what caroline made: A bit of breathing space..

Its always a bit of a strange time this. The massive build up to Christmas is suddenly over and, not that I didn't have a great one (and I hope everyone else did), but the anticipation never quite lives up to the day itself. The girls had opened all of their presents within half an hour, which is less time than it took Mr B and I to assemble their respective scooters. Note to self, as still relatively inexperienced parents, next year have on hand:
Scissors
Screwdriver
Spanners
Pliers
Batteries of assorted sizes.

I honestly needed more tools for their presents than I use on servicing a saxophone. Must be better prepared in future.
The week before Christmas was a manic rush of present preparation and friend visiting. I must at this point thank to good people of Fakenham. Market day before Christmas, a friend and I donned out purple sequined Santa hats and entertained (presumably) the shoppers with a bit of festive busking. Its the first time I have played in public for well over ten years and wasn't the ritual humiliation I was expecting. And the pennies in the hat were enough to tell us our 'talents' had been appreciated. Worth standing out in the cold for, and good fun too.. Sometimes its good to try something that puts you out of your comfort zone. Do I sense a New Years resolution coming on??

So to business.

I feel like I'm becoming a bit of an advertising space for Urban Threads, but they have had a massive influence on what I've been up to recently. Which is why a combination of this as a free download a couple of weeks ago:

and some perishing weather led me down the line of a good old fashioned muff.

And very cosy it is too. Simply cut a piece of denim 12" x 17" and a piece of faux fur 16" x 17".

Sew the shorter edges of both pieces together. I put a neck strap on this one. Then I made two without and in retrospect I wish I'd left the strap off this one, but if you wish to add one, cut a strip of denim 4" by your requisite length, turn the edges in by 1/2" and iron, then fold in half, press and sew down each side. Sandwich this in between the edges of the outside before you sew it up, about an inch in from the edge, pointing downwards:

Then, and this was a little bit of trial and error I must admit, and I no doubt there are easier ways to do it, I tucked the denim inside the fur, right sides facing and sewed around the opening on one side. I then turned it the right way out, tucked the edge of the fur under and pinned it to the other edge of the denim and sewed around that edge to finish. I did find that putting the zipper foot on the machine meant that I didn't get the foot of the machine caught up in the furriness. Its a very simple thing to do and I love mine.

When I say that Urban Threads has had a big influence on me, I think just about every ones Christmas presents that were made by me had a bit of them on somewhere. I was musing about Kirstie Allsopp's book binding in my last post. Well I got me some leather and ta-dah!