4th year Blogiversary

Oh my word, it's Sum of their Stories' 4 year blogiversary this week. How is that even possible?

It's got me reflecting on the changes that have happended around here in the last 12 months. Sum of their Stories has had a blog makeover from the lovely Linda from My Fairy Blogmother. I was lucky enough to win the makeover in a competition Linda ran back in March this year but she offers a quick and comprehensive service to both Blogger and Wordpress bloggers.

When I had the makeover I did keep my original blog header though, every time I think it needs an update someone leaves a message saying how much they like it and so it stays!
In November last year I took over the hosting of Handmade Monday from Victoria of Lucy Blossom Crafts. I hadn't really planned it but it ended up just happening somehow and after a very steep learning curve on how to host a linky I have to say, it is a lot of fun. 

The downside is I feel very responsible to make sure I write and schedule it in time so it goes up at 5pm Sunday UK time, glitch free. I also find it ridiculously difficult to pick features, most weeks I have at least 6 or 7 things I really, really love to choose from. Kind of 'Sophie's Choice" but not quite so dramatic! The upside is I get to see loads of great an inspiring blogs every week, and have made some great bloggy friends. I've even been lucky enough to meet some in real life. We have a Facebook group and a group Pinterest board and are trying to build a supportive and collaborative network where we share hints and tips, interesting things we've found as well as each others posts. Do join us if you fancy it! Being a blogger now feels like part of who I am, there is still so much to learn, things are always changing (social media algorithms I'm looking at you!) I always feel like I'm playing catch up. 

These last 4 years have flown by, here's to the next 4! Thanks so much for stopping by.

Handmade Monday #40

Hi and welcome to Handmade Monday, our weekly craft link up. 

Handmade Monday is a place to share your makes, bakes and other handmade craft ideas and find some new inspiration.
Massive thanks to everyone who has linked up over the last couple of weeks. I've been on holiday and only had sporadic wifi so I've only been able to stop by and comment on and share a few of your fab project. Normally I like to get round to visit you all!
Here's just a tiny flavour of our holiday:

That's why there were no features last week either. I didn't want to say until I was back, I don't like advertising online the fact we are away of course.
So to make up for being MIA I've picked some extra features from the last 2 weeks to showcase today.
The Crafty Lumberjacks have been playing with a fun looking product called marbling medium and getting some very classy looking results. 

Have you ever tried making underwear? I know they made bras on Sewing Bee last year and I've seen kits to give them a go but it's not something I've ever attempted. Sewing Green Lady from Sew, Create and Recycle has been having a go and has loads of hints and tips.

Dianne from Deanie's Stash has been showing us lamps made by her Mr Deanie over the last few weeks. This steampunk one is so quirky.

Liz from Howling at the Moon made this gorgeous peacock crocheted mochila bag. Isn't it stunning?

Congratulations to you all, here is a "Yay! I was featured" button for your blog.

<div style="width:100%;text-align:center;"> <span style="margin:5px;padding:5px;border-radius: 5px;border:1px solid lightgrey;display:inline-block;"><a rel=_nofollow href="http://www.sumoftheirstories.com/"> <img style="border: 1px solid gray;width:150px;height:150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJK6GjfiYCihYs7yN5bI2KiuuM6RlAoPTFz8KVoDUqHF3puN9_2mSVFcI9FdaVhyf8DJULWyM24nNIqTYSdh2Fbjj24s7SvAQHhry3rWdocC8lEPpqg59szjVwSiNCeCOKKFS5YEIADQ/s200/Handmade+monday+featured.jpg"> <p style="allign: center;"> </p> </a></span></div>
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Handmade Monday is all about building a craft community, please so take a few minutes to visit some of the other links, leave a comment, and maybe share your favourites on the social media of your choice if you can.
We have a facebook group where we share useful or interesting things so send a request if you'd like to join us. 

The rules for Handmade Monday are simple:

• Did you make it? Yes - hooray, we'd love to see it!
• Add the link to a specific blog post, not your main site URL.
• Link up to 3 posts each week.
• Mingle - visit some of the other links - comment - share - let's support one another and grow our craft community.

If you're not sure on anything, more information can be found here.

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Slightly visible mending

A quick fix for a cardigan with a hole.

Visible mending is very popular right now, hand stitching over patches of contrast fabric. I absolutely love the effect and I really love the principle of mending what we have rather than immediately buying new all the time.

