It was requested a little while ago that I make a tutorial on how to make a felt case for an iphone or ipad touch. I made one of these for a Christmas present so it seemed like a good chance to show you what I did ^_^
These could be used for phone or little bags, hell make it bigger and you could use it as an evening handbag ^_^
To what you need:
Felt
Scissors
Needle and thread
Pearls
So get whatever you’re making a case for, in this case an iPhone, and use it as a measuring guide on your felt.
Fold the bottom up to make a casing:
Fold the top down so it hangs as far as you want the closure to go…
Trim the edges so there is around 2cm overhang on each side to allow for the seams.
Using a blanket stitch, go up the sides to secure the bottom flap :
Now blanket stitch the first 1cm of the top flap. This is just to form a base that the pearls will attach to while keeping the shape of the bag when it’s held by the strap.
Now let’s make a big flower for the front. Cut out a bunch of petals like this in varying sizes…
Starting with the biggest petals, pleat them a couple of times in the middle and then stitch through to hold it in place.
Repeat for all of them and you get something like this…
Now let’s start putting it all together! Stitch the first row of petals into a circle. I used 3 large and 3 medium:
Continue with another layer of less petals. You should place them so their points sit between the points of the layer beneath ^_^
Keep adding layers until you run out of petals!
Finish it by stitching a big pearl in the middle to hide the ugly parts. I only had blue felt at the time but it would be really pretty if you used a gradient of different colours for the petals.
Ok so let’s put it all together!
Stitch the flower on to the flap of the bag. I added a green leaf too.
You can hide the stitches with another piece of felt or a dedication to whoever you’re giving it to ^_^ When it’s opened up it looks like this:
Lastly stitch a string of pearls at the top to use as a strap. You can clip cute cell phone straps there or use it to clip into your handbag so you never have to search for your phone again ^_^
There you have it! These make really cute presents for people and you can customise them with different decorations on the flaps to match the person ^_^
Recently the lovely BGDinosent me a little present of a craft kit from Daiso 😀
I’ve never done any bead craft things like this so I was a little scared when I saw the instructions were all in Japanese and super complicated looking XD
Buuut I muddled through with my beginner’s skills (in both beading and language) and eventually got it done 😀 Though I did take a whole bunch of photos along the way to make a tutorial out of it… the instructions seemed so hard to explain I thought it would probably be better to just post a couple of progress shots instead *_*
I had to make the cup part first and the whole thing was done with 2 threads working at once…
It was all about looping the two threads around each other to form circle after circle.
Then once I got to the top the middle was filled with beads to be the milkshake…
And finished!
I think this is one of the most fiddly crafts I’ve ever done… but the result was so worth it!
I love it and I can’t wait to find a place to hang it 😀 I think I want to try to doing more little things like this too! What’s the most complicated fiddly thing you guys have ever made?
Yesterday I showed you how to make a jumper/sweater into a cardigan and at the end I mentioned that I wasn’t going to add buttons or ribbon ties because I wanted to use cardigan clips. This is how I made them!
Clips like this can be really useful in jazzing up a plain cardigan and are also great for girls with bigger busts who find it difficult to find cardi’s that actually fit in that area!
This particular one was made as a graduation gift for the lovely Celeste^_^
So what you need:
Pretty beads, I’m using pearls and pink crystals
Clip on earring parts
Thread, needles, scissors
Felt
Decorations, I’m using bows and some little heart dangly things
Glue gun
Start my working out how far apart you need the clips to be to keep your cardigan closed and laying out all of your parts.
I decided to put a bow on each side then the heart dangle then alternate between pearls and crystals. It’s really important to use fairly heavy beads otherwise the clips won’t hang down in that cute arched way, they will just get pulled straight from the cardigan.
Now let’s make the beaded part. Using your thread secure it around the first bead (in this case the heart dangly).
Thread on all of your beads…
Tie it on to the other side too. I used jewellery wire for this one but I’ve used plain thread in the past too.
Now let’s take care of the clippy part. You can of course by these from a craft store but I have got an excess of old clip on earrings so I removed the bases of those to use. I cut out felt pieces to cover the front and back of the clips:
Then glued them on…
So that makes a pretty good base.
Now let’s put both of the pieces together! I glued the dangly heart bits on first:
Then added the bows over the top!
Now this is very important: when you put it together, before you glue everything make sure that the clips are pointing in the right direction! They should be facing opposite directions so they can be clipped to the cardigan like this:
It’s a good idea to lay everything out before you actually glue it.
All finished! Very quick and easy to make and a fun way to add some sparkle to a plain cardigan ^_^
So I have this problem a lot… I buy Winter clothes because they’re pretty but you know, living in Australia and all, I don’t have that much use for them. Winter clothes are just prettier though!
