Cushion - A Christmas Tree Bauble

I'm really happy with this make. A Christmassy item that is different, reusing what someone else had discarded. It is a cushion made to look like a Christmas tree bauble.

I was cruising Bloglovin before Christmas and an interesting blog post came up - Studio DIY. She had made cushions to look like Christmas tree baubles. Some of it was sewn, however to simplify it the entire top piece was glued. I knew that I could sew it all and so collected old cushions from the local dump shop to use as stuffing and ransacked my own supplies for material.

However I wanted plush comfort and so in the end purchased some furnishing velvet from the Fabric of Society and obtained the shinny furnishing fabric, for the top, from Fabric Vision. For $32 I have enough material to make two or three of these. A lot of trial and error as for some reason my seams weren't equal, I think I took more seam in the zip. My guessing for sewing the top section in worked well however, the circle given for the top did not match and was too small, so there was some fiddling.

Very excited as it was my first ever invisible zip and I think it was very successful. No more zips showing up unless I want them to be a feature. Woo Hoo. I've shown you the rather ugly bottom but when it's on a sofa you will not see that.

This Christmas present was sewn after Christmas but that's OK as I have yet to see my niece to have a present time. So all wrapped in a brown paper bag that my grocery shopping comes it... Another bit of reusing. I'm going to adjust and try the pattern again as I think they look better in a group and are a bit of fun to make the house look Christmassy.

Upcycled jersey to dog bed

Both my son and I had been noticing Pins and articles on using old jersey's or jeans to make dog beds. I was in the local Charity Shop and a gorgeous alpaca jersey, in lovely condition, was just $2. with no one to give it to I also bought two old pillow inners for 50 cents each. Pepper has grown out of her temporary puppy bed, no longer needs to be in plastic for those puppy mistakes, so I went home to make her a new bed.

In her too small bed

Two pillow, jersey and Pepper

Before I started she was already lying all over the jersey and playing with the pillows. No sewing machine required just a needle and some upholstery thread. I stuffed a pillow in with no alteration, to the body of the jersey, and stitched the end closed. I undid the other pillow (or rather I came into the lounge to find Pepper doing it for me) and used it to stuff the arms and neck. Sew the holes closed and a few stitches to hold it all together. Completed in front of the TV that night.

As soon as I put the finished item on the floor she was in it. A very happy dog.
Linking to these places.

Finished - recycling my upcycle

A couple of years ago I made this seat from an old bed end and head. At the time the whole family helped strip off the stain and then I polyurethane it. I was never that thrilled with it though as it was just boring pine and I felt it made it look like a park bench that anyone could make and not celebrate the upcycling and recycling ethos. Anyway, after being in the garage for about 8 weeks and slowly doing it bit by bit, here it is. Chalk paint and waxed. 

The picture on the left is how it started life after my original recycle. The update now has it matching the headboard I recently redid. 

To finish the post here is me having climbed without trouble for the first time in months and months. Very happy about that.

Linking to various places here.

Upcycled blanket and buttons

Well I am really pleased with this. It's come out better than I planned. I used an old blanket from an Op Shop sold as a dog blanket and my husband's Nana's buttons. Total cost $12

On the bed with my hospital quilt. The grey goes fantastically together. 

Finished ready to go on the bed.

 This is the before shot.

Painting and waxing. Using Annie Sloan chalk paint in half Paris Grey and half Antique white

I obtained a MDF cover sheet for $2 from Mitre 10 Mega in Rangiora. There was enough good wood to cut out the size I needed. Put wood glue all over it.

I had a mattress topper previous bought at the Salvation Army Op Shop for $5 sitting waiting patiently as I planned a long time ago what I was going to do. It takes a while to get all the bits you need especially when I don't want to pay any kind of money for it. Glue on all the bumps around the edges.

Once both pieces had the glue getting tacky then it was time to put it all together.

Enter my Nana Schulz button box. Choosing buttons to feature on the headboard. Covered the headboard in the (now rather smart) blanket. This is the first time I have done taping etc but I wanted this to last and do it properly.

Putting the buttons on was a dog of a job. I have a 15cm doll needle and I used that with an anchoring button on the back of each of these. The hole through the MDF had to be small though, goodness this took longer than anything else.

The whole project was done over about 2 months as I have just not been able to get motivated, stay on top of my tiredness etc. I am so thrilled with it though and am enjoying the change it makes.

Linking to these places. and crazy mum quilts.

Up-cycled blanket into boots

In the last week we had family to stay, which is lovely, but the circumstances were heart rending. Our gorgeous cousin had passed away doing what he loved. Another cousin Kerryn and her family stayed with us for some of the time. They came from Brisbane to the coldest wettest week we had had all summer. You can imagine that it was a shock to have 17 degree C days when you have come from days in their 40's. Poor Kerryn's feet were cold. She was using a wheat pack on them. So I whipped out the left over woollen blankets I dyed, got her to select her colour. Found some left over minky material for the inside, some bits of leather for the soles and did some sewing from one of my favourite Twig and Tale patterns.

