Yoyos - why have I never made these before??

I decided to join in with Jubilee fever and made some little hairclips - just a little fabric yoyo, a button and some ribbon.

Yoyos are so cute and they take about 1 minute to make! Just cut a circle of fabric, make a quick hem all around with running stitch and pull the thread gather it into a little puff!

So I made myself a little brooch, this time with two yoyos and a heart button.

Apparently in the 1950's it was very fashionable to sew hundreds of yoyos together and make a bedspread.

I think I'll just stick to hairclips and brooches though!

Knitting bag

This morning, in a flurry of housework avoidance productivity I made this.

The lilac fabric is some medium weight cotton I was going to use for some cushion covers, and the lining is from a vintage Marks and Sparks duvet cover.

It has a round bottom (just like me!!) so there is plenty of space for balls of wool and stuff.

And it's deep enough that even long needles don't stick out.

And after I'd finished it I realised that as a bonus...

...it is completely reversible! So you can have the scrummy vintage print on the outside.

Linking up with handmade Thursday at www.whitelilygreen.blogspot.co.uk .

Curtains - the least fun sewing project ever.

"Oh, yes, I shall make some curtains," I said to myself. "They are basically just rectangles. How hard can it be?"

Really, very bloody hard actually.

There are all these conventions you are supposed to follow to make a pair of curtains.

The fabric should be at least twice as wide as your window, and ideally be long enough to drop below the windowsill.

That is a really ginormous piece of fabric.

There should be a left curtain and a right curtain.

That is 2 really ginormous pieces of fabric.

They should have linings.

That is 4 really ginormous pieces of fabric.

Patterns should match when you sew the pieces together.

Aaaaaaaarrrggggggghhhhhhhhh.

The pattern on curtain one, should line up with curtain two.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

I am too creative to be bound by these rules and regulations. Sewing curtains is too dull for my artistic mind.

So my curtains are slightly wonky, in an artistically endearing sort of way.

And I will NEVER let the concept of making my own curtains ever enter my creative mind again.

My heart canvas

I made this picture for my bedroom wall; it's a fairly large canvas - about 20" x 12", and it's mostly made from bits in my vastly overflowing scrap box.

I sewed 3 little buttons at the bottom of each heart. Because I like things in groups of 3.

I love it, but it got me thinking - this would be a great thing to make out of all those cute, sentimental baby clothes. Like a memory canvas for a nursery. What do you think?

Handmade Thursday; for a birthday pirate

My not-so-little-anymore boy is 7 on Sunday (and I will be 38 - eek!!) and is having a pirate party.

This is the card I made for him today; some fabric pieces stitched onto card, the number 7 is made from felt.

Linking up with handmade thursday at whitelilygreen.blogspot.com.

Fabric upcycling

Now I love a beautiful fabric shop with lovely rolls of brand new fabric as much as the next woman, but I think I love upcycled fabrics even more. I love the rummaging, the searching, the bargain hunting!

In fact this whole post has been inspired by a recent charity shop fest where I purchased this absolutely fabulous, vintage (St Michael) king size duvet cover. 4 metres of extra wide fabric for £2; I was completely chuffed!

I'm also a big fan of vintage pillowcases; my favourite charity shops sell odd pillowcases for around 50p; not bad for about half a metre of fabric.

School dress; lots of lovely gingham!

And of course there are clothes! I have cut up lots of our old clothes; children's clothes are especially good as they often have smaller prints which look good on small scale projects such as applique. If you are a sentimental person (not me actually!) this can be a way of preserving memories of favourite clothes by re-using the fabrics to make something else. (And another great thing about cutting up clothes is that they usually come with free buttons!!)

Ladies cotton blouses

Little girl clothes

Men's shirts; sensible and lairy!

Have you made anything from upcycled fabric lately?

Applique card

Yesterday a new family moved in next door.

Perfect excuse to make a little applique card out of that endless supply of fabric scraps.

I'm so super-duper absolutely smashingly pleased with my new apron!

It all began when I borrowed this book from the library. I borrow alot of craft books from the library; it's like porn for hopeless craft addicts!!

But I actually decided I really, really wanted an apron like this. It's really a tabard, but tabard is a very uncute, non-sexy sort of word isn't it?

I had this cupcake fabric which I bought from ebay on a whim. What could be cuter than a cupcake apron to colour co-ordinate with my pink kitchen? I had to wait two whole days for some bias binding to arrive by snail mail - because I was too busy / idle to go to the haberdashery.

But - ta-dah! Here it is. I'm so happy, it's my current favourite thing. I really want to bake a cake, but it's nearly time for the school run.

I always wear stilettoes in the kitchen you know... ;)