Blouse alteration

I've been watching The Great British Sewing Bee  lately, which I endlessly love and everytime I watch it  I want to dust off my sewing machine and do something amazing. So last time I watched one of the episodes when I decided to do some garment alteration. I have many items piled up in my wardrobe which I don't wear but can't bin as they mean something to me or reminds me some special occasion or I have some items that I haven't even worn as they were given to me as a gift and aren't 'my cup of tea' if you know what I mean... So I've told myself why don't you change these slightly and make them either wearable or alter them to something completely different. Here is the first alteration and I hope you like it! 

I had this blouse only for couple months, but I didn't wear it as I didn't like the collar and wide sleeves, therefore these were first 2 things I removed from the blouse immediately. 

I used existing collar and sleeves as a pattern so I didn't have to measure the blouse again or create new pattern. As material I used black leatherette (faux leather) that you can buy in any shop with fabrics. You can buy various type of faux leather from heavy duty to very thin letherette. In my opinion medium  leatherette is the best as it still look like leather and it's easier to sew and shape. 

Once I cut the shape of sleeves and collar I pinned and sew onto the blouse and cut it to the wanted length/shape.

I've also added a piece of leatherette onto button's line matching the width of the line and sew on new black buttons on top of it. 

And that's it! The new blouse has been born :) I think it will be my favorite this summer :) 

DIY - Envelopes made from fashion magazines

Do you find hard to bin fashion magazines? Well, I do. I find it very inspiring to look through those glossy pages and see various fashion clothing. They are useful resorts for me as I sew and design a lot. What I only dislike about the fashion magazines is that they are full of adverts! Errrr... But back to the point. I wanted to use these old fashion magazines somehow. I made vintage envelopes just couple days ago and I was thinking this could be great project for recycling magazines as well. So I created these tiny little envelopes to hold my business cards!

If you want to do this craft here is the tutorial: 

What do you need?

-          Old fashion magazines, such as Elle, Vogue, ..

-          A pair of scissors

-          Pencil

-          Glue stick

-          Ruler

-          Carton/cardboard (i.e. cereal box)

Steps:


             1. Draw and cut a template out from carton as per below picture.
  

2. Now place your carton template on magazine paper, draw the lines

3. cut  your envelope with a pair of scissors. 

4. Fold it up. Do the sides first then use the folded sides as a guide on where to fold the top and bottom.

5. Use a glue stick to stick your envelope together.

And that’s it! Enjoy your new recycled envelopes. You can use them as a gift card envelope; business card holder or you can store small things in it such as earrings, rings.. You can also draw bigger templates and do larger envelopes for wrapping a book, cosmetic, accessories or whatever gift you want to wrap up!

DIY project - envelopes made from vintage wallpaper

When I moved into our house three years ago, I found a bag full of very vintage wallpapers under the stairs. I didn’t want to use them on my walls, as I prefer modern style interiors. But I loved their pattern so much that I couldn’t bin them. I found them again after 3 years and I decided to do some paper craft with them and make them useful! I made small envelopes for a start. I might use them as a business card holder when shipping items from my shop or I will store my labels, stickers or tags in it!

What do you need?

-          Wallpaper or wrapping paper, magazines, or whatever paper you like

-          A pair of scissors

-          Pencil

-          Glue stick

-          Ruler

-          Blank A4 paper

-          Carton/cardboard (i.e. cereal box)

Steps:

1.Draw and cut a template out from blank A4 paper as per below picture.  (The reason why I draw it on blank A4 page first is because I wanted to see how it folds.  You can skip this step and draw the template directly on cardboard)

2. Trace it onto a cardboard and cut out with a pair of scissors carefully.

3. Now use your carton template on wallpaper/wrapping paper and cut your envelope with scissors. 

4. Fold it up. Do the sides first then use the folded sides as a guide on where to fold the top and bottom.

5. Use glue stick to stick your envelope together.

And that’s it! Enjoy your new recycled envelopes. You can use them as a gift card envelope, business card holder or you can store small things in it such as earrings, rings..  You can also draw bigger templates and do larger envelopes for wrapping a book, cosmetic, accessories or whatever gift you want to wrap up.  

.. I have also created a smaller version 

Enjoy your new weekend project! 

DIY Dog Bed

If you have a dog you know how hard is to keep his bed clean at all times. My dog Floo has several pillows and I wash these almost every week! I have quite small washing machine and sometimes it's difficult to get rid of all the dirt as pillows are quite huge :-/ That's why I decided to sew a pillow case that I can easily remove and wash properly anytime it's necessary. 

