Ice Cream Cozy

A while back, I pinned this Coffee Cozy Tutorial.  The thing is though, I’m not a coffee drinker but it looked so cute that I wanted to make one, but had to find a reason ... !


Fast forward a few months, and I found my reason. Once a week my husband and I sit down with some vanilla ice cream with milo on top (is there anything better?!) and watch one of our favourite TV shows. We have it in small ramekin bowls (portion control) but, being a particularly slow eater, I find that my hand gets way too cold.


Cue the Ice Cream Cozy!



Front

  

Back


I altered the pattern slightly to fit the ramekin, but otherwise followed the tutorial completely. It was a great project for using up some scraps, and I love how it turned out. And, of course, finishing it meant having to try it out, right?!

Woollen Skirt

I know, another skirt. I have decided I really have to start making some tops to go with all of these skirt creations!

But in the meantime, I am a bit excited about this one.

I picked up some woollen plaid material a little while ago from my local Spotlight store, with the plan of making a nice, warm winter skirt. I had an image in my head, but wasn't sure whether to go with a pattern or just wing it. After much hesitation, I decided to go without a pattern and, using an existing skirt to get the sizing right, I took the scary step of cutting out my fabric.

I cut in on the bias as I knew it would fall a bit nicer, and I much prefered the diagonal plaid pattern. I also decided to use a zipper for a side fastening, and an overlocked edge finish for the hem. The wool fabric is pretty thick, so I tried to take that into consideration while designing it so that I wouldn't end up with bulky hems etc that wouldn't fit under my sewing foot on my machine!

I was a little surprised that it ended up fitting so well, and it is really comfortable and warm to wear - which is great for the icy Melbourne weather at the moment.

Success!

Study Hall Skirt

I’ve recently finished making a skirt that I’ve been really excited about – I bought the pattern at the beginning of the year, and have actually had the fabric since last year, but I was a little nervous about how complicated it might be to make. So I decided this would be a perfect project for my weekly sewing lessons, so that I could get plenty of guidance along the way.

I used Anna Maria Horner's Study Hall Skirt pattern, and the fabric I used was Amy Butler’s Love – Memento, in Burgundy.

The fit is perfect, to my utter relief (I haven’t been as lucky with other patterns recently) and it is very flattering and comfortable. And pretty J

Recycling Old T-Shirts – Part 2

Last week I blogged about my stack of beloved t-shirts that I wanted to reuse, and so I thought I'd share another t-shirt recycling project with you.

While scouring the internet for inspiration, I found this T-shirt Skirt Tutorial  and decided this would work wonders.

Front

Back

I used three black t-shirts for this (sorry, I didn’t think to take before photos!): two of the t-shirts were used for the main body of the skirt, and the third (which was an old t-shirt I wasn’t that keen on anyway) I used for the skirt band – I prefer a stretchy band to just using elastic.  


It didn’t take long at all, and the best thing was that I didn’t have to hem it, as I just used the existing hemmed edges of the t-shirts!

Recycling Old T-Shirts – Part 1

I recently had a big clean out at home and discovered a stack of t-shirts that I love, but don’t fit anymore. I couldn’t bring myself to give them away, so I scoured the internet for ways to recycle them. I found plenty for t-shirts that are too big (blog posts for the future) but hardly any for ones that are too small.



I then came across mmmcrafts messenger bag tutorial that I had pinned onto Pinterest (seriously, who else is addicted to Pinterest?!) and realised that I could incorporate one of my t-shirts into that.

This is the t-shirt that I used (I’d already started cutting into it, when I decided I should take a “before” shot ... ). Can you see why I didn’t want to get rid of it?



The tutorial was so good, and easy to follow. I actually really enjoyed making it and it didn’t take long at all. For the main fabric, I actually used stiff curtain fabric and it was ideal – with just a red cotton lining.

Here is the finished product – the only thing I would have preferred would be having the image a bit further down, but I just had to work with what I had. I’ve had SO many positive comments about this bag, which is great because I love it too.



Stay posted for Part 2 ...

Plaid Wrap Skirt

A few weeks back I saw a picture of a plaid wrap skirt and I automatically thought “I bet I could make that ...” Usually, those sort of well meant plans have ended up in either a really dodgy result, or a massive headache of mistakes, lots of unpicking and vowing never to do it again.



So, this time I decided to do the proper thing of making a practice skirt out of some old fabric that I couldn’t use for anything else. I used an existing skirt to make up a pattern, and it ended up working out even better than what I’d expected, no alterations needed.

Front view

Back View

I finished my skirt the other night and wore it the next day, and LOVED it. The only thing I may need to address is that the D Rings don’t offer quite enough support for my peace of mind (they’re not bad, but I like to be 100% sure with wrap skirts!). I’m going to make another skirt with some gorgeous woollen plaid material, so I will do a “Plaid Wrap Skirt 2.0” and make the fastening more secure.

Bags of fun ...

Lately I've been making Nicole Mallalieu's City Shopper Bag (from her book You SEW, Girl!) as a present for my neice who was turning 10 years old. Well, this week I finished it:

I agonised over the fabric choice in my favourite fabric shop for a little while, but I am really happy with it (don't you just love the retro bikes!).

I also made this for my 5 year old neice (a request from Nana):

And, not wanting to leave out the remaining sister, I made her this purse together with my first lot of fabric covered buttons (I'm addicted to making these buttons now ... ):

It's amazing what you can get done on a wet and gloomy ANZAC Day public holiday.