Handmade Dog Door Stops by Coast & Country Interiors

In May last year, we discovered Cost and Country Interiors and their remarkable collection of funky dog door stops. We recently re-visited their website and we were delighted to find new additions to their handmade doorstops collection and some price reductions too on our favourite dog doorstops!

Rich with color, each individual dog door stop is made with 2 different cotton fabric patterns, has a lovely large size with huge black nose, and 2 button eyes.

The collection includes 9 models with price starting from £17.50 compared to £23 in May last year. It is difficult to choose amongst all these adorable handmade door stoppers but our favourite one is the Blue Flower Dog Doorstop with his spotty head and floral cotton fabric print – it has a real Cath Kidston feel!

Price: £17.50

It is pity that CoastandCountryInteriors.co.uk don’t sell matching draught excluders for this specific puppy door stop but they do have some sausage dog draught excluders in a similar style. They are cheaper and are reduced by half price. With prices from £14.99, we think it is a bargain!

Our best pick are the Chirpy Cream Chicken Draught Excluders, handcrafted with from recycled fabrics. These are made from recycled Witney blanket material and beautifully hand appliqued using dress fabrics and embroidery.

Price: £17.99

The draught excluder measures 78 cm x 18 cm approx but please note that each is unique and individually styled.

Handmade doorstops and draught excluders only represent a fraction of their collections – their lovely website is definitely worth a visit!

To browse our range of door stops, please visit the Door Stops section.

Looking for a place to buy unique handmade sewing products from? Have you heard about Etsy.com?

Etsy.com is a huge marketplace bringing together worldwide buyers and sellers of handmade items in one place.

Increasingly popular, Etsy.com is the one to watch this year with 11 million unique users* worldwide and 430K in UK, and growing month on month (*Google Ad planner).

What can you find on Etsy?

Well, hundreds of door stops including animal doorstops such as the Chicken vintage doorstop by Lilylovesroses, unusual door stops like the felted pear doorstop by Knotsewcute or the candy stripe doorstop by Blossomhill.

As you will see, there are a plenty of fabric patterns and shapes to choose from! Click here to see all doorstops available on their website.

Like you would do on Ebay, we suggest checking the feedback of the seller prior to purchasing from them. The feedback can be viewed on the product page on the right hand side but you will need to scroll down a little bit (it is within the Shop owner section), clicking on the link will take you to the feedback page.

Etsy is more than a marketplace, they have created a community of artists, creators, collectors, thinkers and doers.

It is a little bit like Google +, where you can create your profile, share your ideas, add people in your circle and even join streaming online workshops!

To find out more, Etsy are also on Facebook and Twitter.

We haven’t created our shop yet but we are working on a new collection and shortly we will be able to sell our unique handmade door stops on Etsy.com. Watch the space!

Lavender bag stacks and hand knitted house door stop by Make Bake and Sew

Make Bake and Sew is a lovely blog with helpful tips to make your own sewing crafts. Below are 2 sections guiding you through the few steps to make lavender bags and to make a hand knitted doorstop.

These instructions are ideal for beginners or to teach your kids using small sewing/knitting patterns.

Hand knitted house door stop

What you will need:

*Materials 1 x 100g ball of cream arun wool
*1 x 50g of brown dk wool
*4mm needles
*scraps of felt
*50 x 50 cm white cotton fabric or linen
*15cm x 15cm heavier weight pattern cotton fabric
*embroidery thread to stitch together
*1kg of rice, dried beans or lentils.

Cast on 28 sts in the cream arun wool. Knit garter stitch (knit every row knit stitch) for 56 rows. Cast off knit wise. repeat until you have 4 x squares.

Cast on 28 sts in the brown wool. Knit garter stitch. cast off 1 stitch knit wise at the beginning of every other row until you end up with a triangle. Cast off last stitch knit wise. Repeat until you have 4 triangles for the roof.

Make an inner bag for your filling be cutting out…click here for remaining instructions.

