A comfy nook for art, craft and seeking simplicity.
I bought a small hot water bottle in Poundland and keep meaning to make a cover for it. When I was trying to declutter in the bedroom it struck me that I could use the old PJs to make a hot water bottle cover. I get to hold onto some meomories but the old PJs become useful again!
This is only my second project on the overlocker and it came close to disaster!! I used the ribbon tags from inside the PJ bottoms to make the fastening and I used the leg to make the cover.
I made my papers using Craft Artist and colour matched to the Argyle logo.
I used a Lili of the Valley digi but recoloured the shirt with promarkers and did the background and football with distress inks.
This is the base when the card is opened up.
This is the back of the card.
I would like to enter the following challenges
It struck me as a bit silly to get rid of PJ bottoms only to go out and buy shorts new. I decided to try a refashion and it was the perfect opportunity to use my new overlocker!
I decided that my stripey cotton PJs could be shortened and would look fine if I overlocked the edges and didn’t hem. So here are the new cotton shorts….They look wonky in the photo as I didn’t lay them out very well!!
The originals had buttons on the inside with tabs so you could shorten the trousers to 3/4 length. I reused the buttons at the bottom of the side seam to give the shorts a more finished look! Here is a lovely close up to show my first go at overlocking with all the imperfections!!
I’m quite pleased to have something I can actually wear from this first attempt!!
I then made this skirt
Followed by a dress
As you can see I’m a fan of stretch fabrics because
1. I haven’t had to learn how to sew a zip yet!!
2. If my weight fluctuates slightly I can still wear things!
However, it has meant teaching myself stretch stitches and using a double needle!
I’m very lucky and have got an overlocker now as a present. I’m only just getting started with it and am doing some refashioning so that if I make mistakes it is not too costly (I make plenty of mistakes!!).
Thanks for reading!
I added pearls coloured to match with Promarkers.
The inside of the card…
I would like to enter the following challenges
and thought that topping the card with stiched bunting would be perfect. So here is my card
I blended distress ink around the edges of the card. I designed my paper using Craft Artist so virtually all of the elements are digital.
My image is a Lili of the Valley die cut but I added some extra clour and coloured the background.
It is difficult to see on this photo but the orange edges around the bunting are a satin stitch effect.
I decorated the inside of the card in matching clours but added the sun and buildings element.
I love gardening (although it’s not much fun trying to do it in the rain at the moment. I especially like when you’ve done some gardening and you can relax and enjoy a cup of tea out there!
I inked the edges of the card with distress ink. I created the background paper using Craft Artist.
I used a Lili of the Valley die cut and coloured the background and tree with Distress Inks. I used a LOTV sentiment.
In keeping with the theme I added twine and a mini metal trowel I found.
In the last couple of years I’ve been gradually cutting down the clothes I have. I have done lots of reading on capsule wardrobes including reading about project 333. This is the kind of challenge I find helpful. The aim is to create a capsule wardrobe of 33 items to use for 3 months.
This would be a bit too drastic for me at the moment but it has inspired me to do a similar challenge to help me identify key items in my wardrobe and to simplify it. I decided to do project 333 x 2! Last week I selected 33 items for a work wardrobe and 33 for a casual wardrobe!
This was quite fun and very helpful.
Stage 1
I checked out the predictions for Spring fashion colours and had a look round the shops to identify the trends over Easter. The Pantone web site is great for this and this image from the web site summarises their Spring colours.
Stage 2
I then decided which colours I would use in my capsule wardrobes. Since I have some basics in starfish I thought this would make a good neutral to base the wardrobe on. I tend to favour brights and have several items in caberet and cockatoo. I also have a couple of pieces with the orange, dark blue and green in.
Stage 3
I then thought about the type of clothes I wear most to work and what would be the most versatile in a capsule wardrobe. I tend to wear dresses the most and usually team them with a cardigan or jacket. I wear separates less option but do like wearing trousers on chilly days when I’m tired and sometimes I wear a skirt.
In terms of versatility I decided to focus on the following
Stage 4
Shopping my wardrobe. I took all my clothes out and put them on clothes rails I have (I took the opportunity to clean the wardrobe). I sorted them into clothes types. I then went through each clothes group and picked out clothes that matched the colour pallette and versatility rules I’d made. I then whittled them down to 33 and put them in my wardrobe.
Stage 5
Each time I wear clothes I turn the hanger round- this way every few months I can check if I have any clothes in my wardrobe I haven’t worn.
I’ve stored the rest of the clothes and if all goes well I will decrease their number a bit. However I am aiming to have 4 capsule wardrobes, one for each season and I want to create it from clothes I have or can make if possible.
On the Money Saving Expert forums I’ve found lots of help, support and wisdom as I worked on being debt free and am now working on whittling down the mortgage. However, as a Jellie my life is pretty wobbly and I quite often feel as if I’m going backwards!! The accountability of charting my progress really helps so I’m hoping that by blogging some of the ups and downs in my journey fellow bloggers will help to keep me on track!
It’s been a tough year and my old spending habits have crept back with too much being frittered away on non- essential items. I need to rebuild some basic habits that have fallen by the wayside
I made the Silent Night paper on craft artist. I went for shiny papers for the layers and also for the punched snowflakes. I blinged up the snowflakes and added snowflake gems as well. I stickled the edges of the die cut for some more sparkle!!
I’d like to enter the following challenges (thanks to everyone who runs challenges- they really help to keep the inspiration going!).
Platypus Creek Digitals – Bling It Up!
