Mini camping lantern with tutorial

I volunteer with a lovely young people's organisation called the Woodcraft Folk, and this year was lucky enough to be given a place on a bushcraft course run by the inspiringly titled Great Bear.

Learning how to "rough it" in the outdoors has been a challenge to say the least, but I didn't want the opportunity to be wasted, so after a particularly unsuccessful night getting rained on I decided to re-group. It seemed to me the best thing was to start by looking at the skills I was already confident in, and applying them to bushcraft. I doscovered a particularly interesting forum on making your own gear on the website Backpacking Light, and was particularly taken with a thread on making a super light, super compact lantern. There were lots of interesting suggestions but this idea by John Taylorson (thanks John!) caught my imagination.

Basically, one makes a tiny drawstring bag from white ripstop fabric, which you can use for putting things in during the day. Then, for the night time, add a tiny LED torch which is inserted into the bag so that the bag diffuses the light, thus creating a lantern you can actually read from!

Here's a picture to give you the idea:

And here is how it looks in action!

Well it seemed like about time that I finally shared something, so if you fancy having a go at making one yourself, here's the tutorial. I did this with a sewing machine, but I don't see any reason you couldn't do this by hand.

First, you will need:

• Rectangle of white ripstop fabric. (I used a piece 30cm by 10cm)
• LED torch
• cord lock / spring toggle (the black thing in the picture)
• your drawstring - I used paracord but anything will work
• Sewing supplies: needle, thread, pencil, safety pin

Here's a close-up of the torch and toggle in case you're not sure what I meant:

 

Here goes:

1.
Draw a pencil line as a guide, 3cm from each of the short ends of rectangle of ripstop. Fold in each of the four corners of the fabric at rightangles to the line, to make a mitre, and sew them in place with a line of stitches along the diagonal edge. It should look like this:

And a close-up of the corner:

2.      
At each of the short ends of the original rectangle, fold the short end down, forming a lcm seam overlap, and then down again, and sew this seam in pace to form a little tunnel that the cord will eventually go through:

3.
Fold your rectangle in half, short end to short end, with the seam you have just made facing inwards

 

4.
Sew down either side of the bag:

 

5.
If you wish, to make the base of the bag square, you can pinch the corners together, bringing the lower portion of the side seam into contact with the centre of the base, and sew in place. Hopefully this picture will make it clearer:

 

6.
You can then trim odd the little pointy bits which are now surplus, so you are left with something that looks like a noodle box:

 

7.
Turn it inside out:

8.
This exposes the little tunnel, through which you will insert the string. Attach a safety pin to the end you are threading through to make it easier :

The finished bag/lantern. Just add your torch and toggle to secure and you are good to go!

I've never made a tutorial before so please feel free to give feedback or ask questions!
If the method for sewing the corners didn't help, this post by Tibeydo on Craftster explains it much better!

Bagulele fun

I have just spent a fab weekend at the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain helping my friend Teeny B sell the handcrafted ukulele bags she has designed: Bag-uleles . Here she is with our new friend Cale.

Along with jamming and seeing uke celebs from around the world perform, we made some great new friends and the bags got great feedback with oodles of sales and orders. 

And here we are having a farewell hot chocolate with Cale, Sarah and Co at the excellent Brew Rooms coffee house.

Lancashire Handicraft Heritage

My Mum's side of the family is from the village of Bacup in Lancashire. Each year on Easter Saturday, a very unusual Morris dancing troupe, called the Britannia Coconutters, make their way around the town performing a clog dance involving beating rhythmically on wooden discs strapped to their hands and knees.

Although Morris has its critics there is something primeval about this pagan custom that I really enjoy, and it is certainly a spectacle. I also love the traditional Northern music played by Stacksteads Brass Band which accompanies the dance.

Here are some videos I took:

This year I really wanted to get back to my heritage and have some traditional folk clogs to wear to watch the "Nutters". Master clogmaker Phil Howard was kind enough to let me visit his home workshop in Stockport to be fitted up for handmade clogs.

I was really delighted that a lady in Bacup stopped in the street to show her little granddaughter the clogs, saying that they are what she used to wear as a child, as did my grandparents . They are beautifully crafted and I hope to try some dance workshops with the City Clickers in October.

European Train Adventure Part 1

So here is the yarnbomb I left at the Mannequin Pis in Brussels. I love that he made his way into the photos of oblivious tourists! He had a little ribbon at the back with a link to the blog, and I was hoping someone would pay us a visit. . . . .

Buen viaje to me!

Very shortly I will be going on a train adventure visiting Brussels, Cologne, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich and Paris. My plan is to yarnbomb each city as I go, and it is just possible that whoever is reading this has found one of my yarnbombs! If that is you - Welcome!!! please leave a comment to introduce yourself. It would be great to find out who has seen my yarnbombs, and why we happened to be passing through the same place.

A crafty birthday part 2: Sylvanian fascinator

Being able to recall and log happy memories is turning out to be one of my favourite things about blogging. I am about to go on a little train adventure (more on that later!) and am taking a moment to think of the friends I will miss while I am gone.Without their encouragement and support I'd never have had the nerve to go, and Ariane deserves a special mention for the generosity, hospitality and inspiration she has offered.


