celebrating the pom pom

The pom pom surprise for my boys is now up in their room. Yep, you guessed it, I made pom pom garlands. And had lots of fun doing it, and have many many more pom pom crafts planned. I am hooked! In fact, I may need a dedicated new board on pinterest - celebrating the pom pom!

I tried out a few methods of pom pom making - the ol' double cardboard donut method, the fork method, fingers method and the cheaty C method,

I have always found the double donut fiddly, and inevitably end up with my tongue out, though it does result in lovely, nearly perfectly round poms!

The fork method was a cute new way to make itty bitty pom poms but I did end up having to trim these a lot to get a really round shape.

I can never get the fingers method to work - I always end up with pom poms that look like they have been made in two halves :(

I will stick with the cheaty C method I think, as I was able to churn out much faster, rounder, happier looking pom poms this way. The C method is essentially the same as the donut method, but you don't have to guess how much wool/yarn you are going to use before you start, and you don't get to the point where you need to use a yarn needle. Hence the "cheaty" (read: easier) C method.

I know that there are purchase-able pom pom makers out there, but to buy one seems somewhat criminal, given I can make perfectly good ones without another piece of plastic in my life.

Here are some places to visit to get info if you would like to go a little pom pom crazy:

Ye olde cardboard double donut method: via crafted blog
Fork method: via vivid please
Fingers method: via dana made it
Cheaty C method: via craftaholics anonymous

The boys were somewhat chuffed with their new room decoration. Little Pickle told me I am a "beautiful maker", The Gherkin whispered a "wow" (the highest of compliments) and told me we needed to buy more wool to make more. Baby Pickle just laughed.

Hope you will enjoy some of my favourite inspirational pom pom moments:

Source: kidostore.com via Hannah on Pinterest

Source: mypoppet.bigcartel.com via Hannah on Pinterest

Source: blog.makezine.com via Hannah on Pinterest

Source: meetmeatmikes.com via Hannah on Pinterest

Source: bleubirdvintage.typepad.com via Hannah on Pinterest

Happy pom-pom-ing! xo

speaking of husbies felting woollens...

 

So, once upon a time I had a favourite cardigan. Pure wool, picked up from an opshop (thrifted) for eight dollars and big enough to keep me warm through my first highlands winter, belly swelling with bub number three.

 

Mr Pickles did me a favour a couple of weeks ago by washing all of my woollens and then popping them into the dryer. And voila! Felt ;)

 

Once I finished sobbing (kidding) I decided to make myself a beanie.

 

It was a piece of cake really:

 

   

1. With my cardi flat, and inside out, I traced around the shape of a favourite beanie

2. And then stitched along this line

3. And then cut the stitched beanie out of the cardigan with my pinking shears

4. And turned the completed beanie outside out

5. Done!

6. Oops! Not quite. A few vintage buttons later and...

7. I had a new, cute beanie to wear! I really should have been looking more excited, but I was too busy trying to take a self portrait (it's nothing short of a miracle that my tongue's not sticking out).

 

 

And just in time for an unseasonally chilly, wet highlands day.

 

How about you? Have you done anything with felted woollens? I now have quite a collection to my name, so I'm on the lookout for new projects ;)

Chat soon xo

 

 

pinspiration monday!

I have been coveting one of these or one of these fabric necklaces for ages, and have posted loads of these, or variations thereof, on my pinterest. So, on a stashbusting mission, off I went. I need to give thanks to the lovely Melissa, without her tutorial, I probably would not have been spending nap time this way, today.
Okay, so here we go...

From a green stretch fabric scrap (could have used an old stretch top - next time) I gave the rotary cutter a workout and cut five looong strips no more than 1.5-2cm wide (sorry, imperial peoples - maybe 1/2-3/4 inch?). Then The Gherkin and I played tug-o-war with the strips, til they were all curled over on themselves and were starting to look more like yarn (or zpaghetti).

Then, The Gherkin out of the house for a while, and Little Pickles faaaast asleep, I got to work!
I decided I wanted a mix of plaited (braided) and plain curled fabric, so my steps are a wee bit different from the original sources.

