Tag : upcycling
Tag : upcycling
When it comes to fabrics – I am certainly a bit of a magpie! Particularly if vintage – so they have a bit of history behind them. Or an unusual print or pattern. Or colour, or weave… Who am I kidding – any fabrics that might have a use! I often buy them if I like them, to keep ‘just in case’… (Otherwise known as a classic craft hoarder – much to The Husband’s dismay!)
This time, with a specific project in mind – I was on the look out for some ‘Rose’ fabric – to craft up a present for one of our lovely friend’s little girl’s 1st birthday present. I had kept a sneaky eye out on eBay for anything coming up, and hunted in my normal ‘go-to’ fabric haunts – and I was tempted to go for something such as the Cath Kidston Antique Rose design until, I suddenly, unexpectedly stumbled upon some beautiful vintage roses pillow cases in Brackley Antiques Cellar. Bingo!
I had planned to make a cushion – which may sound a strange first birthday gift – however the bright floral colours, and an idea for potential ribbon details to play with, I am hoping it will be an item loved for years to come in her nursery/future bedroom!
I was already intending to make a simple ‘fold over’ style cushion cover (where the back overlaps) – and my first thought with my new found treasure – was to simply just cut away all the seams of the pillowcase, and then use the fabric as per normal. However, when I started to look at and measure the cases, I realised size wise – it was near as perfect for the cushion inner I had in mind. Wouldn’t it be silly to rip out perfectly already achieved craftmanship, just to redo them all over again?? So, with that in mind – after washing and ironing – I decided to embrace the pillow case as part of the design! Here is how I achieved the final look…
Et Voila!
Have you ever upcycled a pillow case into a cushion cover? I would love to see!
Enjoy x
Categories: Birthday, General Craft, House & Home, The Crafty Lass does...
Babies grow REALLY fast. Everyone tells you – “enjoy it, they won’t be like that for long…”
I heard what people were saying when I first heard this… but I am not sure I really took on board just HOW super mind bogglingly fast time actually disappears… and that some days I think our little one grows before our very eyes. One minute he is wearing that cute little star print vest I love, the next – well, not. I once even thought I had shrunk everything in a wash load – but no no, he really had grown that quickly! Almost overnight…
When he was born, and I had taken approximately 200 first outfits to the hospital in various sizes from very small to very very large ‘just in case’ (we looked pretty much like we were moving house when arriving at the maternity ward, or perhaps maybe a long holiday with 3 cases!!) … he STILL didn’t fit in to any of them. Given the size of my hippopotamus sized bump I was certainly surprised…! Anyway, one of the first jobs for new Daddy was to go out and buy more clothes – turns out we needed very very very small!
Staring at this little bundle of cuteness, who we were suddenly in charge of – and now enclosed in a tiny little babygro on Day 1 – I couldn’t imagine him fitting in to one of the actual ‘going home outfits’ that I’d meticulously and totally unnecessarily planned – let alone all the other what seemed almost ridiculously large items for future months we had at home.
Now, at only (only!) 9 months – he is out of all those wonderful first items – and marching into 9-12 months plus and onwards. So, what to do with all those leftover clothes??
Some of those clothes have memories engrained in them. Little laughter and magical moments woven into the fibre of their cloth. Forever to be captured on camera and shared into the Instagram #babyspam. The sleep suit on his first car journey home, on his first Christmas day, when he first smiled, and rolled over. The first time in a jumperoo, and at a baby sensory class. The special outfit at his first wedding – and the first time he met his grandparents. The list goes on… all those milestones that suddenly happen, you grab your camera and BAM – that’s what he was wearing when ‘that’ happened…
I can’t look at some of those beautiful little items without smiling, crying, remembering and rejoicing! If they are going to be made into something they need to be CUT UP… So they need to made into something that will be used, loved, cherished.
On this note, we are now starting to plan a 1st birthday party, which I cannot quite believe – but what would a party be without decorations? And in particular, BUNTING.
And so… I have spent this evening, going through the no longer used, but still very much loved, clothes – the cute little fabrics – selecting, remembering, and cutting triangles. The triangles won’t match, there will be colours, stripes, prints and patterns galore. It will be fun! And memorable. Personalised – a year in the life of our little man. I’m not going to lie, a few tears have been shed tonight – happy tears – but I repeat – how can he be growing so fast??!
This craft might take some time, there are plenty of triangles to be cut and sewn, and they won’t be perfect, this bunting will have poppers and seams galore… but what a project!! So enjoyable to plan and make… and so exciting to see the outcome.
