Some More Pretties

I am having one of those periods where there is so much I want to do but never enough time to get it all done. I have mental crafty to do lists as tall as this crate wall! I have managed to do a few, but there are more mitts to embroider, pins to make, skirts to sew..... lots and lots.

This little cropped cardi was in the unwanted pile of a friend, so I snapped it up and gave it some loving. What do you think? (Incidetally, I also made the skirt, a little too short but that's all the fabric I had left, and the shoes were snagged in a charity shop too!)

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This dress was the cause of not enough fabric (also because my mother wanted a cushion cover made from it too!). I am kinda pleased, I mean I am not so keen on the back of it but, well, for a first go why not?

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Something else I picked up in a thrift store, it was such a soft fabric. A little big so I took it in, then loved it up with some velvet and lace trim.

Hippity hoppity happy. Though I would like to add a pocket too.

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And finally....

In my quest to try to learn how to crochet (what a mighty quest that has become), I made this little pin.

I made it by crocheting a doily flowery thing, and collecting a few little treasure to attach to it. Think of all the thrifty possibilities!

The New Year and Some Pretty Embroidery

Ahh it has been soooo long. To cut a long story short I got caught up in a new job- I am now teaching English as a foreign language at uni. I did not stop being creative, but I did stop blogging about it. I posted a bit on instagram and FB but really got quite irritated that I did not write here. For 2016 I am going to try to be better. I have set myself some creative objectives and I am going to try to stick to them...!

Someone I have recently discovered is Dottie Angel, I know I am mega behind...! I remember spotting a feature on her in Mollie Makes a few years back but I was very distracted by uni and it zapped all my creative spirit. Having then rediscovered her, I was hugely inspired by her "woolley tattoos" and just had to have a go. 

Dottie Angel Mittens

I was so smittened with Dottie's smittened mittens that I decided I must too embroider prettiness upon knitted things. But when I did mine I had not read this blog post (linked above) just stared at various instagram pics and sorta just made it up.

Both are found on her instagram.

So I just had to have a go. And I did. I just made it up.

First I needed a junper, two days after I decided this I walked into a street market and found an unwanted French Connection, vaguely fair isle cardi. I had three euros in my pocket so I offered the French old lady my 3e in exchange for the rather to big cardi (so she thought) and took him home.

From my instagram

Now, I have a confession. I can't knit, and at the time of starting this I could not crochet either (I can kinda crochet now, albeit totally askew). So I shared my woolley plans avec ma mere and persuaded her perfect knitting paws to knit me two pockets for me to then attempt to flower. 

I had no practice, no plan, no technique. I just went for it. Look what happened....!

In a rather daft and scatty manner, I stitched the pockets to the cardi before prettying them up, but as I wore it in between attacks with wool, it worked out for the best. 

Dungarees and a good comfy knit.

S

Pocket close up

Then one morning on my way to work I grabbed a perfectly fitting dark grey woolly cardi off my housemate's reject pile, it wasn't until a few hours later I realized it was riddled with nibbles. *Sniff* So over xmas I resolved to give him a new lease of life. It is an on-going WIP as I keep finding more holes. The battle against the winged ones is still on... But he is looking good so far I think.

Very nibbled arrm. 

Two flowers and two buds and a lone bee.

Itty bitty bee

So far I have only stitched where there are holes, and I have not yet covered them all up, but I am slowly winning this woolly war. I might have to do some evening out too??? Not sure....

I think maybe I would have had more success reading about what Dottie did first but then maybe I would not have had so much fun. Mine was zero stress, lets see what happens, oh dear it looks a bit weird, lets add some leaves instead. I think the secret it layering, and just add another colour or layer to the flower.... Or sit back and go make a cup of tea then look at it again. Or ask another human bean, "does this look totally nuts and weird or ok" to which hopefully you will get the answer "it looks like something you would wear". Maybe a bit nuts then.

Making the Most of Late Summer Rays...

Here is a picture post for you... Some of the pretty things I have been getting my mitts on...

Revamping corset potential...

To do list at the moment (it is still growing...)

Embroidering/darning this stunning fabric I salvaged from an old chair. 

Enjoying the last of the sun on my epically tiny balcony in Paris. Aren't I lucky??

Stitching an antique lace collar on this mustard sweater. Goes perfectly with my DM Mary Janes and vintage bag I found in Le Marais.

I took this a couple of weeks ago... I find the colours very inspiring. I shall be updating my other blog soon so take a peek if you are interested. 

Upcycling a Chair: Trash into Treasure

So I am ALWAYS seeing furniture in the street that has been thrown out or left on the road to be trashed and the possibilities of such things makes me a little excited as well as a bit sad. Excited with all the potential things that can be done and sad because I can't take back EVERYTHING I find or my landlady would go nuts. This chair was actually in the reject zone of my building for about a week and I could not decide- to take or leave? After encountering it about five times I decided it had to come back upstairs with me, where it lived in my room for about a fortnight before I started work on it. In the meantime I visited England for a week and helped decorate a room, and the DIY bug was well rooted in me by the time I returned.

I started out by experimenting with the paints I had lying about seeing how they looked on the wood. As my new room is the bright blue colour I decided that this chair would be a bit boho crazy and opted for using the pink and purple. Once I decided I then gave it a good sanding and wipe over and left to dry.

After I painted the main body in the purple and the wicker back in pink. The wicker was a bit fiddly and took a while, going back and forth etc.

And more painting... I didn't actually do it all in one go as I did bits in between other jobs.

Once I had painted all of what I need to cover on the chair, I neatened the edges of the wicker back using a fine brush.

At this point it looked like this. As you can see I did not paint the seat. This is because I knew it would be covered with fabric and realized that I would be wasting time and paint.

Then the seat got removed....! Just with a craft knife, I hacked it out. And started cutting the tape to size. This "tape" is actually tape use for making curtains because I found it for 2 euro a pack at Ikea and it seemed very strong so I thought why not. And it worked so clearly it was ok. The tape I simply cut to size and stapled in place with a heavy duty staple gun on top of the chair to start with and then on the sides.

And the next one.

Once I had done all the horizontal ones, I started weaving vertical strips across. This is to make it stronger. And deff make sure you pull taunt on it every time you place a staple. This is very important.

Keep going until you have gone all the way around.

Then neaten and strengthen further by stapling on the sides and underneath, to the inside of the seat. By this point you will have a recognizable chair! I wanted padding on my seat so I did this next bit. But its optional.

I had some leftover stuffing from making a cushion and the outer shell of another cushion which I had used the stuffing from and used this to pad my chair. You could use foam or just sandwich the stuffing between two pieces of fabric, I just used what I had. 

I stapled this in place and trimmed the excess, also pushing the fuzz into the right places as I went (evenly).

I then placed the fabric on the chair to figure out pattern placement and cut it out. Then placed a few staples in the middle of each edge, pulling on it as I went to keep it tight.

The corners were fiddly. I stapled them as you can see, top left then cut the excess off.

Underneath it looked like this. I folded the fabric under and around the leg and went staple crazy. This was just for the front two legs.

For the back two legs I folded the fabric back, and cut the triangle off as you can see below.

I then folded the fabric around the leg and stapled in place. I did this for all the legs, always pulling on the fabric to keep it taut. 

And this is how it looked! But the staples were visible. I was careful to keep them in a straight line near the edge but its still ugly. So I bought 2m of some funky trim and used my glue gun to put it in place. 

Going all the way around, bit by bit.

Et voila!

Finished!