fabulous fair finds!

I have been quite poorly since the littl'un was born, but finally managed a trip out at the recently and went on a little walk to the local church fair, which was fabulous. One of the stalls was selling handmade items, and I spied some familiar knitted floral brooches in beautiful colours (above). The vicar's grandchildren had knitted them from my own book 'Knitting for Children' and had made a fantastic job of it, choosing shades that went well together, making a very pretty presentation on the stall. One of the beautiful girls, Jolie, had made a fabulous ball of yarn from finger knitted tubes (below) she must be going for the world record! I wonder how many metres there are and how long it took her. It is a fabulous pastime to keep her busy while in front of the tv!

I also donated some of my toys for the benefit of the church, and bought the most beautiful dolls pram from the 1930s which I purchased for little Millie's first Christmas present. It is a bit well-worn, but I am looking forward to bringing it out in the spring to spruce up and maybe use to decorate the nursery until she is old enough to push her dolls and teddies in it.

Looking forward to many more Christmas fairs over the next few weeks!

fabric corsage tutorial

This pattern is very simple and yet very effective. You do not need to have any previous sewing experience as all the sewing happens at the back of the corsage and so is hidden away. It also takes no time at all to make -  it is unfussy, easy and quick.

Materials
A variety of fabric circles as wide in diameter as you want the corsage to be. The one I am working on here is 6cm in diameter. You will need at least 10 circles, but you can add as many as you need to make the corsage as full as you like.
Scissors or plinking shears, dependant on the edge you want to achieve
Sewing needle and thread
Safety pin or kilt pin, or hair slide, dependant on whether you want a brooch or hairclip

Step one
Cut out the circles, using a template to ensure each is the same size



Step two

Fold each circle in half and sew it to secure

Step three
Attach each folded semi circle together along the fold using simple tacking stitches and keep adding circles until the corsage is as full as you desire

Step four
Attach a safety pin, kilt pin, brooch back or hairclip to the back of corsage. 

Et voila!