quick and simple hot water bottle cover

~ guernseyjane ~ Leave a comment

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.

DIY deodorant fail

~ guernseyjane ~ Leave a comment

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Who knew I would be such a sensitive soul? The first diy beauty fail for ages …

The recipe from Wellness Mama (and many other sites) did warn that some people are sensitive to baking soda in this, but surely not me …

But maybe you won’t be sensitive or you could try this without the baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) as I will be.

To make a trial batch – plenty for a couple of weeks – just mix

3 teaspoons coconut oil with 2 teaspoons of shea butter then add 2 teaspoons of baking soda and 2 teaspoons of arrowroot or cornflour. Finish with a couple of drops of rosemary essential oil (or lavender or clary sage or whatever you fancy).

 

 

 

custom pillow case

~ guernseyjane ~ Leave a comment

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I am ridiculously proud of this make as it really is better than bought

I couldn’t find pillowcases to go with a bargain duvet cover As I had some dotty fat quarters that would complement my purchase I decided to make a trim for some custom pillowcases.

I recycled a retired duvet cover rather than buy sheeting as this was an experiment, gosh it worked out well as the duvet was good quality cotton. I made the trim by combining strips from fat quarters, the new blade in my Rotary cutter made short work of this stage.

I followed the magic pillowcase aka sausage pillow case aka burrito pillow case technique. This sandwiches a 24″ x 40″ panel and a 12″ x 40″ panel around the 2″ x 40″ trim and encloses all the seams to make it a really nice, clean make.

The folding seems ridiculous but it does work. I watched an old Crafty Gemini video as she explains the steps most clearly to me.

 

 

No measure gift bags

~ guernseyjane ~ Leave a comment

You tube easy gift bag how toimage need a gift bag but no time to fuss?

just fold a rectangle of paper as below … or watch the video

place the paper face down and landscape (long sides north and south)

fold  a small border on the west edge of the paper, just wide enough to later run some tape or glue along, then fold the remaining width of paper in half and  in half again to create four equal panels. With the paper still folded in four, crease up from the south a panel that will  form the base of the bag. An optional last step is to open out the sheet then fold down a little collar along the top this is only needed if your paper is flimsy and you want to strengthen it a bit

cut – cut out the little rectangle at the south of the border fold then cut up the three bottom creases just as far as the first width crease – if you are being smart you can cut either side of the creases to make final assembly even easier

stick – if you have a collar  stick it down

then fold the little border over so a little bit of the pretty side of the paper is facing you, run tape or glue down the border and then fold the eastern side of your sheet over and on to the sticky border. once the glue is set wobble the paper to form a floppy box,  crease each of the panel folds to encourage the paper to set in the final shape

now fold each of the bottom panels up, you may need to crease them with your fingers to set the folds in the right direction, add some tape or glue on the plain side of the last two bottom pieces. You may need to put your hand inside the bag/box to ‘set’ the adhesive.

close and decorate with paper clips, pegs, stickers, brads, staples or ribbon threaded through punch holes

 

No more paper serviettes?

~ guernseyjane ~ Leave a comment

Vintage sheeting and duvet covers have been repurposed as everyday napkins as part of the effort to reduce the rubbish.

Thanks to the Crafty Gemini I also made a hemming guide which improved the accuracy of my hems and saved a few finger burns. this is just a piece of card with quarter inch lines marked in permanent ink that you butt up to the fabric edge when ironing to get a straight and measured seam. This makes mitred  corners easy too.

However, I can foresee the ironing basket full of napkins waiting for my attention so maybe the paper version might still come into service sometimes.

Grown up snowball

~ guernseyjane ~ Leave a comment

Screenshot 2018-12-23 at 12.24.42  yummy but dangerously strong …

 

Ingredients

6 egg yolks, 1 can condensed milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla essence, 350 ml vodka (or brandy), lemonade

whisk the milk, then the essence then the vodka into the egg yolks – decant into small bottles and chill until ready to tipple

 

(this quantity made some little gifts but bear in  mind that without preservatives this has a limited life)

then pour a measure into a champagne glass and dilute with lemonade

Screenshot 2018-12-23 at 12.24.07snowballs from my childhood (we drank them made with Warninks which is 17.2% alcohol, really!? well it was only once a year…) were topped with a glace cherry on stick but a little grated nutmeg looks good

for a wicked version replace the lemonade with sparkling wine (don’t waste good stuff on this)

 

 

 

Felt fun Friday

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The fun with felt felt day started with me trying to use up scraps from my Santa napkins…

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And then I found I had some mixed media tag dies as a bonus in an order from crafters companion… fifty tags as embellishments are now in the wrapping resource box!

Then I found that some of my ordinary dies cut felt as well as paper ( the outline ones anyway)

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And a flock of French hens, turtle doves or partridges are now being cut, glued and stitched as tree decoration gifts…

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Santa napkins

~ guernseyjane ~ Leave a comment

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A fun felt and glue project …

Many  years ago my mother in law made us some Santa napkins. Hers were rolled hem red sheeting and Santa was sewn from fun fur with felt and google eyes. We use them every year and I wanted to spread with joy without making napkins, so a version using paper serviettes and felt was born.

her version has a triangular beard and straight top head but I preferred a combination of outlines I found on pinterest so drew this stencil with a 7 inch band. Felt is forgiving so have a go and scribble out your own version, but keep it simple enough to cut out cleanly.

To make…

trace your stencil onto white felt (thicker is better if you can find a roll of quality felt), I reversed my stencil to get some variation in beard direction

cut it out inside your trace lines so they don’t show on the finished version

cut a piece of flesh tone felt and hot glue it behind the face gap – I suggest you hold the felt with tweezers to avoid glue burns and help be precise-ish, tweezers also pull off any glue strands

hot glue on a red mini Pom Pom for the nose and googly eyes in a characterful position, tweezers again most useful

I added pinking shear cut felt strips as a moustache and tiny pieces for eyebrows then glued the band into a loop with about a one inch overlap

some people embroider on names or add other embellishments… I like this clean and simple version

If gifting a set of these include spare red serviettes to encourage reuse.

 

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