High on craft

Well it's been a busy few weeks I can tell you. This time moving country seemed to be a smooth transfer, but it all eventually caught up with me.

The bookshelves were long awaited, and seemed to be victim to one unfortunate circumstance after the next (from the truck driver driving under a low handing wall, to the carpenter getting a divorce), but here they are... I am really happy to report we are now officially box free.

Then the birthday party was a great success, and mommy-me managed to bake and decorate her first birthday cake. I must admit to cheating and using a cake mix, but hey. To make the cat, I used a guide from the Betty Crocker site, which made it 1-2-3 easy.

Finally, I have been eco crafting - I re-used formula milk powder tins as storage containers. They are plain tin, so to indicate what's inside and make them look nice, I simply cut open some paper packaging, cut to size and glued it on. Hmm, not 100% sure if it's exactly the look I was after (my original idea was paper printed with a fake look at what's inside, like so), but it'll do for now.

tshirt magic

I'm in love with smocking, and finding re-uses for old clothes, so when I saw this tshirt made into a toddler's dress on my craftzine facebook friend, I was wowed.

What to do when you have lots of cardboard

FoldSchool... i'm all over it when my boxes arrive from NL... cute kids furniture folded from cardboard. This is the rocker pictured left, their most advanced project.
It got me inspired, so I googled and found some more free guides:

• plenty on instructables
• a cute cat scratching pad
• designer cardboard/foldable chairs, some with instructions
  

Where are the quality 2nd hand stores in cape town?

The crafting a green world blog had a blog today chocked full with ideas on what to do with second hand goodies. Get it here - thrift store crafting: what to buy, what to make.
On that note - where are the 2nd hand clothing stores in cape town (not vintage or carefully selected)?

T-shirt wedding

Sounds crazy, a wedding dress made out of a tshirt, but it looks pretty amazing. Old t-shirts are cool! Get the tutorial by Donna and Lauren Kroiz on Craftzine - as always, inspiring.

Another blog about t-shirts

Llike everyone who shops 2nd hand, I have a large collection of misfit clothes bought for the fabric or colours. This means I am always on the lookout for re-use inspiration. Here is a tutorial for shabby t-shirt to chic from LindaEve, who blogs on the Eco Etsy Street Team. (Yay a new eco blog to follow).

Reblogged from Craftzine.

Craft yourself stylish

I am a sucker for ideas on how to re-use things we usually throw in the bin, so this CD spindle light appeals to me. It's from Kaytet on CraftStylish.

Here are some other super creative ideas from this great craft site:
wall art with vintage fabrics
wall paper decorations (definitely one for the new house)
mosaic with old plastic
baby toy with crinkly plastic (i love the re-use of nappy wipe packets)

this one is for girls only

I finally converted Granny's pink felt ring into a headband for baby C using the hem of an old t-shirt. It looks okay (the felt flower is definitely the best part) she likes to chew it, but will leave it on her head.

After I was done, I realised I should have used the entire length of the t-shirt hem and made myself a flower out of the left overs on the one side, using a tutorial I blogged about in the past.

Dreadlock shower cap

My brother has a full set of dreadlocks and asked me one day if I could sew him a shower cap that could fit him (it's amazing that it's impossible to buy one). I pondered a while, wondering where I would find the right fabric.

It just happened around about the same time that I had read the Dutch book Cool baby, where they make kids rain ponchos out of old umbrellas, and my visiting mother in law's umbrella gave up. Two and Two, and here we have the dreads shower cap.

To make it, I removed the metal skeleton of the umbrella, cut a circle out the middle of the umbrella and hemmed an elastic in the edge.

Unfortunately the design is not yet perfected. I think, because it is shaped like a beret, it drips water down his back. Next time I get my hands on an umbrella begging for new life I'll give it another go. Next time I think I'll also cut a circle out the middle of the cap to get rid of the point.

Damn, why did I throw away those old t-shirts

Last Sunday I went through my stash of old clothes waiting to be upcycled and threw away ruthlessly (decided I wouldn't carry them back during the move) and today I come across a great how-to for converting an old t-shirt into a baby romper. What's always stopped me from attempting this project is the fact I don't have a press-stud machine, but this pattern uses velcro. Dope, why didn't I think of that first.

T-shirt pillow

I'm into finding re-uses for t-shirts at the moment, and this one was quite novel - the patchwork t-shirt pillow.

My old jean pant ... wift a belt

So I had an even older pair of jeans (the painting pants) which I decided to cut up and transform into baby shoes. I used this pattern from Michelle Q which was slightly bigger than the first pattern I found from Stardust shoes. Both are pretty similar.

I used the old denim for the outer and sole and an old t-shirt for the inner. The first pair I made were too narrow - the instructions to enlarge the shoe (baby has a big foot) say to make it longer but I found that I needed to make it bigger all the way around and the heel longer and wider at the bottom (not the fold side).

It was a fairly straight forward pattern. The only tough bit was remembering how to do a button hole on my own machine (Elna 2004). Sewing the heel on the sole I only got 100% right the third time - it's hard to pin right and I made the fabric pleat instead of just unpinning the rest of the seam and moving the end along.

It would be nice to add some embellishment (like a bow, a felt or embroidered heart) but I have enough to keep me busy and she needs some easy to slip on shoes.

March is mending month

On the Craftzine site March is mending month. I found this out at quite an appropriate time - when the knees in my favourite Lee jeans gave out. But I didn't find any patching solution that wasn't, well, uncool. Like the tourniquet patch gets marks for being original but no way would I wear that. The buttons idea is also a little funny, and I'm not in the market for ripped jeans. Hmmm. To celebrate March I'll have to come up with something.

Cool baby

I have a Dutch book called Cool Baby with really neat ideas like creating a kid rain poncho out of an old umbrella, or baby outfits out of t-shirts, jerseys out of scarves, or dresses from jean pant legs.

I have gotten so much inspiration... like the idea to create my brother a dreads shower cap out of a dead umbrella. There is really a gap in the market here but I must perfect my design. He says it drips cold water down his neck (brrrr).

Then I made baby C some dress from B's old and stained t-shirts. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos along the way to show you exactly how, but here is a rough guide.


I cut (roughly) along the red lines seen in the photo, measuring against another dress of hers to be sure the width and length would be good.

First I cut in the middle of the v-neck, then in a square around (both sides). Then enough to make a skirt using the right edge, and including the cute polo logo.

Then I pinned them together, criss-crossing the collar like you see in the finished dress. I cut whatever was left over once I pinned the skirt to the top and sewed around, making sure that the whole collar edge was caught in the seam.

Then, if the fabric is nice, you can use the rest to make bibs!

Reduce/Reuse/Recycle

Since I had a baby I have become even more of a eco nut (although I have been a local crackpot for a while). I really enjoy finding a re-use for something or re-purposing something else.

My classic example is using vegetable containers for drawer organisers.

Crafters has a whole forum dedicated to this topic -


And what about this list of recycled crafts from craft bits? I love these projects
* denim flower (pictured)
* funky glass bottles which are great vases (I don't particularly like this example, but minus the gold paint will be a lot cooler)
* baby water bottle rattle (I always have way too many of these bottles floating around)