Use it up or throw it out! That’s the 2023 mantra for the craft room. The button bowl is overflowing, so a few have been used on tags plus some wandering Christmas cards were chopped and/or die cut as well.
I even used up a few stars from the Christmas embellishments bag before it got packed away.
We seem to have accumulated a mountain of butter knives so I prettified the unused ones for gifting.
I don’t have pyrography tips for writing or fine detailing, but I do have the tips for heat setting jewellry crystals so created some simple patterns.
Yes, there has been card making but much, much more. A daily dose of crafting keeps the isolation blues at bay. All being forced to use what is to hand.
Over the last 2 weeks I have made: trimmed pillowcases from recycled sheeting, doorstops and gift bags from the stash. I have harvested, dried and frozen herbs and made potions and gifts with them. Each day I have sorted, de cluttered and organised making more crafty mess every day!
And yes, a little Christmas crafting in case post isolation life is too busy to craft ( no chance).
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.
‘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.
We had a diy beauty products day and filled lots of pots and jars with creations, then decided to prettify the containers – with washi tape, of course.
My favourite is the hobbycraft bunting tape, the white background is translucent and ‘disappeared’ on the plastic pots.
We sealed the surfaces with mod podge to try and keep the washi in place until the next refill.
Who doesn’t love washi tape? The challenge is to use it, particularly as I am now two thirds of the way through this year’s resolution to “use what you have”. So today is declared washi Wednesday and I have been taping all sorts of objects in an attempt to use some of 50 (! How did that happen?) rolls of tape hanging in th craft room.
I have made fridge magnets from wooden pegs and magnetic sheets, and decorated more pegs that I use for clamping in the craft room. I covered corporate pencils and plastic coat hangers and also made the binder clips that I use for sewing very pretty.
(tip for covering pencils with minimal creases, run a strip of washi around the top and bottom of the pencil before spiralling around with the full length of washi )
I copied the bunting string from various pinterest posts and will use it to prettify a parcel
I have beautified spray bottles and tea lights but still haven’t made a dent in the stash, so covering journals and making cards is on the list for the next washi Wednesday.
Not being ambitious enough to do wall decor with washi, I would welcome suggestions for practical uses for the washi mountain. Polite suggestions only please,
Wet day and the window ledge needed cheering up, so a vase of flowers was created without stepping outside
Six pinwheel flowers were cut on the scan n cut with BBQ matches for stalks and buttons for centres. I used blue themed floral papers to match the ‘vase’ (and my mood as the rain seemed endless)
The vase was a can found from recycling with a ball of wool wrapped round it. Most wraps were made round the middle to give a rounded shape and a few strands of contrast wool wrapped around the top and tied in a bow for decoration
The can was filled with out of date dried pasta shapes (mini alphabets) so I could spread the stalks outside
Maybe a few leaves would finish this off?
Take one pair of jeans and too many hours on Pinterest and let us see what we can make….
so far the bottom of the legs have been chopped off and made into two simple storage pots.
I boxed the bottoms (the tops really to preserve the hems) and lined with some dotty fabric and some wadding. One leg had a longer lining piece to create a bigger contrast cuff
These will be used to store ready readers and sunglasses.
If I made them again and had enough firm form interface I would use that to make the sides more rigid but these will do the soft storage job
Now back to Pinterest to see what else to try … I have ppreviously made a garden apron/belt, some oven gloves and mitts -see earlier posts- so want to expand my jeans recycling repertoire
janecrafts 