How to make a ribbon blanket / cushion - taggie blanket

My wee boy, Harry, was 6 months last week and I realised I hadn't made him anything yet, so I bought some plushie fabric (the softest fabric I have ever felt) and some ribbon. I chose a light blue dimple fabric for the back and Robert Kaufman's Urban Zoologie in blue for the front. I picked a Gruffalo ribbon for the tags.

Supplies
23x23cm of two plushy fabrics (You can order pre-cut squares of fabric from eBay)
4m ribbon
Spool of ribbon
Sewing Machine
Pins
Needle
Pencil
Scissors/Rotary Cutter
Stuffing (Optional)

Urban Zoologie

I ordered 50cm squares of fabric, so first cut my fabrics to size. I pinned them together so that they were the same size.

Flip the fabrics over so they are right sides together and re-pin.

Next cut your ribbon to size, I used all the same ribbon for this blanket, but you can use more than one design or texture for another sensory experience!

Make a ribbon sandwich by making a loop with each piece and pinning it so that the right sides of the ribbon are to the right sides of the fabric, as below. Make sure the loop is hidden in the blanket, and have a tiny bit of ribbon showing so that you know where the ribbon is, important when sewing together.

Now sew together! Watch out for the pins and start sewing about 1cm from the edge. Start by sewing from the middle of one edge; forward, reverse stitch, then continue on until you reach the first ribbon. 

Sew over the ribbon, then reverse and sew back over the whole ribbon, then back over it again, this will secure the ribbon for little (curious) hands!

Remember to keep your needle in your work when you are turning corners, this makes your stitching neat.

Stop when you get around 2" from the start of your stitching and reverse stitch to secure.

Turn the blanket right sides out through the gap, use a pencil to poke the corners out so they are nice and square. Woohoo, it looks fab!

Before you start celebrating, you can now decide if you want to make a blanket or cushion, if you want to make a cushion now is the time to stuff until your happy with the firmness.

When your finished (or if you've skipped that step, keeping it as a blanket), slip stitch the opening closed. 

Now your done! Make sure all your thread are secured, and always supervise any babies or small children while they are playing with the blanket.

I used the same technique as above and made Lily a pirate, soft ball when she was little, which was great for little hands and grumpy toddlers!

Enjoy!

How to Screenprint

How to Screenprint

Today I went to a Screenprinting Taster Session at Peacocks Visual Arts in Aberdeen.

I had the best day! Recently, I've been trying to think of new things to take my business further, and screen printing seemed like a great idea!

The class was very small, only me and one other girl, which meant I was able to spend a lot of time printing. We were first shown how to put the screen into the frame, then we tightened the clamps. 

The screen had been prepared for us, so we blocked off the exposed areas that we didn't want to print. This was blocked off using packing tape.

We registered the print and put in registration tabs to ensure the prints are all going to print on the same place on each page.

We were then shown how to squeegee the ink through the screen and made our first print! The screen's needed to be flooded each time, so that the screen is ready to print again. We each printed three pieces, of the base colour. We then cleaned both sides of the screen and printed the next two colours, and we were done! What a massive sense of achievement, and it was surprisingly quick considering we were printing a three colour print.

Before lunch, we were given some guidance on how to make our picture to print. I used opaque pens and true grain film. I had decided I wanted to make an old style Ice Cream sign. I started off with a few sketches as shown below.

Sketch of Ice Cream Sign

I drew the sketches with the same pens I used on the true grain so I could see what the end product could look like.
I then copied the design on to a A4 sized piece of true grain, first I traced the black outline. Then I traced the ice cream shape, this needed to be completely coloured in so it would expose properly. I then traced the cone. I was going to add a flake, but as we only had a few hours, I decided to go with a coloured splodge behind the ice cream instead.
I got a scrap piece of paper and cut out a shape and used this to create the splodge!

I then exposed the screen with my drawings, washed out the screen and left it to dry.

I had a quick break to move my car, then was back to print my Ice Creams!

I cut all of my paper to size then picked my colours from the water based inks available and got ready to print!

Firstly I prepared the screen as before, registered the print, put the registration tabs on and got ready to print! I started with the pink splodge, then the mint ice cream, beige cone then the black outline. The outline looks pretty cool on the doofer below!

