Laptop Luxury

I am supposed to be sorting paperwork, but as I was up as early as usual, I have spent 2 hours finally making the laptop case that’s been in my head since Christmas.

I had been carrying my little laptop round in a padded envelope for a while and I thought to myself,  ‘why not make a case from it?’

Of course, lovely as padded envelopes are, I am a fancy fabric girl and ( a shock to you I know) I had kept a dress of my daughter’s, (already upcycled from Lovely Husband’s Great Aunt’s skirt) that she had grown out of. The fabric was too gorgeous to give up so I decided to use it for this project.

I discovered some co-ordinating lining fabric in my stash and basically made a pillow case to slot the opened up envelopes into. Then I folded and sewed the edges together and turned it right side out to make a pretty padded envelope before topstitching some of the edges to hold them in place. A piece of elastic I’d saved from the waistband of a garment too worn to give away was perfect for holding the flap closed and to finish off I raided my braid box.

 

The bonus is that my little laptop can no longer lurk in dark places, laughing at me while I search for it – this bright wrapping will make it easy to find!!

 

 

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No new stationery allowed

I have a house full of notebooks.

Ok that is a bit of an overstatement, but I certainly possess a lot of notebooks because I can’t resist buying them whether I need one right now or not PLUS I can’t let a free one pass me by.

Is there a word for stationery fetish? I am certainly suffering from it…

In a bid to save some money and use up my stock I had a good look through and decided that part of the reason I am not choosing to use some of them immediately is because they are not the most beautiful  notebooks in the pile. I decided to give them a makeover!

I was using duct tape recently for another craft project and thought to myself, ‘ I know I could use a bit for this!’

Here are the results:

this one was hardback – I simply added a band of orange, some Sharpie patterns and orange paper ends inside.

   

This one I strengthened the cover of as it was just a paper front. On  top of the weighting I used duct tape to go round the whole book – even over the spiral binding which I had covered with an old advertising leaflet. It still opens and shuts well and looks much more appealing!

I almost can’t wait for my current notebook to be finished 🙂

Thought for the year

I’ve been having a bit of a tidy – as you do when there is a million other things you MUST get done before the beginning of term – and I came across this piece (instructions I think came for Guiding Magazine) that I made as an example for the Guides.

Each of the girls made one, thinking about the part of our Promise that is about being true to yourself. There were various quotes available to add or they could write their own.

With the New Year in mind and the committment and creative thinking that will be required of me in 2015, this seemed even more appropriate.

nail art, but not as we know it

I was tidying my bedroom today and I came across an old handbag mirror. It still opened and shut but the silver outside was horribly tarnished, so I got my nail varnish out and prettied it up.

I will use some proper varnish to try and protect it, but however long it lasts, it looks so much more attractive now!

a silk purse out of two sows ears

I have continued to have a lovely time going through my make do and mend box and now own several more wearable pairs of trousers and shorts after some mending and cutting – it’s amazing how easily you forget what you own when the items are languishing out of sight.

In amongst the waiting items were two of Lovely Husband’s old grey t-shirts. He had a habit of buying lots of the same item in the past which turned out to be great for me when he put them out for the second hand bag.

With Oldest Daughter on her summer holiday earlier than Youngest Daughter I decided to find her something creative to do, so I gave her a heart shaped stamp, some fabric paint and the t-shirts (with cardboard inside) and told her to stamp away.

When the pattern was dry and ironed to fix, I used the t-shirts as fabric to make her a new summer dress. I literally laid her favourite dress onto the t-shirt; first the top half (adding a few inches as she is ever-growing)

and then the skirt part onto the second t-shirt. I had to wiggle it about here to make it fit, so the swish is slightly less, but it still works.

I then simply sewed the pieces together and hemmed the skirt, neck and armholes.

As you can see it looks pretty and fits well. I think oldest daughter is pleased.

 

busy busy busy

I cleared out my craft corner (again) recently, trying to make space for the paperwork I know will be part of my new course.

This meant I unearthed my sewing machine from its corner and yesterday I set to on my make do and mend box.

In one day I managed to:

shorten/adjust two dresses

fix and line my favourite handbag

adjust a t-shirt for a better fit

repair my horribly torn pyjama trousers

hem smallest daughters school trousers for next year

In addition I rediscovered a much loved linen jacket. It had torn and worn cuffs so I hand pleated 5 metres of cotton ribbon, cut off and reapplied the cuffs and then applied the ribbon to the bottom hem and cuff ends. Here is the gallery of work:

Am very happy.

Painting again-at last!

Entirely appropriately, on my 100th blog post, I have been working on something for one of the celebrations of the Brownie Centenary in our area.

I was asked to paint a Brownie for Starquest on Saturday, so that our District could run a ‘Pin the badge on the Brownie’ game during the day.

I love to paint, when I have the time, and having been reminded that I’d said yes to this request, I threw myself into it – and here is the result:

I am particluarly pleased with her face:

I tried to make her as generic as possible while still going for the 1970’s girl vibe. I think I have been successful.

Anyone need any illustrations done? I’m on a roll and I’m probably not expensive enough 🙂