Organizing Life: Black Week (1)

Hey there, friends! Before I share with you what I'm up to… I would like to show you this amazing poster! I know the quality is a bit off, I just couldn't seem to find a link to a person to ask permission to use the original. It all started with my favourite local ribbon suppliers, Ebony & Ivory! I have ordered ribbons from their online shop a few times and I like to just go over to their website to peruse their latest products. They have such a beautiful website, so when I saw they were on Pinterest, I followed them immediately! That is where I found this image… it was uploaded by Mosquitopress and does not have a source or link. I just had to share it with you because I am a Pluviophile. I love rainy days, they comfort my soul! They calm me in the strangest way…I long for rain when it doesn't come around as often as it should. I know many people wouldn't agree, but to me rainy days are amazing! I work better, I sleep better, I think better… but the best thing about rainy days, is that David would let me know he's making pancakes (crepes, as you know it) for dinner! What's not to love?

Getting back to my title, I'm "trying" to sort out my life! We will be moving soon and I have a crazy amount to sort through and throw out before we do. As you well know, I get my fabrics from our local charity shops, thrift stores and many times friends and family will give me bags full of scraps which were going to become landfill. Usually, all the fabric attained, is washed and then sorted into colour families. Now, I have been working with which ever type of fabric comes my way, but lately I have felt the need to work solely with natural fabrics and fibres. My plan is to use up all my thrifted synthetics asap. in order for me start focusing on the naturals. The first colour family is black, so this week will be dedicated to all black supplies I have. To use up as much as I can, to donate what I can't and so forth. Hold thumbs I make it through, because as my fellow creatives know, this is a colossal task!

Let the Black Week begin!

First things first, the fabrics are sorted by type, the small pieces are going to become flowers and the pieces that are big enough might just become pretty wearables! I have ironed the pieces which needed ironing and planned projects for the larger pieces. Starting with the small pieces, I cut them into various squared sizes and made roses using this tutorial. This method of fabric rose making is the quickest, easiest one I've come across so far. Then I made other roses using a combination of my own developed method and this tutorial. I also tried this very cute tutorial.




These pretties will become the most beautiful accessories will be available forsale soon. I shudder to think that some people just throw these bags of fabric in the trash when clearly these fabric scraps have super potential! Do you see the rose(above) with the pop of mint in it and the one on its left? They were what looked like the hem of someones nighties, just look at how pretty they turned out. Next time you shorten a dress or night gown hem, consider what you could make with the offcuts before you chuck it in the bin. My favourite quote comes to mind, "one man's trash is another man's treasure" that is just so true!

Hope you all had an amazingly creative Monday!

xxx

Happy Monday Makings #16

Hey-hey! It's Monday! After a lovely weekend and Mother's Day spent with my parents… My Monday turned out not to be so happy. I really don't want to get into it now because when Dave came home he brought chocolate and we had a very nice evening. I made Nachos, we watched Grimm(quite an interesting series) and now I'm here, writing to you guys. I do feel better although, after having struggled with a very evil old lady neighbour and watching a lot of Grimm episodes… I have come to the conclusion that we might be dealing with a Hexen Beast, a witch. There is just no end to her meanness and she is harassing a lot of the other tenants in our complex as well. What a sad case, that someone would spend all of their time and energy to make other people's lives miserable. Like I said, I don't want to get into it and upset myself all over again. Let me rather show you what I did…  

Friends of ours' daughter through out some of her old clothes but before it goes to charity, she thought my mom and I might find some items useful. After all, I love reusing, remaking, and creating new things from old cast aways, so to speak. I try not to buy new, if there is anything I need I always try the secondhand and charity shops. This way you also end up giving back to your society. If we have anything we can't use anymore, it goes to the charity shops, completing a never-ending circle.  

I found a few items that will be very useful and this little yellow number is one of them.

-a very cute little tank, but with an out-dated hem line- 

-showing the lacy detail and the elasticated hem above- 

A Quick DIY

- I started by removing the hem.

-Then, measuring from the cut edge to where you want the top to sit(above or below the bellybutton), cut straight, even strands.

-Take the strands in two's and knotting them together.

-Again, tie the strands together two by two and that's that!

-Now I have a very lovely boho fringe tank. I know our Winter is upon us but I think I'll wear this tomorrow.

