Tag: how to

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How to make a Face Mask

We’ve had many requests for a face mask pattern so here it is!

Please note that any homemade masks are not medical grade and is not designed to replace them. When wearing a covering around your nose and mouth however it can discourage you touching your face when you are out and about.

You will Need:
Materials:
X1 Piece of tightly woven cotton fabric 30cm x 23cm
x1 40cm piece of 5mm elastic

Tools and Equipment:
Matching Thread to your bias binding, Pins, Needle, Fabric Scissors, Ruler, Erasable Pen, Iron and Ironing board, Sewing Machine,

Let’s get Making

Take you piece of fabric and fold it in half right sides together so you now have a piece of fabric that measures 15cm x 23cm.

Measure out your elastic – I used x2 16.5cm lengths of elastic however for my husband he needed it slightly longer at x2 18cm lengths – so if you’re planning on making several masks perhaps make a practise one first so you can see what size you need.

Pin your fabric together leaving a 10cm gap along the long edge and then sandwich and pin your elastic inside one corner like in the photo.

Try to have your elastic at a 45 degree angle into your corner
Be sure to leave a turning gap.

Stitch from the middle (don’t forget to leave your gap for turning) towards the corner and be sure to go back and forth on your sewing machine several times over the elastic to keep it nice and secure. Pivot and grab the other end of the same piece of elastic (that’s hiding inside your fabric) and bring it to the other corner and then stitch along this edge securing the other end of elastic inplace with many stitches again.

Do the same for the other side.

Now turn inside our and press with an iron – DO NOT IRON on the elastic as it could melt and loose it’s elasticity.

Next grab your erasable pen and a rular – you can use pin to mark the lines but I find a pen easier. Draw lines across your fabric every 3.5cm. Now comes the tricky bit, the pleats.

It’s quite difficult to explain so please be sure to check the photos and we’ll add a video to our stories on Instagram (@bunyipcraft) You pinch from line to another and pin in place.

Pin in place at both ends and then Stitch in place with a 0.5cm seam allowence around the whole of your mask even the long edges to keep it extra secure.

Don’t worry if you can’t get the pleats exactly right, just aslong as there are two pleats that then allows for the mask to stretch over your nose and mouth but keep tight near your ears.

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Beginners Embroidery Stitches

If you’re not familiar with some of the stitches from our recent Project of the Month (Embroider a Rainbow Hoop) I thought I’d create a little how to for all of these simple stitches!

Chain stitch

A brilliant stitch that can be used for making thick lines, curves and even petals for flowers!

Couching

To make something a little more 3D couching is a great option. As you use the whole thickness of the embroidery thread and then just one line of thread for the couching – this can be the same or a different colour to make your piece multi coloured!

Running Stitch

One of the easiest by far is a simple running stitch. It’s always best to try and keep each stitch and gap between the stitch consistent. This can be all the same or the gap can be much smaller than the stitch. It’s completely up to you but keeping the gap the same as the next and the stitch the same as the next helps things look neat.

Stem Stitch

This stitch can be great for creating lines curved and straight, and as its name suggests perfect for embroidering flower stems!

Back Stitch

One of the most traditional stitches for embroidery and mending

French Knots

These are perfect for the dot over an i or for creating the tiniest little filled in circle, or the middle of a flower!

And there you have it! I hope the photos are detailed enough to follow. This should now make our recent blog post for How to embroider a Rainbow Hoop even simpler!

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Project of the Month: Embroider a Rainbow Hoop

You will need (For our size project – you can obviously go much bigger if you’d like!)

Materials:

5” Embroidery Hoop Piece of plain fabric 20cm x 20cm

(we’ve used white but could look great with a sky blue!)

Piece of Felt 20cm x 20cm

X6 Different colours of embroidery thread

Tools and Equipment:

Embroidery needle, sharp scissors, Tailors chalk / erasable pen,

Fabric Scissors

Let’s get Making!

Press your fabric into your hoop – make sure it’s nice and tight a bit like a drum!

Draw on your rainbow *Top Tip!* Find a rainbow shape on your laptop or computer, whack the brightness up and lay your fabric over the screen. Trace the rainbow onto your fabric!

Measure out our thread to 50cm, then split your thread in half so you’re using 3 of the inner threads at a time – makes for easier stitching into fabrics and make your thread last twice as long!

We’re using our colours in this order (from outside to inside) Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple but feel free to mix things up and make it even more colourful! Also using a different stitch for each line of the rainbow, however you could always use the same stitch for each or 

  1. The Red line – chain stitch.
  2. Orange – Couching
  3. Yellow – Running Stitch
  4. Green – Stem Stitch
  5. Blue – Back Stitch
  6. Purple – French Knots

Now to neaten up the edges of your fabric. Keeping your fabric in it’s hoop (You may want to pop it out and then re-stretch it so it’s nice and tight again) cut your fabric into a circle roughly 1 inch larger than your hoop. Grab a needle and thread and do a large running stitch around the edge of the circle (not too close to the edge about 5mm from the edge. When you get back round to the beginning of your running stitch pull your thread and it will gather the fabric to the back of your hoop! Knot in place.

