Oh No Not Another Doily Idea! (oh but this ones a goodie!)

I'm sick in bed today, this is day 3 of an awful flu type thing. Hot and cold sweats are so much worse in 27 degree heat! I always seem to get sick after a crazy busy spell. I can almost pinpoint when it will happen. And what a crazy busy spell its been! Two (very last minute) craft fairs in which I had no time to plan, Luca's First Birthday, family staying, Christmas presents to make and then Christmas! Cleaning our house to rent it out over New Year, packing up and staying with my parents, 3 nights at Gisborne's New Year festival Rhythm and Vines (this has been going for 9 years in Gisborne) this year had a sell out crowd of 29,000. I have gone to all but 2 of them. We were given VIP tickets this year and I have to say I will not be going cattle class again. I am getting too old. Anyway so it has been a very very very busy couple of weeks and I am now utterly exhausted. Lucky I have a few creations up my sleeve to blog about, and keep me from feeling totally useless while I am stuck in bed!

Yes, another Doily Idea! Organic Cotton Stretch with Doily Knee patches. I had these little doily circles left over from my DIY Doily Dress and came up with idea for my Cousins newest addition, a little girl who was born in December.

Just simple Organic Cotton Stretch with a doily circle on each knee

Girls clothes a so much fun :)

Happy New Year Everyone.

Cotton Candy! From Sheet to Shorts...

I have been collecting the odd cotton sheet from 2nd hand stores / Thrift stores for sometime now. If you can find one in good condition, without the worn middle then you have yourself a huge piece of fabric to play around with. I mostly look out for vintage floral ones, but this week I found this delicious cotton candy striped one. The cotton is fantastic quality and is still lovely and thick. The colours are "me" too. Although I did intend to make the boys pants/shorts from it.. I thought no, I will make something for me this time.
I found a pattern from one of my Burda magazines and got to it....

How cute is that sheet! $3 from The Sallys!

 Cotton Candy

My new sewing toy.... great time saver!

a dotty guide to cut out

Finito!

So what do you think? 

Garage Sale Score: Before / After

So I went garage sale-ing on the weekend... haven't been in a while and to be honest it wasn't as exhilarating as it can be. Anyway I managed to find a few things, including this gold mirror....

Yes i managed to see potential and decided it might be a quick DIY challenge. Heres what I did:

First I took it apart, screwing the back off and taking out the mirror.

 Then I gave it 2 coats of white pant (using a finer paintbrush for the final coat)

And thats it - easy! Put it all back together...

.... e finito!

Tutorial: Play Shorts from Business Shirt

So I actually made these to be apart of KCWC but I got a bit busy with family towards the end of the week and didn't end up posting them..

I love recycling and repurposing clothes. Its so easy to do and makes me feel good that I'm throwing less away or reusing something that someone else has thrown away..

First find yourself an old Shirt....

I bought this one for Matt at a secondhand store for a dollar but got it home and realised it was a womans shirt, so into the fabric pile it went...

Next, get your pattern pieces, I have used a Burda kids pants pattern folded up to make shorts, Cut you pattern pieces from the shirt.... 

I placed the pattern right down on the hem so I didn't have to hem the shorts (: Lazy I know. But anything to make it faster! 

I cut my pockets out of an old pillow case just to add a bit more colour and detail. 

Next, Sew your pockets on to each front panel. and topstitch them to make a tidy finish.

Now place your two front pieces right side together and pin. Overlock and sew seem.

If you have a pockets on the old shirt your using, cut one (or both!) off and sew it on to one of the back panels. 

Next, place back panels together, right sides together and pin. Overlock then sew seem. 

Now your almost ready to sew both sides together, but first, if you have pockets you will need to pin them in place and top stitch the pockets so they don't move. 

Next, place front and back panels together right sides facing and pin in place. Overlock and sew seems together.

Now you will need to cut a piece of ribbing for the waistband. Measure it around you  boys waist to get a firm fit. Sew the waist band in a loop and fold it over so the seem is hidden.

Now pin the waistband to the shorts, line up the waistbands seem and the back seem to begin with then pin from there in even intervals. Overlock and sew waistband onto shorts stretching the ribbing as you sew.

Finally topstitch the waistband in place. Tidy up all excess tread and your done :)

Thanks for viewing :) Hope I made sense!

Oh for the LOVE of Garage Sales!

On Saturday morning I went garage sale-ling. I spent next to nothing and got a car load of stuff! I had so much fun sorting through the "junk" and found tones of bargains!

Espresso size little tea cup set. Japanese. $2 for the set!

Retro infrared lamp - $1. Planning to turn it into a normal lamp

Baskets, $1 & $2.

I love this - framed vintage car drawing $1

Italian white glass jar $1

Solid silver candelabra $1, frame and ring box also $1.

Love this stool! Its now my new sewing stool. $2.

I also got a few more things - including 2 wooden arm chairs that I plan to recover. Post to come eventually :)

Wall Eye Candy

I've been meaning to get this done for sometime now, I've had the frames sitting there and a basic idea in my head.. but I couldn't get motivated to do it. Until, I found this mirror from Sally's for $10. Score - I think :) Perfect addition to my mounting collection of frames. So I found some nails and a hammer and got stuck in. All but 3 frames are from 2nd hand stores or garage sales. I would guess the whole thing cost about $25 max.

I made a couple of pairs of little pants for Luca today, post to follow tomorrow ;-)

Vintage fabric Skirt

So I found a lovely vintage curtain on trademe a month or so ago... and have made a skirt from it. Here are the pics...

I have a a bit left and I'm contemplating making a top so you could wear them together like a full dress. May be a tad OTT though?

Ollie's Masterpiece

Last weekend while doing our usually Saturday morning coffee and cake then a look at the local Salvation army shop, I spotted this HUGE but rather ugly framed picture. I thought to myself surely this could be rescued and turned into something cool!

Have a look and see what we did with it.....

We all just love how it turned out and it works perfectly in our kitchen :)

xx