Hey guys, just sneakily popping back in to put in a plug for a charity give away I’m doing over on my new blog: http://undercoverowl.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/a-sort-of-give-away/
Lots of yarn up for grabs, please check it out.
Cheers
Sarah
Ready, Steady, Sew June 20, 2011
I thought that I would share this photo that I just took of my sewing pile for Knit Nation.
It is only 25 days until Knit Nation.
This will be The Bothered Owl’s last event before Scott and I move back to Australia. We will have as many bags as I can manage to sew before July 15th.
See you there!
Alex
London in Stitches June 1, 2011
For Knit Nation 2011, we have teamed up with Joy of The Knitting Goddess and Anna of OneHandKnits for a very special collaboration.
You can find the details by clicking on the tab in the top right corner, or here
The London in Stitches set
The Create Place May 5, 2011
The Create Place is a fabulous new project being run in east London (Bethnal Green). It is a space that aims to bring crafters, artists, learners and shoppers together. They run workshops, offer space for people to drop in and learn skills, run craft-based parties and evening functions, and sell hand-crafted items.
When I saw The Create Place calling for crafters to sell in their pop-up shop for Mother’s Day, I knew I had to be involved. I popped along for a chat with Jill, the creative force behind The Create Place. There was a lovely vibe about the place – light, airy, and full of crafty knowledge just bursting to be shared.
As I am selling stuff in the shop, I will also work in the shop as part of the collective idea to keep the place running. I did my first shift there on Monday, and I had a lovely time. The shop was pretty quiet being a Bank Holiday, but I kept myself busy with chatting to another volunteer Andrea, and by wiring lots of Lego.
I’ll be heading back to the shop on May 22nd and 29th. If you’re in the area, swing by and say hello!
Alex 🙂
Wonderwool Wales 2011 April 18, 2011
The Bothered Owl attended Wonderwool Wales for the very first time this year. Held in Builth Wells, it was the third year that the show had run, and this year was the biggest yet.
The show took place at the Royal Welsh Showground,in a very large shed. We were amazingly lucky with the weather, and had glorious sunshine and blue skies.
Scott and I left for Wales a day early, so we could be tourists. We headed to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. It had been on my to see list for a while, and with our hire car, it was an easy detour.
We also checked out Beaumaris Castle, the Menai Strait, and Caernarfon Castle. Scott and I had a lovely time being tourists on our way to Wonderwool Wales. The calm before the storm!
Menai Strait
Caernarfon Castle
Beaumaris Castle
We arrived in Builth Wells after a long drive from Caernarfon in the late afternoon. We unloaded and began to set up.
We had a corner stall
Saturday was a super busy day. We had a lovely day chatting to customers, selling loads of fabric envelopes, bags and of course stitch markers, and enjoying the atmosphere.
Sunday was quieter. We rearranged the layout of the stall so we had the two tables in an L-shape. This seemed to work better. We both wandered around to see what else there was on offer. There was an amazing range of fibre, yarn, and notions on offer. From Manx Loaghtan sheep to Angora bunnies, there really was something for everyone !
Thank you to everyone who came to our stall to shop, to chat and to browse.
And now for some pictures:
Our fruity stitch markers
Yummy stitch markers on our table
Our fimo cake stitch markers
Angora Bunny
Manx Loaghtan sheepies
A new Owlet April 4, 2011
Just a quick entry to say that Sarah has had her baby.
A boy.
10 pounds 5 ounces and very long.
As yet unnamed.
But super cute!
Alex with Brutus
I arrived home from my visit to Australia yesterday. Sarah had speculated that Brutus would wait for me to arrive back in London before being born. And she was right. I’d been back in the country for just over 12 hours when Sarah rang at 3:45am to say that her waters had broken.
I’ll need to stock up on cuddles from this new little one (and Orlaith and Esme of course) before Scott and I head home to Brisbane.
=
🙂 Alex
Unravel March 3, 2011
The weekend of February 26th and 27th saw Scott and I heading to Surrey for the annual wool festival that is Unravel. This was the third year that it was held, and it was the biggest and best yet.
Saturday morning we were up before dawn to be on the first train out of our local station. We are lucky that we can fit everything we need for a two day show into two large suitcases.
We arrived at Farnham Maltings just after 8am to set up our stall. We were guided to the front door by knitted arrows, and other knitting decorations hanging in trees, off fence posts and decorating the lawn outside the building. Even the staff had knitted name badges. This motorcycle caught my eye and was just as you walked into the main entrance.
We had our stall set up on time and ready for the doors to open at 10am.
