Frivolous Ruffles!

So I went shopping at Tesco today and found t-shirts 2 for £6 so I picked up 2 pink t-shirts, one to wear and one to sacrifice! After seeing loads of posts (here, here and here) about ruffling up t-shirts I thought I'd join in. I bought my size and the biggest they had to make sure I had loads!

One boring but pretty coloured t-shirt

Look at what I found looking for matching thread! It must have come from my mothers supplies, so goodness how old it is (1960s?). Anyway I LOVE the name of the colour - Frivolous Pink! What a great colour and a great name, goes well with ruffles dontcha think? Ruffles are definitely frivolous!

and the end result.........

(excuse the pot belly - I'm working on getting rid of it.....)

2 long strips and 2 narrow strips, I know groups of 3's usually look better but for some reason it didn't today.

Well I'm really pleased with how it came out, I shall be looking out for more cheap t-shirts that need some jazzing up!

I'm gonna give myself A- for this! What would you give me?

Freezer Paper Adventures

There are loads of posts and tutorials out there to show you how to use freezer paper as a stencil but the blog that gives me the most inspiration is definitely Dana's (seriously, check her out, I want to BE her! Is that a little stalker-like?!) so I decided to give it a go. Got me some freezer paper and Dylon fabric paint and a stained t-shirt. The t-shirt was actually a long sleeved plain white t-shirt with stains on the sleeves where Miss C had repeatedly wiped her dirty pasta sauced face! Yuk! Couldn't get it clean and Darling Husband suggested I just cut the sleeves off (what an easy answer!) so I thought I'll improve it! Taking this ladybird print as inspiration I played about with clip art and found a nice ladybird sitting on a flower. I increased the size and printed it straight on the paper side of the freezer paper and then cut out just the ladybird and ignored the flower. I did the red base first and the black head and waited and waited and waited for the paint to dry..... took ages. When it was dry there were parts that were a bit patchy so I went over it again and left it over night. The next day I put the ladybird body part back on to paint the black spots! And this is how it ended up!

There's a little bit of bleeding especially on the black spots but I think it looks good!

and Miss C loves it!

another ruined t-shirt rescued!  I'm thinking of getting some plain t-shirt just to paint now!

 

Rescued T-Shirt

Using the remains of the sacrificial t-shirt I bought the other day I rescued one of Miss M t-shirts. Despite being 7 she can still get stains on her clothes and even being soaked and washed it wouldn't come out so I turned a few ruffles into flowers and placed them strategically on the stains.

Looks good and another t-shirt rescued, got one of Miss C's to do as well, gonna be a bit more ambitious for that one!

  
 

Easter Parade

At Miss M's school next week the kids are having an Easter Parade and wearing their Easter bonnets they were invited to make. Of course Miss M wanted to make one, so off we went to HobbyCraft (not that I need many excuses to go there!) to get supplies.










Miss M decided where everything should go and I was in charge of cutting and the glue gun....

A butterfly, rabbit, flowery Easter Bonnet!

Is it Amycal or Calamy?

(Please excuse the slippers!)

That's what you get if you cross Amy Butler and Cal Patch. I made this skirt from Amy Butler's Lotus Pink/Tree Peony fabric using a pattern I drafted following Cal Patchs Design it Yourself book. I think it is the best fitted skirt I've had! I have big hips and relatively small waist so I find if I buy a ready made skirt that fits my hips I had a gape at the small of my back so drafting my own means it fits like a glove. I made a voile from some cheap old fabric to test the pattern and had to take the waist in even from my measurements so it definitely pays to check the pattern. On this skirt I used french seams and a concealed zip, I also added a straight waistband but due to my small waist I need to use a curved waistband, I was just too impatient to draft it! Next one I'll draft it and get it right. The concealed zip was more successful than my first attempt but there is still room for improvement. Its looking more and more like spring around here so time for skirts and legs soon, even got my legs waxed the other day in preparation! Now I have a spring skirt there nothing stopping spring from really arriving!

I've had a blog makeover, whatcha think? Not sure about the flower yet so might change again but its a bit cuter!

BTW - I think it should be a Calamy skirt, think that's what I'll call it now!

Tripp Trapp Cushion Cover

My girls have Tripp Trapp chairs which they have had since they were about 6 months old. We've always found them to be fantastic as they allow the child to sit at the table and be part of the family rather than sitting on of those plastic chairs that end up being too far away from the table, they can also be used for such a long time as they height can be adjusted to cater for a growing child. My girls are 7 and 4 and still sit on them. When we bought them we got cushions for them which were never very soft and over the years have become a bit worn and eventually one tore the other day.

I made my usual response these days, 'I'll make you a new one!' and as I couldn't find a pattern online anywhere I used the old ones for reference and set about making them. The seat is make up of 2 panels curved on one side to match the seat shape with 2 flaps underneath to hold onto the chair.

I sandwiched the layers together but you have to be careful about which way you layer then (don't ask me how I know!) so you need them with the smaller pieces facing the same way as shown here.

(The view into the cushion)

I sewed 3 edges together leaving the curved edge open. The girls aways complained that the cushions weren't soft enough so I put 2 layers of 6oz wadding inside.

The piece is cut to the same shape as the chair but slightly smaller to fit inside the cover.

My machine has an overlocker function on it but its not as powerful as a dedicated overlocker so I found that I had to overlock one layer of wadding to one cushion side and the one to the other and then overlock them together.

As you can see the smaller piece is sewn with the right sides together which then flip over covering the overlocking stitches and hold onto the seat.

I sewed a line of stitches about 1/3 and 2/3 of the way across and half way down the seat to hold the wadding in place, the original had the same.

(Action shots!)

So there you are, two seat covers with more cushioning than before and saving myself £40! The girls think they are great and I'm quite pleased.

I'd give myself a A- for this project! What would you give me?!