Jeans recycling and me

By far my most popular post was the one where I showed a few ways you could recycle a pair of jeans.
But I have a confession.
I only made a business card case from the list.
*hangs head in shame*
So I sought out new inspiration.
I added some new pins to my pinterest board and I got my craft on.

 

 

 

Source: ejhern on Etsy

Souce: AnnaNimmity on Etsy

Source: ArtfullyCaroline

I was also in possession of a pair of outgrown jeans belonging to the Princess.

If you search on Pinterest for denim or jeans upcycling you will find pins of bags outnumbering other projects at a rate of at least 501 to 1-ish.

So I took my daughters jeans,

chopped them in half retaining the zip and hacked off a leg retaining the pockets,

 
turned the jeans inside out and sewed across the bottom and up the side.
I turned it the right way out again and fashioned a handle out of the leg I had cut off, attaching it at each side with several rows of stitching for strength.
By chance more than by design the handle is exactly the right length to be worn over one shoulder and also to be carried on her micro scooter.

I'm thinking a new line in upcycled jeans micro scooter accessories. Or is that too niche?

Do you have Obssessive Pinterest Disorder?
You may like to join in with Pinaddicts.

Spring clean to Spring craft

Spring is the traditional time for a mammoth clean up isn't it?
Except I don't do housework willingly, so instead I am having a mini Spring clear out starting with clothes.

I don't have an extensive wardrobe and much of it is very last season. Actually last season before last before that one. Staring into its depths my wardrobe only serves to taunt me with its tired shrugging shoulders (padded) and its lazy crumpled pleats (unironed). I have some classics that I have had for years but are now so worn that they are only useful for the Scouts rag bag collection, and some fashion disasters that will likely reside in a charity shop for months.

I made three piles.

Pile 1 - classics not threadbare and/or wear often.
Pile 2 - too challenging for even the best make do and mender.
Pile 3 - hasn't seen the light of day for years.

Pile 1 was refolded, hung on wooded hangers and replaced in the (now more spacious) wardrobe.
Pile 2 was sorted into two more piles. One consisted of fabrics I might use for crafting or sewing and buttons I can reuse. The other was bagged up for the Scouts.
Pile 3 is heading to the charity shop.

I have done the same with the Mr's shirts and the kids clothes too and this provided a rather opportunistic pile of fabric that shouted "Make something with me!!" So I did.

All over my Instagram feed I see quilters using shirt fabric for projects but not being a quilter I sought inspiration on Pinterest and came up with this.

Credit: Not on the High Street

Three shirts, a bit of ribbon and a rummage through the button stash later, I knocked up this heart decoration.

Happy Home, Happy Heart x

Linking to the Pinaddicts

365project week 7 2013

I've been making things this week. Handy Mummy. That's me.
And the Princess has been very complimentary about my creations too. I would go so far as to say she has been gushing. She must be after something.

I have made:
Pancakes.
Hula Hoops monsters.
Art out of milk cartons.
Icicles (I didn't actually make these, but I did make a fire, which counts.)
A pink frothy birthday cake for The Mr and the Princess to share. And I made them smile.
Some crocheted wrist warmers.
And a heart for my Mr who is my rock.


Linking up with the Queen of 365, The Boy and Me. Do pay a visit.

Silent Sunday

An upcycled Thank you

Thank you for your readership.
Thank you for your comments, feedback and suggestions.
Thank you for filling my comment box with love (not an euphemism).
Thank you for inspiring me.
Thank you for sharing.

And most of all, thank you for your ideas, your wit and your wisdom.


I am looking forward to a busy, industrious and inspiration fueled 2013.
Although I may wait until I've had a caffeine hit before I get started.

Should you wish to say Thank You to anyone, you could do a whole lot worse than chop up some of those Christmas cards you've been given and fashion them into something homemade and personal.

Taa-dah!

This is NOT a New Years Resolution!

I DO NOT MAKE NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS.

