Nikolausmarkt

I am getting very nervous and excited about the up-coming “Nikolausmarkt” here in Aachen, where I will be selling my little creations for the very first time! This is going to be a double test for me: test of my German knowledge and of course test of my products. As I mentioned before, from January I plan to open an online shop and this market will definately help me to decide which products are sellable and which aren’t.

Please, let me show you a couple of things that I made for this market:

1. The newest pictures sewed from fabric and felt:

2. Mug and mug sleeve made from felt:

3. Hand stitched pictures made by my Mom (framed by me):

4. A recycled throwpillow with air plane theme:

5. Folders with covers:

6. And finally my monster: a cover blanket for double bed. I worked on this for weeks and learned a lot doing so.

 The Nikolausmarkt (crafters market) will take place in Aachen, Marienhospital (in Burtscheid) between the 6th and 8th of December. Friday 4:00-8:00pm, on Saturday and Sunday 10:00am-8:00pm. There will be good food, drinks, concerts and of course the crafters! Come and have a great time!

 

Hedgehog on a pillow

When I started to make felt-pictures I got a little bit carried away and had the idea to make pillows (and many other things…) using the same technique but the tree that I used before did not fit onto the pillow I had. So I figured out a different pattern but I wanted to stay in the “animals/forest-theme” and this is how I came up with the idea of the hedgehog. And also they are cute and kids like them. Check out my new pillow:

First step: planing your pattern to the size of the pillow (or smaller, this way you can make a frame to the picture later as you will see below). When everything is in the desired spot then sew down the pieces.

Make a frame as seen on the picture. Use the same fabric what you will use for the back of the pillow-case!

Do not forget the label (if you have one) as I did… 🙂

And voila, the pillow-case is done!

Pillowcase for Christmas season

I sewed this pillowcase in an hour, it was fest and fun and it certainly looks great on the couch in the Christmas season.

First I cut out the shapes (heart, pine-tree, star): I used my cookie cutters for pattern. From the red fabric I cut out a little smaller shapes, from the white felt I cut out a little bigger ones. Then I measured the green squares: they should be a bit bigger then the heart/tree/star but not wider then your pillowcase!

Next I pinned down the shapes onto the green squares and sewed them, after that I pinned the squares onto the pillow case fabric (only front) and sewed them.

 

Finally I made the pillow case itself and also put a little label on the side and a button on the back. What do you think?

 

Pillowcases

One of my very best friends is also expecting a baby. It’s gonna be a baby girl. Hopefully… (As I mentioned in our case it turned out to be a boy after 7 months…) This Friday we are traveling back to Hungary for a nice vacation and we’re also going to visit these friends, so I thought that I will create something for this little  baby girl. A few weeks back I made a funny-looking pillowcase for ourselves with a bird on it.

I really enjoyed drawing a sample, cutting out all the pieces then sewing them together, so all the detail-work! So I thought that I will use the same technique for the next pillowcase as well. As I said, it’s gonna be for a baby girl, named Anna. I needed something girly. Finally I decided on a flower, frills on the side and putting her name on it, which is risky because the baby still can turn out to be a boy… Anyway.

Here it is: the final product:

When you want to make something similar, you must plan all the layers and steps of sewing it together very carefully. I cut out first the front of the pillowcase. Then cut out the blue layer and sewed the curly lines on it. After that I designed the flower on a paper, then cut it out from a yellow material and sewed on the blue layer. The final step in making the flower was to sew on the dark-blue circle in the middle. When the whole flower was done, then I sewed it on the front of the pillowcase.

The next step was cutting out and sewing on the letters:

Because the letters are so small, I had to sew them very slowly and carefully.

Then I made the frills on the side and the back of the pillowcase. Actually this was the hardest part: sewing together the frills with the two side of the pillowcase because you need to sew it inside out and the frills were always in the way somehow. But after the third try I could finish it.

I think it looks very lovely and all the hard work was worthy.

The backside of the pillowcase: