Monday 25 November 2013

Winters Lane by Fabric and Flowers - A Tutorial

For this post I am handing over to Sonia at Fabric and Flowers who is one of the lovely Patch bloggers.
She has written a tutorial for 3 brilliant Christmas projects which I am sharing below.

Sonia was sent fabrics from the Winters Lane range by Kate & Birdie for Moda. This range was brought out as a holiday line but the prints are not obviously festive - not a gingerbread man or candy cane in sight!!

All these fabrics can be found here in the online shop, aswell as in the Lowestoft shop.




Helloooo everyone! I'm not sure if I ever told you, but a little while ago Claire from the lovely Patch Fabrics put out a call for bloggers and I was one of the ones lucky enough to be chosen!


A couple of weeks ago, I received a lovely bundle of fabric from Claire: a panel, a charm pack and a fat quarter all from the Winters Lane range, which I happen to love. For me it's the perfect balance of being seasonal but not overly so, if you know what I mean?!

The panel is printed with eight bunting flags, a cushion and some gift tags. I spent a while deliberating what to do......the easiest thing would have been to make it up as so, but I always like a bit of a challenge! Instead I made table place mats, a mug rug for Santa's mince pie and tipple and a stocking
Christmas projects by fabricandflowersuk
If you would like to make any of these, here's how;

Please note: all seam allowances are 1/4" unless otherwise stated

Snowflake Table Place Mats  (finished size 9.5" x 13.5") Snowflake

Ingredients
5 x 5" charm squares (or 6 if not using a panel picture)
Panel picture
Wadding
10" x 14" backing fabric
Fabric for binding (I used 2" x width of fabric Klona Cardinal

Method
1. Cut around each of the panel pictures leaving a 1/8" seam all the way around level with the frame rather than square to your cutting mat as sometimes the printing is a little skewy on the panel (a technical term!) but it will all get straightened up when we sew it together!

2. Take five charm squares: cut one in half and sew to the top and bottom of the panel picture

3. Sew the remaining charm squares into pairs. Iron the seams open. Join your three strips together - to ensure it was central, I finger pressed the centre line on the middle panel and matched this to the seams on the outer strips

4. Trim so that all sides are even

5. Layer your place mat top, wadding and backing and quilt as desired - I lightly echo quilted around each square

6. Bind 

7. Set your table and admire your handiwork!

Winters Lane place mat by fabric&flowersuk


Snowflake Santa Mug Rug (finished size 9.5" x 9.5") Snowflake

Ingredients
4 x 5" charm squares
Additional fabric for applique (I used two charm squares)
Gift tag from panel
Embroidery thread
Wadding 
10" x 10" backing fabric
Fabric for binding  (I used 2" x width of fabric Klona Cardinal

Method
1. Sew squares together in pairs and then sew pairs together to make your mug rug

2. Write a message on the gift tag (I used a Frixion pen) and embroider over it. Alternatively, you could use permanent pen

3. Cut Bondaweb to the size of your gift tag and iron on to the wrong side of your gift tag. Peel off the backing paper, place into position on your mug rug and then iron to fix

4. To make the snowflakes cut two squares from bondaweb (1 x 5" and 1 x 3") and iron onto the fabric. Peel the backing paper away, and then cut into a snowflake - I used the instructions from here as a guide. I found that using a Clover clip to keep all the layers in place did help.
Making the gift tag and snowflake

Now I won't fib to you - trying to cut through the multiple layers of fabric is quite tricky (there might even have been a little bit of muttering going on) so it is handy to have little scissors to hand too. If you've got a Sizziz Big Shot I would definitely use that instead! Or you could go for a different applique shape - a reindeer, holly leaves, gingerbread man - whatever you fancy! 

5. Once you're happy with your snowflake, place in position on your mug rug and iron in place. I cut my smaller snowflake in two and positioned on the sides

6. Layer your mug rug top, wadding and backing fabric. Applique/free motion your gift-tag and snowflake in place: for the gift tag I started on the shortest edge, using a narrow zig-zag and went carefully around the entire shape before then going out to the edge of the mug rug in a wavy line

7. Add  binding 

8. Load up with goodies for Santa! (he normally has a tipple of Whisky but as it was midday when we took the photo we went for milk instead!)
Santa Mug Rug by fabricandflowersuk


Snowflake Christmas Stocking  (finished size 9.5" x 13.5")

Ingredients
Cushion Panel
Lining fabric
4 x 5" charm squares
2" x 6" for the hanging loop
1 x gift tag
Embroidery Thread
Bondaweb
Wadding

Method
1. Make a template for your stocking and cut out two from your panel and lining fabric: to make the biggest stocking possible (!) I used the measurements below and curved my edges using a roll of sellotape because that's what I had close to hand!

2. To make the stocking cuff cut the charm squares in half. Sew all the pieces together using a 3/8" seam allowance. Iron the seams open. Sew together the last seam to join into a circle and fold it in half 


3. If you're adding a gift tag, follow steps 2-3 for the Santa Mug Rug, making sure that you leave enough string on your gift tag so that it won't be covered by the cuff

4. To make the hanging loop, fold the fabric in half and then fold the edges in to the middle (as if making bias binding). Iron and sew the open long edge

5. Place the outside fabrics right side together, place wadding on either side and sew around the edges leaving the top edge clear. Repeat for the lining fabric (excluding the wadding!) leaving a 3" gap in the longest seam for turning out. Clip into the curved edges


6. Turn the outside fabric the right way round. Place cuff around the top edge and pin the hanging loop in place on the back seam. Place inside the lining and stitch all around the top edge of the stocking

7. Pull the stocking out through the turning hole, iron and slip stitch the seam.

8. Hang and wait eagerly for Santa to stop by!
Christmas stocking by fabricandflowersuk
Phew! That was one pretty long post! I hope that it all makes sense and if anything isn't clear or you have any questions then please do just drop me a line. I'd love to know if any of you make anything from here!

See you soon, 

S x

DISCLAIMER: Patch Fabrics sent me all these lovely fabrics to play with as part of the Patch Fabrics Blogger Team, and sent me additional fabrics as a thankyou









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