Scrappy cloths

Since we moved to the North Pennines, and since Missy watched an offering from the wonderful Sir David Attenborough which left her in tears and determined to lighten our footprint on the planet, we have been on a mission! 

We started small and are getting better at cutting down on plastic, reducing the rubbish we send to landfill, buying all that we can second hand, finding ways to use what we have until the end of it’s life and above all being inventive!

Of course, with a child, clothes are something parents seem to buy lots of!  They grow so quickly!  Missy is the 5^th of 5 children, but the youngest of the older 4 is a girl, but 10 years older than her, so there aren’t too many hand-me-downs.

We don’t go mad with a full school uniform for every day, but clearly you have to have one spare set!  And it all gets a good deal of use.  So, by the time the school year ends, the sweatshirts and trousers are usually OK to pass on, but the shirts are pretty grim!  Paint, lunch, biros and grass stains take their toll.

So, what can we do with them?

Well Missy had 3 pretty polo shirts that I held on to wondering how they could be repurposed and then the lightbulb came on in 3 ways….

1 – they have pretty buttons that can be reused.

2 – from the underarm to the hem, they are square

3 – there is an amount of ‘scrap’

I cut the side seams off, cut horizontally across the chest from underarm to underarm and removed the buttons.

 

The buttons went into my button box.

The 2 squares from each body of the shirts was overlocked around the edge to make cleaning or spills cloths (instead of paper towel) and all the ‘scrap’ including that created by overlocking will be joining my ‘stuffing’.

‘Stuffing’ is all the offcuts of fabric and threads from projects that are too small to even use on patchwork and they go into an offcuts bag kept at the side of your workstation. 

Many dressmakers are now employing the ‘Make do and Mend’ ethos of their Granny and making a stuffing bag which is simply 2 squares of scrap fabric (or old sheets or curtain, hubbys shirts etc), seamed on 3 sides to make a pouch and into that putting waste.  When full it can be used as a cushion pad, or smaller clumps of the waste can be used to stuff doorstops, draught excluders, toys…..the options are endless.  I often find I have more projects than stuffing….and nothing to put into landfill!!

Mine swallows up offcuts from cutting patterns out of fabric, threads, selvedges, the ‘trim’ from using the overlocker…..and more recently laddered tights AND….yes, you know whats coming…the chopped up scraps from those school polo shirts!

I’ve recently got back into knitting and apart from keeping a small ball of the yarn (with the ball band) for repairs, all the offcuts from sewing up my projects will be heading for my stuffing bag!

So, there we are…..cleaning cloths, buttons and stuffing!  No waste!

I have to say that I have become ridiculously excited when I find a new use for things and can keep my bin free of unnecessary waste.  Things in this house get used, used and used.....if they are made of natural materials, they may find themselves added to the compost heap....or like a rather dodgy looking wooden spoon, used for lighting the fire!!

Let me know what new and inventive ways you have found to reduce your reliance on landfill and take responsibility for your waste.

See you very soon,

Toodle-ooo

Nora

xx

 

It's a fridge! (I know...it's a picture of a chair!)

 ...and said in a very excited voice!

Yes, today was the day for the fridge delivery.

We had put off ordering one because we didn't know if we would be in our house by this time.  But we aren't, so we ordered one.

This means an impending shopping trip.

It also means we can't venture far today as it may arrive.

We did stop off for a cuppa with one of our lovely friends who came to find us at the school (hearing that we were finally here and wanting to catch up).  After that we ventured to the local library, which amazingly is open every and I mean, EVERY day of the week.  And we also went to look at one of the local crafty haunts, The Cane Workshop, which, as the name suggests mainly repairs cane furniture and sells kits for cane work like this....

(sorry, picture quality is awful, follow the link to their gallery)

They also have crafts from local artists, they sell amazing Rag Rugs, recycled wool clothing from The Woolly Pedlar.......

Hawthorn Handmade needlefelting kits.....

locally grown and woven willow baskets and tweed covered hip flasks to name but a few......They're a talented bunch here!

So, the fridge arrived.  Oh, the simple pleasure of a fridge.  Life was a little more difficult without it and we shall certainly appreciate cold milk on our cereal from now on!

Tomorrow is a shopping trip, not sure where to go yet.

Until then,

Bye

Nora

xxx

Not a UFO in sight!

Hilarious!

How do I do it?

Post about finishing my UFOs and then go and start and finish something new in an hour!

