Day 317-upcycle workshop week 3

Today I headed down to the fern tree gully arts centre early to get a head start on a few of my projects before the 3rd installment of the "upcycle your wardrobe workshop" began.

It was a rewarding session as many of the projects have started to come to fruition. 

Today's craft is bought to you by my super talented workshop participants...

A fun four eyed friend made from a pair of old stripy jeans by the talented Miss Vivian 

 "waste not want not" she also used the stripey scraps to whip up a watch band

 I am loving this up cycled skirt

 and the hand embellished details

 a fun and festive maternity skirt made from scarfs with an elastic waistband for growing baby room

 super cute appliqué's coming together 

 an innovative way to up cycle an old pair of jeans, this mum has whipped up a hairbrush/ clip and toiletry holder for her daughter

 and floral motif headwear

Thanks ladies! see you all in 2 weeks for the final instalment for my first workshop

fingers crossed there will be many more to come :)

it has been fun!

craft out

xxoo

Day 316 wedding present prep

Tonight I have started work on one of my little sister's wedding presents (her wedding is next weekend).

When I was at the digital printers the other day I had a nice photo of my sister and her fiancee printed onto fabric with the idea in mind to make a large cushion (european size).

Here is the photo printed onto fabric

 Next I started searching thru my fabrics for old lace, trims, etc, all in cream and gold colours.

 I wanted to create a "scrap-booking" type effect around the photo.

Part of the fabric I have used was from this crocheted skirt below

 I started to stitch lines of old lace and frills around the edge of the photo

 I am still working on it (and its 12.42am...) time for bed... I think this project may take a few nights to add all the layers

craft out

xxoo

Day 315-upcycle week 3

Here is this week's upcycle workshop course notes.

I made a scarf skirt earlier in the year on April the 2nd if you missed that day then check it out at

http://www.365daysofcraft.com/2011/04/2nd-april-vintage-scarfs-new-life.html

Happy Friday

craft out

xxoo

Day 314-digital printing

Tonight I headed over to my friend Nathan's place to print a few projects for the blog. 

Nathan runs a digital printing company which allows you to print directly onto fabric, garments, pillowcases etc. If you live in Melbourne and want to whip up a few of your own designs then contact Nathan on the link below,

http://www.claxtonclothing.com/

Here is one of my printed pillowcase designs we whipped up tonight 

craft out

xxoo

Day 313-Pink skirt!

Tonight I have whipped up a cute pink mini skirt with a strip of thick black elastic and a rectangle of fabric.

I started with another skirt which is a great shape

 I cut the elastic to size

 and one large rectangle of fabric

 I overlocked the fabric into one big loop and then gathered the top half with a gathering stitch

 then attached the fabric to the elastic waistband, yay done!

 night night

craft out

xxoo

Day 312-late night wreath

Tonight I have created a christmas wreath, and what seemed like a quick project turned out to take quite some time to get all the fabric wrapped neatly.

I started with a foam circle (which you can pick up at most craft or fabric shops)

and then selected a variety of red and green fabrics to cut strips from

 I started with all the fabrics joined in one spot and slowly wrapped each piece around the wreath leaving an overlap exposing each texture/pattern. 

Along the way I glue gunned the fabric in sections to keep the fabric in place.

 11.16pm and I am done!

craft out

xxoo

Day 311-Lucky lantern

Tonight I have made a brand new craft that I have not tried before.

I purchased a paper lantern from a cheap $2 shop

 next I started to cut fabric strips (all from various hues/patterns of red) and pinned them in place

 Initially I started by hand stitching these strips at the top and the bottom, but quickly realised it was easier just to use the glue gun.

 almost done!

 yay its finished!

 I guess you could place this over a light bulb, or try to place a candle inside, 

but to avoid all fire hazards I think it looks great just as a decoration swaying in the wind...

craft out

xxoo

Day 310-busy busy bee

Today has been a super busy day!

I taught my second upcycle workshop and then spent the afternoon "upcycling/cleaning" my own house.

