Melamine and Enamel

No, these aren’t the latest celebrity baby names.

I love melamine and enamel. Let’s begin with melamine. Now, I get pretty excited by the old school dinner crockery or the cups and saucers sometimes used at fairs and fetes, but what really floats my boat is the contemporary colourful stuff. Even better, it seems to be more and more widely available as a material of choice these days. Paperchase or Cath Kidston are great places to find pretty bits and pieces and, in the summer months, a lot of other high street shops sell it in the form of picnicware. I think you’ve got to love its unbreakable, practical beauty and the fact that it’s so versatile. I’m totally in love with these babies right now and need to find an excuse to buy them.

Moving on to enamel which I like just as much, but find less easy to come by. The really nice enamelware tends to be the vintagey stuff like the cute blue teapot that I bought from an antique fair years ago. Having said that, I did pick up some lovely bowls from the aforementioned Cath Kidston recently. I also love those utilitarian type enamel mugs and pie dishes (my mum has several of these which date back to my childhood and are still going strong!). Currently on my ‘to buy’ list are these gorgeous Orla Kiely planters - the combo of enamel and Orla Kiely is a sureifre winner in my book. I think I like enamel for the same reasons as I like melamine – it’s sort of got a tough but pretty quality about it.

Are you a sucker for a certain material? What is it?

Monday Makes: Lavender Bags

Here we are, the much anticipated lavender bags. If you read my review of Sew! by Cath Kidston, you’ll know that this is one of the lovely projects from that book – the easiest one I’d say.

Anyway, you can make these by hand or use a sewing machine. You’ll need:

(per bag)

Template drawn onto greaseproof/tracing paper (I used the heart one here)

2 x 20cm squares lightweight fabric

Matching thread

15cm length of ribbon or tape (optional)

35g dried lavender

Fading pen

Sewing kit and/or machine

Firstly, place the two squares of fabric back to back and then pin on the template. Draw round using a fading pen, then cut out leaving an extra 1cm or so seam allowance. Remove the template then pin the two hearts back together and stitch all the way around the line, leaving a gap of approx. 4cm on one of the straight edges. Remove pins. Now trim the seam back to around 5mm and make notches around the top curves of the heart (this makes the seams lie flatter). Press back the seam around the opening and then turn carefully inside out, so that your fabric is now facing outwards. At this point you can use a teaspoon to fill the bag with lavender. When you’ve done that you’ll need to slip stitch the gap (this is where mine started to look a bit amateurish – need to practice that I think).  If you want to add a hanging loop, then fold your length of ribbon in half and stitch neatly to the top of the heart. Et, voila!

I’d say you can knock one of these up in about half an hour if you have no interruptions. I’m planning to perfect these and make lots of them.

The Tuesday Review: Sew! by Cath Kidston

I got some Cath K gift vouchers recently. A nice amount, but not enough for any of the more substantial items. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I have vouchers, I’ve  just GOT to spend them. I kept popping in to my local CK and toyed with a few options before plumping for Sew! The pocket version.

Basically, it’s the A5 or mini version of the full size book of the same name. The mini one costs £9 (as opposed to £16 for the larger size). It’s published by Quadrille who I like as they do these kind of books well.

So, what do you get for your nine quid? Well, in case you’re wondering, this smaller book contains exactly the same projects as the larger size. The only difference (as far as I can tell) is that you get the materials to make one of the bags with the full size one. You don’t get that with Mini Sew!. What you do get, however, is a pretty needlecase and set of needles along with paper patterns and templates for the projects.

The book itself is paperback and 160 pages long. It contains, and I quote, “over 40 simple sewing projects”. It also features a useful introduction section which outlines some of the various tools and techniques needed for the projects. At the back it has an Addresses page to help you track down your materials.

Moving on to the projects, they really are lovely. Some are more tricky than others of course, but there are real basics such as lavender bags (below) which I’m planning to make and feature on here next week. If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that I’m a bit of a novice when it comes to things crafty, but the projects in Sew! are so pretty and inspiring that I’m determined to get on with some of them. I reckon you could make a fair few Christmas pressies if you were that way inclined. How about a girl’s apron or a peg bag, a bird mobile or a flower cushion? I suppose most of the projects are quite ‘ordinary’ and more advanced or skilled crafters might be put off by that, but the projects are beautifully shot and the book is great to just flick though when you need uplifting.

Sew! is part of a range of Cath Kidston craft project books. The others are Stitch!, Make! and Patch!. I already own Make! but find that some of the projects in it need so many materials (some of them quite random). It’s nice as a coffee table book though.

Anyway, I hope that’s given you a bit of an insight into Sew!. It’s a great little book and would make a perfect and affordable gift. Ten out of ten from me. Look out for my attempt at lavender bags next week!