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stitch your own Christmas!

Posted by Chrissie Probert Jones · November 25, 2020

You’ll need:

Blank gift card with display panel and envelope
Tapestry canvas approx 2cm larger all round than the display area
Tapestry needle and threads
Graph paper, pencil and coloured pens/pencils
Scissors
Adhesive tape

Method

Cut tapestry canvas to size, allowing approximately 2cm all round to that you can tape your work to the card when complete.
Count the squares that will show in the window vertically and horizontally
Mark out the window area on the graph paper and outline, then draw the Christmas tree (or whatever you would like to create!) within the square.
Each crosspoint = one cross stitch – mark the outline of your design with the colour you will use for each edge stitch (this helps with counting as you work)
Knot the end of your red thread so it stays behind your canvas. Count across to the start of the red pot for the tree and make your first stitch – work each stitch bottom left to top right, then top left to bottom right. The important thing is that the top stitch in each cross goes in the same direction – makes the result much neater!
Continue stitching across to the end of the row, then move upwards in the same way and complete the red stitching.
Now work the outline of the tree, following your graph paper design carefully to the top and down the other side, leaving gaps for the bright bauble stitches you will insert later.
Complete filling in the tree leaving gaps for bauble stitches.
Fill in baubles with your chosen colours. Either use cross stitch, or add a French knot. To make a French knot: make the first half of the cross stitch as normal, then pull the needle through for the second stitch, twist the yarn twice round the needle as you put the needle back through the canvas, pulling the yarn firmly with your other hand to make the knot stay close to the fabric. For extra help with this, we found this great video here.
Tape the finished canvas into the card

how to make an eatsleepdoodle mask

Posted by Chrissie Probert Jones · November 12, 2020

As a hugely impatient person, this is the quickest and laziest method I’ve found of creating a fun and useful mask speedily!

Eatsleepdoodle cotton bedding fabric is ideal for masks as it’s tightly woven – just what is recommended, and if you wanted to add a third fabric layer you can just pop an extra piece of fabric between the layers as you go.

To make your own eatsleepdoodle mask, you can buy a length of our 100% cotton world map print fabric here.

So here’s how:

1) Draw and cut out your template: adult size is 25x15.5cm and child size is 21x15cm. Both require the fabric to be folded on the left side, so the total size of the cut piece of fabric will be 50x15.5cm for adults and 42x15cm for children.

how to make a reusable mask out of cotton

2) Select your fave area of fabric for the front of your mask, fold the fabric as marked on the template and position it over the fabric, checking your chosen section is in the centre, then cut around template.

3) Refold the fabric as it was but with right sides together.

4) Stitch along the short side 1cm from the edge, then trim. You now have a wide tube of fabric.

5) Fold under approx. 25cm along each long edge and then fold again so the raw edge is concealed and iron in place.

6) Stitch each folded long edge.

7) Turn fabric tube so the right side is showing and position with seam on the right and fold on the left.

8) Stitch a vertical seam approx 1.5cm from each short edge which you will thread the elastic through.

9) Then stitch again along each long side to join the front and back of the fabric together, excluding the channels at each end.

how to make a mask

10) Cut two pieces of elastic (approx 22cm for adults and 18cm for children) and thread through the channels you created in step 7 using a safety pin.

making a re-usable cotton mask yourself

11) Stitch ends together either by hand or machine – it’s easy to unpick stitching and tighten here if the elastic is too loose.

eatsleepdoodle masks

12) Ease the elastic around so that the stitched elastic join is hidden in the channel, then pull the fabric into gathers and you’re done!

Alternatively, try the NYTimes suggested method here – this one has ties instead of elastic, but you could exclude the ties and then machine on a length of elastic at each end to the finished mask instead. Your choice!

To show you some other variations of the eatsleepdoodle mask, a very kind and clever customer, Ros, designed the masks on the left above and our very own, brilliant operations manager, Ilidko, made the doodle masks on the right - one for each of our very lucky team!

New Style Halloween - pumpkin carving tips, indoor activities and more...

Posted by Chrissie Probert Jones · October 27, 2020

Halloween means fun, tricks, treats and sweets – and given the current restrictions on going out and about it’s lucky there’s so much fun to be had at home!

Time-poor and fun hungry?

There are lots of great Halloween tricks you can pull when it comes to delicious treats to eat! Decorating cookies is fun and super easy. Either bake your own (most delicious of all) or cheat and buy your favourite cookies and just Halloween-ify them for teatime!

All you need is:

- cookies (either bake your own or shop brought)

- some ready-made icing (ready-rolled is the laziest and quickest, otherwise a block is fine)
- black, green and red icing colouring.
- a small artist-type paintbrush
- some sheets of paper (great way to use the back of paper for recycling)
- a pen or pencil

1. Draw your fave spooky shapes on the paper making sure they are small enough to fit on the cookies – think spiders, webs, devil horns, devil tail, ghosts….then cut out the paper shapes.

2. Lay out your icing on a chopping board (if you’ve bought the block you’ll need to roll it out with some icing sugar first).Then lay the cutout shapes on the icing and cut around them with a blunt round-ended knife (the kind you eat with) ensuring children are supervised.