Next grab your felt and cut it into a circle slightly smaller than your hoop – an easy way to do this is to draw around the hoop onto your felt and then cut it inside of the drawn line.

Either Glue or stitch your felt onto the back side of the hoop.

There you have it! Please let us know how you got on with this project and if you share on social media tag us in with #bunyippotm so we can see them!

If you’re unsure of any of the stitches keep an eye out for another blog post coming.

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Project of the Month: How to Make a Ribbon Rosette Brooch!

You can obviously adapt this project depending on the width of your ribbon and your desired brooch size, for this project our ribbon is 16mm wide and 1m in length.

Materials:
1m of ribbon – we’ve used tarten to get ready for Burn’s night!
Brooch back
Small – mediem size button
Tools and Equipment:
Thread,
Pins,
Needle
Pair of sharp scissors

1. Have one end of your ribbon in the you hand and be working with the long length. Curve your ribbon in the way shown in the photo, try to have the curve quite pointy as it helps to keep it in shape. Then have your long length meet in the middle but turn it slightly so that it pokes out at a slightly different angle to the first point. This way when you make another point it won’t just keep coming back to the same point. Think of it as your point is 12 on a clock and the two ends are at 4 and 8. It’s quite difficult to explain so please see the photos for this to make more sense =P

2. Keep going round making more ‘points’ till you have a nice full circle – we made 5 but you could keep going and make them longer and have even 10 to make a much larger rosette!

3. Now work round again but making the points much smaller so that they make a mini circle in the bigger circle. It can be quite tricky keeping all of the ribbon in neatly and together at this stage so you could pop a pin in to keep the first circle in the place.

4. When you’re happy with the number of points pop a pin in the keep it all in place and grab your needle and thread. Do several stitches up and down in the middle of the rosette going through ALL of the layers. This should be enough to keep all of the ribbon in the place but you can add a few more stitches to the underneath layers being careful not to catch down any of the loops.


5. Next trim off your excess ribbon and stitch on your button to hide the end of the ribbon. (You can keep using the same piece of thread, you don’t need to knot and cut it off till the end!

6. Now stitch through to the back of the brooch and sew on your brooch back. Several stitches till it’s nice and secure, Knot the thread, trim off the excess and ta-da!

Please let us know how you got on with this project and if you share on social media tag us in with #bunyippotm so we can see them!

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Project of the Month: Reusable Gift Wrapping Bags

You can of course make these bags whatever size you fancy but to get you started let’s start with a little one!
You will need: 
Materials:
x1 piece of festive fabric 36cm (width) x 23cm (height)50cm Satin Ribbon
Tools and Equipment:
Sewing Machine,
Thread,
Pins,
Needle,Safety pin,
Fabric Scissors,
Pen / Tailors Chalk,
Iron and Ironing board,

1. Have your fabric facing down onto your ironing board and fold up your top edge 1cm, then again by 2 cm. Stitch about 2-3mm (using the edge of the sewing machine foot is an easy way to keep it even) from the folded edge all the way along your fabric so you’ve got a nice channel.

2. Now flip your fabric over so your looking at the patterned side and fold book style in half. Where your channel is at the top do a couple of stitches (1cm seam allowance) on the machine, lift up your foot and move the bag up till you are then past your channel, then stitch all the way down and then along the bottom – a big L basically!

3. Trim your threads and corners then turn. Attach a safety pin to the end of your satin ribbon and use this to push the ribbon all through the channel til you have a bit of ribbon out both ends, the poke them through the hole you left when assembling to have your ribbon sticking out of the bag instead of inside.

4. Tie the ends of the ribbon in a good knot near the end and trim your ribbon for a nice neat edge (you can briefly run the end over a lit match or candle and this stops the ends from fraying but of course take care!

5. And there you have it! Once you’ve got the hang of it these bags could be made in all sorts of different sizes, even for food! Please let us know how you got on with this project and if you share on social media tag us in with #bunyippotm so we can see them!

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Project of the Month: How to make a Cutlery Pouch


You will need:
Materials:
x2 Different fabrics 14cm x 62cm
x1 Button between 15 – 20mm
Tools and Equipment:
Sewing Machine,
Thread,
Pins,
Needle,
Fabric Scissors,
Ruler,
Pen / Tailors Chalk,
Iron and Ironing board,
Pinking Shears,
a mug / something with a curve to draw round

You’re find this project very similar to last months Pencil Roll so I’ve you’ve made that one then this should be a breeze, Let’s get Making!