I hope you guys had a better day than I did.

xxx

Project a Day: #5 My Little Capelet

Another week at it's halfway mark! I sometimes feel like someone has accidentally sat on life's remote and now we're stuck on Fast-Forward mode. I hope you're all enjoying your week so far, mine hasn't been great but it's getting better. Oh yes, I almost forgot! Project #5! This one was inspired when I was digging my old scarves out of my storage crates. I found my very first Mohair and Merino wool scarf. My Gran had given me a baggy full of bits and pieces of Mohair and Merino wool. Off-cuts of her last knitting project. It was a merry mess of a tangle and it took ages to get it sorted. I knotted every last piece together to make up a few balls of continuous yarn. This was my very first experience working with natural fibers of hand spun wool. As I wasn't very experienced in crochet back when I was still studying, my little scarf turned out quite stiff. I only new one stitch, the double crochet stitch and my tension was terribly tight. So, I decided to frog it! And make something new, this Capelet.

 -This to me about a day to make, I had to change the pattern a bit because it was very small around the neck. It's still a little tight, but it's okay. The Mohair and Merino wool make this a warm little capelet. It will be perfect for Spring-

 

 -Above you can see my old scarf and the frogging process-

 -This is a very cute pattern, if you would like to try it for yourself, click here to find the pattern on Ravelry-

xxx

Happy Monday Makings #7

How time flies! Monday already!? So here's what I made today... using scraps of various types of fabric collected over a period of time. I have started to sort all my thrifted and "hand-me-down" fabric into colour stories. This colour story is rich and luxurious, it carries a bit of a Medieval era mystery. Don't you think? I love how it turned out... I found a new fabric flower pattern here.

-love, rouge, velvet-

Happy Monday Makings #6

Happy Monday, Friends! It is such a lovely day here in Hermanus, it seems that winter came early this year. There's an chill in the breeze, the sun is dimmed yet hot and the shadows are so very long. This coming weekend I'm taking part in a local market, hosted in the Sandbaai Hall here in Hermanus. Their theme is Recycle, Reuse, Re- claim and so on... As most of my products are already made of fabrics sourced from local charity shops, I was asked to exhibit at this market. So now I'm working on some new ranges, experimenting with new floral patterns, for winter.

 -this pretty was inspired by the little navy piece above, I found it in a bag filled with scraps and offcuts, it had already been sewn. As I went through the rest of the bag I found this lovely Teal hem offcut and thought it the perfect opportunity to try out this folded rose pattern with leaves-

-and there you have it-

xxx

  

Happy Monday Makings #5

Just thought I'd try my hand at cross stitch and enter a competition at the same time. Most of you (South African friends) have probably seen the latest Visi magazine I love DIY cover competition. Well I decided to enter at the last minute, I chose a rose pattern. I've recently developed a very strong craving for all things rose-related so it just made sense. I used only left over scrap- and reclaimed yarn for this project. As most of my projects are done with reclaimed material, I thought to keep in line with the reduce/re-use/re-cycle theme.

-so here's to the love of DIY-

xxx

Happy Monday Makings #3

Okay.... I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. Can you believe we're standing at the end of 2012?! With only 15 days 'till Christmas, 19 days 'till we move to our new home and 21 days 'till 2013! Not to mention all the December birthdays in between... So on this Monday, the 10th of December, a cold and windy overcast day, I decided to share with you my new Pink Roses. These are painstakingly made by cutting hundreds of little pieces of fabric, melting each and every little piece and then assembling them into these lovelies. They are then sewn together by hand with beaded details to make them oh so pretty. Most of the fabric I use is sourced from local thrift- and charity stores, some of my fabric is donated by my lovely readers and now and then my fashion designer aunt would send me her off-cuts. I see potential in everything, so this heap of off-cuts just became a lovely garden of pink roses.

-amazing how this bunch of pink can brighten up one's day-

xxx

Happy Monday Makings #2

Happy Monday friends! What a crazy-crazy year this has been...and even crazier past week! Through all the madness and having my posts heaping up like, I don't know what... I just had to share this quick post with you guys. I made this with the scraps I had left over from making my first ever crochet jacket (I will post this as soon as I've worked in all the ends:)) I hate wasting anything! I make full use of everything I work with... and I almost never throw anything away. I've been told that I'm a hoarder, but then you can't be an artist and not collect things... Just imagine this pretty necklace would've been in the bin had I not been a collector of "trash".   

-this was so easy to make-
-it took a bit long, though, the french knitting part-

-the pictures are pretty self explanatory, don't you think?-

-love my French knitting doll, an old school friend gave her to me-

-Thank you Katinka, I'm taking good care of her-

  -hope you like it and that you had a nice Monday-

xxx

It's my turn to try...

