Crochet necklace

I've enjoyed playing around with some quick projects this week and one of the results is this crochet bow necklace. Each bow takes no more than half an hour to complete and would be a good project for a beginner because the stitches are super simple.

 

 

Fireside paraphernalia

When I moved to the sticks a little over a year ago one of the things I loved about the house was the fire in the living room. This beauty not only heats all the water and runs the central heating, it also does a good line in atmospheric and romantic light of an evening.

Anyway I'm ashamed to say that for all this time I've continued to use the ratty old gardening glove the previous owners left behind to open the doors when they heat up. You'll see from the picture below that this was not an item befitting a crafty bissum's home.

I decided it was about high time that I replaced the ratty glove with something a little sweeter. I hope you agree that the owl inspired crochet/applique creation is much more appropriate.

Crocheting with t-shirts

After what can only be described as a horrible but thankfully temporary loss of crafty mojo it's come back full swing with a little help from my good friends. Apologies for the hiatus.

When you meet a true crafting genius you begin to feel that everything is possible and there's no limit to what new skills you can learn. For me, my crafty soul mate is Marion, my fellow Bissum. Fueled by cakes and bucket loads of tea, I came away from a weekend with Marion having tried my hand at needle felting for the first time, rug making with wool and hooks and crocheting with strips of unwanted fabric.

Marion presented me on my arrival at her lovely home with the worlds fattest crochet hook. This beast promised to allow creation of bigger stitches and larger items in record time. It did not disappoint and not that I want to play favourites with my hooks, but this could be the best one of all.

We set to work cutting old t-shirts into a long continuous strip of fabric, stretching as we went and rolling it into a ball of yarn. I decided a new bath mat was in order so off I went using a simple treble crochet to whip up this mat in no time. It's 50cm across in diameter giving an overall circumference of around 160cm. Not bad for two old t-shirts eh?

Another skirt adventure

I've been itching to make a skirt ever since I picked up a fab tablecloth last week so the how-to is over on the DIY page now.

Crafty holiday goodness

For the past week I've been in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales staying with the fella and the pooch in a wee cottage in lovely Sedbergh. If you're ever in the area I can highly recommend Farfield Mill if you want to get a sense of what the local crafters are all about. They actually still use the 80 year old looms in the mill to make all sorts of beauties such as rugs and textiles.

Anyway, as you would expect I did my own tour of the surrounding thrift stores and on the very first day of the holiday I had what can only be described as the shoe find of the century! Normally I only give the shoes in thrift stores the most cursory of glances before moving on to more interesting territory. After all, feet are very personal parts of the body and shoes are rarely given away in good condition. I nearly had a conniption in the Oxfam store in Penrith when I came across the glorious clogs you see below.

I'm going through a love affair with wooden shoes at the moment. The trick is to wear them in slowly over time I think and for the more fashion forward amongst us, you might brave wearing a cute ankle sock with a sandal like the one above.
Also in the weeks thrifty haul was the best part of Cumbria's supply of doilies and linens (apologies if anyone else wanted some!). Now although it's lovely just to look at these treasures and wonder what you'll do with 50 vintage tea towels and tray mats, it's also nice to use them in a crafty creation.

Recently I felt it was time to put some of my materials to use so I decided to make a skirt. With all the right tools, like a sewing machine, you can make this skirt in under an hour.

Materials:
I used a double sized flat bed sheet for this and I think the pattern is really delightful.
A length of elastic
Doily or any embellishment you have to hand.
 

How to do it:

•  Fold the sheet in half lengthways, right sides together. If you have the part of the sheet which was already hemmed at the bottom, you can cheat and use this as your skirt hem.
• The next step is to decide how long you want the skirt to be and then add approximately one inch to that for a waistband. Mark and cut across the sheet at that line.
• Now sew a line of straight stitching down the long side of your fabric so you have a tube. If you're a skinny minnie or want to have a less-full look to your skirt, you can simply cut a strip off the side before you start sewing.
• Now you've got your tube, still with right sides together, fold a half inch of fabric down and press all the way around the top of the skirt. Fold down another half inch and press again. This will provide the casing for your elastic.
• Sew a line of straight stitching all the way around the bottom of your casing leaving a small gap to thread your elastic through.
• Cut your elastic to fit around your waist (or wherever you want the skirt to sit) and add a couple of inches to that measurement.
• Thread your elastic through and had stitch the ends together. Close the gap you left in the casing either by hand or with your machine.
• Add any embellishment you fancy! I added a linen doily to this skirt so it had a pocket but anything goes. Enjoy!