Step 1.
Tie a big ol' knot to join together three strips at one end. Plait (braid) away, until you think you've had enough. Something I discovered, was if you stretch the fabric while you are plaiting, you'll get a narrower, longer plait... see what you like, and do it your way! Tie another big knot. (or you could pin at this point but I am more of a lunky knot kind of gal... we're going to cut the knots off later, anyway.

Step 2.
Lay your plaited fabric on a flat surface, and then loop your long, non-plaited strips back and forth, back and forth, next to the plaited strip.

You can then pin one side of the looped ends together with the plaited end on the same side, or you can just cross your fingers as you carry it all to the machine.

Step 3.
Pop the ends you have gathered together under your machine foot and go back and forth, back and forth, until you think it will stay together.

This is when I then had a play to make sure I would be happy with the look of the finished product. Have a play. If you think you would like the plain fabric strips wrapped around the plaited strip, do this now, if you think you would like the plait to lie flat, do that.

And then get your other ends together and sew across these.

You now should have one "group" of fabric strips that have been sewn together at each end (and this is when I cut my big lunky knots off).

Step 4.
Now, stitch these ends together, one on top of the other. Now you have a loop. It's starting to look like a necklace now, right?

Step 5.
Find a wee scrap of the same stretch fabric and wrap it around the joined ends, as many times as you like. You could then stitch this in place, but I did some cheeky weaving in with my crochet hook... ;)

Step 6.
Check yourself out in the mirror! Lovely. Now, if you had been previously inspired (as I had) by this gorgeous pic, you may also have made it the right size to fit your head, too. Hooray!

ha ha love this cool backdrop???

what to do when the room is a pigsty.... sit in front of the towels on the clothes horse, of course!

Enjoy lovelies - do let me know if you have made on of your own. I am thinking, next one will be coral and egg yolk yellow. Or, maybe mustard with grey? Or pink. Yeah, maybe just pink. xo

new button rings

Hi there!

Firstly, two quick apologies:
1. apologies to those of you who were checking here for the information about my button rings and couldn't find the relevant post.... one day late!
2. a second bunch of apologies to those of you who are like me and have visual brains... there are not incredibly details instructions here but I hope you will get the idea...

Anyway, I did promise on my flickr site that I would explain how it was that I made the button rings on my flickr site here and here, so here is the explanation as promised.

Essentially, it all comes down to two things:
1. a ring base (which I found a huge variety of on the weekend in several bead shops on Chapel and High Streets)
2. some great buttons.

Now, I decided to have a play with the ring base which I thought would be most suited to wiring on elements in the first instance.



I thought that this one would be easiest due to the number of holes (so the number of options for wiring positions!). But, it is worth noting that there are loads of different types of these, and you may want to have a play yourself.

The terrifically helpful woman at the shop that I bought these in also suggested that I might like to flatten the ring "plate" to make attachment simpler (can't think of a good technical term, so let's use the word plate for the flatter piece that you attach the buttons to, as opposed to the part that wraps around your finger). She suggested that I used flat nose pliers for this, but I found it easier to push it up against a flat surface (like a tabletop, a wall, or a really big, flat button!).

So when I got home, I found two good looking buttons, flattened the ring plate and then got some really fine wire (I have had some terrible thread snapping experiences, so like to work with wire sometimes), threaded the wire onto a needle, and then basically started stitching the buttons to the ring plate.

I am sure that there must be an easier way than this, but I ended up stitching on all buttons at once (which got me into the terrible craft pose that I often find myself in, with a little tongue poking out the top right of my mouth, and eyes slightly crossed!). The buttons I chose for my first try (in the photos) weren't easy ones either - the smaller one was a shanked button, and I decided to thread this through the larger button (and the shank didn't quite reach all the way through), so a tricky one to stitch!

Perhaps it might be easiest to sew your buttons together first, and then sew them to the ring base?

To finish up I tend to knot and twist to my heart's content so I am convinced that the buttons will not fall off. Final photos are on my flickr site...

Again, the really helpful woman on Chapel St said that I could just as easily glue the buttons on, but I don't know that I am confident enough yet to use glue with some of my favourite buttons... think I will have to try with some less loved ones and then work my way up to my favourites!

Hope this is helpful, and I will try to add more photos soon! Please feel free to leave me a comment or question.
xx

ps. Have also discovered more findings at another store in Prahran, so I will have a play and get back to you... (stay tuned!)