Memory Blanket

I had to repair some trousers for NYE and loved having my sewing machine out again. I wished quietly I had a reason to sew. Then to my amazement a week later my friend asked me to make a memory blanket for her little boy.
She gave me a bag of superman t-shirts and I set to cutting up the use able ones.
As he is a little boy there were tons of blue shirts so I decided on 3 rows of blue interrupted by 1 red and 1 green.
Despite using a template to cut the blocks, the t-shirts didn't line up perfectly which is a true annoyance to me but alas I wasn't unpicking all the panels that I had only just put together.
I then whizzed the backs of the shirts into the same sized panel and joined the front and back together.
My back hurts from cutting and sewing and I have a blister from my scissors so I should probably be careful with what I wish for but I have truly loved making it.
Who wants the next one?xx

Up cycled baby grows

When you first meet me I promise your first instinct will not be 'wow what a maternal woman' it's much more likely to be 'wow how has this person survived on her own so long'. You think I'm kidding but my nearest and dearest often joke that I'm on day release and they are my carers.
My point: I'm probably the least likely person to be interested in baby clothes. Now I haven't gone to the lengths of Sarah Millican who accidentally collects baby clothes for when Cheryl Cole pops by but I do think they are cute.
This is not your invitation to suggest I start having babies, I know I'm a person in possession of a uterus that is still ornamental but I promise you, I'm merely making a statement.
My latest craft fix comes from taking the baby grow that the child has grown out of, (taking the clothes from babies while they are still wearing them is probably more frowned upon than taking candy right?) cutting it up and making it into something new. This something new happens to be a love heart made out of covered buttons using the baby grows. The parents pick the clothes so they get to treasure the memories for much longer than it's acceptable to keep the baby grow, if Sarah, you are reading this perhaps it's time the tiny jeans go, and you get a keepsake for their room. And it's not just for girls. When a colleague passed me a bag of boys clothes I had a mini melt down but then came up with the dinosaur you see at the bottom.
Both sets of mummies at least liked the pictures from what I could gather and it kept my hands from shoving cake into a reluctant face for at least a day so it's all good. Ok so the face wasn't reluctant. I want cake.

Super Fatty Crafter

I'm a teacher by trade, fairly new at it, but I completely embrace some aspects with enthusiasm and excitement, other aspects I cuddle like a drunken relative that I would really rather avoid.

One of the aspects I adore is the requirement to have stationary. Lots and lots of stationary. Since being little I've always felt the need to buy stationary and every new start of term was a wonderful excuse to buy a new pencil case, all the contents and whatever novelty rubber set that was popular at the time. So when I was given a stationary catalogue and told I could make a list I nearly imploded trying to maintain my professional demeanour whilst secretly wanting to wee myself with excitement. For the record I haven't wee'd myself with excitement for a long time but you get the picture at how thrilled I was now.

The stationary arrived but then the conundrum, how to display such goodies?

Decopatch was clearly the only sane way to go.

Ladies and gents (I know of at least one fella that reads this) there we have:

1. A shoe box

2. Two pop bottles

3. Two milk cartons

4. A margarine tub and a

5. A water bottle 

All decopatched in an array of purples, pinks, blues and greens. A maximum of three colour shades per item of course.

I take this beauty into class with me knowing I will always have the implements to support my students. Although as stationary is so important to me, should a student need to borrow a pen I do require a shoe deposit.

The decopatch took me a couple of days - there was a lot that needed drying time- and pretty much emptied my recycling bin for that afternoon. At which point I realised I was partially responsible for keeping 7 items out of machines to regurgitate fumes into our environment - run with me here, it's the only way to get to my end point even if it's flawed, I was saving our environment. I think saving such a huge commodity for the world makes me somewhat of a superhero. You can call me Super Fatty Crafter! For all your decopatch needs!

Ok, possibly a little hyperbolic there, but I still think its pretty neat. Yes I probably used enough glue to bath my dog in and yes buying these items fair trade would've been a better option, but I like them. I get a sense of satisfaction using my collection, and possibly what I love the most is the potential for the collection to grow. Should a new stationary item become required I'm sure there is a container waiting to be decopatched to hold it.