Dino the Dinosaur (plus a rant about work)

Hello

It's been a little while since I wrote on my blog as I've been busy with life. I'm normally a stay at home mum/homemaker/crafter etc but I decided back in March to get myself a 'real' job. I applied, interviewed and got the job! I started my job at the beginning of April and it was great, a new lease on life and new funds in the bank! This was short lived though as the company I was employed by failed to tell me that the part time job in Crewe I accepted also contained two weeks of full time training at their training shop in Widnes! My face dropped! I couldn't believe they'd missed out such a major piece of information and to add insult to injury they wanted me there at 7:45am. So after a week of trying to makes thing work they left me no choice but to leave, which made me very sad and very deflated. The company in question is Poundbakery, please, if you go for any managerial position you will need to train in another store, hopefully you'll be lucky enough to be told about this prior to accepting the role.

Moving swiftly on...

So I am currently half job hunting half crafting. Crafting helps me turn off but sometimes the desire to sell things really gets me down and I need a sale every now and then to give me that confidence boost that people actually want to buy my stuff. I worked out that last year I sold about 20 dolls, 16 doll kits, several hats, 4 cats and about 10 dinosaurs. I love selling things! Who doesn't!

Latley, continuing on with the dinosaur theme that I seem so in love with, I do like Dinosaurs, there's something about sewing little cute dinosaurs that look so colourful and friendly plus people seem to like them!

Here's my latest little jurassic collection...

Dino the Dinosaur in Cream

Dino the Dinosaur in Orange

I thought I'd make these ones quite simple looking and blob like, Ilove their big eye, not sure whether or not I shouldv'e added some teeth?? Or a mouth of some description. I think I might have a play with some felt teeth and a smile... Watch this space...

These are currently in my Etsy Shop Hatz4Headz and also on eBay. Here https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Hatz4Headz?ref=hdr_shop_menu and here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191875351866?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

C xx

How to Make Yarn from a T-Shirt

Hello

Rag Rugging is a really fun and cheap way to make a rug for your house. I like the style and the variety of colour it brings but also its cheap to make and anything you can make yourself for your home is sometimes a lot more satisfying that buying it from the shop.

How to Make Yarn from a T-Shirt

To get started on your Rag Rug you're going to need a lot of yarn, yarn being old t-shirts cut and stretched into yarn balls. Here's a tutorial of how to do this.

1. You'll need to begin by laying out your old t-shirt onto a flat surface, smooth the t-shirt out and make sure that the seams are laying straight. Beginning at one side you want to cut all the way across the t-shirt to remove the hem, we don't want this bit so this can be thrown away.

2. Then at one edge cut across the t-shirt leaving about one inch before the end, you don't want to cut all the way across here. Keep doing this, as the picture below until you've reached the top of your old t-shirt.

How to Make Yarn from a T-Shirt

Using the same method cut the sleeves up too.



3. Now you need to cut the ends so that your t-shirt is in one continuous length. To do this you'll need to open up the seam that's still intact and cut across the rows, cutting to the one below. I've dotted a line to show you.

 

4. Once you've cut across you'll be left with a long strip of fabric. You then need to stretch it!



5. Holding one end just pull the fabric through your hands stretching it gently as you go. You need to stretch it enough so that the fabric begins to curl like this.



6. Roll it up into a ball and you're done!



C x

Charity Shop Bargains and Rag Rugging

Hello

Good Evening all, had a few days off from blogging as decided to relax this weekend and not do much crafting (strange I know). Sometimes I get so caught up in making new things and designing and writing new patterns for future things to make that I forget to just simply relax to forget to relax and with having anxiety I never sit still!

So, while I was relaxing I found myself a(nother) new project, I realise that I should probably finish some of my other projects before I begin but sometimes the excitement of a new project carries me away with it and I can't be tamed. My project this time is to make a rug for the living room. I've researched various rug making methods, by researched I mean looked through Pinterest for a few hours studying various techniques and here is what I discovered.

Felt Balls

I had a look at felt ball rugs on Pinterest and they look lovely all of them are made with such bright colourful felt balls which makes me want to buy lots of felt and begin making a tirade of felt balls. After weighing up the cost factor of this I think it's probably going to be an expensive project?? The rug I'm hoping to make needs to be around 4' x 2' at least so that would be a lot of felt balls, plus with having a dogs and a cat I think the wear and tear of it would be questionable to say the least. I could be wrong but I wouldn't want my beautiful felt balls being squished by my dog or clawed by my cat the horror would be too much to take.

Crochet

To crochet a rug I would be cutting up old t-shirts into fabric strips and then using a very large crochet hook I would then crochet a huge round. Sounds easy enough and I love this idea  and I imagine it would grow quite quickly and also be pretty well constructed with regards to the animals walking around on it. Do I have enough t-shirts though??

Rug Conclusion

Ill probably add this to my one day list

C x