Nightmare before christmas trainers

While looking around Primark I spotted a pair of trainers for £4 BARGAIN!! I loved the shape of them but not the pattern so I bought them with the thought of painting them.

So several days, strips of masking tape & layers of fabric paint later I had a pair of Nightmare before Christmas, Jack& Zero trainers.

I learnt masking tape is fab for getting lines straight & red marking pen will bleed through the paint no matter how many years I use, doh!!!

Green cluster bracelet

I made this cluster bracelet with an array of same size green beads, spaced with green seed beads. It gives a slightly different look to using different sized beads like my first bracelet.

I also made some dangly earrings to go with them.

They were given by my Mom to her oldest friend (thats oldest as in time knowing her not age ;)

pushchair foot muff

With Kai being so long I had huge problems finding foot muffs to keep him warm while in his pushchair. I spotted some online that were fleece blankets buttoned up at the end and attached to the puchchair, I decided I could make similar.
I took my old fakeleather coat and cut a rectangle out of it which I hemmed with a piece of fleece on the inside.

At the top I fastened 2 elastic hoops and buttons. I then attached 3 buttons on each side from the bottom, about 2.5inches apart. and then 3 button holes after these on each side so when done up it creates a pocket
The elastic at the top can be looped around the tubing of the pushchair and done up on the buttons. The feet the slip inside the pocket at the bottom. The 3 buttons at the base allows it to lengthen it still, undo the buttons, and move down a hole (you will end up with buttons with no way to do up).

The fleece kept Kai warm, and the fake leather kept him dry. He was certainly was snug in there, even in winter, especially with his heated rice penguin.

Recycling

I have been having a good sort out of my sons old clothes, sorting out those to pass down, to ebay, & to recycle. Some items were to faded, or badly stained to go anywhere but the bin, but, as with many baby/young childrens items, they had cute images on.

I roughly cut out the images, leaving as large a border as I could as I dont know how much I'll need when I use them.

I put them in a box so they are at hand should I wish to sew them onto another piece of clothing, or maybe use one that brings back memorys on a scrapbook page.

I also removed any fastenings such as zips, bottons etc, so these can be used again as well.

No sew altered top

ok, I know, this is meant to sewing saturday but its my blog so meh! :-p lol.My favourite T-shirt is getting a tad tight for me, so rather than giving it up I decided to alter it.

Unfortunately I started chopping before took pics, so this is my fav T-shirt minus the arms (they were getting a tad tight around the pits), the neckline (again, not enough give in it), and the bottom (so it matches the rest of the edges)

I made slits down the sides and added eyelets with my crop-o-dile which I then laced up with ribbon.

I then made slits in the back and weaved them together.
This is only the story so far....

The t-shirt is now too short, and rolls up. I need to find a way of lengthening it, hopefully to turn it into a long t-shirt without bringing too much attention to my lower waist (my particular problem area)

ring pull belt

You may remember I featured Ring Pull Makes on one of my Want to make wednesdays. Thanks to my good friend Choccy (& her friend Julia, many thanks to both of them) for collecting ring pulls and sending them to me I had enough to make a belt....

It took 206 ringpulls to create. This does up nicely on my size 14 jeans, but is loose when fastened around my waist (to give you an idea of size, ring pull ratio)
I used a headpin, threaded through the bead & then looped to create and end for the ties.

I've been wanting to make a dress out of my dragon material for ages (Alexander Henrys "Shibuki Dragon" fabric). I used the Sew magazines pattern from issue 4 to make a 1970's style dress. It was too long for me, but I didnt want to shorten it by trimming the hem & cutting off the lovely waves at the bottom of the material. Instead I hitched up the 2 sides and sewed them where they lay, bit like holding your skirt upto paddle, and then sewing it in position.

Altered shoes

As you have seen, I like altering shoes, and with the sun shining there are plenty of canvas shoes out in all different sorts of designs that are easy to create on.

These I got with the idea of making them match the dress I've just made to make it a bit more casual than with my heeled shoes that go with it.

By drawing around measuring cups and then painting with fabric paint I came up with these.....

But this isnt just a hobby for adults, kids love it as well..

And with pumps only costing about £1.50p (thats how much these cost) its a cheap craft for them that will keep them entertained on wet or dry days.

To make it even cheaper I let them use acrylic or poster paints, they stain them quite nicely, as many a school jumper sleeve will prove.

These are the shoes Kai (whose 3years old) altered himself.

Red shoes, black lace and markers pens, ooo what fun!

I wanted a flat pair of pumps for the NEC, perfect for lots of shopping without aching feet, and had already planned that I was likely to alter them. Having a look round Primark I spotted a red pair of slip ons for £8

The tassle bits were horrible, and one wouldnt even lie straight down, but I could see that I could remove them easily, and liked the shape and colour of the actual shoe.

