Lucykate Crafts . . .

NHS rainbow

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Fri, 01 May 2020 12:11:00 +0000

During the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown, rainbows have been appearing in windows across the UK as a sign of support, solidarty, and appreciation for our NHS frontline workers, so I decided to make my own using scraps of fabric. Didn't take long to do at all, here's how I made it...

You will need...

a sheet of paper to make a templete

pencil

scissors, pins and a hand sewing needle

scraps of fabric in rainbow colours

sewing cotton

embroidery thread

STEP 1 Decide how big you want to make your rainbow. I used a sheet of A2 paper, folded it in half and drew a freehand rainbow shape. Cut out and mark out each colour band on the template, I went with 6 (pink, yellow, orange, green, blue and purple, but actually added an extra red one to the outer edge when I'd finished). Start cutting up your fabrics, laying them out on the template as you go so you know they will fit. I cut my fabrics to the width of the bands but the lengths varied. I also kept frayed edges, selvedges etc, as I liked the unfinished random look. Each scrap of fabric needs to overlap slightly, see below.

STEP 2 Once you've built up your rainbow, pile up each colour out of the way. Begin with the outer strip and just loosely tack each strip together using the sewing cotton to create each colour band of the rainbow arch. I didn't do mine very neatly at all, but that was deliberate.

Infographic 1 Press play on the video above

STEP 3 Once you have all your coloured bands joined together, lay them together again, with each arch slightly overlapping. Join them together using the embroidery thread, I used Pearl Cotton 8 in a spacedyed rainbow colour, by sewing a running stitch.

Diagram 1 Joining the strips with running stitch

STEP 4 That's about it!, I stuck mine to our sitting room window using clear sellotape. It looks like stained glass when the light shines through.

I could have made one using coloured paper but chose to make mine in fabric for dual purpose. When lockdown is over and life returns to some sort of normality, I can add a backing to the rainbow and stuff it to make a cushion!

Stay safe x

What happens next?

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 10:46:00 +0000

My previous post made shocking reading I know, there's no way to sugar coat having a heart attack, I wish there was.

It has taken a long time to get back to anywhere near normal, both physically and mentally, I am getting there though, and if it helps others, and also raise awareness about a few things, I'd like to write a bit about what happened next.

In hospital, wired up to a heart monitor with a cardiac nurse watching every beat, its calming to know if anything else bad happens, you're in the right place. Returning home is a mixed bag of emotions,

nights spent almost counting the breaths, and checking my pulse. The early days are terrifying. Many Cardiologists are unfamiliar with SCAD, and are also unsure how to treat it. Since it happened to me, there has been a research paper published which includes a suggested treatment plan, recommending no stenting of the dissected artery, opting for medication instead (dual antiplatelet therapy, beta blockers, ACE inhibitors etc), I was on 7 tablets a day (now reduced to just 2!).

Next, was 6 weeks of taking it very easy, during that time I learned the hard way how vital resting was, did too much too soon, 2 weeks post SCAD I was back in an ambulance with chest pains again and an overnight stay on the cardiac ward. The arteries need time to heal, and that means giving the heart a rest. Following that, it's an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the chest), from this, they can work out the LV function or how efficiently your heart is pumping out blood, normal range is between 55-70%, this number will reduce if there's been heart damage or if there's heart disease. The heart damage can occur during a heart attack, the reduced blood supply causes the heart muscle to die off. At the moment, it looks like I have been very lucky, no muscle damage means my LV function is around 65%, totally normal. This is possibly because I sought treatment quickly, I was given aspirin and GTN spray within an hour of the symptoms starting, both took pressure off my struggling heart potentially reducing lasting damage.

I have just had an MRI scan, am waiting for a CT scan next. These scans are looking for a number of things, one is investigating why the SCAD happened (but more on that in another post), they are also looking to see that the 2 arteries that dissected have healed, and also if there is any scar tissue left behind. At the moment, I'm playing the waiting game for all the results.

SCAD has its own set of after effects, I have had a lot of chest pain, the theory is this pain is unique to a SCAD and is caused by arterial spasms as the arteries heal. It feels like a bee in my chest, I can feel a spasm coming on, it almost buzzes, then the pain starts. It comes and goes in waves, accompanied by dizziness, sweating, it's most unpleasant. These spells have gradually decreased in severity and frequency, but I do still have bad days.

I'm writing about this as SCAD mainly affects women, healthy women, it is not linked at all to heart disease or high cholesterol, and women are twice as likely to die from a heart attack than men. This is for a number of reasons, one being that women have a higher tendency to dismiss symptoms and not seek medical help, or when they do, the symptoms are dismissed as emotional, eg panic attack/anxiety based, rather than physical. More women also die of heart attacks or heart disease than of cancer. I found this on You Tube, not a SCAD but the heart attack symptoms are very similar to what happened in my case (yes, that is Elizabeth Banks!).

