The theme for the fourth round of the Great British Sewing Bunny was patchwork. Right up my street you might have thought but I was surprisingly uninspired, I nearly didn’t enter, I think I was overthinking it a bit, patchwork takes a lot of time and I think the thought of trying to make something in three hours put the dampener on things.

Whilst I was rummaging through one of my scrap boxes for something else I found a patchwork piece which was left over from a project last Christmas. It was the leftover jelly rolls stitched in rows, it was quite striking in red, green and gold. I effectively had a piece of fabric.

I decided to make Violet a Christmas dress. I cut two lengths of the ‘fabric’ to make the skirt and then cut the bodice from the leftover bits. I used another Christmas cotton for the lining.

It went together pretty quickly. I found another length of gold jelly roll so I used that to make the bottom of the skirt. I used a press stud to close at the back.

I made a sash by pleating some wide satin ribbon and then tied it with a big bow on the back. I still had a bit of time left so I made red necklace and bracelet and tied a ribbon in her hair.

Each week two entries are chosen for the maker to be in the final. I’ve managed to enter three out of four categories I didn’t win any of the rounds but I had a great time making them. I found it helpful to have the time limit of three hours for machine stitching and six hours for hand-stitching, I knew I didn’t have to spend hours making the perfect outfit. The finalists will now be sent a parcel of fabric to make something out of for Luna or one of her friends.

These were my three entries

Those of us who entered three or four times without winning are getting a voucher for Cool Crafting, I think this is a nice touch and a lovely surprise, I’m sure I can find something nice to buy on their website 🙂