Crafty Ady

At the start of the Easter school holidays, Missy Moo told me that for her holiday school homework, she had to make a big colourful paper flower. All the kids in her class were tasked with making large paper flowers for a spring display at school.

A browse through Pinterest drew us to Linda @ Craftaholics Anonymous's Rainbow Paper Dahlia Flowers. Linda has a great tutorial there for making these gorgeous paper dahlias. Missy Moo really liked the look of Linda's gorgeous paper blooms so we decided to try our hand at making flowers like these. We thought we might do them slightly differently from Linda - sort of like putting our own little spin on it. I thought you might like to see what we came up with so I took some photos as we went along to share our process with you.

So here's how ours turned out.


Here's another one we made.


We started with A4 coloured paper and cut our sheets into 4. So we ended up with A6 rectangles of coloured paper. Like Linda, we wanted to make three rings of different coloured petals. Our outermost ring of petals used between 16 to 18 A6 rectangles. Our second ring of petals used between 12 to 15 A6 rectangles of paper and the third ring used about 9 to 10 pieces of A6 rectangles. Incidentally, we also used some crepe paper but I will come on to that later.


For speed, I decided to staple my petal tubes instead of using glue. So here's what we did. Have a look at the sequence below please. Those black arrows in picture 1 are just for illustration purposes! You don't need to draw those on yours, ok? If you brought those two arrow-marked corners towards each other like I did in picture 2 and made a tube or cone with a pointy tip like I did in picture 3, you would be able to slide the stapler into the cone and stick a staple in there to hold the cone together (picture 4).


We stapled the bottom of each cone too.


We made up all the cones we needed. For the outermost ring of petals and the second one, the petal cones were left just as they were. For the third ring of petals, we needed the cones to be about an inch and half shorter. So we cut the ends off and stapled the bottom. You can see the three colours of petals in this next picture. Note that the cream cone has had the end cut off so it's shorter than the other two.


We now need to make the base for the flower. I cut a 6 inch diameter circle from some cardboard.


Here is another sequence of photos for you. In picture 1, you can see that I poked two holes into the cardboard circle. You really don't have to be very precise with these holes. Halfway between the middle and the edge will do. I then took a 6inch piece of pipecleaner and fed the ends into the holes like you can see in picture 2. Fix the ends with some glue and a bit of sticky tape (see picture 3). This little curve of fuzzy pipecleaner wire forms a hanging loop for hanging your flower up later. On the same side as the ends of the wire, mark out some circles roughly in pen. (See picture 4) I marked out a circle about an inch and a half in from the edge and a second circle roughly an inch inside the first one.


So we have our base and we have our three sets of petal cones. Now comes the part where we glue it all together. Ready? Ok. I have a cool melt glue gun ... And I also have a hot melt glue gun. I love both my glue guns equally. This part is a lot easier if you do have a glue gun. Missy Moo wasn't very confident using the glue gun so I did the gluing part whilst she stood by and handed me the petal cones one at a time. Using my glue gun, I stuck my first set of petal cones down along that first pen line I drew onto my base (picture 1) and just kept going all the way around (picture 2).


Then I glued in the second set of petal cones following that second pen line on my base. Each one of the second set of petals sits in between the petals from the first set.


Finally, I glued in the third set of petals. These are the stumpy ones that we had cut the ends off.


There was now a hole in the middle of our flower that needed filling. We cut a 3 inch wide by roughly 3 feet long piece of crepe paper. Our crepe paper was quite thin - almost like tissue paper. Missy Moo scrunched the crepe paper up like this ...


I then glued this along the edge of the cones so we got a frilled ring going all around the middle.


Missy Moo made a frilly disc for the middle of our flower. Here is how she did it - brace yourself for another sequence! She cut two A4 sheets of paper lengthways into thirds. So we had 6 strips. She folded each strip lengthways (1). She then carefully made small cuts just halfway down, all the way along the folded edge of each strip (2). When all the strips were cut, she rolled one of the strips up (3 and 4) and when she got to the end, joined another strip in with a bit of sticky tape. She just kept going until we got to the end of all 6 strips. This left us with a little crown like the one Missy Moo is holding in her hand (5).