If you'd like to know more about what a SCAD is, this also helps explain what actually happened inside 2 arteries in my heart that November morning...

I joined SCAD research and have taken part is some additional tests which will go towards the international investigating going on to learn more about SCAD, why it happens and genetic markers. This research is taking place at the Mayo Clinic in USA and also at Glenfield Hospital here in the UK. This weekend there is a SCAD conference with many SCAD survivors attending plus the 3 UK based expert Cardiologists, it will be an interesting day on many counts, not least due to being in a room of at around 63 (at last count) others who all know exactly what I've been through as they have all been there themselves.

There are many reasons why you may experience chest pain, but if that pain comes with other symptoms, dizziness, sweating, pain radiating elsewhere, or if your instinct is just that something is not quite right, go get help, just get checked out.

It could save your life.

Hearts and things...

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 11:32:00 +0000

Long time no blog! I'm not even sure if blogs are as popular as they used to be when I first started in 2007. The online landscape has changed so much with Instagram, Pinterest etc. But it is something I need to get back to. The prolonged absence has been for a few reasons, work, life and health just about covers it.

Health for me has been the trickiest issue. Firstly there was a knee thing. I call it a thing as it turned out to be quite bizarre once the scary side was out of the equation. In a nutshell, my knee swelled up one day a couple of years ago. A year after that, I noticed a hard lump inside the swelling. The hard lump grew so my GP sent me to see an Orthopedic Oncologist, suspecting it could be a cancerous growth. This meant I had 3 months of investigations, MRI scan, biopsy etc, to test to see if it was sarcoma. All very scary at the time, and a huge relief when I finally got a diagnosis of pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS), which is basically a joint disease that grows benign tumours. After another 3 months on the surgery waiting list, the tumour came out. I won't go into detail but it was very painful and took a while to recover from, and can regrow in the future, but for now, I'm having more physio to realign my kneecap, and so far so good.

Then last November, something happened that I was least expecting, I had a heart attack.

Out of the blue, no prior symptoms, I'm not unhealthy (at least I don't think so!), had been doing pilates once a week since my knee surgery, low cholesterol, barely drink, don't smoke, and yet, one morning, the 2nd November 2017 to be precise, at 8.10am, I could barely breathe. It felt like my lungs and chest were being crushed, followed by a sharp pain in my heart. What followed is a bit of a blur, GP surgery, ECG, ambulance and hospital. At 3.30pm, the blood test results came back, and all of a sudden I was surrounded by nurses. There was troponin in my blood, which confirmed, I'd had a heart attack. I went into shock, trying to take in what was going on around me, to me. Nurses, doctors, heart monitors, blood being taken again, injections, tablets, my head was spinning.

I was admitted into the coronary care unit, and the next day moved again, by ambulance to a different hospital, for a procedure called an angiogram. At this point, I knew I'd had a heart attack, but the missing piece of the puzzle was why. An angiogram is not a very pleasant experience, and there were complications afterwards with excessive bleeding. It is done via an artery, which should seal up once its over, however, the first course of action with heart attack patients is what they call dual anti-platelet therapy, ie blood thinners. I didn't stop bleeding and spent the night with my arms elevated, in pressure straps and ice packs. The good news was the cardiologist found the issue. From my angiogram report...

"The main body of the right coronary artery was normal, however, there was an abrupt step down in calibre of both the posterolateral branch and the posterior descending artery with an appearance suggestive of spontaneous coronary artery dissection"

So there you have it, I had something called a spontaneous coronary artery dissection or SCAD. Quite rare, affects mainly women, and happens spontaneously. It cannot be predicted and cannot be prevented. In short, part of an artery either bruised or split, causing the blood supply to my heart to be compromised, which in turn caused an acute non-stemi myocardial infarction. I came home from hospital massively bruised and on a lot of medication. It's taken a couple of months to feel anywhere near normal, it's not normal though, its a new normal really.

Next steps are, I'm waiting to see a cardiologist in March and also have an assessment appointment early February with cardiac rehab. I've had an echocardiogram since it happened, so far, it looks like there hasn't been any permanent muscle damage to my heart, beyond that, the other important factor is the dissected artery healing, which I've been told can take anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months. Long term there's a good chance of a full recovery, in time the medication may reduce, the lasting factors will be the memories of it all and the medic alert bracelet I now wear.

Just before all this happened, I'd begun work on another book, and in fact have ideas for 3 new books. Now I'm starting to feel better, am itching to get back to work so am going to keep going. One of the first projects I'm currently working on is a fundraising pattern, a softie that can be personalised for survivors of trauma, proceeds will go to a heart research charity initially. A cause close to my own heart right now!

