Furoshiki draw-string bag

Here's a secret, I have forever avoided doing one of those 'what's in my bag' posts because it is a mess - full of receipts, train tickets and all sorts of 'just in case' clutter. Which means if I want to take a crafty project out with me,  I need to keep it safe from getting gnarled up in all the other paraphernalia.

Step forward the furoshiki bag. Furoshiki is the Japanese of wrapping things in cloth, either for gifts, decoration or just for everyday use. Beautiful recycling and avoiding unnecessary waste going to landfill - you know these things float my boat. And gorgeous vintage scarfs are perfect.

Here's how to make a bag from your scarf.

1 - Lay out your scarf

 2 & 3 - Tie the adjacent corners together loosely

4 - Tie the corners that are now adjacent to each other together in small tight knots close to the points

You then simply pull the two small knot upwards to form a handle and the loose knots will draw the scarf together in to a bag

The beauty of this is that the scarf in your handbag, you know, the one you keep there just in case, means you will never be without an extra bag - large scarves can become shopping bags, small scarves can hold make up or trinkets. Endless possibilities...

My scarves are from charity shops and the rather amazing Queensland table cloth is from the magnificent Vix. My current travelling crafty project are knitted hexipuffs - I'm obsessed.

How do you use your vintage scarves?

101 uses of a vintage sheet

I think the humble vintage sheet is a greatly overlooked item, which is a shame because they are so versatile. And if, like me, you are an absolute sucker for a colourful retro print, they are probably the cheapest way to get some genuine vintage fabric in your life. They are available to be picked up for almost pennies.

For obvious reasons, I prefer to buy mine from charity shops or Etsy sellers I implicitly trust the quality and hygiene standards of. But once you find a seller you are happy with, the vintage sheet opens your world up to endless vibrantly coloured fabric possibilities. And, importantly, you are saving perfectly good fabric from going to landfill and/ or avoiding modern unethical fabric manufacture to boot.

So use #1 is to simply to reuse your sheet on your bed. If using them as your actual bedding isn't your thing, we love using them as throws or top sheets - they protect our bedding from our feline friends and they also add some seriously funky patterns and colour. We have this rather lovely 1970s pink and purple Dorma number livening up our bedroom at this moment. It cost £1 from our local charity shop.

So what do you do with your vintage sheets? From bedding to beyond! I'm looking for suggestions to add to my list, I really think we can find over 100 uses and reuses. 

Use the comments box below, or send me a tweet.

As an incentive, here's some gratuitous posing from Headley...

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: DIY Painted Sign // Guest Post from Deb of Living the Good Life

Firstly, it should be said, ive never done a guest blog before, so thank you to Rachel for letting me and i hope you have a great holiday!!!!

I am an avid believer of Reduce, re-use, recycle this, if theres anything i can use the 3 R’s for i will.  I hate waste so if it can be re-used, it generally is. Also with having children, teaching them early and getting them involved, means that it becomes a way of life for them from the off.

At the moment on my blog http://livingthe-goodlife.blogspot.com/ we as a family are trying run a bit more self sufficiently and its an educational experience for my daughter, who can see that veg comes from the ground and not from the market.  By next year i hope to have a good crop of veg or at least have it planted as well as have chickens  running around the plot so we can have fresh eggs, the blog highlights the highs and lows of this starting from the beginning.

This weekend we have been allocated out allotment i cannot tell you how excited i am about this, i can not wait to get cracking on it and i have so many ideas as to what we are going to do, how it will be set out etc....

So to get into the spirit of our allotment obviously a sign for our plot was a must!!! Even if theres nothing on there the sign can go up and people can see it belong to someone, and using the above mantra ‘reduce, re-use, recycle’ i started hunting around the house to see what could be used.

Upstairs in our bedroom we have a very old, haggered dining table which is currently being used as a clothes horse!! 

 

At this point it worth noting other half of this table has been ‘used’ and painted and been made into a desk for my daughter room, eventually with a bit of luck ill use so much of it for different things there will be nothing left of it and we will no longer justify using it as a clothes horse!

On either side of the table of the centre of the table one of these has been taken off for the ‘sign project’.

 

All the handles and screws have been taken off and it had been sanded down.  Then with the clever use of greaseproof paper and any font you fancy on the computer:

TA-DAAAAAAAAAA.

Now it wouldn’t be ‘me’ if it wasn’t a little bit ‘kooky’ so the bit about the fairies has been added because, lets face it, id love to think there are fairies helping around the garden and secondly, and more importantly, my daughter can not wait to get down to the allotment to look for them, i wonder how long it will be before i can convince her that if she digs up carrots the fairies will be under them!!!!

Finally, a little bit of paint, we’re going for a bit of a mad hatters/alice in wonderland theme.

And there we have it a handmade sign, completely free to go on the allotment.

Pop over to the blog http://livingthe-goodlife.blogspot.com/ and become a follower and keep up with us as we hopefully progress into becoming a tad more self sufficient.  And any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Inspiration: Dia De Los Muertos

(because Halloween is soooo last month. There is a lovely 'about' the Day of the Dead festival here)

This animation is just wonderful...

¡Viva Calaca! Day of the Dead from Ritxi Ostáriz on Vimeo.

See more at http://www.vivacalaca.com/eng/

Here is some more Day of the Dead inspiration from Etsy:

This fantastic lamp from Crafty Chica. I really want to make something similar to this for the new house, I have already found a red lamp base in my local hospice shop.

Beautiful skulls for your muffins from Mates & Rubbish


This amazing laptop skin from Beepart



And these utterly gorgeous tiny wire skulls by Raw Bone Studio I would love to make these in to a mobile, so their shadows would dance around the room.

And my own little creation - my Day of the Dead skull is a painted Margarita bottle. Pictured here with Zoltan the Magnificent, our balcony garden gnome, who is painted on an old Limoncello bottle.

And if that's not enough skulls for you, check out the amazing 'A Skull A Day' blog, which contains artistic skulls, natural skulls and accidental skulls everyday. It's one of my favourites.

(PS. this isn't a sponsored post, just a collection of things I really like and have found on the interweb. Sorry if my Spanish is awful.)

(PPS. Yesterday I had a rather extraordinary amount of hits on my little part of the doubleudoubleudoubleu. I am absolutely made up and say a massive hi to everyone that is passing by. Thank you for taking the time! x)

(PPSS. I've kind of given up on that 30day favourite things thing. To get to the point, it was boring me, so I'm sure it was probably was boring you too. BUT I have just signed up to a lovely new challenge that involves outfits. Yippee! Watch this space... x)

(PPPSS. Sorry Texans x)

Loving: Cut outs

Inspired by the magnificent cut out artwork of Claire Brewster, I saw at the Origins Craft Fair in Spitalfields last week (please have at look at her website for the most exquisite birds cut from reclaimed materials) here are some of my other favourite cut outs to share with you this Sunday:


Beautiful and delicate cut out jewellery from the wonderfully named Hairy Growler


Fun and funky cut outs on this top (I want one for Halloween)


Amazing cut out scarf


Not yet cut out, but I love this Punk Rock Girl Paper Doll, she is very anti-kitsch


source
I hope yours is! x