The Simple Things

These days life gets too busy and now, more than ever, we need to focus on the simple things, take time for ourselves and do what we want to do! One of the things I love each month is getting my copy of The Simple Things magazine. It means I can sit down and take a good hour or so to myself, reading it cover to cover. It gives me such inspiration and ideas of things that I would love to do! Living the simple life sounds pretty good, and so I am promising myself that I will do something every week that is simple and gives me some 'Me' time!

This week I decided to have a go at some sewing. I love sewing by hand, having thrown things together before but never a proper garment. I found this beautiful free pattern and went on a fabric shopping spree! I don't have many fabric stores near me, and many fabrics are just replicated from store to store. But I did come across these beautiful gingham cottons and I got so excited. I couldn't just buy the one I had to have both and they are beautiful!

Now my brain is flowing with so many ideas and I am searching the net for more patterns. The small check I think would look lovely in this top with a white trim. The bigger check would look great as a skirt maybe, or a prom style summer dress. How exciting :) Happy Zoe!

What simple things make you happy? 

X

A Day Out and a Quick Make

This weekend was so glorious and sunshiney! It was beautiful. So I had to take advantage so me and my man went for a walk along the canals in Birmingham and for lunch at a lovely Italian restaurant. It was lovely, and I only burnt a little...

I love taking a walk along the canals in Birmingham, there is so much character and history around there and the atmosphere is great.

I even treated myself to a scrummy raspberry meringue which didn't last very long.

I also made myself a little bracelet using lots of natural fibres. I love all the friendship bracelets that you can get around in the summer. But why spend £8 when you can make many for a lot less!

So I raided my stash and found five different colours of linen threads, red, orange, cream, brown and black.

To be honest you can use whatever threads to make your bracelets. My bracelet is only thin because I used these thin linen threads. I would also recommend embroidery threads. That is what most friendship bracelets are made with. I measured out 50cm of each thread twice. So in total I had 10 strands. But you could have as many colours as you fancy just make sure you do two strands of each!

Tie a knot at the top leaving enough threads at the end to be able to tie your bracelet. Then using a safety pin I pinned the threads to a cushion and spread them out, the two blacks in the centre, brown either side then cream, orange and reds on the outside.

To make the bracelet take the left red strand and move into the centre between the two blacks. Do the same with the red strand on the right side and move it over the top of the red strand in the centre, repeat with the orange strands and carry on going until you reach the desired length.

When you get to your desired length tie a knot and tie your two ends together around your or a friends wrist or ankle. I love the chevron effect and so easy with no knots or fussiness. Easy!

X

Woven Placemat

This week I made a loom! It was really easy to do and got me so excited to create some of my own woven pieces! My frame is 16 x 11inches so I thought that would be the perfect size for a place mat. So I gathered my equipment and went to work.

I took some cream and beige cotton embroidery threads and tied it to one of the nails in the corner. I then went up and down the loom hooking the thread around each nail at the top and bottom until I got to the end and I tied it off. Make sure you keep it very tight to make the weave tight.

Then take yarns, threads, jerseys, whatever you want to use and go for it, weaving in and out of the embroidery threads, and when you get to the end of the row go back the opposite way! The great thing is that every single one is unique and special!

I went for blacks, greys, creams and greens and even incorporated some jersey yarn that I bought from my local haberdashery. The end product is beautiful, even if I say so myself!

Loom

Furthering my interest of all things woven I decided to make a loom. They are pretty expensive but you can knock one up pretty cheaply! I had an old frame lying around the flat and some nails and went to work.

What you need:
* Wooden frame
* Nails, not too short but not too long or too big
* Hammer
* Ruler
* Pencil

What to do:
1. Measure out where you want your nails to go using the ruler and pencil on two opposite sides of the frame.

2. Hammer the nails into where the markings are.

Done!

Pin-ups

Lately I have had a real crush on all things woven, Navajo, western, Aztec whatever you want to call it. I love the natural fibres used and I really want to know all about Peruvian weaving and the natural dies that they use.
Here are some crafts, makes and ideas of different degrees of skill for you all to peruse. Some beautiful things...

Arrows

 Clutch Bag

Wall Hanging

Dip Dyed Baskets

Dream Catchers

Hope you like them too! 

X

Net Curtain

I have been useless with this blog lately. But I have managed to take some time to fill you in on some things that I have been doing lately. Most recently I have produced a net curtain to hide the outside world without making my room dark. It was so simple and I found the most beautiful net fabric from Ikea and it is only £1.50 a meter! Magic! I also got myself a tension rod and all you need is to hem the edges and make a loop at the top and voila! Simple, but very effective!

X

Butterfly

I have been super busy in my outside blog life lately, so much so I have not had time to spend time with a needle or a hook! So tonight I decided to sit down for ten minutes and design a pattern to brighten someones day.

Photo Courtesy of Google

One of the people closest to me loves butterflies, and when you know how to crochet something, you can make hundreds of them! So I can now fill their life with butterflies.

What you need:
* Some beautiful yarn
* Crochet hook to match the yarn size
* Scissors

How to make a butterfly:
1. Make your slip knot, chain 4 and slip stitch together. (a magic circle works well with this piece too, depends on how you like to start off your crochet rounds)

2. Ch 5, triple treble, double treble, treble, half treble, sl st then ... ch 2, treble, double treble, half treble, sl st then... ch 2, double treble, treble, half treble, sl st then... ch 2, treble, double treble, triple treble, ch 5 , sl st. Then tie off and tie the two lose ends together (these form the antennae).

You are done! 

I think these would look great dip dyed with an ombre effect! Beautiful :)

Photo Courtesy of Google