The wild world of FreeSpirit fabrics

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Trixie Lixie

These Garden of Earthly Delights fabrics from Studio KM are like a strange and sensuous Darwinian journey to a newly discovered world. These fabrics are for the most outrageous dresses or more realistically, beautiful cushions or other home decor bits. Personally, I’d just stretch them up and put them in a frame.

We think Tula Pink is the most Funky of all the fabric designers out there and this Elizabeth collection doesn’t disappoint! Inspired by a trip to Hampton Court and the art of taking a good selfie.

duck-egg-wide Kaffe Fasset never disappoints in the wild colour stakes. We’ve had a few fabrics in the Rowan ranges in the past, but we bought this Big Blooms Duck Egg fabric to make up a Gather Buchanan dressing gown. A bit selfish maybe, but there is lots left!

Finally these beautiful Rayon fabrics. Beautiful feel with stunning colours and design, perfect for those free flowing summer dress creations.

Beautiful new pastel shades of the new Wayne Hemingway Fabric range

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Trixie Lixie

We just love the colours on the newest installment of Wayne Hemingway’s cotton prints.

The combination of vivid and bold pastel combinations makes this set of vintage style prints both gorgeous and collectable.

The fabric range is the second textile collection by Wayne Hemingway, the fashion designer and founder of Red or Dead. The style of the prints in this collection have a classic 1950’s theme.

See them here on the website. new-in Material:100% Super Quality Cotton
Weight:145 g/m² Mid-weight (dressmaking/quilting)
Fabric is 44/45″ (111/114cm) Wide

How to make a Pom Pom scarf

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Trixie Lixie

This is my favourite scarf at the moment! It doesn’t keep your neck particularly warm but it looks amazing and every time I wear it people comment and say how lovely it is.

I knitted the scarf first, using a ball of double knit wool and size 5mm (US 8) needles

Here is the pattern:

M1: Make 1 stitch by picking up the strand between the stitch on the right-hand needle and the stitch on the left-hand and placing it on the left hand needle, then knit into the back of it.

Cast on 8 stitches

Row 1: knit to end of row.

Row 2: Knit to end of row.

Row 3: Knit 1, M1, knit to end of row.

Row 4: Knit to end of row.

Row 5: Knit 1, M1, knit to end of row.

Rows 6,7 and 8: Knit to end of row.

Row 9: Knit 2 together through the back of the stitches, knit to end of row.

Row 10: Knit to end of row.

Row 11: Knit 2 together through the back of the stitches, knit to end of row.

Row 12: Knit to end of row.

Row 13: Cast off 4 stitches, knit to end of row.

Row 14: Knit 4.

Row 15: Cast on 4 stitches, knit these 4 stitches, knit to end.

Repeat rows 2 -15 until the end of the ball or until it reaches the length you like.

When you have finished the scarf, make lots of pom poms to attach to it. I used my Clover pom pom maker and made 2 different sizes of pom pom.

Barcelona Skirt

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Trixie Lixie

This is probably the easiest skirt I have ever made, it’s the Amy Butler Barcelona skirt, its a gorgeous A-line skirt, fully lined and a beautifully concealed zip.

The fabric I used is a Free Spirt fabric by Anna Maria Horner from her Field Study range, it is called Raindrops Pop Candy isn’t that a great name?

I used some Turquoise lining fabric and then I trimmed the bottom with some Teal velvet ribbon.

This is a very easy pattern to follow and I would recommend it for beginners.

Happy sewing!

Knicker Swap

Posted on January 16, 2014 by Trixie Lixie

Our lovely friends at Fabric & Flowers are organising a Valentines Knicker Swap which we are sponsoring!

Gorgeous Gingham

To get involved take a look at the Fabric & Flowers blog. You will be making a pair of knickers to send to someone who will be making a pair of knickers for you! We are offering a 15% discount on our knicker kits using the code SEWKNICKERS at the checkout, valid from now until the 8th February 2014. There are loads of kits to choose from, just click on the one you like and it will take you straight to the website.

Amy Butler – Sketchbook Roses Voile

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Plum spotty knickers

The Birds & the Bees

Retro Floral

Michael Miller spotty

Michael Miller spotty roses

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Kaffe Fasset Roman Glass

Gradi Floral

We are also offering a prize for all you knicker making enthusiasts, enough fabric and knicker elastic to make 2 more delicious pairs of knickers!

Happy Sewing!

My Top 5 Christmas makes 2013

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Trixie Lixie

In at number 5 are the ham burger oven gloves that I made for my brother, this gift went down really well and I have already been commisioned to make some more.

At number 4 my ever popular Memory Photo Christmas decorations, these make great presents all year round, I made one for my sister that she has hanging in her car.

At number 3 are the Scarves that I made, these are available as kits from the TrixieLixie website and will make great Mothers day gifts!

