Buttonberry

Word of the Day: Upcycle

I learnt this word whilst hanging about on Etsy recently and it means making something of more value from something old. Or something like that anyway.  Here’s an example…

Hands up who looks forward to using a tea towel – show of hands please….ok that’s precisely none of you and that’s as it should be. If anyone wanted to admit to being happy with wiping up then I’m afraid I’d have to ask you to leave.  So we know we’re not so keen on household chores – hands up who likes shopping…..well that’s good.  That’s everyone!  So how about we take a tea towel and make it into a shopping bag?  That my friends is what upcycling means to me! 

I’m sure there are a million “bag-for-life” tutorials out there but there must be room for another one so here goes..

 

From your main bag fabric (in this case, linen tea towel – 3 for £3 – bargain!) and lining fabric, cut out your bag pieces.  With clever folding and adjustment of sizes as necessary, you can make it so you only need to sew side seams. I was able to make my bag 15” x 17”.  Fold your fabrics in half and cut to size – the piece (when unfolded) measured 15 ½” x 34 ½”.  I think it’s a good idea to make the lining piece a tiny bit shorter – I cut mine to measure 15 ½” x 34”.  It just seems to make the lining sit in better. 

To give it a bit of “oomph” I ironed on some Vilene H640 wadding but you don’t have to do this – your fabric might be perfectly oomphy enough without it.  Also, as this was going to be a little gift for a friend, I wanted to pretty it up a bit.  I raided the stash and found the fab tree fabric, gritted my teeth and cut a design out, after ironing on a bit of “Wonder Under” first.  I ironed the tree on to the main bag piece, then using the free motion foot on my sewing machine, went round the edge to hold it in place – over time, this will fray and give a lovely effect.

 

Next, line up the short edges of the main fabric and lining, right sides together, and pin to hold together.  Sew down both of these edges (NB: If you’ve made your lining a bit shorter, don’t expect both pieces of fabric to line up and lay flat, they won’t – this is perfectly normal and nothing to get upset about – have a biscuit if you need to calm your nerves)  You’ll now have a big tube.  Flatten the tube out, still with right sides together.  Lining up main fabric on main fabric and lining on lining, make sure that the seams line up and pin the long edges in place to hold them.  Sew down both long edges but leave a 3” opening on one edge – in the lining fabric – for turning.

 

 

 

Turn through and give the whole thing a good press.  Slip stitch or sewing machine stitch the opening closed and run a little top stitch around the top of the bag to make it look nice and neat and perfeshernul. 

 

 

Set aside – handles time…

I think handles are personal preference so I tend to make them long  then “try the bag on” for size before shortening them to the length I like.  I chose to make this one a shoulder bag but I think it would work just as well with shorter handles.  Cut 2 pieces 3 ½” by whatever length you fancy – again, I added Vilene H640 for a bit of oomph but if I’m being absolutely honest, I did live to regret it and would probably just use a lighter interfacing for handles next time round.  I learn by mistakes so you don’t have to! 

 

 

Ok, fold the handles in half along the long length, wrong sides together and press.  Open out again and fold each short end in about ½”, press carefully.  Fold each long side in about 1/2” and press carefully.  Fold in half again so that the folded in sides are on top of each other and you have no raw edges.  Top stitch along the short sides and both long sides, about ¼” in.  Ta daaaaaaaa you have handles.

Position on your bag as you like them and pin in place.  Using the same stitching line you made when you top stitched, attach the handles to the bag, sewing backwards and forwards a few times to reinforce.

 

 

And there you have it.  A bag from a tea towel – upcycling at work!  I like to think this bag will be put to good use with trips to the shop for a forgotton pint of milk or for transporting interesting library books or a nice packed lunch – anything that doesn’t involve gym work or anything stressy.  In short, nothing that could feasibly require a tea towel!

...here's a couple more...

Oh sorry to bang on about these but I've made some more and can't stress how easy and quick they are and look how you can vary them!

The red one is made with  a tea-towel and some scraps sewn on and a couple of buttons I already had covered (the buttons were the starting point with this one!)  The pink elephant used the twill tape that the tea towel bundle was tied with and a vintage blue button (when I say vintage I mean "old"!)  Recycle-tastic!

The original bag was given away last night and was very well received!  These two will be meeting their recipients this evening!

