Re-using vintage fabrics

I’ve been collecting vintage fabrics for a couple of years now. Embroidered tablecloths, napkins, handkerchiefs… you name it, and now I have a lovely stash.

You can still pick up pieces of vintage embroidery quite cheaply in charity shops. It amazes me to think how much hard work went into them. Often they are in great condition because they have been stored away but the fabric can be worn quite thin and delicate due to age.

I would love to give my stash a new life. I’ve seen some brilliant images on Pinterest, my favourite is of an entire wall covered in fabric framed in embroidery hoops. I thought I would try this myself as I would love to display some of my fabric at home.

I bought three wooden embroidery hoops from my local craft shop and gave them two coats of paint and a light sand.

Then I went through my stash and picked out some of my favourite pieces. Most of my vintage embroideries are floral which makes it easy to change according to the seasons or a theme. There are load of options for personalising the frames by co-ordinating the colour of the frame to match a room, you could even embroider your own message on to the fabric.

I’ve seen some lovely ideas on Pinterest for recycling vintage embroideries, including bunting, tissue holders, magnets and buttons, hanger covers, lampshades and bags. If you want some inspiration take a look at my Pretty Stitching board on Pinterest.

I would love to hear what you think of reusing them. Do you think they are old-fashioned and should stay in a charity shop or be given a new purpose in the 21st century?

My name is Jenny and I can usually be found blogging about my vintage fabric finds at the gingerbread house

Easy Summery Smoothie Brekkie

I’m a huge fan of food. As you can see by my Foodie Pins on my ‘Yummo Food’ board by clicking HERE. Cakes, biscuits, dinner, lunch, snacks, muffins – you name it I’ve pinned it. I know……… I think about food a LOT.

Anyhoo. Because of this obsession with food, I have packed on the pounds (2 stone in fact – GAH!) So, I whizzed up a quick, easy, yummy smoothie to help smooth our crazy mornings and to smooth my crazy jelly belly. These are YUM and full of goodness. PLUS they fill me up until Elevenses time too 🙂

If you decide to try this, snap a pic and post it on our Facebook Page – we’d love you to drop by and say Hellooooooooo!

Happy Monday All! Kerry x

Something to cheer you up!

The news has been so depressing recently that I thought it would be nice to share something happy on the Pin Addicts blog. Some lovely photos of pillowcase dresses reaching a baby and toddler home in Uganda.

These dresses were all sewn in the UK by lovely ladies and hand delivered to the Baby and Family Centre in Kampala. Its such a simple idea. You can see more photos and read more about the fabulous work of the Childs i Foundation on my blog here. Why not come and join in and make a dress! We’ve already collected over 4,500 but need more! All the info you need including patterns and tutorials can be found here

Leftovers Stir-fry

Remember the Bacon Apple Porkchops I made last week? Well we ended up with a good amount of leftovers so I decided to make a Stir Fry for lunch the next day. Ingredients: Leftover rice (it is always better if …

Tie it up…

In case you don’t know, we are spending a year Buying Nothing New. So being unable to spend any time or money on ‘norma’ shops, I have taken to the odd browse of the local charity shops… I don’t know …

Don’t judge a book by its cover – up-cycle it.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has a love a books that goes a little bit beyond what might be considered the norm. I kept hold of the book below, even though it had been half eaten by the dog, it is probably the most common second hand book in circulation and I already have a paperback of it on shelves. My husband may despair of the tat I hold onto, but I knew there was a whole new life awaiting that shabby Bridget Jones, and because it had already been defaced I wouldn’t feel guilty about re-purposing it.

I’ve had a Pinterest Board – Repurposed books for ages and this weekend I’m attending a book sculpture course. I thought I’d have a little go at something before Saturday.

This craft was much bigger in the original pin tutorial over at ACaseoftheMundays.com. It was used as a Christmas mistletoe decoration. I used much smaller polystyrene spheres left over from another project. I therefore used a much smaller petal – drawing around a penny. I didn’t need a glue gun, a Prittstick was fine. Take a look at the original tutorial to see how to construct the flower.

You don’t need a lot of materials to get going.