At number 2 are the little coin purses also available as kits which have proved very popular on the website, they make a great gift as you can put a bit of cash in them or a lot of cash if it is the main present!

At number 1 and always a firm favourite with all my friends and family as they say they are really comfortable! It’s my KNICKERS of course! These kits are absolutely the best seller on the TrixieLixie website and judging by the amount of knicker elastic we sold, quite a few pairs of knickers were made as gifts this year!

The new Gingham knicker kits have been really popular this year, I love making knickers and creating new fabric and elastic combinations, watch this space for new kits coming soon!

There is 10% off everything on the website until 10th January 2014

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and my warmest wishes for the New Year!

Happy Sewing!

Gorgeous scarf tutorial

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Trixie Lixie

A while back I posted a scarf tutorial using a beautiful piece of Amy Butler Voile and pom pom trim.

Since then I have made several more as Christmas presents, these ones are even easier because they have fringe trim which is very simple to attach!

On the TrixieLixie website we have the fabric and fringe trim already packed up into kits for £15, so all you need to do is follow the instructions and make a gorgeous scarf.

This is how it is done: fold the piece of fabric in half, right sides together and sew along the width

Then finish the seam with either a zig-zag stitch, a serger or my favourite – pinking shears

Turn the right way around and then fold the ends under by about 1cm and pin the fringe inside, then sew in place.

And thats it! You’re done, either keep it for yourself or give it as a lovely gift!

Mine are all gifts and I have found (in my stash of things to good to be thrown away) these great boxes to put them in and I am going to decorate them with fabric and trim just like this beautiful box that a friend of mine decorated for me for my birthday (it had wonderful hand made shower gel and body lotion in it that she had also made!)

Thats 3 more Christmas presents sorted, back to the sewing machine to make some more! Happy Sewing!

Oven Gloves Tutorial

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Trixie Lixie

It’s always difficult to think of something to make as a mans gift, we are having Christmas dinner at my brothers house this year and he will be doing the cooking (Goose is on the menu I think!) so his present is going to be these oven gloves so that he doesn’t burn himself

The fabric I used is Michael Millers Ketchup and Mustard

Firts of all I made a pattern using an old pair of oven gloves, basically it is a rectangle 37cm by 20cm with rounded edges

Place this on the fold of the fabric and cut 2 pieces, then cut out one piece of wadding

Then fold the pattern so that you have 20cm by 20cm for the hand pieces, you can see where I have marked this on the pattern. You need to cut out 4 pieces in the fabric and 2 in the wadding.

Do the hand pieces first, sandwich the wadding in the middle of 2 pieces of fabric, right sides facing up, pin and baste these together

Trim the edges

Next attach the bias binding to the straight edge

Do the same to the main part of the oven gloves, so sandwich together with the wadding, baste and trim, then pin each hand piece to the ends

Finally, pin and sew the bias binding all the way around the edge of the oven gloves

Next week I am going to be making an apron for my sister in law, its going to have to be a frilly one!

Happy Sewing!

Memory Photo Xmas Decorations

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Trixie Lixie

I got the idea for these personalised christmas decorations from a post that I made for Mothers day, fabric photographic memory albums, you can see the tutorial here

These funky Michael Miller Christmas fabrics are available from TrixieLixie

Cut some 10cm squares, 2 of each style of fabricFor the photographs I used Iron on fabric transfer paper, don’t forget to flip your photo’s when you are printing them off so that when you iron them onto the fabric they are the right way around, iron them onto some plain white fabric.

I used some medium weight wadding to pad out the photo and then I zig-zag stitched it to one of the the pieces of fabric

Next I sandwiched a piece of heavier weight wdding between both pieces of fabric

Put a piece of ribbon in the top so that you can hang it on the tree

They are so quick and easy to make, I made these 4 in half an hour! I think I will be making them for every single member of my family, I’m sure I can find plenty of embarrassing Xmas photos of them all!

Happy Sewing!

Clover bias binding maker – give away

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Trixie Lixie

I have been using a lot of bias binding in my sewing lately, this pretty ready made floral one on my daughters Laurel dress

we have just added stock of Clover bias binding makers to TrixieLixie so I thought I would have a go at making some, there is an excellent tutorial here on the Colette blog. For my June give-away you could win one of these bias binding makers, for a chance to win, leave me a comment, for a further chance to win sign up for the TrixieLixie newsletter here

so I made some for this black pinafore dress that my daughter decided she needed

every edge has bias binding around it including the button fastenings at the sides

I have finally drawn a winner for the leafy stripe fat quarter bundle that I featured a few weeks ago, Becca Kettle is the lucky winner, she suggested putting the fabric into embroidery hoops and hanging them on the wall, I would love to see that!