All set up & ready to go
The weekend was a busy one. Saturday was busier than Sunday.
The lovely thing about doing shows is meeting people who have bought things from you before, people you interact with on Twitter, and people who read your blog. And there are of course those who have never heard about you before.
And now that we’ve done a few of these shows, we have made friends with some of the other vendors too. It’s always good to catch up with them as well.
Martina from Yarn to Knit
Easyknits Stall
Not only do we catch up with people that we have previouslymet, but we also meet new people. In the hotel we were staying in on the Saturday night, while we were ordering a cab at breakfast, Michelle and Rob Green offered to give us a lift to Farnham Maltings. Talking to them over breakfast we found out that this was their first yarn show. We really appreciated the lift and they were really interesting to chat to as they do a lot more than just yarn.
Not only did they have a lovely stall but Michelle won best in show with this amazing crocheted tea cosy. The other items in the room were all lovely and made with such care and expertise. If you click on the photos you will get a larger image and will be able to appreciate the detail. The theme is Temptation – Eve is tempting Adam with a cup of tea!
At this show we unveiled a range of new stitch markers made of fimo which look like food – cake, fruit, cookies etc – and these were a big hit. Lots of people picked them up and gave us lots of compliments.
We also decided to have a tray with the crochet markers. This show we were organised enough to have these labelled, and this made a significant difference to the number of people looking at them. At our next show Wonderwool Wales we will have a similar tray or two well labelled and also another one for sock/lace markers which will have smaller rings for thinner needles.
Hope to see you at Wonderwool Wales.
Alex
Unravel Preview February 25, 2011
We’re off at dawn tomorrow to the fabulous Unravel event, at Farnham Maltings, Farnham, Surrey. It’s going to be a great weekend, and Scott and I are really looking forward to taking The Bothered Owl out of London again.
Here’s a preview of the pouches we’ll have on offer this weekend. I’m really excited about these, as this is the first show that I’ve done a lot of sewing for. So items that I’ve made, and am proud of, will be for sale!
As well as the lovely fabric items, there will of course be our stitch markers. The Lego markers, and we shall be introducing some new markers as well.
We’ll also be offering a show special on our wide needle envelopes. These normally sell for £13. We’re selling them this weekend for £8. Get ’em while you can! 🙂
Sock Pouches
Sock Pouches
Sock pouches
Large pouches
Large pouches
Large pouches
Large pouches
Giant pouches
Giant pouches
New stitch markers
How to Make Bunting February 2, 2011
Here is a step by step guide to how I made The Bothered Owl’s bunting.
We have a lot of fabric scraps, so I thought this was a great way of using them up. And of course, we get to show people all (well, some) of the amazing fabrics we have used over the last year and a half. I chose brightly coloured, fun fabrics.
You will need:
Pencil
Ruler
Rotary cutter and mat
Paper or cardboard for template
Bias binding for the entire length of the bunting
Fabric (ours was already interfaced, but that’s a personal choice)
I made a template for the flags with a piece of paper. Then using our fabulous rotary cutter and self-healing board, I laid out several piece of fabric on top of each other, placed the ruler over the top, and sliced! Having the rotary cutter made the job so much easier.
Next step is to iron a seam into them. I used the bias binding as a guide for folding the top seam. I then ironed this top seam so it was nice and crisp.
Fold the top seam to be the same width as the bias binding
Iron the seam
Time to get out the pinking shears! Now that your seam is done, you’ll notice that there’s overlap. Trimming the edges with pinking shears stops the edges from fraying.
Overlap is trimmed by the pinking shears
Rinse and repeat. You’ll now have a stack of flags.
Almost there!
Now comes the pinning. Get your bias binding tape, leave about 30 cm at one end, and pin on your first flag.
Decide on how you'll order your flags
When pinning the flags on, be conscious of which direction they will be going through the sewing machine. I pinned all of my flags on so they were pointing to the left, and the pin heads facing towards me (points away). This ensured that I could remove the pins as I sewed each flag.
Note the direction of the pins
Now to the sewing! Set your machine to a zig zag stitch. I set the width about 4 (out of 5).
Sew Sew Sew!
Coincidentally the zigzag stitch almost matches the pinking shears
Remember to remove the pins as you sew, as they are in line with the foot, and may get tangled/broken.
And there you have it. Keep zigzagging all the way along until you reach the end of your flags.
Bunting! There you have it.
We’ll be using ours on our stall at Unravel at the end of February. Check back in at the end of the month to see photos of the bunting in place. But for now, here is the bunting draped elegantly on my sewing machine…
Fluttering in the breeze
Happy sewing!
