Bits and Bobs

Today I’ve got a few little refashions to share – things i made as gifts in the run up to Christmas and haven’t had the chance to post about yet. I’m afraid i don’t have before pictures for all of them but as they were made out of pretty standard items of clothing i’m sure you can use your imagination!

 

First off – a pair of my boyfriend’s old jeans he didn’t wear any more became…

 

A pair (sort of!) of oven gloves – I have probably posted something similar before as i’ve made these a few times – love them!

 

A notebook cover with a couple of scraps left over from another project and some free machine embroidery (where you adjust the sewing machine to let you move the fabric freely so the effect is like drawing with the stitching – have recently discovered this technique and i am seriously in love!) making a cute little mushroom. You can’t see on the picture but i made a ribbon loop closure with a cute red a white spotted button on the back of the book to hold it closed. The cover isn’t attached so it can be taken off when the notebook is full and used on a different one. I made a crochet pencil case to go with it, the zipper was new (tut tut) but the lining was made from pieces of a white shirt from my scraps bin.

Another covered notebook – i really went to town on the free embroidery on this one! I had been looking at peacock feathers for another project (which has since been ‘postponed’ in favour of work, gift making, work, work, moving house and more work. Eventually you may yet get to see it!)

But anyway, i had a lot of pictures of peacock feathers lying around while trying to decide what to make for a friend’s birthday. So i ended up with this:

And another pair of jeans (he handed me a stack about a year ago that didn’t fit well any more and i’m slowly working through them!) became a bag to match the notebook cover for our friend.

Then there were a couple of quite vivid, stripy shirts from the charity shop that i’d picked up for their lovely bright colours, and i paired with an old jumper that had accidentally got a little felted as i hadn’t realised it wasn’t entirely synthetic… No before pics of the jumper or one of the shirts, but i’m sure you can imagine a jumper (at least as well as you can imagine jeans – i was obviously in a hurry to get all my gifts made and not thinking about before pictures!) and the other shirt was like this one but more bluey-purpley.

I have actually since used more of this shirt for another refashion which i am really pleased with, hope to share that with you soon! In the meantime, here’s what i made with one slightly felted (and now too tight to wear) purple jumper, and two brightly coloured shirts’ sleeve fabric…

Two cute travel jewellery cases! I used a couple of zips taken out of old skirts when cutting up and using them as fabric for other projects, buttons and ribbon from my stash, and press studs (snaps) donated by my mum who had them for years and thought she would never use them. Each wrap has a zip pouch, a snap-fastening pouch, a ring holder (a stuffed tube sewn down at one end and secured at the other end with a snap) and a strip of fabric stitched down at intervals to create little gaps for hooking dangly earrings into!

 

I made a third one of these from scraps left over from making some things for my living room, and yet another zip taken out of a skirt (i hadn’t realised how many skirts i have dismantled until now!) as well as some beads from my bead box.

 

Last but not least – this is a sneaky one as it’s not really a gift, well only for myself! A lovely friend of mine bought me a voucher for a course at a local craft shop, and i chose a screen printing course. I took along a boring old tank top, and made it a little more interesting!

I love my ‘new’ top, and I’m totally in love with screen printing. It’s a bit messy to do just anywhere, but watch this space once i move to my awesome new house which has a GARAGE! Perfect for all those messy things i currently just about manage to resist doing indoors! (My new house also has an ATTIC, perfect for sewing, crafting, and squirrelling away mountains of fabric, yarns, and other craft supplies…can’t wait!)

 

Whew that was a long one! See you next time :) xx

80s Magic!

I went from this fabulous 80s velvet dress/tunic/thing (which i think is actually from the 80s, i have actually had it since i think mid-90s and it was second hand then) which never got worn, as despite being such lovely colours it was just a bit TOO much, and that awkward not-quite-dress, not-quite-top length. Apologies as always for the pile of junk that is my room.

 

To this – I’ve always wanted a tail coat!

Ok, so this isn’t really a proper tail coat (for a start it only has one tail) but it has the right sort of look! And the colour is much less overwhelming now. I just folded it in half so the cutting line would be symmetrical, chopped off the bits i didn’t want and hemmed. I don’t know if you can tell in the pictures but i gave it pointy pixie sleeves as well. The two metal clasps i used came free with a magazine that i was given as a gift, so this refashion was totally free! And i still have quite a lot of 80s wizard velvet to use somewhere else…including those massive pockets!

 

xx