Archive for the 'Upcycled' Category

Gearing up for Kids Clothes Week

Published on 22/04/2013 by Mary in Boys, clothing, KCWC and Upcycled. 5 Comments

You may know that this week is Kids Clothes Week (KCW). I’ve joined in this event in previous years and had quite productive weeks sewing clothes for my children.

Inspired by the thought of the week ahead and the fact that my little boy now goes to preschool on a Friday morning (as well as Mon and Tues) I decided to do some preparation work:

I pulled out my Sewing For Boys book with a plan for making another pair of Treasure Pocket Pants for the boy. I made a pair for him just over a year ago – size 2-3 years and they just about fit him now (aged 3 1/2):

In this photo from last year they are turned up and he’s wearing a washable nappy which probably helped them to stay up!

So on Friday I rummaged around in our rather full loft and found my bag of old jeans, I selected a pair of mine and a pair of Tobi’s and got cutting. I also pulled out a piece of gorgeous Ann Kelle corduroy that the lovely Fiona from Patchwork Delights sent me when she was clearing out her sewing room.

I tried to get a bit of sewing done early on Saturday morning (7am) but realised that the facings I had cut from the pattern were not long enough. I seem to remember this happening before, so after lunch I measured around the hem opening and cut my pieces to that measurement rather than the pattern piece.

So a pretty quick make and while he’s not tried them on yet he seems rather delighted that mummy has made him some more trousers!

I have more plans for the week which involve shorts for the girls and maybe some more trousers; are you joining in? what do you plan to sew?

I’m linking up to Ange’s monthly book challenge:

Vintage fabric finds – March

Published on 12/04/2013 by Mary in fabric, thrifting, Upcycled and Vintage. 8 Comments

Here’s a selection of the vintage sheets I’ve acquired this month:

I say ‘acquired’ because a some of them were gifted to me by lovely ladies at the Sewing Directory meet up in Exeter. The lovely Helen from Indianna Dreams gave me the gorgeous yellow floral print at the top right, some of the others came from a generous blog reader and local lady Sue – thanks very much ladies.

I have found a few pieces in the charity shop recently and they are making their way into vintage sheet charm packs in my etsy shop (in which I had my best ever month for sales in March – woo hoo!).

March projects

Published on 31/03/2013 by Mary in Paper piecing, Patchwork, Quilts, Upcycled and Vintage. 5 Comments

March seemed to be a really long month, mostly very cold and draughty with some sewing!

I squeezed in some paper piecing before we ‘lost’ the dining room:

Blog post about them here.

I joined in the Orbit QAL and completed the whole quilt not just the top. All made from wonderful vintage sheets.

(Read more about it here)

I started and finished 2 other quilts, here’s a quick peek of one:

The other one I don’t have any photo’s of, it’s for Siblings Together. More details on both to come.

I was able to attend the first Sewing Directory meet up which was a wonderful afternoon with a group of lovely ladies. I’ve not blogged about it but Fiona, Kerry and Rachel have. I don’t have a great deal to add to what they said, you had to be there really, but it was fun to sit and sew and chat, to catch up with friends and to meet some ladies in the flesh who I know online. There will be a bit more about it in my next vintage sheet post. It was truly great, so much so that Fiona is already onto organising the next one for Exeter in the Autumn. If there is one you can get to then I’d highly recommend it, the next one is in London on 27th April.

I squeezed in a commission for a earbud pouch, it all happened so quick and was in the post before I could take a photo, so it looked like this but with a pink zip and a pink Sherbet Pips lining:

And I may just have started cutting up leftovers from my vintage sheet charm to make a Scrappy Trips quilt.

So despite the state of our house I feel like I’ve managed to achieve quite a lot this month, for those of you who don’t know it looks a bit like this:

We have no kitchen or dining room, so are living in the living room (with the dining room table, chairs and a cupboard), the 3 children are sharing a room and the newly vacated bedroom is our temporary kitchen.

Next month? Who knows, but there is a Spring Quilt Festival next weekend which a few of us locals are planning to go to on Saturday, meeting up with Katy and showing her the sights of the south (or maybe just dinner!). If you’re local too and fancy joining us please let me know.

