Recycled Fabric Scrap Earrings

I've been meaning for ages to make some more cover button earrings but just keep forgettting to go actually pick up some cover buttons whenever I'm at the habberdashery shop. So instead I decided to get my recycling hat on and made a few using some cardboard and small scrappy bits of felt and fabric I had lying round.

I started off by cutting out a pile of cardboard disks and then sticking a disk of felt to one side of it to give them a plusher feel.

I dug out my enourmous bag of scraps and found a few different fabrics that had sweet small patterns on them, there's no point using anything with too large a print as it will just get lost. I drew around the disks and added an extra cm to the radius so the fabric disks were about twice the size of the cardboard.

Then using a running stitch I gathered up the fabric and popped the cardboard disk inside.

Hmm not so impressed with the neatness of my felt cutting here, think its time for some new sharp little scissors! As you can probably tell, I've glued down a disk of felt to hold the gathered fabric in place and then another to hold the earring post in place too.
 

I do think they work quite well as a cover button substitute, and will definitely be trying some more - maybe even some different shapes.What do you all think then??

Happy New Year Work in Progress.

I've been struggling to get back into writing a blog post since the whole Christmas/ New Year tide but today in South Wales we have crazy snow and I am off work so thought I shouldn't waste any more time and get on with it!
I wanted to post about a beautiful embroidered cushion that I made before Christmas but eek my boyfriend managed to delete the photos accidentally from the memory card. Boooo! Hopefully the lovely Lucy (who received said pillow for Crimbo) will be kind enough to send me some photos and then I can share!

I do have a whole host of other bits and pieces I've been working on that I can just bamboozle you all with in the mean time. I'm in a phase of working on a few different things at the moment and not all are finished yet so bear with me and I'll explain all!

Record Bowls! 
Yes I have been making tonnes more bowls! They're the new sensation - I'm selling loads from the shop at the moment, even after the Christmas gift buying days are long gone. I was given a pile of warped 7"s so have been making miniature ones as well and playing round with different wave forms for the edges.

Shrinkies!
I've also been trying my hand at a new technique of making jewellery, well new to me - I am very aware that it's been around for ages and I'm slow to catch on here haha. Ah it is super cool being able to create pieces with my own drawings and for future ones I'm planing on screen printing onto the plastic instead of hand drawing everyone with permanent markers. I'm also in love with how small they go, great potential there! I will do a full length post on this once I've finished them all and created the final pieces.

Felty Badges and Necklaces too!
I've been stitching up some more little felt creations which has been fun. I've been making lots of little bits and pieces whilst idling the time away in the shop. Mr Foxy and Mr Panda were turned into necklaces which look really sweet. I attached jump rings to their ears and then onto the chain. They've already disappeared out of the shop with a lovely young gent buying gifts for his travelling friends; I hope they like them.

 
Hmm I'm thinking I may end it there for today and pick back up with another post over the weekend! Keep you waiting for the even better stuff haha. 
Here's to a crafty 2013 x

Yarn Bombing and Crimbo Decorations!

This week has flown by. It's been fun working in the shop and I've been making things whilst I've been sat at my desk too!

There's an awful tan coloured staircase in my space at CFQ so I decided to yarn bomb it to jazz it up. I'd seen a picture on line of a bike rack being eaten by a yarn bomb snake and it was amazing, so huge and dramatic, so I decided to homage it on a smaller scale and crochet up a beast of my own.

I used mainly treble stitch (UK crochet stitch) as the fabric would grow much quicker. It was a flat piece that I stitched up onto the banaster then I added some toy eyes to finish him off. He has cheered up the place this week :)

I've spent the past few days working on some Christmas decorations to sell in the shop! I made a few from felt and thread, creating traditional bauble shapes but with fun colours. I stitched down each layer and then blanket stitched a backing in a contrasting colour.

 

Earlier in the week I started re-vamping a denim jacket. I'm thinking of adding some studs to the colour tips too. The Singer is really great with heavy weight fabrics and denims. Love it!

Our lovely friend Dani has just dropped off a couple of knitting machines and a pile of wool so I have some interesting crafting fun coming up! Hopefully I'll have some sample pieces to share soon. If I find any good you Tube tutorials on how to use the beast then I'll post them up too.

Beacon Centre Craft Workshop Fun!

If you caught my last post you'll know I've been at the Beacon Centre in St Mellons running a craft class with the kids. The ages ranged from 9-13, mixture of girls and boys and they really got into the sewing. I was disappointed a tad that for most of them it was the 1st time they'd picked up a needle and thread, I'm sure we did this in primary school, let alone at home. Ah well we didn't have a computer, let alone phones to make cosies for. I was really impressed with the outcomes tho so I thought I'd share. We have some ninjas, a cassette tape, penguins, a teddybear and two Batman themed wallets. Love it!

 

Quicky Pin Cushion.

Today in my little craft class I showed the ladies how to make simple pin cushions. Here's mine, I just wanted to share. We used this tutorial although didn't add the lengths of yarn round the sides and used felt on the top rather than a button.