I started by removing the tassles. I then gathered some black lace and hand stitched it to the front.

I carefully drew a swirly card suits pattern onto the card in ink pen, and when I was happy with it went over it in black marker pen. I let this dry and wiped over it with a damp cloth to remove any ink left

The shoes are so happy they are even smiling themselves!

"I may not be a Cheshire cat but they're my shoes now, keep away, keep away"

“Fan her head!” the Red Queen anxiously interrupted. “She’ll be feverish after so much thinking.”

Down the rabbit hole .....

It turns out that I dont even need to think to be creative, my subconcious can do it all for me!

A group of us were doing our semi-annual meet up at the NEC, and it had been decided we'd wear rabbit ears so we could find each other in the crowd.

While altering my clothes to wear on the day my OH noticed that everything had an Alice in Wonderland theme (I only noticed this with the shoes, lol) and commented how I'd taken the Rabbit ears idea and ran with it .... I personally hadnt conciously made this link, but hey, its either coincidence or my subconciousness is just as crafty :)

So heres the long T-shirt I started off with ....

It hung 1/2 way down my thighs, which is normally a very flattering length but with this it just looked frumpily straight up and down, even with my lumps & bumps **cough, cough** I mean curves

So I decided to gather up the side to give it a modern, more flattering shape. Before doing this I realised I needed to make any other alterations to make it easier, so I printed off a pocket watch/rose design onto a T-shirt trasfer sheet and cut out the design. I then ironed it on.
Following this I pinned lace to the end of the sleeves and bottom of the t-shirt and sewed it on using a stretch stitch.

Finally I finished it off by using a long stitch and gathering it up. I unfortunatley need to redo this & then sew over it to strengthen it. So heres us all at the nec with our wabbit ears on, of course I have to be different and make my own to match what I was wearing (& so they'd be black & red, lol). Not the most flattering pictures but I've had worse ;)

Next Sunday ... The matching shoes, first time I've sewn onto shoes!

Burlesque Shoes

I love clothing thats a little bit unique, and the same goes for shoes. The easiest way to get something totally unique is to make it yourself! Or at least alter it.

In the autumn I got an idea of making a corset style, burlesque-esque shoe in black and red, but it wasnt until closer to Christmas that I raided my Mums unwanted shoes, for something to alter and found these......

Just the shape of shoe I wanted! No toes poking out (they look awful with 1950's style tights), a nice heel, and a single high strap.

I covered as much of the black leather as I could in newspaper and masking tape, keeping the heel free. I then spray painted it red, it took a few coats.

After this was dry I removed the paper and tape, and went down either side of the back seam with my cropodile putting in 3 eyelets on each side. I took some suede cord and criss crossed it through the eyelets and tied a bow.

The final result......

......my new going out shoes.

I have lots of different ideas for altering shoes so your bound to see more here.

I need to find something to cover the heels in that doesnt scrape off like the spray paint, they are ok for everyday wear but if they catch against some metal that would normally just scratch the heel slightly they show the black underneath. Next time I may try lightly sanding it to give it something to hold onto, anyone know of any products that might work?

A sheet for a cape...

Thursday was yet again World Book Day, but Zack was on a school trip so they were told they could dress up on friday as their favourite book character instead. Zacks been reading the Charlie Bone series by Jenny Nimmo, about about a boy who ends up going to wizard school (& as I'm frequently told it is NOT like Harry Potter in anyway) so he asked to go as him. The back up plan was Jeans, white shirt and green jumper, which is Charlies everyday wear, but if I could find out what Charlies uniform was Zack would prefer that.

Well I went hunting, Zack said the uniform was described best in the first book, which he borrowed from the library ... sods law it was already out. Couldnt find anything about it online & all Zack could remember was blue cape.

I found loads of front covers to the books & decided the uniform looked like Jeans or grey school trousers with a white shirt, and blue tie. So my challenge on Thursday was to make a blue tie & cape with what I had in the house

I grabbed a blue bed sheet & started cutting. I'd decided the easiest way to do the tie was to make a tie shape, have it looped over at the top & wrap a rectangle round to form the knot. The loop at the top would be used to thread elastic through.

The cape could be a simple rectangle, sewing 2 pieces together saved hemming all the edges. Gathered at the top made it the trapezium shape I was after and I sewn a rectangular tube over these to keep them firm but neat. The tube was so I could thread the elastic through this as well.

All done and ready to wear the next day ....

heres the finished product...

He even untucked the cloak after putting his coat on so it billowed behind him .... I think its built into all boys genes to want to be a bit like Superman!!