DIY is more fun with company!

This week saw the start of a very exciting DIY collaboration between the lovely Sophie and myself.

Sophie and I have been hanging out at fine & sunny crafting our little hearts out. and now we have decided to combine our powers to make some awesome creative weekend DIY projects.

This week we turned this collection of stuff into a super cute skirt. 

All you need to turn a pillow case in to a skirt is:
A vintage pillow case.
Half a meter of elastic.
Some pins.
Scissors.
A hem measure (optional) .
Tape measure.
Sewing machine.
And the instructions listed on herlibraryadventures

Cutting and ironing

A little sewing

20 minuets later we were done.

I think the final result is pretty cute. what do you think?

next week we are going to give a face lift to some furniture.

You may notice a massive improvement in the photo quality in this post! that is thanks to Sophie and her mad camera skills! 

Thanks for reading x

Up and In.

I popped in to my local op shop for a few minuets today and found this dress. I like the fabric but it was on the large side. Fortunately it is a simple shape so I was able to make it fit in no time. Here is how.

The dress was a little bit roomy

First thing to do is work out how much smaller the garment needs to be. I did this by putting the dress on inside out and pinning where I wanted the new seam to be.  I then cut off excess and sewed the new seam.

I also wanted to make the dress a little shorter. I did this buy altering the the dropped waist which can be seen in the photo below. The waist was originally down past my bottom which is a little too dropped. I cut it up to my hips and sewed the skirt back on. This not only moved waist to a more flattering place, it also meant I didn't have to re do the hem. yay.

Turn it inside out to measure how much you need to cut off

The finished size

 I wanted to make the dropped waist a bit more obvious, a 1 inch flap sewn and ironed in to place did the trick.

added detail

Thanks for reading x

I seem to have the sewing bug, again

This is the 3rd dress I have made in two days. I love to sew, but every now and again I lose interest. I have been feeling pretty uninspired for the last few months. I have made a few pair of shorts and covered lots of cushions but I have not made much clothing.

This weekend that seems to have changed, there are lots of things I am itching to make. Like this 1968 simplicity dress. 

So I got to work,

 The pattern is a wee bit big for me so I had to make it smaller. There are all sorts of clever guides for this, just ask Google. As this is a simple pattern I made a 1 inch pleat down the middle of each pattern piece, making sure I didn't change the neck or darts.

Pinned

 

 

and cut.

 It was at this point I realised that the instructions were not in the envelope, eek.

One of the joys of getting patterns from the op-shop. I had to make it up from here but it turned out fine. Phew.

 Thanks for reading x

I spent Sunday sewing stripes.

I have had a lovely Sunday making stripy dresses, and learning some new crochet stitches.

The perfect pipe smoking dress

Avast

Yay for new dresses

How did you spend your Sunday? x

New garden furniture, well new to me.

My good fiend Kelli was going to throw these wooden frame seats out. Instead I thought I would try and give them a new life.

They were a little beat up so I sanded them and gave them a lick of paint. Whilst they were drying I got to work on some cushions. I had a couple of foam squabs left over from another make over. I cut them to size and made some covers for them. I got two massive pillows from an op-shop that are the perfect size for the two seater, so made new covers for them too.

my sewing room was filled to the brim with foam and fabric

I decided to go for a cream and navy colour pallet.

making some pipping.

A pile of completed cushions waiting to go to there new home

.

 The bases of the seats had pulled away from the nails but had not ripped much so I was able to secure them with my trusty staple gun.

as good new

the end result

you might remember the little cushions from early this year?

all together it looks like this

as I was out there anyway I though that I should hang the frames I have been thinking about hanging for about 2 months I am glad that I did because they look great.

 I was inspired by marie de salle apartment in high fidelity. since first watching that film I wanted to use old window as a divider. this is my light weight take on it.

marie de salle,s room

may garden

Thanks for reading x

I love woolie Jumpers

Which might be a problem now that I live in Mildura where it is really hot.

 Don't get me wrong, I hate the cold and am very glad that it is so warm here. I am however a little concerned that the awesome jumpers I made smaller today are not going to get as much air time as I  would like, sigh.

I got these fun jumpers from various op shops. but they were too big.

I thought I would share with you how I took them in.

Turn the jumper inside out, and lay it flat on the ground making sure all the seams matched up.

Lay a jumper that does fit down over the top of it.

Cut around the jumper that fits, being sure to leave a seam allowance.

Then just run it through your over locker.

If you don't have an over locker you should get one as they are great, but until then you can just do a line of straight stitch and  a line of zigzag.

Ta da

Because the red one is a little fancier, cashmere darlings. I used a seam that my mother in law told me about, (Thanks Dorothy it looks great). first sew a seam using an over locker with the wrong sides together then turn inside out and do a line of straight stitch as close to the edge as you can with out catching the overclocking. you will end up with a very nice tidy seam.

Thanks for reading x

Lovely things to fill my cupboards.

I volunteer at the local Salvation army thrift shop which is great as I get to see lots of the donations before they hit the shop floor. This week I worked two days so I had twice the opportunity to find some bargains. and boy did I.

He are a few of my lovely finds.

vintage beaded sash

A nautical dress that makes me grin like a cat and talk like a pirate.

Retro tea pot and matching cup and saucer.

Thanks for reading x

I would like to tell you a tale about my bike.

Once upon a time, in a far off second hand shop next to the tip I stumbled across a bike. It was in a bad way, pretty much none of the parts worked but it was a reasonable frame (at least that's what people who know about these things told me). So I forked out the $10 required to make the bicycle mine and took it home in my shiny blue Ute.

With a bit of help from a friend, well a lot of help from a friend (I really just stood and watched), all the broken parts were removed and I had an empty frame to paint.

I toiled long and hard to get the original red paint off and after a few woosie afternoons of breathing in paint stripper I had a plain metal frame that I wanted to make yellow.

Half way through  the stripping process

 

my nude frame

So I did. First I covered it in primer then a beautiful yellow all in a home made spray painting palace
(or garage covered with old sheets and full of spiders)

My make shift studio

 

primed

and painted

Then the same hard working friend who did all the work taking the bike to pieces, put it all back together again.

And I became the owner of this magnificent bike!

In all its shiny yellow and black glory. did you notice the matching shoes?

A close up

Thanks for reading x