I've been under the weather today...in fact I think it is the weather...I've had one of those odd stormy headaches.  Apart the arrival of a new Dyson which was unpacked and used immediately...you have to try these things out, you know!  And throwing the makings of a Minestrone Soup in the slow-cooker and a French bread dough in the bread machine, I have done nothing all day!!

So having purchased some new pegs yesterday, I decided to cheer myself and the laundry chore up by making a new peg bag from stash fabric...and a plastic coat hanger....because I'm sure this will see rain at some point!!

So without further ado...here it is...

Ta-daaaah!......

See you very soon....minus the headache!

Bye

Nora

xxx

Summer Holiday - Day 5, 6 & 7!

At kids club the children get me (real name Karen!) and Crafty Friend (Carol!) muddled up, so for a joke, she had these t-shirts printed.

We know some of the children can't read...but the ones who can thought it was hilarious and insisted on this photo!

Work became one VERY long day of cleaning (9 hours!!), clearing out the academic year, we reorganised the room too.....gets the kids thinking about where they can find things when they come back and they remember better then if we were to tell them!

The next day we undertook all the preparing for the next year!  Still not finished to be honest!

The in-laws came down for a short stay and during a trip into town, I managed to get this shot of my beautiful Teenage Daughter...she'll hate me for this!

On Sunday, I decided to get my head into a different space.  Having ordered some new jeans from H&M, who thankfully sell jeans by the waist and leg measurements, I can get a pair that actually fit without a gaping hole in the small of my back to fill with shopping!!

Hence my lovely old pair (that I had worn through at the knee!) became my cut-offs for playing and gardening!

I cut the jeans across the knee, just above the hole.  I chose some nice bright fabric and sliced it across the width at a 2" depth and ran it through my clover bias binding gadget to produce a nice binding...pinned it on like this..........

I whizzed round the binding with my sewing machine and then flipped the binding over and hand stitched it to the inside......

And ta-dah!...cut-offs!

I've left them long so that as they wear, I can just cut them shorter and shorter!

So , that was those few days.....the next week went in a whirlwind...so I'm not sure how much of that I can really show you in photos!

But after that we made some trips...those I will share!

Back soon!

Love 

Nora

xxxx

Sparkly repurpose

My daughter was given this lovely River Island top a few years ago and whilst we both admit that its pretty, she's not a pink girl and being the wrong side of 40 its sadly not really appropriate for me to be seen out in!

Just look at that sparkle!

I didn't want to just get rid of it, so it was hanging around (flirting with my stash) and being used for dressing up by Little Lady.

To have it on show and get some use out of it I decided (in a mad moment) to turn it into a cushion!

Bonkers eh?

But who wouldn't want this little bit of sparkle in their lives....OK, don't answer that!

Well here is my re-purposed ta-Dah moment.......

Ta-DAH!..........

Here it is gracing my made-over chair and I had a plan that when I get to my Ercol Sofa Makeover, that cushion is going to look so good popping out of a grey background, but no, it has been claimed by Little Lady who has barely let it out of her sight since it rolled off the sewing machine yesterday!

I'm not sure what's up next on the purge come clean out come finish up!

Depends what I find on the next leg of my journey!

Hope to see you soon,
Love
Nora
xxxx

Finished Quilts....... With Labels!

So once my labels were printed using the method in my last post, I was finally able to photograph and gift!

My Crafty Friend, Carol, had her quilt last year, but when I explained that I had sussed the label conundrum, she returned the quilt so that I could add a label...so here is the quilt....

...and the label.....

I've also FINALLY finished my cousins Arsenal Quilt, I told you about it here and after the pining marathon and then the hours watching TV and quilting it with buttons, I reached the point of binding.

I had previously cut the binding but wished I had waited and cut it wider to cover the variation in the yarn squares (some had been sewn more tightly than others).

No matter, I simply unfolded it and used it like bias tape by sewing a single edge to the edge of my quilt with an almost 1cm seam allowance to cover all the ins and outs.  Once I'd sewn all round I turned it to the back and hand stitched the binding down as usual.  This also took hours!

But I think the result along with the label was well worth investing the time and I hope my cousin likes it!

What do you think?

Huge isn't it!?

This picture shows the button quilting, binding and homemade label!

More makes coming soon, until then, take care
Nora
xxxx

A little bit of recycling....

in the form of paper chains!

Little Lady came home from school yesterday in a make-y mood.....hmmmmmm...nothing planned so what can I lay my hands on?

Tucked into the wardrobe is an old wooden wine box where I squirrel Christmas-y things away when they come to hand.  There are bits of ribbon either freebies from Magazines or those annoying little ribbons that they sew into the shoulders of clothes, free papers, stamps and stickers from magazines, leftover scraps of good wrapping paper, kids magazines and sticker books and....wait for it....the trims from crackers!

