Furry monster pencil case

My daughter requested that I make her friend a furry pencil case for her birthday, so this is what I came up with.

I used my Giant Twin Zip Pencil Case tutorial, with a few alterations.

I added applique eyes on the front; put the front zip lower and added a row of white felt teeth. I also lined the pencil case with nice soft velour:

The finished case size  is 35 x 26 cm (approx 14 x 10")

It's so soft and cuddly, I'm not sure that I would want to fill it up with pencils, but I'll leave that up to the birthday girl to decide!

If I were to make it again - I think I'd line the smaller zip portion (the mouth) with red or pink so it's more like the inside of a mouth when you open the zip!

Sunday Motivation

Another birthday gift made

My girls have a couple of birthday parties to go to at the weekend, so I've been making gifts.

The first one is finished:

A personalised pencil case, notebook and bag. I

The notebook cover I made using my own 5 minute tutorial.

The bag using another of my 5 minute tutorials.

And the pencil case..well I've just realised I've never done a basic lined pencil case tutorial! - another thing to add to my 'to do' list.

Here's the one I made today:

I'm very pleased with how this set turned out - and hope the birthday girl likes them too!

Pop them in the bag..

And then I'll get my girls to make a pretty birthday card to go with the gift!

Sunday Motivation

Sunday Motivation

Upcycling swimwear

What can be done with old swimwear?

When I first started to look at this I was doubtful as to whether I would find anything.  I do either pass on or try to upcycle all our old clothes - I find it hard to throw any kind of clothes out - yet swimwear is one thing that I have always thrown out when it gets stretched and worn.
However... my girls are swimmers, and since starting to swim competitively have got some pretty snazzy swimsuits. They do grow attached to their swimsuits, and they've asked me to keep those that they've grown out of - to make something from them that they can keep! So I began to search for ideas for swimsuit upcycling!

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A few years ago, Speedo released the LZR racer swimsuit - that when worn by top swimmers resulted in many world records being broken. Subsequently these swimsuits were banned in competition, but Speedo, not wanting the suits to go to waste donated them to some fashion students in London to upcycle!

Here you can see a short video of what they came up with, - some great upcycled clothing items!

I have also added some ideas that I found to my 

Pinterest board for upcycling swimwear - some amazing dresses made from old swimwear and even a summer pavillion!

Of course if you don't have enough old swimwear for a pavillion....

You can always resize a swimsuit to fit someone smaller - like Danielle from Blissful and Domestic did here:

Or combine an old funky swimsuit with another clothing item. 
For example, a while ago
I used an old swimsuit together with an oversized t-shirt to make 

a dress for my little girl:

Other suggestions I found while browsing were:

Sew up the bottom of a girls suit and use it as a bag.

Use pretty parts of the fabric as embellishments on other clothes and bags.

Use the soft swimsuit fabric for stuffing.

So armed with all these ideas I got out my girls old swimsuits..

I decided to try cutting up the one that was in the worst condition fabric wise - very worn and stretched, my younger daughter's much loved 'flame' suit.
I was inspired by a couple of Beanie kids my daughters were given..

So I made a rough pattern, took a deep breath and cut the first swimsuit..

I stitched this using my machine, but found it really tricky. The fabric was very slippery and stretchy, and even with a brand new and fine needle the fabric just didn't want to stitch evenly.  
 I persisted and ended up with this..

I don't think teddy has a swimmers physique, but it doesn't look too bad! I'm sure my daughter will love it!  
I think I'll try this again with the rest of the fabric from this swimsuit, but hand-stitch to see if that works out any better.

I don't want to cut up another swimsuit until I know I can stitch it back together into something worthwhile. That's the good thing about clothes upcycling though - you can learn about sewing techniques and different fabrics on old clothes, so mistakes don't matter so much!

I've also got a pile of my old swimwear that I can practice on too!

This is going to be a longer term project than I thought. I will post my progress as I experiment - and add any successful upcycles to the linky below which will stay open long-term.
Any tips on sewing with swimsuit fabric would be much appreciated too!

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Have you ever upcycled old swimsuits?

To see more clothes upcycling ideas - item by item, go here, and come back each week for a new item!

Or for over 600 general clothes upcycling ideas go here!

I am also creating Pinterest boards for each clothing item with ideas for upcycling - you can follow my boards here. Or just check out the one for Swimwear Upcycling.

Happy Upcycling!

Make your own apron in 5 steps and 15 minutes

My daughter needed a new apron for cooking. She'd grown out of her last one - and since both my girls seem to be growing fast I wanted to make something basic and simple, because no doubt they will grow again soon!

So here's how to make a basic apron in just 5 steps and 15 minutes.

You will need:

Fabric - 1 yard is ample.

Thread and sewing machine.

Step 1.

Cut the fabric

First you need to measure the person whom you are making the apron for.

Measure.. the following:

A: From the collar down to knees (length of the apron)

B: Around the hips from side to side (width of the apron)

C: Inside arm to inside arm (width of top of apron)

D: From collar to waist (from top of apron to straps)

For the straps - use your tape measure to find a comfortable length around the neck - by lifting the tape over the head.

The straps should both be around 4 cm (1.5") longer than the width of the apron.

For my 10 year old daughter, I cut:

Main piece - 42 x 64 cm (16.5 x 25")

Neck strap - 52 x 10 cm (20.5 x 4")

2 Waist straps - 46 x 10 cm (18 x 4")

Step 2

Cut main apron shape.

Fold your main fabric in half then measure in from the fold at the top HALF of measurement C (for me this was 11.5 cm (4.5"))

Place a pin here.

Then measure down from the top edge of the longer side of the fabric - on the open edges, measurement D (for me this was 27cm (10.5")).

Place another pin here.

Then cut through both layers of fabric in a curved shape from pin to pin:

Step 3

Finish off the edges of the main apron piece.

Simple double turn over the edge of the apron piece to hide the raw edges and stitch all the way around like this:

Step 4

The straps

For each strap: 

1.fold the short edge over

2. Fold both long sides in to the middle

3. Fold one side over the other to completely hide the raw edges.

4. Top-Stitch around all 4 edges, remembering to turn in the other short end to hide that raw edge.

Step 5

Attach the straps to the main apron.

Place the apron flat, and pin the 2 straps and the longer neck strap to the back corners of the apron like this:

Stitch each strap into place securely by stitch a square with a cross through the middle where it joins to the main apron.

All done! Try your apron on and set to work in the kitchen!

For the downloadable PDF version of this tutorial, click here.

To see more tutorials for useful things to make in just 

5 steps and 15 minutes - go here.

Or you can visit my tutorials page for over 

100 free sewing tutorials for all sewing levels!