This year’s lavender harvest has arrived and I have been challenged to do more than the usual lavender bags, so a wreath starts us off…
The base was cut from cardboard packaging and wrapped with donated wool before five handfuls of lavender were placed around the wreath, their stems cropped, lightly hot glued in place and then ‘bound’ with curling ribbon – which also makes a hanger for this lovely room scenter.
‘Snap’ was a local word for packed lunch in Nottingham/ Derbyshire when I was living there many, many years ago. So these lunch bags fastened with Kam snaps had an obvious snappy name.
I used remnants of vinyl from an Amazon job lot which meant cutting front and back panels to use the fabric best. If you have a plasticised tablecloth or even a heavy duty shower curtain to upcycle that would work well.
Because the remnants weren’t squared, one of the sunflower bags has an angled flap which needs three snaps to keep it closed well. But because the colour of the snaps is a positive (there were about 20 sachets of different colour snaps in the beginner set I bought) it makes the end result better in a quirky way.
While the snaps were out I made a small lined bag (angled flap and 3 snaps again) and turned the cuff end of a shirt sleeve (left over from last week’s laundry bag make) into a phone holder to avoid scratches when it is in my bag.
to make: cut vinyl into required shape (back bigger so the flap folds over)
with right sides facing sew round the sides and bottom – use a long stitch length to make as few puncture holes in the vinyl as possible and don’t do too many back stitches at beginning and end or the vinyl will be too holey and might tear when in use.
trim seam allowance and clip the seam really close to the stitches at the corners before turning right sides out – the clipping helps neaten the corners as vinyl is quite bulky.
fold the edges of the flap over and seam these in place, on one of the bags I used zig zag for this to hide a blooper I had made.
position the snaps or you could use Velcro to finish the bag…
Thanks to Edward for finally clearing out his aging shirts. The less lovely patterns will be used to line projects but this shirt is worth using on the outside
I decided to keep the placket (learnt that word from Sewing Bee) so just chopped off the collar and sleeves leaving equal rectangles. (I unpicked a dart on the back but this really wasn’t necessary).
I then cut two matching rectangles from lining material (I am finally making headway into the old duvet cover that is flattering up my fabric stash/jumble).
To make a drawstring tube, I cut two strips of fabric from the remnant about 10 inches by 4, hemmed the short ends and ironed under about an inch on the long sides before stitching the long ends a couple of inches down from the top of the outside of front and then back of the shirt
With right sides facing I hemmed the sides and bottom of both shirt and lining (leaving a gap for turning in the bottom of the lining. I boxed the corners with a 2 inch box cut out but this isn’t necessary.
I then turned the lining right sides out and sat it inside the shirt bag. I pinned the tops of the bags together, matching the seams and smoothing out any wrinkly bits before hemming all the way round.
I pulled the shirt through the gap in the lining, stitched the gap shut and then pushed the lining back inside the bag. I ironed and top stitched around the top hem before threading cord loops through the drawstring.
This is an easy project as the shirt front does all the style work needed. I didn’t even stitch the two sides of the front together, just left them buttoned up. This means the user could tuck things between front and lining if desired. And that’s in addition to the original shirt pocket on the front. I did put fabric tabs over the cord ends to use up some of the little remnants but it’s really not required.
Perhaps this is too good for a laundry bag!
On another version I tried using the sleeves to shape the bag by cutting just inside the shoulder seam. It made the bag slightly wider but a bit more fiddly and saggy when finished.
While the felt and googly eyes were on the table, I remembered this Pinterest inspired ‘to do’.
In practical terms, bigger is better – this one wouldn’t hold many coins, but I was pleased at how easy it was to make from some of my Ali Express little felt squares.
I sketched the outline in pencil direct on the felt then cut it out on two matching pieces of cheap, stiff, nylon felt before zig zag stitching around the coin slot and edges. The googly eyes were stuck on with collage medium.
It might be fun to make a suitcase or flag shaped one for someone saving for a holiday; car shaped or Christmas tree shaped or …
Inspired by a charity fund raiser daffodil shown centre above
These are simple felt shapes stitched on to a loop of elastic which will slip over the dog’s collar
cheap, stiff felt seems to be best for these, although I am not sure how long the googly eyes or any part will survive tear and wear
I plan Christmas cracker ones for this year’s doggy stockings!
I have a stash of sea glass collected from the beach during my morning dog walks. I was inspired to use up some of the smallest fragments by artwork that I saw in a Cornish souvenir shop. Clean and simple appeals and I knew I could do this but without the title that they artfully scribed on theirs. Mine will have the beach name written on the reverse instead.
I cut a stencil from card and spread some Distress Collage Medium matte glue through the stencil directly on the canvas/textured paper before positioning the glass pieces like a jigsaw. Once dried I pulled off the stencil and the job is done.
I prefer the fish in the smaller photo frame and still have lots of glass to use up once I decide on other shapes. Do they have to be beach related?
The hardest cards to make…
The greetings were printed from the laptop on photo paper. The metal embellishments did all the work on those cards. I cut out the stamped flintstone image with the scan n cut, coloured it with whatever pens came first to hand and stopped myself embellishing beyond a few enamel drops.
I stuck to my objective of making at least two similar cards at a time and now have some masculine cards ready
hand sewn using whatever felt, embroidery thread and embellishments you have…
inspired by Debbie Shore and using some crafters companion classic flower dies for the fiddliest shapes
these will have a life after Easter if scented and used on clothes hangers …
A quick cut project using the scan n cut based on Applelover53 berry basket (free from her blog cut files).
Ready for Easter or biscuits or to present home made goodies when filled with crumpled tissue paper. I used red liner tape to fix the two top ‘holding strips’ to the sides and the handle to the basket but it won’t be weight bearing. I also added a little felt tag tied to the handle as I have a pile of them to use up somehow …
I guess you could devised your own pattern and hand cut – pieces shown below – but I am grateful to find the file ready to use. For this version I used some Kanban light card which has a two tone pattern on one side and is plain on the other.
So quick yet makes such a difference…
I laid the bottle on the fabric, traced round it leaving a half inch seam allowance then cut out a matching pair of fabric pieces.
With wrong sides facing, I sewed the sides from neck to bottom before flipping fabric right sides out and sliding in the bottle.
On one version I hand stitched the bottle in permanently, on the pictured version I used kam snaps to close up the bottom. With IKEA fleece I don’t have to worry about hemming the exposed edges.
This is a huge success as it keeps the bottle water hot for longer and is nice and cuddly too. Great return on the time spent on this one.
janecrafts 