*Edited to add - this post really only just skims the surface of what happened, I will write about it in more detail soon for the Beat Scad website.

Carrots and sprouts are not just for Christmas...!

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 00:16:00 +0000

I have a couple of new free patterns, but have decided to go about putting these online in a slightly different way. I have been an absent blogger this year, a few reasons, work, real life and health have had other plans. More on that another time, but for now, better late than never, but as the title says, carrots and sprouts are not just for Christmas!

If you fancy squeezing in making some new Christmas tree ornaments in between online shopping and wrapping presents, these are very quick and easy and will look rather cute on the tree (and also hanging in the kitchen till next Christmas!)

The free PDF patterns for these are available via a website called Craftsy. The reason I've uploaded them this way is to conduct a little market research, as I can access information as to how many times each pattern has been downloaded.

The Carrot is available here, you will have to register or sign in to Craftsy, to gain full access but both patterns are totally free to download.

The Brussel Sprouts are available here.

As with all my sewing and craft patterns, these are small projects that only need a small amount of materials, everything I used for my Carrots was up-cycled.

I've not used Craftsy before, so this is a bit of an experiment, any problems with the downloads, leave a comment or email, and I'll help all I can.

Christmas pudding bauble,

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 13:46:00 +0000

As my part of the 'Sew a Softie for Christmas' campaign, here is my pattern to make a really simple Christmas pudding tree decoration.

You will need...

a circle of brown fabric, can be patterned or plain, 15cm (5 3/4") in diameter

white felt 12cm x 12cm (5" x 5")

green felt 8cm x 8cm (3" x 3")

2 or 3 red buttons

white embroidery thread (I used pearl cotton 8)

brown embroidery thread

brown sewing thread

toy stuffing

plus the usual needle, pins, scissors etc...

(Templates, drag and drop the image onto your desktop and print)

STEP 1

Hand sew a running stitch, using the brown sewing thread, 0.5cm (1/4") in from the edge, all the way round the brown circle of fabric. Gently pull the thread to begin gathering and stuff the inside with the toy stuffing. Once you are happy with the shape of the pudding, pull the thread tight to continue gathering, and secure closed with a few stitches.

STEP 2

Cut the icing shape from the white felt, either pin or hold in place, over the top of the pudding, hiding the gathering, and sew in place using running stitch around the edge using the white embroidery thread.

STEP 3

Cut out three holly leaves from the green felt and attach in place to the top of the pudding by adding some leaf veins in straight stitches using the white embroidery thread. Add holly berries by sewing the red buttons in the centre of the leaves. Finish off by adding a long loop of brown embroidery thread to the top of the pudding so it can hang from your Christmas tree.

Make as many as you want, I used scraps of fabric from old clothing, even the buttons are up cycled.

The pudding baubles are quick, simple and cheap to make.

The idea of the 'Sew a Softie Day' is to get more people sewing, and Softies are so easy to make. Check out the 'Sew a Softie Day' blog for more information and other sewing patterns you could sew. Join the Facebook group and you'll find a 'stocking' full of additional patterns too.

As with all of my free patterns, refer to the images if there's anything you're stuck with, sometimes seeing it makes it easier to understand than reading it, if there's anything you're stuck on, send me an email or leave a comment and I will help.

Don't forget about my other Christmas tutorials, you can find the Christmas Tree Softie via this link.

Ladybird,

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Fri, 18 Nov 2016 11:46:00 +0000

Many moons ago, I had a free pattern posted on a craft and sewing blog called Whip Up. Sadly, Whip Up is no longer live, which, after double checking some of the links on my blog, also means the pattern for the ladybird is also no longer live.

There's been a long absence for me from blogging, reasons for which I'll go into in my next post, but for now, I'm going to add the ladybird pattern here, it was a popular pattern and is also one I've used myself a few times when I've done teaching sessions, its small, simple, quick to do, doesn't require a huge amount of materials and can all the sewing can be done by hand.

pattern skill rating : easy

You will need...

2 pieces of fabric 3” x 4” (7.5 x 10cm) for the body

1 piece of craft felt 3” x 4” (7.5 x 10cm) for the wings

1 piece of craft felt 1” x 2” (2.5 x 5cm) for the eyes

2 small buttons

sewing thread

stuffing

small pebble to weight the ladybird

plus the usual needle, pins, scissors etc

Begin by printing out the template image below

STEP 1 : making the body

1. Cut a body shape using the template, from each of the fabric pieces, place them both right sides together and pin.

2. Sew round the edge leaving the turning gap open.

3. Turn the body right side round, stuff with a little of the stuffing, then pop in the pebble to give the ladybird a little weight to it. Continue to stuff until it is almost full then fold in the raw edges of the turning gap and sew it closed.

