Recycled Bottle Glass Bead Necklace – Tutorial

by Neda

recycled bottle glass bead necklace One of my favourite pastimes in summer is jewellery making. I get lots of books out of the library to teach myself new techniques and of course for inspiration. I always look for unusual beads, colour combinations that I haven’t tried before and interesting finishing  techniques.

In this necklace I used recycled bottle glass beads from Ghana, they are semi-translucent and really beautiful. The bell in the middle is made from recycled brass. I joined the necklace to a leather cord, this way I can wear it at different lengths and of course I like the look of it.

And here is how I made the necklace.

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Knotted Straps Sandals – Handcraft Your Own Sandals

by Neda

knotted straps sandals

These knotted strap sandals I made for my teenage daughter. Every time I make her a pair of sandals she gets out fabric scraps and cardboard and builds her own sandals that she wears proudly around the house.

It’s so fascinating to see how our making stuff inspires children to do so too and one day without ever having been taught formally they are able to just create whatever it was that they watched us doing. I’ve observed this many times.

knotted straps sandals

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Leather Cube Earrings – Make Sparkling Jewellery Out Of Scrap Leather

by Neda

leather cube earrings

If you’ve followed me for some time, you probably know by now that I like finding ways to use up my leather scraps. Here I made leather cube earrings out of very thick leather (4-5mm) which I use for midsoles when making sandals/shoes.

They look suprisingly lovely considering what they are made off. I made various shapes like rectangles, triangles, squares and painted them in bright coulours. They are my new favourite earrings.

leather cube earrings

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Making A Spring Dress From Organic Cotton Fabric

by Neda

Winter is nearly over (happiness) and I’ve started to make new clothes for my children. For spring clothes I usually make something from knit jerseys, often taking old dresses apart to make new t-shirts or mixing up new and older fabrics.

This dress I made for my teenage daughter from organic cotton jersey.

making spring dress organic cotton jersey fabric

The dress is a little challenging to make because of the 3 panels front and back, you have to attach them to the right places but other than that it comes together easily. I really like its shape and swing.

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Tooling A Leather Strap/Making One-Of -A -Kind Leather Sandals

by Neda

I can’t wait to get out of socks and boots and into sandals! Here I made tooled one-strap sandals for my children’s grandmother who lives on the other side of the world in Chile, they are in the middle of summer now…

Tooling leather straps is one way of adding sparkle to your leather projects. It’s taken me so long to find out about all the different ways to decorate leather that I thought I document whatever new I learn with each project I undertake.

Here is one way to tool leather to get the look you see on the sandals above.

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Children’s Wool Coat With Felt Applique – Making Fun Clothes For Boys

by Neda

This wool coat I made for my six-year-old son, he loves fun and colourful clothes. Green is his favourite colour and if I always listened to him everything he wears would be green jumpers, trousers, socks, shoes, you get the picture….

Children's Wool Coat diy

I used a fabric called boiled wool, it’s 100% wool and available in many colours. The lining is of the same fabric, but a different colour, so it’s really cosy and warm.

Boiled wool is a woven fabric that has been felted and thickened, it’s warm, durable, windproof and water-resistant, which makes it a great fabric for winter kids clothes.

Children's Wool Coat diy

I cut the appliqué from handmade wool felt, it’s much thicker than the usual felt you can buy and a beautiful quality. The owl and fox I hand stitched onto the fabric. For the drawings inside the figures, I used chain stitch.

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