Bustle & Sew Magazine Issue 71 December 2016 Sampler

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Welcome to the December Issue Everyone has their own traditions about when Christmas begins. For the last six years for me it has been the day when the Christmas (December) issue of the Bustle & Sew Magazine is published, full of seasonal goodies. We then count down the days on our Advent Calendar until our decorations go up.

Traditionally in our family we deck our halls on the nearest weekend to my birthday, so we wait until the middle of the month before bringing our decorations down from the attic. Of course this is my little grandson Freddie’s first Christmas - he arrived on Boxing Day 2015, so we’re all excited to make it a super-memorable one!

There are lots of Christmas ideas between the covers this month, and I do recommend Rosie’s Recipes, where she shares some of our old family chocolate ideas. If you’re stuck for gift ideas, then homemade truffles are sure to be a winner! There’s plenty more to enjoy too and I do hope you’ll enjoy this issue.

The January Magazine will be published on Thursday 29 December so please do look out for it then.

Meanwhile I hope you have a very happy month and wonderful holidays, with friends and family - and plenty of time for stitching too of course!

Best wishes

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Tips for Stitchers Bamboo skewers make absolutely wonderful stuffing sticks! Simply break off the pointy tip …. And fray the remaining end. I use an old pair of scissors for this. Fray it down around 1/2?. Then I use this end to “grab” and push stuffing into narrow limbs and hard to reach places when I’m making softies like Ratty from my Wind in the Willows collection

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Between the Covers …

Tips for Stitchers

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December Almanac

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Joyful Angel Cushion Cover

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Lovely Idea: Invisible Zip Cushions

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Meet the Maker: Laura Brown

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Santa’s Little Helpers: Amazing Reindeer

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Reindeer Christmas Bunting

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Lovely Idea: Knitted Stockings

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Here We Come A-Wassailing

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Blast from the Past: Carol Singing Mice

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Angie Spurgeon

Christmas Husbandly Fare

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Snuggle Bunny Hand Warmer

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Hoop Up! It’s Christmas

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Peace on Earth Hoop

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Colourful artwork, and a new line of fabrics too - there’s plenty to enjoy at Artwork by Angie!

A Victorian Christmas: Charles Dickens

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Lovely Idea: Jar Ornaments

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Festive Selling Success

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Rosie’s Recipes: A Chocaholic’s Christmas

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Seasonal Ingredients: Sweet Chestnuts

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Festive Felt Ornaments

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Poetry Corner: The Carol Singers

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Meet the Maker: Angie Spurgeon

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Pug Trophy Head

Page 59

Relax with Elves’ Coffee

Page 62

Home Comforts

Page 63

In the Kitchen: Conversion Tables

Page 64

Templates

Page 65

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Contributors

Laura Brown Creates the loveliest - and environmentally friendly too jewellery from her workshop in Cornwall.

December For many people across the world, Christmas is the most important celebration of the entire year. It’s a special, family occasion and is the culmination of weeks of preparation, baking and cooking, crafting and wrapping up carefully chosen gifts.

anticipated ceremony of unearthing the box of Christmas decorations, whether that’s from a dusty cardboard box on top of the wardrobe, or from their year-round resting place in the attic. Hopefully they were carefully packed away the previous year, so there won’t be any breakages or tangled strings of lights!

Advent, the period that begins four Sundays before Christmas, is the traditional start to preparations. The Sunday before Advent is known as Stir Up Sunday - a great reminder for those who haven’t yet made their Christmas puddings or cake to get busy stirring!

Traditionally each member of the family should take a turn at stirring the mixture - whether it’s cake, mincemeat or the pudding itself - and make a secret wish.

Outdoors, the garden has been largely put to bed for the winter, though as our winters tend to be warmer than they were, it isn’t so very unusual to see a cherry tree in bloom at Christmas. But garden interest is mainly provided by architectural stems, beautifully rimed with frost on cold days, and perhaps illuminated by the low winter sun - a fabulous sight that is, in its own way, just as beautiful as all those summer blooms. There are still plenty of berries around for the birds, and of course two types of of great interest to humans in December: holly and mistletoe. Birds aren’t fond of holly, so you won’t be depriving them of a food source by cutting branches for your Christmas decorations.

