Category Archives: Scrap Sunday

Scrap Sunday: lined scrap hat

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A couple of months ago I knitted a hat with ear flaps (using from my stash), thinking it would probably be for my son. But it became too big and I wasn’t sure about the colours. So I left it on the big pile of unfinished projects on my desk.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, my sister told me how pleased her children were with their shirts and that the little one had already demanded “another dinosaur from auntie Ursula” as my sister had put his shirt  into the washing machine, without any reason or notice obviously.IMG_2333 I thought I should make him something out of the left overs of this dinosaur fabric. But what? Definitely not a hairband. 🙂 So I left the idea in the big pile of unfinished ideas in my head.

And then, the pressure of Scrap Sunday was on and I suddenly remembered the hat and its colours and how similar they were to the colours of the dinosaur fabric. How about lining the hat with dinosaurs? (A bit of a waste as the yarn is the softest merino wool ever, even approved by Mr. sensitive skin.)

I searched for the hat and remembered that I was not quite sure about the colour combo. I really like contrasting colours but somehow it did not work here.

I simply can’t give my nephew a present I am unsure about myself. So I ordered new yarn for a new hat and stared in the meantime at the old one. I realised it was only the red crochet edge which didn’t work for me. But I didn’t have anymore of the green yarn left. (Stupidly I did not take a picture of the hat at this stage).

When the box with the new yarn finally arrived, I tried the new colours and there it was, a slightly darker and bluer green. The perfect edge for this hat, much better than the initial red one. I added a pompom with the contrasting orange and red from the stripes and lined the hat with the dinosaur fabric. And now it is really lovely  and I am so pleased I did not just rip the whole hat.

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I just hope my nephew doesn’t think that the dinosaurs should be seen and wants to wear it inside out….. Maybe it is not a good idea to use nice fabric as a lining after all 🙂IMG_2523

 

Scrap Sunday

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Maybe I should keep my challenges to once a month rather than once a week as I have to slightly cheat. Again. The Scrap Sunday project I had in mind for this week, isn’t finished yet. So I will have to reuse an old idea. Again. And it is only week 4 or so. But I made this item this week and I used only left overs. So technically it is fine for Scrap Sunday. Just not what I have planned.

Anyway, we are going to a birthday party today, hurray! The little girl seems to be a huge cat fan but has most likely all available cat books at home already so I decided to try to make a cotton bag with a cat applique. That is quite a challenge for me as I am really not good at drawing. So I did a lot of research (online and picture books in our on-site library) and after hours and hours of erasing wobbly pencil lines, there was finally a recognisable cat shape. See, I really need a shape-only applique. I would never be able to stitch or draw a face on that cat. Well, never say never, but not in the next zillion years.

After that it was straight forward, I just followed my own tutorial 🙂

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I was a bit worried of the narrow curves when stitching on the applique, in fact I had incredibly low expectations in my own abilities but I exceeded them by miles 🙂

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I am in fact so pleased with the result that I will try to draw other shapes (rather than just printing out oversized letters).

I can definitely do hearts. I have done this before. And a star probably. And a duck most likely. And a bunny, I am sure I can get the bunny in my head onto paper. And a butterfly of course. I can definitely do butterflies. And cars. I rather stop here. I don’t want to raise expectations which I am then unable to meet 🙂 .

 

Scrap Sunday: Hairbands

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I’ll keep it short as I will have to type this post on my phone, lying in my comfy hotel bed in Oxford (see how committed I am to Scrap Sunday).

Hairbands as a pretty and simple way of using up fabrics (and yarn for that matter) have been on my mind since a while.

..or Scrap Sunday I wanted to do it properly (starting by actually going away for a weekend) and rather than just taking a piece of fabric and sew it together without having cut it into the right shape as I had done here a few weeks ago:

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I have done some research online and in my daughter’s  drawer. I stumbled over a tutorial by hamburger liebe (online, not in the drawer) a name i actually already knew from some of the loveliest fabric designs  (You really need to check that out)

so I tried her tutorial and measurements and found it a little bit big, even for my adult head. I took it to sewing class to ask the others and my first trial got snatched out of my hands!  Clearly a good size then and it’s just me having a tiny head.20141003_144210

I made one out of a woven cotton and quite like the secure feeling of that one.IMG-20141004-WA0001

After two trials I finally made a smaller one using left overs from my nieces shirt which happens to be a hamburger liebe design. Sooo lovely. I guess that one should go to my niece to match the shirt.IMG-20141004-WA0002

I think I will still continue my trials and make an even simpler and smaller one similar to the one from a high street brand in my daughter’s drawer as it will just suit my daughter’s … ahem … hairstyle better.

And for myself? Well I am a proud fringe wearer so I much prefer something that I can tie each time rather than messing up my fringe…. not that it would be anywhere near as voluminous as Claudia Winkleman’s but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve full attention 🙂

Puh, that was the last time I did that one my phone. Especially as it will still be Sunday when I get home.

Scrap Sunday – make up bag

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IMG_2479If you are following this blog since a while, you might think: Has she not been showing us that before? Is she reusing posts already in the second week of her challenge? No, I am not. But well done for recognising  the fabrics as I have used exactly those for my skirt a while ago 🙂

If, however, you have no clue what I am talking about, go back and read this blog properly, there might be a written exam next week!

So, I have used a lovely pattydoo pattern to make this little bag, entirely made of material I already had at home, even the zip was somewhere in my zip collection.

It really is made out of many little pieces and I will certainly make a few more of those, I think they make a lovely gift.

But I do have a little problem with it. (I can see some of you (you know who you are!) rolling their eyes about me being overly fussy about little details.)

Actually the box pleats aren’t shown off properly because it has a lining with interfacing which makes the inside rather stiff and strong. IMG_2480So even if you fill the bag with something, it will not pop out the pleats, which is a bit of a shame because you can not really see the fabric hiding behind the pleats unless you pull them apart (which I did for the first two pictures).

IMG_2481I think I have two options to get to my desired effect:

I could cheat and leave a little gap between the pleats so the background fabric always shows.

Or I leave out the strengthening interface and make the lining a bit bigger than the actual bag. So when it gets filled, there will be room to push out the pleats naturally. I think this is my first choice. It is only a small bag and not meant to hold heavy things anyway. So I will see how this goes and keep you updated.