Fabric boxes

Fabric boxes look great and can be used to hold a multitude of things.  I originally wrote this tutorial for Making Gifts magazine but thought I would share it here also.

These buckets make great storage solutions. You can use them to store smellies in the bathroom, socks and pants in the bedroom, crafts supplies in your studio or just put them on your shelves to pretty it up!.

The buckets are reversible, can be used with edge rolled up or down, depending on your mood and they can be stacked when not in use.

Primark re-hash bracelet

link

This pretty bracelet gave me an idea for creating something similar of my own.  I have since seen quite a few similar designs, involved plaiting chain, fabric and strings of beads.  I recently bought a big load of scarves and cheap jewellery from Primark to cut up and rehash into new things and this bracelet was the first quick DIY project.

my version

Fabric covered bangles

materials

fabric covered bangles

There are 2 methods for making fabric bracelets, one involves wrapping fabric around the bracelet, the other involves gluing a strip of fabric onto a bracelet and folding the edges into the inside of the bracelet.

Fabric wrapped bracelet

This is a super quick and easy accessory to make, either as a gift or as a little something to set off your outfit.

More after the jump

Fabric covered beads

materials

finished fabric beads

Fabric covered beads are really pretty but they are expensive and previously I always thought if I made my own I needed to use a wooden bead as a base, which in itself is pretty dear if you plan on making more than a few.  Recently I came across these polystyrene balls of various sizes which they stock in John Lewis and online and thought that I could cover the polystyrene balls with fabric using a sort of decoupage method - I tried it and it works!

Belle Jar

I love bell jars, cloches or specimen jars, whatever you want to call them, I love them. But I cannot afford the pricey tag of an expensive bell jar, or a taxidermy crow which I would love to have inside one of my imaginary bell jars, so I looked online at DIY ways to make bell jars. Many people had used old domed carriage clock cases, removing the clock part and painting up the base of the clock, and that works really well, but I don't have a carriage clock and its raining hard today so I didn't want to traipse round the charity shops looking for one. I've been keeping lots of empty jars recently for various crafty projects and I was looking at an old pickled onion jar which was stacked upside down and thought it could make a sort of DIY version of a bell jar, which a bit of TLC. So I knocked up this little version. Its nowhere near as good as the real thing but it'll do for now, although I might make a couple more as collections often look better than single objects. (This afternoon, I was scrolling thru my blog and came back across this post, so my idea wasn't original after all, and they have a crow!)

Vintage Spool Buttons

I have been looking for a winter coat for a while but they are either prohibitively expensive or not my style. I had a bit of a brainwave last night when I saw an old summer khaki coat in the wardrobe. I have had the coat since my uni days, so over 10 years - eeek! I've altered it already a number of times. So I took hooded top (which I no longer wear as its covered in paint) and I cut the hooded top up the middle at the front and sewed it into my khaki coat - ta da...New winter coat!! It doesnt look too shabby either.

I was going to buy some nice wooden buttons to sew down the centre of the coat to jazz it up a bit and was about to leave the house to go button shopping this morning when I suddenly realised I didnt need to buy any wooden buttons, I could use the ends of old wooden spools.

Jam Jar Pincushions

                   


Take one small tiptons jam jar. These are the little ones, about 1 1/2" high.