From shirt to cushion cover: SUPER easy sewing!

So this cushion cost me NOTHING - and was incredibly easy. It was once my partners work shirt, and the bottom of the boat is also an old shirt. The buttons, ribbon, and red check were just left over bits I had in my sewing box.

The best thing was that I used the shirt buttons to button up the back of the cover, so I didn't have to do them, and the consequence is they look really neat and tidy! However of course this could be made with whatever leftover fabric you have lying around, just make sure you have two back peices longer than your front peice, so that when you fold over the edges and add on the buttons and button holes it's still the right length.

Cut out a square, and either two rectangles (as above, longer when put together than the square) or two rectangles using the buttons from an old shirt down the middle to fasten your pillow.

Sew on whatever you fancy (geometric shapes like this are much easier than round shapes if you're not very good at sewing like me!), and then just do up the buttons BEFORE you sew it so they are in place, turn it right sides together, and sew all around the edges.

I bought a cushion insert for £1.35 and voila! Watch this space... I am going to make lots more!

Five miniute projects

Hello all, I am updating with some quick and easy five miniute projects and I promise I will update more often!

Striped Nails: You need: 2 colours of nail varnish, 1 of clear, and some sellotape cut as thin as you can manage!

 First paint them one colour, then let them dry and put on little lines of selotape over the nail (must be bone dry!) and paint over it with the second colour. Try to use as many strips as you can to get an even stripe-age. 

Peal off the tape when damp, let them dry, and paint a clear layer to make it last and look tidy! Voila!

This was my first go and unfortunatly my colour choices were both limited and dull... but with some bright colours it looks much funkier.

I use Barry M nail varnish http://www.barrym.com/nail-paints which are cheap, vegan and not tested on animals. They usually cover the nail in one paint, except for the light colours.

 Hair-band! Okay this is super simple. My hair is a bit fine for such things really, but I was bored!  There are lots of tutorials online, I picked a gathered one to stop me looking bald, but the straight ones are even easier!

PJs!

PJs! I really wanted to make PJs so I made these following this guide http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Sew-Your-Own-Pajama-Pants/ and some cheap red fabric.

Glad I used the cheap fabric because as comfortable as these are, I made a lot of mistakes! The waist is over twice my own waist, which makes them really comfortable but would be a waste of more expensive fabric, I made the crotch to waist too small so they fit too low on the hips, and I sewed across the elastic stopping me from threading the ribbon the whole way through... and then sewed the ribbon on the back. Anyway a couple of alterations later they were finished!

I added the heart and extra ribbon to make them a bit more interesting and a bit less santa bottoms!

If I did it again I'd sew the heart on like applique, with a short zig zag around the edges, it would have been neater and smoother.

The material is so soft and comfortable, it cost £5 a meter and I used 1.75 meters...and that was to make PJs MUCH too big so I should be able to use no more than 1.5 next time and use some more expensive fabric... to create really pretty PJ bottoms!

Long time, no type!

  

Hello hello, when I haven't posted for months I always feel silly posting again. But then, if I don't, my blog will dissapear into the bloggersphere and that'd be sad... I enjoy it! So I have been busy sewing sewing sewing! Here are my wears:

 

 PATCHWORK APPLE: I used the template produced here: http://woolfoodmama.typepad.com/ called "patchy produce", except I used seperate fabrics for each section, and used felt for the leaves rather than fabric. REALLY simple and they look really sweet.

Mini stocking - I just loved this fabric! Really simple, and partly stuffed to give it some body, ready to hang on the tree!

Hearts hearts hearts! I actually made these in the summer at my parents house. Stuffed hearts like this are EVERYWHERE in shops, especially at christmas, but also in pretty fabrics all year around. At between £2-3 roughly per heart, you save a LOT by using spare fabric, buttons and ribbon to make your own... it takes like 15 miniutes :)

Christmas puddings... attempt one and two. Okay I wanted to make little round christmas puds... but this first is a little stingy on the icing and the second is a funny shape as the cream fabric was stiffer than the brown... and there was too much! Ahh nightmare. I've kept them, they've grown on me in their endeering miss-match way... but I'm not sure they'll make it to the tree!

Christmas dove - this one was the easiest to make, it's a little wonky in the picture but because it was felt I could tug it a little untill it was round!

FINAL CHRISTMAS PUD! I like this one, it's simple but kind of... rustic-er looking.

Christmas tree! Just two peices of felt cut out and sewn together with cardboard inbetween to keep it stiff, siver stitching and tiny beads (that came off an old top) tiny buttons (spare shirt buttons) and a ribbon (cut out of a tshirt) to decorate - very cheap too! Star button on top :)

So yeah! I am a complete novice sewer... I did GCSE textiles and I did VERY badly, but now armed with a sewing machine and stealing creativity from shops and blogs I have created passable crafts and am very proud of myself! If I can do it... anybody can.