1. Decide which fabric will be your inner and which your outer. For this cutlery pouch the yellow raindrops is the inner and light denim with beetles and bugs the outer – perfect for a picnic right? Cut out of both fabrics one piece 14cm x 37cm, and one piece 14cm x 25cm. To the longer piece curve the edges like in the photo.

2. To make the pouch take the two smaller pieces of fabric, right sides together and stitch along the top – shorter edge of the fabric (1cm seam allowance for this project) Open out and press and then fold so that wrong sides are facing and press the seam down.

3. Next you need to make a little sandwich. Take your inner large piece of fabric right side up. Lay on top the newly sewn pouch with your outer fabric UP. Then finally the outer larger piece face down on top. Pin.

4. Stitch around the edge leaving a 5cm turning gap along one of the straight edges, then trim the corners and curved edges with pinking shears

5. Turn outside out – use a really large knitting needle to help with the corners and press with an iron.
6. Ladder stitch the gap

7. Fold the top flap down and there’s only one step left, make a button hole! You can use the feature on the sewing machine or hand stitch whichever is easiest! I placed the button so when in use it was about 2cm up from the edge of the pouch as shown in the photos. It’s nice to have the flap completely down so that your cutlery can’t poke out when you’re on the go.

And there you have it! Please let us know how you got on with this project and if you share on social media tag us in with #bunyippotm so we can see them!

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Project of the Month: How to make a Pencil Roll

This month to help get ready for the new school term we’ve done a how to make your own Pencil Roll! Could also be used for paint brushes or even make up brushes!

You will need:

Materials:
X2 Different fabrics 28cm x 39cm
60cm 15mm wide Satin Ribbon

Tools and Equipment:
Sewing Machine, Thread, Pins, Needle, Fabric Scissors, Ruler, Pen / Tailors Chalk,
Iron and Ironing board, Pinking Shears, a mug / something with a curve to draw round

Let’s get Making!

Decide which of your fabrics will be the inner and which will be the outer. For our roll the white animal fabric is the outer and the purple raindrops is the inner. From both of the fabrics cut the following: 28cm x 13cm. 28cm x 26cm (you’ll notice this fits into a fat quarter perfectly so you could actually make the roll out of just one fat quarter is you didn’t want the contrasting fabrics!
Next just with the larger piece of both fabrics grab your mug and butter it up to the top corners, draw around and then cut to give you a nice smooth curve!

Little Hack

Fabric cut out and ready to go!

Take the two smaller pieces right sides together and stitch along the top (1cm seam allowance for this project) Open out and press and then fold so that wrong sides are facing and press the seam down. This will make up the front pockets.

Pocket piece pressed

Take your pocket piece and lay it on top of the larger inner piece of fabric so that bottom corners and lined up. Now grab your pins and a rular, you can use the pins to mark out where you will be stitching to make the multiple pouches or a washable pen / tailors chalk if you prefer. Mark out the pins 3.5cm apart from each – APART from the ones on the other edge, they will need to be 4.5 cm from the edge to allow for seam allowance for when assembling. This perfectly fit 3 pencils per pouch, feel free to change it round to be either smaller or larger depends how many you’d like to fit if each section!

Align your pins for where / how big you’d like your pockets to be

Stitch straight lines down attaching the pouch to the inner piece of fabric. Snip off the loose threads and grab out remaining outer piece of fabric face down (so right sides together) sandwich together and pin around the edge

Sandwich together your pieces, right sides facing

Leave a gap of roughly 7cm along the edge (in between the curves) and sitch around the edge. Snip off the corners, turn and press flat.
Ladder Stitch the top opening.

Place your roll in front of you with so that you’re looking at the back of it. Measure 10cm across from the left hand side and 10cm up from the bottom and pin the centre point of your ribbon to this spot. Stitch the ribbon to the roll but be sure not to stitch all the way through tacking down one of the pouches. I find tucking my finger in one of the pouched so I can feel when the needle is through the fabric and stop it going through the pouches. This should also line up so that this little line of stitching doesn’t show when you turn the roll over as it’s inside on the little pockets.

And Voila! Your roll is complete! Please let us know how you got on with this project and if you share on social media tag us in with #bunyippotm so we can see them!

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How to: Bubble Collar Necklace

These awesome laser cut shapes make the perfect chunky collar necklace, simply because they’re so light! Ideal if you require constant drama in your jewellery but can’t deal with your neck aching at the end of a party (a consistent problem in my life….)

