Rudolph Decoration

Do you like this cute new Christmas decoration I made?

I found that great tan fleece at the scrap store and it was prefect for this little Rudolph. I made a paper pattern and was quite surprised when it all fit together, though the head is only made of 3 pieces.

There's wire going through the head, connecting the antlers to make sure they stayed upright. 

Like the Christmas banners I made, this little Rudolph got sold the next day after I'd finished it. In fact it was the first thing I sold at last week's Christmas Fair.

Name Card Hanger

After I made this wall hanger, my Mum requested something similar for her classroom to hold the children's name cards.

We worked on the hanger together. My Mum did most of the measuring and I did most of the sewing.

The oilcloth for the backing, the plastic for the pockets and binding for the edges all came from the Scrap Store.

To hang it we folded over the fabric at the top, sewed that straight across, then threaded a plastic pole through. This stopped the whole thing from folding forward.

Hopefully it will stand up to children taking their name cards in and out every day.

Dominoes

At the Scrap Store on Saturday I spotted some random dominoes. I pointed them out to my Mum and said, 'You know what they'd be good for.' She replied, 'Necklaces.'

She knows what's up.

So I got out the tiny drill and made two holes in the corners. I added jump rings and a chain.

Simple as.

For the second one I found some gemstone and was happy to find out that they were the exact same size as the dots on the domino, so I glued them in place for a bit of bling.

Which way round to you prefer the domino? Landscape?

Or portrait?

Bling or no bling?

I picked up a few dominoes so I'm also thinking brooches and keyrings and even a double ring.

Hanging Organiser

In an attempt to start using up some of my Scrap Store stash I came up with this hanging organiser.

I've got so much of this oil cloth fabric in different patterns, which I usually use for little pouches. I decided this Cath Kidson-esque blue and white polka dot fabric would be perfect for this project.

I sewed some white biased tape over the edges of two strips of clear plastic to make the front of the pockets. I sewed vertical lines to attach the plastic to the oil cloth, creating 6 pockets.

The back of the organiser is plain white fabric which I sewed to the oil cloth, right sides facing in, and then turned right side out for a neat finish. To hang the organiser I punched two eyelets in each corner and thread some cord through. But I found that when I hung it the whole thing folded forward.

To fix this I sewed a strip of ribbon to the back to hold a stick which I'd painted white. If I was going to make another one, I would include this in the initial design.

It works a treat! Perfect for storing girly things like hair accessories and make up brushes, and the clear plastic means I can also put a few photos in there.

Tunic Dress from Scratch

I picked up this piece of fabric from the Scrap Store. Though from the size of it they should rename it the 'Pretty decent size piece of fabric Store' because it is certainly not a scrap.

It's quite thin and flowy, but not quite silk. I thought it would make a nice tunic style dress.

I started by folding the fabric in half, sewing the two sides and cutting a neck hole.

I then hemmed the bottom, and the arm and neck holes.

To create an elasticated waist, giving the dress more shape, I sewed some bias tape to the inside of the dress and thread the elastic through it. I did a similar thing with this dress.

I had to sew the sides above the elastic in a bit as they were a bit too droopy, but then it was done!

This dress is perfect with leggings and a black strappy top on underneath - because it is slightly see-through!

Sculpey Print Dishes

On my last trip to the Scrap Store I picked up these rubber stamps and had the idea to use them to imprint into Sclupey.

I rolled out a piece of Sculpey into a rough circle and pressed the stamp into it. I had thought about glueing the stamps onto a wooden block, like they're supposed to be, but the flexibility of the stamps on their own was useful for this project. 

I curved the Sculpey circle into a shallow dish and baked it following the instructions.

To decorate the dishes I started by painting the whole thing in one colours using a paintbrush. Once this was dry I went over it with a light tone of the colour using a sponge so the dark colour would show through.

Once all the paint was dry I sprayed the dishes with a couple of coats of clear varnish.

Bows

I was recently in the bow making mood and created these three.

The fabric I used came from the Scrap Store and they really were small scraps. Just enough to make the bows.

 I've made them into hair clips with a simple barrette style clip attached on the back. 

   At the moment only the flowery one is for sale on Etsy as I didn't get round to taking photos of the other two in use before I got my hair cut. Now I'll have to wait until my sister or a long-haired friend is round.

Doh!

Which fabric is your favourite?

Sewing Bag from Grandad Jumper

Going through my stash of supplies I came across this old jumper my Grandad gave me as it has a few hole in it (I used one of his jumpers in a previous project) and these wooden handles I picked up at the Scrap Store.

This is what I made with them! A sewing bag.

I started by cutting of the main body of the jumper to use for the bag.

I now have a less-than-half jumper in case that ever comes into fashion.

I decided to make the bag the same width as the jumper so I only needed to sew the bottom side. I took to the sewing machine and to my surprise the wool went through fine.

 I got a bit fancy when making the lining and managed to put in a pocket on one side which I divided into three.

I sewed the lining and the wool together and put them through the slits in the wooden handles, then hand-sewed them in place.

The last thing I needed to do was cover up the holes in the jumper. I found a crochet doily which I'd found at the Scrap Store and sewed it to a piece of grey felt. I then glued and sewed the felt to the bag.

My Grandad didn't recognise his old jumper when I showed him the bag!

Christmas Card Hanger

During our latest trip to the Scrap Store my Mum picked up a roll of what we thought was just star sequin waste.

You know that stuff with holes in where the sequins have been punched out?

When we got it home we unrolled it to find a pre-made Christmas card hanger!

So we hung it up on the side of our CD shelf.

It's got 3 star bursts at the top.

And mini gold pegs already attached to hang cards on.

We usually hang Christmas cards on the side of the stairs in the hallway, so we've reserved this hanger for cards from each other.

And this is our tree!

I think my Dad put every red and gold thing we have on it. I love it!

Painting: Repurposed Canvas

A new cheap shop opened up near me called B&M and a few weeks ago me and my Mum went to check it. We love all those shops; Poundland, Home Bargains, Family Bargains.

#thrifty

We ended up spending almost 2 hours in B&M. Totally the best time.

One of the things I bought was this printed canvas for £2.99.

It's 35x90cm!

It would be perfect for me to do a really decent painting on.

Except for that one issue of there already being something on it.

Which took me to another great place. The Scrap Store, of course, where I picked up this can of emulsion paint that still had a couple of inches of paint in, which was all I needed.

Using a roller to get the smoothest texture I painted over the graphic on the canvas.

It took about 4/5 coats but then it was good to go.

And here's what I've done with it.

I used one of my own photos but switched out the figure for some Google image people.

All of my own photos feature people my age so for some variety I had to look elsewhere.

More Make-up Pouches

As warned, I made some more make-up pouches once I'd bought some zips from Ebay.

10 for only £3.80!

I used more plasticy fabric from the scrap store including the cool text one I used on a previous bag.

All the pouches are lined with matching fabric.

The black comes from the under layer of a broken dress my sister was throwing out.

Nothing gets wasted! 

The spotty fabric was not from the Scrap Store.

It's the excess fabric from our ironing board cover which is cool because it means it's slightly padded as there's a thin layer of sponge/foam.

I repeat: nothing gets wasted.

Clutch Purse

Since I'm on a bag making roll I came up with this clutch purse.

I made it the same way I made the make-up pouches, except I didn't flatten the corners.

The materials I used were some tan coloured vinyl material, from the Scrap Store, and the bottom frill off this dress my friend donated to my craft supplies.

I was very impressed with myself that I managed to line up the frill along the seam.

I finished it off by sewing a little zipper tag with a scrap of the tan fabric.

What do you guys think?