This brings me to my current situation, I bought this jumper when I was 16 and living in North QLD (which for those overseas is ridiculously hot. There are pretty much 2 seasons: Summer and slightly more Summer with rain) and it never really fit in the right way. The neckline was really high and the middle had no shape, the shoulders didn’t sit right and generally it just made me look out of proportion… but the pattern was so pretty! So I’ve lugged this stupid sweater around through 3 cities, 7 houses and various different climates. Now living somewhere it does actually get kind of cold I thought “Hey! I’ll finally get to wear it!”… Then I didn’t. I didn’t wear it once through the whole damn Winter.
This time when I decided to clean out my wardrobe it didn’t make the cut… but somehow I still couldn’t let the damn thing go! So I decided to see if I could alter it and make it wearable XD That’s a long intro for this one tutorial but this is going to be the first in a lot of sewing tutorials as I become more ruthless with my wardrobe!
So this is how it started:
I decided to turn it into a cardigan.
What you need:
Sweater
Needle
Thread
Scissors
First thing fold it in half with the neckline on the outside like this:
Cut down the fold, only cut the front layer of fabric!
You should have something like this:
Now because I hated the neckline I decided to make it more flattering so I folded myself a new one which scoops down below the bust. In theory you could cut whatever neckline you want at this point.
Cut off the excess:
Starting on one side at the bottom we’re going to hem the whole thing. Because it’s a knit fabric you will need to enclose all the edges so it doesn’t fray. If you have an overlocker/serger it’s a good idea to go around all of the edges but not completely necessary.
So fold the edge over:
Fold it over again so the raw edge in sandwiched inside:
Thread your needle and using a blanket stitch start going down the seam.
This is the close up on what it should look like:
You could easily run down the seam with a sewing machine but this method (if you’re careful) won’t leave visible stitches on the front of the cardi.
Repeat on the other side and you’re finished!
Now you need some way to close it, you could add a button or ribbons very easily but I decided to leave it as-is and make sweater clips. I’ll show you how to make those tomorrow!
Because I took out a good couple of inches in the middle for the seams it’s now a whole lot more flattering and form fitting. I haven’t decided if I want to do anything else with it yet, I’m thinking it might benefit from some pretty embroidery or possibly some more shaping in the arm area. We’ll see! And if I decide to do it I will definitely post photos!
So there you go, first sewing tutorial in ages. More to come though, I’ll be digging out my sewing machine later this week to do some real work on it and everything XD
Again not a new idea but one that I tend to pull out every year when I need to make cards. To be honest I don’t like cards, I’m no good at writing them XD But sometimes they are necessary! So I make my own. Over the years I’ve done watercolour paintings for people to suit their tastes and put them on the front but this year I just don’t have time for something like that. Also it was kind of sad seeing people throw away things I’d spend hours painting XD
What you need:
Paper or cardboard to make the card
Paint
Paper doilies or lace
Glue
Fold your paper in half to make a card shape…
Get your doily and your paint together. You can use a paint brush if you want but I happened to have one of these paint pens with the squishy foam tips, so I used that.
Find where you want to put you design, I decided to put it right in the middle. Then hold it in place with a finger and start painting.
Keep going gently around the edge.
When you’re finished, remove the doily and you’ve got a pretty pattern!
Then you can re-use the painted doily on as many cards as you want and lastly stick it down onto it’s own card so nothing is wasted.
You can change colours, placement or anything to make them personal. You can also used pretty much anything you want to make the stamp like pieces of lace or pretty stamped tulle. It’s a very fun way to spend a couple of hours and at the end you should have a whole lot of pretty custom cards ^_^
Do you guys like getting cards? Do you keep cards that you’re given?
Shoe clips are awesome, they’re the perfect way to jazz up boring shoes and use up old craft materials. I am a little bit addicted to them actually XD I got a whole bunch of really over the top clip on earrings at a bead store that closed down recently so I decided to go a bit crazy!
What you need:
Old clip on earrings
Something pretty for the clip eg. flowers, leopard print hearts etc
Felt
Scissors
Glue gun
Pull the old earrings apart so you just have the clippy bit like this:
Glue them to what you want on the shoes, I’m using these cute hearts:
Cut a circle of felt and glue it over the top, this is to protect the shoe from any scraping or rust from the clips.
Glue another circle of felt to the top:
Let dry then add to shoes!
You can clip them wherever you want depending on your outfit! You can also clip them to the pockets of cardigans or into your hair. Seriously versatile and very very very easy to make.
I remade some flowers that I had sewn on to these shoes with clips so I can put them anywhere now.
What do you think? I love them 😀 I want to find more earrings so I have make heaps of them now!
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Illustrator. Strong tea, knitting, watercolours, and making a video game called Moonlight in Garland. Living with her adorable husband Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.
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