Birthday Card Embroidery

I loaned a sewing book from the local library called "Sew Fabulous Fabric" and in the back of it were various templates of flowers and animals. I traced one of the flower templates onto some material and embroidered it with green and purple floss.


I then simply pritt-sticked the material onto some card. I love how fast and easy it was to make- everyone can expect only homemade cards from me in the future.

Summer Dress Alterations

I was given this dress but didn't like how the waist of it made me look pregnant!


The dress had two strips of the same fabric on each side to tie into a bow at the back. I cut each strip off and used it to add two more rows below the original row, like so:


I sewed these down and was ironing them flat when I burnt a hole on all three rows, RIGHT in the middle of the dress. I was so annoyed- I'd spent ages sewing them and now it was ruined. Or was it?...

I luckily had some of the strips of fabric left over so I sewed them vertically over the burnt patch, only just covering it:


I much prefer the dress now, the strips around my waist make the dress more fitted, and then it has a nice puffing-out skirt. Its a shame I never had a chance to wear it this summer.

Ruched Bodycon Dress

I loved the Topshop ruched/bandage bodycon dresses this summer, like this one below, but thought I could make one myself pretty easily and save around £35!


I bought some navy blue voile fabric for under a fiver and a zip and set to work. I made a plain dress to start with and then added layers/bandages of strips of fabric over the top of it to make the ruched effect, and to make it less see-through. This was harder than I anticipated as it was difficult to get the strips of fabric to fit perfectly, and I made a bit of a mess near the zip. Which is why I put the zip to go down my side instead of my back- to hide all the freying edges.

I'm pretty happy with the result. Next time I make one I'd put the strips of fabric onto a white dress underneath, like how Topshop did, because I think it makes the ruched-ness of it stand out better.

Duct Tape Dress Makers Dummy

I decided that I needed to get a dummy or mannequin so I'd be able to make tops and dresses more easily. After looking on ebay and seeing they cost upwards of £50, I tried an alternative.
A quick search found quite a few methods for making a duct tape dummy of my own body.

Using two rolls of duct tape and an old hairdye-stained t-shirt I was able to make one. Well, it actually takes two people to make as one person has to wrap the tape tightly around you while you slowly begin to feel very claustrophobic and unable to breathe.


Then there is the most difficult part where you have to cut down the back of the dummy, through the tape and the t-shirt, and painfully close to your skin. Then it will look something like this:


The next step is to stuff the dummy with screwed up newspaper and tape the back together:

The dummy is then ready to use, like so:

Bedroom Painting

I painted a canvas for my bedroom. The flower shapes were traced from some wallpaper samples. Even though its a fairly large canvas I think I need an even bigger one for it to suit my bedroom, and perhaps next time I will do a more abstract design.

Key Bag

I made this little bag so I could keep keys all in one place within a drawer.



The fabric is from a free swatch and the bead was part of an old necklace, with part of a hair bobble hooked over it to keep the bag closed.

New Shoes

I bought a pair of shoes from Primark but realised afterwards that I wasn't too keen on them being bright blue.

So I got some Dunelm fabric paint in black and painted them with one cover, and then ironed to make sure the paint doesn't wash off. You can still see the flower design through the paint but I like this because it makes them less plain.

Blackberry Cover

This is a cute holder for my friends mobile phone, using a purple silk fabric lined with white felt, with a velcro fastening.

I particularly like the ribbon tied through the button, I prefer it to just having the button on by itself.

Desk Organisers

I found this tutorial and decided to have a go myself because I had an abundance of stationary that needed to be organised.

I washed a tin can, then I cut the wallpaper to the right height to fit on the side of the can, and I used cellotape down the edge to secure it. I thought it looked so good that I wolfed down another tin of baked beans and made another one.

Gift Bow

I found instructions for how to make a bow to put on gifts here, and though I'd have a go and I'm very impressed with my effort.

I used brown paper but I think it would probably look good using any paper or even spare wallpaper that has a nice pattern.