Category — handmade

oohh. i’m late today. and the reason for that is that i actually didn’t want to post a DIY project of myself because i’ve found one last week that i urgently wanted to show you BUT stupid me forgot to bookmark it and today i couldn’t find it anymore and couldn’t remember where i’ve seen it so i had to improvise and do it myself.

i took 3 blown out eggs and chalk paint

painted the eggs and let them dry (DON’T use a blow dryer. no – i didn’t. but i thought about it)

after painting they were beautifully matte and ready to paint

i used crayons to keep them matte

tadaa

very carefully i increased one of the wholes on one side of the egg

get a paper and write a message on it

roll it and slide it into the egg

give the egg to someone you love and let him crack the egg

let him find a small love letter in the egg and see him smile

what i’ve seen was basically this idea. i’m not a good freehand painter and could have done a better job for painting but i hope you get the idea here :-) do you remember my sharpie tattoo eggs from last year?! look here and here. sharpies do a pretty great job on eggs.

remember when i recycled an old sweater? i did it again but differently.

this is an old boring white h&m sweater that i didn’t wear in ages. i had a 30 cm wide piece of grey lace in my fabric stock which i sewed on the back of the sweater.

i put the sweater on the floor and positioned the lace on the back.

fixed the lace all around with some pins

and finally sewed all around the back seam of the sweater.

then cut the lace back to the seam.

now the lace covers all the back and in only 10 minutes i had a new sweater that isn’t boring anymore :-)

did you ever have a present to give that fit into an envelope? and that wasn’t as pretty as the gift inside? i had this issue yesterday and decided the 2 envelopes should get dressed up a little bit. so i ended up using 2 different kinds of scraps to sew envelopes for the envelopes.

take a rectangular piece of fabric that is a bit wider and longer than the envelope. sew it close on both sides. turn inside out.

one envelope is for an awesome guy and i took a piece of an old hugo boss coat and closed the envelope with a button. the other one is for a lovely lady so i sewed to very long strings of silk ribbon onto the side of the sleeve and wrapped them all around the envelope to close.

very simple and easy and yet a nicer way to give away a simple envelope, don’t you think?

please welcome my friend melanie from a sewing journal today who contributed a FANTASTIC quilting tutorial. i am so amazed by this technique i wish i knew this before i started my last quilt which still needs to be finished. with this knowledge here i’m sure it won’t take me long to start a new one. it’s truly so freaking super easy!! check it out.

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flip and sew is a quilt-as-you-go technique used when sewing rows of fabric together. as you sew each row together, you sew it to the batting at the same time, eliminating the need to baste the quilt top to the batting after it is finished, as you would do with a traditional quilt.

a few tips:

• a walking foot for your sewing machine is recommended for this technique. the walking foot will feed the top layer of your fabric through the machine evenly just as the feed dogs do with the bottom layer. there seems to be a great range of prices for walking feet, but for my machine (a brother) they are very inexpensive. ebay is a great place to find them.
• when sewing long strips together there can be a tendency for the fabric to form an arc. counteract this by sewing from the opposite side every other time and remaining vigilant to the possibility, correcting it as soon as you notice.
• 1/4-inch seam allowances are traditionally used in quilting, so where i say “sew” in the tutorial, i’m using a 1/4-inch seam allowance.
• i am demonstrating only this specific technique, you can finish the quilt any way that works for you. you can check my blog, A Sewing Journal, to see exactly how I finished this one.

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isn’t this amazing?! doesn’t it open so many new sewing horizons? thank you melanie for this kick ass tutorial. i’ll be checking out the rest on your blog!

since i’m working on my baby collection for the etsy shop these days i have bought a gazillion (ok. just 25)  onesies and for today i’ve turned one into a little dress. in just 2 simple steps.

i had 1 onesie + 2 rectangular pieces of jersey. the size of the jersey was the width of the onesie and as long as the onesie was before cutting. maybe a bit shorter.

i cut the onesie right under the arms and sewed the jersey on both sides. rights sides together i pinned the top onto the bottom and sewed around. magic was done.

just as a small highlight i sewed a ribbon where the top and the bottom met so you can tie it in the back.

unfortunately there was no baby to try it on and show how cute it looks. but i will do this same exercise for myself and show it here as well. this is so ridiculously easy. :-)