Lavender bags

What you will need::

*selection of fabrics (min of 30cm x 15 cm for each bag)
*sewing machine
*thread
*ribbon
*soft toy filling
*dried lavender

Cut two 12cm x 12cm squares for each lavender bag you want to make. Pin the two together, right sides facing. On the sewing machine, sew round 3 sides using a straight stitch leaving a 1cm seam allowance. On the 4th side, sew half way across. This will leave you an opening so you can fill your bag.
Turn right side out and…click here for remaining instructions.

Kirstie Allsopp door stop and lavender scented heart

Did you watch Kirstie’s Handmade Britain or Kirstie’s Homemade Home on channel 4? We did, and we have been looking around for her products for quite a while now! It is only recently that we have discovered a range of home accessories exclusively designed by her for M&S.

These products don’t appear to be handmade but they are beautifully designed home accessories and with the current “Christmas 3 for 2 Mix and Match” offer, you can add a touch of vintage chic to your home at a low cost!

The Kirstie Allsopp door stop is made of 100% cotton floral vintage fabric and it represents an old-fashioned style sewing basket.

We recently gave you some instructions to make lavender hearts but there is nothing wrong with treating yourself or giving a one of Kirstie Allsopp lavender scented hearts to a loved one as a gift! A fairly popular combination has been used for this lavender heart – stripes and floral prints tend to complement well each other.

Price: £6.00

Price: £15.00

How to make a door draught excluder?

The following instructions will help you make a draught excluder with an inner lining.

You can buy cheap cotton filling for your homemade draught excluder or you can use a more luxurious filling such as feathers but we are simply going to recycle our old pieces of fabric for this draught excluder. This is a great cost effective alternative to give some weight to your draught excluder and to free up some space in your wardrobe!

Before you start:

Measure the width of the door that the draught excluder will block draughts coming through.

For the inner lining: the length should be the same width as the door + (2cm for the hems) x 34cm (this includes 2cm for the hems).

For the outer lining: add 1cm to the above dimensions.

What you need:

Matching sewing thread with a sewing kit and a sewing machine.
Zip: 20cm long.

Step 1:

Place your piece of lining fabric flat on the table with the length of the fabric perpendicular to you – fold the fabric in halfway through and press lightly. Pin and stitch down.

When you reach a corner, keep the needle down and lift the presser foot. Turn the fabric and continue along the next edge. Trim the allowance, to within 2mm of the stitch line.

Don’t forget to keep one of the side wide open to put your filling through.

Turn side out and gently ease the corners into shape with a blunt pencil or something similar.

Step 2:

If you recycle your old clothes, roll them together in a shape of your draught excluder and insert your filling.

The inner lining should feel quite tight.

Fasten the side: fold in the top of the material (1cm) and stitch it together with your sewing machine or by hand if preferred.

Step 3:

With the outer fabric, repeat step 1 but we are going to insert a zip into the seam.

Press back a 2cm turning along each edge, then tack the 2 folds loosely together. Tack the closed zip securely to the wrong side , so that the teeth lie exactly along the join. Fit a zip foot and sew the zip in place 6mm from the outside edge of the teeth. Stitch 3 times across the top and bottom edges at right angles. Unpick the taking.

Turn side out and gently ease the corners out. Insert the inner lining and close the zip!

Help and support for your sewing project

This article is dedicated to those in need of advice to start your own sewing projects. We understand how complicated it can be to make your own craft creations so we have listed some key sewing websites for you where you can get plenty of help and advice, or meet up with other crafty people who will accompany you through your craft learning journey.

Visit http://www.thesewingforum.co.uk for craft tips and tutorials. This forum is also great to share your current sewing projects, to discuss sewing techniques, and to get access to other useful links and resources.

Free sewing patterns on http://www.freeneedle.com/. Freeneedle.com is a simple directory with lots of wonderful free sewing patterns and other information about sewing and needlecrafts.

Tutorial videos on http://www.crafts-beautiful.com/. This site contains lots of information on anything crafty! We particularly like it because of its tutorial videos and its project section.

Sewing machine tutorial on : http://www.youtube.com/user/sewmarm or craft idea videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/ShihoMasuda. Being one of the most powerful search engines, Youtube brings together hundreds of videos related to crafts.

