Day 350 - Repurpose an old table to new foot stool

I inherited 2 of old nesting tables that have been sitting in the shed for a couple of years.  As of today, one is now a cute foot stool.

Here's what I did.

Used a square piece of cardboard to draw patchwork squares on fabric scraps and cut out squares of fabric.

Lay them out the way I thought they looked nice.

Sew them into three strips and then sew the three strips together to make one panel.

Old table.

Found this old sheepskin seat cover for padding on the top of the table. If I was more organised I would have used wadding or foam, but this is what I found today in my house.

Stretch the fabric over the table, with the sheepskin underneath, and hammer in some tacks to secure it.

Day 339 - Vintage men's shirt + vintage men's tie = girly shirt

Today I was interested in taking two men's items and turning them into something quite feminine. I really enjoyed this refashion a lot, and am happy with the result.

So I started off with this funky vintage op shop tie.

And this vintage shirt my husband bought about 10 years ago for a fancy dress party that was always a bit too small. I didn't let him throw it out because I thought the fabric was awesome. It had these slits at the back.

Ready to go!

First the sleeves got chopped off. Then the top of the shirt and a couple of inches below the collar.

I overlocked the underarm edges and the top edges, then made a folded over the underarms about half a cm to finish them off. Then I made a casing in the top front and back and inserted the tie. This tie was a 70's fat tie so I ended up cutting the fat end off - it was a bit too much but I'm hoping to use it for another project.

I sewed up the slits at the back, crossing over the fabric a little so that I ended up with a more feminine shape.

Once the tie was in I added a large button where I joined the tie ends. Now it's very girly!

Day 332 - Paper flowers - little golden books and maps

These are some flowers for my valentine. Valentines day my style.

Paper flowers from little golden book pages, with sticks from my backyard as stems. These are in a wine bottle with a tea towel wrapped around it. I love the pretty colours and I hope Mr Crafty does too. x

Then I made a map paper flower using a cheese box as the base to glue on to and just cutting out lots of petal shapes and layering them up. I used a scrap of doily for the centre, which I painted with a glue paint mixture, and dressed up a pesto jar with a baby jumper sleeve for the vase. (The jumper had holes in the wool :-( )

Happy Valentines Day everyone. xxxxxx

Day 331 - Map of hearts

Valentines day is almost upon, and although I'm not hugely into it, I thought I would do something small and silly.

I found this guide to winning scrabble at the op shop the other day in the half price shelf, for $1.50. Mr Crafty and I used to play scrabble a bit, but he could never beat me, so it ended up becoming a bit of a thing. Most of the time these days we are too tired to do much at night but it would be fun to play some games together again, and I thought he might get a bit of a giggle from the book.

I decided to wrap it using some of an old map (used last week too).

I made some hearts to go on top. It was really easy.

First I cut strips about 1cm wide and folded them in half. Mine were about 15cm long.

Then I used a little bit of tape to stick together the two ends, then poked the creased bit at the top downwards to make a heart shape as shown below. I put a little bit of tape near the top of the heart here to make it stay in the heart shape. You can see the tape in the picture.

And here's a completed heart.

And then I glued them to the top of my wrapped book.

Day 330 - Sunglasses protector

I am always rummaging around in my handbag trying to find my sunglasses, amongst the muesli bars, sultana packets, spare jocks and toy cars. Here is today's solution.

Firstly here are a couple of things I couldn't resist buying whilst out looking for a waistcoat at the op shops on the weekend for Liam's olden days outfit.

Some vintage willow tins, needing a little TLC, and this vintage tea towel and pot holder set still in packaging.

 Pot holder.

Fold in half and sew along the long edge and bottom.

Attach a shower curtain hook to the loop at the top and hang off the edge of my bag. It can hang inside or outside the bag and also protect my sunglasses.

I have also been performing some radical life saving head transplant surgery on this blankie. You may remember this patient from a couple of months ago. This time he was so worn out I had to transplant his head onto a new body, hopefully giving him another couple of years to live.

What have you been up to today? 

Day 242 - Bath mat trousers

Before I share today's craft I want to share with you what my 5 (almost 6) year old daughter did this week when I went to Melbourne for the Coldplay concert. As she is one of my frequent models on the blog you may notice something odd going on with her hair.

Here's what she did to it when she was supposed to be going to sleep the other night.

She did this with some small school scissors, cutting a little and liking the shaved feel, she kept going. She's a trouble maker this one! Now she is bald at the front for about 5cm :-/.

Sadly there is nothing the hairdresser can do for us. So here's my solution for the foreseeable future. We are looking at a fair bit of time for her hair to recover.

So today the little rascal got another of my creations. Last weekend I found this chenille bathmat / baby mat at the thrift shop for $2. It's got a little bit of patchwork and I knew Juliet would love it. My love for vintage chenille is well documented I think, and things made out of it sell for an absolute fortune at craft markets.

It was double thickness, so I cut three of the sides and opened it up.

Then cut some 3/4 pants pieces and a pocket choosing my favourite sections of fabric for the front of the pants. I took the size from one of the the other pair of pants I had made for her earlier.

It they came out looking pretty cute!

And here are the boys getting in the act too. 

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!

Day 236 - Chenille and crossbones.

Hello! More shorts being made today, this time from a few different fabrics.

The back of the shorts uses the vintage quilt I also used here Day-84 to make my daughter a dress. The pocket is a tiny scrap from another vintage chenille quilt (hard garbage find) and the front is a fine corduroy my mum gave me a while ago. Then I added a pirate symbol from a scrap of fabric leftover from party loot bags I made when my 7 yo turned 6. I love the way they all come together. These are a gift for a little boy whose party we are going to later, but I think I am going to have to make some for Aidan now too.

As usual the model had a lot of trouble keeping still.