Back to Basics: Free Baseball Top Sewing Pattern
Who doesn’t love a basic top? My two favourite staple t-shirts by far are the classic baseball top and a boat neck striped tee. They can pretty much be worn with anything and, as the dress code in my office is smart casual, are great for work or for play. Strangely, despite their iconic status, it can be hard to find the perfect version of either which leaves me frustrated. There are plenty of striped tops with round or scoop necks but not my coveted boat neck, the base colour is cream and not white, it’s skin tight instead of slouchy, it has embroidered logos or embellishment… the list goes…
DIY Lanyards – Sass Up Your Work Pass!
My latest DIY was a bit of antidisestablishmentarianism (that’s right!) and team morale boosting in one. Our company has branded lanyards for the various fascias it operates except for one, so rather than settling for a generic one I decided to bring a little bit of spirit to our team by creating DIY lanyards of our own. This is a really cheap DIY as all you need is some ribbon and lobster clips – they can even be hand sewn if you don’t have a sewing machine. 1. Cut your ribbon to a length of 1m 2. Double fold in each end of the ribbon 3. Thread the ribbon…
DIY Christmas Jumper with Felt Pug Motif
You know I love a crafty competition and when I was invited to take part in the Turtle Mat Thrifty Christmas Jumper Challenge I knew it was right up my street, they sent me a lovely cream jumper and gave me £5 to spend on making it into a Christmas special! As it happens, it’s Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day tomorrow so I’m just in time! I wanted to make something a bit out of the ordinary rather than stick to a traditional theme plus I love Pugs (and hope that Andrea wins the X Factor this weekend) so decided to combine the two! Here’s the tutorial for making…
DIY Backpack Pattern in Pretty Girls Sew Magazine
A little while ago I was asked by the lovely Tabitha from Pretty Girls Sew to contribute to the first edition of their digital magazine which I was very excited about! Pretty Girls Sew is a fab sewing blog founded by Yetunde, Crystal, Tabitha, Jenell and Miesha and is a great place for sharing your sewn creations with other sewing enthusiasts plus getting inspiration for new creations. I was really honoured to be asked to contribute, the Pretty Girls Sew magazine is now available to read digitally and it’s so good, I can’t wait to read the next edition! As I’ve been lusting after a smart rucksack for a while…
How to Update Denim Shorts with Ice Cream Applique
Following on from my love of fruit motifs I’m also quite fond of food in general, particularly if it’s unhealthy! A while ago I saw Caitlin from A Little Dash of Darling had posted this image on instagram and the ice cream cone was so cute and simple that it inspired this DIY! Ever wondered how to update denim shorts to make them a bit more fun? This tutorial is for you! I had some old denim shorts that I’ve upcycled here but you don’t need to update your denim shorts if you don’t want to, the design would work just as well on a jumper or a skirt or…
DIY Camera Strap Tutorial from Riley Blake Chevron Fabric
Before I made the leap onto WordPress I had a Tumblr account where I posted my recent crafty projects, since then and even after porting it over to a new platform, one of my most popular posts has been this DIY camera strap tutorial made from a pair of old jeans. A year (and lots of use later) and I decided to make a new camera strap – a change is as good as a rest after all! I bought a remnant of this Riley Blake chevron fabric ages ago and haven’t been able to make up my mind what to do with it until now. To make the camera…
Orange & Lemon DIY Clutch Bag Pattern
I few weeks ago I posted about how I’m loving fruit prints at the moment, it’s such a cute trend and quite 80s inspired which always wins style points with me! This clutch bag was meant to be a lemon but I didn’t have enough yellow felt, in the end though I love it a little more now that it’s both a lemon and an orange, two for the price of one! I made the clutch bag large enough to fit all the essentials – iPhone, keys, small purse, bits of makeup. Unfortunately, it’s not big enough to hold spare shoes (an essential for a night out in my eyes)…
DIY Scrunchie Tutorial
I have two problems: I hate elastic hair bands as they always seem to get tangled in my hair and I have ALOT of scraps of fabric that I can’t bear to throw away. Good news is, I’ve discovered the solution to both of these dilemmas and, even better, it’s 90s themed! I’m not ashamed to say that I really enjoyed the 90s, from the ages of 7 – 17 I had a lovely time, I liked watching Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (check out my PJs on instagram) and Thundercats, I was a big fan of 5ive and who didn’t love mood rings? I never thought it would happen but…
McCalls 5850 Summer Dress Pattern Review (From A Bedsheet!)
This month finances have been tight, there have been car repairs and furniture buying, road tax and travel. All of this boring, necessary, grown up spending didn’t leave much room for me to buy fun and crafty things or to buy new clothes. Upcycling is at the heart of crafting, so when I wanted to make a new summer dress and couldn’t really justify spending any money on new fabric, I had a scout round the house for household textiles that I could use instead. After eyeing up the curtains in various rooms (and only being put off by the laboriousness of having to make new ones) I came across…
DIY Fabric Rose Bouquet – My Hillary’s Country Crafts Competition Entry
Mother’s Day is coming up and there’s no better gift than a handmade gift – particularly for mums (my mum still has drawings I did for her when I was 3)! The timing of this tied in nicely with the Hillary’s Blinds Country Crafts Competition. Hillary’s have come up with a great competition where there’s a £1000 prize up for grabs. Using a 1m square piece of one of their fabrics you have to create an individual project and blog about it. I chose the Patina fabric because I’m a sucker for dogtooth! No Mother’s Day is complete without a bunch of flowers so I thought I’d use my fabric…
