Mini oven/coal mitts

~ guernseyjane
Protect your hands when stoking the fire or picking up a hot pan – and use your scraps!

A ‘use what you have’ project as I couldn’t bear to throw out some wadding scraps when decluttering.

I made a rough pattern of an oval about 9 inches tall and 6 inches wide. (That is big enough to grab a small log or oven dish.) I cut out four ovals of fabric and one piece of wadding. Two ovals of fabric were cut in half widthways to make the pockets.

Each of the pairs of halves was pinned right sides facing and stitched along the straight edge to make two shapes like this…

Then the pieces were stacked in the following order : wadding, complete piece face up, pocket pieces face up, complete piece face down. Carefully pinned together I stitched around the edge leaving a big turning gap towards the bottom of the oval.

After turning right sides out, flip the pockets inside out and stitch closed the turning gap, then flip them back the right way and you are done.

More reusable face wipes

~ guernseyjane

I have increased my stash of face wipes as they are really useful but have to be washed in a mesh bag so there is often a backlog in the laundry system!

Sixteen more wipes were made from one microfibre face cloth (that came in a set of three from Pound World) and a remnant from a cotton shirt in less than an hour.

I laid the materials right sides facing and sewed 16 circles, leaving a turning gap in each circle. I then trimmed around each circle and flipped them right sides out before hand stitching the turning gap closed.

Cute as a button

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Ceded to temptation and bought a bundle from Crafters Companion including a back edition of their monthly kit. Have raced through it trying to use up some of the supplies as I am trying to reduce the craft room stash.

Another 20 cards made and there is still a stack of paper and card to use up as well as a jar of buttons.

Vinyl records upcycle

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What to do with a windfall of old records?

Unplayable, unloved and now upcycled into a fruit bowl.

Pre-heat the oven to medium hot then balance the record over an upturned bowl and bake it for about 4 minutes until it has draped itself over the bowl creating the folds and contours you see here.

As you take it out of the oven you have a few seconds to manipulate the hot vinyl a bit before it cools.

Ok, not food safe and there is a hole at the bottom but it is FUN and I used the album cover to make a presentation box. Yes, some lucky person is getting this for Christmas.

Heat transfer vinyl

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Remnants from a ‘remake the outdoor blinds’ project have been transformed, thanks to heat transfer vinyl …

This premium vinyl is much better than the economy version I have used before and I am surprised how well it melds into the canvas fabric. Let us see how the boat flag survives its outdoor life.

The other projects created from this crafty session with the trusty scan n cut (the whale is a standard supplied svg) will remain a Christmas surprise for the lucky few!

‘It’s the season – to be making cards

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I have been recycling an old Lesley Anne Ivory perpetual diary into cat cards and decided to put the Christmas cats into one bundle.

These images just need matting onto card before adding to the A6 card front. I cut the ‘Merry Christmas’ and bow, using papercraft society November kit dies, from the mat card before sticking the image on to it.

Finished with some sequins or gem stones these now make a cat lover’s Christmas kit. Think I like the non traditional colours best.

Always make multiples

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If you are going to make a card make multiples. It makes sense even if you give away the spares. Most time is spent gathering supplies and planning layouts rather than the assembly, so three takes hardly any more time than one.

Here I used some ancient craftwork cards antiqued papers matted on some papermania textured cardstock (bought in a handy A5 colour block). I cut the sentiment – dovecraft– and Sheena botanicals flowers from the mat before sticking it on the card base. Only the edge of the mat shows and the paper is good quality – plus this keeps the impact subtle, just what I want for a sympathy card. Two cards were embellished with Candi buttons, but not sure if that makes them too fussy.