Last year we made crackers but the year before we bought some trimmed with lovely beads and ribbons.  The crackers themselves were also very pretty, so we uncurled the tubes and squirreled them away.....Jen at My Make Do and Mend Year would be proud of me!

Here they are.....

 

So I trimmed them down like this along with some Christmas-y odds of paper and got this............

Add a glue stick and a 5 year old who just cannot contain her excitement about Christmas and the result is........

....recycled, dirt cheap paper-chains and a very contented and non-electronically amused 5 year old....happy days!

Have you got any recycling tips for Christmas?

Off for a spot of lunch, I shall be back soon with some more fun and makes, 'til then,

See ya!

Nora

xxxx

A promising find

As you may remember I've given up on Mags a little. 

They're all a bit same-y, nothing striking or inspirational....in fact, some of the cheeky blighters even put the same projects in 2 or 3 mags!  Come on guys....get with something fresh!

Do they not realise that we can look stuff up on-line....trawl Pinterest for inspiration and share makes and tutorials with our friends on BlogLand?!

BUT...there is nothing like good quality paper in your hands, the smell of ink, a little library of loveliness to lay your hands on whilst sipping a nice cup of tea..... I do like a nice mag!

Well....I found one!

We'll have to see how it pans out, will it still be interesting in 6 months, a year?

It is the brand new Reloved magazine...............look..........

 

There are LOADS of projects in this one...like this crate revamp from Tales from Betty Bee Towers.........

 

A lovely hottie cover made from an old sweatshirt (Tiddly Toes will love this as she has a bit of a thing for Scottie Dogs!)....it is from the book 'Make it & mend it'

 

and the most amazing shoe makeover...never seen anything like this before!  This is from the book Girls Night in.......

 

All in all, I'm enjoying this, there's sewing, knitting, furniture painting...oh lots!

 

And I have to say I quite like it.

 

If you get it, let me know what you think.

 

See you soon,

Nora

xxxx

Goodbye 2012

Well, didn't that go by quickly?

Can't quite believe that another year is upon us!

Towards the end it all got a bit frantic with family things, illness, work, pressie making and wrapping....need I say more?

But I felt I neglected you in the rush of other things, so I'm popping in today to give you a gift  update!

I do hope you won't mind if I share some of my wonderful gifts with you.....but I think you will enjoy them....and it might even inspire you to pop them on your Wishlist!

Shame this is such a photo-laden post, as my camera is misbehaving.....it's a bit misty...quite romantic really...so sorry about the fuzzy-ness!

Going back a few weeks now, it was my birthday at the end of November and I was thrilled to receive a book that I had had my eye on for some time......

 

Can't wait to get started on this!  Poppy Treffry has a wonderful way of making this seem soooooooooooo easy!  We'll see if she's right when I actually let the first 30 pages sink in and pluck up the courage to get going!  If you think you might like this book, you can find it here along with some of her other titles, she also runs courses and can be found at notonthehighstreet.com or here for her catalogue if making becomes to much and you turn to buying instead!

 

I also received Jaffa Cakes and Garibaldi biscuits as I do like a nibble with a cuppa but have to be careful of the fat content.

 

I also got this very seasonal gift, which I still haven't given the kiss of death!  It's going strong in the kitchen...............

 

 

 

Yes, a Poinsettia!

 

I was also fortunate to receive some birthday money and used a little of it to buy myself these...............

 

 

A Lavender bag and an Owl Brooch made by a very talented lady called Chris from Chris Made This.

 

I am a bit of a teabag too.....

 

I love White tea and Jasmin Green Tea, my other fragrant favourite is Earl Grey which I got in a set with a tea bag tidy to save the numerous trips back and forth across the kitchen to the compost bin....I can now save them up and do them in one run and spend the time saved blogging and crafting doing housework!

 

My Tiny Angel gave me photo frames for both Birthday and Christmas, look.....

 

 

 

 

I also got a copy of Sewing World Magazine for my birthday........

 

 

 

I've had a lot of magazines over the years, more recently, Simply Homemade, Making, Let's Knit and Mollie Makes and unfortunately the more I've bought the more they get same-y...there's nothing in them that I couldn't work out for myself!  Then they bring out a bookazine with all of the best projects in anyway, and that's only twice the price of a monthly mag!  So guess what, I've cancelled the subscriptions, look at them in the newsagents (just to assure myself that I am missing nothing!) and when a decent Bookazine arrives I shall get that instead....if it's good enough!