No more now - I promise!  Well, until Christmas maybe.....:o)

Posh Pick n Mix bags

Recently I ordered some fabulous tapes (not the 80's dance music type, the sewing type) from the utterly addictive Superbuzzy and not only are they divine ....

...they arrived packaged in this...

My photography is less than ideal so I must tell you that it says "Happy Days! I'm so glad we found each other!" on it!  How lovely!  I hope you're with me here and not just thinking that I'm odd for waxing lyrical about a paper bag!  Anyway ANYWAY - this lovely little piece of packaging inspired me - pretty much everyone I know or am related to has a birthday this month and since I have a not incosiderable fabric stash, I thought I might make a sort of replica of this bag to "wrap" some of the gifts in.

It was really very quick and easy and I like to think that they will be re-used so I am hoping that in some way the recycling/reusing thing might be sort of going on too!

This is what I started with:

..and this is what it became...

Although my fabric version is rolled down and sealed with a sort of buttony-ribbony-cleat thing, it is still the same dimensions as the Happy Days bag and can fit lots in.  I can't show you what this one has got in it as it's a surprise for my friend Nadine and she's not having it until Thursday! 

I'm going to make a few more (until I get bored and can't face anymore top-stitching) and will embellish my head off on the next couple! If you'd like to make some (and who wouldn't - it takes minutes and you get to play with fabric AND beads AND ribbons!) there's a little tutorial over there on the left!

Emma xxx

It's a Charm Offensive

Hello - we think we might have discovered a cure for that horrible "oh-it's-Monday-morning-and-worse-than-that-the-clocks-went-back-so-actually-it's-6am-and-not-really-7am-oh-and-my-throat-is-sore-and-look-at-that-spot-on-my-chin" thing.  Do you get that?  Or is that just us?  Anyway, yes there is a cure and this is it....

Yes that's right - a mahoooosive box of charm packs.  Yum yum yum!  Now while we were wallowing around in these like baby hippos in a mud pool*  it suddenly struck us that we'd done a bit of a charm pack type pattern a while back and it has sat quietly waiting for it's moment of glory!  So if you fancy it, you're more than welcome to have a go at our free charm pack tote pattern.  This is what the finished result looks like.  Or, in true Blue Peter style, here's two we made earlier...

If you click on the image on the tool bar on the left, there's a link to get the pattern.  It's ever so easy and the bag is nice and roomy enough to shove safely store your ongoing projects in.  Super duper.  Anyway, we hope you enjoy it and of course we'd love to hear how you get on with it!

Emma

x

*Please note, no charm packs were harmed during the "wallowing" process.

Home Sweet Home

Hellooo,

Well it's been a little while since we added a nice freebie tutorial on the blog so i thought i would pop one on of how to make our 'Home Sweet Home' hanging, it takes no time at all and only 3 FQ's! Now i know you all have plenty more than 3 FQ's laying around so why not show a couple of your favourites off?

Just click on the tutorial on the right hand side fo the blog or Click here.

Enjoy,

Lisa & Emma xxx

New Year, more stash, must stitch....

If like us you have indulged in a bit of stash building of late you might like to use this pattern to wade through a few of those fat quarters and make room for the new ones you’ve bought during the silly sales season! The picture is baaaaaaaaad because the weather is rubbish so it’s indoors and I had to stand on a chair to take it and I have no balance. Anyway…..

It only takes 9 fats so most of us won’t even know they’re gone and if you’re one of those people who doesn’t think they can BEAR to cut up certain fabrics then this is a great way to showcase them. It is super duper quick as well.   Just click on our little tutorial on the left of the page and it'll show you how we made it. 

We cheated a bit with the backing so that gives us a perfect opportunity to tell you about a little money and time saving trick (not a trick actually, just an idea). We found these gorge little fleecey throws for a mere £3.99 each in a local mill shop.

They make a lovely backing for these lap quilts and of course you don’t need to use wadding with them. Purists/sensible people will tell you that as they’re not 100% cotton they will not wash in the same way as the top of the quilt but to be honest if you are careful and don’t boil wash and tumble dry at "surface of the sun" heat we think you’ll be ok. So we reckon this little beaut only cost about £22 max (loads less if you’re sale shopping!)

We’re a bit hooked on this one and are aiming big for the next one – maybe four times the size for a fantastic bed cover….hmmmmm…..