Tutorial: Turn a T into a bag!

Hello there! I am super excited today to show you what I made TODAY!
And I thought that as I went along, I would take photo's. The idea that if it flopped, it was no biggy, no one would know and I could ditch the pic's (and evidence!) but that if it looked half decent, I would post a tut on it, soooo....yup, it came out half decent!

This Tut will show you how to take a little knitted top or crocheted top that you don't wear anymore and turn it into a bag!(maybe it's too small or you just don't wear it anymore) In my case, I love it...but it requires waaaaaay too much cleavage, something I don't have!!! It was one of those impulsive buys...you know...."I shall buy it....I shall wear wonderbra's with this . I shall look fantastic.".....

.....

It didn't work...

so plan B.....

Okay so first of all, all you do is turn the little top inside out...


Then place it on top of some fabric that you want to use for lining. these knitted tops or crocheted tops require lining if you are going to turn them into bags, cos they are so "holey".
All you do is draw around the top from where the back line starts to the bottom of the tee and across the bottom and up the other side.{in pencil on the WRONG side of the fabric}

Then take your fabric and fold it in half with the right sides facing each other.
I did a rough sketch to show you what I mean...(right click to view in new window and click to enlarge)

Now you have two pieces.

now you are going to iron in or fold in a 1cm seam all the way around your piece of fabric and then tack it to your shirt {the shirt must be inside out}

Once you have done that, then simply sew all 4 sides {both pieces of fabric either side}


Then you can turn it the right way and admire it for a few seconds....
back to work....make sure to squish the corners out.


Now you will have to cut the straps of the top because you will notice they won't be in the right direction for a bag! So simply cut them each in half and rejoin them -each strap must be joined to the strap on the same side.
Now it's time to embellish it!!
I made some crocheted flowers and sewed them on with buttons to the front of my bag.

And here is the finished bag!! I guess I love this because it looks like a top but it's a bag!! and of course I love to recycle and invent things out of other things!

.

This is what you see inside....


You can see the bottom of the bag...didn't worry too much about the inside seam...but I love pretty lining!! You could finish it off with a zip or press-studs or close it off with a buckle...whatever you want.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!! I would LOVE to hear your comments....

Lazy days of summer have began!

Ahh....summer....well technically we are only in Spring...but we had such a lovely hot weekend! I felt like summer!

On Friday, we went to the nature reserve for the afternoon. Afternoon's at the nature reserve involve the following:
*eating
*walking
*taking photos
*seeing how many different animals/birds we can spot
We spotted : tortoise, guinea fowl, pheasant, finch, cape weaver, hummingbird, sparrow,
buck.
The grass is full of a zillion different little wild flowers.






Saturday we went to the beach!!!! Yay, first time since last summer!! So good! Didn't swim cos the water is still FREEZING! But nice to lie a bit in the sun and feel sand between our toes!

Hope you had a good weekend, what did you do??

Sunshine, flowers and picnics{and winner of class!}

Spring...what a lovely time of year. My favorite time of year! I love the fact everything is new and clean and starting over....To see little green shoots....

to see my garden in full bloom...it's amazing!





Even the cat seems to enjoy spring!
Yesterday was a beautiful day. After school my daughter and I sat outside under the trees in the garden and had our lunch picnic style whilst doing homework.


and eating strawberries....We admired all the new flowers in the garden... {smelt a few too}
I made some crochet flowers


And even found time to drink a cup of coffee in my all new favorite chair located in my bedroom, next to a large window. The sun streams in and I can look out at my garden, put my feet up and read a magazine. I sneak into my room sometimes to do this ... {heck, it beats sitting on the loo to get a few minutes of peace!!}





Where is your favorite "nook" in your house? I would love to hear!!

Just quickly wanted to announce the winner for the class that I should of done on Monday!

Congrats to.....


*drum roll*

redjanfan
{congrats!! You've won a free spot in my class. You will be getting a mail shortly with the details!}

What can you do in 5 days?

Obviously quite a lot! For 5 days I have been stuck at home with my sick son.

So I have been making a lot of things...my Etsy shop is filling up....
NEW!! paper button flowers just in.

and then when the creativity gets a bit much, taking the camera and seeing what I can photograph...

What goes on in a little girls 7 year old head when you come across this?

"oh save me from the clutches of the evil dolly with the yellow shoes!"

"At least if I do get strangled, my make up is perfect!"

or this...
"and so tucked safely in their beds...unbeknown to them a giant with a Sony x200 was spying on them..."


I foresee more desperate attempts at seeing life from new perspectives for me...
But for now...it's time for some sewing....Have a great weekend!

Win a spot in my class for FREE!!

One lucky person can win a FREE spot in my class (excluding kit) "Discovering Myself" starting on the 24th September....all you have to do is leave a comment below in THIS post to qualify! I will pick the winner on Monday the 6th!

Have fun!

Mini Journals

I made two mini art journals that are now for sale in my Etsy store.
These are the kind of journals you will learn to make along with the class "discovering myself" starting on the 24th September. See posts below for more info.


I found this gorgeous blog today "Life is Beautiful" She has a lovely giveaway on to win one of her gorgeous handmade journals. Unfortunately by telling others it lessens my chances drastically, but one of the things is that you can enter multiple times if you refer to her blog post!
but I wanna win so will take the chance *evil grin*

So...what a crap day for the 1st of Spring...two sick kids at home, a sore throat that feels like I swallowed a camel who had drunk a chilli milkshake just before....and a wet, windy and miserable day outside!!! *hmnmm....sure I just saw my cat go whizzing past my window!*....must be the medication I am on!

I need cheering up....comments would do just that....(hint hint). PLEASE...tell me something funny, anything...I could do with a few laughs today!

Birds and flowers

{A little jug of flowers from my garden. My sweet pea's are smelling wonderful!}

Tomorrow is our official start of Spring!
Although the last two days have not felt like it, with rain and wind and cold!
But I am sure the weather will start to improve over the next few weeks. The good news is that my hay fever hasn't started yet! Normally I start in August.

I managed to take these photos yesterday of the bird life that has flocked to our area recently.




There are still some kits left for my online class.
The class starts the 24th September. If you would like to join and would like a kit, purchasing time for the kits cuts off 10th September as I need to still mail them out and make sure they have plenty of time to get to you before class starts.
The class is going to be a lot of fun , with free printables and at the end of it, you will have a fabulous little mini journal you have made yourself!

Remember you can also purchase just the class (you get your own supplies) and that will give you entry into the private class blog.

Sneak peek at goodies for online class....

So I am busy getting ready to send out the packs for the class....there are still a few left if you want to buy the kit and class combo....

Here are some tiny sneak peeks ...

A little bag all wrapped and ready to go!
I'm so happy it's Friday.....my second favorite day. My FIRST favorite day is Saturday.
I got these gorgeous fabrics in the post, I highly recommend Fabric Closet on Etsy.
She was so fast and the fabrics came beautifully packaged and they are just gorgeous! I can't wait to get stuck into them....


I also found the whole Dear lizzy range which I didn't know I could get here in South Africa, but I found it in a town about 30 minutes drive from me....I bought the whole range....(*guilty gulp*) but I cannot wait to use it!!!! *squeals of utter excitement!!*


So as the song says:
(feel free to nabb the word art! right click in a new window to open largest size and save to your pc! )