We glued this flower crown into the middle of the crepe frilled circle to complete our paper flower.


There you have it - a gorgeous larger-than-your-head paper flower. You can make these in whatever colours take your fancy.


We thought they might make fabulous fascinators or fancy hats. Here is Missy Moo modelling our lovely flower which looks like it could be one of the amazing millinery creations that race goers might wear to 'Ladies Day' at the Royal Ascot races. What do you think?


We hope you've enjoyed this photo tutorial and will have a go at making your own giant paper flowers. Happy crafting, friends!

I’ve made quite a few fleece quillows over the years. We have maybe four or five around the house of varying sizes. The kids have one each, there’s a baby one from Dinoboy’s toddler days, Mr CraftyAdy has one and I have one too. I love making them to give as gifts. It’s a really quick sewing project – especially if you use a store-bought fleece blanket or throw.

In case you don’t know, a quillow is a blanket (or a quilt –hence the name) with a pocket. The blanket folds up into the pocket, creating a pillow. You can pretty much make a quillow from any blanket or quilt. All you have to do is attach a pocket with a finished width which is a third of the width of your blanket plus roughly 1 inch for seam allowances and a length of about a quarter of the length of your blanket plus 1 to 2 inches again for seam allowances.

Now the pocket isn’t just for tucking your blanket into. When using the quillow, the pocket makes a really nice foot-cosy for tucking your feet into.

Here’s the quillow I made over the weekend.



Actually, I made 3 identical ones. I had recently purchased 3 fleece throws from a local warehouse sale. I then bought a metre of the purple floral print fleece off Ebay. It probably took me just over an hour to make all 3 and I was working slowly (with lots of interruptions from Missy Moo). The fleece throws I bought measured 140 cm by 200 cm.

When finished, the blanket tucks into the pocket. See?



There are lots of tutorials on the internet which tell you how to make a quillow. I thought I’d add my own photo tutorial to the list.

So – to make one of these, you’ll need:
1) a fleece throw or blanket
2) a contrasting piece of fleece for the pocket
3) matching thread

I like my quillows a little fat. This means more folds of the blanket inside the pocket. Most tutorials say to go for a pocket that is a quarter of the length of your blanket. For this one, I’ve gone for a sixth. So I measured my fleece blanket again to be sure and determined it was indeed 140cm by 200cm. I then cut a pocket from the printed fleece measuring approximately 49cm by 36cm. I pinked the edges of the pocket piece with my pinking shears to make the edges pretty. You don't have to use pinking shears if you haven't got a pair. Fleece fabric doesn't fray.

(So - just to recap, whatever size your blanket is, you'll need a pocket with a finished width which is a third of the width of your blanket plus roughly 1 inch for seam allowances and a length of about a quarter of the length of your blanket plus 1 to 2 inches again for seam allowances.)



I then turned down one of the wider edges by approximately 3 cm and pinned it.



Then using this stitch on my machine …



…. And my walking foot … (By the way, I'm using my walking foot because my sewing machine is not very keen on sewing fleece material with a regular foot. No idea why. I've found that it's easier to sew fleece on my sewing machine using my walking foot.)



I sewed a line of stitching all the way along to the end.



This forms the top edge of the pocket. You can use any stitch you like really. I like this one as it’s kind of decorative and matches the hemming stitches in the blanket.



Take the blanket and fold one of the narrower sides in half. Make a chalk mark to note the center point. My blanket didn’t really have a right side or wrong side. If you are using a blanket which has a right and wrong side, you should make your mark on the wrong side of your blanket.



Fold the edge at the bottom of the pocket in half, right sides together. Locate the middle point and make a chalk mark. Remember that this mark should be made on the right side of the fabric.



Spread the blanket out flat. Placing the pocket right side down onto the blanket, match up the two chalk marks. The edge of the pocket should sit along the edge of the blanket. Smooth the pocket down with the palms of your hands to ensure both the blanket and pocket lay flat. Then pin in place.



Following the direction of the arrows, sew down one side of the pocket using a half inch or 1.5 cm seam allowance, starting from the red star (back-stitch a few times at the beginning to strengthen the corner of the pocket) down towards the bottom of the blanket. Then sew across the bottom of the pocket and back up the other side until you get to the top of the pocket where the little red heart. Back-stitch a few stitches to secure and strengthen that corner of the pocket.



