The Friday Tutorial

"En textil hyllning" - recycled clothes

This week I haven’t a tutorial of my own for you. I am sitting in the Swedish alps remember. Not much stuff to do a tutorial from up here I can tell you….. if you don’t count building snow men of course. So why don`t you go visit this great and very inspirational home page instead. It has some really lovely ideas on how to recycle clothes. It`s written in Swedish but has very good drawings and photos so I think you will get the patterns and "how to" anyway. You can download the patterns right at the bottom of the homepage.  

I am definitely making this one



Photo by Hanna Hallén



Now I leave you for the weekend. Hope you have a creative one!

Jeanette

Spring inspiration #1

The leaf is off to the exhibition. Finishing the blasted thing has really been hanging over me…..so now when I am finally rid of  it I can focus on new and fun projects.

Of course I had to get started right away.

I bought black cotton yarn to make another cardigan. Not expensive yarn at all this time. I am going to mix the cotton with a thin tread of linen to give the cardigan some structure. As you can see it’s the happy color of black so I thought I would add some buttons from my collection to give it a more spring feeling!

I also bought some fabric to make a dress. Not so colorful either but I fell in love with the polka dots. They make me happy.

So if last weeks posts were the week of knits this week just might be the week of spring projects!

Jeanette

The Friday Tutorial

Wrist warmers

Last winter in Sweden was cold, very cold and mittens, warm sweaters and long johns were sold out in all the shops. I bought the last pair of long johns in one of the shops and believe me there was nearly a fight over them…..It was even cold indoors. Wrist warmers became a great way of keeping warm when I had to sit still at my office and the heater had gone to heater heaven warming the wings of the angels instead of my cold feet. So this year I am going to be prepared. I have already made two pair of mittens and some wrist warmers. It is fun and fast and makes a nice gift too.

The best of it all is that I get to use the beautiful wool sweater that my husband accidentally machine washed but you can use felt as well. You can embellish it with basically anything that you find beautiful. I used fabric, embroidery yarn, glass beads, vintage lace and did some needle felting.



This is how you do it:
Cut two pieces of felt that fits around your wrist. Pimp them - get wild and crazy if you like. Sew them together – done!



If you have an old and shrunken sweater ( thanks to your hubby maybe) it is even faster. Cut of the last 20 centimeters of the arms of the sweater, embellish – done!

Here is some that I have made.

Now I leave you for the weekend. Hope you have a creative one!
Jeanette

Well-behaved women rarely make history

Made a pair of wristwarmers in fake fur this weekend. It`s a gift for a collegue at work. You really can`t have too much fake fur in your life now can you?

Take care
Jeanette

The friday Tutorial

Button bracelet

I have a large button collection and I try to use them in my creative work. Today I needed a bracelet to brighten up my work clothes so I made one from buttons.

You need wire, bent nose pliers and a flush cutter. …

….and buttons of course.

This is how you do it:

Measure your wrist, add a centimeter to your measurement and then cut a piece of wire in that length using the flush cutter. Bend one end of the wire into a hoop and the other end into a hook using the bent nose pliers. Wrap a thin piece of fabric around the wire to make it easier to attach the buttons. It also protects your skin from direct contact with the wire. I wet felted wool around mine but you can use any fabric you like.

Now for the fun part:

Start attaching buttons to the fabric using an ordinary sewing needle and tread. Place the buttons any way you like, add some pearls here and there if you want and maybe a pendant or other fun stuff you like to pimp your bracelet with. I used white buttons and pearls.

Wear it with pride!

Now I leave you for the weekend. Hope you have a creative one!
Jeanette

How do they do it?

All these fashion bloggers and the teenage pouting today’s outfit bloggers how on earth do they do it? Manage to capture themselves on film that is, without looking an complete and utter fool? My dress in the newly found orange fabric was done and I wanted to show it to you. I only meant to cut out the pieces yesterday evening but couldn’t stop once I was started so I ended up finishing the whole dress. It sounds far more ambitious than it was…It’s an A-line, 60: ies kind of pattern and dead easy to make. Anyway, this morning I wanted to take a photo of me wearing it.

I tried my daughter’s bedroom mirror.....



wtf?



....then the hallway mirror



Christ.......



OK so I am centered. But where is my face?



Finally I gave up and asked my youngest daughter for help before we both rushed of to school and work.



Spot on!



Thanks Emma!



…..but I still wonder how they do it!

Take care

Jeanette