 

HOWEVER......Sewing World has been great this year as it has published an article every month about different feet on the sewing machine and how to get best use....well!.....with a new sewing machine - that was invaluable!  So for Christmas I got a subscription to Sewing World!!!!  YAY!

 

My Teenage Daughter knows I have a Wishlist on Amazon, so she can point her Dad in the right direction when it comes to buying Mum a book!

 

I got this one for Christmas...Teenage Daughter will love it too...when she gets the chance to get her paws on it!!!!

 

 

It has already inspired me to crack on with Tiddly Toes 'Melman' (giraffe) quilt....there's a stash post coming soon!!!!

 

Then on New Years Eve we had Crafty Friend and husband and my Godfather and wife over for nibbles....Crafty Friend came up with this gem.......

 

 

She knows it is not a book I would but myself as the projects are too wide ranging for me, however, she understands the need sometimes to immerse yourself in the 'lifestyle' and feel good factor a book can bring without necessarily being useful.

 

Lastly some smell-y treats! The big box came from the family of 2 little boys we look after at the out of school club - what a treat!!!

 

 

We also have numerous tins of sweets and biscuits to work our way through AND quite a few bottles of wine!  Shame!

 

I must disappear now to cook Mac Cheese for dinner tonight.....mmm!

 

I'll see you soon with my Stash Confession and some makes, can't wait!

 

Until then, take care and........

 

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

 

love,

Nora

xxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pinaddicts Challenge - October 2012

WELCOME!  Thank you so much for popping in.

Well, here we are again...as happy as can be.....

I love this time of the month......Challenge Time!!!! YAY!

My chosen subject came from Pinterest, but had no tutorial or anything as the blog it came from closed and went somewhere else :(

Here is the picture.....

Some time ago I won 2 pints of buttons on an EBAY auction...they were a mixed bag (or glass!) of wooden, leather, metal and plastic.  Many from the 1940's, 50's and 60's.  The sorts of things I remember on my Nanny's coats and cardigans.

Also some time ago I bought a blind from Next.  Perfect colours but when I came to hang it it had a wonky side and was FAR to long.  I set about undoing it so that it fitted in the recess of my landing window, un-wonked the sides and chopped a great load of the bottom!

 

What do you think?

 

 

Well, this bottom bit I hacked off was nice fabric, far to good to just throw away, so I stashed it for a rainy day!

AND.... the rainy day arrived (well lots of them actually if you've been in the UK for the summer!).  I took the left over blind fabric from my fabric stash and cut a suitably sized piece, some interesting buttons from my button stash and a range of green floss from my floss stash.

I found an old hoop used for cross stitching.  I found some felt.  I used the inside ring of the hoop as a template on the felt a marked around the inside of the ring onto the felt and cut out the circle.  I put this to one side for later.

I laid out my buttons roughly where I wanted them on my blind fabric, shifted them a bit, swapped a few round and when satisfied with the look used yellow floss to sew the buttons on so that they all had the same centres .  I used my various green colours to make back stitched stems.  I swapped around the colours so no two the same colour were together and then sewed little chain stitches for random leaves.

Once finished I turned to the back and pushed the rim of fabric at the back over the inside rind of the hoop, laid the felt on top and slip stitched the felt to the edge of the fabric.

I found some lovely red gingham ribbon....yes, in my ribbon stash.  I made a loop over the tightening mechanism on the hoop.  Separately I used another length of ribbon and tied it around the loop and made a bow to finish it off all pretty and kitsch!

So wanna see my finished article?  Of course you do!

I am so extremely, dizzily, Over-The-Moon pleased with this!  Ready......?

OK, Ta-DAAHH!......

I hope you like it.  It now takes pride of place in my lounge.....not in a flashy, showy place, but it is there (one of only 2 things hanging in the lounge at the moment!).

If you can sew, you can do this.  It might be, like me, a stash busting project that won't cost you a penny, just some time gathering up stuff.  If this isn't recycling or upcycling....I don't know what is!

I'm linking up to the PinAddicts Challenge for October, why not hop on over there and see what other wonders have been created....or enter something yourself.  If not this month then look on your Pinterest boards, pop it in your diary and join us next month for some creative crafting, blogging, swapping, admiring, commenting and general fun!

Thanks so much for dropping by, I've really enjoyed your company.  Please don't leave without at least saying goodbye in the comments!  Thanks xx

Nora 

Holiday Hexies.....another project!

