Fruitini

Here are a few tiny crochet fruity necklaces that I've been making recently!! (and a toadstool too of course)...

Sustrans @CarArtBootique

I was asked by Becca at Green City if Sustrans could use my services to make a banner for their stall at the CarArtBootique event at Chapter on Sunday!

Well of course!! They have such an awesome ethos to their work, how could I say no.

Plus the banner sounded like a fun project. Tropical Pedal Powered Smoothies mmmmmmm.

Here's a few snaps of my printing and making!

Can't wait to head down to Chapter for the event tomorrow!!

Purse- suit of Happiness (oosh that was bad yeah?)

So this week has been mega busy but in a really good way. Lots of time spent eating tasty food with lovely friends and family and a visit from my sister and her family as well as a whole heap of printing and stitching.

Just for today though I wanted to share a few purses that I whipped up out of old curtains and bedding. I used a small magnetic clasp to keep them closed and bias binding for the edging.

 

Bank Holiday Handbag Making

Ah Easter Monday, two days off in a row so of course I have itchy sewing fingers!  We had a lovely relaxing day yesterday with lots of lazing round watching films and then eating tasty food round at Ma and Pa's with a full house of family. Today however I was feeling inspired to make something new. 

I don't know about you but I spend a lot of time perusing through pretty things on pinterest. I keep seeing lots of things that inspire me to make stuff and today I followed through on my vision.

I'd seen a lovely example of a folded over clutch-esque thing.

I'd picked up a beautiful green leather offcut the last time I was at recreate picking up things for a class I was teaching and knew that if it lived in the stash pile it would one day get used for something fun ;)

I picked a few complimentary fabrics and a contrast zip and spent this morning sewing away. I started off by adding a heart applique using a sweet pink and red polka dot fabric.

I then overlocked all the edges of the fabrics that would fray as i wanted it to be quite hard waring.

I added a top stitch to the zipper seams to give them added strength. I find it means that the fabric doesn't catch in the zip when you're using it too.

I used a magnetic snap to keep the bag folded over  when closed

 

As I was stitching around the outside layers I also added a loop on each side so I could attach a handle. I have a huge reel of gold chain and thought that it complimented the green of the leather quite well.

I quite like the black and white gingham lining.

There are definitely a few tweaks I'm planning when I make some more but for now I really can't decide whether to keep this one for myself or to put it in the shop......

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??

Sticky Image

I found a pile of mirrors with really wide frames at the charity shop this week. I prefer the aesthetic of a wider frame for decoupaging piece of comic books onto them as you can still follow the story. 

A pot of ModPodge and a pile of old annuals later...

I also picked up a few picture frames so have worked some revamp magic with those too. The foxes come from a Dandy annual but I used a few sheets of origami paper to create the patchwork effect. I love the combination on the patterns and colours.