Witchy bookmark

In case you wondered what was peeping out from my journal in the  previous post, let me show you the bookmark I made for a friend. She loves everything to do with witches, and inspired by this bookmark, I made my own version to go with a book I gave her (Rivers of London - great fun!). I stitched some stripy fabric around some slivers of batting for the legs and added felt beads stitched into shape for shoes. OK, they look more like Minnie Mouse shoes than the pretty high heeled ones from the original, but use what you have, and all that - right?

The legs were stitched on to a piece of felt where I embroidered the words "A frightfully good book". While I was working on that, I came up with the idea of trimming the top end into a point to give the idea of a witches' hat peeping out from the book. Some staring green eyes in the darkness and uneven orange flame-stitches along the edges complete the spooky theme. A fitting companion for a book filled with witches, wizards and ghosts, don't you think?

My latest book

There has not been a lot of sewing going on here lately. Instead I have been making a book... No, not writing one, but actually making it. I came across this blog and joined an online class to make my own journal and I have been having lots of fun with it. The class is all about using all sorts of scrap paper and ephemera, but I went with what I had on hand for this one, so it is mainly made of scrap book papers and paper tape. I used the covers from an old book, added paper tape, stickers and gaffer tape to strengthen the spine.

The eight signatures (folded sets of paper) are stitched together with waxed linen thread and the first and last pages are glued inside the book covers. Now I realise I could have added more signatures, as the book isn't all that full, but the idea is that it will expand as I work on it, adding notes, pictures and magazine cuttings until it is bursting with inspiration.

It is already full of colour and pattern, and some of it will be painted over before I can add my scribblings, but I think it makes the pages less intimidating than starting with just blank pages.
Now the class focused on making travel journals, but as I'm not planning on travelling a lot the next few  months, I'll be using mine to gather inspiration for decorating a new home while I'm house hunting. Maybe I'll have come up with a usable plan by the time I find that elusive new flat I'm searching for. At least I'll make it a point to have fun while searching...

Try and try again

I fell in love with this tiny bag on Pinterest and just had to try making one. The link led to a photo tutorial in Russian (I think) and was easy enough to follow, except for one thing - a lack of measurements! Ok, it did say that the box corner seams are 4 cms, but that was it. I measured and calculated and came up with zilch. There was nothing for it, I just had to have a go and actually make one. My first sample was not all that great, and the box corners didn't match up, so there was nothing for it: I had to rip out the seams and try again. After lining up the cut out corners and trimming them to make my bag less lopsided, I ended up with a 6 1/2 by 9 1/2 piece of quilted fabric and finished my little bag.

It is a sweet little thing, standing 4" tall on its 2 1/2" square bottom, but I'm not entirely happy with it. It looks too tall and skinny compared to the original, so I need to work on the proportions a bit and make a new attempt, I think. Maybe I should have a go at making some bigger, more useful ones as christmas presents while I'm at it? I think these little ones are quite sweet, but maybe not so practical.. Oh well, I'll just have to keep playing and see what I come up with!