Linking up with:

Orbit quilt finish

Published on 25/03/2013 by Mary in charity shopping, Patchwork, Quilts, thrifting, Upcycled and Vintage. 14 Comments

On a freezing cold day I’m able to share with you a quilt finish.

This is the original fabric pull, all vintage sheets from my stash (some recently obtained from the vintage sheet FQ swap):

It changed a little and I went with the bottom floral print for the background fabric rather than the plain blue solid.

There was a fair amount of cutting to be done but thanks to Lindsey’s clever pattern which includes a quilt by number chart it was easy to put together. The pattern is currently free to download and after 1st April it will be available to buy from Lindsey.

Last night I finally finished sewing the binding on:

Finishing the binding meant that all that was needed were photographs, so despite the temperature I took a walk to the park at the end of our road and pegged the quilt to the fencing of the tennis court. I was concerned about the strength of the wind and the ability to get a decent shot but it was obviously blowing in the right direction, I think it would have stayed up without pegs!

Backed with a vintage sheet:

And the quilting? I’ve never free motion quilted a quilt so I thought ‘why not start on this one?’ For the centre of each Orbit I used pebbles:

For the outer square I did a loopy something or other:

And then for the Orbit I used parallel lines following the outer edge of the Orbit:

I’m pleased with it as a first attempt at free motion quilting (obviously the straight lines are not FMQ!), I can see how with practice it should improve.

Thanks very much to Lindsey for a great pattern (I can see myself using it again) and for hosting the QAL.

Quilt Stats:

Size: 60″ x 60″
Fabric: Vintage sheets
Backing fabric: Vintage sheet
Binding: Vintage sheet – 100% cotton candy stripes
Quilting: Quilted by me on my machine
Batting: Hobbs Heirloom Wadding 80/20
Pattern: Orbit by Lindsey Rhodes of LR Stitched

I’m linking up with:

My goal for the month was to just get the quilt top made but as building work on the house was slower than anticipated (i.e. I was not evicted from the dining room until last week) I was able to get the whole quilt finished – great big hurrah!

Not so hurrah is the cold weather and this sight at the end of today:

Yep that’s right even more of the back of our house is missing! Spring/summer please come soon, our house is so cold.

An empty cardboard box and a bed sheet

Published on 28/12/2012 by Mary in gifts, Scraps, thrifting and Upcycled. 7 Comments

So I’ve been absent from here for a bit, lots to catch up on but most of it can wait until I have time and peace and quiet to write.

I’ve been busy making Christmas gifts and here is one I’m quite pleased with:

Ok maybe in that picture it doesn’t look that impressive. They are marshmallow squares, a special Christmas edition with Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis), loved by my children especially with edible disco shimmer on top.

The question arose as to what to give my eldest brother for Christmas, he is not the man who has everything, more the man who is satisfied with what he has. So the girls and I made some marshmallow squares and some rocky road to give to him (yes he likes cakes and biscuits).

Rather than present them in a cellophane bag or plastic tub I pulled out a box that I’d put aside for such an occasion. Using the Inside-Out Box from the Ruby Star Wrapping book as inspiration I turned the box inside out and stuck it back together. However I’m sure you’ll agree that a grey/brown cardboard box isn’t that exciting.

The other dilemma I had was that the sticky tape had been removed from it’s home and no one knew where it was (I have my suspicions). What else to do but make my own tape? I pulled out a rather delicious red and white gingham sheet and cut strips from it and then stuck these onto double sided sticky tape, creating some festive looking tape, which I then stuck to the box (and all other gifts that needed tape!):

What I particularly like about this box (Geobars) is that it has a viewing window so you can peek at what is inside! I’m now looking at every cardboard box in a different light, assessing it’s potential for a new life!

Linking up with:

Ruby Star Wrap Along – week 7

Published on 18/12/2012 by Mary in clothing, featured item, Men, projects and Upcycled. 6 Comments

Once upon a time many years ago I bought a shirt from Top Man, I loved it, yes it was a man’s shirt but it was comfy and soft and I wore it a lot.

Then I met Tobit, the man I was to marry and he liked the shirt too, so he started to wear it. Then some years later something happened, i don’t know what but it didn’t get worn so much, it didn’t really go out of fashion it being a fairly classic fabric and cut. I suspect it was worn whilst decorating by someone, as it had a few telltale paint smears on it.

