Upcycle Living

Fabric scraps. What can you do with them when they are neither big enough for another top nor small enough to ignore? I got one piece just like that, with really lovely print. Thankfully, I've also got a bit of the old Ikea blanket left from making the stuffed toy snake . When Ikea blanket scrap meets another fabric scrap, we get a new wine bag! Great for shopping for anything that come in a glass bottle. The old Ikea fleece blanket serves as an internal lining that will stop the glass bottles from knocking each other, while giving the bag a soft spongy feel. 1. Iron out both the fabric scraps 2. Trim the fabrics into equal size, leaving excess on the sides for the printed one. 3. Double-fold in the side of the printed material all around, securing by ironing. 4. Wrap over the trimmed old Ikea blanket, fold the excess sides around it. 5. This is how it should look now. 6. Fold the layered fabrics in half (printed one face out) and stitch the bag up,...

Due to work, I have to keep quite a few flash drives - each for a different type of job or client - in my bag. Although there are small compartments in my bag, I still find myself having to ransack through other stuff in the same pocket to get to the right flash drive. I've looked everywhere for a flash drive organizer but I just can't find one that I like; and most importantly, I do try not to make unnecessary new purchases. So I went to get some inspiration and help from my sewing box, and made this: I found some fabric scrap big enough for my flash drive organizer pattern, an old zip I saved from some old clothes, and an old and partly used Ikea fleece blanket (which I've used some for the snake stuffed toy ). Here are the few simple steps of the making of the flash drive organizer that's now happily residing in my bag: 1. Little pockets sewn onto the inner layer, then wrapped around with the fabric.   2. Secure the sides with a basting stitch, ...

The year of the snake. What else would you do for a company new year dinner? The snake theme obviously! The cheapskate that I am, there's no way I will go out and buy anything new just for the glory of one evening. I found this old baby blue Ikea fleece blanket that I couldn't part with and an old, rather flattened pillow which I have no idea what to do with; and I decided to make a stuffed snake with it. The process was really simple: mark two identical shapes of a snake on it with a 2B pencil, cut around them with 1-cm space allowance.  Stack the 2 shapes together, place a red ribbon of 4" length on where the mouth is (as the tongue) and stitch along the marked line, leaving about 4" of opening.  Fill it up with the old pillow stuffing, bit by bit. Then stitch up the opening.  As for the patterns on the snake, they were some lace trimming from my craft box. The eyes were buttons from my sister's dress (buttons that she hated and removed so I saved ...