Geronimo Frankie

I was very excited to finish this project. My little cousin was being Christened in September, and I didn't want to just get him anything, I wanted to make something that he could use and his parents would enjoy. So I decided to buy some materials and make a blanket/playmat. And I finally finished! I handed over the finished project a few days ago and it went down very well, and hopefully with the excess material that I have I can do a few extra projects in the same patterns and make it look like a set. So... the finished project: I will upload more pictures of the next few projects I make. I am thinking of doing a few cushions that match the blanket and perhaps a bear. His 1st Birthday is coming up next month, and then there's Christmas, so we'll see. Frankie

So... I have been meaning to create some zipped cushions for awhile, but having never done zips before (not even in school, despite taking Textiles) I have been a little reticent about attempting them. It can be quite daunting doing a sewing project for the first time. But I bit the bullet and just got on with it, with help from the instruction manual that came with my sewing machine (featured in a previous post). And I have to say, I am liking the end product: CUSHION WITH ZIPPER: For the fabric I used Versatile Check Stirling Red which I purchased as a 5m by 2m fabric role from Next for £80, and can be found here . It is quite thick to sew, but does so easily enough. The main difficulty I had with the thickness was when I used it it cover my dining chairs; but I will talk about that in another post. The zip I used was 30cm long and purchased from Hobbycraft, and can be found here . I also used both the normal foot and the zipper foot for the sewing machine, and I...

Okay, so the real reason I wanted to start this blog was because it is my birthday this month, and I received my very own sewing machine! It is literally the most excited I have been on my birthday in a long time... almost kid excited. I even managed to convince my mum that I could have it a week-and-a-half early because I wasn't seeing them on my birthday. Yay! It is a Singer Confidence 7465 ... and fits perfectly into the purple, sewing machine trolley bag you can see behind it. Which is excellent for storage. I, admittedly, don't have much to store (yet) but what I do have fits perfectly into the 2 side pockets and large front pocket attached to the outside of the bag, and the 2 detachable pockets inside the bag as well as the small mesh zipped pocket in the lid. So, lots of storage! The first thing I did was to read through the manual and see how to set it up. I have used my mums sewing machine since I was 14 and doing GCSE Textiles, but this was a rather dif...

First post! This is a little daunting being the first ever post but here goes... As a Brownie Guide Leader in the UK, having been a Brownie and then a Guide and then a Young Leader with Brownies before finally moving on to being a Brownie Guide Leader after University, I have seen a lot of different traditions when it comes to the Promise Ceremony. When new Brownies finally make their Promise and become fully fledged Brownies, complete with uniforms and badges and a Six. My favourite of which dates back from when I was a new Brownie (back in 1994). We had the most lovely Brownie Pool. It was covered in green fabric, with fabric leaves of different colours around the edges and you would be twisted around 3 times by Brown Owl while saying the rhyme; "Twist me and turn me, and show me the elf, I looked in the water and there saw..." And you would bend over the mirror and then look back up at Brown Owl as mum/dad's camera was flashing and say; "Myself....