I often come across lovely quotes that make me feel happy to be a thrifty crafter and sewing-nut, and when I do I pin them to my Pinterest board to cheer me up and give me inspiration when I need it most – that’s right, it’s Monday morning, and today’s the day!
So here’s some lovely quotes from my fellow DIY-ers to perk us all up and give us the inspiration we need this week
Pinch, punch, first of the month! And today I am absolutely delighted to be able to bring you an Inspiration Challenge for the month of May! Some of you may have already heard of the (famous) inspiration challenge and some of you might be completely new to it, so I’m going to start at the beginning and see if I can’t encourage you to take part!
The inspiration challenge began on the LucyLovesYa.com blog where ‘inspiration is everything’ (please check out Lucy’s blog, it’s amazing!) and the idea of the challenge is to create something (anything!) in response to an image or item that is the proposed inspiration starting-point. Previously china tea-cups, matroyshka dolls and vintage necklaces have been the inspiration, and over the past few months there have been many amazing contributions from crafters, sewer, cooks, bloggers and artists – here’s some of the amazing items that the contributors have made:
Lucy has very kindly passed the inspiration challenge baton on to me and I’m going to do my best to continue it in the same way. So I will share an image or item each month and challenge you all to get involved and make something, and please also get involved by sending in your suggestions for future inspiration challenges to cassie@cassiefairy.co.uk :) Here are the results of last month’s inspiration challenge, which you’ve probably already seen on the LucyLoveYa blog post. I was amazed by the variety and quality of the items produced based on the matroyshka dolls – keep up the good work!
So, here’s the fun part – the challenge! I am proposing a new theme for the month of May based on my recent experience – my trusty old Jones sewing machine gave up and died last week, so I’ve had to replace it with a new jazzy modern Janome machine (thanks very much to Lucy for the advice on which machine to choose!). As much as I like my whizzy new machine, I can’t help thinking back to how sturdy and well, stylish old sewing machines were, so I’ve snapped a pic of my back-up one-stitch-option Seamstress sewing machine and my good friend Meg has loaned me her grandma’s old hand-powered Singer so that I can use them for this month’s inspiration challenge!
So please have a go a creating something inspired by vintage sewing machines and I can’t wait to see what you’ve made! I know a lot of us rely on (and love!) our sewing machines, so hopefully it’s a challenge that’s close to our hearts Let me know how you get on and if you do rustle something up please email me your photos of your creations by the 28th of May to cassie@cassiefairy.co.uk. I will share everyone’s results at the start of June and I will include your site link if you have one. As Lucy says it doesn’t matter if you’re a novice or experienced and it’s not a competition – the aim is to just have a bit of fun and share your creations with other like-minded people!
Have you noticed that pockets are everywhere this Spring/Summer? On a recent shopping trip down the high street I spotted pockets on almost every item of clothing and I’m loving the contrasting pocket look. Although I want to follow the trend, I’ve never been one to spend my hard-earned cash on something new when I can recycle something I already have or funk up charity-shop find, and in this instance, I picked up this slouchy tee from a charity shop for only a couple of quid. You can hunt for a similar t-shirt in your own local charity shop or Oxfam online.
I already had some fat-quarters of fabric from Wholeport at home, but you can often find small pieces in the remnants bin of haberdasheries and charity shops. The only difficult part of this project was choosing which colour and pattern to use. I decided on a contrasting pink floral fabric and set to work on creating my pocket and attaching it to my t-shirt, adding a little button embellishment on top. You could always consider adding a pocket to the sleeve of a top, or putting a couple of pockets on the front of a skirt to be bang on trend for this Spring/Summer.
You will need: T-shirt, small piece of fabric, iron-on hemming web (if you don’t have webbing you could use fabric glue), card, scissors, needle and thread, button.
Decide on the size and shape of your pocket and cut a piece of cardboard (I used a cereal packet) to shape to use as a template. Your pocket could be square, with folded corners like mine, or with a traditional ‘pocket-shape’ pointed base – whatever you prefer.
Draw around the template onto your contrasting fabric then cut out with an extra 1cm hem allowance all the way round.
Fold the edges of the fabric over the cardboard and iron to create hems on all sides.
4. Place the iron-on hemming web underneath the hems and follow the instructions on the webbing packet until the glue has melted and sealed the edges of the pocket.
5. If you want to add an embellishment or button to your pocket, now is the time to stitch it on – I added a small purple button to tie in the colours of the fabric with the t-shirt.
6. Position your pocket on your garment and use more iron-on hemming web to glue it in place along the sides and bottom of the pocket.
All done – Enjoy your new t-shirt! And don’t forget to add contrasting pockets to anything else that takes your fancy.
I’ve started volunteering for Oxfam Fashion and this was my first DIY blog post for them – check out the Oxfam fashion blog here for more amazing DIY projects and bargain clothing ideas.
PS: I’ve been shortlisted in the Company Magazine Style Blogger Awards and I would be eternally grateful if you would stop by their page and cast your vote – I’m in the Thrifty Blog category and I’d love it if you voted for me! Thanks so much
Recently I’ve been reading a few books at once and have been finding it hard to keep track of where I am up to in each book. I used to have loads of bookmarks when I was a kid, but somehow, I’ve lost them all, and am now relying on folded corners, library receipts and clothes labels to mark my place in the books. Although I like having Geri Halliwell in a bikini peeking out of my current read, I feel like there must be a nicer way to keep track of where I’m up to, so I’ve decided to make some pretty pom-pom bookmarks and share the tutorial with you.
You’ll need: Any wool or thick threads to make your pom-poms, card, double-sided tape, scissors and anything pretty to decorate the card.
Wind the wool around your hand until you have a big, thick bunch of wool, then wrap the end around the middle and tie off, leaving a long piece at the end.
Cut through the loops of wool and fluff it out into a pom-pom. Trim to a nice round shape!
Cut the card into a thin rectangle, approximately the length of your book, and cut two pieces for each bookmark.
Put double-sided tape on one side of the card, stick down the loose end of your wool so that the pom-pom sits at the top of the card, then add the second piece card on top to seal.
Decorate your bookmark in any way that you like – I’ve used masking sticker strips from Wholeport and Washi tape, but you could use stamps to decorate it, cover with patterned paper or add an inspirational quote, such as Dr Seuss: “The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go…” or Walt Disney “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island”.
Let me know how you get on and if you do rustle something up please email me your photos of your creations by the 28th of May to 
