Ina sent in this link from annekata who has made her own summer sandals and shows us how to go about it – very clever.
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July 2010
This bottle cosy is made completely from old t-shirts and some fleece that came from a rummage sale sweater. tutorial at sneezerville.
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Some craft books worth your while to check out.
Felted Jewelry: 20 Stylish Designs (Lark Jewelry Book)
This book showcases a variety of felting techniques to make innovative and unique jewelry pieces. With so many styles and techniques at work here you are sure to find something to your taste. From felted flower hairpins to crochet and felt chokers, beaded felt balls and an exotic wild poppy necklace. As well as the projects there is an inspiring gallery section + a pretty good techniques section too.
The Feisty Stitcher: Sewing Projects with Attitude
I really like this book – it combines sewing techniques with some more unusual and hard wearing materials. Its a sewing book for those who want to take their stitching to the next level and experiment with and incorporate materials that are traditionally thought to be a bit more difficult to work with. Such as leather and industrial felt. Make a leather storage box that snaps together, use jute upholstery webbing to make heavy duty floor cushions, sew on paper to create interesting designs for a lampshade, refashion t-shirts, felt and chop up sweaters, make your own original buttons, how about a faux fur lined trappers hat, and recycle those plastic bags into fabric to make a shopping tote. There are lots of great ideas in here, the patterns are written in an accessible easy to understand way, and they look good too.
Craft Challenge: Dozens of Ways to Repurpose a Tea Towel
The second in Larks craft challenge series – the first being: Craft Challenge: Dozens of Ways to Repurpose a Pillowcase
Lovers and collectors of tea towels are sure to get inspired by this book (or they might be shocked at all those lovely tea-towels getting chopped up!). With projects from clever and easy to original and quirky there is something here for everyone. I was particularly inspired by the use of the beautiful tea-towels to make some very simple things – its amazing how the choice of materials used can really alter the finished item. From simple kids skirts, to house slippers, summer tops and aprons, to the more quirky kitsch kitchen clocks and puppy back pack to the picnic bag featured on the front cover. There is lots to love in this book.
Leather Jewelry: 30 Contemporary Projects (Lark Jewelry Book)
From super stylish to chic to sweet to casual, there is a range of styles and difficulty levels of leather jewelry in this book. My taste is more at the simple end and there are a few projects perfect for me, for those who like a bit of fur and flash there is that too! Some really interesting and clever techniques are showcased many of which I am dying to try, and for someone who has never worked with leather before – I don’t feel daunted to give these a try.
[bonus projects from Lark books are available here]
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Do you have a copy of the Whip Up Mini Quilts book? Lets make the quilts from the book together. Post them on the whipup flickr group under the tag “Whip up mini quilts”.
Here is what we are going to do – each week – say on a friday – for 6 weeks [more or less] – I am going to post one of the quilts from the book that I have made – and give you a few tips and ideas to help you make it. + 6 books to give away in that time – watch out next week for some giveaways. Do you want to join in?
And if you don’t yet have a copy of the book but want to join in straight away – there are 2 free Mini Quilt patterns available for download from the Chronicle website + The pattern and templates for Kellie Wulfsohn’s little girl’s applique wallhanging ‘A little birdie told me’ is available at the Woman’s Day website
The first week I showcased my version of Lisa Call’s ‘Modern Geometric’ mini quilt, and last week I showed you how to make my Shibori Sampler. And last week Crazy Cats was featured – the pattern, instructions and templates for this quilt is available online from the Chronicle Website.
This week I am just going to show you my version of Boo Davis’s ‘Two heads are better than one’. Its a difficult quilt to make and you will need the full instructions and illustrations from the book.
These pair of quilts use small pieces of fabric organised into colours and then chain pieced together. Its very quick to make and the method is not difficult. The difficulty comes with keeping track of where the pieces go – super organisation skills are required.
The quilting is really very easy – just diagonal lines and then it is bound using the one-step binding method. Originally Boo was going to leave it unbound and in fact raw edges and even just the quilt tops framed would be very cool.
Boo Davis also suggests using the loudest ugliest fabrics and colours you can find – and they really do pop from the quilt.
Have fun making this one – Don’t forget to post your results in the whipup flickr pool – under the tag “Whip up mini quilts”.