3.Once you have the shapes, pour a very small amount of your first colour into a saucer (a little goes a long way with food colouring) and paint your first shape. When you want to change colour for the next shape, wash the brush and dry with kitchen paper. Or if you're feeling really brave, why not dye the ready-made icing and cutout the features rather than painting them on!

4. Leave the colour to dry briefly, then use a small dab of honey or syrup to stick the shape on the biscuit. And enjoy!

Hunt the horror!

Start a new tradition – Halloween horror sweet hunt! Find the most intriguing and tricky hiding places for all your seasonal sweets and treats – you’ll be amazed how inventive you can be even inside the house (try inside the wellies and under saucepan lids, under the pillow and buried in the sock drawer… guaranteed you’ll be re-finding them all year!) and if you have outside space that will be useful too. You can even create your own special cool Halloween trick and treat collection backpack bag – all ready to be customised and decorated using the eatsleepdoodle wash-out pens it comes with, and perfect for gathering up all the sweets you find into.

Design your own Halloween backpack - doodle 'notebook' backpack, eatsleepdoodle £14.95

Pumpkin creativity – scary art

Carving the pumpkin is one of our favourite bits of the whole Halloween scene – there’s a job for everyone, whether you like designing, drawing, scooping out or cutting. We’ve gathered a gallery of inspiration for you – sometimes shaving sections to make your design is as stunning as cutting, and you can get different effects with more light coming through if you shave deeper. Whatever you do, children should not be allowed to use sharp implements and should be supervised with all pumpkin prep procedures!

Get creative with your designs - use a hammer and cookie cutter to make shapes, scrape the skin using a vegetable peeler, add pins and weave string or carve out some funky feline designs.

Halloween is our Marketing Manager Charlotte’s favourite festival and she’s brilliant at making everything look fantastic, so we asked her to give us her top tips and show us how to create your own cool pumpkin: here’s the outcome!

🎃👻 Happy Halloween to you all! 👻🎃

5 fun and educational pond-themed activities for children

Posted by Charlotte Cairns · July 23, 2020

It may be the summer holidays but we're still super keen to help keep the kids entertained and learning - the perfect combination - so here's our fifth special eatsleepdoodle fun and educational package of helpful indoor learning resources (as we all know how changeable our summertime weather can be!)

6 fun and educational space-themed activities to do at home!

Posted by Charlotte Cairns · July 15, 2020

Stuck for a great STEM midweek learning activity with a scientific bias? Here's a bunch of great activities surrounding the planets, space exploration and more...

new from eatsleepdoodle!

As a hugely impatient person, this is the quickest and laziest method I’ve found of creating a fun and useful mask speedily!

Eatsleepdoodle cotton bedding fabric is ideal for masks as it’s tightly woven – just what is recommended, and if you wanted to add a third fabric layer you can just pop an extra piece of fabric between the layers as you go.

To make your own eatsleepdoodle mask, you can buy a length of our 100% cotton world map print fabric here.

So here’s how:

1) Draw and cut out your template: adult size is 25x15.5cm and child size is 21x15cm. Both require the fabric to be folded on the left side, so the total size of the cut piece of fabric will be 50x15.5cm for adults and 42x15cm for children.

2) Select your fave area of fabric for the front of your mask, fold the fabric as marked on the template and position it over the fabric, checking your chosen section is in the centre, then cut around template.

3) Refold the fabric as it was but with right sides together.

4) Stitch along the short side 1cm from the edge, then trim. You now have a wide tube of fabric.

5) Fold under approx. 25cm along each long edge and then fold again so the raw edge is concealed and iron in place.

6) Stitch each folded long edge.

7) Turn fabric tube so the right side is showing and position with seam on the right and fold on the left.

8) Stitch a vertical seam approx 1.5cm from each short edge which you will thread the elastic through.

9) Then stitch again along each long side to join the front and back of the fabric together, excluding the channels at each end.

10) Cut two pieces of elastic (approx 22cm for adults and 18cm for children) and thread through the channels you created in step 7 using a safety pin.

11) Stitch ends together either by hand or machine – it’s easy to unpick stitching and tighten here if the elastic is too loose.

12) Ease the elastic around so that the stitched elastic join is hidden in the channel, then pull the fabric into gathers and you’re done!

Alternatively, try the NYTimes suggested method here – this one has ties instead of elastic, but you could exclude the ties and then machine on a length of elastic at each end to the finished mask instead. Your choice!

To show you some other variations of the eatsleepdoodle mask, a very kind and clever customer, Ros, designed the masks on the left above and our very own, brilliant operations manager, Ilidko, made the doodle masks on the right - one for each of our very lucky team!

Halloween means fun, tricks, treats and sweets – and given the current restrictions on going out and about it’s lucky there’s so much fun to be had at home!

Time-poor and fun hungry?

Hunt the horror!

Design your own Halloween backpack - doodle 'notebook' backpack, eatsleepdoodle £14.95

Pumpkin creativity – scary art

Get creative with your designs - use a hammer and cookie cutter to make shapes, scrape the skin using a vegetable peeler, add pins and weave string or carve out some funky feline designs.

🎃👻 Happy Halloween to you all! 👻🎃