Day 329 and 330

Well its a rainy old night here in Melbourne (in fact its been a very rainy old day too!)
My best friend and I spent the day wedding planning (lists, lists and more lists). Then this afternoon I had an interview with "The Age" newspaper (exciting! I will keep you posted as to when the story will be printed!)

As for the daily craft, I have to make up for yesterday and today (as I went to bed early yesterday evening, planning to get up later in the evening and make craft then and I ended up sleeping right thru till this morning). So here goes day 329 and 330...

Yep its another tea towel pillowcase to add to my growing collection!

This one certainly is relevant with the wedding planning... WELL THE KEEP CALM BIT! perhaps not the cake bit...

 the growing collection

then for day 330 I started the next step of the covered bedhead

I had to very neatly join two lengths of the striped fabric (as it was not wide enough to cover the whole bedhead)

 Next I carefully laid the bedhead straight on the striped fabric and pulled the fabric taut before starting the staple gunning

 staple gun fun begins!

 Its proving to be trickier than I thought to get the fabric tight and smooth around all the curves

 I have cut off most of the excess fabric around the top, but I think it is going to take another day's work to finish this off properly. 

Craft out

xxoo

Day 328-Mullet skirt

Tonight I have been putting together my handout notes for the final "upcycle" workshop this weekend (I can't believe its the last one already!).

So I started putting together a page with the step by step process of revamping a long dress or skirt by cutting the hem short at the front and long at the back. Then I went online to look for pictures of similar skirts as examples and cracked up laughing when I found that online people were calling them "Mullet" skirt's!

So its all "party at the front, business at the back" in fashion right now... enjoy the examples below...

 I like how she has worn this as a sideways mullet skirt!

Have you made a "Mullet" skirt or dress? email me at craftdays365@hotmail.com

to share your creation...

craft out

xxoo

Day 327-Sticks to centrepieces

Tonight I am thinking about the wedding again... 

how can I make beautiful, quirky and super cheap table centre pieces?

I started with some dead sticks from the backyard

and spray painted them white (make sure to lay out newspaper underneath or your path/lawn/garden will be also painted)

 after the first coat I went inside for dinner and then returned later with the torch for the second coat (yes I am crazy! I am spray painting sticks with a torch at night in the backyard)

 next I stripped some cherry blossoms off some fake plastic flowers from the $2 shop

yay!

 beautiful centre piece idea for my wedding tables, whimsical, soft, asymmetrical, white and red

craft out

xxoo

Day 326-glueing and packing

Tonight's craft follows on from yesterday, its time to wrap and pack those nifty wedding invites!

 mass production glueing and sticking

 yay, ready to go!

39 crafty days to go!!!!!!!!

I can hardly believe it!

craft out

xxoo

Day 325-Tea Towel wedding invites

Its late Monday night and we have just arrived back home after a long weekend away for my sister's wedding and GUESS WHAT!!! its only 9 weeks until my wedding!

On that note... tonight's craft is my wedding invites (you are all getting a sneak preview here on the blog as I haven't even sent them out yet!). 

I have done something a little different for my invite.... its a printed tea towel! Yep a commemorative wedding tea towel for you all to wash your dirty dishes on!

I put the graphic together using adobe illustrator, sourced the blank tea towels in bulk and had them screen printed in Melbourne by the lovely Linda and Deb at http://www.screenprintconcepts.com.au/

craft out

xxoo

Day 324-The day after the big day...

Whilst we all sleep in, resting our sore heads and try to avoid any direct sunlight to the eye/facial region,

 I suspect those honeymooners might be getting on down to some "business time"

(for those of you not familiar with "flight of the conchords" check out this great comedy duo.....) 

oh and my craft below that....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhN93rFZuJs

craft out

xxoo

Day 323-Mr and Mrs Betts

The big day has arrived and we are busily spraying, applying, fluffy and....drinking (champagne for breakfast? "Cin Cin")

Today's craft...
another wedding pressie of course....

printed "MR & MRS" pillowcases designed and made by yours truely

craft out!