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Its my birthday today and I am treating myself to some me time – yesterday I indulged in a yarn day with a friend and it was good! Feeling the birthday blues today – maybe its PMT, but kids fighting with each other and husband out of town, are sort of making me feel a bit down. Birthday woes are boring though, so I will not succumb – instead I will make a cup of tea, get out my crochet, and listen to loud music – maybe even dance vigorously and crazily in the kitchen, by myself, to my loud music while wearing my nanna’s cardigan. What do you do when you have the blues?
I do have lots to catch up on and prepare for a week away from home next week – if anyone is planning on attending the Melbourne Art Fair – do come and say hi – I will sitting at the Art Monthly stall.
JOIN: Mini quilt-along and make the crazy cats quilt - there is a free online pattern and template available.
WRITE: Send in your letters or answer someone elses.
READ: Recently reviewed books – Sew Retro … homemade living series … knit green …
More…
Hope today brings you something nice..
Kathreen
xx
Whip Up Mini Quilts
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Hoping Whipup readers can help out with these two emails requesting crafty advice…
Do whipup readers have any ideas to help Ronan find that perfect crafty travel kit for his girlfriend?
I’m an expat living in Seoul, Korea right now teaching english. My girlfriend is travelling here soon to stay with me until i finish teaching here, then we’re going travelling around Asia for a while. She mentioned a while ago that, while we’re travelling, she would like to buy fabric and make crafts and possibly display/sell them online. I know NOTHING about fabric, making crafts, handmade things, knitting etc. NOTHING. However, i’d like to help especially since her birthday is next month. Could you possibly tell me what kind of tools/utensils people need when they’re hand-making crafts? Particularly people who are on-the-move? I think she has a particular interest in embroidery but also handmade goods in general. I was thinking of preparing or buying some sort of small “craft-making kit” for her.
Can you help Shahanaz find a specific craft?
I am looking for something that was featured on Whipup a while ago, but I cannot remember the name of the craft! It was a craft where you can take a shape, like a triangle for example, then create smaller triangle inside it, but off-setting the starting point equally on each side of the inner triangle to “rotate” the triangle inside, until your desired amount, and then using different coloured paper, sticking them down in regular order, to get a sort of “telescopic aperture” overall look at the end. Can anyone understand or figure out what I’m looking for?
Send in your reader letters to whipup [at] gmail.com
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Sew Retro: 25 Vintage-Inspired Projects for the Modern Girl & A Stylish History of the Sewing Revolution
Lots of quick and simple sewing projects that have been inspired by vintage designs – The projects included in this book for me I have seen most of them elsewhere before – headbands, skirts, bags, simple quilts – although lovely you won’t be buying this book for the projects alone. However what this book does have that other sewing books don’t is lots of interesting historic sewing facts and glorious vintage sewing images – its worth it for this alone.
The images of 100 year old sewing machine advertisements and pattern packaging, as well as old photographs are just beautiful. There are mini essays on 19th century sewing practices and how these relate to us today – what we can learn from our womanly history. A bit about quilting and politics, and how fashions have changed – all accompanied by the imagery.
Throughout there are bios of modern day sewists who have made their mark and their business from sewing – such as Barbara Brackman and Betz White. This is more than a sewing pattern book – it makes for a lovely afternoon of reading and I know I will get a lot of inspiration from the historic imagery. Well done!
[check out the sew retro blog for more - bonus projects + ]
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Sky magenta has a pattern to crochet her western style breakfast or this needle felted breakfast [thanks knit hacker]
Do you want to make your own crochet, knit or felt breakfast? here are some patterns… needle noodles has a cute crochet breakfast pattern available – complete with waffles, sausages, eggs and pancakes (for a small fee). Sky Magenta’s pattern (pictured above) is also a commercial pattern – super cute. Crochet eggs and toast is available for free from bean sprout creations … and here is a hilarous knit fry up breakfast beret pattern … Breakfast Time by Sally Byrne is a healthy option of cereal, milk and banana.
Or do you like making felt food – here is a fun breakfast made from felt – pattern available and includes the toaster [image seen here]. … here is a happy breakfast pattern – with croissant and some healthy options too …
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