Mistletoe is more popular with the birds, and harder to access as it usually grows high in its host tree. The berries are very sticky and it spreads to new trees by

Stir Up Sunday 2016 fell on 20 November, so if you haven’t made your pudding yet - you’re late!

Advent calendars are often hung on the first day of December - traditionally with a door to open every day, though modern versions often include a chocolate tucked away to enjoy each day. Then, of course, there’s the eagerly

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“I am only limited by my imagination ”

Santa’s Fleet Footed Friends Santa relies on his trusty team of reindeer to make his Christmas deliveries …. but how much do we know about these amazing animals?

Reindeer have played a starring role in our Christmas festivities as the super-special creatures that Santa simply couldn’t manage without. But how did it all begin?

There are plenty of theories about reindeer involvement, but it seems most likely that the tradition of Christmas reindeer originates in Norse mythology. Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, was believed to fly through the sky in a chariot pulled by two magical horned goats. Over time this legend became incorporated into Scandinavian Christmas festivals, with dressing up as a goat forming

a common part of many rituals.

Over hundreds of years the tradition evolved from goats to reindeer and so maybe the reason why today we imagine reindeer magically pulling Santa’s sleigh through the Christmas Eve sky.

But the versatile and adaptable reindeer is so much more than just a sleigh-puller - with their extraordinary characteristics and amazing survival skills they are considered one of the most important species in Scandinavia.

Although here in the UK we no longer have wild reindeer, Britain’s

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only herd of free ranging reindeer lives in the beautiful Scottish Cairngorm mountains. They were reintroduced into Scotland in 1952

by Mikel Utsi, a Sami herder from Sweden. He visited the area in 1947 and was struck by its high plateaus, vegetation and tundralike habitat which he felt sure would suit the reindeer.

He brought some over from Sweden as an experiment - which proved to be extremely successful. Today the Cairngorm Reindeer Herd numbers 150 animals, with most of the animals bred in Scotland.

Here we come awassailing

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Blast from the Past Carol Singing Mice I’ve always loved these little mice, and still display one of the originals on my mantlepiece shelf each year (Rosie has the other one!). They’re not at all hard to make and the pattern also includes the printable carol sheet.

Just CLICK HERE (link in full issue only) to download the Carol Singing Mice Pattern

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Hoop Up - It’s Christmas!

It’s Christmas - a time when embroiderers across the world proudly present the results of all their hard work to a few carefully chosen and super-lucky recipients. With this in mind, I thought it might be a good idea to repeat a couple of features from a couple of years ago, when two very clever stitchers revealed their methods for finishing the back of your hoop and enhancing your work with a pretty crochet border. Perfect present - sorted!

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A Victorian Christmas

Extract from “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens published December 1843 12

Festive Selling Success others about experience.

Choosing your products Whether you’re selling online or face to face at a Christmas event, the important thing is to attract people’s attention so that they want to take a closer look at your products. This means having fresh designs that feel very current - if you do have left over stock from previous years, consider a bargain section or tub - people love a good rummage - and a great bargain even better! To keep up with trends search through magazines, Pinterest and those (sometimes really annoying!) catalogues that pop through your letterbox.

their

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Also, if you’re selling at an event, it’s so important to make your stall look interesting with your stock displayed attractively in a way that ensures items can be seen clearly. Do keep an eye on smaller items though, sadly petty theft is not unknown at such events. People are likely to want to handle your goods though, so be prepared for this and keep a discreet eye on what’s happening.

Offering a free gift-wrapping service can add to the appeal when people have a lot of Christmas shopping to do, as can offering to hold paid-for items to be picked up at the end of the day, especially if your products are bulky and/or heavy. If you plan to attend more events in the future, then consider supplying branded bags to help spread the word.

Create a great impression The way you interact with potential customers can have a huge impact on number of sales. It’s so important to be friendly, confident and knowledgeable about your products.

Don’t be afraid to make eye contact with people and be prepared to answer any queries they may have.