STEP 2 : adding the eyes and wings

1. Cut 2 eye circles from the smallest piece of craft felt. Hold one in position on the body (the opposite end to where the turning gap was), and anchor in place by attaching it on with one of the small buttons.

2. Repeat for the other eye.

3. Cut 2 wings from the other piece of craft felt and attach one to the body using small random straight stitches along the short straight edge. Flip the other wing and attach in the same way so both wings line up as indicated on the template.

STEP 3 : embroidery embellishment

1. Add some french knots dotted around each of the wings. To do this, anchor your embroidery thread to the ladybird’s body with a knot underneath one of the wings. Bring the thread up through the wing, wrap it round the needle 3 times and then take the thread back down through the body, coming up where you want the next stitch to appear, pulling the previous french knot tight as you go.

2. Add some antennae by passing a short length of embroidery thread through the head from one side to the other, just above each eye. Remove the needle and tie a knot in each end of the thread trimming each end if needs be.

And there you go, to finish off, here's a batch of ladybirds made in a class I taught at my daughter's high school.

Edward's Menagerie,

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 13:04:00 +0000

During the summer, I was invited to attend a book launch for the latest title to join Edward's Menagerie...

Birds by Kerry Lord

The launch took place at the Toft Alpaca Farm near Rugby, which is well worth a visit for the wool shop, cafe and a tour of the Alpaca fields.

During the day I was there, Kerry herself gave a number of workshops taking us through the process of making one of the birds from start to finish including stuffing, sewing up, joining limbs and also adding the eyes.

There were other members of staff on hand to instruct crochet for those who were either a beginner or (like me!) had not done any crochet for a very long time. Everyone there was lovely and very welcoming.

Also included, was a tour of the farm and the chance to meet the Alpacas up close.

They are adorable!

While I was there, I bought some Alpaca fleece to do some wet felting with.

As far as the book itself is concerned, the first Edward's Menagerie book was hugely popular so following that with birds is a natural step. The birds are cute, comical, colourful and bursting with character. Design wise, they all follow a similar pattern, as in body, legs, head, and wings, the idea being once you have made one, it becomes easier and easier to make more. The crochet side is well explained and the patterns are graded for difficulty so anyone from beginner to advanced will find a project to suit them. You can easily alter the scale of your bird by using thicker wool and a larger hook too.

There are over 40 patterns in the book, making it good value for money, and unlike sewing books where the pattern may need to be traced from the book, these instructions are all in written form, so it is only a matter of preference over print copy or digital. Although, for me, I prefer to buy in print. In our house, music and movies are all pretty much digital nowadays, but for books, nothing beats an actual book!.

Back...

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 13:50:00 +0000

Wow, it's been almost a year since I last blogged. It wasn't intentional to take such a lengthy break, it just kind of happened that way. I have been posting on my Facebook page, occasionally in the meantime, but not with any regularity. I also love using Instagram, although my posts tend to be mainly of our cats!

There has been crafty stuff going on, a bit of teaching and writing to be precise. I have spent some time doing workshops with Primary School kids at my sons school, and out of all the projects I did with them, the wet felting has to have been the most successful. They had great fun doing it, its messy but its just warm water and soap messy, and we always seemed to gather a bit of an audience of the other kids wanting to know what we were doing.

We made balls, basically the easiest thing to do if you wanted to give it a try. The fibers I used were given to me by Coats Crafts UK (I used to work for them!), and is called Filz-it.

The kids did really well considering none of them had done it before. Wet felting to make balls can be tricky as it requires lots of patience, if you rush the process, the ball won't be matted enough to stay as a ball and will break open as it dries.

Lots more to blog about soon, including a book and Alpacas (all will be revealed!) and a small sewing tutorial.

Rocking Robins,

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 20:03:00 +0000

If you fancy a little sewing project in the run up to Christmas, there is a new magazine out from My Time Media, the team behind titles including Popular Patchwork. Its called "Make your own Gifts & Toys".

I have a pattern in there to make a matching pair of Robins,

there is a little Mama bird,

and also a baby one too, both with the cutest wire legs!

The magazine is out in the shops now or you can buy a copy online from My Hobby Store, just follow this link.

Garden projects,

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 14:36:00 +0000

Hello! Long time between posts again, I have been making and doing I promise, but just not been blogging about it. To remedy this, here's a snippet from what I got up to during the summer. We have a large back garden, but when we moved in, it was very overgrown and full of weeds. Its been a gradual job but it has slowly been tackled and out of the previous wilderness, is sprouting a haven with decking, gravel and raised railway sleeper flower beds.

In one corner, I had the idea (possibly courtesy of Pinterest) of making the gravel area into a boules pitch. This has been a huge hit with adults and children alike, and as the area is 'L' shaped, there was a little space for something else...

