Photo book converted into Jewelry organizer

Do you also have those days when you are in hurry and you can't  find  that necklace that goes well with your dress? Your jewels are all over the place, some are in a bathroom, some in a wardrobe, some in a bag. You end up running from one room to another and at the end you decide to wear no accessory at all, because nothing is as good as that damn  necklace that you bought just last week. Where did I put it???

So, as I like recycling I decided to to convert an older photo book into jewelry organizer. I like its cover so much that I thought it would be nice to look at it more often. The cover is a beautiful Japanese style silk fabric in light purple color with golden embroidery.   

I pierced pages with a  needle. Then I pull through a little black hair clips that I used as a jewelry holders. 

All my necklaces, earrings, bracelets are now  at one place

And it's easy to store

Now I can enjoy and actually see all my jewels and of course  save a lot of time in the morning too! 

DIY - Hand painted wood necklace

This necklace is so easy to make,  all you need is:

- piece of wood (ideally flat, polished &  pre-drilled) I used my old earring so that was easy  

- tape (either masking tape or just an office tape)

- nail varnishes of your choice

And then just simply use a tape to create straight line and to cover the parts that you don't want to paint. Wait until first coat dry up, remove tape and then apply new tape in different angle. Apply second nail varnish and then third and so on.. You can create amazing geometric shapes just under 5 minutes.  Go ahead, show me yours! 

Blouse alteration

I've been watching The Great British Sewing Bee  lately, which I endlessly love and everytime I watch it  I want to dust off my sewing machine and do something amazing. So last time I watched one of the episodes when I decided to do some garment alteration. I have many items piled up in my wardrobe which I don't wear but can't bin as they mean something to me or reminds me some special occasion or I have some items that I haven't even worn as they were given to me as a gift and aren't 'my cup of tea' if you know what I mean... So I've told myself why don't you change these slightly and make them either wearable or alter them to something completely different. Here is the first alteration and I hope you like it! 

I had this blouse only for couple months, but I didn't wear it as I didn't like the collar and wide sleeves, therefore these were first 2 things I removed from the blouse immediately. 

I used existing collar and sleeves as a pattern so I didn't have to measure the blouse again or create new pattern. As material I used black leatherette (faux leather) that you can buy in any shop with fabrics. You can buy various type of faux leather from heavy duty to very thin letherette. In my opinion medium  leatherette is the best as it still look like leather and it's easier to sew and shape. 

Once I cut the shape of sleeves and collar I pinned and sew onto the blouse and cut it to the wanted length/shape.

I've also added a piece of leatherette onto button's line matching the width of the line and sew on new black buttons on top of it. 

And that's it! The new blouse has been born :) I think it will be my favorite this summer :) 

DIY Origami Rug

I always get excited to find any new Origami  DIY project on Pinterest and can't wait to dive into it. Last time I did  Felt Table mats and I enjoyed it so much that I decided to do something similar but in a bigger scale. So.. Here it is .. The Origami rug!

At the time I didn't realize that doing this project in bigger format will take weeks/ maybe months? I usually started at evenings after dinner while watching TV. I didn't have to concentrate as this requires repetition of the same thing on and on again. I felt like a machine! But I enjoyed doing it and I think the result is great, I love my new carpet in our dining room.

 My little helper likes it too!

Below are couple pictures from work in progress. If you want to try to give a go, please visit this amazing blog  'How about orange' where you can download pattern and follow easy steps.

 I have chosen different material rather then felt this time. I used thin carpet, which wasn't probably great choice as it wasn't easy to fold or cut, but at the end it is a carpet so I wanted to go for something durable. If you use felt you will have to reinforce  it with some heavy duty iron or sew on underlay.

Pattern and step by step can be found  here

What you can see below took me about 6 evenings to finish. Yes, there is a lot of cutting, folding, and cutting again involved but I am sure you will love the result of your work at the end, like I did.  

If you find any more interesting origami projects, feel free to share here. I can't wait to make more. Thank you for reading :) 

Felt project - Table mats

I found an amazing felt project at How about orange couple days ago and my fingers were itching to try it. I am a huge fan of geometric shapes and simple lines so this project was MUST HAVE for me. Below are some pictures and steps how I created these. Visit How about orange to find more details as well as download perfect pattern.

There is only 1 thing I have added to this project and that's underlay / lining support, which makes mats firmer and more durable. I applied iron on thick vliseline. You can buy it in local shop with fabrics or some bigger craft shops. 

Step by step:

1. Cut squares as per pattern using 'stanley knife' or use scissors. I've found scissors to work better with soft felt, however stanley knife is more accurate. Before cutting fasten each square with a pin.

2. Begin insert corner pieces through the slots in the middle

3. Connect as many squares as you want. You can create small coaster, table mats or even carpet! That will be my next project :) 

4. Trim off the excess felt around the edges and cut off the points of the triangular tabs to create nice geometric shape. Iron on thick vliseline on the back side. This will also straighten edges on the other side and will make mats looks neat and tidy.

5. Woohoo, all done! :)

DIY project - Leather detail skirt

My favorite black skirt has shrinked a little bit and I can only blame my washing machine for that... Other reason could be that I put on weight but I would rather stick to the first option :).

... so as I couldn't wear that skirt any longer, I decided to enlarge it with a piece of faux leather and make it even fashionable! If you want to make something similar below is the guide for you, enjoy! 