What you need:
- 2 rectangles of durable fabric such as denim, corduroy, or heavy cotton
- 4 side rectangles (as on picture)
- fiberfill stuffing or previously used dog pillow (in my case),
- zip 16-18 inches long
- sewing machine & polyester or cotton thread
- scissors, chalk and ruler

Instructions:
1. Measure pillow first. My pillow is 65 cm long, 60 cm wide and 10 cm high. 
2. Cut two large rectangles ( length x width ) and 4 side rectangles ( 2 rectangles = length x height and 2 rectangles = width x height ) from desired fabric as per below picture:

3. Pin and sew all side rectangles together to create large "square". If you want to make the project easier use only 1 long stripe for sides instead of cutting 4 smaller rectangles. I personally think the pillow looks better when sides are created from 4 individually cut rectangles.

4. Pin and sew this "square" with one large rectangle together. Make sure right sides of fabric face each other. For added durability, create a second row of stitches right inside the first row of stitches.

When you turn right side out you should have now clean edges like this on each side:

5. Pin and sew sides of "square" to the other rectangle. Leave 1 shorter side open. We will add a zipper to this side shortly.

6. If zip is shorter than width of the pillow, sew few cm/inches from each side.

7. Sew the last piece of "square" and zipper together using a zip footer. Make sure you leave a zip half open so you can turn right side out through it when you're finished! 

8. Turn your case right-side-out and fill it with a pillow. And that's it! You have just created easy-to-remove, machine washable pet bed!

If you have any question about the project or any recommendation and useful links please leave a comment! Thanks!!

DIY scarf

I have loads of remaining pieces of fabrics which I only store in paper bags for "someday" craft projects. Now it's time to start using them! This time I decided to do a scarf in combination of grey leaf printed cotton and  light grey jersey.  

Instructions:

1. Choose 2 fabrics you like. I chose light-grey jersey fabric and light grey cotton fabric with cute leaves print. 
2. Cut two long rectangles from each fabric in same length and width. My scarf is made from 170 cm (67 inches) long and 42 cm (16.5 inches) wide rectangles. 
3. Pin and stitch the sides right sides together to create a long tube.
4. pull the tube right side out, and pin the seams at the two open ends.
5. Stitch both sides separately to create long stole
6. This is it! Very easy 1 hour project! 

Does this scarf look more like a circle scarf? That's because I tied the scarf ends below the front fold! Here are other ways how you can tie a scarf. Isn't it great? (source: Pinterest)

Skirt tutorial - remake a wide & long skirt into thinner & shorter skirt!

I  kept myself busy with remaking this never worn skirt last weekend. I think I got it as a present few years ago. I don't remember from who eerrrrrrrrrr...but it was somebody who thought I am much taller and wider! I didn't want to bin it so I kept it for a couple of years in my wardrobe. I owe few pieces like this skirt which are only hanging  there waiting for their time to show up and be wore... Well, this skirt wishes have just came true! 

Instructions:

1. Turn the skirt inside out and put it on. Mark the skirt with a chalk or insert pins vertically along the sides. Adjust both sides equally to the desired tightness. In this case I marked skirts 1 inch from each side. 

2. Ensure the skirt fits your hips and belt comfortably. Hold the skirt tight and sit down. Ensure that you can sit comfortably. 

2. Sew along each side edge.  Remove pins as you sew! 

3. Cut the extra length off of the sides and bottom and then re-hem. 

DIY project - dust cover for a printer

My next sewing project is a printer cover. I have received an order in which I was asked to do a cover in orange & red toned fabric. The customer has two kids and a cat and wants to keep all electronics devices out of their reach. I have sewn a laptop sleeve, a tablet sleeve and padded bag for her already and I was so happy to receive another order from her.

I would like to share this project with you as I think our printers deserve a little bit of maintenance and protection too. My printer is usually covered in dust when not in use to be honest. So now it's the right time to change it. Let's do this together!

  

step 1: find out your printer's dimensions or measure it by yourself. In my case the printer dimensions are 62 x 37 x 23 cm.

step 2: Choose fabric/fabrics you like. Cut out 5 rectangles from desired fabric. I cut out 3 rectangles from orange heavy cotton fabric and 2 from Tulip fabric as follows: 

2 x rectangles from Tulip fabric - 62.5 x 23.5 cm  (printer length x printer height) + add seam allowance (1.5 cm for each side)

2 x rectangles from orange fabric - 37.5 x 23.5 cm (printer width x printer height) + seaming allowance

1 x rectangle from orange fabric - 62.5 x 37.5 cm (printer length x printer width) + seaming allowance

step 4. Pin orange rectangles right sides together as per below picture ( the longest rectangle stays in the middle) and sew.

step 5: Pin & sew the Tulip rectangles to the orange sides (as per below picture) 

and then sew on the top sides. You should have now cuboid shaped cover without a bottom.

 

step 6: Turn the cover up side down and hem it to avoid ripping of the fabric. You should do this step at the start. You should hem all rectangles separately. That's the right way to do that. I only did it at the end as I was lazy and this way is faster!

step 7: Iron the cover, straighten up the edges and... that's it! Enjoy your new dust cover made by yourself! :)    

You can use the same pattern and make dust covers for other machines which you don't use too much like sewing machine, photocopier, scanning machine, or  an old drawer, bookshelf, shoe rack ...