Scrumptious Strawberry Tutorial

It is really beginning to feel like Summer is just around the corner and I for one cannot wait. This time of year is one of my favourites it is the time of year that two of my children were born so a time for celebrations in our house. It is also when the rest of the Summer season stretches ahead and because I am an optimist, every year at this time I truly believe that we are going to have one long hot glorious Summer ahead of us (!)

I have been thinking about fruit a lot recently. I associate fruit with Summer - fruit picking and fruit eating.I have been designing lots of fruit inspired projects for our sewing club's last term of the school year and with these projects still fresh in my mind I thought I'd share this sweet fabric fruit project with you.

You will need:

• A semi circle of patterned fabric. For my strawberries I used an 8cm diameter but you can use larger with the same technique. 
• Green Ribbon
• Thread and soft toy filling.

Step 1

Fold the semi circle in half and sew along the straight edge using small backstitches. There is no need to finish off at the end of the edge follow on to step 2 using the same thread.

Step 2

Use small running stitches to sew all around the top open edge of the the cone shape about 1/4cm from the edge.


Step 3

Once you are back to where you began turn the cone the right way around and add stuffing.

Step 4

Now pull your thread to gather the fabric together creating a strawberry shape. Secure the opening with a few small stitches.

Step 5

Now it is time to add your ribbon "leaves". To do this fold over one end of you ribbon by about 3cm to make a loop nd sew this loop on to the top of the strawberry. Continue to fold and loop the ribbon criss crossing the top of the strawberry sewing it in to place with a couple of small stitches each time you add a loop.

Until your lovely little strawberry looks like this....

Quick and easy to make they could be used for lots of different purposes - key rings, brooches or just sitting pretty in a bowl.

Hope & Gloria Make Your Own

This morning it was raining. I found the perfect antidote to the dull weather by making a bright and cheerful tote bag. I love pattern. I love combining pattern whether it clashes or subtly complements. With this bag I think I achieved the second. The dotty retro fabric looks fab with the clean candy stripe lining. I was pleased with the results.

Lately I have been asked when I am going to begin sewing lessons for adults and  I am really excited to be working on a schedule of weekend workshops aimed at beginners or improvers or people who have taken a rest from sewing and want to take a refresher course.

The schedule will be released shortly but in the meantime this tote bag that I made this morning is a taste of things to come with our Hope & Gloria Adult Sewing Workshops as it will be one of the projects that can be made.

You can keep an eye on our website by clicking here( Hope & Gloria )to find out when and where you can join us for a morning of creativity, chat and a cup of coffee or two.

What We Made This Easter

The Hope & Gloria Workshops this Easter have been fabulous. All of our projects were varied but had one thing in common - a lot of love and hard work went in to them to produce something that all of the children who attended should be proud of.

A huge well done to everyone and here are a few pics of the lovely things we made:

Friday 5th April - Chickens and Egg Cozies

Friday 12th April - Fab Fabric Flower & Flag Pictures

Further Adventures in Soap Making

A large feature of the past 24 hours has been soap making in our house. This morning we held the first Hope & Gloria Soap Making Workshop so for a quick practice my ten year old and I made these adorable mini soaps yesterday afternoon. We were both really pleased with the results and the lime, mandarin and basil fragrance is just fab - a really lovely clean scent.

The workshop went brilliantly so a huge well done to all of the lovely girls who attended. In total we made eleven bars of handmade soap with either a strawberry or lime fragrance. They smelled delicious! Here's a pic of a few of them:

Of course, no Hope & Gloria Holiday Workshop would be complete without sewing so we also made these adorable gift bags to take the soap home in:

We hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did and can't wait for our next workshop on Friday - Fabric or Flag Wall Art.

Guide to Fabulous Stitches

You may have noticed something new about the Hope & Gloria Blog. Yes, we have added a new page. Designed to provide information for the beginner or those in need of a reminder, we hope the Guide to Fabulous Stitches will be useful to anyone starting out on their sewing journey. Simply click on the tab at the tope of the page to view.

Part one will guide you through the basics, at Hope & Gloria we call them our "Hero Stitches". They are the stitches that will equip you to make lots of lovely basic hand-sewn projects and no sewing enthusiast should be without them. Part two will follow soon with A Guide to Decorative Stitches.

Happy sewing!