Once upon a time there was a shirt....

or three to be precise. Cuffs and collars were a little worn, but the rest was still very good. Lovely cotton (and a pain to iron) but the owner had lost too much weight to wear them. I spent some time thinking about various ways to do something with them and one night, just before dropping off to sleep it came to me - cushion covers. Nothing too difficult, so here are the pictures

The very easy one made from squares and turning the stripes

 The back is just a large square cut from the front of the shirt which gives me the perfect closure for the cover

This was a bit more difficult and time consuming, but still fun to make

                                     

Again the front of the shirt is the back. This time with a pocket. A place to hide the TV control?

                                     
 
Number three was the one that didn't go quite as planned. I guess I got careless and made a wrong cut. So this has an extra seam that shouldn't be there, but unless you are looking for it or are an experienced patchworker, I don't think it is that obvious. I have used pieces from all three shirts and a few scraps from a dress I have just made
        

Again a pocket on the back. Hide the chocolate maybe?

There is still most of the front of the shirt left plus bits and pieces from the other two, so maybe in the future there will be cushion number 4

While I have been upcycling, I turned another pair of jeans into a bag. These were rather large (42" wast, I think) so I unpicked the waistband, added pleats to the main part before attaching the shortened band agin and rounded the corners. This is a very large bag and I am still undecided if I am going to sell it on ebid or keep it myself. But do I need another bag? probably not.......

I am back and a bit quicker than recently. I have now got photos to post of the latest Kumihimo jewellery. (If anyone wants to try , be warned: it is very addictive) The black and the pink one are made from a variety of fancy knitting yarn and the other has seed beads in brown shades added to it. Both the black and the brown will be auctioned off from the 24. March http://uk.ebid.net/perl/main.cgi?type1=a&type2=a&cat=685477&mo=user-store&title=meebo1s-Charity-Store and I have listed the pink one on ebay to see if there is any interest

I won't say any more about my crafty plans, just in case I won't get things done as I plan

Where has the time gone? It's almost a year since I last wrote. So below are photos of some of my projects. The first 3 are Kumihimo braids: 1) bracelet I made in a workshop 2) a necklace where I used different thickness for cord, and 3) my first attempt at using beads as well. Since then I have have acquired a couple of books which give more variations and I have made a couple  that have not been photographed as yet

                                       

 This (below) was yarn from a knitting magazine, but the project didn't appeal to me so made this little purse. The other side has the colours in reverse.

This glass suncatcher is a workshop result. Now I really enjoyed this and had to control myself not to buy the tools and materials. But I really haven't got space for more stuff or the time to use it. If another workshop comes my way I may well do it again. It was fun

Below I have 2 teddies that I knitted. Pierre, the second one, was a cover kit for a knitting magazine and was auctioned on ebid.net for charity (YDC) and Arthur was a pattern I found in a copy of Woman's Weekly which I found when tidying. Arthur went to Italy and if all has gone to plan he is now in Columbia. What I love about both of these, they can stand alone

 

Next is a piece of bobbin lace. I made this during my last 2 visits to Germany. The design for this candle holder included a little class dish and a tealight, but I decided to use a fake, battery light. Much safer

My sister has taken up weaving and also offers a course at her local church. During my last visit in January she asked if I wanted to have a go. Well, I did do some weaving while in school (a rather long time ago) and loved it, so I said : Yes please. Below is the result. It took me parts of 3 days and although the thought was to make a scarf, it is now a runner to protect my sideboard

Now to my first proper attempt at patchwork. I did give it away as a present and there are days when I wish I didn't. I used fabric samples from a Sanderson sample book, so the colours / patterns match perfectly. I followed instruction on a DVD (Jenny Rayment's Texture into Sudoku) I loved the 3 D effect even if there was a fair amount of hand sewing

That will do for today. I am currently using some fancy knitting yarn for Kumihimo braid and promise to post when finished. I also have a Macrameé kit with DVD to work with. So watch this space. I will try very hard not to make this just an annual blog

What can I do?

