Crafty Friday – Make a bunting cushion!
Posted: February 10, 2012 Filed under: Crafting | Tags: Craft, Sewing, Women's Institute 9 Comments »I am not remotely crafty. In fact I can barely sew on a button. Since I’m a member of the Women’s Institute and a fan of crafty blogs like A Beautiful Mess, it feels like I need to do better! I love the look of homemade quilts and even clothes, but I know I don’t have the skills. So one of my goals for this year is to complete a few crafty projects here and there which I’ll share on my blog.
The first thing that I tackled was something simple. Most of the cushions in our lounge are cute and patterned but I have two completely plain ones that are made of a thick cream fabric. They were both from Primark and cost about £2 each so a perfect blank canvas for customisation!
Taking a look at the little bits of fabric that I had, I decided to go with a red white and blue theme (how patriotic!). As you can see, I am a big fan of gingham! You can get great value squares of fabric for projects like this from eBay.
First, I washed and ironed my cushion cover (you wouldn’t need to do this if it was new). Then I cut out a template piece of bunting. I used pencil to draw a triangle that looked roughly right and then used it as the template to cut around it for my other fabric. They won’t all look exactly the same, and thats a good thing – it will make your bunting look homemade and cute!
Next, check the spacing and position of your bunting triangles on your fabric. Once you’re happy with the arrangement, put all the triangles except the first one in a safe place (where they won’t go out of order!) and get to work! I did a string of bunting across the top of the cushion but it would also look great in lots of other arrangements - take a look here for some great ideas!
Start sewing on your first bunting triangle. I used running stitch (I think) to sew on most of the triangles. I worked out as I went along that the best way to do it is to sew up and down the triangles in a VVVVVVV formation, and then sew along the whole top of the triangles in a line.
What do you think?
I have another of these white cushion covers and I’m going to sew a large red gingham heart on the second one, plus a K + L and maybe some smaller floral hearts. I’m thinking making my own (real life) bunting could also be a good project to try!
Are you crafty? What kind of things have you made?
Like this:
City WI Fete THIS Saturday!
Posted: June 30, 2011 Filed under: Baking, Homemade | Tags: baking, fete, food, Nottingham, summer, tea party, Women's Institute 2 Comments »Things are getting pretty exciting in the build up to Saturday!
- City WI was featured on BBC radio Nottingham!
- And took part in a tea dance to launch the Notts Food and drink festival!
You can read all about that stuff here!
My lounge is currently chock a block full of tombola prizes. Can I just take a moment to encourage, nay insist, you to come to the fete based on the quality of our prizes! We have yummy biscuits chocolates, wines, and LOADS of amazing skin and makeup products donated by Boots! Lots of lovely Soap and Glory, No7, FCUK and more great products! There is nary a bad prize to be won, I promise!!
If thats not enough to tempt you, please remember that I will be making these brownies and these cookies (with added OREOs!!!)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
June City WI meeting – newcomers welcome!
Posted: June 7, 2011 Filed under: Crafting, Reviews | Tags: City WI, Nottingham City Women's Institute, the WI, Women's Institute 2 Comments »After having talked about the benefits (as I see them) of being part of the Women’s Institute at the young/old age of almost 27, I thought I’d briefly mention that our next meeting is tomorrow (Wednesday) night and that its the perfect opportunity for new people to come along and get involved.
Our members will be bringing along their knitting/crochet or other sewing and we’ll all be having a nice cup of tea and a biscuit while we chat (and knit!).
Of course, the sewing is not mandatory – you can not take part at all and just have a chat! They’ll also be a magazine swap and a raffle so there’s plenty to occupy non-crafters too!
We hope to see you there!
7.30 – 9.30pm
Membership for 2011: £30
First meeting: FREE to new visitors
Refreshments: 50p per evening
Raffle: £1 a ticket
How I became a 24 year old member of the Women’s Institute (and why you should too)
Posted: May 27, 2011 Filed under: Crafting, Random | Tags: City WI, Nottingham City Women's Institute, WI president, Women's Institute 1 Comment »Probably the easiest people for me to surprise new people when I meet them is for me to tell them that I’m the President of the Nottingham city branch of the Women’s Institute. They’re all like “What, but you’re not a granny!” (paraphrasing)(Also theoretically I could have been a granny by now, but I would have had to have a kid at 13 and then they do the same…. I’m going off on a tangent!).
People don’t generally expect anyone young to be involved with an organisation like the WI that has such a stereotypical image. Although the image can be staid, the actual Women’s Institute is full of massive variety between different groups, spanning the continiuum between ultra traditional and modern. Our WI doesn’t sing Jerusalem or produce great quantities of homemade jam, but there are plenty that do.
In general, whoever you are, there’s probably a WI that will be a great fit for you – its just a question of trying a few and going with whichever ones the best fit. Another great thing is that you can be as involved or not involved as you like – we have members who just turn up at every meeting, and then we also have people who volunteer to get involved in the organisation of our WI.
Here’s what I personally get out of being a member of the Women’s Institute -
- I like crafty things. Especially baking. I’m currently pretty hopeless and kitting and sewing and hoping crochet might be more my style!
- I like learning new things. See above!
- I wanted the opportunity to meet new people and create a wider social network of women – of different ages and backgrounds. This has been the best thing about the WI for me since I joined. I was able to recruit a few of my existing friends to joining and have also made lots of new friends through the WI. Having the structure of once monthly WI meetings and committee meetings is great as it ensures that I meet up with those friends regularly, which can be hard in the course of everyday life.
If you’d like to come along to the next City WI meeting on June 8th, at the Community Centre on Mansfield Road (NG1 3FN) at 7.30pm. We’ll be having our annual Knit and Natter/Stick and Bitch! meeting so feel free to bring along any knitting, sewing, crocheting or even just a magazine that you’ve been meaning to finish. We finish about 9.30pm.
Me (second left) and other committee members at our October Fete
Nottingham City Women’s Institute April meeting
Posted: April 14, 2011 Filed under: Crafting | Tags: City WI, Nottingham WI, Women's Institute 3 Comments »Or, what I did last night!
Since it started officially in Feb 2010, Nottinghamshire’s newest Women’s Institute has gone from strength to strength and I have the best time at the meetings. I am the president, which means I have to do a bit of standing up and talking and a bit of organising for the meetings, but our WI is run in quite an informal, loose fashion which leaves plenty of time for good old fashioned chatting and socialising in our meetings.
Last night we had a talk by Hannah Wroe who is a lovely lovely local lady who is very highly trained in pattern cutting and bespoke fashion design. Check out her website at Hannah and Bella. It was incredible to see Hannah’s passion for vintage clothes making and design and also to learn about the level of skill that was commonplace in previous generations that is being preserved by so few people nowadays.
If you’re interested in coming to our next meeting, its on Wednesday May 11th at the community centre on Mansfield Road, Nottingham at 7.30pm. Great if you’re looking to meet people and make new friends!