I look forward to it being hung, resplendent at his first birthday party!
And if this clever (even if I do say myself) crafty idea – could get any better… my plan is to now do this as time goes on. I will add to it, every year, whenever a new celebration that of course requires bunting is needed – with the next batch of discarded wears so that by the time he is 18 it could no doubt be hung to the moon and back!
I will of course, as always, take photos when it is done and share on the socialstratosphere – here, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!
Right, I’m off to see what else he can sadly no longer wear, do some more remembering, and to cut triangles…
There are more memories to be made tomorrow, who knows what the day will bring. I hope he is wearing a nice printed outfit!!
Enjoy. x
Categories: Birthday, Business, Crafty Kids, General Craft, House & Home, The Crafty Lass does..., Workshops
So, the cot is built. The car seat has been bought (and fully test run in the car) and finally – the nursery is done! The jobs are being crossed off the list (or highlighted as complete on my spreadsheet – such a geek!)
This. Just. Got. Real.
I will be 37 weeks pregnant on Sunday – I cannot believe where time has gone! Part of me feels like I have been pregnant forever – another part of me feels like it was only 2 minutes ago I was able to see that line on the test and finally experience that sensation of, oh WOW – we are going to be parents…! Either way – 37 weeks and onwards is considered ‘term’, and I feel like I am now playing the waiting game… Every little twinge, every niggle – ‘is this it?’ ‘is this what it is like?’ (pretty sure I will know when it is!!!) I am ready… Well, I think I am ready. I am not sure you can ever be 100% prepared – but I am excited to know we will meet our little boy within the next 5 weeks (they don’t really let you go beyond 42 weeks)… Eeeeeek!
Being The Crafty Lass that I am, it was of course important to me to have a creative and crafty nursery. Pretty sure that our little one won’t know/care til a little bit older – but a happy mummy = happy baby, right?
I have had a Pinterest (secret!) board for the bubba for years now, way before a kiddiwink was even on the agenda – slowly adding to it whenever I saw something inspirational or creative for a new baby or their room, or any useful suggestions. So much so, with so much inspiration, when it came round to actually deciding on a ‘theme’ – it was a little harder than I thought. So many pinned and exciting ideas, only one room!
It really helped knowing we are having a little boy. I don’t want to specifically ‘gender stereotype’ but equally it steered us in a direction that felt more suited to our future son to be… Adventure!
However, I also think our theme could be tailored to a little girls room… as I could be quite a tom boy growing up when I wanted to be! And, once the main painting had been done, and various ‘boy’ items bought – I also convinced myself it could still be a girls room, should the unexpected happen…
Early on, no matter how many times I have heard it is a boy from the sonographers when in an ultrasound scan, there was always the – but, ‘what if you are wrong!!’ Pretty sure (again gender stereotyping…) I would have added in some bright pinks – but I would also have added in the phrase – somewhere hand painted on to the wall – “Leave her sleep, for when she wakes, she will move mountains”. Contingency plans right there…
We did however – have a recent very late scan, and there is no doubting really – that he is a lovely little boy – which allayed any ‘what ifs’!
The Theme – Adventure
So, an ‘adventure’ theme… Colours started out with mainly greys, with the additions of bright greens, yellow, turquoise, orange. There is an overall colour scheme that focuses around these, but – it is quite relaxed really – nothing HAS to match – just lots of fun and brightness!
Mainly, it focuses around a hand painted mountains scene wall mural! There are clouds – a handmade painted mobile, a ‘grass’ (basically a green and fluffy!) IKEA rug. Some beautiful BABY ‘bunting’ handmade by our lovely friend, Verena. Thank you! An upcycled bit of furniture, some homemade ‘tags’ for the baby clothes, a hand painted piece of artwork… and LOTS of other ‘necessary’ baby paraphernalia you collect along the way! There is a ‘globe’ for him to study when he is older and dream of the far away places he may visit. The Husband had a globe when he was little, that he also used to look at – and now, he is a ‘dab-hand’ at geography – you definitely want him in your pub quiz team for the geography round!
It isn’t the largest room, but really I suppose it doesn’t need to be at this stage. (It used to be the main The Crafty Lass office!!!) I really wanted the room to feel like a view point – a ‘scene’, somewhere both calming and inspiring – yet vibrant and exciting – and hopefully the colours, the eclectic mix of both bright and graphic, crafty and handmade, upcycled and new brings this all together.
