Creating my way to Success: September 2013

Upcycling Men's Neckties

This week's clothing item is one that I've seen lots of different ways of upcycling, and done a few myself!

So here are lots of fabulous ideas for those old ties!

A notebook and pen folder with full tutorial - by me!

Kids bow-ties by Olivia Renn:

Necktie Snakes by Allie Belle Designs:

Pleated Tie Necklace from Of Pinks and Fairytales:

A pretty flower from Heavenly Handmades:

Tie skirts from Doodlecraft:

And a tie bag by...me!

There are even more ideas on my

Men's Necktie Upcycling Pinterest Board

I have a board for each clothing item, plus each item has it's own dedicated post. You can find all of those here.

And for over 600 amazing ideas for upcycling clothes - take a look at the ongoing linky here. You'll find so much inspiration and there's always room for more so please do link up your own clothes upcycling projects too!

Happy Upcycling!

Upcycled plastic bottle crochet hanging pots

It's been a while since my daughter and I did any crochet. We're still very much beginners - but like to practise and experiment.

I had this idea I wanted to try out with plastic bottles!

First I cut the bottom part off two empty washed out bottles:

Then I punched holes around the top edge of each one:

Finally - I took one, my daughter took the other, and we crocheted around the top, going through the holes as we went round, then added handles:

Very cute don't you think?

I've filled mine with pens and hung it by my desk:

My elder daughter saw them and thought they would make cute Halloween trick or treat baskets - or perhaps Easter baskets!

They'd also be cute as perhaps treat bags for parties - or Christmas!

We even thought they might make cute little hanging herb planters.

I think I might upcycle all our plastic bottles like this for a while!

What do you think?

What else could you use them for?

Upcycling nighties to origami bags

I have several nighties in my clothes upcycling stash and had an idea as to how they could best be upcycled.

The soft, silky fabric makes for beautiful little bags made using my Fabric Origami Bag tutorial:

Here's the pile of nighties I've got..

I think I'll make a few of these bags with this stash.

They'd be great gift bags for jewellery, perfume or toiletries perhaps - maybe nice little stocking fillers for Christmas?

From two nighties I made two bags. The straps are long enough for the drawstrings for the bags, and there's then a little of the fabric from each nightie left over, that could may be saved to make gift wrapping flowers or decorations?

Do you think this is a good use for those nighties?

What would you used nice soft silky bags like this for?

Sunday Motivation

Cheesymite Scrolls - an Aussie Snack!

I don't usually post recipes, but I do like to share snippets of my life in Australia - and this is one of those snippets!

These scrolls are a favourite snack for my girls - and I like them myself too!

We used to buy them from the bakers as a treat, but then I found a recipe and now I make them most weeks and the girls get them in their school lunch boxes!

I'm not sure where I got the recipe from - I still have it written on a scrappy bit of paper (must get a round to writing it in my recipe book!!)

I thought I'd share the recipe here - a good Australian snack! What makes it Australian? The addition of this..

Cheesymite Scrolls

1. Mix 1 cup water and 1/2 tsp yeast until there are no lumps.

2. Add 25g melted butter, 1/4 cup milk, 5tsp sugar and 1tsp salt. Mix

3. Sift 3 cups flour in and mix, keep adding until dough loses most of its stickiness. Turn out and knead for 10 mins.

4. Put the ball of dough into a greased bowl.

Cover with a damp tea towel and leave in a warm place for about an hour. It should rise and look like this:

5. Roll the dough out into a large square.

6. Here's where it gets Aussie!!

Spread with Vegemite and cover with grated cheese.

7. Roll carefully into a log and using a very sharp knife, cut into slices and place on a greased baking tray.

8. Cover with a damp tea towel again for around an hour and they should rise some more to look like this:

9. Bake in oven 200C (395F) for 15 mins.

10. Enjoy your Cheesymite Scrolls!! Yum!

Mini Triangular Boxes

I found these cute little triangular pouches via Pinterest a while ago and pinned them to my Things I want to make board.

I had just a little time yesterday for sewing so was looking for a quic kproject and these fit the bill perfectly.

The tutorial is by Needling Things and she made these pouches as thread catchers.

It's a great little tutorial, and is basically a kind of fabric origami bag as you just make a double sided triangle using two pieces of fabric, then fold and stitch the edges together before adding the buttons. Nice and easy!

I made one using left over scraps from sundresses.