All that glitters and gold

I’m not sure when my love of gold began, I’ve always been more of a cool tones silver girl myself but the golds are just enchanting me at the moment. Funny how our tastes change over the years and what you love today you may be horrified by tomorrow. I think the 80s sums that up really. Anyhow, metallic threads, pearlised fabric and even gold zippers have all been catching my eye. Here’s a little mood board of golden inspiration for the week…

Image Credits: Gold Sequin Trim: Inspire Lovely, Chinese New Year Display: Craft Schmaft, Michael Miller Fabrics

While I’m on the subject of stash therapy, here’s a little something for you all. A few readers asked for a printable version of the fabric quote I created last week. I’m delighted at the prospect of it being on desktops or craft room walls so please feel free to print, share and enjoy (for personal use only please). Click here for the PDF: You NEED more fabric printable

Happy Crafting lovelies!

The unbearable task of destashing

In just three weeks we’re moving from Sydney to Hong Kong.

Visas have come through, schools have been applied for, hotels and flights have been booked. There’s just the… ahem…. small task of my craft room. Oh dear God. I have spent years building up a stash of fabric, buttons, trims, notions and all manner of supplies. Now that I’m staring down the barrel of a tiny urban flat I’m going to have to have a serious clear out of what is known in these parts as the woman cave.

I can only take one box of craft items with me. And that has to include my sewing machine. Yes, it’s insane. I know that you understand this but my dear husband seems to think it’s quite reasonable. I can see that I’ll be sneaking extra items in with the kids toys and kitchen supplies. oops.

The silver lining of this cloud is having awesome asia craft supplies on my doorstep but how on earth am I going to destash my beloved craft room? What should I take? Do I prioritise the vintage items over others? It’s an unbearable task.

I began last week by sewing up lots of my red stash into bunting – this kind of destash I can definitely manage however I’d need another year to stitch it all up into projects.

So – any destash tips out there?

 

 

Fabric Cloud Tutorial

Create cute hanging clouds from fabric – a fantastic stash buster and very quick room decor idea.

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Material List:

• Fabric (20 x 30cm or 8 x 12″ for large cloud)
• Fusible webbing – double sided
  (I used Vleisofix)
• Matching all purpose thread

Useful Tools:

• Iron
• Scissors
• Pins
• Sewing machine or needle for handsewing

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Pattern:
Click here for the Fabric Cloud Pattern Pieces

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Step 1:  Fuse Fabric
Create a fabric sandwich. Place one piece of fabric, right side down, on an ironing board. Position a layer of fusible webbing on top of the fabric. Either fold or place second piece of fabric, right side up, on top of the webbing. Iron well to fuse it all together.

Hint: You can see a video demo of fusing fabric in my Mini Bunting Tutorial here.

Now you should have one stiffer piece of fused fabric with print on both sides. Repeat with as many fabric variations as you like.

Step 2: Cut out clouds
Place two pieces of your fused fabric together, pin a cloud pattern piece on top and cut out – you’ll end up with two identical cloud pieces.

Step 3:  Mark the centre
Fold the cloud pieces in half horizontally, squeeze the fold to leave a mark – this represents your centre of the cloud.

Step 4: Stitch Clouds
Stitch a line (by hand or machine) from the bottom to the top of the cloud along the centre fold mark. Leave a long tail of thread at the top – this is how you’ll hang the cloud.

Step 5:  Iron out
Fan out the cloud and give a quick iron so that the fabric sits at right angles (perpendicular).

Step 6: Hang in clusters
Hang them from a light fitting, doorway or even use little removable hooks stuck to the ceiling… and enjoy!

 

Cloudy with a chance of craft

It’s been perfect weather for crafting in Sydney – cold, cloudy and soooo Winter.

Earlier this year I created a set of paper clouds (that I’m sure you’ve seen all over the interwebby) to hang from my stand at the craft fair. They were so admired and, being a craft fair, many people assumed they were crafted from fabric. It got me thinking that it would be wonderful to be able to craft some from my ridiculously huge stash of fabric for the small’s freshly painted room. I can tell you that there is way more fabric in this house than there is paper… even if you count the books! So I got going with some fusible webbing, trusty iron and dipped into the stash.

Never one to stick with white, I pulled out this beautiful pink that I’ve had for years and the smallest piece of hand printed linen that I adore.

They were really quick to make and I have to say, I LOVE them hanging in Frankie’s room. Being a very metro two year old he’s quite partial to a splash of pink.

There are loads of tutorials around for the paper versions of these (Paper Kawaii, Petite Comeaux and many others)  and I’d love to credit the original creator but I have no idea who that was. Leave a comment if you’d like me to put together a full tutorial for the fabric version – if there’s enough interest I’ll get it posted on the blog with a cloud pattern template.

Happy Crafting!

Claire

I have a crush.

It’s going to be a big couple of weeks here at Craft Schmaft HQ. I’m going to be at three craft and design fairs in three weeks with the first, Finders Keepers Sydney, kicking off on 31st of May. Huzzah! It’s going to be me all over the place. So many of the balloon kits sold out at the last fair that I’ve been designing some brand newies. Here’s a sneak peek…

I haven’t named this one yet – any ides?  This piece was on an afternoon when the colours just sang to me and the design almost completed itself. So rare. I was probably procrastinating about doing something else, which ironically is when my best creative moments happen. I couldn’t wait to see the fabric test print which arrived this morning. What do you think? 

 
And then there are the Emerald balloons that I promised you picces of a few posts ago. I’m realising I have quite the thing for green at the moment. Looking back through vintage illustration, vintage toys and even homewares, green has such a history and such a variety of messages to give. Deep green evokes heritage, bright green is so fresh, yellow-ish greens have us dreaming of nature and then there’s the combinations with green… aqua and it’s cool, red and it’s christmas, orange and it pops. Yes, I do indeed have a crush on green.  I will stop typing now and just let you look at the pictures. Happy Crafting!

 

 

Ballooning

I’ve been busy over the past few weeks designing new fabric panels for individual Hot Air Balloons.

So many customers have asked for a single balloon that I thought a new kit was in order. The fabric samples arrived this week and amongst squeals of delight (I never get tired of packages of fabric arriving in the post) I spent yesterday sewing up the balloon tops. Here’s how it unfolded on Instagram (@CraftSchmaft)

 

Tonight I’ll be stitching clouds and making baskets for these little lovelies. What do you think? Do you have a favourite?

In sad news, my DSLR camera lens has bitten the dust. It seems that Christmas ornament making goo found it’s way in to the lens and the whole thing seized up over the holidays. Sigh. So please bear with me while I sort out a new camera, there might be phone pics for a little while as I figure out which model to buy next. On that note, what kind of DSLR camera do you use, do you love it?