Five Things I’m Loving This Friday ~ Repurposing

We’ve been having a bit of a clothes clear out here this week and found quite a few things that no longer fit, including a pair of jeans that had become far too short…seemingly overnight! I already have a little collection of outgrown jeans with worn out knees, that I plan to turn into a scrappy denim quilt, once I have enough of them.

If you only have one pair maybe you could try Betz White’s storage bins.

There was an old pair of cargo pants which could be turned into a messenger bag.

This cushion is made from an old t-shirt, although it needs quite a large one, I don’t think any of my children’s cast offs will be big enough!

If, like me, you only have smaller t-shirts you could try making these flowers instead.

We also found some old bedlinen that we no longer use and I remembered Twiglet mentioning a very worthwhile project on her blog, that aims to Dress a Girl Around the World. The dresses are made from an old pillowcase, although you could use fabric instead. It takes less than a metre if you use this tutorial, which includes a printable pattern and is fairly straightforward if you have basic sewing skills.

I think these dresses are so cute and I’ve come across lots of different versions all around the blogosphere. My daughter is sadly much too big to be wanting one herself, but now we can make one for another little girl somewhere in the world.

That’s it for this week. I hope you’ll join me again next Friday for some more fun things to do during the school holidays.

Five Things I’m Loving This Friday ~ Holiday Fun

My children finished school at 2pm today and are looking forward to a well earned rest. Of course they will also be expecting me to provide plenty of fun activities to fill the weeks ahead. Here are a few ideas I have come across, while browsing around the fabulous internet. What would we do without it?!

My two are sadly a little old for this one now, but I used to love making playdough when they were younger. I love the colours made with natural dyes, but you could just use food colouring like I did.

Not a new idea, I’ve made these bracelets with my daughter before, but a good portable craft that doesn’t take up much room in your bag/case.

We’ve made papier mache many times over the years, but nothing like the amazing creations on this website. The bluebirds would be a great starter project, but just look at this fabulous dragon and how cute is this lop-eared bunny?

For this next one, I’m really hoping I can source suitable ingredients in the UK, because it looks like fun for older children to try. I loved Silly Putty when I was younger, finding it intriguing that it could stretch, snap or bounce and take prints from the newspaper. Love the name of this website too!

We’ve been having rather more rain around here lately than I’d like, but on the off chance that the sun might come out, I’m going to make some of these re-usable water bombs.

I hope you found something that you’d like to have a go at during the summer holidays. Have fun and I hope the sun shines for you.

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday #111

Well I’m actually being organised for once and writing this post the night before. I don’t know what has gotten into me!  Apologies for the poor quality of this picture, for some reason I am having trouble with my photos looking blurred when I put them on my blog, even though they are clear and sharp in Photoshop.

There’s a very old layout, which I came across while looking for some papers today. I put it away because it needed something else adding to it, but I couldn’t decide what and it hasn’t seen the light of day until now! Some old photos of my daughter in her fairy costume, a sheet of templates for some felt animals from Mollie Makes and the latest issue of Making, which has a gorgeous tie dye maxi dress to make.

I have to make a birthday card for my sister-in-law and I was inspired by Sarah, so I got out my circle punches to try something Clean and Simple. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Head on over to Julia’s place to find an array of other desks to have a good mooch around.

Five Things I’m Loving This Friday ~ Ruffles

It’s been a while since I did one of these lists, so I thought I’d start them up again, but with a theme each week, instead of being a random collection of thoughts.

The first issue of Mollie Makes had a New trends article showcasing all things ruffled and I had a browse around the web to find a few of my own. With the help of Pinterest I can save anything I like and it’s there when I want to come back to it. No more trying to dredge up where in the world I saw something!

First up is this beautiful ruffled top made from a t-shirt

Next there is a lovely romantic cushion cover

Next up is a revamped lamp and shade

Next is a tutorial for jazzing up a plain boring camera strap

Lastly my favourite, a gorgeous ruffled bag to make

I hope you’ve found something that inspires you among my little collection. If you make any of the projects I’d love to see them. Happy Friday everyone.

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday #110

So another week has flown by and I have been a very bad blogger. It was my son’s birthday yesterday and there was a chocolate cake to make, presents to wrap and Skaven Clanrats to track down.

My desk is full of the fabric I bought last week. Some unbleached calico to line the Cath Kidston bag with. I decided I didn’t want raw seams inside it, so didn’t make it up when I first got the book, probably about a year ago now!

Some nice bright cottons to have a go at making a bag and pencil case for my daughter. I had a hunt through my sewing box for some matching threads and I found a turquoise that will do (no idea what project I bought that for) and some purple thread that was left over from making this dress, many years ago.

I’m all set for a bit of a sewing this afternoon, once I get back from pilates and coffee with a new friend.

Pop over to Julia’s place if you want to see what it’s all about.

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday #109

Well there’s not a lot of actual crafting going on on my desk this week. When I got home at lunchtime, Mollie Makes was waiting there on the doormat for me. Once I had done a couple of the more pressing chores, I was powerless to resist any longer.

I made myself a coffee, grabbed a chocolate muffin and settled down for a browse through the pages. Taking a quick photo first of course and popping over to Julia’s place to leave a link.

A few people were interested to see what those merino rovings, from last week’s desk, might turn into, so here is a flower just for you.

There may be a slight delay, before I start visiting all those other lovely desks out there today. Coffee, chocolate cake and Mollie Makes are calling my name!

Storytelling Sunday – Bread and Becker

Today it was the Wimbledon Men’s Final and it got me thinking of another Wimbledon final back in 1985.

I was getting ready for a big adventure, later that year, with a group of friends and part of the preparations involved raising money for the trip. We had a stall at the Gold Hill Fair and took it in turns to man it throughout the day.

During our time off we sneaked round to a friend’s house to watch the tennis. We got totally caught up in the excitement that a boy our own age might be about to win Wimbledon. That boy was Boris Becker and he did indeed win that year and we may have been just a tiny bit late getting back to the stall for our shift!

It was quite a climb back up Gold Hill and if you are of a certain age you will know this, because the cobbled hill was featured in the 1973 Hovis advert. What you may not know, is that this famous view is to be found in Dorset and not a northern town as the advert implies.

In spite of the distraction we raised the money we needed to fund the working part of our trip and what a trip it was, but that’s a story for another day.

To read lots more stories and perhaps share one of your own, pop over to Sian’s place, where you’ll be made very welcome.

Punches Galore!

Here I am, as promised, with the contents of those last two drawers. Not very exciting I’m afraid after the wait!

Mostly an assortment of flowers in here, ranging from 3/4” up to 3” in size and a few paddle punches, which come in handy from time to time. Also my two corner rounders, which were great for making scalloped edges before I had a border punch to do the job, as well as….well….rounding corners! It’s a little more tricky to get this right, but you can also make a circle with a scalloped edge.

Mostly circles in this drawer, both plain and scalloped. Plus a couple of 6 petal flower punches, perfect for making roses similar to the ones Wendy Vecchi creates using a stamped flower and Tim Holtz makes using a Sizzix die.

Punches were the thing that I found the most awkward to store, before getting these drawers and I’m glad to have most of them in one place now. So how do you store yours?