But despite the relegation to a piece of decorating clothing it was never thrown away. And then, as I flicked through the pages of Ruby Star Wrapping one project jumped out at me, the Button down shirt bag. For some reason Tobit pulled the shirt out of his wardrobe the other week and asked if I wanted it, so through the wash it went and once dry I set to work on it.

The result? A more manly bag than many of the others in this house:

I pretty much followed the pattern in the book. I lined the bag with some new grey cotton to give the bag a bit of strength. I didn’t use any interfacing as although the shirt has been worn alot it is still in good condition. I used the sleeves to make handles and reversed the fabric so the faded side is on the inside.

In conclusion I am delighted with this project, I loved this shirt and it is wonderful that it has a new lease of life and can be used frequently. It was going to be a Christmas gift for Tobit but I was too pleased with it to wait a fortnight to gift it to him!

And if you have made anything from the book now is the time to link up with Sew Mama Sew Ruby Star Wrapping Contest

Linking up with:

Vintage finds – November

Published on 04/12/2012 by Mary in charity shopping, fabric, thrifting, Upcycled and Vintage. 5 Comments

The Sew Mama Sew Giveaway post is here, there is still plenty of time to enter.

It’s been a busy month and I think I only made it to the car boot once, due to terrible weather (I can’t imagine anyone was out on those Sundays, buyers or sellers), illness and being away at the wedding.

So technically only the first two sheets were found in November:

The wonderful blue one was gifted to me on Saturday at the fair by some lovely friends Ant and Tatty, it was pulled from a bag of stuff at Tatty’s mums that was due to go the charity shop. I am delighted with it!

The others are all pillowcases that I found at the charity shop on my birthday yesterday! I’ll be chopping these up to add to charm packs available in my shop (use the discount code in yesterdays post for 15% off).

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day – sewing and craft supplies (now closed)

Published on 03/12/2012 by Mary in craft, creative, fabric, giveaway, Patchwork, thrifting, Upcycled and Vintage. 423 Comments

Hello and welcome to all of you lovely people visiting for the first time as part of the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day and happy Monday to all my regular readers.

I’m Mary, I live in the south west of England with 3 young children and a wonderful understanding husband who for the most part supports my sewing habit whole heartedly (even fabric shopping for me when on trips to the US), oh and today is my birthday.

Back in May I opened an Etsy shop as an outlet for my excessive vintage sheet collection, thanks to all you who been helping me out by buying the kits and charm packs!

Today I’m giving away 3 packs of vintage charms – 126 charms in total. You could use them to make some baby quilts or to make one big quilt. I’ve made a few baby size quilts and would love to make a large one using my charms so I’m hoping that giving away some packs will motivate me to get on and make one.

The charm packs will include a selection of fabrics the same or similar to the ones here:

I’ll also enclose a pack of Vintage Fabric Tape, made by me using up scraps from my charm cutting.

And just as a thank you for visiting and because it’s my birthday, this week I’m offering you 15% discount in my shop using the code SMS1212 until Sunday 9 December 2012 at 9pm (UK time).

To enter please leave a comment telling me what you are most looking forward to doing this week, I’m looking forward to eating chocolate cake with sour cream that my husband and middle child baked yesterday afternoon.

For additional entries you can:
Subscribe to my blog (top right of this page)
Add my Etsy shop to your favourites
Like my Facebook page

Just leave an additional comment letting me know any of those you do and please ensure that I have a way of contacting you if you win.

Open internationally

Comments will close on Friday December 7 at 5pm PST (which is 1am here in the UK, funnily enough I’ll probably be asleep at that time so any comments left after this time will be deleted!)

The winner will be selected using Random Number Generator and will be announced by Sunday December 9.

I should also mention that I’m organising a Vintage Sheet Fat Quarter swap (predominantly for the UK and Ireland due to postage costs).

If you are interested in joining in check out the flickr group here

Lastly but not least don’t forget to head back on over to Sew Mama Sew for so many other fantastic opportunities to win.