What you need: piece of leather - real or faux, a ruler, fabric chalk, scissors, sewing machine and of course some skirt with zip closure in the back

STEP 1: measure your skirt length and cut a strip from leather in exact length, the width depends on how much you want to enlarge it. I kept the same width along the whole  leather strip as my skirt has an elastic waist belt. 

STEP 2: Cut the opening for a zip into the leather piece. 

STEP 3: Carefully rip the stitching as pictured, including stitching around the zip 

STEP 4:  Use pins to fasten the zip and leather and sew it together using zipper sewing foot. 

STEP 5:  Fasten leather strip along both sides of skirt fabric and sew through 

TADA! New leather detail skirt :) 

DIY - Elbow patched jumper

The Elbow patches - For someone it is the latest fashion statement, for someone it is just the way how to fix the hole on her/his favorite jumper. For whatever reason  you have just found this post - here is how you do it!  

What you need:

- jumper 

- piece of fabric ( leather, leatherette, denim, manchester, firm cotton, ..)

- pair of scissors 

- paper

- pins

- sewing machine /  overlocker (not necessary )

Steps:

1. On a piece of paper draw the shape of the patch - it can be simple "O" shape, or cute hearts, squares - whatever you fancy.. 

2. Pin the paper shape to piece of fabric and cut it with scissors ( x2)

3. Seam the edges with sewing machine or overlocker. It will stop fabric from fraying, but it's not necessary if you use leather, leatherette or suede. 

 

4. Use a ripper or a pin to tie the thread ends

5.Try the sweater on, place the patches at elbow level and pin them on sweater. Just make sure they are both at the same level.

 

6.  Now you can sew the patches to the sweater by sewing machine or by hand. I sew it by hand as the sleeve or neck hole wasn't wide enough to put it through the sewing machine arm. 

7. Ta daaaaaaaaaa... Elbow patched jumper is live! 

DIY - How to shave your dog

It is the time of the year when dogs are changing their "coats" for warmer weather. If you have a dog you know how hard it is to keep your house hairless in Spring. It is just impossible! Therefore I decided to visit a local dog groomer, who informed me that earliest available date she has for Floo is 20th of April. Now what do you do?

• a) Wait till the end of April and hover every second day to keep your house tidy
• b) Travel to different town to find another groomer
• c) Shave your dog by yourself

Well, I decided to go for c) option and shave Floo at home. I thought it would be hard job but it wasn't at the end. It was actually easy and I enjoyed it! Here is the result 

Steps:

1. Choose your shaver. I have bought a classic human shaver with several attachments (various blades from 0.5 mm to 2.5 cm) I made sure that shaver is not loud as Floo is afraid of the noise. If your dog is too, turn it on before starting to shave and let your dog get used to it. Hold it near his/her head.You can also buy proper dog shavers at a pet shop or an animal grooming store.
2. Hold your dog still. I asked my boyfriend to hold Floo for me. If you want to do it on  your own, you will need to put your dog on a table and hold your dog's collar so he/she keep their head up and won't jump off. 
3. Attach the 0.9 mm blade and start with the face. Hold your shaver flat against the skin and shave toward the eyes, moving the same way as the hair. To get the corners, shave away from the eye. If your dog is moving around, wait untill he/she settles down. 
4. Go to the underarms. When the dog is standing, lift up their arm in a comfortable position. Shave under the arm and repeat with the other arm.
5. Move to the groin. Lift your dog's legs. This will keep the dog clean when they have to go to the "bathroom". 
6. Now go to their bottom. Raise theire tail and shave around their bottom. This is also to keep them clean when they "do their business". Be careful in this area! :) 
7. Shave the rest of the body. I changed the blade from 0.9 mm to 1.8 mm. Start behind the head and go down the neck going on to the back and then down both sides. 
8. When you are done you can give your dog a bath and groom him/her with a brush or comb.

And there we are - nice & groomed! :)

DIY - Envelopes made from fashion magazines

Do you find hard to bin fashion magazines? Well, I do. I find it very inspiring to look through those glossy pages and see various fashion clothing. They are useful resorts for me as I sew and design a lot. What I only dislike about the fashion magazines is that they are full of adverts! Errrr... But back to the point. I wanted to use these old fashion magazines somehow. I made vintage envelopes just couple days ago and I was thinking this could be great project for recycling magazines as well. So I created these tiny little envelopes to hold my business cards!

If you want to do this craft here is the tutorial: 

What do you need?

-          Old fashion magazines, such as Elle, Vogue, ..

-          A pair of scissors

-          Pencil

-          Glue stick

-          Ruler

-          Carton/cardboard (i.e. cereal box)

Steps:


             1. Draw and cut a template out from carton as per below picture.
  

2. Now place your carton template on magazine paper, draw the lines

3. cut  your envelope with a pair of scissors. 

4. Fold it up. Do the sides first then use the folded sides as a guide on where to fold the top and bottom.

5. Use a glue stick to stick your envelope together.

And that’s it! Enjoy your new recycled envelopes. You can use them as a gift card envelope; business card holder or you can store small things in it such as earrings, rings.. You can also draw bigger templates and do larger envelopes for wrapping a book, cosmetic, accessories or whatever gift you want to wrap up!