A month in craft…

Where does the time go? No, rilly, someone in physics please tell me because I need to claw some of this year back and update this blog properly.

In the mean time…

I made this for our sister iPad mag. Kinda love it. Made with left-over fabric from the Tweed bow necklace I did for them a while back (but still available on the Apple Newsstand, peeps). Hubs helped with the cutting (I'm not massively handy with a pair of scissor, which I blame entirely on my being left-handed (and not just crap at cutting), and then it's just a case of a bit of appliqué. Nice huh? Be sure to select some soft fabric or you'll be in for a restless night…

I've also **fanfare please** taught myself to crochet. I know, I know – despaired in an earlier post about those who can attesting to its ease ("Oh but it's eeeeaaassssy!" they'd scoff, which would usually be met with a thunderous look from me).

See that there? That's 40+ crochet hexagons.

It's… not easy. No, rilly. But it Does. Just. Click. All of a sudden. From out of nowhere. One minute all I can do is a chain, and then next, I'm trebling and cackling and getting ever-so-slightly tangled p in my yarn.

I swear, I have no other explanation other than I just kept trying. I also used a slightly weightier yarn than all the other times (Aran), and I also watched a lot of YouTube videos to get it non-squiffy in my head. I think YouTube definitely helped – those stupid diagrams of pencil-drawn hands just weren't cutting it. Crochet is my new love, and (although I am scared of doing anything much other than a granny square – for now) I can't see myself going back to knitting any time soon. I know – I never thought I say it. And me from last year would totally be seething at me from a few seconds ago for typing it. Sorry, Past Me (also, you should really check out YouTube for some tutes, m'kay?).

Anyway, thanks mainly to Pip, Ros Badger and Indie Lovely for their inspiring throws, cushions etc. And thanks to countless crocheting YouTubers. I apologise I didn't make note of your vids…

Chain bag

Happy New Year! Are we still allowed to say that? A busy Chrimbletide season for the Monty household. Lots of Christmas crafting, then a certain someone's birthday, plus new year, so I've only really got back into the swing of things now, plus the Mollie team have been busy busy on our latest issue, hence the net silence. But onward!

One thing that's been keeping me busy but is such a pleasure has been crafting for our sister iPad magazine, Gathered by Mollie Makes. You've already seen a sneak peak of the bow necklace from issue 10 and now here's my chain bag from issue 9.

Massively simple, the only tricky bit is cutting (or getting a locksmith to cut) the chain to the right size. Then it's just some glue gun fun. So simple, **I** can do it.

Look out for more goodies from me coming to an iPad near you…

Tweed bow necklace

Super excited about this latest project for Gathered by Mollie Makes (out 21/12 - what a good date!). I've always wanted to do a tweed bow necklace but a combination of not having enough confidence (and not getting my Singer skills on) meant it had been sitting in my head for a while, crying like a puppy left outside a shop. Nice image…

Anyway, it's (again) an easy make. Took me all of ten minutes more or less. You can sew it if you like, but I made mine from hemming tape. Check it out coming to an iPad near you this Friday

Zip accessories

So… by now you'll know that I'm a tad slapdash when it comes to crafting – and that is how I like it, thank you very much. I also really really like crafting with bits and bobs you can get from the hardware shop, or doing things you wouldn't normally do to bits and bobs.

Zips, spikes and hardware in general are big this winter, and so I wanted to have a play with zips and see what I could do. Check out these earrings, and if you ant to know how to make them – or a ring version (or indeed,a brooch version), then check out this week's Gathered on sale today!

[caption id="attachment_186" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Zippy zippy earring[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_185" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Zip earring[/caption]

Gathered by Mollie Makes

It's technically off-sale now – but then when is a digital magazine not on sale, huh? – but I totally should mention that one of my projects features in issue 4 of our sister magazine for iPad, Gathered by Mollie Makes. Utterly proud to be in there, as it's my first ever published project. Having worked on crafting magazines (on and off) since 2005, I've been dabbling, doing my own thang for a bit (as you'll see). All very slap dash and not really what you'd call conventional.

I've never been asked to do anything as far as freelancing goes – I'm not massively confident for one thing, and so I was rather thrilled to be asked to see if I could do some bow clips. Looked pretty simple to me, so I gave it a go and – tah dah! They're uber-simple and really effective.

As you can imagine, I'm a much more confident crafter now, so much so that you'll see a couple of my other projects coming up in Gathered soon.

Very proud to have this little tag:

Gathered by Mollie Makes

It's technically off-sale now – but then when is a digital magazine not on sale, huh? – but I totally should mention that one of my projects features in issue 4 of our sister magazine for iPad, Gathered by Mollie Makes. Utterly proud to be in there, as it's my first ever published project. Having worked on crafting magazines (on and off) since 2005, I've been dabbling, doing my own thang for a bit (as you'll see). All very slap dash and not really what you'd call conventional. 

I've never been asked to do anything as far as freelancing goes – I'm not massively confident for one thing, and so I was rather thrilled to be asked to see if I could do some bow clips. Looked pretty simple to me, so I gave it a go and – tah dah! They're uber-simple and really effective. 

As you can imagine, I'm a much more confident crafter now, so much so that you'll see a couple of my other projects coming up in Gathered soon. 

Very proud to have this little tag: