Shadow box loving!

I have found a new love SHADOW BOXES! (box frames) It started with a want to be able to display my wedding cake topper I made for my wedding.  After thinking long and hard and a little searching I came across a 12x12ins shadow box, perfect! I could display it and protect it from dust and bashes and at the same time use other items from the wedding and kinda scrap book it all together. This is how it finished up-

I loved how it turned out so then I was in hunt for other stuff to shadow box, then it hit me I had hiding in a box somewhere for 13 years my sons first outfit,the 1 he came home from hospital in. It rarely came out of the box to be looked at. So thought it would be great for that to take pride and place on the wall too!

Then I had to shadow box my youngest boys first outfit too! it would be unfair not too- he he he

Then my son’s clay hand print of course!

Then I decided to make one for my husband for Christmas using his favourite outfit of our little boy’s.  I wanted it to be different and a bit special to him, I remembered seeing somewhere a superman outfit in a glass case with the words ‘BREAK IN EMERGANCY’ and as the outfit was a batman baby grow and my husband is a super hero fan what better way to do it than a smaller 8x8ins red shadow box with ‘In emergency break glass’ painted on it and a little hammer for effect.

There is one more but can’t put a pic up yet as it is a present shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, once I’ve gift wrapped and given it  to them I shall put a pic on. I’ve planned so so many more so as you can see it has become a bit of an obsession I want to shadow box everything EVERYTHING! ermmmmmmm could I fit one the kids in one? (I joke!)

PS. Tutorial coming soon for the ‘IN EMERGENCY BREAK GLASS’ shadow box.

The very hungry caterpillar

While browsing round a carboot sale I stumbled across this loveable little fellow- the very hungry caterpillar!

And at 50p I snapped him right up for my little boy. Then a whole heap of fond memories of the book came flooding back- my fondness of the story and the wonderful textured pictures, my eldest sons love for the book when he was little and his first class play at school when he stood up and held his picture and recited the words ‘Then he ate through 5 oranges’ such a proud moment.

Then I was on a mission to introduce my youngest to the joy that is ‘the very hungry caterpillar’ apart from reading the book to him (and his toy) I wanted him to have something special something that he could keep/use for years to come. It took awhile to think of what I wanted then suddenly a light went on! And I knew exactly what I wanted to make and ran to collect my supplies-scraps of material from my sons unwanted jumpers for the applique and left over thick cream jersey material from a previous project and of course my beloved sewing machine. And here it is............

His bumper and blanket!

Close up!

Proof the little boy likes it, bless him he chatted away for ages to his caterpillar.

Think it was a success, fingers crossed his passion grows for the cute little character as it did for me and my eldest.

Thank you for reading x

The great t-shirt compromise

The dilemma- my son is a hoarder and never wants to get rid of nothing ever! And slowly but surely his wardrobe was filling up on t-shirts that were far too small for my son but he was not willing to let them go not for love nor money, he was adamant on keeping every last one of them and I was most certainly not keen on the idea of storing them as we are so short on space already. Just the mere mention of downsizing some of his belongings starts a huge tantrum with words along the lines of ‘You don’t care about me or my stuff.....’ so on and so on, if you have a teenager you know what I mean.  I racked my brain for ages as well as begging and pleading with my son. Eventually a light came on and I had the solution!

The compromise- a t-shirt throw! He gets to keep his much loved t-shirts and I get to clear his wardrobe- perfect.

The construction- I grabbed my son’s vast pile of t-shirts

Ironed them all out, great fun as we all love extra ironing!

Then marked out rectangles on the t-shirts measuring 45x32cm. Trying to keep any patterns on the t-shirt within the rectangle. Then cut them out through both front and back of the t-shirt so I had two rectangles out of one t-shirt.

Then it was time for sewing. I sewed 5 rectangles together along there length using a simple running stitch on the sewing machine. I repeated this until I had three strips of five rectangles as shown in the pic below.

Then using an iron I pressed open the seams, and then run it through the sewing machine on a zig zag stitch.

                         

I then sewed my 3 strips together, and repeated the pressing open the seams and the zig zag stitch.

Now it was time for my edges, I simply folded and pressed the over with an iron and again run the hem through the sewing machine on a zig zag stitch.

And viola a t-shirt throw!

Ohhh yeah did I forget to mention that this did by no means resolve my sons hoarding problem? As he now reasons with me that there is method to his madness and he is now saving his t-shirts for matching curtains! Oh dear what have I started.




On Tipjunkie.com and abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com

Boobie pads!