If you have to wait till New Years Eve to decide to change something about yourself, then the amount of time it will take to break that resolution will be directly proportional to the amount of time it took for you to decide on that resolution in the first place. i.e not very long at all.

With that in mind, and given I have spent the largest part of 2012 frustrated with my lack of umption to get on and DO something, and preferably something that will pay the nursery fees, I am determined that within the first month of this New Year I will DO SOMETHING.

And it will involve craft, making, mending, fashioning, slap dashing, creating.

And I will sell my wares, my services or my knowledge.

And I will be happy.

There.

Happy New Year to you all and may it bring new and fulfilling opportunities x

Saturday is Caption Day

While my house often looks like a crime scene, rarely are the clues so colourfully evident.
Does this photo need a caption or a crime scene investigator?
I'll let you decide.

I do worry (a bit) where they get their inspiration. 

Pop your caption in a comment and feel free to meander through the mysterious and often hilarious world of captions courtesy of My First Photo Blog (aka Mammasaurus).

Saturday is Caption Day

I have no words.
I am hoping that you will supply some in the form of a witty caption.

And then pop over to Mammasaurus for more wit and wonder.

Pennies for Piggies

Inspired by DorkyMum and Mammasaurus we have decided to start collecting our loose change for Piggy Bank Kids.

I first heard of this charity when I attended BritMums Live where Sarah Brown, the charity's founder, inspired many in the audience by sharing the fantastic work Piggy Bank Kids do for babies and children in the UK who need a little extra help to live a healthy and happy life. The funds that this charity raise go towards many projects throughout the UK, including the Jennifer Brown Project, to fund research into devastating pregnancy problems.

Not to be outdone by Mammasaurus who got creative with Marmite and Dolly Mixtures, we decided to make a money box that we could hoard our pennies in and when it is full, donate it to Piggy Bank Kids. This is part of a month long blogger project to pick up and save all your loose change and donate it to Piggy Bank Kids.

Our inspiration came from a pot of Bisto (other brands of gravy granules are available) and a Cbeebies comic.

The Princess loves cutting and sticking, the Wee One just loves cutting, so armed with scissors and glue the team got to work.

We rummaged and came up with fist fulls of pennies (all coins are called pennies according to the Wee One) and posted them dutifully through the slot. All loose change normally goes into our penny jar but we are filling up our new money box instead now.

If you are feeling inspired to join in and collect your pennies, please take a look at the Piggy Bank Kids website, the great post Dorky Mum wrote, the cute money boxes Mammasaurus and team made and start collecting. You can follow progress using the #penniesforpiggies hashtag on twitter too or on Blog4charity.

More Shabby Than Chic Bunting

I love the Pinaddicts challenge. It mashes up my love of crafting, with my secret addiction to pinterest, and blogging. What more could this girl want?

So this month, still clinging onto the sewing machine, and with the Jubilee in mind, I had a bash at bunting. Not the trickiest of projects I grant you but that was intentional. I seem to have a shortage of me-time at the moment so this needed to be crammed into an evening.

Here is my inspiration available from Pottymoos.com.

I had an old shirt from the Mr, a patchwork top I picked up for £1, some gingham ribbon for £2 and plain white tape for 60p from the market and I found a template from TheBigLunch.com. What I didn't have was any instructions. Could I be bothered to look? Nope. So I kind of bodged it like so.

Borrow a pair of pinking shears (Ouch! Pricey! So now on my Christmas list) and cut out 8 triangles of the patchwork fabric, and 8 of the shirt fabric for the backing. I figured the pinked edges would only add character to the bunting (and I could not be bothered to sew them and then turn them).

Then I measured and cut the gingham ribbon to form a Union Jack inspired cross.
I took the front piece of the bunting and zigzagged the ribbon down the length of the pendant pinking the ends.
Then I zigzagged the ribbon across, left to right.
Then top left to bottom right and finally top right to bottom left to make up the full cross.

