Soft Toy Storage

Inspired by similar ideas for storing soft toys on Pinterest. I decided to convert this wooden corner shelf unit that my Dad built a few years ago, to a more usable storage unit for Charlotte's soft toys. I'm sure dad would have been delighted to see how we have re-purposed it!

Kevin drilled 5mm holes through the thick pine base and top.

 

Eye screws hold the 5mm thick pink bungee cord in place on the inner shelf edges.

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A Little Red Dress

My mum brought this pretty little red dress for Charlotte's Christmas 2 years ago

 It has lovely red and cerise embroidered roses

highlighted with silver stars

and pretty soft feel fine red net underskirt.

Mum forgot about it and it hung in the wardrobe until the following October

Luckily it did still fit and she wore it for a photography sitting and also on Christmas day,

she got away with it as she is very tiny and slim for her age

It seemed a shame that it was still as new and I didn't really want to part with it so I decided that she would wear it again.

But first a little alteration was needed.

I stitched along under the arms all the way around to keep the lining and outer fabric together

and then cut off the upper part

I trimmed around the pretty embroidery below the neckline and set this aside

there wasn't really much fabric wasted (indeed it wont be wasted at all)

I also set aside the pretty little flower buttons.

I used my little over locking foot along the stitched edge

next added a strip of 'Steam a Seam'

 I bought this at the show when I couldn't get any bondaweb

the advantage of the 'Steam a Seam' I was told is that it has a sheet of paper either side

 (not sure why that would be an advantage)

and also that it is slightly adhesive before ironing,

which I thought might be good.

I have to say I'm not impressed it wasn't very good at sticking to the fabric and it took several attempts of steam pressing before it would keep the folded fabric together.

I decided to machine stitch along the top pin tuck to make it more permanent

and hand stitched along the inside

.

added a sparkly red button and a loop made from red elastic thread which

 I pleated to thicken it up a bit.

back view

front view

Not a lot of work really, and Charlotte has a pretty new red skirt

Thanks for stopping by

Yvonne x

What would you do with these?

So I have tidied up and re-shuffled

cleared out my little studio and

I am most pleased with the results

 but now

 I have these empty tubes

They are ex-display button storage tubes with the little holes on the lid for a sample button

What can I do with them?

What would you do with them?

Any ideas?

I don't want to throw them out,

I'm sure they must have another use that I'm just not seeing at the moment

and any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated

Thanks for stopping by

Yvonne x



Tag Tuesday - Lace

Have decided to 'Tag' along

This weeks theme ~

Lace

Card: Re-cycled greeting card

Embellishments: Lace remnants, Paper rose, gold foil chocolate wrapper, Shoes from an old diary to which I added the lace fronts Vintage mother of pearl button.

Ribbon tie from a greeting card.

I missed out on previous weeks but I'm enjoying making tags to the rest of the January themes

White

Card: recycled greeting card back
Embellishments: Cotton trim, hand embroidered with lazy daisy and french knots, various yarns and ribbons, pearly button, beads,moonstone bead, sequin flowers with two moonstone crystal bead centres and cord trim. White organza ribbon tie.

Snow

Tag: Recycled Christmas card
Embellishments: Silver snowflake sequin, Dangle Crystal and glass hex beads,  snowflake sequins and featuring one of my handmade and embellished metal beads.
(this little card is much prettier in real life than I can ever capture on image its so sparkly and shiney)


I'm hoping that by joining in with the Tag Tuesdays themes I will:

1. Use up some of my stash of saved items such as cards, embellishments & mementos
2. Will hopefully try new techniques & work on some unfamiliar themes
3. Create a collection perhaps for display to hang up in my studio or in a book or mounted on canvas.

Thanks for stopping by!

Yvonne x

Purple Hearts

I made these 'Purple Hearts' earrings from a beautiful gift bag I received for my birthday.

The gift bag was from 'Willow' (I think) with some lovely Burt's Bee skincare products in.

I just loved the pattern on the bag and had it sitting on a shelf in my workshop until I decided to make it into something.

I just thought it was too good to just put in the paper bin!

available here <3

Perhaps they would make a nice gift for someone.....

Rosebud Floor cushion

 It's all thanks to Susan at 'Living with Punks' and her fab 'Land of Nod inspired floor cushion' tutorial.

Her tutorial is so well thought out and so easy to follow.

 I just had to make one....

I used a length of fabric that I had cut from some IKEA curtains you might recognise the fabric.

I made my own piping from some rat tail cord and some pretty floral print fabric from my stash...

I thought the french knots would add a girly feel and highlight the floral piping

I added a zip (one of 3 I purchased from eBay for a couple of pounds)

I wanted to be able remove the fiberfill to wash the cover. Charlotte helped me stuff the fiberfill which was reclaimed from a single quilt who's stitching had come undone, rendering it useless as a duvet but still usable for this cute project.

I calculated that this cost me less than £2 to make as I had almost everything that I needed.

French knots are my favourite embroidery stitch these did not take me as long as you might think.....

Beautiful variegated cotton Perle from DMC, One of my impulse purchases at the recent Creative Stitches show in Glasgow, not knowing what I was going to do with it, I just loved the colours, it was a perfect match for the flowery fabric!

and a perfect fit for Charlotte she loves the feel of the little rosebuds.

I'm so pleased with how it has turned out!