made.by.me*: hand-made

Showing posts with label hand-made. Show all posts

08 March 2016

5 minutes DIY fitted sheet for moses basket

My due date is pretty close now, so I am trying to finish all little sewing projects for the little one. Today I made fitted sheet from spare fabric and it took me basically 5-7 minutes with all the measuring, cutting & sewing. I can imagine how often sheets need to be changed when it comes to baby, so I will definitely do more!

Take the mattress out of the moses basket and put on fabric. Allow 3 inches for seaming on each side when cutting the fabric.

Sew a casing seam all the way around the fabric and then sew on elastic band. I used 5mm thin elastic band. Don't forget to stretch it when sewing on!

And that's it! Easy peasy!

28 March 2015

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 :)

27 March 2015

DIY Origami Rug

I always get excited to find any new Origami DIY project on Pinterest and can't wait to dive into it. Last time I did Felt Table mats and I enjoyed it so much that I decided to do something similar but in a bigger scale. So.. Here it is .. The Origami rug!

At the time I didn't realize that doing this project in bigger format will take weeks/ maybe months? I usually started at evenings after dinner while watching TV. I didn't have to concentrate as this requires repetition of the same thing on and on again. I felt like a machine! But I enjoyed doing it and I think the result is great, I love my new carpet in our dining room.

My little helper likes it too!

Below are couple pictures from work in progress. If you want to try to give a go, please visit this amazing blog 'How about orange' where you can download pattern and follow easy steps.

I have chosen different material rather then felt this time. I used thin carpet, which wasn't probably great choice as it wasn't easy to fold or cut, but at the end it is a carpet so I wanted to go for something durable. If you use felt you will have to reinforce it with some heavy duty iron or sew on underlay.

Pattern and step by step can be found here

What you can see below took me about 6 evenings to finish. Yes, there is a lot of cutting, folding, and cutting again involved but I am sure you will love the result of your work at the end, like I did.

If you find any more interesting origami projects, feel free to share here. I can't wait to make more. Thank you for reading :)

09 June 2013

Stages of love - a new collection of my heart shaped pendants

In last couple weeks I became obsessed by creating resin jewels. It's such a nice, relaxing hobby. Today I want to feature few heart shaped necklaces from my shop. Let's call this LOVE stages, however there are so many that I would have to work many months to express them all in my jewels.

1. Meeting someone - Heart full of hope, mixed feelings, butterflies in a belly... We all know this feeling. A little red metal flakes in calm green colored resin are my expression of new beginnings and hope.

Find necklace here

2. Falling in love - This is when heart starts to open and receive love. At this stage you're finding yourself smiling a lot, being happier suddenly, being better person. Your heart beats faster every time you think of the "one". You want to be with him/her all the time... My necklace is half full of sparkling metal flakes, as a symbol of good things coming to your heart.

Find necklace here

3. Heart full of love - You are sparkling with love now, looking so happy and beautiful, the glow of happiness is written all over your face! Every day is suddenly wonderful! Your heart is finally full of love and you feel amazing :) NOTHING is better then spending time with your half. You feel complete. I think I don't have to explain why this pendant is full of red sparkling pieces!

Find necklace here

4. Argument/ Misunderstanding / Disappointment in romance may spell the end of the relationship. But it can also make your relationship stronger. All problems in relationship makes you feel blue, your heart suddenly weight a ton and you are not as happy as you were before. Of course this can all be fixed, the basic rule is Conversation! Talk to each other! (Am I trying to be a psychoterapist here? That's not my intention guys :) Just enjoy my necklace :)

Find necklace here

5. When Love is only a pain - Have you ever got to a stage in relationship when nothing could save it? Every single day is full of arguments, smile left your faces a long time ago and priority levels of you two are completely opposite? Your heart feels like it's full of nails, like it's broken to pieces.

find a necklace here

Necklace cloudy love

Necklace Black heart

6. Good friends - It's impossible in most cases, but to preserve a friendship is sometimes better then stay in relationship which doesn't work. A drying tree can be revive if both of you really want to.

More about necklace here

So, in what stage of love are YOU?

19 May 2013

Geometric shaped headbands by MirkaDesign

I love all kinds of geometric accessories. Combination of circles, hexagons, squares and so on can add really nice finish to your outfit! I found some spare leather and suede pieces so I transferred them into something eye-catchy and of course geometric!

This cute handmade geometric headband features black leather and cream suede triangles arranged in a half circle. The geometric head piece is attached to one size metal non corrosive headband and secured by a piece of leather from the inside. The headband is suitable for any occasion.

This one is made from false suede triangles and it goes well with black top or combination of black and cream or even white!

And finally arrow shaped head-band made from combination of black and cream triangles attached securely to black metal headband.

I have another idea how to use spare leather, and I will share it with you very soon! :)

03 May 2012

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!