Making use of a chunk of tree trunk, which I know will rot but can easily be replaced when it does, and some pebbles, a little game of tic, tac, toe (or noughts and crosses) insect style. This has also been a hit (ps, I used acrylic paint on the pebbles, which had a coat of clear yacht varnish over the top, and the black is blackboard paint, as it was the only black I had in the house!)

My next garden project is going to be these...

Another Pinterst find, made from painted bricks believe it or not. Am undecided as to what paint would be best though, any ideas?

Wire,

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 11:29:00 +0000

I have been playing with wire this week, something I've wanted to have a go at for a while but never got round to, wire for birds legs.

Love the way they look, but oh my goodness, harder to make than they should be! Plus then you've got to get it to stand up without toppling over.

Cute though!

Offcuts!

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 21:04:00 +0000

I have been eyeing up leather offcuts on Ebay for a while, attempting to make an educated guess as to which would be the colours I was after (as in browns, grey, off white), and given I only need small pieces, took the plunge earlier this week...

...and here they are. This bag is 100g in weight and was only cheap, less than £3, and the colours are just about perfect. Now to see if the idea I have for them works!

Sewing Bee...

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 22:51:00 +0000

The Great British Sewing Bee has been a fantastic vehicle to encourage home sewers to pick up their needles and thread, and with Series 2 in full swing and Series 3 already recruiting, it was decided to give a sewing themed fundraising day a try at my son's primary school.

I am a member of the 'PTA', albeit on the periphery as I am often unable to volunteer due to logistical issues and other commitments, but I do stick my hand up if and when I can. When the Sewing Bee idea was floated, we did initially want to go down the Softie route and make something from the book, but in the end it made sense to go with a simpler project, as when working with little ones, you really can end up spending the whole time just threading needles. After a bit of googling, the often used idea of a finger puppet and an easter egg fitted the bill nicely, so I quickly knocked up my own version.

The idea is to have different projects for different skill levels,

the chick being the easiest as we can just glue the eyes and beak on,

followed by the rabbit,

and then the easter egg for the parents to make which opens up at the back to house a bit of chocolate.

It's hard to gauge how well attended these things will be. The last time I taught in school, I had a class of 31 year 9's, but they didn't have a choice, a captive audience! We made ladybirds, from the pattern I put together for Whip Up,

they finished them off the week after I was in but my daughter was allowed to take some photographs for me of some of the ladybirds. They all did really well.

I will report back on the Sewing Bee, fingers crossed it is a Sewing Bee and not a Sewing Zzzzzzzz!

Interview with Sewing Bee's Stuart Hillard,

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 22:02:00 +0000

Over the summer at the Festival of Quilts, I arrived at the Popular Patchwork stand and was lucky enough to meet Stuart Hillard for the first time and since then it had been on the back of my mind to ask to interview him. A few months ago we managed to squeeze in a chat over the phone which I'm delighted to be able to share...

ME : Hi Stuart, and thank you so much for talking to me! My questions are all Sewing Bee related, so here goes, where did you see the advert for the Sewing Bee, and what was the application process.

STUART : Well, I didn't actually see an advert as such, a friend mentioned it, which led me to go searching for more information. The application process was lengthy, starting with a form to fill in, then a telephone interview, followed by a telephone technical test (for example, what is a french seam?). Next, it involved a trip to London where we had to show samples of items we had made, then there was a screen test, and a live sewing test, along the lines of the technical challenge segment on the show, and finally a psychometric test.

ME : Wow, that is lengthy! So, what is the set up when each episode was filmed?, is it a similar set up to the Bake Off where filming seems to take place at the weekends with a week off in between?

STUART : We're not allowed to give too much away about the filming set up, but what I can say is it is very intense. There were few breaks between episodes and during each of the sewing tasks, when they say we had 3 hours, it really was just 3 hours, there's no pause in filming while a shot is set up.

ME : On the first show, the feedback about your dress was that the fabric print should have been pattern matched throughout, and May stated that there should be whole shapes running down the back seem. Watching at home, the first thing that went through my mind was, ok she's made it sound like that's a really easy thing to do, but in reality, how simple would pattern matching actually have been?

STUART : Ah, yes! To tackle the pattern matching, you would place each pattern piece individually on the fabric and choose key points in the print to get a match. I could see on the day that was specifically mentioned as the whole point of the show was to test our sewing skills, but historically, fabric prints used in dressmaking don't often match!

ME : You seemed to get on really well with presenter, Claudia Winkleman...

STUART : Yes, most definitely!, I absolutely love her personality, presenting style and her sense of humour.

ME : And lastly, do you have any advice for the series two contestants?