I was really pleased with being able to keep the stitched edge of the blanket as the top of the boot but made a bit of an error when doing the soles. I put the inside suede of the leather on the outside. That was a bit to do with brain fade over this time. I offered to unpick but Kerryn thought the suede would slip less than the smooth leather, so we left it as is.

Linking to these pages and Twig and Tale, whose pattern this is.  

Poncho - Upcycled from woolen blanket

When I dyed all the woolen blankets I specifically did some for my niece. I had talked to her about whether she would wear a poncho or not. She said she would but not pink or purple. Preferably something dark. So I dyed four pieces in brown.

I was going to just turn the neck over so it had a pointed end to look like a kerchief. But lots of people are wearing funnel necks at the moment and so I used the trimmings to make a fully lined funnel neck. Dunedin is cold so she can use it almost like a hood too. All seams are stitched flat down but the bottom is just blanket stitched in dark brown wool.

I am loving wearing it!! It is snowing today, though keeps melting in between the snow showers. Serious cold and this makes you toasty warm.

Linking to these places and crazy mum quilts.

Boots, boots and more boots.

Here is my gorgeous line up of boot slippers. Made from woolen blankets, Dyed during a day at Stash Palace (an amazing place run by Jane Van Kuelen). 

Left to right: Aaron's boots - the first pair I made on a sewing day with my sister, Eli's boots - the last pair made as he has slippers already, My boots - well this is the second I made for myself (Aaron's pair were made for me but were just too big), Jakob's boots - I love that they still have the edge of the blanket and the blanket label. 

Here we are all modelling our boots (cant get that teenager to model his). Eli as usual tries his magazine model look, Aaron hard at work, Me relaxing by the fire. I have to say it is a productive fire - warming my toes, sprouting the mung bean and lentils as well as rising the bread.

I love that I managed to leave the blanket label on and the edging of the blanket. All these boots have leather soles as I got a bag of leather from the dump shop for $2 - stoked! The inside of Jakob and my boots have scraps from our dressing gowns, Eli wanted his (now too small) Star Wars PJ's on the inside of his and Aaron has a material that my mother had in her stash and gave to me years ago.

This is the scene of our lounge yesterday. We all hung around the fire in the early evening. Eli folding washing, Jakob was cooking dinner, Aaron reading / snoozing, Morris photo bombing as usual and I was sandwiching a quilt together for Hope Homes International.

Linking to these places and Crazy Mum Quilts.

An new hall seat from upcycled chairs

Last night I finished this. Completely upcycled hall chair. Hammered, nailed, glued, painted and upholstered by me. I asked Aaron to come and see the result and he actually liked it. He thought it was going to end up being a tacky piece of ick that he would have to destroy somehow.

Eli determined to be able to sleep on it

9.20pm when I finished and it was put in the Hall 

Eli's comment was "A seat is only good if you can sleep on it. So he decided to try that and ended up with his foot stuck through one of the slats and had to have parental assistance to extricate himself!

I am particularly pleased with the material and paint match. From my favourite store - Femme de Brocante - I purchased the Annie Sloan chalk paint (paris grey with a 1/3 paris grey and 2/3 old white mix on the middle slats) and the fabric for the cushion. There was a much "safer" fabric choice of grey with white dots. But after a bit of debate I decided this fabric would at least give it some individuality. 

reupholstering - really pleased with my neat finish.

Some of my tools at this stage. Cutting the foam for the seat was not easy.

You win some and you loose some. I really wanted to get this right so after painting and waxing the chairs I used the previous seat tops to template on cardboard and then put in situ to set the correct space for the joining blocks. If I had looked closer I would have realised that seats were straight so all that time spent shaping has left a rounded seat that slightly protrudes. Blast! 

Painted and ready to create seat base and topper - see the joining blocks in the middle.

So this hall seat started as two broken $5 chairs from the dump shop. I had to construct and glue a new strut in and then do various other gluing and filling as well as a bit of pattern making to work out how to get them to hold together the best. I found using power tools really relaxing as my concentration meant a clear mind at the end, not muddled by other things.

Linking to these places and Crazy Mum Quilts

An upcycle finish

For a while now I have been upcycling shirts into other clothing. The one I consistently do is to make business shirts into nighties. I choose linen and cotton so they are lovely to wear. This is three shirts into one nightie.

I actually had it cut out before I went into hospital last time, but did not get it made. My other ones are wearing thin so I had to hop to it.

I started with these three shirts

It has been a good time to sew as the summer weather has been like winter. Colleen and I at the river on a day which was meant to be 26 degrees C but, like all other days, ended up cold and windy.

Linking to Crazy mum quilts and these links as well as being my first 2017 FAL.