DIY - Scrapbusters Chapstick Snuggie

I detest the cold! I hate having to wear layers, I hate that skirts are virtually out of the question, and I hate it when the wind chaps my lips. There is however, a simple solution to the last problem, chapstick. But, if you're anything like me, there are two main chapstick issues. 1) It lays forgotten in my nightstand drawer. A LOT. 2) When I eventually do remember to bring it out with me, it rolls around in the cavernous pit that I call a handbag and can never be found when it's needed. Today, I present a solution to both of those problems: the keyring chapstick snuggie! Other reasons I loved this project is that it used up a scrap of fabric that it was difficult to find a use for, and also, I had all of the components already at hand, so it cost me nothing!

You will need: A scrap of fabric measuring approximately 22cm x 7cm, a needle and thread, a keyring, a popper, and a button (optional and not pictured as it was a last-minute judgement call).

Step 1: Fold over your 7cm end of fabric and sew a hem. you need to do this at both ends. One end does not have to be neat as it will be hidden, but the other end will be visible so it needs to be tidier.

Step 2: Fold your fabric along the length as shown below and sew in place. Leave a 3cm gap at the end with your neat hem, this is for your flap later on. I should also note that the neat hem should be on the UNDERSIDE at this point.

Step 3: Using your untidy hem as a guide, make a small snip on either side of the flap.

Step 4: Turn the whole snuggie over and fold and sew a hem where the snips were made.

Step 5: Turn the snuggie out.

Step 6: Push the flap through the keyring and add a few stitches to secure in place.

Step 7: Sew on your popper. Once half onto the underside of the flap, and the other half on the body of the snuggie.

Step 8: This is the optional part, and it all depends on whether or not you are bothered by this:

It's the stitches showing through from the popper. Personally, because this will be the visible side, this irked me. So Step 8 is to simply sew a button on to hide it if you so choose.

And it's all ready for my chapstick to snuggle into.

Ready to pop onto my keys, never to be forgotten again. And, since I clip my keys onto the inside of my bag, it will always be in reach when I need it.

Total cost: £0.00
Total time spent: around 30 minutes. It would take seconds to whizz through the sewing machine, but as I would have needed to hand stitch on the button and popper anyway, I decided to take my time and relax with a little sewing.

Before I go, I need to apologise for a problem I have noticed occurring in my photograph as of late. I don't know if it's because I do all of my projects in the evening, therefore using poor light, or if maybe my shutters are misaligned; but lately I've noticed a small, dark area in the bottom right of most of my photos. As I've said, I don't know what's doing this, but as I love and adore my camera it is most definitely an issue I plan to look into and hopefully correct. Until then, I hope it doesn't affect my pictures too badly. Happy Stitching! 

DIY Felt Flower Brooches 2 Ways

Ahhhh window shopping. We all love it, and frankly, it's currently the only form of shopping I can afford to do at the moment, which is why when I see people just throwing money away it really offends me! 

Here's my point:

Look at that price tag! £10.00!! I thought to myself, "nobody's going to pay that for felt." But people WERE paying it! Even as I was standing there to take the photograph, women were reaching around me to grab one, all eager to throw away £10 of their hard earned cash. But not me. I didn't get a brooch that day, I got an idea for an Enthusiastitch project!

I'm going to show you how to make two different kinds of flower.
You need: Any colour felt of your choosing. Pick 2 colours that compliment one another. Scissors, needle and thread (use a STRONG thread, as you are going to be pulling it very tight and thinner thread can easily break), some old buttons (optional).

Flower One
Step 1: Cut a rectangle from one piece of felt. It needs to measure approximately 10cm by 3cm, but cutting doesn't have to be exact (or even neat!).

Step 2: Fold the rectangle in half along it's length and, whilst holding in place, make cuts about halfway down the width. Be sure to cut along the folded edge. Space the cuts about 1cm apart and continue along the length. Once again, you don't need to be exact.

 tip: If you are having trouble with holding and cutting at the same time, you can easily pin down your fold for this step.

Step 3: Using your needle and thread, weave in and out along the unfolded length. Do not tie it off or take the needle out when you get to the end. I should note here that I'm deliberately using the wrong colour thread so that my stitches can be seen on camera. Be sure to choose a better match when it comes to making your own.

