From coaster to coaster...

It can sometimes be difficult to find things to do with crafts around the home and fitting them in with the stuff you already have.

 I certainly have this problem frequently as the crafts I try don't necessary have a purpose - they are just done because I can!

 My husband found this when starting his cross stitch work especially when doing little quick ones of an evening and we ended up with little squares of cross stitch.

 I found on my travels that you can buy little acrylic blank coasters that fitted the little cross stitches perfectly. We now have a completely unique set of coasters all made by my husband.

 I wish that I could cross stitch so that I could make a set for friends - what a unique gift they would be!

Pull yourself together...

Most people when they go through the 'nesting' stage of pregnancy start cleaning out cupboards, painting skirting boards or just generally blitz their homes.
I made curtains.

 In the weeks leading up to my daughters birth I set about making two lots of curtains - one set for my baby-to-be and the second for our dining room. (I am going to add that our dining room leads to a conservatory so doesn't really need curtains... But as my husband learnt - never argue with a pregnant woman!) As these were replacing existing curtains which were already up when we moved in three years ago I used them as a pattern for the new ones. I pinned the material to the existing curtains to get the length and hung them up to make sure I was hanging it straight. The same was then done with the lining which was blackout material for the baby's room and just a cheap cotton lining for the dining room. In the baby's room the blackout material was quite easy to work with (although I needed to adjust the setting on my sewing machine so that the extra thickness didn't jam it).

 For the hanging loops I unpicked one of the existing ones to check for size. I cut out the desired amount (remembering a seam allowance), pressed and then sewed. The loops were attached to the top of the curtains between the main fabric and the blackout material to make it look a bit neater.

 In the dining room it was not quite as straightforward. The material that I had bought was not quite long enough for the proposed windows so I decided to lengthen them with a strip of black material attached to the bottom and use the same black material to make the curtain loops. The bottom piece was measured umpteen times as I wanted it to be straight and to look good. It was a tense moment after sewing everything on and hang inning the curtains for a final time ... But ultimately it was a success. As I had some of the main fabric left so made a couple of curtain ties using an existing one as a template and used bias binding to tidy up the edges plus a curtain ring as the finishing touch.

 Thankfully the curtains were finished in plenty of time for my daughters arrival - I doubt I would have had the patience after she had been born!