STUART : Well, they are already filming and not far of finishing series 2. Advice I would give is allow your personality to shine through with what you make. You can buy clothes so cheaply these days, no-one needs to make there own, so if you are going to sew, it should reflect you as a person.

Choose patterned fabrics when the fit isn't an issue, and go for plains if the fit is important, but most importantly, have fun! The Sewing Bee was intense pressure but also a joy to take part in.

A big thank you to the lovely Stuart for taking time out of his busy schedule to chat, roll on series two of the Sewing Bee, can't wait!

It's a little dusty here!

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 14:32:00 +0000

You know how it is, the longer you leave writing a blog post, the harder it becomes to have anything to say. Do people even blog anymore? For a while I shifted my focus over to Facebook, probably not the best decision long term as I do think Facebook is squeezing business fan pages into pouring cash into promotion, but the focus changed while I was web editing for Homemade with Love magazine.

Sadly, the magazine is no more. I knew when I first got involved the shelf life may well be short, but it was great fun while it lasted. The people I crossed over with were hugely knowledgeable and helpful when it came to tackling my little part of publication. The market for crafts magazines in the UK is currently very competitive, there are some very strong titles out there on the shelves with good quality content. Working with Homemade was a really interesting insight into the publishing side of crafting, I learned things I did not know about putting together a magazine and also added to my writing and research skills in a way which will be useful as my own business of Lucykate Crafts grows.

Now the magazine has ceased, the website and blog which I had worked on have both been taken down. One of the highlights was (I think!), my interview with Stuart Hillard from the first series of the Great British Sewing Bee, which I conducted from home via telephone. We had a fun chat for about 20 minutes or so, and to prevent this from disappearing into the ether, I have saved the interview and will repost it here on my own blog.

Just before christmas, the Fox from the front cover of my book came home. Moving forward, after quite a turbulent few months at home, it is time to focus on Lucykate Crafts again. Decisions need making, name change?, blog redesign?, I'm not sure yet, but one thing I am sure about is getting these PDF pattern finished and released!

Hello...

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 10:24:00 +0000

Well, that was a longer break than was intended, I haven't blogged since July. I will be back in the new year with lots of new things and finally get those PDF patterns I've been working on published. In the meantime, there have been big goings on in this household, one of which is the portrait my husband has been working on, which has been finally unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery this week. We have had to keep this news quiet for sooooo long, it's nice to see it on the wall. You may (or may not!) recognise who it is of...

Merry Christmas!

End of term,

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 23:35:00 +0000

I always find myself conflicted at this time of year when it comes to the phenomena of gifts for teachers. Gone are the days when an apple would suffice, and while I am very grateful for the work teachers do educating our offspring, the part I prefer to avoid is the competitive gift giving that can go on.

My son has arrived on the last day of term with a perfectly respectable bunch of flowers only to see another child walking in with what looked like the whole of the Chelsea Flower Show. I don't always make gifts but this year I did, which were small and discreet.

After deciding to stick with Owls, I took the pattern I had been using for brooches and reduced it further and made 3 of these...

They came out quite well and I took the opportunity to time how long they took to make (roughly 1hour for each, that was 3 done in a morning, so 6 a day maybe, thinking in Etsy terms here). I can see the beginnings of a production line forming!

Issue 4,

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 22:57:00 +0000

I am aware I've slipped on the blogging front lately, by way of a reprieve, check out the cover of Issue 4 of Homemade with Love!

It's out in the shops from July 12th, and available online here.

have you heard the news?

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 19:01:00 +0000

It's been busy lately, to a point where I almost forgot about my own blog! In a nutshell, I am the new Web Editor for a UK published sewing magazine called 'Homemade with Love'. I'm excited by the role for a number of reasons,

A lot has been happening over the last few years within the area of craft and sewing magazines in this country after a bit of a drought. When I first arrived on the design scene, it was (oh, how I dislike admitting to this date), 1994! I had finished my degree in 1992 and spent a bit of time plugging the gaps in my knowledge and experience by attending a computing course. By 1994, I had an interview for a design job with Coats Crafts UK, so wanted to do a bit of research to prepare, and I bought this...

'Inspirations' magazine, circa February 1994.

Back then there weren't that many sewing mags around to choose from, but I do remember that Inspirations became a particular favorite of mine, due to a number of house moves and the growth of the internet since '94, this is the only issue I kept. It even came with a cover kit, embroidered buttons.

The reason I kept hold of this one, is it featured an interview with a lady called Jacqueline Farrell. A machine embroiderer who has since then written a few books and coincidentally worked in the Glasgow branch of Coats, the company I was just about to have an interview with, before they relocated to Darlington.

I cannot remember how I got hold of her number, but if memory serves, I actually rang Jacqueline and had a chat about the craft kit world and any tips she could offer to someone just starting out. Coats were very impressed during my interview with the research I had done, and yes, I did get the job!

