Hello, my name is Bryony, I'm thirteen years old (and will be 14 next week, yipee) and I am lucky enough to be the daughter of Tracey who owns the, Owl and Sewing Cat shop in Eastbourne. She has always encouraged me to do more sewing and be creative, so when my friend and I showed a great interest in sewing last year and were keen to do and learn more it help to inspire her, along with Kirstie Allsopp's Home Made Home programme, to open a shop. She now sells a variety of fun, colourful and new fabrics and holds lots of workshops where you can make patchwork cushions, tote bags, envelope cushions and more in Eastbourne.
With the school holidays upon us I thought would write this blog to give all those young inspiring sewers like me, some ideas to keep busy in the holidays. This is my first ever blog and so I hope you find it helpful. If anyone makes any of these ideas it would be lovely to see some photos, please email to
info@owlandsewingcat.com or pop into the Eastbourne shop where we can take a photo for you for our facebook page to share your ideas.
The above picture shows the Beginner Sewing kit that has a different selection of materials, ribbons, threads etc, as well as a lovely sewing box house. This kit can be used as a fun and creative way to spend the Easter holiday, so much can be made from this kit; for example you could make a book cover, brooch, customise clothes and bags and many other basic projects. This great new kit can be brought at the shop for £19.99 includes needle, pins, thread, brooch backs, labels, buttons, felt, various fabrics, ribbons, rik rac, safety pins, pom poms, house sewing box, each kit is individual with different fabrics.
The Fairy Trinket Box is a great way to enjoy learning to hand stitch as well as making lovely birthday presents. It's really simple to make and suitable for very young sewers. £3.50.
This Felt Craft Cushion is avaible in various colours and styles and are excellent for jazzing up your beds or sofas. Everything is included and easy to follow instructions which is also great for the younger sewers and well as adults!! £8.50
Here is another beginner kit but this one is for a felt shoulder bag which again comes in different colours and is a fun way to enjoy and learn how to handstitch. Earlier this year it was my youngest cousin's Birthday and we gave her one of these shoulder bags, she had never sewn before but found this project fun and easy and couldn't wait to do more sewing as soon as she finished. £8.50.
Small felt decorations are sold in shapes of leaves, flowers, bees, houses, deers and hearts. These can easily be stuck, glued or stitched on and can be used to decorate, redesign and style other items, the best thing to attach these to are felt bags as shown above. These bags are perfect for collecting eggs in an Easter Egg Hunt so they are great presents to give children this Easter. Bags from £2.99 and felt decourations 25p each
I often find that I have lots of spare odd buttons that I don't have any use for but there are lots of objects and accesories that can be made and decorated with buttons. They can just simply be sewn onto clothes or you can be more creative and thread them onto ribbon to make a bracelet or neckless. You could thread them onto thin wire and bend it into a shape and hang it off a door handle by some ribbon, as shown above, another way to use up your buttons is to stick them around a photo frame or a note book cover. In owl and sewing cat we have loads of jars of yummy coloured buttons in all various shapes and sizes and costing 10p each so some in and have a good rumage through them and select your favourite.
Using Bond-A-Web is a fantastic way to decorate your clothes. All you need is a cheap plain t-shirt, bond-a-web and some small fabric. Cut a square of fabric and square of bond-a-web the same size and iron togeather. Then cut into your desired shape, peel the back of the bond-a-web and place on t-shirt and iron to fix it in place, this can now be machine washed without any problem. Thats all you need to do to create your own t-shirt, so have some fun and be creative. For a demo just ask in store
Bond-a-web is £2.50/m and great fun.
Cute and cuddly soft toys can be made out of many different materials and old items of clothes including socks which seem to be the most effective way to make stuffed animal toys. I had great fun making the small pig shown above out of two odd socks and a couple of buttons and the book Stray Sock Sewing shows how to make loads of animals out of a couple of socks, it also teaches you various ways and techniques of handstiching. If you dont want to use your socks we do have them in 'owl and sewing cat' for £1 each.
I hope you have fun trying out these new, fun ways of using up your scraps, spare buttons and old clothes, plus trying out new projects and kits. Have a great school Holiday and hope to see you in the Eastbourne shop!
Many thanks, Bryony
