neclace | Mr X Stitch

I love live music. In the last few months I’ve been lucky enough to see The Hollywood Vampires and the Foo Fighters live, and I went to the cinema to see a film Muse made of their Drones tour which I saw live last year. Now I'm getting excited about festivals being shown on television and about going to the Moira Calling festival in Northern Ireland in September. So I thought I’d put together a fun filled festival make-a-thon for you which will run across this column and my August column too. So turn your favourite festival tunes up loud and enjoy! 1. Oh oh, which tent is mine?! At a festival? Popped out to the loo at 4am? Can’t remember which of the hundreds of identical tents is yours to crawl back into? Not any more! Glam up your tent with some simple festival bunting. I think bunting should be really fun, so I picked lots of random fabric for this project, from robot toys, to rock guitars, to festival bunnies with flowers in their hair. I cut triangles out of each fabric using a template measuring 20cm wide and 25cm long, and cut the same number of triangles out of a plain fabric to go on the back. Using a plain fabric keeps down your costs - and leaves you more leftover fun fabric to play with on another project. I actually used a plain bed sheet I found for the bargain price of £2 in a local shop for the backing fabric. Funky fabric makes for great bunting I then put a front piece of fabric together with a back piece, right sides together, and sewed it up along both sides, trimmed the bulk of the fabric off the triangle tip so it would be easier to form into a sharp point, turned it the right way round, made the point pointy by pushing a crochet hook into the corner, and gave it an iron. Once I had done that with all of my pendants I got some binding and ironed it in half, then inserted each pendant into middle of the binding by hand with 3cm spaces between each pendant, and sewed it all together. Hold the bunting in place while you sew You can make it as colourful or long as you like. What better way to display bunting between festivals than on a Mini! Costs Fabric: You could use fabric from your stash or old bits of clothing, I spent about £10 in total. Binding: £1.99 for 5m on Ebay Total: I made 24 feet of bunting for £12 and had loads of fabric leftover for another project :-) 2. Dreaming of festivals gone by Remember that t-shirt you bought at Glastonbury back in 2004 when Muse headlined the Pyramid Stage? You forgot you had that didn’t you? You never wear it any more - so let’s give it a new life at new festivals as a cosy place to lay your head when you’re in your sleeping bag. I’d rather have my Moira Calling 2017 t-shirt made into something I see every day on my sofa because it makes me smile to think about the time I had at the festival so I’m making it into a cushion. First of all buy a cushion pad. My top tip for this is to look in supermarkets for cushions which are on sale as it’s often cheaper to buy them to re-cover than a blank cushion pad. For this project I bought a cushion with a llama on it in a sale for £3. I just whipped off the cover. Then as a bonus you have the cover to play with on another project. So take your t-shirt, cut off the sleeves and cut it down the sides and across the shoulders to give you two separate pieces of fabric. Just go for it - cut the t-shirt to bits! Measure your cushion across the middle. Mine was 18 inches. I wanted the cushion to be snug and cuddly so I wanted the fabric to be slightly smaller and went for 17 inches. So I cut the back of the t-shirt with all of the bands listed on it into a square measuring 17 x 17 inches for the front of the cushion. I then cut the front of the t-shirt into as long a strip as possible, 17 inches wide. My t-shirt was 22 inches long. I then cut that piece of fabric into two pieces, the bottom half (because it already has the t-shirt hem on it) was cut to be 17 x 10, and the top bit (which needs to be hemmed) was longer at 17 x 12. The front and the two halves of the back, ready to sew up I then hemmed the top part to make it neater. To do this I folded the fabric down by half an inch and half an inch again, then stitched it. I wanted the section which said Moira Calling to be the main focus on the back of the cushion so I wanted it at the top and overlapping the bottom half. I laid the front of the cushion on the floor with the right side facing me. I then clipped the bottom half of the back onto it, right sides together and sewed it on across the bottom. I then did the same with the top half. Both parts of the back are now sewn to the front of the cushion Once they were attached I sewed the sides of the cushion shut. Then I turned it the right way around, squashed in the cushion pad and you have a fab cushion to keep your head happy in the tent. Happy festival dreams of happy festivals gone by. A great reminder of a fabulous day out in 2017 The back with the Moira Calling section overlapping the bottom Costs T-shirt: You had it anyway Cushion pad: £3 Total: £3 My television festival highlight of the year so far is definitely the amazing lady who plays the scissors on stage with Noel Gallagher. She gives me hope that I might actually get to play in a band one day... I hope you have a fantastic music filled month and get to see some great live acts. I'll be back next month with part two of my festival special showing you how to make some great festival jewellery. Best song for this craft: School’s Out For Summer - Hollywood Vampires version Best cake to eat while you rip apart t-shirts: Coffee cake -----