Photo book converted into Jewelry organizer

Do you also have those days when you are in hurry and you can't  find  that necklace that goes well with your dress? Your jewels are all over the place, some are in a bathroom, some in a wardrobe, some in a bag. You end up running from one room to another and at the end you decide to wear no accessory at all, because nothing is as good as that damn  necklace that you bought just last week. Where did I put it???

So, as I like recycling I decided to to convert an older photo book into jewelry organizer. I like its cover so much that I thought it would be nice to look at it more often. The cover is a beautiful Japanese style silk fabric in light purple color with golden embroidery.   

I pierced pages with a  needle. Then I pull through a little black hair clips that I used as a jewelry holders. 

All my necklaces, earrings, bracelets are now  at one place

And it's easy to store

Now I can enjoy and actually see all my jewels and of course  save a lot of time in the morning too! 

Felt project - Table mats

I found an amazing felt project at How about orange couple days ago and my fingers were itching to try it. I am a huge fan of geometric shapes and simple lines so this project was MUST HAVE for me. Below are some pictures and steps how I created these. Visit How about orange to find more details as well as download perfect pattern.

There is only 1 thing I have added to this project and that's underlay / lining support, which makes mats firmer and more durable. I applied iron on thick vliseline. You can buy it in local shop with fabrics or some bigger craft shops. 

Step by step:

1. Cut squares as per pattern using 'stanley knife' or use scissors. I've found scissors to work better with soft felt, however stanley knife is more accurate. Before cutting fasten each square with a pin.

2. Begin insert corner pieces through the slots in the middle

3. Connect as many squares as you want. You can create small coaster, table mats or even carpet! That will be my next project :) 

4. Trim off the excess felt around the edges and cut off the points of the triangular tabs to create nice geometric shape. Iron on thick vliseline on the back side. This will also straighten edges on the other side and will make mats looks neat and tidy.

5. Woohoo, all done! :)

Curtains - DIY

I love trips to IKEA I could spend hours there wandering around and buying all those little bits for a household. We went there other day and one of the thing we bought was a very cute black fabric with white and orange Koi carps print. My boyfriend is a huge fan of Koi carps, so we decided to make a new curtains in a living room :)

DIY curtains - What you need:

- Fabric 5m long, at least 120cm wide (The best fabric for curtains is heavy       cotton, thick polyester fabric, or any firm, durable  fabric)

- sewing machine

- matching sewing threads

- scissors

- gathering tape

- Iron-on tape if you like for bottom hemming (I haven't used it at the end)

Step 1: Measure and cut fabric. I measured the length between the curtain rail and the floor and added about 5 cm on the bottom to account for the hems. To cut the fabric right, lay it out on a large flat surface - table is not enough, I lay it out on a floor. If using a patterned fabric it is important to make sure each drop starts ate the same point in the pattern so that the design flows across the window. 

Step 2: Sew the side hems as per below picture, allowing at least 1,5 cm for hemming. 

Step 3:  Press the top of the curtains down (about 2cm) to the inside and sew the curtain tape across the top of the wrong side of the curtains. Fold in ends and stitch along outside edges ensuring that the strings are not caught in stitch line. 

Now your curtain top corner should appear like this:

Below is a guide how to make equal ruffles by tying strings on gathering tape and also how to attach the curtain on a rail using plastic clips. 

Step 4: Sew the bottom hem on each curtain.

 

And that's it! Your new curtains are ready to be pressed and hang! :)

  

DIY project - Leather detail skirt

My favorite black skirt has shrinked a little bit and I can only blame my washing machine for that... Other reason could be that I put on weight but I would rather stick to the first option :).

... so as I couldn't wear that skirt any longer, I decided to enlarge it with a piece of faux leather and make it even fashionable! If you want to make something similar below is the guide for you, enjoy! 

What you need: piece of leather - real or faux, a ruler, fabric chalk, scissors, sewing machine and of course some skirt with zip closure in the back

STEP 1: measure your skirt length and cut a strip from leather in exact length, the width depends on how much you want to enlarge it. I kept the same width along the whole  leather strip as my skirt has an elastic waist belt. 

STEP 2: Cut the opening for a zip into the leather piece. 

STEP 3: Carefully rip the stitching as pictured, including stitching around the zip 

STEP 4:  Use pins to fasten the zip and leather and sew it together using zipper sewing foot. 

STEP 5:  Fasten leather strip along both sides of skirt fabric and sew through 

TADA! New leather detail skirt :) 

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!!