This was a project I took on holiday with me.

It started with inspiration from a Ballet Friend who made a Hex Bag for her Ballet garb.  When she arrived at class with it, I fell in love and knew that I wanted to hand piece some hex-i-love!

I haven't hand pieced hexies since I was about 8 and my Nanny unearthed a REALLY old book (you know the sort, wonderfully musty smelling, small font with ink drawings (yes, printed before the dawn of photos in books!))

She found me some fabric from household and dress-making projects and reached into the sideboard for her sewing tin, round, yellow and red roses on a black background with a gold lid......always full of elastic, poppers, a selection of needles, buttons and 'Sylko' cotton on wooden bobbins (that when she'd used the cotton I threaded onto a shoelace as a baby and my Granddad made into French Knitting dollies as I grew up!)

We gathered some used envelopes (re-used for writing notes and shopping lists on) and cut hexagons.

She hex-ed along with me and I made a tiny  (7 hexagons each side) pincushion.......... ah......memories!

Thank you Nanny for all the craft seeds you planted in our wonderful years together....x

My Ballet Friend kindly photocopied her instructions and gave me a stash of ready cut hexagons, plus two with fabric tacked on and ready to go!

I went home inspired and immediately got out the fabric scraps, they included pieces of offcuts left after making my old school summer dresses, a couple of dresses I made Tiddly Toes, our Christmas tree skirt, Advent calendar, Teenage Daughters 'LOVE' cushion, 'Charm'ing-birdie, Mini Quilts, quilted cushion cover and a whole lot more .

Not wanting to ruin my friends templates I cut more hexagons and snipped a diamond from the centre of each one...

 

through this whole you pin your paper to your fabric, like this......

 

 

....and tack the fabric over the paper BUT....don't sew the paper!

 

 

...this means that when you've finished sewing you can remove the papers without having to unpick all the tacking....so much faster!

 

I laid out my hexies into a pleasing pattern and took a photo of them so that I could remember how they were placed......

 

 

.....good job really as Tiddly Toes 'tidied up' for me and they ended up looking like this.........

 

 

Before we went away I put together a few hexies.....and my goodness it was addictive!  I had to stop myself so that I didn't get too far ahead and have no project left to take!

On holiday, I sat in bed most evenings and did a spot of sewing whilst watching the Olympics.

Sadly we had a couple of rainy days, but with the Blessing of a games room, the children were happy to play there and I was able to sit and watch (and sometimes join in) and get a little sewing done too.

I basically followed Ballet Friends instructions which I found were in Cath Kidstons 'SEW', which had been given to my daughter for her birthday......

...... but instead of making a bag with handles (the knitting bag), I re-jigged my hexies into a tube (by joining the 2 sides) and interwove the hexies along the base so that it had my lovely hexies as whole as possible (as opposed to just machine sewing a straight base and sides).

It did mean I was left with finding a solution to hexagon corners.....but I did this......

 

 

and it worked!

I got this all finished whilst on holiday and had to put it to one side ready for the lining and drawstring bit on the sewing machine at home.


I found a half made skirt that I no longer, liked or wanted (you can see why, take a look at the colour!!)  I used half of it to make the lining.

I cut it to size by laying the outer bag on the top of the fabric and cutting 1cm bigger on 3 sides and about 9cm bigger on the top edge (sufficient to give me a 'collar' on the top of my bag.....you'll see why later) plus seam allowance.

I sewed the sides and base of my lining and slipped the patchwork outer into the inner that now resembles a tube and sewed the 2 together like this............

 

I then turned it right way round, it gave me a 'collar' of lining material about 4 cm above the patchwork......

....... onto this I sewed 2 lines of stitching around 1cm from the very top and 1 cm above the patchwork, I double stitched near to one seam so that when I opened the side seam with my seam ripper that it didn't unravel the whole side seam.

Into this gap I fed some cotton herringbone webbing and leading it with a safety pin threaded it round the channel.....

 Before tying a knot I raided Tiddly Toes bead box and threaded on a large red bead....done!

 

So stupidly proud of this.

It reminds me of my Nanny, my holiday, friendships made through shared interests, the peace and beauty of Ballet....it just makes me smile every time I look at it.

Here it is....

OK, TA-dah....................

 

I shall enjoy using this every week for my Ballet class.

 

I'm off for a little jaunt this weekend....only about 20 minutes down the road....BUT, a weekend in Flossie-van is to be treasured!  The weather looks like it's going to be good and I can take a little project to work on!

 

Hope you have a fabulous weekend,

Nora

xx