Hoodie!

I found this great hoodie tutorial today and couldn't resist giving it a try! The only fleece I had enough of was black and not enough for the hood but the Angry Birds fleece worked as a perfect contrast in the hood! Also matched the trousers I made him last Christmas - he may be moving up to his brother's soon though as they are on the short side!! Eden loves the hoodie though and kept wanting me to snuggle him! Any time!!!

The hoodie tutorial can be found at http://thecraftykitty.co.uk/2013/12/16/rohan-hoodie-pattern-tutorial/ with downloadable pdf pattern.

The trousers is the much used Katrina's Longies pattern which I have used more times than I can remember! http://katrinassqs.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/longies-pattern.html

Junk Art !

This is a project that has been on the go for a good few months now!
I wanted to get rid of a lot of the boys toys that weren't being loved anymore or were broken but thought they would bring some happy memories in years to come so I decided a giant rainbow art piece was the way to go!
I started by pencilling out a rainbow onto a canvas which Joplin then painted.

I then began to glue-gun the toys I had collected on to the canvas in their different colour spaces. 

 It is gradually being built up. The only big hitch though is that when it is left between gluing sessions the boys 'discover' their old toys again and want to re-love them!! See those white patches? They were once filled with toys!!

And here is the finished product!! Still a work in progress really and I am still trying to persuade Eden that he really doesn't need the purple broken toy dinosaur he hasn't played with in months! It was great fun too make although a larger project than I originally thought!

Driftwood embroidery

A lovely project for today combining drills and embroidery needle - great fun!

I found a small piece of driftwood which I then marked out the word 'home'.

I then drilled holes along the wording. I initially used my Dremel, but it struggled a little. I then tried my Grandad's old hand drill which worked perfectly! The oldies are the goodies!

When all the holes were drilled I then threaded wool onto a needle and backstitched along the wording. 

I love the end result! Simple but effective! I have popped it on the printers tray with the stones I 'sharpied' in Spain, and  the wood weaving from our recent camping trip. I think it fit's very well!

Snowman outfit finished!!

Both boys have been told they need to be a snowman for their separate Christmas productions at Nursery and School - result! Only one costume to make that they can share! Fortunately the productions are a few days apart with Joplin's first, so I will have a weekend to make adjustments and probably need to take it up for Eden.
The boys can be reluctant when it comes to dressing up in public so I wanted to make it as near to normal clothes as I could. I found some great fur fleece fabric in white with a bit of stretch and so I dug out my favourite pattern for some seriously fluffy trousers! I have used this pattern so many times right from newborn sizes and I think there's still a couple of years left yet. Actually I have very tempted to scale it up for my size - they always seem so comfy looking! Anyway the pattern can be found here. I used the extra large pattern with the large on the waistband and added a bit of elastic for the waistband - the waist is generous on the pattern as it is meant to go over cloth nappies. I made them a little long with a large hem - hopefully this can serve as a turn up for Eden, and also maybe give a couple more years use!
For the top I made a pattern from a waistcoat / gillet that fitted Joplin and made it slightly more generous at the sides so it could fasten in the middle. As the fabric doesn't fray and is so fluffy I didn't even need to hem it. I fastened it on the tummy with a strip of velcro then sewed on two felt 'buttons'.
Add a white t-shirt underneath, and a scarf and hat and Ta-da! - one complete snowman costume! I can't wait to see the boys in it in their productions!!

Your comments make my day! Do let me know what you think!

Chalkboard / Placemat tutorial.

I saw a few of these on Etsy recently as I was buying laminated cotton for my seat covers and have been dying to have a go ever since! 

I cut a rectangle of laminated cotton (I love this Robert Kaufman cheeky monkeys design!) and a rectangle of chalk-cloth fabric both about 32cm X 46cm. I also cut another small rectangle about 13cm X 9cm of the patterned laminated cotton. 

I then hemmed 2 sides of the smaller rectangle as shown here with a generous hem at the longer edge:-

I placed this smaller rectangle on the chalk-cloth and tacked it to the Left bottom corner. I then sewed a vertical line 3cm from the RH hem as shown.  (note the top edge in the picture is not sewn to the chalk-cloth but left an open pocket)

 I placed the whole chalk-cloth right side down against the right side of the large Monkeys rectangle.

 As pins were no good on this fabric I used sellotape! There's probably a better solution out there (Auntie Peggy will know I'm sure!) but as it was that was what I had handy and it seemed to work!

I sewed along 3 edges then trimmed the fabric close to the stitches. I used a long stitch at around 3 in length as I didn't want to perforate the fabric too much and risk tearing. 

I then turned it inside out.

Before top stitching and sewing up the remaining side I again got out the sellotape! 

 

 Confession: I actually ended up unpicking all my topstitching and re-starting it but this time with a walking foot on the sewing machine. The regular foot stuck on the laminated cotton and ended up bunching the thread a little. The walking foot made a huge difference!
So here is the finished result - a chalkboard on one side complete with holder for chalk and pocket for wipe cloth.

 Then on the other side a handy and happy place-mat!

 It neatly rolls up for travel.