As every mother knows just after having a baby and while breast feeding, you go through a whole load of breast pads. I found the disposable ones to be costly and rather quite uncomfortable and sweaty. Browsing through the net I stumbled on tutorials for washable breast pads and thought I’d give’em a whirl and found them to be great! Not sure how well they’d hold up in the early heavy leaking days, but they certainly worked a treat after the leaking had settled during breastfeeding, and during the weaning off time. After trawling through many tutes on the net, this is the way I went about making them, the easy way!

You want around 5 or 6 layers of flannel fabric, I used an old bed sheet that was starting to look a bit grubby (after washes obviously!) and faded, I used this technique of mine to reduce the Bobbles on the fabric. I saw no need for them to be made in the prettiest of fabrics as I am the only one to see them.

  Grab a mug and start drawing out your circles.

Now it’s time to cut out your circles. As you can see by the photo I just cut through all 5 layers at once so I didn’t need to be playing about after with counting and piling the circles.

And whizz them through your overlocker.

Cut of the lose threads and jobs a gooden you have your boobie pads!

How many pairs you make is entirely up to you I guess you can’t have too many the more you have the less stressing about getting them washed and dried quick enough.

Now if you want to go a little further with your pads some tutes suggest adding a layer of pretty fabric, but again I didn’t see the point, who else really wants to see your breast pads?! And other tutes suggest a layer of waterproof backing or lining, which could be good in those heavier leaking days?  But others strongly advise against this due to it possibly causing clogged ducts and mastitis. It’s all down to personal preference; I chose not to have a waterproof back as I didn’t want the original problem of sweaty nipples.

And that’s it for my second tutorial. Questions, comments and criticisms are always welcome!

Good night from me x

Shaving your bobbles!

So here’s my first tute (ever!) I thought I’d start off nice and easy, a nice quick little tute. I found this to be a life saver well maybe a clothes saver! So I’m passing it on and hopefully you’ll find this as handy as I have. You can use this tute to revive old clothes or to revive old material for reuse.
 

 Don’t you just hate it when after a couple of washes you get those horrid little bobbles on your clothes? Well here’s a trick to get rid of them off without having to go out and buy one of those fan dangled shaving thingies. It’s so simple all you need is a razor, a simple normal razor so go grab your hubbies (hehehe!) and your bobbley clothes and your ready. I recommend you only do this on tight knit fabrics.

Got your equipment? Razor? bobbley clothes?

Start by slightly stretching out your fabric, I like to pin it out on my ironing board it makes it easier and stops your fabric from shifting and creasing while you work on it.

 Now it’s as simple as gently shaving those bobbles away!

See my clear patch?

Now I did say it was simple didn’t I? Are you now thinking what I did when I was taught this ‘Why on earth didn’t I think of this’? Sometimes the simple things just pass us by and it takes someone else to point it out.

And that’s it for my first tute, hope it was useful to you and easy to read. I look forward to my next one. Until then good night x

First post!

Wow my first real post! I guess the best place to start is to introduce myself and tell you a little about me........................ I’m Clair, I’m a newlywed and mother of 2 beautiful boys my eldest is 13 years old and my youngest is 9 weeks old (just a little gap!). I have always had a love for art and craft of all kinds. From little my bedroom floor was always covered in cut up pieces of paper and pencils then in my teens it became scraps of fabric and safety pins as I began altering clothes so they don’t look so mainstream. I had made the odd bits and pieces for my eldest boy as he was growing. But my passion for it all really strongly came out when I was getting married, I wanted to hand make as much as I possibly could and I did- from the invites to the decorations to the bouquets and even my dress! With a whole lot of help from my amazing and crafty family, Ohhh maybe at some point I should do a wedding post?????

Sneaky peek of dress before the wedding post

Then I fell pregnant with my little one and wow there’s a whole world of things you can make for a baby on the net, the whole way through my pregnancy my sewing machine didn’t stop buzzing (that could be why my little one finds the sound so soothing- bless). As well as the sewing machine I spent hours on the net compiling a whole heap of patterns for baby clothes, toys and accessories and browsing through blogs and tutorials and now doing a little dabbling in my own pattern making. Which brings me to the reason for writing my blog, I learnt so much from other people’s blogs and want to give a little back and as I was, I would love to think that I could inspire or help someone else in the world of sewing and craft!

The boots I made for my little one using a pattern of my own

Looking forward to this journey of blogging and hope you look forward to reading my ramblings.

Bare with me

Bare with me my blog is under construction! keep checking back as I will be up and running soon, mean while u could always check out Junkies on facebook! xxx