DIY - Homemade duvet cover

As you may have guessed from previous posts, when I redecorated last year I went for a slight seaside theme. Neautral walls with blue accessories, in different blues so I didnt have to worry about any clashing or mismatched.

When I came to looking for new bedding I really struggled to find something I liked. I found a set in Seasalt that I loved but as much as I loved it I wasn't a fan of the price tag. In the end I decided to make my own - I confess now in hindsight that this was no mean feat.

 I started by picking some plain cottons in a sky blue, mid blue and navy. I also picked two polycottons in the same pattern (anchors, sail bats, light houses, life rings and ships wheels on), one with a white background a navy print and the other vice versa. The polycottons were very reasonable and a great way to add meterage to the project bag without costing the earth.

I also managed to source some sheet fabric which would be wide enough to form the backing of my duvet cover - for ease. This only came in cream in my local fabric shop and so I grabbed some Dylon fabric dye, a large bucket and some elastic bands. Tie dye!!

 

I then started the planning by laying the different fabrics across the bed to try and figure out an order. With a little bit of folding, adjusting and a bit of help from my lovely otherhalf, we came up with an order we liked and the different widths of the stripes of each fabric.


I was soon sewing strips of fabric together, even stitching a piece of webbing to add a narrow navy stripe between two of the fabrics

 The measuring and pinning of the front to the back and making sure it was all square was probably the hardest part as I had to find a space big enough to lay it all out (In my house this involved moving all the furntiure back to create a big open, clear, free of cat toys, space). After lots of pinning at least two pairs of hands working we finally got the front secured to the back and run through the machine.

Top Tip
You know its really annoying when you grab the duvet to pull it up round you in the night but find yourself holding and empty section of duvet cover because the duvet has slipped down inside. Well I had a plan to hopefully prevent the disappointment caused by a disappearing duvet. When stitching the top hem I stitched in some loops of elastic (nothing special just ordinary 1cm wide elastic) - one in each of the top two corners and one in the middle at the top. I then found some buttons in my stash of the right size and stitched one in each of the top two corners and one in the middle at the top, to secure buttons into loops and stop duvet slipage.

 

I was pretty pleased with how it has turned out. I have yet to complete the second set, as at the moment this one comes off the bed, into the wash and back on the bed.
I also started doing some embroidery for pillow cases but at the moment make do with plain and think I may embroider striaght on to those rather then onto plain fabric and sew pillow cases.

Here was my first attmept - was pretty pleased with it and will certainly try out some more embroidery on the pillow cases.

All in all I think the fabric cost me just over the price of one of the expensive duvet sets however I have plenty of fabric left over and have made 2 duvet sets from the fabric etc purchased. I will make some cushion covers etc. I dont have space for these in my current room at my parents however I full intend to transfer the theme to my own home one day. (Especially as me and my parnter choose bits and out it all together, together.)

'Finish it February', friends and Corner to Corner baby blanket

A bit more catching up to do...

 Friends
Since my surgery I have spent a lot of time at my local yarn shop/cafe. It's great you can sit and sip a cuppa, nibble at some homemade cake, crochet/knit and natter - Perfect!! I'm the kind of person who would be diven mad kept within the same four wall and so as soon as I was able I was in the wheelchair and up the road to WeKnit coffee corner - Find them on Facebook here. Or visit their online shop: weknit-youcantoo.co.uk Or check out the blog written by the fabulous Sue: WeKnitYouCanToo Blog Without everyone at WeKnit I think I would have gone stir crazy. As well as the yarn, coffee, and cakes the support has been fantastic - I can't thank you ladies and gents enough!
The chatter has kept me upbeat and busy with different projects - all of which will appear on here in good time.

Finish it February
One day at the beginning of February I was in the cafe and said something about wanting to get the Corner to Corner (C2C) baby blanket I started last year finshed. I had pretty much got half way and it was the daunting idea of the decreasing that had made me put it to one side. One facebook I made a comment about 'Finish it February' and wanting to finish all those projects I had put to one side mid way through or had brought yarn for but that sat in a bag or cupboard untouched. Without realising it I started 'Finish it February' amongst my fellow knitters and crocheters. Soon an event was created on facebook and photos and comments were being shared, projects being pulled from their dusty resting places. It was great to see everyone getting the satisfaction of finsihing pieces they had previously given up hope on or just lost the enthusiasm for.

The offending Corner to Corner (C2C)
The C2C technique is really rather simple, increasing to the halfway point (diagonally) and then decreasing to the last corner giving you a complete square upon completion. This was ideal for my first baby blanket  as I brought 2 balls of yarn and worked up using the increase to the mid point until I ran out of yarn on the first ball. This meant I knew there would be enough in the second ball to work the second half in decreases.

