Pillow fun and its green

Well ok pink and grey but you know what I mean!


Here are the pillows I made using the rest of that ginormous supersoft sweater I was sent for this project, the same fabrics for trimming and some rescued shirt buttons. They have a zipper up the side and removable pad also handmade. The filling is new but the cover for that is from a clean but also recycled curtain lining I had floating about. I am delighted with how my recycling projects are going. These were to go in the shop but i am unsure. They look kinda cool on my freecycle chair which I am also super chuffed with. Hubby and son think its "well fogey and naff", but I have always wanted a wing back chair and whilst brown dralon is not awful its not my taste. I am considering making a loose cover for it. A first for me, but I have an expert in the family and grew up watching her making these things. Whilst she is completely retired from `all that` these days, she has agreed to help me.
So, back to the pillows. I need help here, keep or sell?

Upcycling again

I have just completed another upcycling project. I really have to thank my customer for inspiring this and opening up a whole new set of possibilities. This time we have a lovely grey/purple sweater which in her words was impossible to wear because of its very odd shape. It yielded lots of fabric though and to my delight did not fray when I cut into it. So soft. This lady does buy quality stuff for me to chop about.
Here are the finished objects.

Toni Teddy

Toni teddy is finally done. I started her before many of the projects I have featured recently but somehow she kept getting put aside because of custom orders and easter stuff. She is now finished and looking a real cutie pie. I am not putting her in the shop yet because I want to open a new etsy shop for my toys and maybe blankets and such, keeping the bags quite seperate. Obviously I need to build a bit of an inventory before doing so. If, however, anyone is really in love with her I will make the exception.

Ollie and Milo

Remember the felt horses from a couple of posts ago? Well my customer liked them so much, she requested bunnies to go with. I used the smaller bunny pattern as they needed to be suitable for smaller hands.
They have little patches on their bots!

Happy Easter

Phew, it seems to have been a long term to me, but, the easter holidays are finally here even if the easter weather is not. Snow in some places and something not entirely rain here yesterday. Its bloomin freezing.

I popped in to the supermarket after work because we needed toothpaste, and picked up a little pot of daffs for a mere £1.99 (not intentionally)and having rummaged about in my garden and my craft room I came up with what I think are some natty Easter pots to brighten things up. I did have to dig up another daffodil from the garden because one pot just did not seem enough. Plus, once I start I cannot stop. Dont you just love the blue and white eggs? Yes they are real. I get them from a lady at work and there is always a small blue one.

This is What I have been getting Excited About

I have been working on a custom order this week for 2 personalised felt horses for the cutest little boys. This has been such a nice project and I have been totally inspired. My customer saw the hobby horse I made for my nephew a while ago but thought something smaller for her wee ones would be more appropriate.
So, always up for a challenge. I scaled down the head shape I used for the hobby horse and added body and legs. Then we were off with personalised saddles and matching patches. Thanks to the wonderful felt selection at The Felt Fairy, I have an amazing 70 colours at my disposal and have lots of colour combos to turn out for the shop. These can be personalised too so look out for them and let me know if you have a colour scheme in mind.

What Can You Make from 2 dresses & a Silk Top?

Well the answer is.........bags!
I recently had a custom request for bags made from a customers dresses she did not want to wear any more but wanted to keep in some way.
We started with a jersey Karen Millen dress, that's the floral fabric with the purple butterfly. A ruched taffeta prom type dress. I had a hard time cutting that up because it was just gorgeous. Also a Ted Baker silk top with exquisite buttons.

The first bag was a weekender type bag which used the dresses for the main body, the decorative ring from the back of the prom dress and the buttons from Teds top. I used the silk from that top for the straps and lined it with a black poly cotton as I did not want to detract from the other fabrics.




The other bag was borne from the shape of the skirt on the prom dress. It was shaped with lovely tapering panels. I had some plum taffeta in my stash with complemented the purple butterfly on the weekender and to tie it all together I popped a removable corsage on with a button covered in the Karen Millen dress fabric.





I am so pleased with how they came out so like my sketches. My customer is delighted and now I am wondering how to transfer this as a service/item in my shop as its a delightful way to re-use favourite clothing and recycle.