Let's just say that an editor from a certain newspaper starting with "The" and ending in "Age" is coming to visit tomorrow.

Yippee! Nothing like a push to get your house sorted!

So for tonight's craft I finally got around to hanging the doily lamp shade!!

I used wire to thread around the top edge

 and attached the lamp shade to the light fitting

 I love all the textures casting shadows around the room

craft out

xxoo

Day 309-staple gunning

Today I have learnt the joys of using a staple gun! 

I have to say I really like guns, "glue guns", "staple guns", "water guns"

I started by attaching my foam to the mdf cut out.

I have read that some other people have used a spray adhesive to hold this in place, but I am not a big fan of spray adhesive, so I have used a staple gun.

 I have used 4 thin layers of foam on this, the first 3 layers are cut exactly the same shape as the base 

and the 4th (top layer) I left an extra 20cms all the way around which I then pulled tightly over the edge and staple gunned to the back. 

This was quite tricky on some of the curves!

 "hmmm what do we think of the "pink dirt stained" foam? perhaps I should just change the bedroom colour scheme to pink and brown instead of black and white?"

 OR MAYBE NOT!!

next step, fabric...

thats all folks

craft out

xxoo

Day 308-October is a wrap!

I have finally got around to putting together the monthly wrap board below for October!

57 days to go!!!! (but whose counting...)

here are my next 2 pages for the course, this is my craft for the night

craft out

xxoo

Day 307-babysitting craft

Tonight I babysat for a friend of ours.

I took along a box of craft supplies just in case I had time to whip up some kind of craftastic creation,

but between driving home from work after a rather stressful day, 

heating up some food and looking after a toddler 

I could only muster "the ol pipe cleaner glasses" craft

the magic sparkly silver pipe cleaner glasses!

 on long car trips as kids my mum used to always have a bag of pipe cleaners handy

they would keep us entertained for hours!

we would make caricatures of all our friends and family out of them

 and when we got really bored we would make pipe cleaner glasses and then pull faces at people in other cars in traffic.

our glass and hair are looking a little outta control in this shot! 

must be time for bed!

craft out

xxoo

Day 306-baby bunting necklace

Tonight I have made a miniature bunting necklace...

I made a tiny triangle pattern piece out of newspaper

I chose 3 different blue patterned fabrics and ironed some interfacing onto the back to make it thicker

I then cut out all my little triangle flags (cut x2 of each so they are double sided)

 next I zigzag stitched around the edge (joining the front and the back of each triangle together)

 pin all the pieces in place and stitch all of them together

 next I hand stitched the bunting to a piece of cord and then added some blue bias binding as the necklace ties for the back

Yay!! cute baby bunting necklace!!

craft out

xxoo

Day 305-gone tribal

Today in Melbourne we had a public holiday (due to the annual Melbourne Cup) and because I am not a races fan (don't get me wrong I love the OTT headwear, just not so much the gambling and drunken whores) therefore I spent the day indoors crafting.

I was hoping to get started on a few projects... but alas this dam handmade necklace ate up a good chunk of my day!! 

I am happy with the outcome and love the wrapped/hand stitched tribal look

(but there is a reason why its tribal and thats because there wasn't much else to do back then and they could spend bloody all day stitching a necklace!)

When making a necklace like this it helps to have a large "useful box/room" full of goodies to source from

 I started with a cotton cord and wrapped a long strip of fabric around it to cover it (adding large hand stitches along the way to secure it)

 this took about 3 hours to get to this point...

 its complete!

 I love the weight of the heavily wrapped cord and the large stitches

 After stitching this thing all day I needed to play dress ups to lighten my mood. 

I love that when i walked out of the bathroom all styled up in "tribal chic" (including the face paint) that my fiancee didn't even bat an eyelid! he just put his hand out for the camera and got ready to take some snaps, BLESS HIM!

craft out!

xxoo

(p.s only 60 days to go OMG!)