I had the great pleasure this weekend of trying out silk screen printing for the very first time at Zeena Shah’s studio. Jules’s brother, Jamie, bought me the course for a Christmas present and I’ve been really excited about it as I’ve always wanted to give it a go.

It turned out that not only is Zeena a great teacher but probably the nicest peson I’ve ever met and created a great atmosphere – from experience there is nothing worse than a silent, sombre craft course. Her studio, tucked away off Old Street,  is also a really inspiring space, crammed full of vintage finds and inspiration. I was joined on the day by four other lovely ladies and we spent the time chatting, drinking tea and creating: the perfect start to the weekend!

I would whole-heartedly recommend the course; it is a snip at £55, especially considering it is four hours long and you walk away with a printed tote bag and tea towel. It’s also a craft that you can easily develop at home once you are armed with Zeena’s expertise.

I’ve been trialling the new Nokia Lumia for the last couple of weeks so I took that along with me. All of these photographs are completely unedited so you can judge the camera for yourselves…

The first step was to find inspiration, for those of us who didn’t have ideas for designs. Zeena’s studio is full of lovely things that were inspiration enough but she also has a collection of beautiful print books that were a perfect starting point.

We then had to cut out our designs. I decided to make a tea towel of jellies and a tote bag with my blog name printed on it.

We picked and mixed our own colours, which is more difficult than you think.

Zeena was on hand to help us with the actual printing bit. This is Faye’s rather lovely cloud design.

The first round of prints went really well – Flora’s orange print is great.

I love my new branded tote bag! I might have to use this as my logo from now on.

And the second round of prints was beautiful. I loved Ruth’s blue floral print and Faye’s baby-grows were too much to bear!

My jelly print in all its glory.

Such a fun day and I am definitely going back for more as Zeena is now running a print and make your own lampshade – amazing!

Katy x

I’m very excited today to be presenting a little collaboration that I have been working on with the wondrous Hannah and Rosie of  The New Craft Society. Hannah and Rosie are just as fanatic about Liberty prints as I am (I’ll be telling you all about their blog birthday event at the store soon!) so I thought of them first when I decided to make pillowcases in an attempt to rejuvenate my bedlinen, without having to spend a fortune on a whole new set. I chose the fabric for the pillowcases, made them and then sent off to the girls for their magic touch to add gorgeous trims to the cases to give them that ‘vintage touch’. This is a very simple project and does not take too long but makes all the difference to boring, white bedlinen.

So, stay with me for the pillowcase tutorial and then head over to The New Craft Society blog to find out how Hannah and Rosie added the trims…

You will need:

For each case you will need a back piece of 52 x 74cm and a front piece of 52 x 100cm. I used a ticking stripe fabric from John Lewis for the back of the cases and Pepper, Eloise and Phoebe Liberty prints for the front of the cases.

Tutorial:

1. Cut your front and back piece.  Hem both these pieces at what will be the opening of the pillowcase. Press a 1cm hem.

2. Then you need to sew the hem.

3. Place the longer front piece on the bottom and the shorter back piece on top, right sides together. Fold the longer section of the front piece over the back piece and pin together.

4. Sew along the bottom of the case and then down each side, starting at the top where the flap has been turned over.

5. Turn the cases inside out and press carefully.

Pop over to The New Craft Society now to see how the girls added a vintage touch to the cases…

And here are the finished pillowcases!

They have added such a lovely touch of colour and pattern to my otherwise boring, white bedlinen.

I’m in love with my new pillowcases! I am definitely going to make some more of these – hope you like them too. Thank you so much to Hannah and Rosie for adding their touch too.

Katy x

I am so pleased today to be able to say that I am sharing a tutorial over on the beautiful At Home in Love blog. I love Aileen’s fresh style and and all her creative ideas for the home and I’m very excited that she will be doing a guest post for Apartment Apothecary very soon too! So, if you want to see how you can turn this little lot….

…into this beautiful bespoke Liberty print lampshade, then hop on over to At Home in Love right now!

Enjoy and thank you Aileen for hosting me today! Katy x

P.S. My tutorial is a modified version of a tutorial from The Liberty Book of Home Sewing (best book ever!).

I’ve always loved Valentine’s day celebrations, especially the card part. I’m making Jules a heart garland this year with a secret message in each heart. I also thought these would make a great decoration for a wedding party – maybe to hang on each chair or cover up a bare wall. I’ve got a big stash of Liberty print wrapping paper, which I have decided to use (don’t you just love this Betsy print?) but you can use any paper you like so it’s a really inexpensive decoration.

You will need:

Pretty wrapping paper, scissors, heart template (I drew my own – just make sure it is symmetrical) and a sewing machine.

Tutorial:

1. Fold your wrapping paper in half and in half again. Draw round your heart template as many times as possible (depending on how long you want your garland to be). Cut round each heart so you end up with a big pile of them.

2. Pair up your hearts and fold them in half creating a crease down the middle.

3. Unfold them and place the two hearts together (wrong sides together). Sew down the middle of the two hearts following the crease you made earlier. When you get to the bottom of the hearts, pull the cotton through the machine until you create your desired gap between each one on the garland.

4. Now fold the hearts away from each other again so that it becomes 3D.

All done! Hang them from the ceiling, on the back of a chair or across a window.

Happy Valentine’s day lovely people x

I’m lucky enough to have been given both Liberty sewing books as presents; they are full of the most beautiful home projects that are right up my street. I decided to try out the pouffe (or some might call it a footstool or beanbag) pattern to brighten up a corner of my sitting room (plus Jules needs somewhere to put his feet up as I always lie out on the sofa). I decided to buy exactly the same print as used in the book as it fits perfectly with my sofa. I would normally spend hours deciding which Liberty print  to use but the styling in the book is so seductive I just went with what they had used.

It’s an easy thing to make in that there are only a few pieces of fabric involved (top, base, side and two handle pieces) but it is one of the trickier pieces of sewing I’ve done as you have to fit a zip in the bottom (you have to make a liner full of the beans that you can take in and out via the zip) and you have to sew the top, which is a circle, to the side piece, which is a rectangle.

However, the final result is very pleasing and would cost a small fortune if you bought it in a shop.

Where to buy what you need for this project:

The Liberty Book of Home Sewing is available from Waterstones for £15.

Pablo Pepper print fine corduroy is available from Sewbox for £14.95 per metre.

Polystyrene beads cost £3.80 from eBay.

I love being able to make things for my home for a fraction of the cost of shop-bought pieces. I’ve saved myself so much money since learning how to sew!

What have you made recently for your home?

Katy x