Looking for craft ideas? http://www.channel4.com/4homes/how-to/crafts with Kirstie Allsop has everything you could wish for to do with arts and crafts!

Social Networking for those who love fashion and craft sewing for themselves and their families on https://twitter.com/SewingMamas and plenty of craft ideas on http://www.facebook.com/CraftIdeasWeekly if you need some inspiration!

Lavender Bags

This mini collection of lavender bags has been created to group the prettiest lavender bag patterns in one place. Hugely popular, place them amongst clothes or linen to scent them… these lavender sachets are lovely gifts to make and are pretty decorative items for your house or wedding favours!

Larger lavender scented bags can also be hung on a door knob to release its aroma in a room – and may also result in improved sleep quality!

Lavender bags can have various shapes, from traditional bags with a ribbon at the top, mini square cushions filled with dried lavender, lavender hearts, triangular handmade lavender bags or even lavender bird shaped sachets.

Nearer Christmas, the popularity of lavender bags increases as people create pretty and unique garlands.

If you are looking for lavender for bags, click here and if you are looking for information on how to make lavender bags, click here and follow the instructions. Don’t forget to browse our fabric section, you could make a Cath Kidston lavender bag, a Cath Kidston lavender sachet or a Cath Kidston lavender heart style!

Price: £10.00

Price: £7.50

Price: £8.00

Price: £9.00

Price: £10.00

Price: £7.50

Price: £6.00

Price: £9.00

Cath Kidston Door Stop

We have been waiting a long time for Cath Kidston to add her own door stop to her range of products but we are delighted to finally introduce the lovely Cath Kidston door stopper made from the vintage inspired Norwich Rose printed fabric with a rich mix of colours and blooms.

We spotted the door stop during our visit to the Cath Kidston shop in Harrogate last week and the product has a soft touch due to being made of 100% cotton velvet and it is heavy enough to keep any door propped open.

Its dimensions are fairly standard for a typical square door stop with its length about 18cm, the width about 11cm and the depth about 15cm.

Next to the door stop was a matching draught excluder, perfect to keep the draughts out this winter. The draught excluder is not only a draught excluder – it can also fold up into a neat little door stop!

The dimensions are as follows:
L84.5cm x W12.5cm x D6cm100

Both products can be viewed on the Cath Kidston website or by clicking on the links below:

Price: £20

Price: £30

Laura Ashley Door Stops: The Mouse

Laura Ashley have recently added a new doorstop to their collection, the Mouse, a cream cotton doorstop. Although this new addition is still full price, Laura Ashley are running a promotion across all their other fabric door stops – Buy 3 doorstops for the price of 2!

Price: £25.00

Their Christmas gift collection is also being promoted and it is a great opportunity to offer a practical but lovely interior decoration items to friends and family.

Laura Ashley Fabric Sale

We always keep our eyes open for discounted designer fabric and now is the perfect time to grab a great deal with Laura Ashley. A large selection of fabric have been reduced by 30% including children’s fabric, curtain fabric, upholstery fabric and PVC fabric.

Some of the fabric only cost as little as £4.55 per meter so don’t miss out on this deal and stock up on the latest fabric for these cold winter days when you will be planning to work on your sewing projects!

Christmas fabric from myfabrics.co.uk

Early November, most of the cities are switching on their Christmas lights. Its also the time to start thinking about your Christmas decorations – especially if you want to make them extra special this year and add a personalised touch!

Every year most of us recycle our garlands, lights and baubles but for those who are a little bit bored with seeing the same decorations year after year, why not add a few new things? It doesn’t need to expensive and it can be a lovely project to have with your kids, building up the excitement prior to the festive season.

If you are planning to make doorstops, cushion covers or other sewing projects to decorate your house for Christmas, we know it can be difficult to find unique Christmas fabric patterns. Below are some fantastic Christmas fabric from myfabrics.co.uk.

We have only selected our favourite fabric patterns, to see the full range please click here.

Price: £5.02

Price: £8.97

Price: £5.02

Price: £10.79

Price: £8.37