While I worked at Coats, the design studio regularly bought in sewing magazines, the internet was still very much in its infancy so any design ideas came from more traditional channels, the main two I remember being Crafts Beautiful and Marie Clare Idees. Then, suddenly everything went very paper crafts orientated, and sewing projects in the crafts magazines were few and far between. I'm very glad that sewing is once again hugely featured, with so many high quality publications available, including, of course, Homemade with Love.

And to prove how old my copy of Inspiration magazine is, look at the feature they did on the Spitting Image puppet making workshop!

Pin it Forward UK

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Thu, 23 May 2013 08:00:00 +0000

My post today is all about Pinterest. If you haven't already discovered Pinterest, why not?!! Pinterest has been around since about 2010, and although it is accessible worldwide, the reason behind this push for the UK is there are some developments (new language and location settings) which will just make it more user friendly for the UK audience. There are 300 bloggers taking part, and a big thank you to Antonia of Tidy Away Today for introducing my Pinterest post today.

Before Pinterest began, for a long while I had been after a kind of online pinboard for images. I'd tried using Flick 'favorites', but that wasn't quite right, tried using Tumblr, but that wasn't quite right either. I've always been in the habit of collecting images for inspiration. When I worked as a designer for Coats Crafts UK, they had literally only just got the first computers in the design studio. This was also before Google was created, so all our research was done the old fashioned way via magazines, books, wrapping papers, greetings cards etc. I had folders full of ideas I collected and referred to constantly. Pinterest was exactly what I had been looking for all these years. And now, the first thing I do after taking the kids to school is check my Pinterest feed.

I have lots of boards, some I refer to daily, like style (so I at least look slightly human on the school run) and garden ideas (given we've been revamping our back garden at home). But my all time favorite, is soft sculpture,

this one is my go-to place when I'm sewing, this is where all my favorite things live!

If you'd like to follow me, I am here, or if you're not already pinning, follow the registration link.

To continue on the Pin it Forward UK journey, please visit Rosie at DIYcouture who is showcasing this intriguing board 'we shall not cease from exploration', you can read up on the background behind this board here.

Happy Pinning!

tricks of the trade #2...

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:20:00 +0000

Following on from my previous post around this subject, this time I'm going to show you what I do with my ends of embroidery thread while I'm sewing a Softie.

When I'm sewing, I often have a few different colours on the go, which rather then tying off, I'll thread through to the back in case I need that colour again.

But obviously, these thread are not going to be where I want them to be, when I come to use them again. So how do I get from one place to another? I simply use the needle to literally, snake the thread around the inside of the Softie.

Begin by waggling the thread to make the hole in the fabric slightly larger, then pull the thread hard in one direction to create a gap right next to it, feed the needle carefully though this same hole.

Take the needle back out where you want it next to go, and gently pull on the thread.

Once the thread is pulled through completely the hole kind of magically disappears, it has now moved to the new position ready to continue the applique or repeat this process to move it further.

A simple process, but this is something I get asked a lot, so I hope that explains how I go about it when I'm sewing.

Something else I must mention is, hop on over to Cut Out & Keep which is a FAB resource for project tutorials, I am a Crafty Superstar this week, yay! There is an interview and a project a day too.

from Pinterest to the garden...

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Tue, 07 May 2013 22:14:00 +0000

I am taking part in a scheme called 'Pin-it-Forward' later this month to celebrate the official UK launch of Pinterest, (yes, I know here in the UK we can already use Pinterest, all will be explained in my official post on the 23rd), and as I was deciding which of my boards I was going to post about, realised I have over 1,600 images pinned. It would be an interesting exercise to see how many of those images I actually refer to and made use of.

Only a few weeks ago, I came across this on Pinterest, someone I follow had pinned it so it featured in my feed, I followed the link to it's original source (which is where you can read up on how they were made), and decided to have a go myself.

Mine are a bit smaller than the originals (although I love the idea of making a really big one with a wok!), I used enamel camping bowls at £1.50 each, red spray paint was £3.50, white enamel paint was £1.50 and the tree branches came from the garden. I sprayed the bowls red (they were blue), and the kids did the white spots for me.

(the bunting and the bamboo wind chime both came from Ebay)

Al thinks they look a bit daft, but he's out voted as both me and the kids think they're rather cute!

Stitch Zakka,

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Sun, 05 May 2013 21:21:00 +0000

I am in a new book which is coming out soon,

trying not to give too much away, the projects involve a bit of this,

and a little bit if that.

The book is out in June.

tricks of the trade #1...

