Fluo linen bag DIY

Looking for a simple but rewarding project or a DIY gift idea?
Then keep on reading as I may have something for you!

On my last trip to the craft store I finally found the fluorescent orange fabric paint I had been looking for! I desperately needed some after seeing some really nice printed home textiles in a boutique here in Paris.



With a simple pencil eraser I printed a random pattern of dots on some almost sheer natural cotton muslin. It took me about half an hour to finish the job. Once dry, and ironed to set the dye, I took the piece of fabric to my sewing machine and made a simple drawstring bag. From beginning to end, another 15 minutes, I guess. The result is a cute linen bag, or anything bag if you like.
Make them smaller and you have the cutest gift bags. The same printing technique would work well to decorate pillow cases, kitchen towels, napkins. Anything really. If you're running out of time you can have your kids do the printing part. Or, why not, the entire project!




What you'll need:

- a piece of fabric, pre-washed
- fabric paint, like Pébéo Setacolor, transparent fluorescent orange, #32
- pencil with eraser at the top
- plastic sheeting to protect your working surface
- painters tape to tape fabric to plastic
- rope for drawstring
- optional: fluorescent sewing thread
- sewing machine



Instructions:

1. Tape your fabric to the plastic sheet protecting your working surface, to prevent the fabric from shifting around creating unwanted smudges.
2. Dip eraser in paint, next onto fabric (do a few test prints on a piece of scrap) and do so in a random pattern.
3. Let dry. After, iron to set the paint (or follow your paint's instructions).
4. Make a drawstring bag as explained here. I used some contrasting fluorescent thread for sewing the drawstring tunnel. And that's all there is to it!


The things you can do with a simple pencil eraser... Have fun!

Denim Flowers :: a DIY

 

It's been a while again since my last post, but I'm still here. As a matter of fact we just got back this morning from a short break at the seaside. Summer vacation started exactly two weeks ago and we've been extremely busy.   I even missed my beach bag tutorial going live on Design*Sponge! Yes, you read that correctly - Design*Sponge! It surely made my day! And if you're still planning on making one too, make sure to check out the article as there are more step-by-step pictures on D*S than in the original post.



And here's yet another tutorial - after more than two weeks spent without having touched any fabric, needle and thread, or doing anything creative, I could no longer resist! Inspiration, was the lovely leather flower brooch I got myself during the sales here in Paris.  It got me thinking and I came up with a denim flower, made from old jeans (which had been cut to pieces anyway for other projects).
 

 It's a very simple but rewarding craft. A kid could do it -  it could make a nice craft for a rainy afternoon, actually. Find the step-by-step instructions in the photo-collage below. Sew a pin at the back and use the flowers to spruce up a plain shirt or jacket. Or how about making a bunch and sewing them on a tote or pillow. The possibilities are endless and really, all it takes is 15 minutes. 


To have slight color variances between petal layers, I used pieces of fabric from two different pair of jeans. The flower petals are cut  'free-style' which adds to the charm of the flower. For an even more frayed look, I suggest to throw the finished flower in the washing machine and dryer. Give it a try, you can't go wrong on this one! Have fun!!

Kids' Crafternoon Blog Tour :: Beading & Felting

I blogged about the Kids' Crafternoon book series before - books one and two, Sewing and Papercrafts hit the shelves last summer and were a big success.
So, it's with great pleasure that I can announce here that Kids' Crafternoon Beading and Kids' Crafternoon Felting have come to complete the series and are available as of now!

Once again the books are compiled and edited by Kathreen Ricketson, who you all know from Whip Up.Net and they're published at Hardie Grant. Each book contains 25 projects for school aged kids (and beyond) by crafters/ bloggers/ artists from around the globe. Each project takes no longer then a couple of hours to make and can be executed with no or limited adult supervision. Templates are made available in a handy envelope at the front of the book. The instructions are clear as always and the illustrations inspire to get started right way. The projects are cute and make sense - and not just for kids. I, for one thing, had a great time making this Zombie Critter Charm below (a project by Lisa Tilse from The Red Thread) which has immediately been claimed by big girl M. All it took was some scraps of felt, needle and thread, a few buttons and a spare hour or so.

These books make a great present for under the Christmas tree or could be a source of inspiration for some great handmade holiday presents by your little ones! And if you're still in need for ornaments and Christmas decoration ideas then make sure to check out Kids' Crafternoon Beading!

Now you tell me, but wouldn't that Zombie Critter Charm make a great and personal teacher's gift?



