It’s that time of year again when I get out my leather stuff and start making sandals (while still wrapped in wool). These are my son’s new sandals. In this post, I share my process of making a sandal pattern using lasts.
Pieced Hoody – Using Up Sweat Shirt Fabric Scraps
Going through my fabric scraps, I came across lots of small pieces of sweat shirt fabric, the remains of my teen daughters obsession with hoody making over the past year.
So I thought what could I do with it, it’s a lovely soft organic cotton fabric, too precious to put into the bin. Well, I decided to create a new hoody with it, although a very different one to those my daughter made.
I gathered all the pieces, pole dyed them (a shibori technique), cut them out using three different sizes of squares to use up even the tiniest pieces and sewed them together again to create a new fabric.
Fingerless Mittens Crochet Pattern
I can’t survive winter without a pair of fingerless mittens, I wear them all day long inside and outside the house. They keep my hands and wrists warm but fingers free to work, type and use my touch screen.
So here is a crochet pattern for the mittens you see above. Although I used handspun wool, you could substitute it with another DK weight yarn.
The mittens are worked flat, then sewn together, leaving a hole for the thumb. It’s an easy and fast project using two different stitches, riddle stitch and half double crochet.
The pattern is written in standard American/U.S. English terms.
Handspun Crocheted Hat With Pom Pom Earflaps – PDF Pattern
One of the joys of winter for me is wearing cosy, colourful and hand knitted or crocheted wooly hats, scarfs and mittens. It’s my winter jewelery, so to say.
I spend most of my free time dyeing, spinning, designing, crocheting and knitting winter accessories.
Hand Painting Wool Tops – Wool Dyeing Tutorial
Hand-painted wool/silk blendHand painting wool tops is so much fun. I completely lost myself for a couple of days in dyeing wool using many colours and experimenting with different wool blends and painting techniques.
DIY Woolen Bomber Jacket – Making Clothes For Autumn
Having cosy autumn garments really lifts my mood when days are getting colder, I especially need colours to brighten up grey days. Jackets and coats are my main focus these days.
How To Make A Shibori Flower / Making Fun Clothes For Boys 5
Here is a top I made for my just turned 7 son, inspired by a wonderful book on stitched shibori (see more below). From the many projects in the book, I decided to make a stitched shibori flower to use as a centre piece decoration.
Leather Sandals For Cooler Days Dyed Using Batik Wax Resist Technique
I needed some sandals for cooler summer days, I try to avoid putting on shoes until I absolutely must because of my toes turning blue… So these cover most of my feet but still let in some air.
Recycled Bottle Glass Bead Necklace – Tutorial
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.
Knotted Straps Sandals – Handcraft Your Own 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.