Mr Sock Monkey makes an appearance

 Mr Sock Monkey was found just hanging around in my house recently. Mr Sock Monkey was created after the workshop at Rubbish Revamped. I am really getting behind the whole recycling and thrifting movement recently and am challenging myself to use what I already have around my house and be more environmentally aware about what I throw away.

Mr Sock Monkey represents recycling at its best and I don't think many would guess that he once was a pair of boring old socks!

Hope you love him as much as I do!

x

 SECOND PROJECT- SEWING ROOM WALL ART
I don't know if any of you bought the Moskys Groupon voucher recently but this is the design I chose a few months ago and the rolled up stickers have been sitting in my cupboard for months now.

Me and the other half exercised our DIY skills (or lack thereof) and painted a feature wall in my sewing room last week. I chose a shade of Dulux paint called 'Damson' which is a lovely berry shade. So this week it was time to apply the wall art! It was quite fiddly to do, and the stickers don't come with any instructions so I think the idea is to be as creative as possible in marking out your branch....the stickers are fully removable and make my room look pretty sweet.

Becoming a thrifty individual!

 It has been a few weeks since I last shared by recent makes with you all....but I am back! With lots of completed...yes completed projects to tell you about.

FIRST PROJECT- DOTTY ABOUT MEMORY BOARDS!
I have often seen memory boards like this around in the shops and have wanted to have a go at making my very own for a while now. Well I must have been feeling very spontaneous today because I decided today was the day I was going to get it DONE!
I turned up at my parents' house this morning armed with a piece of MDF, spotty fabric, and ribbon....my dad entertained my whim by providing a workshop complete with workbench, spray glue, staple gun and his joinery expertise! We actually had a great time making this so I am sure I will treasure it! They are great for holding photos, momentoes and notes that are hanging around my sewing room....and I may well use it as an inspiration board for projects I rip out of magazines and want to start in the near future.

I am planning to start selling my memory boards at local craft fairs so hopefully I will be seeing you guys soon!

Sock bunnies and new friends

Hi there. In my last post I mentioned how amazed I was at the whole host of new friends I had made through twitter...I would never have believed it but a few weeks after following some really cool crafters I met up with a couple of girls at Rubbish Revamped, Chorlton, Manchester, for a workshop! The lady who runs Rubbish Revamped, Danielle, is absolutely lovely and very passionate about recycling items you find lying about the house (socks especially!) into a gift or something you would want to treasure for many years to come.

Our group chose to make sock bunnies and junk mail jewellery. I must admit I did not think it would be possible to make a child's sock into a believable bunny but a cup full of rice and some snipping and stitching later and the result was pretty darn cute...

We then moved on to Junkmail Jewellery the idea behind which is to take scraps of paper from old magazines, wrapping paper, envelopes, and as Steph quite liked- even old maps, and roll them into beads. The beads are then varnished and threaded onto jewellery thread. I chose to go for a page of Stylist magazine which had shades of yellow running through it. I was really pleased with it and could see myself trying this craft again very soon! Let me know what you think or whether you have tried anything similar?

What an achievement! First pair of trousers...

Hello! Well I promised pictures of a completed project and hurrah- here they are...first pair of work trousers...DONE. They not only took a lot of willpower, determination and cotton but also 4 Saturday sewing workshops at Bambers in Eccles to finish them.

The end result I must admit to being proud of, but there is a cautionary tale to tell fellow seamstresses...ready to wear (ie size in the shops) is definitely not the same as the pattern sizing. I chose a size 10 as that is what I usually go for in the shops but alas, when I tried to pin fit them to myself they were way way too small! Que expert Celia at Bambers having a long hard think and coming up with the idea of creating a third panel from spare fabric for each leg! Ingenius I must say.

I also thought I should mention my recent discovery...that twitter is actually quite cool! Have been a member for a while but unfortunately got swept away by Facebook before I could realise how great twitter is. I am now well and truly fed up of facebook. I started following a few people with craft interests and all of a sudden I am tweeting away and meeting such lovely people...I have been invited to a craft workshop this weekend with Rubbish Revamped based in Manchester and can't wait to make sock bunnies with my new friends! Social networking does have some benefits after all...

Yo crafty people....

Happy Monday! Just sharing the love on a Monday...tough day at work but home to do some crafting. I got some lovely fabrics in the picture above- they are John Lewis fabrics which I found at my local haberdashery, I plan to make some aprons and use the lace and ribbon as the ties and neck strap. I was thinking they would be perfect presents! 

I am close to finishing my bombshell dress with Craftsy, I had to stop myself from buying the next course before finishing this one....not that I am a quitter but I am like a kid in a candy store....I see the patterns and projects and my eyes light up. I vow to finish the projects I have on at the moment before starting anything new....yeh right I hear you say. 

Thanks and hello to my new followers! Hope to get better at keeping you updated and share some tips and stories. 

Over and out. x