Craft - easy sew Dorian the Tortoise

I had it in my head that I wanted to try a sewing project, an easy one to get me started. I was searching around and came across this exceptionally cute pattern and instructions for a toy turtle from Purl Bee. The tutorial is for a cushion-sized toy in a Liberty print. Unfortunately Liberty fabrics are a little pricey, although they are the best, so I used a bit of upholstery fabric for mine. Plus I decided I wanted mine to be a tortoise rather than a turtle.

What you'll need:

• Fabric of your choice for the shell and soft parts (head, feet etc)
• Felt for the underside
• Sewing kit
• Buttons for eyes
• Stuffing
• This template from Purl Bee - print it off at whatever size you want your tortoise and cut it out

Step 1. Cut your fabric from the template and work out what goes where.

Step 2. Take one shell piece, the correct way up, and pin the feet, arms, tail and head on top of it, as shown:

Step 3. Sew in place. This would be so much easier if you had a sewing machine (which I don't), but I managed fine sewing by hand! Then fold out the blue pieces and iron the seams away inside the shell. You should then end up with a tortoise shaped piece.

Step 4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for the other side of the tortoise. You should end up with two opposite-facing tortoise silhouettes. 

Step 5. With the correct sides together, pin your tortoise shapes together, leaving the underside open. Sew together.

Step 6. Open up your tortoise and place it (still inside out) onto your felt underside. Pin in place and stitch together, leaving a gap at the back. Turn the right way out.

Step 7. Fill with stuffing. You can buy toy stuffing in craft shops but I was impatient so just used bits of fabric, old socks etc. Alternatively, fill him up with rice and dried lavender for a heavier, sweet-smelling pillow.

Step 8. Stitch together the opening. Give him some eyes by sewing on some buttons.

Isn't he cute? He took me a couple of hours to make, but it'd be super speedy (ironically for a tortoise) if you used a sewing machine.

Craft - Driftwood sailing boat

Whenever I go to the beach, I'm always collecting shells, sea glass and bits of driftwood. They usually end up sitting in a drawer gathering dust; shells look so much prettier when they're still wet, don't they? But this weekend I decided to try making a driftwood sailing boat. I made one a few years ago and I still love it. This craft is a great use for little odds and ends of fabric.

What you'll need:

2 pieces of driftwood - one for the hull and one for the mast
1 piece of material big enough for a sail
Little fabric triangles or bells for the rigging
String/ribbon
2 pins, drawing pins, tacks or staples

Step 1. Super glue your "mast" into your driftwood boat. Mine already had a notch in it for the mast to sit in, but you could easily gouge a bit out. Prop it up in the right position and leave it to dry. It can help to put a bit of blue tack on the bottom of the boat to help it stand up.

Step 2. Press a drawing pin or a tack into each end of the boat (you might need to tap them in with a hammer). These are to keep your rigging in place. I had run out of drawing pins so I had to improvise with a dressmaker's pin at one end and a bent staple at the other.

Step 3. Prepare your sail. Measure out approximately how big your sail needs to be and cut your material to size. If you have a nice straight mast this is quite easy as you can just make a right-angled triangle. My mast was all wonky, so it took a few attempts to get it looking right.

Step 4. Hoist the sail! How you do this will probably depend on what sort of fabric you're using. My fabric, apart from being hilariously retro, was very liable to rip. I tied a piece of string around the bottom of the mast before using a needle to thread it through the bottom left corner of the sail. I sewed it along the bottom of the sail and tied the other end of the string onto the pin at the end of the boat. I then tied the top corner of the sail directly to the top of the mast, carefully pulling it taut.

However, if your fabric is a bit more sturdy you can just make a little incision in each corner and use an individual loop of string to tie each bit in place.

Step 5. Make your rigging. Tie a piece of string or ribbon from the top of the mast to the pin or staple on the opposite side to the sail. For my first boat, I decided to make little flags by cutting little triangles of contrasting fabric and attaching them to the string with a simple stitch.

This time I made use of the little bells that come on the collars of Lindt bunnies. I looped the ribbon twice through each bell to keep it in place before tying it onto the staple.

These make such pretty decorations and gifts. The big boat currently lives on top of our bathroom mirror and the little one is going to sit on the window frame. They're very light, so it's easy to blue tack them in place. Have fun making your own!