To find out more about the Kids' Crafternoon book series also check out the blogs below - and if you happen to live in Australia and you'd like to take a chance at winning a copy of one of the books, check out the give-away at The Red Thread - entries are open until Monday, November 21st.

14 Nov - the red thread
15 Nov - soozs big adventure
16 Nov - mmmcrafts
17 Nov - // Between the lines //
18 Nov - Christine Chitnis
19 Nov - Chez Beeper Bebe
20 Nov - The Happy Zombie
21 Nov - a work in progress
22 Nov - loveinthemummyhood
23 Nov - jcasa handmade
24 Nov - picklebums
25 Nov - modern parents messy kids
26 Nov - little eco footprints
27 Nov - li'l magoolie
28 Nov - ohdeedoh
29 Nov - Simple Kids
30 Nov - sadie and lance
1 Dec - Poppytalk

Oh, and in case you were wondering - Yes! I did contribute to the Beading book with some macramé bracelets (Macramé Bracelet, p. 104) and easy ruffled fabric necklaces (Fragment Fancy, p. 56).

Buzzzy

Only two more weeks left and the school year's over. And so many things remain to be done. Our summer vacation is taking shape as we finally sat down to make plans -  the plans look great, and I'm so much looking forward to our summer break.
But right now we're running around like crazy to birthday parties, end-of-year parties, and spectacles. Somewhere in between big girl M. will have surgery which will finally take care of the resisting ear infection and accompanying hearing loss she has suffered from these last couple of months.

The picture above is from two weekends ago when M. had her friend over for a sleep-over. The sleep-over was lots of fun but unfortunately eventful too - as they were playing M. fell and chipped both her front teeth - oh, horror! - it's been taken care off now - on her birthday, of all days - more doctor visits, more running around...
Anyway, it was the last time I had the sewing machine out. Looking for a 'quiet' activity we made a couple of whimsical pillows together. They're really, really fun to make and absolutely easy to make too.  The perfect craft for a rainy afternoon or when seeking shade inside on those really hot days... I'm not sure I'll make it to my sewing machine again anytime soon. I did buy some really cute fabric on my last trip to Ikea and I'm dying to make some totes with it, but I've no idea when I'll be able to do so. I'll keep you posted...

And of we go now to our next activity! I hope you're having a great week!

Flower power :: a tutorial

I most definitely did not need another purse. As a matter of fact, this week while carrying around a way too heavy purse I made the remark I would so much like to be "free" - I want to live a purse-free life. Why is it that men can leave the house with just a wallet and a set of keys and we carry around entire survival kits? Do I really need all this stuff? Let's face it: right now, I have in my purse

- a wallet
- another purse with change
- keys
- car keys
- sunglasses
- small pencilcase
- handsanitizer
- paper tissues
- several packs of chewing gum
- paper wrappers
- loose change
- organizer (although small, really heavy!)
- MOO cards (that's right! I didn't mention them yet but I ordered some MOO Mini Cards a little while ago - so cute!)
- pass Navigo (Metro travel pass)
- cell phone - which I usually can't find when it rings, because obstructed by all of the above
- a small umbrella
- card holder for store fidelity cards, membership cards ...
- a notebook
- a little pouch with medication and band aids

Surprisingly, I do not carry around any make-up, not even a lipstick.

But seriously: do I really need all of this? When I take out the umbrella you can rest assured it will start raining. And the girls only fall or get hurt when I don't bring any band aids. But one pen would do, wouldn't it, instead of a pencil case. And how about all the plastic cards from stores where I come only once in a while. And the organizer?

With that in the back of my mind and the upcoming vacation I thought I should try to go light again. And is there a better way of doing so with a brand new, cute little purse?

The inspiration for this one comes from a little purse my dad brought me from a business trip to Ohio - I was about twelve when I received it and I still have it. It was just the perfect size to hold a wallet and a set of keys and I used it way into adult life. It was handmade and all seams where sewn with leather strips - something you see showing up everywhere again lately (see also my bohemian belt). Hence the leather shoelace stitched seams. In addition, I decided to have a flower closure and since I liked the rough edges of the leather I chose to integrate these as well into the design. The body of the purse is made out of a single rectangular piece which makes it a really easy project.

What you'll need:

- a rectangular piece of leather
- leather scraps for the flower
- leather shoe lace for binding the edges (2), strap (2), closure and flower attachment (1)
- leather punch
- scissors, rotary cutters
- ruler and marker




Instructions:

1. Cut your leather to size for the body of the purse. ~ pic.1

2. Make flower from leather scraps by cutting two flower shapes, one slightly bigger than the other. Punch two holes in each one (make sure they correspond to each other).

