Covered Box (and Sewing Kit)

Difficulty:

Cost:

Approximately $3 for the box

Under $10 if you have to buy sewing kit items

Hi! Amy here again, I'm still stuck in Dunedin and still procrastinating from studying for my exams. This covered box was so easy to make and is super cute. I put together a bunch of items that I think are necessary for a basic sewing kit, and in this adorable box the kit would make a great gift. The box covering can be a bit fiddly but because of the slow drying nature of PVA you can fiddle around with the material until you get it right. 

Tools:

Scissors

PVA glue

A paint brush (for glue application)

Materials:

A small box

Material

Method:

Step one- Begin by cutting out two squares of material, one for the lid of the box and one for the box itself. Place the box on your fabric and cut around it, leaving a wide border; it needs to be wide enough to cover the outsides and the insides of the box. 

Step Two- I began by covering the lid first, but the first few steps for covering the box are the same. Paint glue onto the top of your lid and place it in the middle of the square of material, smoothing the material so there are no lumps.

Step Three- Next, paint glue onto two opposite sides of the box. The glue should cover both the inside and the outside, fold your material over these sides and smooth. 

After waiting for your glue to dry for about ten minutes, paint glue onto one of the uncovered sides and fold in the fabric, like a present. You should be left with the side of lid looking like the picture below. 

 Paint some more glue on the inside of the box and tuck your material in. 

From the outside your box lid should look like this. Paint some more glue on the inside of the box and tuck this piece inside the lid. 

Repeat this step for the other uncovered side of the lid. It doesn't matter that the flat inside of the lid is quite messy, this will all be covered up later. 

For the box itself, repeat steps one to three first. This is where it gets slightly fiddly. On the first uncovered side of the box paint your glue in a pattern like the one below and fold the two opposing sides of material inwards.

Then, paint the interior of the box completely with glue, and fold the material in to cover the glue. 

At this point, you should be left with a weird mohawk of fabric down the middle of this side of the box. This must be trimmed (like all real mohawks) so that the excess fabric doesn't get in the way.  

Then, as with the lid, fold the left over fabric like a present and glue it in place, both the inside and the outside. Repeat these steps on the remaining uncovered box side. 

After all the sides are covered the inside of the box should look like this. Again, this is very messy, but it doesn't matter as it will be covered. 

The final steps for both the lid and the box begins with cutting out two squares of fabric that will fit snugly into the bottom of the box and the inside of the lid. Then, smother, and I mean, the more the merrier, the uncovered sides of the box in glue. The glue smoothes the fabric that is already there so that the surface you glue the smaller square of fabric onto is even. 

Place the square of fabric you cut out over the glue and after repeating this step for the remaining uncovered bit, you're finished! 

Are you guys excited that I made a gif! I'm so excited and although it's slightly uneven (that first picture...) I'm proud of my first gif! 

The items that make up my sewing kit are;

A pin cushion, complete with pins

A tape measure

An old cotton reel with various cottons on it; black, white, blue and grey are common colours

A small plastic bag that contains the spare buttons that have come with various items of clothing

A needle wheel

A teeny pair of scissors

Of course this is just a basic, beginner sewing kit, you could add whatever you think you may need. 

Happy sewing and gluing!

Teacup Succulents

Difficulty:

Cost:

$5-20

How cute are these!

Hello hello, Ali here. 

I have a confession to make; I'm obsessed with these teacup succulents, I think they're just too lovely!

The obsession started I while I was in a hostel in my first year of university. I was feeling a bit homesick and missing my mum, and having a menagerie of pets around to cuddle. 

So I decided I needed to give a little life to my room, and the best way to do that, of course, was to combine pretty teacups with lively succulents!

The cost of this project really depends on the Op-shops you can find. Pretty English teacups can be found in secondhand shops for anywhere between $2 and $25. The trick is to look around and find a place that has them at a reasonable price, not just but the first pretty trio that you find.

Materials:

Teacup (saucer optional)

Potting mix

Succulent or cactus

Tools:

Spade

Gardening gloves

The first thing you want to do is put some potting mix into the bottom of your teacup.

The amount you put in will depend on the size of your succulent. If your plant is already quite big you won't need much in the bottom, but if it's just little you'll need quite a lot. 

The succulent you use can be a store bought one, you can buy little cacti from gardening and home improvement stores for a couple of dollars. Otherwise if you have succulents in the garden or know of someone who does, just carefully take a few leaves off the plants and place them in the potting mix, broken edge first. 