Then I pinned the wrong sides of the front and back pieces of the pendant together and zigzagged all around.

It was at this point I realised I should have just cut the pendant pieces using straight scissors and only pinked the edges after each pendant was sewn toegther. That way I wouldn't have bits of ribbon hanging over the edges and have to try to cut them in a zigzag shape with regular scissors having given the pinking shears back and it being 10 o'clock at night. Doh.

Finally I positioned the pendants along the length  of tape ensuring that the gap between each one was the same and zigzagged each pendant onto the tape.

And there you have it. My more-shabby-than-chic Bunting.

Now for more craftiness inspired by pinterest, go to Simply Outnumbered who is hosting this months Pinaddicts extravaganza.

From Sweater To Infinity Scarf

I cried. No, actually I sobbed.
My beloved wool tunic sweater accidentally slipped into the washing machine when I wasn't looking and fell out somewhat smaller than when it had gone in.
I got it in the January sales. It is was new!

After I had pulled myself together, researched 'unfelting my shrunken sweater' on google and come up with "Oh dear", I took heart in a couple of pins I had popped onto my #pinaddicts board thinking that they would make a good project one day.

Source: flickr.com via Alison on Pinterest

Source: littlesomethingsbylittlelohood.blogspot.com via Alison on Pinterest

Suddenly I find myself with the raw material, i.e. my shrunken sweater.

I laid it out flat and attacked it with scissors to get 4 rectangles, two from the front and two from the back.

I am just going to pause for a second here to remark on how shrunken wool does not unravel or fray. Amazing! Apparently if you boil the stuff and then tumble dry it for good measure it can become very stiff and you can make allsorts from it. I wanted my shrunken sweater to remain soft, which it has, albeit a smaller soft than it was in its original form.


Taking 2 pieces, I oversewed the short edges together in a contrasting cotton, basically butted the edges together and zigzagged on the machine.

The wool tends to stretch a bit at the edges but that wouldn't particularly matter for the finished article I had in mind.

I joined all 4 pieces together along their short edges in a contiuous loop.

Taking inspiration from the felt pouch I'd pinned I started to free machine embroider a few wavy lines here and there.

Tada! One infinity scarf which I can wrap it two or three times around my neck.

At least my washing accident had a happy ending.

If you have any shrunken sweaters I really recommend this project. Really easy. Or go buy a wool sweater from a charity shop and put it on a hot wash!

The idea to pin and make came from a group of crafty ladies who collectively are known as #Pinaddicts
Pop over to Melsham Mum who is hosting the party this month for some other fabulous makes.

Sand Art Fun

I was sent a couple of Sand Art kits from Kids Bee Happy to review and it was not without a certain amount of trepidation that I let the kids lose. I have an aversion to glitter and sequins to the same degree as The Princess has an attraction to them. Sand I had yet to dislike, but I was pretty sure that I could add it to glitter and sequins by the time this activity was over!

"Can we cut and glue and glitter, Mummy?"

I have probably exhausted the excuses.

Sand Art then. So sand. And glue. Having just come back from a short beachy holiday in Wales we are already knee deep in residual sand in the car so I was not 100% sure about adding more to the house but Kids Bee Happy had been very kind to send the kits, one for the Princess and one for The Big One (no definitely NOT one for the Wee One), that I had to let my guard down and get creative with sand.

But I needn't have worried. NO GLUE! Genius. There was sand though :/

Each kit contains 2 images on card, enough sand for even the most generous of applications for each picture, a mini coloured picture to show you what the finished art should look like, a sealable pouch to display your finished creation in and a hanging mount. They have seriously thought of everything*.

Sand suitably contained. So far so good!

The genius bit is that you just peel off sections that you want to fill in with easy to apply sand dispensing pens. The sand is coloured and very fine so it flows really easily through a small point, perfect for accurate application.

Bunny Girl

Peel away to reveal self adhesive pre cut sections. NO GLUE!