Alex 🙂
Last orders. December 22, 2010
I am officially done! No more orders now until after Christmas. (Unless you’re local and prepared to come and pick it up tomorrow! And even then, no more orders!)
I thought I’d quickly share a couple of the last ones I’ve done, partly because one of them is delightfully fun and partly to illustrate the amazing difference fabric choice can make, even more than the choice of shape/style in a bag.
Firstly, a bag that is more than meets the eye. (Oh yeah, I went there. I am no stranger to the bottom of that barrel and I’m happy to scrape it.)
The print is really big, it was quite hard to 'centre' it when cutting.
I went with a really long flap on this bag, instead of putting in a button or magnetic closure. I used loads of extra reinforcement to stiffen the fabric too, so that flap is staying shut unless you want it to open.
The bag has a main pocket and smaller external pocket.
Under the main flap you find the main pocket and a slightly smaller exterior pocket with its own button flap.
Sadly, I had no robot buttons so I had to go for something more understated. Red works, I think!
The strap is made from the same material as seatbelts. It’s polypropolene, very very shiny and smooth and most importantly blinking hardwearing. And adjustable. I like using bronze sliders and D-rings, they’re sturdy and they look really smart.
Final touch is the teeny weeny mobile phone/ wallet / key pocket on the inside:
How can you resist his grumpy wee robotic face, glaring at you from his soul-less robot eyes?
I have to say, it took me bloody ages to make this one but it was totally worth it and it was for a friend’s son and I hope she (and her son, obviously) will love it. (Before any one asks, I have no more Transformers fabric left. I can probably find some, if I look hard enough and you ask nicely enough. But not before Christmas. No, no, no.)
Next up, a couple of bucket bags. These were the last two things I finished today and I am showing them, mainly as an illustration of how different fabric totally transforms a design.
While I am really proud of all the bits and pieces I’ve designed over the last 18 months, I think it’s fair to say that without totally awesome fabric they’d be nothing. We’ve noticed when manning (owling?) the stand at the various shows we’ve done this year that it is always the fabric that hooks people. Most of the time people don’t seem as bothered about the size of the bag – unless it’s for a specific project – as long as the fabric is just right. There’s something about fabric that just clicks for people. I’ve seen people spend the better part of an hour going through our stash crates looking for The One and it never fails to make me happy when they find what they’re looking for. The look on their faces when they find it is priceless.
Anyway: same bag, two ways:
Ignore the owly needle roll for a minute and look at the bags. They’re cut from the same template, they are to all intents and purposes the same bag. But see the difference the fabric makes? One is cute but more serious, slightly understated and very grown up. The other is quirky and cheerful and is just begging to go out and play.
The first bag is made from some adorable Japanese fabric (Â I _think_ it’s a Kokka print but can’t remember off the top of my head and my selevedge/scrap box is in the other room. What? I’m pregnant and lazy, that’s way too far!)
Can anyone spot the Big Bad Wolf?
The second is a bucket bag and matching needle roll for a lovely newish knitter, desperate to keep her needles from the curious (and pull-y) fingers of her small child. Some more details? Well, of course I’ll oblige!
Em requested some special pockets, one to hold scissors and various notions (That’s the one on the left) and one large enough to slip patterns or knitting magazines into. Pattern pockets are something I’ve been meaning to incorporate into the bucket and messenger bag designs for a while now, so I was glad to have a chance to try it out and see if it would work with the dimensions of the current design. It does!
I used the same owly fabric as the exterior, just on a brown base for the pockets. I love those owls, they’re just adorable!
The bag closes with a button flap and I managed to finally get a reasonable shot of the little teeny weeny owly button:
Surprisingly hard to photograph, for an inanimate object!
For some reason, even using the macro setting and no flash, these little guys have proved remarkably resistant to me taking photos of them in the past. You can kind of see the details here but it’s still far from perfect.
To match the bucket bag, Em asked for a needle roll for straight needles. I don’t actually own any straight needles any more, but I know how long they are and I DO own a tape measure. (Or four. ) Plus our standard needle roll design is deliberately sized to be adjustable for straights or circs. Easy peasy!
And that’s it!
I had a bunch more custom bits and bobs that have already gone out, but I don’t want to overload you with pictures of shiny things made for other people 😀
Anyway, I am done diddly un until after Christmas now and planning on hiding out on the sofa with the kids, NOT checking the computer or making anything even vaguely sewing related for the next week or two. I have socks to knit and presents to wrap and meals to plan and general merriment to indulge in.
Have a fabulous seasonally appropriate festival/non-festival of your choice, folks!
Sarah
The Bothered Owl 