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We sell these plastic shapes in cream or black (sadly we’re out of stock of the blue) and these necklaces are wonderfully easy to piece together, providing you have access to the following:

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6 Bubble Connectors 

42cm of Wide Link Chain (with openable links)

1 Medium Lobster Clasp

Flat Nosed Pliers

First off, use the pliers to open and remove 12 links of the wide chain. We’re going to use these in place of jump rings, as the oval shapes makes them a lot more subtle as connectors. If your chain doesn’t work for this, just use a large jump ring!

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Use the links to piece together your connectors in your chosen way so that they all sit beautifully together and flat on your neck. This may take a bit of experimentation, but is worth getting right…

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Split the remainder of your chain in half by opening another link.

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Attach one piece of chain to either end of your bubbles.

Finally, pop your lobster clasp on one end by – you guessed it – opening up a link, popping it on, and closing it again!

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This can obviously be done with any kind of shape you can find, plastic or otherwise, the struggle comes with getting them to sit right. But like I say, worth the effort for such an easy statement piece.

Have fun! x

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Piping Cord: A Journey

We’ve only recently started stocking piping cord in the shop, essentially because no one had asked for it until about a month ago. (Top tip: if you want us to stock something, just ask! We like knowing what we’re missing).

I’ve fancied having a play with it ever since, and have been noticing more and more people making piped cushion covers lately. Having just moved house, my current pillows are looking really sad in my new room so I thought this was a perf opportunity to try it out – which is why this is a much bigger pillow size than I normally would make!

Note: I don’t think I’ve ever actually used piping before, though I do remember doing homework about it in GCSE textiles amazingly. This was vaguely tricky, (probably on the same level of pom pom cushions, which we all know are life) but if you’re willing to give it a go and it not be 100% perfect then go for it! I basically mashed mine though the sewing machine and it came out pretty good, if I say so myself. (I’ve written this before I’ve actually taken it home and seen if it fits the cushion, so might not be so pleased with myself later.)

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Before I started I read through this tutorial, and used it to work out my measurements etc.

You will need:

Front fabric (equals the size of your cushion, plus 1.25cm on the height & width)

Back fabric (the length of your cushion, plus 18cm on the width, cut in half to make two rectangles)

Piping Cord (I used size 4, and you need enough to go around the entire edge of your cushion, plus a touch extra for safety)

Bias Binding (you can make this yourself, if you’re a better person than I am. You need the same amount as the piping cord….)

Sewing Machine, unless you really really love to hand sew

Scissors, Pins, Iron

First things first, fold down one of the long edges on your back fabric 1cm, then 1cm again, hiding the raw edge. Press into place with an iron, and pin into place if you need to. (Reasons you might need to: you didn’t actually iron it, like me).

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Stitch down with your sewing machine, and repeat on the other piece of back fabric.

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Now the piping fun begins.

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Starting about 5cm from the top of the binding, lay your piping along the middle of your bias, wrap the binding around it and pin together. I started doing this, decided it was too thin and went back and opened the binding out before pinning it. I have no idea if that was the right thing to do or not, but it seemed to work out ok.

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You binding should have wrong sides touching

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This is a representation of how my brain felt during this

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Now, sew this together, but don’t sew the 5cm you left at one end.

This was where I started to get in a faff, because I realised that the foot on the machine would stop me getting that close to the piping. So I stitched it down, but quite near the edge.

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 Now, what the other tutorial I read said to do next was to pin this around the edges of your front piece (piping facing inwards) and stitch it into place, clipping your corners as you go to get it to sit better.

I obviously ignored this, and decided that I knew better and that I should just skip right to the end. THIS WAS AN ERROR. Do not do this. It was really difficult  and the piping kept moving around all the time and the corners were super hard.

At the point where your two ends of piping meet, you’ll hopefully have a little bit extra. Trim the piping so it meets perfectly, and then tuck the 5cm end of binding over the other end, meaning you’ll have two layers of bias binding over a small section of piping.

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So hopefully if you have taken my advice you now have a beautifully attached piece of piping cord to the front piece of your cushion, in which case all you need to do now is lay your 2 back pieces face down, overlapping in the middle.

I don’t, so what I’m doing here is laying the piping cord around the edge of the right side of the front piece, then laying the two back bits face down so they overlap in the middle, and the pinning this all into place. Sigh, hindsight…

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All you have to do now is sew around the outside of the cushion. I used my zipper foot instead of the standard one so that I could get a bit closer to the piping cord, because I didn’t want it to be weird and gappy.

Once you’ve done that, flip it right side round, clip the corners and give it a good press with the iron. And that’s it!

 Update: through some sewing miracle, it fit my cushion! Woop woop. Now I just have to make 2 more matching ones…

I’d love to hear if you’ve given this a go – let me know!

Don’t forget to befriend us on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram for nice photos and shop updates…

xx