When finished I worked a narrow border of double crochets in a complimenting colour.
The yarn used for this project:
With Love DK by Woolcraft - colour Ocean 617
New Fashion DK by Woolcraft - colour Lemon 4385
Puchased here: weknit-youcantoo - woolcraft

Crochet Poncho - ribbed cowl neck

As promised a catch up of what I got up to in hospital ...
Where it all started?
I had seen a pattern in issue 25 of Simply Crochet that caught my eye. The beautiful poncho in the bottom left hand corner of the cover. 

You can download the poncho pattern from Ravelry for £2.75 -Ravelry link to Simply Crochet cowl-neck-poncho worth it in my opinion, great pattern, easy and a fab garment. 

Yarn, colours and work in progress

So I toddled of to my local yarn shop and Drops supplier: weknit-youcantoo.co.uk in search of yarn.
I was soon plucking yarn from the shelves and lining up colours. 

As you can see on the far right I had already picked my base colour and begun working up the cowl neck (worked from top to bottom). We (me and Sue the lovely shop owner) sat for a good 10 minutes playing around with the order of the colours (I like to pick colours that are more me). We were just getting near an order we were happy with when much to my dismay the Sue muddled them all up, grabbing balls randomly to come up with this. I loved it! A stroke of pure genius!!

I used Drops Nepal from my local yarn shop for this WeKnitYouCanToo - Nepal. The base colour was - Beige colour code 206 and I used 7 balls. I then used approximately one ball (less so far, but as you wil read later I want to add more rows to make it longer)of each of the following for the stripes (from right to left as seen in the photo above):

4434 - Purple

6220 - Medium Blue

2923 - Goldenrod

7238 - Olive Mix (dark green)

8783 - Forget-Me-Not

1477 - Pistachio  

7120 - Light Grey Green

6790 - Royal Blue 

6273 - Cerise

 As you will have seen in an earlier post I had some surgery and this was the project I took with me to the hospital to keep my brain busy. I got started and had this (below) when I went into hospital. 

In hospital I was spurred on by the idea that I wanted to aim to wear my poncho home (I was only in for the one night, but still there’s not much else you can do). 

Sure enough I had most of a poncho by the time I left. 

 I decided against the tassels in the end as being a cat owner I suspected they would make me prone to random attacks and destruction would be caused in no time. As a result, I have decided to go back and add a few more rows to give the poncho a bit more length - will post a photo update below when I have done this.

Surgery update..

Ok, so once again, surprise I have neglected my blog. I have some catching up to do, so be prepared for several blogs in quick succession. I'd like to think I have a good excuse though... 

September meant that it was back to work and I have to confess that work wasn't what I'd quite expected it to be - but therein lies a different story all together. I finished work at the end of November and a week later I was in hospital having surgery on my foot. I didn’t feel it was very fair to get new job only to have turn round to new employer and tell them I would be out of action for between 3 and 6 months. You see when I last saw my consultant it was decided I would need surgery on both my feet and that they should be done separately, with a 3-month recovery per foot this looked like it could put me out of action for most of an academic year. I decided to make the most of my contract finishing early and get the first lot of surgery done.

So... on the 3rd December I went in to have the first foot done. Having had lots of surgery (51 general anaesthetics by time I was 12) as a child the idea of going for surgery again didn’t bowl me over, but then who is ever pleased by the prospect of surgery really). The bit the worried me wasn’t the surgery itself - no, I've had the same foot surgeon since I was 18 months old and I trust him entirely! no, the bit the worried me was the anaesthetic - you see I never reacted well to them as a child and the prospect of not being able to keep anything down for the 24 hours that followed was not one that made me comfortable with the surgery route - which to be fair was the only option.

Anyways... the anaesthetist I met on the day was an absolute super star and I ended up having a spinal anaesthetic which meant I was awake all the way through and post-surgery felt great! Up drinking coffee and back crocheting on the ward in no time!

Here is a picture that lovely anaesthetist took of me in theatre. I had my headphones on and music playing through my phone (on airplane mode of course – hardly appropriate to be taking calls and answering texts on the operating table now, lol). The 3 hours passed very quickly – that may have been the drugs they gave me. Have to say I am rather proud of myself for managing this as would never have thought it possible. Until about 6 or so years ago I had such a massive needle phonbia that I leapt out of the dentists chair when he put that suction tube thingy in my mouth (funny but true - I didn't trust him that it wasnt going to be a needle!) 

Unfortunately, being awake also meant I was able to suggest having the second lot of surgery 6 weeks after the first when the pins were to be taken out.
The second surgery wasn’t quite as comfortable as the first – spinal was a bit trickier. But it’s all done now and the last pins come out on Monday 29^th February 2016 – TOMORROW!! 

I will leave this as a short post for now, but will update you all on my recent creations in following posts, including the crocheting mentioned moments ago. Watch this space – I’ve needed lots to keep me busy and out of mischief.