Repurposed shirt dress

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!

Etsy update

I can hardly believe I'm writing this post, but here it is - an update for the very first items going into my Etsy shop.

Clockwise from the top left:

1. 3D felt butterfly brooch (in natural)
2. Vintage Japanese swirl bobby pins
3. 3D felt butterfly brooch (in black/red)
4. Liberty fabric button bobby pins

Crack open the bubbly! Or maybe save that until I get an actual sale hehe!

Tutorial: Pom Pom Wool Scarf

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!!

Hope you find it useful!