For our daughter's black cardigan that she wears for work however, visible mending wasn't suitable, it's plain black needed all the way. Invisible mending seemed too much of a stretch so we did a quick repair that is half way between the two. I'm giving it the catchy title of "slightly visible mending", do you think it will catch on?!

This repair took about 5 minutes, it actually took longer to get the sewing machine out and then put it away after, than it did to do the repair.

The hole was near the elbow, originally I was thinking elbow patches, no need to reinvent the wheel here.

But the hole was in fact just below the elbow so unless an elbow patch was enormous it wasn't going to work. Also the cardigan is a fine knit and I couldn't think how to make elbow patches that wouldn't be too bulky and weigh the elbows down and pull them out of shape.

All I needed was a small rectangle of thin jersey knit fabric (this is actually a pair of one of the boys boxer shorts that had worn completely threadbare at the top so the elastic was in danger of falling out, just don't tell anyone I used underpants for this repair!) and some black thread.

Black things are hard to take photos of - just saying!

I slid the sleeve, inside out, onto the free arm of the sewing machine.

Then I laid the rectangle of knit fabric on top and stitched all over it. 

Because the sleeve fitted snugly on the free arm there was no turning it round so I stitched forward, then backwards but at a very slight angle, then forwards again and so on. It made a big zig zag of stitches.

I removed the sleeve from the free arm, trimmed any excess fabric, then slid it back on right side out.

I then repeated the process on the right side, that way I could make sure I was covering the largest hole really well.

The finished repair is pretty hard to see, doesn't feel overly rough on the inside and is not heavy or too lumpy.

Success! 
Maybe not an idea for your best togs, but to make a work cardie last a little bit longer - perfect. 

Handmade Monday #39

Welcome to Handmade Monday, our weekly craft link up. 

Handmade Monday is a place to share your makes, bakes and other handmade craft ideas and find some new inspiration.

It's just a short post from me today, so no features this week I'm afraid. Normal service will be restored at next week's link up - there'll be some extra features then to make up for it! 

Handmade Monday is all about building a craft community, please so take a few minutes to visit some of the other links, leave a comment, and maybe share your favourites on the social media of your choice if you can.
We have a facebook group where we share useful or interesting things so send a request if you'd like to join us. 

The rules for Handmade Monday are simple:

• Did you make it? Yes - hooray, we'd love to see it!
• Add the link to a specific blog post, not your main site URL.
• Link up to 3 posts each week.
• Mingle - visit some of the other links - comment - share - let's support one another and grow our craft community.

If you're not sure on anything, more information can be found here.

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Long & Short Handle Bag

Sometimes you want a shoulder bag and sometimes you want a hand held shopper. Well this bag can be both - yay! 

Today I'm sharing a reasonably simple bag pattern which I made for a friend recently. It's an adaptation of the Velvet Topped Print Bag from the fabulous book 'The perfect Handmade Bag' by Claire Youngs. I LOVE this book, if you like making bags I cannot recommend it highly enough. I've added some links to buy it on Amazon at the bottom of this post.  This project started when I saw a fabric pack at a reduced price at my local Hobbycraft store.

 

The pack had 12 10.5" squares of fleecy fabric in it, in 5  different designs. For this bag I used most of 10 of them. I have a few scraps left. You will also need something plain to line it, I used an old sheet. 
This bag is patchwork but that was because of the size of these squares. You could do any type of patchwork or simply use bigger pieces of fabric. 
The finished bag measures approx 14.5" x 17.5" or 37cm x 44cm
Because I used 10.5" squares and you may not, it makes more sense to list the sizes of the pieces you need to end up with, once any patchworking is done.  Just join your pieces however you fancy with whatever fabric you have. Just make sure you end up with:  2 outer pieces of fabric 15"x18" (38cm x 46cm) 2 pieces of lining fabric 15"x18" (38cm x 46cm) 4 pieces of pattern fabric 3"x4" (8cm x 10cm) for handle loops 2 pieces of patterned fabric 2.5" x 32" (7cm x 81cm) for the handles
Use a 1/4" seam allowance throughout. Press any patchwork seams open before you start joining the bag up.
Join the outer pieces on 3 sides:

Join the 2 lining pieces in the same way as the outer pieces but LEAVE A 4" GAP in the bottom middle. THIS IS IMPORTANT! Now box the corners: Starting with the outer bag, press the seams open, then fold the bottom corner sideways so the side and bottom seam line up. Measure a line straight across 2" from the point and stitch across, making sure you reserve a few stitches at each end to make the stitching secure. Repeat for the other corner of the outer bag and both the lining corners.

