Christmas crafting - Pompom garlands

This week I finished my second pompom garland, and I worked out that I had made 108 pompoms to make two garlands and two strings of bunting! Not bad going with my littlest pompom maker.

I worked out in my first garland that a nice length was 42 pompoms in 14 sets of green, white and red separated by a golden bell. Once I had made all of my pompoms I assembled all of my materials and set to work.

I tied a bell to the start of the string and then trimmed the tail to make sure that it didn't show through the pompom. I found that the easiest way to thread the pompoms is to use a bodkin with a rounded end. A pointed needle may go through the wool easier but it risks snagging too many of the strange and pulling them out, so I find this method easiest.

To make sure that the pompoms were securely attached to the string, I separated the strands until I found the central string that tied everything together, and this enabled me to thread the bodkin right through the centre and out the other side.

Once I had threaded three, I removed the wool from the bodkin, twirled the wool into a thin point and then added a bell. Unfortunately the holes in the bells aren't large enough to use the bodkin so you do have to take it on and off quite a few times, but it's worth it in the end.

Once all the pompoms are on and I tied the last bell onto the end, I carefully trimmed each pompom into a neat sphere, being very careful that I didn't snip through the central string! I always make sure that I do this directly over a bin as there is so much fluff and it really does get everywhere!

And here is one of my finished garlands. Although Christmas is over it never hurts to start preparing for the next one, and I will look forward to our next craft fair when hopefully somebody would like to take a garland home with them to add to their tree to give it a crafty and homely feel.

Christmas crafting - Felt decorations

For a while I have wanted to try to make my own felt decorations. I love the look of blanket stitch and the decorative edge that it creates, so I started off with a simple hanging heart in various colours and designs. 

I started by re drawing my templates onto cereal box card to make them sturdier, and then drew around them onto sheets of felt.

I layered four red and white hearts on top of each other to make my first design...

...then started to stitch them together using contrasting embroidery thread.

It's fairly easy to stitch small shapes together without using any pins...

...but as the shapes got larger I started to need pins to stop the felt slipping whilst I was sewing.

This is the finished front piece of my first prototype.

I measured out a length of ribbon and made sure that the back piece was the same shape as the front by trimming any stray edges.

I then sewed the ribbon to the back heart making sure that the knot for the stitch was on the inside so it was hidden.

Once the hearts were trimmed I then started to sew around the edge in a contrasting white embroidery thread.

Once I had sewed two thirds of the way around the heart, I left a gap to allow me to stuff it.

I used quilt wadding to stuff my hearts. I was going to use teddy bear stuffing but after finding sheet wadding, I shredded it into manageable chunks and used it to stuff my felt shapes.

Once I was happy with the amount of stuffing I sewed up the gap and casted off my thread at the point where I started. I was fairly pleased with my first prototype, so I kept going to see what else I could create.

I tried different combinations or red and white...

...and also added other piece of decoration such as heart shaped wooden buttons and jingle bells!

Whilst rummaging in my craft store I also found some little felt christmas trees that worked perfectly with my designs! I experimented with using just a single tree...

...and using multiple trees to make a pattern.

I was so pleased with my collection of felt hearts, and I'm looking forward to experimenting more with colours, shapes and designs to see what else I can create!

Christmas crafting - Festive bunting

Over my christmas break I was able to spend a fantastic few days cocooned in my craft room starting and finishing off some projects that I had started and some that I had wanted to start.

My first project was my nautical bunting made from the same fabric as the jumpsuit that my mum made me for my birthday. She gave me the remnants from the outfit and I cut out as many flags as I could, making sure that all of the boats were the right way up.

I had a lovely prezzie of a little snail pincushion to keep me company while I was crafting, and he has been a great help with keeping my needles tidy and out of my various sleeves and collars.

After sewing the nautical fabric to their calico backs I trimmed each flag to make it easier to turn out. 

Once turned out I pressed each flag from the back and carefully teased out the points to try and make them as sharp as possible.

I chose an orange bias binding to coordinate with the orange in some of the boats in the print. After pressing it in half and neatening each end, I then pinned the flags along it and made sure that the flags were equal distances apart. To make projects easier to make and cost in the future, I made a spreadsheet of measurements and costs for each size of bunting flag which will save me lots of time when working on new designs.

The finished nautical bunting is 5 metres long and would make lovely decoration for a beach hut or a summer garden party. 

My next bunting strings were three more christmas pieces. I thought it was a good idea to get a head start on next year! I wasn't very keen on the christmas fabric that I found in the bottom of my fabric stash. It's very traditional and wasn't particularly to my taste, but I decided to give it a try. Once I had cut the fabric into the flags the pattern was less overwhelming and I started to think that it would work.

For the smaller flags I decided to attach bells to the points to add a christmassy sound as well as appearance.

For the medium sized flags I sewed either a red, white or green pompom to the base of each flag, which proved a little tricker than then bells! I had to find the centre securing thread and make sure to stitch underneath this to make sure they were attached. However when it was done I was really pleased with how the looked, and I thought they gave a traditional fabric a cute and crafty edge.

After pressing, measuring and pinning, I sewed the flags to red bias binding...

...making one 14 flag string with bells and two 12 flag strings with pompoms.

The finished bunting with gold jingling bells.

One of the pompom strings of bunting. 

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A Weekend of Baking...Lemon limoncello birthday cake

This last weekend I was working on a birthday cake for my Nan, and she had asked for a zingy lemon cake with a lovely fresh taste. I decided to try a different recipe and picked a peggy Porschen recipe from her Boutique Baking book. I liked the sound of this one as it included a limoncello and lemon syrup that is used to soak the sponges after baking. It gives them a delicious moist and extra lemony zing along with the lemon zest, and the subtle hint of alcohol never goes down badly!

I started as always by making the flowers, and made a mixture of sizes of daisies to decorate the cake with. I tried to use a shallow metal bun tin to set my flowers, but despite dusting the wells with cornflour, the shapes still stuck. I prised them out carefully with a knife and I was lucky that they kept their shape as they were removed earlier than I would have liked.

I wanted to make a marbled cake board, but unfortunately the mixture of yellow and white was a little too faint to be seen properly. I have seen some very effective cakes use marbled sugar paste, and I will look forward to experimenting with this finish in the future with a darker colour to make the pattern stand out. As I wanted to add some gold touches I edged the board with some gold ribbon to make it stand out.

Once the individual flowers had dried I layered them and added a sugar pearl to the centre of each one with smaller ones for the individual smaller daisies.

I then sprayed half of all the flowers gold to make them stand out and to provided a colour contrast against the pale yellow cake.

Once the three layers of cake were baked, soaked in the syrup and cooled, I layered and filled them with lemon buttercream. I did a thin first crumb coat layer, and then chilled it before applying the second thicker layer. This made it easier to get a nice crisp and clean finish and it was very addictive trying to get the smoothest finish possible with a side scraper.

I then added the cake topper (which I really should have measured first as it was a little tight to the edges!)...

...and then started to add the flowers in random arrangements and spaces to create a natural look.

The taste was lovely and fresh and light, and the use of the food processor to make the sponge again wins in the texture and taste category. I found that there was a little too much syrup for the three sponges, but it did go towards making delicious cocktails for the evening!