Threadbare

I wonder when my waxed linen threads will arrive. I don't think I've bought anything directly from Sweden before. These fabric-covered books will have to wait. Maybe I should go sort the remaining fabric to see if I can make drawstring bags for these while I wait.

I did manage to almost complete this. LOL, almost complete, what's that?

Another crochet hobo with faux leather handle. This was made from a single strand of 8-ply cotton crochet from a cone. I think I might have just enough to make another. I like this yarn, just crochet and crochet without joining another ball of yarn. Cool!

I like these handles. Maybe I'll get some more if the supplier still has stock. Perhaps make a few hobo bodies for interchangeable bags.

Fun!

Have a blessed day!

Sewing books

First I made the books.

These are saddle-stitched books with cardstock and unlined paper. I have so many shades of green, blue and pink left and even more cardstock.

Then I made the drawstring bag to put the books in. 

Then I made a larger book with a fabric over the cardboard and decided that it'll have it's own drawstring bag. 

What a lot of fun :-)

Have a blessed day!

Make your own : fabric-covered hair tie kit

This kit contains almost everything you'll need to make your own fabric-covered button hair ties. It's just short of needle and thread to help you get the elastic through the loop at the back of the button. You can try to squeeze the elastic through if you don't have needle nor thread.

There's a fabric cover button kit. You can get this from Daiso. This one comes with its button-making kit. There's also the refill kit at Daiso. Daiso has both the green and blue pushers but I prefer the green 'cos the mould that comes with it is transparent and you can see if the picture is centred. The blue pusher has an opaque mould.

I also included 15 elastic hair ties. Extra for just in case. Besides, it came in packs of 5, LOL!

I cut 11 pink hexagons. All different, all cotton-linen blend. There are also 4 circles from Lecien's Happy Chihuahua.

All you'll need is just the tutorial here.

Have fun!

ps: I'll be coming up with a scrunchie kit later. Very useful for classes or get-togethers, but DD doesn't seem to like my idea of a pendant making party, LOL!

How green can you go?

I have this fondness for notebooks. Not that I journal a lot or doodle a lot but somehow the feel of the paper or a cute cover catch my eye and make me stop and have a look.

I buy less notebooks now. Just bought some recently, but not for myself…phew! Now we have fun creating our own, using materials we can find at home or those in the mail. Waiting for mail is different now…LOL!

These 2 are A5 notebooks. Five signatures of 7 white and 1 green cover sheets bound using the coptic stitch. This is for someone who likes green :-). Green fabric cover, green thread, green cover sheets, sustainable forest paper. Circus print is made from linen and floral one from oxford cotton. 220gsm endpapers are green too :-)

Have a blessed day!

Square dance

DD asked me the other day why I didn’t make any A5 notebooks or journals. I’ve been making a series of A6 ones in preparation for the KKH bazaar in October and got carried away. I’ve made A5 ones before but they were hardcover ones and I wasn’t in the hardcover kind of mood. Folding paper can be therapeutic but there’s a limit to that monotonous cut, fold, slot cycle. So I wondered about what DD said till I chanced upon a stack of used exercise books :-).

After ripping off the covers and collecting empty pages, I ended up with a sizeable stack of paper. Along with these, I kept some pages that had kiddy scibblings by both DS and DD. My memories!

The cover was pieced together using 8 5” charms from the Whirlwind Romance Blush collection and quilted. Another 4 were used for the pockets inside.

I pierced additional holes into the 8 signatures and sewed them unto the spine using the criss-cross longstitch with silver thread that matches the 2 silver ribbon page markers.

The salvaged square paper was arranged from largest to smallest, just like how DS and DD bought smaller and smaller sized square exercise books as they grew older.

 

BTW, It took me an hour just to sew these signatures. I knew ‘cos that was how long DD’s swiming lesson was. LOL! Final touch were the 2 deliberately mis-matched metal snaps placed just so, for effect.

This is definitely not for sale. Just thought I’d like to share with you. Do you have any memories you want to hold on to? *grin*

Have a blessed day!

ps:

charm = 5” square

layer cake = 10” square

fat quarter = quarter of a yard, about 18” x 25”

jelly roll = 2.5” strips, length is width of fabric

honeybun = 1” strips

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

After sewing for a few days I decided to take a break and make a book. This time, I thought I'd combine both sewing and bookbinding and voila!

I made the cover first, out of linen. Patterned patchwork and plain oatmeal. I machine-stitched some of the patterns and some hexagons to bring out the print. Interfaced with 7oz batting so that the cover is sturdy. As for stitching the paper to the cover, I decided to use the criss-cross longstitch, deliberately sewn using contrasting thread. This book can open flat and that's why I put the stud on the flap so that there won't be a bump when you're writing on even pages. I was deciding between a ribbon tie or metals snaps for closure and snaps won.
Have a blessed day!