Today I'd like to share a repurposed/upcycled/recycled/(*insert preferred term of the moment here*) project.
Roughly following the tutorial from Made I used an old shirt with holes in the elbows to make a dress for Eva.
It felt like I was winging it a bit to cut the basic shape of the dress, but I think it turned out pretty well. Ahem. Who am I kidding? I am completely in love with this dress!
I changed the belt style around, added a ruffle at the hem, and set off the dark colours with a hot pink bias binding around the ruffle, to tie in with the hot pink buttons at the centre of the yoyos at the neckline.
This kind of recycling is infinitely more satisfying than collecting stinky old piles of plastic milk bottles!
Genetically speaking, I really ought to be a great knitter. My mother and my grandmothers were all knitters, and whilst they did teach me the basics of how to knit, I think I got too caught up with other crafting activities to pursue my knitting destiny. I'm pretty sure that the only knitting projects I have undertaken have been either blanket squares or scarves, and I can't even claim to have finished many of these.
Despite my obvious shortcomings in matters of woolcraft, when the cold autumn nights draw in I still have some unfathomable urge to knit. One trip to the wool shop and a few evenings of new-project-fuelled fervour later...and my mum has another scarf to finish off.
Not this year though.
Observe: two (TWO!!) complete, and rather lovely scarves, knitted entirely by me, every last stitch. There has been no change in my (lack of) knitting skills, nor my (in)attention span. I owe my knitting success story to the marvel of pompom wool. Hurrah!
It knits up quickly, looks fancy, is lovely and snuggly to wear, and is surprisingly easy to do, once you get the hang of it. What more could you ask for?
The basic instructions are that you hold the pom pom to the back of the work while you wrap the wool around your needle, and you knit two stitches between each pom pom.
To make it really clear I made a video demonstration to show exactly how to knit with pompom wool, including casting on. You see, I'm such an experienced knitter now I even do tutorials haha!!
Pink vanilla cupcakes. Yum. Someone has borrowed my big star piping nozzle, and there are bubbles in the buttercream icing for reasons unknown, but they still look pretty cute, and they taste gorgeous, if I do say so myself!
Sometimes the simple things in life can be unexpectedly pleasing, and for me this sweet little craft project just hits the spot.
It barely needs explanation - draw around shoe on card, cut out, poke holes and thread old shoelace through - and I even managed to complete it with my demanding 3 year old *helping*, so it must be an easy one.
Even so, there's something about the laid back colours and the shape of those cute little Converse that just makes me smile.
It has yet to actually become useful, however, as Eva refuses to participate in the shoelace tying lesson. Despite my protests that I already know how to tie my shoelaces, the only response I get from her is "Mummy, you do it". I think we'll be buying velcro fastening shoes for a while yet.
Craft fail. Or at least I thought it was. Maybe it doesn't look quite so bad on the photograph.
I fell in love with the fabulous paper napkin wallflowers at Made this morning and immediately decided to give them a go...
...only somewhere in between "start to peel each layer of the flower up" and "you have a gorgeous over-sized flower", my craft mojo deserted me. If fact, my flower spent a good long while looking suspiciously like a crumpled, folded waste of four perfectly serviceable party napkins.
I think I made my folds too narrow, and the second and third ply of my napkins are white instead of the same colour as the top...and the dog ate my homework, honest Miss.
After much snipping and preening, (and an elastic band around the bottom to bunch the whole thing together), it finally resembles a flower - although it's more of a crazy, giant carnation than the elegant magnolia I had hoped for.
I always wanted to be one of those people who uncovered charity shop treasures but they had so far eluded me, until yesterday, when I came across these little beauties.
This style of cup probably has a name, but I have no idea what it is. I do know that they are tiny and cute and covered in adorable teapot, teacup and cake motifs, and they were only £1.50 for the set - result!
Next is the task of deciding what use to put them to. Initial thoughts are:
Mini dishes for super rich chocolate mousse type desserts
Dessert dishes for the girls (when they are a little older and less likely to smash them into 57 tiny pieces
Plant pots for herb seedlings (although they are very small and have no drainage, so I'm not sure if this would be possible)
Storage for cocktail sticks and...um...other small items
Make them into scented soy candles (but would they break? I have seen people do this with teacups, so it should be ok?)
Something else...hmmm.
I'm rather taken with the candles idea, but until the final decision is made they reside on the kitchen window ledge, lined up in a row doing their pocket-sized cute thing.
In view of the delightful British weather today, my post is aptly about wellington boots, or rather the storage thereof.
Once upon a time the humble wellie was a rarely seen creature in our house, venturing out only for the odd summer festival, and again for the annual 3 inches of snow we Brits love to panic over.
Then along came the children. The wellie now enjoys its place in the spotlight, being regulation wear for puddle splashing, leaf kicking, playing in the park and garden, and somewhat more surprisingly being styled with dresses for party wear, or perhaps with just a nappy for a more casual post-bathtime ensemble (fashion decisions entirely out of my hands, I hasten to add).
To make the muddy boots a bit more portable I made wellie boot bags out of a pair of old jeans. I cut off each jean leg below the knee (one bag is shorter than the other due to the huge tear in one knee of the jeans; then again one pair of wellies is shorter than the other due to their owner being two years younger, so it works out well for now!) I then made simple drawstring bags, with squared off corners at the bottom to allow for the width of the boots inside, garden twine for the handles, and appliqued wellies, fixed with Bondaweb (Wonder Under) and a decorative running stitch outline.
It's a blog. It's written by me. It's about sewing and fabric and buttons and ribbons and glue guns and knitting and....all that jazz. You get the picture.
Phew! First post over. Next one will be more interesting. It's going to have pictures and everything.
This kind of recycling is infinitely more satisfying than collecting stinky old piles of plastic milk bottles!