This awesome diy has been making it's rounds on the internet the past few months, especially on Pinterest. So now, at last, it was my turn to try it out! And it worked! I am in love with my new re-vamped scalloped denim shorts! love, love, love, LOVE, love<3  

-click on image for original source-

...and here is mine, ta-dah!

As easy as 1, 2, 3 :) This diy was so quick and so easy, I just want to start cutting up all my jeans

and trousers... 

xxx

to make a sock cat:)

There was this pair of toe-socks in my sock drawer which I really loved but all the toes had holes in them. the rest of the pair of socks were in perfect condition. So I thought to myself, how could I possibly throw these out? I then remembered the cute sock animals I had recently seen on Etsy and this was how my version turned out:)

1. Shave off any fluff with a disposable razor. Plan, cut and sew.
2. Hand stitch and embroider on the face, ears and tummy. Sew on buttons for eyes. Stuff with any available stuffing, place a sand bag in the bottom and stitch the sock up.
3. Tie a string with a bell around your kitty's neck and find him a nice spot in the house.

This kitty is called Mao and he was my mom's Christmas present... She loves cats!

xxx

making new stock...yay!

Here's a little taste of some of the lovelies that I'm busy making for Deja Vu and The Village Market at the Hemel&Aarde Village Centre.

These lovely brooches were inspired by the French theme at the Hemel&Aarde Village Market. I was going to make them in shade of blue with Toile de Jouy printed fabric. So when I set out to source my materials, I couldn't find any French-themed fabric.  I then decided to go through my stash of vintage fabrics and came across a piece of beautiful vintage sheeting that my Gran had given me a few years ago. This beautifully soft 100% cotton with it's dainty felt-flower design became the focal point of my new range of brooches... I call, Vintage Country Charm.

I will post some more photo's of the finished brooches soon.

xxx 

Freezing Tuesday Attire:)

This morning I awoke with the rain pouring outside my window and I thought to myself, "Awesome! Now I can where the pure woolen skirt I thrifted two weeks ago!" What a beautiful skirt, it's woven in a tweed pattern and it is warm and oh so soft! So I dug in my cupboard and put some old time favourites together to make up this cozy outfit...

It was so nice and snug:)

• Trench coat: a gift from my mother-in-law
• Fair isle mohair over coat: knitted by my gran for my mom
• Woolen skirt: Hospice shop

xxx

Looky what I did:)

I re-vamped and old shelf I found in my Grandfather's garage a few years back. And now it's pretty!!!

 

Love-Love-Love

swinging sixties

I found these handmade pillow cases at our local H.O.S.P.I.C.E. shop and thought they would make beautiful scatter cushions...

 So this is 'retro' cushy#1 finished

Fresh, cool colours...and I just happened to have matching fabric for these yo-yo embellishments. 

:)

- a heart with heart -

During 2010 I was continually inspired by so many bloggers... I have always had a thing for second hand shops and saving the planet and just trying to do my part. Always seeing the potential handbag where you might see a tea cozy. A crochet rug where you see plastic bags, a dress where you might see a bunch of old stinky ties... Well, after stumbling upon Heidi&Seek last year, Hayley(thinker maker) made me realize that I was well on the right track and that I could be even more environmentally conscious in my creating. So then I started thinking not only of what type of materials I use but also where it came from. That's when I started going to charity shops, not for my usual "item-to-be-transformed" but for items which fabric could used to make something totally new. My Gran turned 80 last year October and had received a beautiful American-themed-quilt from my uncle the month before...     

So I went to our local HOSPICE with the picture painted in my mind's eye and I found some old (all cotton) stuff :)

1. I made my pattern from old newspaper and cut The front basis and the buttoned back out of the red blouse.
2. Here I did the same, making smaller heart patterns and cutting one out of each of the other shirts, pinning them in place, I went to my sewing machine to applique one layer on top of the other.
3. For the finishing touch, I made a crochet flower from postal string, worked it off. I cut a small circle from the off-cuts of the red blouse, placed it inside the flower, positioned it on my front piece and sewed it on with a button. Some more buttons were sewn on just because I love buttons.
4. Using crochet thread, I out-lined some of the heart layers with zig-zag and cross-stitch embroidery stitches. Pinning my front and back panels together, facing each other, I sewed them together with my machine. I then used my buttoned back to turn inside out. 

 ...And there you have a pretty, cozy, American themed heart cushy...

 ... these buttons used to unbutton a shirt not long ago.

 A cushy like this one you just wanna squeeze!

