Jute Heart Bunting

Last week I began to dismantle these jute gift bags that have been hanging around the house for a while. The fabric was quite stiff as the back had been coated, it looks like a layer of dried glue.

I was limited as to what to reuse use the fabric for due to the size of the pieces and I settled on making some bunting.

I marked out a triangle and heart shape on to the fabric

and chain stitched around the heart shape with some DK cotton yarn.

I cut out the triangle shapes and using a sewing machine, sewed on the crocheted edging

then glued some buttons on to the top corners of the triangle.

Recycling Socks

This morning was spent making Gilbert & Freda, a pair of sock monsters. Now sitting on a chair in Little L's room waiting for her to come home from school.

Acorn Garland

Last night I felt it was time for a garland change and made this one using an acorn garland tutorial which I saw on A Beautiful Mess blog.

The tutorial uses sticky back vinyl for the wood effect but I thought I'd try using these old sample books instead. I was a bit doubtful of the glue I use working because the samples are plastic but they seem to have held fine and nobody has been hit on the head by a falling acorn so far.

Recycled Skirt

Last night watching the news it all felt a bit surreal. Watching all the damage being done to communities mainly by people no more than children. Facebook and Twitter were kept on most of the night to keep in touch with friends regarding what was happening in our own small town. There were a few rumours but I think they were just that. I was still slightly wary of letting my boys in town this morning even though they were only nipping in to buy some maggots for fishing. Anyway they were there and back in a flash and now gone off to catch so tiddlers. 

On a brighter note I managed to drag my sewing machine out yesterday and I mean literally drag as it is stored under our bed.

A couple of weeks ago as I was walking down the garden a gush of wind blew my skirt and it snagged on our old rabbit run and ripped a pretty big hole in the side.

It has now has a new life as a tote bag. 
This is the first one I have ever made and it was so quick to put together. I can see why so many people make them.

Meow

Today I finished off these two kitties. The pattern was a free one found on the Wee Wonderfuls  site. Both are made using recycled/ upcycled fabric. One started of as a pillowcase and the other from a curtain.

While I had the printer going I also printed off the paperdoll download from the same site. It was the first time Little L had played with a paperdoll and she was getting a little frustrated when she couldn't get the clothes to stay on so found her stickers and used those to help the clothes to stay put.

Recycled Calendar

Anyone who knows me knows that I loathe to throw anything away if I think I may find a use for it so I hung onto my last years calendar trying to think what to do with it. The pictures on the calendar were these William Morris designs and I thought they would be ideal to cover something with.

Having nothing to cover, they ended up being made into a paper garland instead. I used spray adhesives to glue two pieces together so that there was now a different design on each side of the paper, instead of a nice design on one side and my scribbled appointments on the other. I cut out circles, rectangles and squares then using my sewing machine I sewed them into a string.

I apologise for lack of colour in this photo - we have an extremely dark hall way.

Just In Time ..

We bought this old cot with the intentions of renovating for Little L for Christmas. This was an absolute age ago and it has only just been finished off tonight. It was left so late as besides a new paint job the only other thing that needed doing was one of the brackets to hold the drop side up was missing so needed replacing . I thought that could easily remedied by a quick trip to B & Q for a bracket but it turned out there was nothing similar there. Luckily I have a very clever husband who made some for it. So after being repainted, I used a Farrow & Hall paint - Pink Ground, it was ready for the lovely original 50's decals that I had found. This did not turn out as expected either as when I tried to remove the backing paper, very carefully, they just came away in bits. With us leaving it till the last minute and the Christmas deliveries being how they are, there was just no chance of getting any more until after the holidays.

Before

After

The mattress was made by cutting a piece of foam to size and covering with calico. I made the sheets and pillow from an old flannelette cot sheet, the pillow case was embroidered and prettied with a crochet edge,I then made a crochet blanket and my first ever patchwork quilt. 

I'm sure Little L will be as pleased as punch when she wakes on Christmas day and receives this cot  to put her baba's in.