Monday, May 21, 2012

Reclaim your jeans!

Whilst spending an hour (or three) browsing the web, I found this fascinating website on craftgawker.  I want to share this with you, so when you've finished here, pop over to http://meijosjoy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/how-to-stretch-jeans-at-waist-easy-n.html and have a look at the original.

I've had this particular pair of jeans for many, many years, and every summer they come out again - they are beautifully soft after repeated washings, faded to a lovely pale blue, and quite flared with boho-style unfinished hems.  Sadly, they have aged better than I have, so when I saw how to reclaim 1" - 2" on the waistband, I was hooked.

Basically, you just remove the too-tight original waistband, and replace it with a folded fabric tie-belt.



I had saved an old king-sized duvet cover from one of my many colour scheme changes, so I just cut a length off one of the long sides.  This craftily included the side seam which acted as the top edge, saving me a bit of sewing (you could cut a wider piece of fabric and just fold it, that will work too).

I'm delighted with how this turned out - and it only took about 45 minutes to do from start to finish.  So thanks to MeiJo's Joy, I  have reclaimed a pair of jeans, just in time for summer.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Ta-Dah!

After much hair-pulling and gnashing of teeth, I gave up trying to be clever with my hat-making, and spent an hour yesterday evening sewing the plastic hair band to the inside of the hat.

And it works!  Thank goodness the hat itself is straw - I'm not sure any other material would have been so forgiving.  Luckily I found some thread in exactly the right shade of red, so any wayward stitches are invisible to the naked eye.




I love it!  I'm pleased with the rakish angle, the colours, and of course, the fact that it cost less than £6.00 to make.  Philip Treacy, eat your heart out .............


Monday, May 7, 2012

I love it when a plan comes together!

For many, many months I have been intending to create a website.  Nothing fancy, you understand, just an additional promotional tool to share my creations with the world, and maybe sell a couple of them to discerning purveyors of hand-crafted uniquery (is that a word, even?).

So off I go, trawling the depths of the internet, trying to find a cheap (free?) website builder that I can actually understand.  Now I'm not saying: "love me, love me, I'm thick", but - why the flaming heck is this so difficult?  Am I really that dense?  I thought I was fairly computer savvy but clearly not!

My first attempt met with abject failure.  It isn't often I'm reduced to a gibbering wreck by a piece of software, but this was one of those times.  I don't usually give up without a fight, but resistance was futile.  I simply could not get my brain wrapped round what I needed to do to get what I wanted.  Time to stomp off in a huff, muttering ladylike expletives, vowing never to try doing anything remotely 21st century again.

Until I found weebly.com.

Oh, Weebly, I love you. You have restored my mood to that of calm, capable, unflappable, swift of finger and appraising of eye.  I am inserting images, creating pages, typing copy and building a website worthy of a Crafty Little Owl.  Deep sigh of contentment.

I shall let you know when 'Crafty Little Owls - The Website' goes live.


Wednesday, May 2, 2012

I thought this would be so easy .......!

Hmmm.  This hat-making lark is a bit trickier than I thought.  The flowers are well stuck on in a pleasing arrangement, and that's about as far as I have got.

I'm having trouble sticking the actual hat to the plastic headband - an enthusiastic attempt to glue it on met with mild disaster.  Unfortunately the glue I used promptly melted the plastic on the headband, leaving gooey smears on the inside of the hat, and refusing to stick at all!  Double sided tape, I hear you say.  Nope, no good either, although it does stick remarkably well to hair, as I found to my cost.

Mr Owls has been his usual proactive self, suggesting Araldite, staples, gaffer tape, rivets or nuts and bolts.  I'm not sure he's taking this seriously ........

I think the trusty needle and thread are going to be the way to go, as long as I keep Alan Rickman/Sheriff of Nottingham in mind, and "keep the stitches small".