3. About 1 cm from the edge, mark where the holes should come, one every cm. Also punch two holes at the top fold (for the strap), four holes (two by two) near the bottom center for the closure loop, and two near the bottom of the flap for the flower (same distance between holes as in flower). ~pic.3

4. With leather punch, punch holes as marked. However, on the side seams skip the one at the bottom fold (marked with a cross in pic.3 - enlarge picture) on either side (left and right). ~ pic.4

5. Sew seams with shoe lace. Start and finish with a knot ~ pic.5

6. Attach the loop for closure as shown ~ pic. 6-7

7. Attach flower to the flap and secure with a knot at each end. ~ pic.7 and 9

8. Attach strap (I used two shoe laces for that, knotted together) ~pic.8

Designer notes: Except maybe for the punching part, this would be a perfect craft for the (older) kid. If you don't have any leather handy or do not want your kid to ruin some precious leather, try using felt or denim. In the latter case, no punching is required as one can just sew the seams with needle and thread. The flower can be made out of any material, really or replaced by a button.
Use your imagination and more importantly - have fun!

This little purse has exactly the right size to hold a small wallet, keys and a cell phone and will keep me company on the beach, hopefully soon!

As with all of my tutorials, please note, this tutorial is intended for personal use only. Therefore, do not reproduce, sell or commercialize in any form without permission. Thanks for understanding!


If you made something using a tutorial found on this blog or if you got inspired by something you found here, make sure to post your pictures here.

Creative with espadrilles :: a DIY

I have this love hate relationship with espadrilles. I always loved them because they stand for summer. Whenever they show up you know summer's around the corner. Summer. Sun. The beach. No stress. I also love them because of their simplicity. A shoe can't get any simpler (nor cheaper) than that, can it? A sole and two pieces of fabric joined together.

However, I didn't wear espadrilles for the longest time because of the squeaky sound the rope of my last pair made. Just thinking of it gives me the shivers! So, what made me buy another pair and devote a whole post to them? To be honest I have no idea - I must admit I fell for the gray stitches on the sides, but was that enough to buy them, bearing the squeaky sound of the rope in mind? I guess I just needed another challenge: the espadrille make-over.

I actually had a lot of fun working on this DIY. As a matter of fact, what you see here is only a fraction of the things I came up with. There might be a couple more ideas in the pipeline...
Anyway, let's just start with this handful of ideas. Ready?

What you'll need:

- a pair of espadrilles
- an old T-shirt or other fabric scraps, if you like
- a pair of scissors
- needle and thread

Instructions:

Bow-tie espadrilles



1. Cut a strip from the old T-shirt, about 3-4cm wide and 20cm long.

2. Fold over the strip so the fabric overlaps. With needle and thread, in the middle, gather and secure the fabric. Cut of excess fabric, if any.

3. Fold a small piece of fabric over the stitches, to hide, and secure with a few stitches on the back. Shape the bow tie.

4. Position the bow-tie onto the espadrille and secure with a couple of stitches.

5. Repeat for the other shoe. Wear!


Rose bud espadrilles



1. Cut a strip of t-shirt.

2. Fold in half and start rolling the fabric to form a rose.

3. Secure at the bottom of the flower with a couple of stitches. Shape.

4. Position onto the shoe. Sew into place with a couple of stitches.

Note: the size of the flower depends on the width and length of the fabric. You can play around with both. Or why not make several flowers different in size and color to form a rose garden on your shoe!


Flower petals espadrille



1. Cut three (or more) not so round circles of roughly the same size.

2. Fold them in half and again in half and place all three on top of each other. Pin together.

3. Next, sew them together with a couple of stitches and shape the flower as you go.

4. Place on top of your shoe. Sew into place with a couple of stitches.

Note: Same thing applies here: play with size and color or combine several to form a flower patch on your shoe. Add sequins, beads, leaves, ... if you wish so, or just keep it simple.

 

This is a fairly easy craft, which kids could easily do. It's not very time consuming, no special supplies are required and the reward is immediate.
Maybe a fun craft idea for a summer birthday party!? If you can't find espadrilles right away, gym shoes might work just as well, just as any other ballerina or pair of flats.

My espadrilles have been extensively tested by now. And you know what? This pair doesn't squeak!



Please note, this tutorial is intended for personal use only. Therefore, do not reproduce, sell or commercialize in any form. Thanks for understanding!

If you made something using a tutorial found on this blog or if you got inspired by something you found here, make sure to post your pictures here.