I think it would be an ideal craft for children. It doesn’t even need to be old book pages, it could be coloured paper, music manuscript, magazines or old newspapers.

The baubles/flowers could be hung using fishing wire as a mobile or bunting, or perhaps impaled onto some thick wire and displayed in a vase.

Last night was World Book Night, I do prefer books to be used for their primary purpose, but they can live on even when they have become too tatty and torn. Have you turned an old book into something else, please do leave a link if you have, I’d love to take a look.

I’m Cara and I blog over at FrecklesFamily, if you are knitter/crocheter, you might be interested in a wool bundle giveaway that is happening over there this week.

St George’s Day crafts

Happy St George’s Day! Yep it’s that time of the year when the English celebrate their patron saint. We’ll gloss over the fact he wasn’t actually British but probably Palestinian. I’m sure every child knows the legends of George slaying the dragon and I’ve certainly enjoyed sharing it with my children.

I thought it would be fun to do some George and the dragon crafts with them so turned to Pinterest for inspiration. Hmmm, for once there were very slim crafty pickings.

The pins I did find ranged from an amazing George and the Dragon flip doll pattern (pictured below), to intricate shadow puppets, how to make a Knight’s shield and a toilet roll dragon which I’ve added to a new George and the Dragon Pinterest board.

So, what did I make with my 1 and 3 year old? Well over the last couple of days we’ve made a fun hand print dragon as well as an egg box dragon. Neither will win a prize for being best in class but we had lots of messy fun with them 🙂

For the Love of Crayola

This craft without a shadow of a DOUBT receives the most traffic on my blog. The simple love of Crayola lies within us all 🙂 PLUS this is dead thrifty… as in under a Fiver to whip up!

Looking for effective, cheap, fun wall art for a kids room or even your craft space? Look no further!!

I found THIS on Pinterest..

As done by the lovely Meg at Whatever

So I decided, it couldn’t be all that difficult….  I bought a canvas, a glue gun (or superglue will do), and 2 packs of Crayola Wax Crayons.

Take out the blacks and browns and line them up like this.. then glue them to the canvas!

 

Enlist the help of a small child with a hairdryer. Blowdry the crayons and eventually they will start to melt. Beware, this is MESSY! Lay down plenty of newspaper first!

 

After 5 minutes or so, you will have this!

 

A magnificent piece of (probably) Picasso inspired Wall Art – just hang it on a hook and you’re good to go!

Do you have a Crayola addiction like me? Or another Crayola craft to share?? Leave a link in the comments and I’ll feature it on our Facebook page. 

Have a great week Ya’ll!

Kerry x

Pinterest Round Up No.3 {Hoot – a collection of all things owl}

Owls have been flying around Pinterest for a LONG time now and I, like thousands of others, have a board devoted to the cause. Here it is HOOT!

I pin owl art, owl craft, owl cakes, owl tattoos…a real variety.

Here’s five of my favourite crafty owl pins. TWIT – WHOO.

And a sixth one….

Back to the owl tattoos I mentioned earlier.

How fab is this?!

And completely breaking my five photos rule I’m going to blow my own crafty trumpet with this, I promise, final pin of one of my makes using my favourite owl fabric – for one of my favourite bloggers!

Ok, that was the final one!

Happy Pinning!

All the above pins can be found here and each image is linked, where possible, to its original source.

 

Shirring

Anyone following the Great British Sewing Bee on BBC 2 will have seen the contestants making a shirred dress for a child in this weeks episode. Shirred dresses are so pretty and it reminded me that I made one a few years ago. Shirring is basically when you put shirring elastic in the bobbin of your sewing machine rather than cotton. You sew lots of lines around the bodice of a dress and it gathers the fabric in but because of the elastic at the back, it is stretchy enough to be able to get it over a childs head.

I found this tutorial on Kitschy Coo’s blog brilliant when I made my dress. In fact I think I may have been inspired to give it another try for Izzy this summer.  Have a look at KItschy Coo’s gorgeous dress below. You can also find it on my Pinterest board here.

My name is Louise and I blog about sewing and all things fabric related over at Sew Scrumptious