I've used old books and diaries etc to use as journals before, but this is the first time I've made from scratch, myself. The cover was made from a Cadbury's Fingers box (a double one) and the insides are made from various magazine pages, doilies, music manuscript, enveloped, a paper bag and bits of junk mail.
The cover was covered in white paint then a piece of tissue paper was glued on with mod podge. The tag and mini frame were in my stash and I made the mini suffolk puffs and the bow. The alphabet pieces used for the word journal is from Pinterest.
I've used four signatures (the different groups of pages) with nine pieces of paper, folded in half. I sewed each signature into the cover and you can see the stitches on the spine in the sixth photo. It was hard work on my fingers though, I need to improve my technique. Apart from the envelopes and the paper bag that are forming pages in the journal, I've not added any pockets etc yet, so I'm going to add those as I go.
The inside of the cover has been painted with three colours of acrylic paint that were blended together. I've only added a sticker to the inside of the cover so far, but I may add a couple of pockets in the future.
I've also created my first page - art deco. It's mainly a mixture of images from Pinterest, with the addition of a couple of embellishments from my stash.
I'm going to have fun working in this journal and learning about and using new techniques to decorate the pages.
I'll be back on Friday.
TTFN
Louise
My next door neighbour's daughter has had to have some serious surgery and my usual impulse when things like that happen to people I know is to make them a pillow of some variety, usually lavender. She lives a bit away, but needs to pop back here for hospital appointments, so I could give it to her rather than pop it in the post.
I've been rearranging my fabric stash and had come across the bottom right green and floral fabric and decided to use that as my starting point. I used the green plain fabric so that there wasn't too much a clash of patterns, plus it meant I coulod add a bit of embroidery, alongside the little suffolk puffs!
The three types of lace that I used for the seams were all new, but all of the buttons are vintage 1930s/40s.
The crochet flower and leaves weren't my doing, I can't crochet, so I bought these from Jane Davison who runs the Mimibelle shop on Folksy (check her store out, she has some beautiful items!).
I backed the pillow in good. old-fashioned green and white gingham and filled it with synthetic stuffing and dried lavender. The green button has been tied, and not sewn to the pillow, which adds a lovely little dimple.
I hope you all had a lovely weekend and I'll be back on Wednesday.
TTFN
Louise
I always like to add a bit of something to my letters to penpals, apart from the letter itself, and that can mean a bit of fabric, some nice paper or a handmade tag or journaling card. Those above are the first of these I've made in a while. They're a fun way to use up paper and image scraps and don't take too long to make. Plus it's soon going to be Christmas (there, I've said the c-word!) making time and that'll take over my creative time, so I want to have stock of these in when I don't have the time to make them.
I'll be back in Monday.
Have a good weekend.
TTFN
Louise
I don't often make clothes. I'm much more of a hand sewer than a machine one, but this top is relatively simple and the 'difficult bits', like hemming etc could be done by hand.
I can't really remember where I got this silk fabric from, but it was probably a charity shop. The pattern I used was for a shorts and top pyjama combo that I got free with a magazine and was designed by The Makery. I used the pattern to put together the top, but I had to change the straps because I couldn't use the method in the pattern as I didn't know how long they needed to be.
So I decided on attempting adjustable straps, which wasn't as hard as I thought it would be! I looked up a how to on Google and, though I had to resort to taking the bra off I was wearing to finish the last bit, didn't take me too long.
The lace I used across the bottom edge was vintage English cotton trim that I got from The Swagman's Daughter (she has some fantastic stuff, including vintage Italian thread and lots more lace!).
For a really amateur clothes maker, it turned out quite well, and my sister liked it, which was the important thing.
I'll be back on Saturday to show you what I've been making with bits of paper.
TTFN
Louise
