Welcome to my Blog Eek!!

Welcome to my first ever blog and first every blog post!

I've always enjoyed "having a go" at crafty pursuits such as kniting, baking, homemade beauty treatments etc, as most of you will know I'm not the most creative or natural at this craft lark!

I am very lucky to have a dear friend, Sarah, who is amazingly talented and has a great eye for colours and what works together. Before she moved to Jersey, we used to have a great time getting stuck in on making all sorts of things under the guise that it was our daughters craft time, when in reality the girls used to get bored and go off and play whilst we got stuck into the crafting!!! (Sorry for letting our secrets out Sarah!!!)

I've really enjoyed reading Sarah's blog over the months and, despite being many miles away, through her blog she continues to inspire my crafty side.

I had been "lucky" enought to inherit a Singer Starlet sewing machine about 20 years ago from my Grandma, but had never been brave enough to use it.

There are so many things on my list of things to make (although my ambition outstrips my ability!) that I decided I would start learning to use my machine.

After downloading numerous sewing guides and borrowing some library books. I gave the Starlet an overhauld and it runs like a dream (once I'd figured out how to thread it!)

I started by following the machine practice tutorial on the Make it and Love it blog. This gave me the chance to practice the various stitches, tension and stitch lengths, as well as backstitch which I had been puzzling over!.

Being impatient I decided that my project would be the giant pincushion from the book the busy girls guide to sewing which I would use as a cushion for one of Evie's baby's.

I quickly realised that the most important bit of sewing is the preparation in marking out and measuring correctly. For a first attempt I'm pretty pleased with how it came out but my hand sewing to finish it off lets it down a little.

Next on the list was a drawstring bag to go of the back of Dolly's pushchair, so that Evie could put all her small toys in there and cart them wherever she wanted.

After trawling lots of sites I found a good tutorial for a easy as a cinch drawstring backpack, again from make it and love it blog.

I spent my time reading and re-reading and was really chuffed to have made it in one evening and think it turned out pretty well.

The finshed products in situ!!!

I'm now looking for ideas for small projects before I attempt making some curtains, cushions and bunting for Evie. I'm currently trying to track down a couple of metres of felt as I've found a lovely cushion tutorial which I'd like to try.

In the meantime I must try and get some more miles in running as I can't seem to shake this virus off and I've signed up to do my friends insanity workout as often as I can, apparently it pushes you to the limit. Then I can eat more chocolate!!