Day 322-Hyping up for my lil sissy's big day!

Its the day before my little sister's big day, so I better whip up the rest of this pressie.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I decided to make the pillowcase into the size of a european cushion, so I traced around a pillowcase from home to get the right size to cut out the black drill fabric.

Next I stitched the fabric photo print to the base and started to add the layers of vintage lace and handmade flowers to frame it

 It may look simple but it takes quite a lot of time to arrange all the trims in an interesting way and then attach them all.

Yay its all ready! I think it looks great!

 wishing you all the best on your big day and for your future together xxoo

Mr & Mrs Betts

Craft out

xxoo

Day 321-BOOM TOWN!

My best friend Bianca's favourite new saying is "Boom Town!"

Its hard to explain the meaning... because it can kind of mean anything you want...

I.e
Bronwyn: "I just got a park right out the front of your house"
Bianca: "Boomtown!"


Bronwyn: "I just won a bottle of champers in a raffle"
Bianca: "Boomtown!"


Bronwyn: "I Just found 2 great pieces of hard rubbish on the drive over"
Bianca: "Double Boomtown" 


Bronwyn: "Should I pick up a bottle of wine on the way to your house?"
Bianca: "Ummmm is the pope catholic?"

That there is literary evolution at its finest... Actually I thought Bianca made it up, but on further research I discovered some VERY funny and at times explicit meanings for this saying on urban dictionary (enjoy the LOL's)
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=boomtown

and is why I have made you this for christmas Miss Bianca (SHHHH don't look yet! otherwise you will see your christmas present!)

I started by printing the "Boomtown" onto fabric

 and cut around this "comic" style "Bamm" "Shazamm" layout

next I cut a really long strip of black fabric to create the edge of what will become a 3D "boomtown" pillow. Then I stitched the edge all the way around (this took FRIGGEN forever! and just as I was about to  finish the piece of black fabric ran out! it was only about 6cm too short!!! UGH! 

chop, overlock, stitch, stitch again...

Next I cut the back out of stripey black and white fabric and attached this to the edge as well 

(again FOREVER! I must love u Miss B)

Next step bag it out

and stuff it with stuffing....

 YAY LOVE IT!

 3D BOOMAGE

 BACK VIEW

craft out

xxoo

I am finished for tonight

"BOOMTOWN"

Day 320-Another retro revamp!

I have to say I really do have a soft spot for these 60's "Austin Powers" Ivana Humpalot type of dresses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KCE44Jz7BQ

Although all that nylon and polyester is not the best for sweat patches!

 So my advice is if your buying retro clothes like this check that they are not already stinky 

(because if they are you will never be able to wash that 30 year old sweat patch out!)

 before

 I decided to mix things up a bit by cutting the front short and keeping the back long. 

I love these hemlines!

You just need to pin the length you want it to start and end, then cut in a sloping "S" shape to create this hemline.

Photo montage time!

craft out!

xxoo

Day 319-2 items for the price of 1

So last night you would have seen my retro "Moo Moo" make-over and tonight I have used the left over strip of fabric from the hem to make a super cute skirt!

2 for the price of 1! That's up cycling at its finest!!

there was a large amount of fabric to cut off the bottom of the dress to re-hem it to a

 "non-60's love child kinda length"

 below; to the right is the strip left over

I used the original hem for the new short skirt hem, Easy!

 I created a waistband from a piece of wide black elastic, overlocking the ends together to form the loop.

Next I used a gathering stitch to gather up the skirt fabric around the top edge and then pinned the two together.

 Finally I overlocked the two pieces together 

craft out

6o's swirls

xxoo

Day 318 retro dress revamp!

Hello friendly craft folk, Happy Monday night!

Today I have revamped an old retro "Moo Moo" into a retro shortie, below is the process...

Take one giant size 60's swirl dress

 pray for some divine upcycle inspiration 

 snip snip snip

re hem

and boom bada bing! its all brand new!

with an off cut for a headband too

craft out

xxoo

craftacrate yourself a new one!