Here are some photos of the wonderfully ridiculous fascinator she made for me to wear at our joint birthday tea party.


xx

A crafty birthday part 1: The doodle cup

I was really lucky to have some beautiful hand crafted gifts for my birthday this year.


This teacup was painted by my friend Meg, using ceramic paint pens. Meg says she hasn't done anything creative in years. I really love the choice of colours and the stream of consciousness that is Meg's doodle style! Is that a heart? Next to a Catherine wheel, next to a chess board?


Thanks Meg! 


xx 

And this makes it all worthwhile

At the risk of sounding like an old git, when I was a child, people appreciated handmade goods - you were made to! Growing up involved being regularly forced into scratchy jumpers, embarrassing hats and garish cardigans so that the maker could see them in use. It's an etiquette which sadly no longer seems to exist. I may be glad that the ritual child humiliation has died out, but unfortunately it has taken a lovely ethos with it. Handmade clothes, usually made by a family member who belonged to a prior generation, don't tend to be at the cutting edge of fashion, but we were taught that there is love, time and thought in every single stitch. That's something you can't buy, even at Cath Kidston ;-)


All that we were expected to provide in return for all this love and doting, was the pleasure for the maker of seeing a beloved child wearing something they had taken the time to make. It's a disappointment waiting at the end of many a craft project that this tradition hasn't survived.


All this said, you can imagine what a delight it was to receive these photos along with a commission to make another hat in size 3-6 months. A huge thank you to our tiny model and her Mum. Prepare for cuteness overload!

Mixed feelings over a baby cloche

It's always nice to hold with tradition and give something handmade when a friend has a baby, but I must admit that each time I work on a piece for a little one, I have begun to wonder when I will get the chance to make stuff for a child of my own. In the meantime, at least I'm getting lots of practise! 


It is an unexpected side effect that playing the domestic goddess plays such havoc with my hormones, but I feel it illustrates how much emotion I invest into everything I make, and by the time I've finished the project I am always refocussed and looking forward to meeting the new arrival.  I wonder whether other crafters occasionally encounter such bitter-sweetness in producing their labours of love?


This little cloche took a bit of trial and error but I learnt lots doing it and I'm pleased with the scalloped edging. I hope it is a fitting way to say "welcome to the world " to a tiny young lady.

I don't have a special person in my life . . . .

. . . . I have a number of them! But don't groan - I'm not going to turn HAMH into one of those gloaty smug blogs on what is potentially one of the loneliest nights of the year! On the other hand, it doesn't hurt to appreciate what you have, so I planned an alternative valentine's message and some little gifts for friends to make a positive of the day!  

Footprints in the Sand

The more I think about my crafty heritage, the more I realise how much I owe to my maternal Grandma, Doris. I thought perhaps you might like to meet her! This is a photo of us together during a walk on the beach just after Christmas this year, and another of my Grandma and Mum arm in arm. 

Doris's 90th Christmas was the first time she finally allowed us to convince her to take a rest and not to insist on cooking for the entire family, and we had great fun spoiling her for once! The photos captured such a lovely day I decided to incorporate them into framed gifts for Mum and Grandma, inspired by the poem Footprints in the Sand"  which is one of Doris's favourites.

Thanks Fran - you're one in a million

When times were hard last year my friend Fran was amazingly kind and for a time I lived with her in her tiny "microflat." It could have been stressful to live in such close proximity, but actually we had a lovely time which we both look back on with nostalgia. Shortly after I moved in, Fran got a job in her native Cambridge and moved away, so I took over the flat.I really cannot imagine how things would have been if Fran hadn't stepped in to share her little haven in Hotwells. Such kindness deserved a gift which was straight from the heart.and which told her that she will always have a home with me in Bristol any time she wants to visit. I made this little bag, filled it with home comforts, and embroidered it with "Fran's home from home" so she can take it with her wherever she goes and know she will have the essentials.

Here's the result:

Vintage crochet/knitting patterns No. 1

Whilst I didn't feel that these vintage patterns ever qualified for the Museum, they are testament to Grandma's crafty longevity, and I've had a whole lot of fun rummaging through them, or "rooting" as Doris would say (in her Lancashire dialect!).


Here's the first of many I'll be sharing. I wonder if she made (and wore!) this one? I'm quite tempted to have a go!

Party invitations in the style of old skool vinyl records

One of the reasons that I am so happy to craft is because it means that I can create really personal gifts for special friends and family members. That's especially helpful when cash isn't flowing in the right direction. Okay, handmade items can look a bit "wonky" sometimes no matter hard you try. But the people that "get" crafting understand that it takes a lot of love to spend the amount of time it takes to produce something handmade. And that's something money can't buy!


So when my loyal friend Heather mentioned that she was planning a party for her 50th birthday, I really wanted to make a contribution. I have to admit, paper crafts are not my usual choice so this was a bit of a challenge for me. . . .so here they are . . . .

I'm pretty pleased with them, and I think you can tell they are records, but if anyone has any advice for the future, please do comment!


Happy 50th Heather! Now I just have to worry about my outfit . . . . . .