Well it seems time is running away again.I have been trying my hand at Kumihimo. Years ago I heard a lecture about it and was fascinated and really fancied having a go. But then there wasn't the simple, easy affordable equipment around as you can get now. It is very therapeutic and making the braid itself is not too difficult, once you have got into a rhythm. Now I just have a little problem: my left arm is in plaster since Monday and I have been wondering what I can do to occupy myself. The braiding itself won't be a problem, it's the finishing off that I won't be able to do. Still I will have a go and let you know how I got on.
Last week I visited a craft show in London. I always try to do as many workshops as possible (it saves me money) but as the arm was then in a sling and not plastered, that was not an option. I could only watch, but one of the things I want to do is use some of the fancy sewing machine stitches to decorate a quilted book cover. So that is another idea. Now I need to see to the family, but hopefully have something to report soon

I cannot believe that it is over a year since my last entry. I suppose I am just too busy making things and life in general to write about it. Have I made any crafty mistakes? I am sure I have, though there is nothing outstanding that I feel I need to share with the world. Lets talk about my most recent makes. I was given a challenge to make a football kit for a 6 months old. For such a young child I felt that knitted would be most comfortable and as there were vertical stripes involved I wanted to knit the top sideways. I am not a lover of adapting patterns, but I needed to do this here as the only sideways knitted garments i could find were jackets. And as to shorts .... In the end I used the pattern for dungarees, shortened the legs and left the bib off. The biggest problem was the v neck on the top. It's been a long time since I knitted anything for a small child, so forgot about the (proportionally) big head. I should have left an opening in the back to be closed with a button as any attached neckband made the opening too tight. In the end I knitted the neckband separately as you would often do for machine knitted garments. I will have to wait though till after Christmas to find out if I got all the measurements right. Here is the end result:

I was also asked to knit a cardi / jacket for a 2 year old. I found a really nice one knitted with loops. Now I have done this many many years ago, but could not remember how it was done. OK, the pattern does give instructions, but this was an English pattern and I knit the German way. Most of the time I can figure out how to do it 'my' way, but this time I was really stumped. In the end I had to ask our good friend Google and I found a couple of German 'How to' videos. I was very pleased with the end result, but somehow I don't think I'll be making another in a hurry. It takes soooo much yarn! 

In the summer I bought a small Origami book and was inspired to make a card for one of my nephews. He likes hunting and I wanted to add to his trophies in a small way

I think this is enough for today. I try not to leave it for so long before the next entry

Where does the time go? October is almost over and it's been months since my last entry. So a bit of catching up is in order. Last month I bought a Grand Calibur (manual die cutting and embossing machine) something I had my eye on for some time. And I love it. The dies are expensive, but I am still hoping to sell some of my cards to finance this hobby There is still a lot to learn, but I am beginning to get adventurous. And for that I must thank some of the demonstrators at Create & Craft (TV channel) especially Sue Wilson for Spellbinders encouraging us to look at dies not just as a whole, but taken bits of it, and Ali Reeves  on inks and stamps. There I am just starting out.
Well the first card with the Grand Calibur is the one below, and I am pleased that it sold very soon after listing it for sale on www.ebid.net. Thank you Jan

Not only is this using a very pretty die, but I have used a stamp without smudging.. Now for the next one. New dies to try and also new stamps. I can't believe that it took me almost a week to put this card together. I started with using a large die to emboss black card with the machine. Nice, but not spectacular. Then I remembered seeing embossing powder being used on embossed card. So I inked the card and used gold embossing powder and the heat gun. What a transformation! Still, the rectangular piece of card was not what I wanted, so just in time I received the set of dies with matching rubber stamps. I used the largest on the black & gold card and cut a piece of cream card with one of the smaller dies. Then I stamped on that and while ink was still wet, embossed it with gold. I like it. The very intricate background is a semi circle die, which I fell in love with and then didn't know what to do with it. For a start, it cuts out the pattern, but still stays attached to the card. I also learned how important it is to use a bit of tape to secure the die. I didn't and the die moved. At least the mistakes are not visible and I have learned a lesson. As I said earlier, I spent days moving the pieces around but in the end I finished up with this:

any comments are greatly appreciated

My latest knitted item with beads is a small black and gold lurex knitted bag with the front covered in gold beads. I am trying out Etsy for this one. We will see what happens. But back to the knitting. Because I used fairly small beads, I threaded them on to the lurex thread. Well, I have learned that that wasn't the best idea I have ever had. Knitting with 2 threads twists the yarn in the course of knitting, which is actually a good thing, except when you have to push beads up every so often. So you spend a fair amount of time untwisting the threads, which slows the knitting process down considerably. So the moral of this story is: if you knit with 2 threads and beads, the beads should be on both threads or you could end up throwing the project in a corner in frustration - I came close to it a couple of times. And the back of the bag is plain knit.
Here is the finished item