You don’t need to worry about having to make a “hard sell”, if your products are good, they should (almost) sell themselves.

It’s important that customers know that they’re considering purchasing a unique, handmade item that they won’t be able to buy from anyone else. Word of mouth is important too - pop a business card in every bag that will help your customers tell

Be your own expert People will be interested in how you make your items so consider taking 13

along some examples of work in progress. These can also come in handy to keep yourself occupied during quite spells - but don’t become so absorbed you miss sales!

If you take commissions, then take along photos of previous work to give people an idea of what you can offer.

The price is right One of the most important things to get right, and one with which so many maker-sellers struggle, is price.

You should consider all the costs that go into your products, such as designing, material costs, your own labour etc - even the smallest costs can add up if you don’t include them in your figures.

It can be hard when people ask the price then put down your item and say something like “Really? I can get it for less than half that in national retailer.” Remember your items are not cheap mass-produced goods, but are locally made from good quality materials.

Resist the temptation to reduce unless you have already built a small margin into your prices. There are exceptions of course as you may decide to reduce your prices for particular events or at the end of the day. Edible items have a shelf life, as do festive items at the last Christmas fair of the year. In this case work out before hand what your reductions will be and have labels ready to go.

There may seem to be a lot to remember, but the bottom line is that when potential buyers can see the love and care that’s gone into something handmade and unique they’ll want to buy it - and not just at Christmas either!

Rosie’s Recipes: A Chocaholic’s Christmas!

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“ When either of my daughters spot my card designs in shops, that’s such a lovely feeling”

Hi Angie, I’m such an admirer of your work, it’s so bright and colourful and always cheers me up on even the greyest day. Thanks for chatting to us - we’ve lots of questions for you, so let’s get started!

What were the first steps in setting up Artwork by Angie and what was the inspiration behind it?

It began when I had my first child and was at home with a new baby.

I knew that I wanted to be a freelance designer when the time came to be back at work, that’s what I had studied to do at University - freelance illustration was always my dream job. I started by taking on commissions for personalised prints, wedding invites and and occasional graphic design work for marketing materials. I also began taking part in Illustration Friday (a blog with a weekly art challenge for illustrators of all abilities, to come up with an illustration to a weekly theme/word).

To take part I needed a blog myself, so that really was the start of Artwork by Angie as it was the name of the blog I set up.

Some of the illustrations I did for Illustration Friday seemed like a good fit for greeting card and wall art designs. So I got a small batch of cards printed up and opened up a Folksy shop. I had seen a friend had Folksy shop for her painted wooden crafts and I thought it looked great, so I gave it a go to see what happens. It all grew from there really. A few months into selling on Folksy I had a made my first ever online sales and had been approached by a publisher to create a range of card designs for them.

They liked a particular design from my Folksy shop, so what had started out as a response to Illustration Friday’s theme ‘dessert’ had grown into my first collection of cards, ‘Life is Sweet’. The cards were showcased by the publisher at Spring Fair International, where

National Trust and Waterstones became stockists and I have been working closely with that publisher ever since and continuing to sell on Folksy and also Etsy.

What do you wish you’d known before starting?

I wish I had read ‘Creative Inc’ by Meg Mateo & Joy Deangeelert Cho before I started, then I would have known exactly how to price myself properly from the very start. There is a great chapter in that book about getting paid - their step by step guide to working out your hourly fee has been invaluable to me. Pity that I only discovered it a couple of years into the business! Getting your pricing right for what you need is crucial because knowing exactly what you need to charge by the hour to keep you and your business afloat is the difference between sink or swim.

Has your business changed much

Home Comforts Frosted fruits make a lovely (and almost healthy!) Christmas centrepiece. You can use this technique on almost any smoothskinned fruit though the most effective are those deep and rich in colour, glowing golds and oranges and deep plum colours look especially dramatic. Wipe the fruit clean an brush the surface with a layer of beaten egg white (don’t over beat this though, it should be rich and smooth but not frothy). Then dust with caster (superfine) sugar or a mixture of caster and granulated sugar and leave the fruit to dry thoroughly to create the frosted effect.

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