 I just need to suss out a way to fasten it in it's rolled state now - watch this space for an update!

Your comments make my day! Do let me know what you think!

Smashed plate Earrings! Jewellery from broken china tutorial.

My new hobby is making earrings from smashed plates! It's been great fun searching the bootsales for suitable china and also digging out my old soldering iron I received as a free gift from my subscription to Real Robots magazine a few (ahem) years back! 

An ideal plate should have the main pattern on the flat part of the plate, not the rim, and also too be as flat as possible on both sides. It is a bonus if there is a reverse makers mark or such like on the reverse. It's a lovely bit of recycling if the plate is already smashed but I have to admit I did this one on purpose!

Start by cutting the pieces to size and shape. A wheeled tile cutter is ideal for this. 

Then sand the pieces to remove the rough edges. I used quite a rough grit sandpaper for this. 

Then wrap the pieces in copper foil tape. This is self adhesive. Try to get it as smooth as you can as this will make a difference when the solder goes on. When it is on then rub your fingernail along all the edges and sides to make sure it is securely adhered. 

Now the fun part! Heat up your soldering iron and then brush some flux onto the copper. Melt a blob of solder (lead free as this will be going near skin as jewellery) onto the iron and then run it along an edge. I like to do the edge first and then the front and back but it is up to you. A pair of tweezers or long nosed pliers would be ideal here to hold your piece as it does get quite hot. A damp cloth is also handy to wipe the soldering iron every so often. Be careful and make sure the cloth is thick and damp as the iron is very hot!!! 

When you have finished and are happy with your solder then add a jump ring with a blob of solder to which you will attach your earring hook (or chain etc). 

I like a more 'tarnished' than bright silver finish so I also rubbed on a black patina with some cotton wool. This soon dulls the shine and gives a more worn-in feel which I feel suits the old china. 

Give it a good clean after this as it is best not to get on the skin. 

Attach your earring hooks and you are ready to wear them for an evening out!

I also made these 2 out of this saucer!

So... you will need:-

Tools

Wheeled mosaic cutters

Soldering iron

Tweezers / pliers

Sturdy fireproof work surface

Thick damp cloth ( I used an old terry nappy)

'Ingredients'

Plates / china preferably already broken!

Solder (lead free)

Flux ( I used gel flux)

copper foil tape

silver jump rings

silver earring hooks

Black patina. 

Your comments make my day! Do let me know what you think!

Vinyl messenger bag from comic books

Fuelled on with enthusiasm from my Thunderbird wallet I thought I'd have a go at a messenger bag. I thought for a while about dimensions, then realised these were pretty much decided for me with the size of the comic book pages. I laid 6 pages out as shown - the arrows on the second picture show the top of the page. 

I then sandwiched the pages in between 2 sheets of vinyl. I smoothed out the bubbles and creases then sewed it together. 

I made one line of stitching on the vinyl outside of the paper (no. 3 straight stitch - large so as not to rip the vinyl) and one line over the paper as seen in the close up. 

I folded one side 1/3 of the way up and then sewed along the sides. I then turned inside out. I'm not sure if I would do this step again another side as turning inside out very slightly damaged the paper by creasing it. It might be better to expose the seams. Anyway the creases didn't really show in the end so I'm still undecided what would be best.
I added a strap and reinforced the bottom with  a strip of strong cardboard wrapped in comic book and vinyl.

Joplin loves it! He has put all his Thunderbird toys in it already!

Your comments make my day! Do let me know what you think!

Sewing with laminated paper, and vinyl wallets from comic books

I have been wanting to try out sewing with paper into useful items for a while now and so with a birthday pressie needed for my Auntie I thought I'd give it a go.
I printed and laminated an old style airmail envelope bearing her birthday and address (blurred on photos).  I was limited to what could be done with an A4 sheet so I thought a pencil case could work. I folded it to show front and back envelope sides then sewed in a zip. This was a little tricky as the laminated paper didn't have much give, but with my zipper foot and sewing with the zip open it went in Ok. I then sewed up the sides. I stitched over the zip ends a few times then trimmed it with scissors.

I was pleased with how it turned out but ideally I wanted something with a bit more flexibility. I thought I'd try vinyl.

I scored a good find on ebay this week - a huge stack of Thunderbirds magazines! 87 in total for just a couple of pounds! Whilst I'm sure Joplin (and Dan!) are going to be over the moon with them and will fill a few birthday and Christmas pressies for the next 40 or so years, I figured the enthusiasm would fade certainly by issue 80, so I thought I would upcycle the last few into of some use!

I thought I'd start by a small card / business card holder. I cut a strip of comic book one width wide - approx 8" X 3". I roughly cut the vinyl to cover the whole thing X 2 and an extra couple to cover each end approx 2.5'' over. I sandwiched the  comic book in-between the vinyl and laid the extra pieces either end.

I sewed along the vinyl on the edge of the paper and then over the paper and the vinyl. I made it quite a large stitch (no. 3) so the vinyl wouldn't rip. 

It came out quite well and seems pretty strong and durable. 

Your comments make my day! Do let me know what you think!