At the end of January it's time for Chinese New Year. As I was taking down the Christmas Tree the other day it occurred to me that you could make such a cute little Horse for Chinese Year of the Horse using the candy canes and a few bits of felt. I used the candy cane as a template and drew around it, then used that as the basis for a template. I traced around the template and cut out a pair of horses heads. Then I sewed the pair of felt … [Read more...]
{Back to School} Pimp my hair bands
My children both attend a school with a fairly rigorous uniform list. The colours are specified right down to what the children wear in their hair. This was challenging enough in their last school, whose colours were yellow and grey- not colours that could be bought off the shelf from all good uniform retailers, it would seem- but from September their colours are purple and grey or black. I do not know a single five-year-old girl who considers … [Read more...]
How to make an pillow sleepover bed
I'm going to show you how to make a cheaper alternative to the GLTC Bed in a Bag, which costs a staggering £95.00. My version cost a tenth of that. I used a single duvet cover set that I picked up from a local charity shop for £2.50, and pillows that were on sale from Dunelm Mill. Excluding thread, which I had already, the cost of my version is £9.50. Here's How to make an pillow sleepover bed. … [Read more...]
How to make a drawstring bag: Take One Pair of Jeans Challenge
I missed out when Missie Lizzie B ran her Take One Jumper Challenge. I never quite got around to making the things I planned to: I never found the right sweater. So when she reached out on Twitter, suggesting that I might be up for a Jeans challenge, I was a little more responsive. I cut out the fabric almost immediately. And then I did nothing with it: progress of a kind. And yet a flurry of activity today gave me some progress. Following … [Read more...]
Hobbies and Crafts at Glow, Bluewater
I had a thoroughly enjoyable Thursday morning with Mari, The Great British Housewife, exploring the first Hobbies and Crafts show at Bluewater. We would have been first through the door but we'd have had to elbow a few old biddies out of the way and apparently that isn't the done thing. Fortunately, there was so much space inside that it really didn't matter. Which is not to say that there wasn't lots to see: there was. It is the kind of event … [Read more...]
Upcycled Pillowcase Skirt
I am totally on a roll now with the whole make-something-from-a-pillowcase thing. This time, it's a skirt. The inspiration was a post on upcycling a pillowcase into a dress at Mummybrain, which I found through pinterest. I took her basic guidelines for making a circle skirt as I has the perfect pillowcase for such a craft. The frilled edge of the floral pillowcase begged to be used, so I unpicked it at the beginning and put it to one side. … [Read more...]
Pillowcase Pyjamas Part 1
I have been inspired to get the sewing machine out in recent days. I so enjoyed making the dresses and skirts for the Girls this summer, and have quite a few random pillowcases lying around which I bought when making dresses for Sew Scrumptious' campaign. I was keen to use them to make some sweet pyjamas for the Girls to wear at Christmas, and was beyond excited to see a pin which used pillowcases to make pjs. Step 1 is to launder your … [Read more...]
