Picnic Blanket Skirt

So the very first thing that I made with my new sewing machine was the Picnic Blanket Skirt, a skirt with no pattern, but excellent instructions to follow to make your own pattern that fits your measurements.  I have become somewhat of a Tilly Walnes fangirl over the last month or so and I really recommend checking out her blog and patterns.

I bought some cute navy and white plane print fabric, quite a thin and slippery material but it was very wide and good value for money (about £6 a metre I think).

The measurement instructions were very easy to understand and I decided to draw it onto pattern paper rather than straight onto the fabric.  The fabric did move around a lot when I was cutting it out, although I was using massively blunt scissors which didn't help!

The finishing isn't brilliant but as a first attempt for a long long time, I'm quite pleased!

It was first time I'd made buttonholes which scared me a bit, but after a few attempts on some scrap material I didn't feel too bad. 

Very Kirsty!

So one of my recent projects was a bit of a journey into the unknown for me! 

I decided that I wanted to wardrobe for the spare room in my house, mainly to tidy away some of the mess into it!  After perusing online, the cheapest wardrobe I could find was £140 and that was a self assembly one. 

So I bought myself a £50 second hand wardrobe which I bought on potential value i.e. the shelves inside would be great for storage.

As you can see it was not anything spectacular, in fact when I was looking at it,  I pulled one of the handles off! 

First thing I did was buy 2 new handles that had a bit more character than the old ones (and hopefully wouldn't come off in my hand!)

Then I decided to buy some fabric to line the shelves with.  I went with some PVC backed cotton so that I wouldn't have to treat the top of the fabric.  I had googled various websites giving tips on how to line shelves/drawers with fabric which talked about PVA or Mod Podge or even spray glue, but I didn't feel confident using these quite permanent methods.

I sanded the wardrobe with a mixture of hand power and electric sander, and I have to say it was much harder work than I thought it would be.

I got some Satinwood paint which is a medium sheen and something I've used before, I really dislike gloss paint even though it's more hard wearing.  I used Dulux Blue Diamond 5 which matched up with some of the cats from my fabric.

After painting I lined the shelves, drawers and floor of the wardrobe with the fabric and used a staple gun to fix it in, stapling near the edges.

Overall I'm really proud of how this 'up cycling' project turned out.  I'm hoping to do a set of drawers and shelves in the same colour although the prospect of sanding is slightly putting me off! 

Also, even with all the paint, sandpaper etc, this still came to less than £140 for something that is much more unique.

Fabric arrival!

Got a big bundle of fabric today from Plush Addict.  As you can see I got a selection of children's prints (although I have my eye on the fox one for myself!) as I'm planning on making a reversible dress for my friend's newborn. 

Also got some bright green cotton which I plan on making into curtains for my living room and also a metre of a multicoloured print which I may use to add a band of colour to the bottom of the curtains.

Busy times ahead! 

Hello!

Welcome, just a quick post to introduce myself!

My name is Hannah, and I decided to start this blog because I like to make things and I thought it would be a good way of recording them.  I've been looking around at some blogs recently and been inspired to share my makes with the blog world! 

I've been knitting for about 5 years now, learning when I was a child then picking up it when I discovered the Ravelry website. I taught myself lots of new techniques using the magic of YouTube and have made some things I'm pretty proud of! 

Recently I've gotten back into sewing, having left it at A Level Textiles.  I'm very excited that sewing is back in my life and now that I have a machine, my bank balance is rapidly dwindling due to fabric purchases!!

I like to dabble in other creative avenues, perhaps I will blog as they happen.

My blog title came from the fact that as well as enjoying creative activities, I share this with my boyfriend James who is an artist (more about that another time!) He made my blog graphic because I really haven't got the patience for such things!

We are a team and hopefully I will be sharing some of our makes when I get to grips with blogging. It would be lovely to meet more crafty people along the way too : )