Step 4: The fun bit! Pull on your loose thread. As you do, the felt will slide down it and gather. You need to gather it as tightly as it will go.

Step 5: Pull the felt around into a flower shape, push your needle through the first "petal", and pull tight again. Now You can tie off and remove your needle.

Trim off the loose thread and you are left with this:

Step 6: Using your contrasting colour of felt, repeat the steps above; only this time your rectangle needs to be bigger, approximately 15cm x 4cm. When all of the above steps are done you should be left with two flower shapes.

Step 7: Sew one flower on top of the other and add a button for the centre.

Flower one is done!

Flower Two

Step 1: Cut 12 tombstone shapes from your felt. Six around thumb sized, and six about twice as large.

Choose either our small or large tombstones to start with and set the others aside for now. (Actually, I think I'm going to call them petals from now on, tombstones kinda gives out the wrong message don't you think?)

Step 2: Thread the needle in and out your first petal four times. It does need to be four! That's in, out, in out. done!

If you don't do exactly four I find that the gathering ends up very weird looking, and not in a good way! The stitches don't have to be neat or evenly sized though. In fact, a bit of irregularity helps the finished flower to look a little more natural.

Step 3: Thread all petals onto your thread in exactly the same way. As with before, don't tie it off just yet.

Step 4: Pull the thread to gather the petals. Pull it as tight as it will go.

Step 5: Put the needle through the first petal and pull tight. Tie off your thread to finish.

Step 6: Repeat steps 2-5 with the other set of petals

.Step 7: Sew the flower shapes one on top of the other.

Flower two is done!

Attach safety pins to the backs of both of them to make them wearable as brooches.

The finished products:

Now here's the shocker, the cost. It cost £1.50 for a packet of 10 sheets of felt, and as you can see, I made both brooches out of two sheets (and I've easily got enough left on each sheet to make another one). And people were paying £10.00!!!!

Total cost: Less than 30p for both.
Total time spent: 15 minutes each flower.

They are so simple even a child can do them. Here's one made by 5 year old Tiffany for her Easter bonnet:

DIY, pound shop pencil case to evening bag.

Time for another bag!

First of all though, I'm going to show you how to make the tassel that I used for  decoration.

You need: scissors, masking tape, a blank keyring, 3 pencils, and thick thread (such as embroidery thread).

Step 1: Okay, so this one is a little weird because the first thing you need to do is rig yourself a frame using the pencils and tape. If you can find an easier way to do this then be my guest, but this is what worked for me. Arrange your pencils as shown below and tape to secure. Your two parallel pencils will indicate the length of your finished tassel, so make sure they are at a distance you are happy with. In my case it was around 3cm.

Step 2: Slide the keyring over top pencil and tape in place.

Your rig is now ready and operation tassel can begin!
Step 3: Cut off about 8-10 strands of thread (about 10cm long), and tie them all together with a knot in one end.

Step 4: Using the tape, secure the un-knotted ends of thread to the bottom pencil.

Step 5: Bring the knotted end of the threads up through the keyring, then back down and around the bottom pencil.

Step 6: Repeat the motion. Up, through, down, around, repeat. Until the thread is used up. You need to finish at the bottom.

If the tassel doesn't seem thick enough, repeat steps 3-6.

Step 7: Cut off around 8-10 threads at about 10cm in length. Wrap them around tour tassel as colse to the keyring as you can get. Wrap as tightly as you can, and then tie as tightly as you can. Trim off any loose ends and secure the knot with a  little glue if needed.

Step 8: disassemble your rig, and trim the bottom of the tassel.

Total cost: I had all of the components so it cost me nothing, but to buy it all would probably be less than £1.
Total time spent: 10 minutes. I know it seems like longer because it's a lot of steps, but it really is a quick job!

Now, on with the bag.

You need: Your new tassel, a pencil case (this nice fluffy black one was from the pound shop, and they had a whole load of colours), a chain (I used this barbed wire wallet chain my sister gave me, but a plain length of chain would work) and a needle and thread (not pictured).

Step 1: Simply stitch either end of the chain to either end of the pencil case.

Step 2: Pop your tassel keyring through the zip.

That's it! It really is that simple, and nobody would guess that it was ever a pencil case.

Total cost: £1!
Total time spent, 5 minutes.bag!