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Thu, 02 May 2013 18:15:00 +0000

A while ago I made two short films which are uploaded to You Tube, one of those films, the free motion embroidery one has had over 160,000 views. I keep meaning to make another, this time showing how I stuff a softie. The reasoning for this is that I am quite brutal when it comes to getting that stuffing in, there's lots of banging and bashing it on a table top involved to shape it, and poking with a stick, which is what brings me to the point of this post, tricks of the trade #1...

STICKS

I find that all artists and designers always have certain tools they love, and I do love my stuffer sticks. Except this one is not really a stuffer stick, it's a chop stick!

Now, you can buy proper bona fide stuffer sticks,

(my Harry Potter wand)

and I do have one, except mine wasn't bought, I pinched it.

When I worked for Coats Crafts UK (I can tell this story now as I haven't worked there for a good few years now!), one thing that did bug me was their reluctance to try anything new. Ideas would be put forward at the product development meetings only to be met with a negative reaction, that was until one of our competitors came out with something similar. Imagine the scene : an idea that had been pitched for a while : Rag Doll kits, 'Oh no, couldn't possibly do that, too complicated/expensive'. That was until a company called the Little Experience came out with a range, then the reaction was 'We should be doing these, why aren't we doing these?'. Err, well we could have been doing them if you'd listened to your design team!

The story rolls on, as happens in most in-house design studios, we then have to go and purchase one of the competitor products for manufacturing analysis. Inside said kit, was exhibit A, the stuffer stick, which eventually fell into my bag and made it's way home. While this particular stuffer stick is very nice, has been extremely useful over the years, and also doubles as a wand occasionally, I do tend to revert back to my trusty old chop stick (which was also 'acquired', this time from a chinese restaurant), and this is why...

Stuffer sticks are used to get the stuffing into all the little nooks and crannies of a softie. I use the end to push small chunks of stuffing in one at a time. The chop stick is thinner than the stuffer stick, but despite that, it seems to retain it's strength, which is good as even when I'm being really rough with it, it doesn't feel like it's going to break.

I also find the little square end it has very useful. Quite often when I'm stuffing softies, I'll get issues like the one above, a stubborn crease which will just not go. The most effective way to rectify this,

is to take a small piece of stuffing,

and gently push it into place, over the existing stuffing, to fill out the crease with the square end. The chop stick works better for me in this instance, as the pointed end of the stuffer stick is too fine and pokes straight through the stuffing I'm trying to get in, and the flat end is too wide as it tends to move not only the extra stuffing, but also what is already inside, which is exactly what I don't want it to do having already spent time shaping it.

So, that's it, a post all about sticks! Just to finish off, here's oops of the week...

I made two right ears, ...oops!

sewing bee...

noreply@blogger.com (Lucykate Crafts...) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 20:16:00 +0000

Here in the UK, everyone in the crafting world is currently going Great British Sewing Bee crazy (for what it's worth, I am Team Lauren), although I suspect the rather easy on the eye ~~Patrick~~ Judge may have a little something to do with it's popularity!

Anyway, in celebration of all the sewing machines which will no doubt now be being purchased, here is my contribution to get people sewing. In the Sewing Bee, they are making clothes. In my humble opinion, sewing clothes can be quite complicated, so if you are new to the craft, here's a simple little project to try which encompasses a handful of techniques, a sewing bee softie...

You will need :

selection of fabric : black & yellow (I used fabrics with sewing related prints!)

selection of craft felt

toy stuffing

2 small buttons or beads

sewing thread

embroidery thread (I used Pearl Cotton 8)

paper, pencil & scissors

pins & a needle

Step 1 : First create 2 squares of fabric, (8x8cm) by patch-working together 3 strips for each.

Step 2 : Draft yourself a pattern for the Bees body by drawing an oval shape onto the paper that is roughly 6.5cm tall and 5cm across. Cut out and pin the template to the first of the fabric squares and trim to size. Repeat for the other piece.

Step 3 : Pin the 2 fabric ovals, right sides together, sew round the edge to join (either by hand using backstitch or on a sewing machine), leaving a small gap for turning it back right side round.

Step 4 : Through the gap, stuff the bee, tuck in the fabric edges and then stitch the gap closed.

Step 5 : Switch to the embroidery thread and add eyes by attaching 2 small circles of craft felt with a tiny button or bead in the center.

Step 6 : Make yourself another template, this time a wing shape (mine is kind of like a flower petal) and cut 2 from the craft felt. Stitch into position with the embroidery thread.

Step 7 : To finish off, after the wings are attached, take the needle up through the middle of the bee and tie a loop in this thread so you can hang your bee up.

And that's it, all done. A quick bit of sewing and you've practiced pattern drafting, patchwork, sewing, applique and embroidery! You could make lots and create a mobile, and even nip over to Whip Up for the Ladybird project I posted there, both insects are about the same size so will work great as a pair.