Material Gains

Honestly I was on the verge of breaking into a run when I saw this. Swept along by a wave of excitement and a sudden irrational fear that someone might get to it first.... a bit nuts seeing as I was the only one in the shop.

Love anything with a Skandi look - that bold, simple design, with a kind of retro 70's feel. Though possibly Dutch?  Not sure. Anyway I couldn't have been happier with my piece of fabric, and used every last thread of it to make this large cushion.

I found the material in a place called Rose Tinted Rags in Hereford, which is supported by a local charity and described in the blurb as a Recycled Textiles and Art Centre. It's way more fabulous than it sounds.

Crammed full of glorious reclaimed/donated/salvaged fabric, wool, haberdashery...the list goes on... believe me, it's a kind of secondhand crafty heaven.
The talented twosome who run it also hold quite a few sewing/craft/upcycling workshops at the centre - some for people with learning disabilities, others for anyone who's interested. There's definitely a buzzy, creative vibe going on.

I usually make a beeline for the piles of vintage fabric.
Never seem to leave empty handed.

Now I've got to get cracking with all these lovely bits and pieces...
And... (cue gentle drum roll)... I have my first order!
Just a small one, but it's a start.

Linking with lovely Handmade Monday

Silent Sunday - 16/6/13

Shell pictures

We've had a big bag of shells knocking about the house since our beach trips to the Gower a few weeks ago. Most of them were gathered at Rhossili, and they're quite large things like razors, marine snail shells, whelks, mussels and cockles (some still with wizened, whiffy occupants..)
Too big basically to make more ladies with prams like last time.
So I've put some around plants in a flowerbed/rockery, but kept smaller, pretty shells like this to make a picture for Nanny's Birthday. It's a tellin shell, and quite a lot of the ones we found were still joined together.

So first off, my 6 year old painted a thin piece of card blue, leaving a few cms at the bottom.  You could cut out part of cereal packet and use that instead, if you don't have any plain card.

While it was drying we put some broken shells in a plastic bag and bashed them. Very popular this bit! But don't smash them to smithereens - looks better I think if there's a mix of different sizes.

When the blue is dry, we added some fluffy white clouds using an old sponge, and then covered the bit left at the bottom with a good layer of craft glue before sprinkling over all the shiny shell pieces.

Shake off any loose stuff.
Then glue on the butterflies.

Just match up some shells if the ones you've got aren't in pairs, or experiment with cockles and mussels. Perfect for flower pictures too, and all kinds of other things really. Once you get going the world's your oyster (shell).

Linking up with Red Ted Art's Kids Get Crafty

Tooth Fairy Cushion

'WHY aren't my teeth falling out mummy?'
Totally over-dramatic, but I know what she's on about.
She's six; quite a few of her friends have wobbly teeth, and there's talk of the Tooth Fairy...

Now obviously the Tooth Fairy already knows where we live...but has, on occasion, found it VERY tricky to locate the little pearly whites in the pitch dark, because both my boys have insisted on burying them under their pillows...
Anyway I thought I'd stay ahead of the game with number 3 and make her a Tooth Fairy cushion, after seeing some gorgeous ones online.

Spotted this bright pink jumper on the pound rail in a local charity shop for the cushion bit.

I've made plenty of cushions out of old jumpers, and there's a more detailed run through of what to do here. Honestly it's very easy, and no zips or buttons to deal with. Mine is a 12" square cover.
I drew an appropriately sized fairy on a piece of tracing paper, then followed this as a guide to knit a dress shape.

All the other bits are cut out of felt using the tracing paper fairy as a pattern.
A little bundle of wool for the hair and a square of felt for the tooth bag.
The sewing-on took a while, but a good in-front-of-the-telly job and worth it, because she loves her cushion.

So we're all ready; well I'm not - never really ready to pass another milestone, especially as she's the youngest. I also have a strong feeling she won't be quite as forgiving as the boys if the Tooth Fairy gets a bit snowed under and em, you know just happens to..accidentally...forget...

Linking up with Handmade Monday

I See You Two

The eyes have it,
wouldn't you say?

Whatever she's feeling
they give it away.

Excited, sad,
hard to disguise,

glinting there
in her big blue eyes.


The Gallery theme this week is Two

Timely makeover

Very pleased with my latest charity shop buys, even if they were a bit manky looking.
I had plans for these tatty two pounders; just needed to find some paint...and a suitable excuse.

So the stool's to go with my revamped sewing machine trolley, and the little useful table is going to be.. useful. That's my story. And there were questions and eyebrows raised on friday when my other half spotted them, tucked in a corner of the spare room. But bless him, he's well used to coming home to shabby bits of furniture. Think I've already mentioned we live a mile away from the local auction...

Anyway, thought it best to be speedy with the makeover. I gave them both a quick sand and slapped on some trusty Blackfriars primer before using up two old blue tester pots.

The top of the stool was screwed in and easy enough to remove. The original pad was under the grim blue pleather, but there were a few rips, and I wanted to use some IKEA material left over from my campervan curtain-making nightmare...

Never quite sure how to cover the top of things, so I've had varying degrees of success; but this time I used the pleather as a guide, cutting the material to size, and copying the corner folds, and it seemed to come together pretty well.

I love the little table I covered in vintage domino cards (the ones in my blog header)
Still won't let anyone use it. I bought these watch dominos in a charity shop a while ago and thought they'd work on my new blue table.

Used PVA to glue them on the top - just had to cut a few to fit around the edge. Then several coats of clear matt varnish and that was it.

Both seem to have won over the doubters..and now I've got this old chair tucked in the corner of the spare room...

Linking up with Ta-dah! Tuesday over at Lakota's