Remove your pins and you’re done! Now to fold your quillow:
1) Turn your quillow so the pillow is underneath the blanket.
2) Fold in each side so blanket is in thirds.



3) Then fold the blanket over in half, bringing the one end up to meet the other end where the pocket is.



4) If you have made your pocket so it’s a quarter the length of your blanket, then you just have to fold over in half again. If like me, you’ve decided to make your pocket one sixth of the length of your blanket, then you have to fold it in by a third …



… and then fold again.



5) Now flip the quillow over like this …



6) Stick your hands into the pocket and grabbing the blanket ends, turn the pillow right side out tucking the blanket into the pillow.



Here you have it – your quillow.



I hope you find this tutorial helpful.
Happy sewing, friends!

A friend asked if I could do a tutorial for the glasses cases in my previous post. As I already had the fabric cut out and ready to go, I was happy to oblige. So here is a tutorial for making a glasses case using an internal flex frame.

**UPDATE NOTE: You can now download this tutorial as a PDF.

This is an internal flex frame. I'm using a 3.5 inch wide one. You can get them from quite a few online shops. Here's two I know of: UHandbag does them and you can also get them in packs of 10 from these guys who are in Hong Kong. I got mine from them and they were very prompt in their email correspondence and posting. So back to the flex frame. There's a little metal pin that comes with it (unfortunately not in the photo below) - do keep it somewhere safe as it is absolutely tiny and you'll not be able to finish your glasses case without it. It's the pin that holds the frame together.



The pattern itself is very simple. Measure out two rectangles on a piece of paper. One rectangle should measure 4.5 inches by 7 inches. This is your body piece. The other one should measure 4 inches by 2.5 inches. This is your sleeve piece. Cut the rectangles out and you've got your pattern pieces. By the way, I've used quilting cotton fabric for my glasses cases.

Using the larger rectangle pattern piece, cut out 4 pieces of fabric (two for the outer and two for the lining) and 2 pieces of fusible fleece. I use Vilene Medium Loft H640 single-sided fusible fleece. I believe Peltex do a fusible fleece too. I cut the fleece slightly smaller than the fabric pieces. Fuse your fleece to the two pieces of outer fabric by placing the side with the glue dots down on the wrong side of your fabric pieces, then iron using an ironing cloth.



Use the smaller rectangle and cut out 4 pieces of fabric and two pieces of fusible fleece. These will form the sleeves for the flex frame. You can decide if you want your frame sleeves to be the same fabric as your outer (in which case you cut 2 from the outer fabric and 2 from the lining fabric) otherwise you can cut 4 pieces from the same fabric. Fuse the fleece to the wrong sides of two of your pieces. You'll end up with something like this ...



Place one of the sleeve pieces with the fleece on the back together with one of the non-fleece pieces. Put them right sides together and sew a seam down each of the narrower sides using a 3/8th inch seam allowance. You get something like this.



Turn the sleeve right side out (see photo on the left below). Iron it flat and top-stitch down each narrow side about 1/8th of an inch in from the edge (see photo on the right below).



Now fold the sleeve in half lengthways (see top left photo below) and pin it. Then baste the two edges together (see bottom right photo below) and you'll have one sleeve done. Do the same for the other two smaller rectangles and make up the second sleeve in the same way.



Take one of the sleeves and one of your body pieces - one of the outer fabric ones with the fleece fused to the reverse. Find the middle point on one of the narrow sides of the larger rectangle. Mark it. Then fold the sleeve in half lengthways along the raw edge and find the middle point. Mark that too. Match up the marks so that the raw edge of your sleeve is sitting on top of the narrow edge of your fabric rectangle. (Your fabric should be right side up.) Pin it in place. See the photo on the left below. Baste your sleeve to the body piece by sewing a line of stitching 1/4 inch from the edge. See the photo on the right below.



Now take one of your body lining pieces and place it right sides together onto the outer body piece. (see photo on the left below) Align the top edges and corners. Pin and sew across the top (where the sleeve is) using a 3/8th inch seam allowance. See photo on the right below.