Happy 80th Birthday, Ouma Oriel!

(standing next to my Gran, is my cousin Christa, from Honduras)

What a memorable day<3

A PRETTY CUSHION FOR BABY ALANDRA

My Cousin, Christa, recently visited from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with her baby Alandra. I had seen some pictures of Alandra's room on Facebook and decided to make little Alandra a cushion in the colours of her room.

It was quite fun making this little scatter cushion and the idea of the appliqued buntings just came to me after working on it till well after midnight... This is an ALL GREEN gift. All the materials used to make this beautiful personalized gift were acquired from Charity shops. The green backing used to be the front of a man's button-shirt.

 

I must say, I was surprised at how pretty this one came out:) 

Plastic milk bottle mobile...

In one issue of the Ideas magazine(http://www.idees.co.za/), there was an article on recycling plastic milk bottles. They gave four templates which could be cut out of the bottles, hung with string from a smooth organic stick and functions as a room divider. So this got my creative juices flowing...

 To make your own recycled plastic heart mobile you will need:  

white plastic milk bottles, a permanent marker, a strong-sharp-needle, a thimble, a keyring, a pair of scissors, thread, string, beads and buttons in the colour of your choice.

 *With your marker, draw out the shape onto the plastic bottle(you can use any other template if you wish). 

*To make it easier to cut out the heart, I have cut the bottom of the bottle off first.

 Cut as many shapes as you want...

*Measure out the length of sting you want to use, neatly knot it around your keyring 

*From the other side of your string, thread a bead and make a knot for it to sit on, leave a space and make a knot where your shape will be placed(repeat this for the amount of beads and shapes you want on your mobile. 

*Now, using your needle and thimble, make holes in your shapes keeping an even distance between holes. Remember to make holes for your buttons as well.

 *Thread your needle with your favourite colour, make a small knot at the end and start threading through the holes you have made. 

*With the same thread, sew the heart onto your string(above the knot) through the button.

...and there you have a fresh, GREEN, present to give to someone special...or you could just keep it for yourself, hehehe!

Blue Bottle Throw

When I first heard my parents were moving to the coast, my thoughts went to the bag of old, used blue wool I had collected through the years. I started making a house warming gift with the sea theme in mind... using three different square patterns! 

This gift took quite some time to finish as I only worked on it at night and my wool kept disappearing! After my stash was finished, I had to go out to buy more wool about 4 times...

It was worth it, though! Just look at it, sitting pretty. This is the biggest piece of crochet I have ever made! It really reminds me of Blue bottles with their brilliant blue tentacles.

Chunky Granny Blanky:)

Upon visiting my Gran(on my Father's side), I was given a bag full of wool that she didn't have use for anymore. I never say no to any hand-me-downs! So when she asked me what I was doing to do with the wool, my brain started spinning. I then came across a huge crochet hook at a little shop called Allerlei, in Kleinmond where my grand parents stay. Needless to say... I bought it immediately! I went back to my Gran's and asked for a crochet pattern book, I found this Granny Square pattern and......take off!

I just couldn't stop!

I crochet till the early hours of the morning, it's really addictive!  

So about two and a half weeks later(I only worked on this at night) I finally had a Chunky Granny Blanky:)

A March of many birthdays...

Hello again... March was quite a crazy month. Besides all of the crazy things that filled the month of March, there were Birthdays galore! So where do I start, in all there were nine birthday's and one baby shower. Naturally I handmade all the presents, but having had so much going on in March already, I had limited time and materials... Then one night at about midnight, I got some great ideas! For the funky yet sophisticated, I decided to crochet and make flower brooches( as I learned how to crochet flowers recently). I like to know a persons favourite colour and style, before I make them their gift. To me a gift is only worth giving if the person you're giving it to freaks out when they open their little package! And off course, it's always made with love! What I love most about giving gifts, is watching the reaction of the person receiving the gift!

Coming back to the crochet flowers, these have been made with scraps of wool(my Granny Oriel gives me her left over woolen scraps), Scraps of material(left over from my sewing projects), buttons from second hand shops and safety pins from our local R5,00-shop. The cards I put the brooches on, are old pamphlets I designed for an event I participated in.

Now, for the teenagers I made button badges from the same pamphlets as mentioned above. I painted some doodles in inc, cut them out and voila!

Oh, then I saw a piece of material that I had silkscreen printed as an experiment and thought it would make the perfect badge for the boys! I can't remember when last I had so much Fun! I was busy till about three in the morning... it paid off because they all went nuts about their prezies!