Easy sand dispensing pens

When the fun commenced we did struggle a little to peel off the sections. Longer finger nails are essential and for very small sections an adult will need to help, but on the whole the kids could peel off the sections themselves. I also gave the kids a tray and some newspaper to work on to catch the inevitable excess sand.

I could build a castle with all that sand.

Delicate application

I    AM     A     ROBOT!

The resulting colours, and the fact that the sand only sticks to the pre-defined areas, result in a really clear picture that the children were, rightly so, very proud of. It had them engaged for almost 2 hours (unheard of!) and their confidence grew such that they decided to mix up some colours and try to create patterns.

Picasso Robot

The finished works of art were hung in the kitchen art gallery very proudly and were shown off to Daddy.

The finished masterpiece

I would really recommend these kits for an afternoons entertainment and are perfect for age 3 to *cough* 43. Yes, I may have 'helped' a bit.

Kids Bee Happy hold childrens parties across the UK and can also do in school workshops or attent events to entertain the children or the young at heart!


* If there was a niggle about the sand art kits it would be that they don't come with a dustbuster to hoover up the inevitable sand dunes that seem to have formed under my table ;) And if anyone knows what I should have used this little yellow stick for, please let me know.

If this is the spade, where is the bucket?

Amigurumi Goes Blogging

This story starts in the summer when I went to the Lincoln Antiques Fair and bought a sewing box, and contents for the princely sum of £5. A treasure trove of needles, cottons, rug making tools and crochet hooks. I vaguely remember having a go at crochet at school and quite liking it but failing miserably to make anything that didn't resemble an accident with a ball of wool and an over enthusiastic kitten.

Then at a craft evening at a friends house, I found in a pile of 'must have a go at that' craft books, "Amigurumi Friends". I found myself strangely drawn to these little knitted and crocheted creatures that obviously require years of formal training before you could even attempt to turn a ball of yarn with the help of some needles into anything recognisable.


Then came along My Love Bumps who set a challenge to set up a Pinterest board, pin crafty type things to it and then make something from your board.

Then I found this post on RedTedArt for a SIMPLE  (note how I have stressed the word simple) amigurumi teddy bear.

So what could be more natural than I pin that cute bear onto my board, dust off the crochet needle, get me some yarn and make like a Granny?

Here he is. The SIMPLE teddy bear, as posted by RedTedArt from Amieggs

Cute isn't he?

Well I had a go using some online 'how to' videos. You know, 'how to' tie a slip knot, how to make one crochet stitch, that kind of thing.

Casting on stitches, I have found, is the trickiest thing to do. Fiddly doesn't even cover it. I am not the most patient of people and I thought *cough* I could knock this little bear out in one evening. Yeah right. Five evenings later and I was finally stuffing the little f..ella.

So here is my crochet journey (edited) (heavily).

Casting on, and on, and on...

Crochet innit.

Ta da! A doily! Bugger, it's supposed to be a bear's head!

I was actually amazed that it became a pleasant way to pass the time. I have ordered a slanket and matching tartan slippers now, you know, to complete the 'not quite old enough to be doing this but secretly enjoying it' look.

So it seems I may need a bit more practise, and patience. And I need to actually count stitches, learn to read a pattern, or at worst, look at the picture of what you are aiming to achieve and make adjustments accordingly, addressing anything that differs wildly.

But enough of this waffle. You are desperate to see the finished bear I know. So here he is.

Bugger the Bear.

Named Bugger, early on in his creation, as it was the first word he heard and learnt due to its frequent repetition. He may have been sewn together slightly oddly, in that his head found limbs attached to it so was therefore promoted to the position of body and his body/head may be missing a snout as is traditional for bears but on the whole, overlooking these minor adjustments, I think you will agree that Bugger is a lovely little fella and will be henceforth the FiveGoBlogging mascot :)

It's like looking in a mirror!

Now I'm sure that when you pop over to LoveBumps blog there will be more craftiness occurring.