This is what they look like from the outside.

  Next make the handles by pressing a 1/4" hem on each long edge, then folding the handles in half lengthways. Pin and top stitch to close them but leave a good 2" open at each end.

Next you need to make the handle loops. Take the 3"x 4" pieces and fold then sew each one in exactly the same way as the handles - just much shorter!

Once your handle loops are made, fold them in half and position them, raw edges together, on the top edge of the bag outer, 2.5" from the seam edge.

I left them just pinned but you could tack them in place. You just need to be careful later if you leave them just pinned. At this point you may wish to add a ribbon loop too - I forgot this step! If you do, just add a 4" (10cm) length of ribbon in the centre of the outer back, exactly the same way round as the handle loops.
Turn the bag lining right side out, and place it inside the bag outer. Match up the seams and pin then stitch the lining to the outer bag around the top edge. Go slowly when stitching over the handle loops and your machine will thank you.

Turn the bag right side out through that gap you left in the lining. Do this very carefully if you left the pins in the handle loops! 

Stitch the gap in the lining closed (on the machine or by hand) then give everything a nice press with the iron. 

Push the lining inside the bag then top stitch the top edge to keep everything neat and tidy. Again, go slowly over where the handle loops are, that's a lot of layers of fabric for your machine to deal with. 

Now thread your handles through the handle loops. One handle through the loops on the front of the bag and one through the loops on the back.

Join the handles up by placing the right sides together on those open ends and stitching across. You can see in this photo I only left about 1.5" at the ends and it was a bit of a fiddle, I think leaving 2" would make this easier! 

Turn the raw edges inside and top stitch to close.

Finally, add a button to the centre of the bag front. If like me you forgot to add the ribbon loop, just sew it on now as neatly as you can.

You could use a popper or velcro instead or leave a fastening off altogether. 

Your bag is complete! You can use it with the handles pulled up double to carry it in your hand or as a shoulder bag with the handles long.

I went for a floppy sort of bag feel but if you wanted your bag to be more substantial you could add an interfacing of some sort quite easily too. 

Here are links to the book I mentioned at the top of the post, in case you are interested. These are Amazon Affiliate links. To shop Amazon UK:
To shop Amazon USA:

Handmade Monday #38

Welcome to Handmade Monday, our weekly craft link up. 

Handmade Monday is a place to share your makes, bakes and other handmade craft ideas and find some new inspiration.
I'm still crocheting away on the Tea on the Green CAL, this week's new block is C2C (corner to corner).

I've seen it everywhere but never tried it myself - until now - I am blown away! It's quick and it's easy! I'll be doing more of this in the future, that's for sure. 

Here are the features from last week's Handmade Monday:
Lina from Sew Historically made this beautiful be-pom-pomed bag from a straw place mat - what a great idea. So ingenious! 

This bottle holder idea is from Let's get Sewing, it's a great, clear tutorial with both velcro and popper options. 

Congratulations to you both, here is a "Yay! I was featured" button for your blog.

<div style="width:100%;text-align:center;"> <span style="margin:5px;padding:5px;border-radius: 5px;border:1px solid lightgrey;display:inline-block;"><a rel=_nofollow href="http://www.sumoftheirstories.com/"> <img style="border: 1px solid gray;width:150px;height:150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJK6GjfiYCihYs7yN5bI2KiuuM6RlAoPTFz8KVoDUqHF3puN9_2mSVFcI9FdaVhyf8DJULWyM24nNIqTYSdh2Fbjj24s7SvAQHhry3rWdocC8lEPpqg59szjVwSiNCeCOKKFS5YEIADQ/s200/Handmade+monday+featured.jpg"> <p style="allign: center;"> </p> </a></span></div>
Instructions: Select all code above, copy it and paste it inside your blog post as HTML

Handmade Monday is all about building a craft community, please so take a few minutes to visit some of the other links, leave a comment, and maybe share your favourites on the social media of your choice if you can.
We have a facebook group where we share useful or interesting things so send a request if you'd like to join us. 

The rules for Handmade Monday are simple:

• Did you make it? Yes - hooray, we'd love to see it!
• Add the link to a specific blog post, not your main site URL.
• Link up to 3 posts each week.
• Mingle - visit some of the other links - comment - share - let's support one another and grow our craft community.

If you're not sure on anything, more information can be found here.

 

An InLinkz Link-up