Ice Cream Outline on doofer!

I printed a total of 12 prints, with varying success. Some of the colours came out a little uneven, but this added to the vintage affect I was going for!

Here is the final print, the mint is a little light on this picture, so you can't really see the colour, but it looks even better in real life!

Finished print!

I am thinking of listing them in my etsy shop and I have a whole host of new designs in my head, hopefully one day they will make it on to paper!

My handmade business - Baillie Day

 Beginnings 

I started my business in 2008, however it was half hearted and my photos weren't great. I opened an etsy shop and listed around 10 items and never really thought anything about it. In 2011, my daughter Lily was born, and while on maternity leave, I decided to give the business another go.

Starting Up Properly

I took better photographs (still not great, I was using a vintage suitcase as a background, which was a nice effect, but didn't make the products easy to see). I also updated the listings with new products. I had made a pocket watch necklace for myself in 2008 and loved it, but hadn't thought about making that the basis of the business until 2011, when I realised that other people were commenting on my necklace.

Necklaces

I decided to have themed necklaces, such as this Alice in Wonderland one. I originally bought the drink me bottles from another seller in Scotland, but when she went out of business, I decided to make them myself. This is much better from a cost perspective, but more importantly, I could then customise the bottles, an aspect I'm still developing, so watch this space!

All my pocket watches are new and working, the watches are stopped when they are posted out, blog post coming soon on how to start them and adjust the time!

Alice in Wonderland Pocket Watch Necklace - £19

My Beauty and the Beast Necklace is one of my best sellers and I absolutely love the real glass mirror, I think it is perfect for any fan! The themed necklaces are all inspired by fairytales and classic novels, which I have loved since I was little.

Beauty and the Beast - £19

The non-themed necklaces are inspired by charms I think work well, such as this wire wrapped star and brown pearl. My favourite non-themed pocket watch is my giraffe and elephant ones. I have a silver and an antique gold version (my favourite)!

Wire wrapped Pocket Watch - £17

Giraffe and Elephant Pocket Watch - £17

Giraffe and Elephant Key Ring Watch - £12

Recently, I have started thinking of other necklaces which don't include pocket watches, these haven't been as popular in the past, but sometimes you don't want a large necklace, just something delicate. One of my favourites are my glitter bottles, the one below is Cinderella, and I love it! They look great in person too!

Cinderella Glitter Necklace - £13

Other Jewellery

I also have earrings, adjustable rings, cufflinks and bracelets in my shop. At the moment, all of the products are listed on Etsy at Baillie Day Etsy Shop. I am slowly updating my Folksy Shop with more listings and have now started my own website at Online Shop. I will be running special offers on my online shop in the next few weeks.

Giant Giraffe Earrings - £5

Mystery Lucky Dip Box - £30

Future Products

I have an abundance of other products floating around my head, I have started listing some of these; such as my typewritten vows, scrabble and monopoly books and lino print cards. I want to develop these further and add in screen printing and letterpress....one day!

Scrabble Book - £14

Lily Lino Print - £2.50

Wedding Vows Typewritten - £10

I love Lucky Dip Club

My First Lucky Dip Box!

I've been subscribing to www.luckydipclub.com subscription boxes since the day after my son (Harry) was born (I successfully ordered my first one while holding him in hospital, just hours after he was born!). This was back on the 1st of February.

My pick your own lucky dip box!

I ordered a second box by accident then decided to send it to my sister as a thank you for  (looking after) with my older daughter, Lily, while I was having Harry.

Each month I then decided to change the personalised item and send the box to one of my family members as a present for them. The March box went to my little sister, the April box I send to Lily (who loved getting her own post), the May box went to my little sister (in law) Serena and the June box went to Lily again.

Lily's Subscription Box

The July box will also go to Lily as she has been such a superstar helping me look after Harry, but I'm not sure if I should keep going with the two subscriptions.

She was very excited with the Disco Dinosaur box as she got her very own dinosaur washi tape (after using my love one since March!).

Me and Serena got this gorgeous Crown and Glory box!

We'll see, but in the meantime, I'll be rocking the Lucky Dip Club double boxes!

My Lucky Dip Club x Folksy box!