

The links in this post are for my favouritest shop in the whole wide world and you will find all you need @ paper-and-string to make these decorations.

***GIVEAWAY***

If you would like to win the set I made for this tutorial, simply comment on this post. Please make sure I have a way of contacting you from your comment.

A winner will be drawn on Saturday 20th November.