If you buy an already potted plant, it's important that you loosen the roots before you re-pot it into your teacup. 

Make sure you're wearing gardening gloves for this part, cactus spikes can be mean!

Place your plant into your teacup and carefully fill the rest of the cup up with potting mix.

Make sure you press down on the soil so that the plant is secured and won't fall over. 

And there you have it, an adorable new windowsill adornment.

These wee things make beautiful additions to any room, or make lovely, unique gifts.

As you can see here, my motto with these is definitely the more the merrier!

Happy planting,

Painted vintage bag

Difficulty:

Cost:

$1 tp $5 depending on the price of your vintage bag

$4 test pot of paint

How adorable is this bag? And so easy, all you need is a steady hand. 

This is one of the quickest ways to bring new life to an old accessory; lightening it up with a playful pattern. We are so pleased with the result! 

Tools:

Paint

A ruler

A paintbrush

A pencil

Materials:

A vintage bag with a surface that you can paint on; leather, vinyl or anything shiny you feel like you can pour water on without it soaking thorough is perfect.
Ali found this gorgeous handbag in a Save-Mart op-shop for $3, and it's genuine Italian leather!

Method:

Start by cleaning your bag with water and a soft cloth.
Any dust or grime can make it hard for the paint to stick to the bag, so you want to get it all off. Be gentle though, make sure you don't rub so hard the colour comes out of the bag, if you found it in a thrift store chances are it's pretty old so handle with care!

Once your bag is dry, use a pencil and a ruler to sketch your design onto the bag.
You can do whatever you like here, how cute would a bag with a family of elephants painted onto the front be?
Ali went for the classic stripes and polka dots look, which is awful easy and full of class!

Now it's time to paint!

The better quality the paint, the longer it will last. I used a Resene testpot, which is good quality house paint. You can get a test pot from most house paint shops for a few dollars, and they come in almost any colour you can think of.

Then start painting!

That's it, you're done!

Once the paint has dried you will have a completely functional, super cute new bag, yay!

Happy painting,

Diamonds wall art - with free printable!

Difficulty:

Cost:

$0

Diamonds are a girl's best friend. And so are free printables! 
This beautiful little project is as easy as pie, and can be customized to match any living space.
These wonderful diamonds are perfect for a flat as you can make them as colourful as you wish, they are sure to brighten up your day! 

Tools:

Scissors

Gluestick

Materials:

Old magazines

Free printable pages

Method:

Start by printing out the first of the two file links at the bottom of this post.

Then cut out the pieces of the diamonds you have printed.

Next place each piece on a pretty part of your magazine and cut around it to make an identical, but coloured version.

Now it's time to print the second file linked to the bottom of this post.

Then glue each piece onto this page, in the same diamond shape and placement as the first page. 

Place the remainder of the first page (with the the cut out diamonds) underneath to help with piece placement.

And you're all done!

Easy as that, and the result is a stunning and unique piece of wall art to brighten up any room.

Happy shining, 

Free Printable Links

Page One

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6SymDStaiH4US13ZXZUd25Rb2s/edit?usp=sharing

Page Two

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6SymDStaiH4LThtRk1iM3ZDTGc/edit?usp=sharing

Skirt Alteration

Difficulty:

 Cost:

Thrifted Skirt- $5

Hello! Continuing our month of refashions and alterations, we bring you this super quick skirt alteration. Amy was lucky enough to find this gorgeous skirt while op shopping a wee while ago and jumped on it, even though it was labelled as a size 16. All the skirt needed was a few neat pleats to take in the waistband and it's ready to go. This is a very easy way to make an article of clothing fit better and the pleats add a lovely volume to the finished piece. 

Materials:

A skirt

Tools:

Sewing Machine

Scissors

Pins

Method:

The first step is to try the skirt on and get an idea of how it fits you, where are the areas that are the worst fitting? These areas are where you will alter the skirt to fit better. 

On our skirt, there were already some small inverted pleats on either side of the buttons up the front of the skirt. We used these as markers to place our pleats. While wearing your skirt, gather a small amount of material in the waistband to fashion two pleats. Make sure that the pleats are the same size. Pin them in place. 

Take off the skirt and ensure that you have the pleats in the right place and they are the right size. Continuing pinning the pleat into the skirt a small amount, when it is the length you would like the pleat, run your pins into the side of the pleat. You now have a neat triangular pleat. Finish your skirt by sewing your pleats. 

Your beautiful skirt is finished, and fits much better! 

Happy pleating!