Deeply grey Friday and a big discount in my Etsy store…

Published on 22/11/2012 by Mary in Christmas, gifts, Upcycled and Vintage. 4 Comments

A bit of a twist maybe on the Black Friday mayhem that may or may not be taking place in the US this weekend. It’s grey here and very wet, lots of flooding near where we live but I am thankful that we are nice and dry.

It has been a little bit crazy busy round here, not just with sewing but life in general, but we’ve got a family wedding this weekend so looking forward to some fun.

In celebration of some time out, the fact that it’s nearly my birthday and for friends who’ve been celebrating thanksgiving I’m offering you a 20% discount in my Etsy shop over the weekend.

So if you need some vintage charm squares to do some sewing in the holiday season now is the time to buy,

If you need a gift for a sewing friend or relative how about a vintage sheet quilt kit?

Or if someone is new to sewing and you want to give them a simple kit, then a bunting kit might just tick that box:

If you can’t see what you’re looking for or something has sold out then please send me a message and I’ll respond on Monday. Please bear in mind that I won’t be answering messages this weekend (I don’t think there is wi-fi where we’ll be!) but all orders will be in the post by Wednesday 28th at the latest.

Use the code: DISCOUNT20 at the checkout, valid until 9pm UK time on Monday.

Oh and the wedding present quilt is finished. Here’s a quick peep from the photo shoot last Saturday:

Have a great weekend wherever you are.

UR Priceless Blog Hop and a giveaway – now closed

Published on 12/11/2012 by Mary in accessories, featured item, giveaway, Scraps and Upcycled. 137 Comments

Giveaway now closed

After a week of seeing what others have created in this priceless blog hop it’s my turn to share some of my handiwork. First a big thanks to Mdm Samm for the great pattern and instructions and Katherine for organising the blog hop.

Over the last six months I’ve made a number of frame purses;

I’ve also been teaching others how to make these in workshops at Arrietty.
All these purses have been made using the frames where the fabric is glued in rather than sewn in so I was keen to join in this blog hop and try out the sew-in frame.

I found the pattern straight forward to work with, the instructions were clear and the photographs really helpful.

The first one using Jay McCarroll fabrics turned out just fine:

I bought my frames from 3D Pattern Paper, the shop is based in China and I was a little bit concerned about how long delivery might take to the UK but was amazed when it took just 7 days for my parcel to arrive! They have a wide selection of frames in store and the prices are great.

I used a iron on cotton interfacing which has no brand name but I buy it from my local fabric store and it has a great feel and is easy to work with. It has a fleecy feel to it and so is thicker than normal iron on interfacing.

The next one I made involved upcycling some old jeans and using some scraps left over from a scrap quilt:

The back has a different strip of scraps:

I found sewing the purse into the frame wasn’t too awkward (although I did manage to break a needle), the instructions were useful for this otherwise I’m not sure where I would have started. I used threads from my collection, most of it is from the car boot sale or the charity shop so I don’t really know what it is. A couple of times the thread did break but I was able to fix it and not have to start again.

This purse is a bit special, made using some of my favourite fabrics, last week it was one of the winners of the ‘Your Andover’ contest.

Last but by no means least I whizzed this one up on Saturday evening, I needed a bit of sewing time after my daughters 8th birthday party. So while my children were engrossed in watching ‘The Railway Children’ I pulled out my bag of Sew Cherry scraps left from a Siblings Together quilt:

So what to do with all these purses? Do you fancy one? I’m giving one away (but not the orange duck one) – if you’re lucky it might even contain some of that shiny chocolate money!

Just leave a comment below letting me know which one you would like (Jay McCarroll, upcycled denim or Sew Cherry) to be in with a chance to win.

For an extra entry you can sign up for email subscription (top right). Leave an additional comment if you choose to do so. Giveaway will close at 9pm (UK time) next Sunday (18th November) I’ll use random number generator to select a winner – please make sure I have a way of contacting you if you win.

If you want to purchase the pattern you can find it for sale in Mdm Samms Craftsy store.

So go on hop along and see what these other priceless people have made, you might even find another giveaway:

Read, quilt, cook, pray

El Patchwork de la Abuela

Amy’s Crafty Shenanigans

Maryjo J

s.o.t.a.k. Handmade

Chloeandme