Art Folder - a handmade gift

This is a gift I made for my elder daughter for Christmas. I just had to wait until after Christmas to share it as she does look at my blog!

It is made based on my pencil and notebook folder tutorial but adapted for slightly different contents and and extra 'page' in the middle.

My daughter wants to make pretty notebooks and cards etc. so I got her a selection of papers, stickers and tapes to work with.

I also made her a small velvet pouch to go with the folder to keep in the tapes, glitter, scissors etc.

She loved her gift and I can't wait to see what creative things she makes with it all!

Jill

Eco-Friendly Upcycled Shopping Bags - make a difference!

Most of last year for me was spent working on producing this

 e-book which comprises 5 patterns/tutorials for making Upcycled Eco-friendly shopping bags.

The amount of plastic bags we go through each day and that you subsequently see flying around the streets and floating in rivers and the sea is saddening.  I have myself tried to eliminate our household use of plastic bags, gradually replacing them with reusable fabric ones. 

This e-book is the culmination of several years of making and adapting things to provide convenient, practical yet stylish shopping bags that will reduce our impact on the environment.

I've made the sewing tutorials as simple, clear and photo-laden as possible to enable even a confident beginner sewer to try them all.

The book is priced at just $5

So why not grab a copy today and reduce your own use of plastic bags when shopping this year.

To buy my e-book for just $5

simply send me an email at jillinamillion@y7mail.com

Thank you for your support!

Jill

Happy New Year 2015

A new year and a new plan.

This year is going to be AMAZING!

After starting "Use What You've Got" last year, I'm going to continue that but on a bigger more ambitious scale!

I'm continuing to declutter my house and I have to say a LOT of space is taken up with fabric, notions and clothes to be upcycled.

So, this year I'm going to use it all up!

Yep - you heard right, I'm aiming to use up my stash! Not just 'Stashbusting September', not just make a dent in it, over the whole year I'm going to - USE IT UP!

There are 2 parts to my challenge for this year:

1. Clothes Upcycling

I collected a large collection of clothing from my daughters' school carnival last year with the idea that I'd upcycled them all into bags, toys, pouches etc to sell at this year's carnival in October.

So those clothes are in these chest of drawers and also the bags in front. I'm going to work through one drawer every 2 months from February onwards.

I also have some of my own stash which I can add to this challenge, or the next one!

2. Use up my fabric and notion stash

 These boxes hold most of my fabric stash. They are bursting at the seams, and there are also a couple of bags and a large roll of fabric next to them!

Then these smaller boxes have my smaller fabric scraps in - colour coded.

This is a lot of my notions, buttons, zips and all sorts of other bits and pieces I've saved over the years.

More pockets full of fabric, clothes, trinkets and things I've saved to use creatively!

Basically our spare room built in wardrobes are full of my fabric and clothes upcycling stash.

It's time to stop collecting and saving and start using!

So - to use up my fabric stash, I'm going to make things using my own tutorials - including some new ones. What I make I will either use for ourselves if it's things we need, try to sell, or give as gifts.

I'm also going to use this as an opportunity to try out lots of other tutorials - starting with things I've pinned on my

 "things I want to make board"

I also have a pile of old sewing magazines and books with plenty of things to make in them than I need to use and try:

So there you have it!

Ambitious - it's going to be lots to get through in a year, but I love a good challenge!

I hope you'll follow along, I'll be posting all about the things I make and my slowly shrinking stash!  It all starts in February when the holiday ends and the girls go back to school  for the year!

Have you got any big plans or goals for the year?

I hope 2015 brings all you hope, wish and strive for!

Jill

How to make a sparkly Christmas cushion cover

Today I'm sharing another of my Christmas sewing tutorials. This one shows how to make a
 Sparkly Christmas Cushion Cover.

This is also one of my super simple 5 steps in 15 minutes tutorials that anyone can have a go at - even complete beginner sewers!
Happy Christmas sewing!

Jill

Puffy yo-yo wreath tutorial

Today I'm sharing another of my Christmas tutorials.
This one is for a puffy yo-yo wreath made with scraps from old clothes.

A cute ornament the kids could make themselves!

Happy Christmas Sewing!

Jill

Eco Friendly Shopping bags - the perfect Christmas Gift!

I had a lovely surprise yesterday to see that one of the pattern testers for my new e-book posted about it on her blog. Niki from Roonie Ranching shows the gorgeous bags she made from the patterns and tutorials in my e-book. She was such a big help as a pattern tester and I'm flattered she wrote such a nice post about my book,  so THANK YOU Niki!
Go here to see her post

I also have to mention another lovely lady at Wesens Art who bought my ebook, made the bags and posted about them too, THANK YOU!!
Go here to see that post

My e-book would make a great Christmas present for someone who sews.

It includes 5 sewing patterns/tutorials to make a selection of eco-friendly upcycled bags to use for shopping. Helping to reduce the use of those nasty plastic bags.
It is a bargain price at just $5
It's the perfect gift that gives that little bit more!
To buy a copy simply email me at jillinamillion@y7mail.com
Happy sewing and upcycling!

Jill

Christmas Handibag tutorial

Today I'm also sharing another of my Christmas tutorials.
This one is for a Christmas Handibag. I've been using mine lots over the past few weeks as I Christmas shop.

 I think I'm done now but still have this handibag in my handbag just in case I find some other presents to buy!
So here is my 
Christmas Handibag Tutorial

Happy Christmas Sewing!

Jill