The Mountains
Believe it or not, the mountains – I freehand painted straight on to the walls, I didn’t have a set ‘plan’! I had done a bit of ‘Pinteresting’ to gather some inspiration of other people’s mountain-esque nursery’s – but also looking at mountain and hills photography. I then personalised by just ‘freestyling’ how I thought it should be… Even to the point that the green hills were a later addition! And all the better for it I think – it would have been ‘too grey’ otherwise, if that’s such a thing! Grey appears to be my favourite colour – but perhaps a bit wrong to have many (say near to fifty) shades of grey (!) in a nursery… Most of the paint is ‘matt’, with the lighter grey a ‘silk’ finish to add depth and a bit of a sheen in the background. The largest mountain, we do now actually refer to as ‘Everest’ and I think it was important to try and get the right ‘balance’ of height, depth and perspective to the mountains and foreground hills.
The Mobile
I was determined to make my own mobile. There are so many beautiful ones out there, but I just wanted to personalise it, and work out how to hang it – and now to see it gently twisting and floating in the breeze above the cot, it makes me happy! (Picture the scene on ‘The Great British Bake Off’ where the camera shot pans out to see the contestant longingly staring at their creation… I think in other words (and don’t always say this word!) I am proud of it… it became a labour of love! Hand painting each piece – the clouds in just normal household emulsion in whites and greys, and I have added some glitter on top of some of them – clouds with a silver lining – to reflect in the light and glimmer in the glow of the newly bought ‘nightlight’ and the sunshine in the day. The yellow hoops, and the turquoise hot air balloons are basic acrylic that you can pick up from any art store. The hot air balloons, I have added on some buttons – reminiscent and a nod towards the film ‘UP‘. (If you haven’t seen it, you absolutely must!) Our wedding theme had little touches of this film, and it felt nice to try and incorporate this into the nursery somehow too.
The base MDF shapes started life as part Becky Seddon from The Craft Channel’s ‘Amongst The Clouds’ MDF shapes, part ’embroidery hoop’ for the top main support – and then the addition of some other larger clouds that were simply picked up from eBay.
Each piece is delicately tied on to the hoops using threads from my grandmother’s sewing basket – which is just so lovely to feel she is a part of this too – and using strong ‘girl guide learnt’ secure knots to try and make sure nothing can fall off!
Everything is then held together with some ribbons in grey and turquoise and supported by a mobile cot arm from Sigikid – a little birdie aloft watching over everything!
The Organisation…
I know for an absolute FACT this organisation won’t last. No matter how hard I try! Each pull out fabric box – has a label – one for blankets and bedding, one for toys, and one for all the different sized baby clothes we have either bought or been very lucky to have been given already. Ask me in 3 months when I am just shoving them into wherever they will fit! But for now, a tidy room, a tidy mind…
The MDF tags I again just picked up on eBay – and have started out by painted them in blackboard chalkpaint. I have then personalised each one with some wipeable chalk pens – so in the future, I can adjust accordingly to whatever will now be stored in the boxes (or ideally like to be!)
Adventure Is Out There!
This is the one phrase that I really do associate with the film ‘UP‘ and I wanted to try and paint a picture, or a quote that would sum this up.
The base for this – actually came out of our loft! The previous tenants had left an old bit of wardrobe up there, and instead of just tipping it like we planned – I set about turning it into a new piece of art:
The same as the organisation tags, I have started out with a base of chalkboard black paint, and then painted the quote with Uniball chalk paint marker pens.
The font and layout inspiration came from Momo Digital on Etsy – I cannot claim that as my own – but I did freehand draw this on to the board, and added my own personal touches of the arrows, flowers, leaves and stars.
Without wanting to sound too disney-fied – I hope it will inspire our little boy to know what a wonderful place the world can be, that he needs to go out there and grab adventure with both hands!
All in all, I am happy with the finished result. Obviously, I would like to point out I did generally consult The Husband on all colours/purchases/ideas… but sometimes, I just got on with it… However – when the mountains were complete, after two days of full painting – the best reaction I have had to date was himself – coming home from work, and excitedly but sadly saying “But, I want it to be MY room!” 🙂
It may not be to everyone’s taste – it is quite bold! Some of the ideas I pinned/researched were far more delicate – with silvers, whites and creams. Or lovely ranges of traditional baby blues. Who knows, I may tire of this in a while – but for now, I do really love it. It makes my heart sing, and it is my calming place that I sometimes – in the last few weeks, I just go in to and ‘sit’. Contemplating, dreaming, planning – just as I hope our little boy will do too.
Full Gallery
Categories: Crafty Kids, General Craft, House & Home, The Crafty Bump, The Crafty Lass does...