You now have one side of your glasses case complete. You should have something that looks like the top left photo below. (At this point if you wish, you might want to slide one of the arms of your flex frame into the sleeve to check for fit. It should slide all the way through to the end of the sleeve.) Give the piece a quick press and top-stitch close to the top edge where the outer fabric of the body joins the sleeve. See the photo in the bottom left below. Make the other side of your glasses case with the remaining sleeve, and body pieces. You should end up with two sides as shown in the photo on the right below.



Open up the two sides and lay them flat. Place one side on top of the other, right sides together. Then being careful to match the corners and edges, pin the two pieces together. See below.



What you need to do next is to sew all around the long rectangle, making sure to leave a 2 inch gap along one of the sides in the lining section. I've marked out my stitching line in blue as you can see in the photo below to show you where I would sew. I'm using a 3/8th inch seam allowance. See the gap? This gap is really important otherwise we won't be able to turn the case right side out when we're done.



Sorry about the slight blurriness of this next photo. I wanted to show you the spot where the outer meets the lining. This is also the corner which is pretty difficult to sew because of the sleeves under the top layer. If you use a regular foot, you might find the bulk of the sleeves get in the way when you're trying to sew down this side. This corner and the corresponding one on the opposite side are a real pain to pin too. I have used my basting gun to put little tacks in to hold the pieces together. But you can use a needle and thread and quickly sew a few holding stitches about 3/8th inch in to hold the two sides together.



I have this foot which came with my machine (see below). I think it is a piping / zipper foot. As you can see, there is nothing of the foot-bed going past the needle along the side. This foot lets me sew real close to the edge of the sleeves on the sides. You can try to see if you can use your zipper foot if you find it a bit challenging sewing the two sides by the sleeves.



OK. I've now sewn all around my rectangle. Here is how it looks.



Next thing to do is to clip the corners off carefully - don't cut through your stitching lines! I also trimmed off a bit of the excess fabric on the edges.



Do the same for the outer part of your body too.



Put your fingers into the gap you left in the lining and gently pull the outer part of the body into the lining part. See the photo to the left below. Then gently pull the outer body out through the gap. See the photo on the right below.



Once you have turned the whole case right side out, use a pointy thing like a pen or in my case, my bonefolder, and gently poke the corners out neatly.



Sew the gap in the lining closed. See photo below. Then tuck the lining into the body of the case, again using your pointy thing to make sure the corners are poked in properly. Give the case a bit of a press with your iron. Almost done - we just need to insert the flex frame.



The open hinge end of your flex frame looks something like this. See the two little metal flaps or caps?



Using a pair of pliers, gently close one of the flaps so it looks like this ...



Then, slide your frame into the sleeves. Each arm of your frame goes into it's own sleeve.



When you get the frame into the sleeves, push the sleeves further in to give you a bit of space to work on closing the frame up. Line the hinge at the end of the frame up together. Remember the teeny little pin / bar that came with your frame? You did put it somewhere safe, didn't you? Get it and insert it into the hinge tubes. Push the pin all the way in and then using your pliers, close the little metal cap over the pin so the pin is trapped inside the hinge. Push your frame back into the sleeves and smooth it all out nicely.



Give it a few squeezes to open and close it ...



You're done! You now have this lovely glasses case with it's tidy flex frame opening.



You can use the same flex frame and the same sewing process described in this tutorial to make a gadget / phone case. I made one for my Samsung touch phone. My friend's iphone fits into this case too. Just make the body pieces one inch shorter. So your body pieces for a gadget pouch will be 6 inches x 4.5 inches. I put a little loop of fabric in mine (I sandwiched it between the sleeve and the body piece when I was sewing the sleeves on) and a split ring through the loop. I can then hang this pouch off my lanyard if I want or hook it onto the snap-hook in my handbag.



I hope you have found this tutorial helpful. Sorry it's a bit long - I tried to use collages of progress photos so it's not quite so long. Let me know how you get on and if you can, post your glasses cases you've made using this tutorial on my Flickr page.

Happy sewing, friends!

(PS. If you spot a typo, let me know so I can correct it! Thanks!)