Make your own Garden Cloche with Elasticated Fleece Covers

Ok, so I wanted a couple of these cloches for my new allotment (yayyy!) but they tend to be sold as either with the fleece, polyethene or net covers and cost around £25 each for 3m/10ft length.

So to save money and to have greater flexibility in terms of the covers I use, I wanted to just buy the hoops and swap and change the covers as and when I need.  By the way, the fleece and polyethene covers are used during autumn, winter and early Spring to protect crops from the cold and frost.  The fleece ones will allow rain to water your plants but will block some of the light which can already be low during the autumn/winter and of course the Polythene covers allow the light in but no rain, so you would have to water your plants.  The net covers are used to protect your crops from insects and birds.

Items I used:

1 pack of 6 Tunnel Hoops from the Royal Horticultural Society £8.99
(these were free as part of a prize I won with them he he) - and from what I read you can also use plumbers MDPE 25mm piping
4 packs of Fleece Cover (1.5m x 5m or 1m x 6m) from Poundland £4.00
4 reels of Strong Thread (@ 0.65p each) 70% Polyester/30% Cotton - Stockport Indoor Market
Approx 20m of clear elastic used for swimwear £7 - enough to sew on to all your edges but not as long or wide as the fleece fabric as you will be stretching the elastic as you sew - Stockport Indoor Market

Total Cost for 2 x 3m/10ft Cloches with Fleece Covers  £21.94
my cost as the hoops were free £12.95


Ok, if you want it really simple, just place each hoop in the ground at say 1m apart and throw a cover over the top, secure it with tent pegs or something similiar.  However, I wanted my fleece covers to be elasticated so that they fit more snug to the hoops.

So, I measured one of the hoops, which at the widest point was 1.8m (around the arch) and 65cm tall.
So for one cover I used 2 pieces of fleece (one of 1m width and the other of 1.5m width) and cut them both to a length of 4.3m (3m for 3 hoops spaced at 1m apart plus 0.65 + 0.65 to cover the ends/height of the cloche hoop).  The width of 2.5m is a bit wider than necessary but it was easier to just join the two pieces of fleece at the width they were supplied in and meant I only had to cut the length.

I then joined the 2 pieces of fleece together (making the 2.5m width) using zig zag stitch and strong Thread on the sewing machine. I used the same stitch for sewing the clear swimwear elastic (it is water resistant not sure about sunlight yet!) on to all the edges.  I intend to use 3 hoops per cloche, spaced at around 1m apart with the fleece cover over the top.

So the end result is 2 fab cloches with elasticated fleece covers, sorry I can't show you a photo yet as I have no need to use the cloches right now! but I will do later down in the year and update as to how the covers faired up over winter.

PS Poundland also sell some smaller 1.5m (5ft) Wire Cloches with plastic covers for £1 - which could be used for overwintering smaller crops such as winter lettuce, salad leaves etc.  Again, fleece covers could be made for these also if you do not want to use the plastic ones supplied with the cloches. Pin It

Upcycled Plastic Bottle to Make Up Brush Holder

Ok, so as you can maybe guess from this and my previous post,  I have been reorganising my make up and really wanted a holder to put my brushes in.  Anyway I decided to make one out of an old clear plastic bottle (2 litre type), the first thing I did was cut the bottle in half which was tall enough to contain the height of my brushes.

Here it is with the brushes.

Next I measured the circumference of the bottle, realised my pretty paper was a little to narrow to fit all the way around in one strip so had to do a little joining of pieces on to the bottle.

Ok, so here is the bottle with the strips of paper glued to it.  I added a layer of clear glaze (suitable for paper) on top of the paper and sprinkled a little gold and pink glitter on there as well.  

Now, you can see that the bottom of the bottle/brush holder is a weird shape, so I lightly sanded this with fine sandpaper (it helps the acrylic paint to adhere) and painted on some hot pink acrylic paint with a little glitter.  

Lastly I covered the paper joins and the top rim with some cute trims that I had spare.  I just added these with super glue.

 And voila, here is my upcycled plastic bottle turned make up holder.  I am thinking of adding a thin layer of clear varnish to the bit that I painted but will do that later :0)

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Depotting Sleek Make Up Eye Shadow Palettes into an Upcycled Pencil Tin

Ok, so I had 4 Sleek Make Up Eye Shadow Palettes and wanted all of the eye shadows in one container.

First of all I cleaned and spritzed this empty pencil tin with rubbing alcohol to sanitise it.  I have also seen people use the DVD or CD plastic cases with the black insert taken out and of course you could use any other suitable container with a lid you can think of.

Next, I took a piece of pretty glittery pink self adhesive film and on the reverse side, I drew around the shape of the pencil tin lid, adding a little "seam allowance" to cover the edges of the lid. Alternatively you could also use glue on pretty paper or fabric and could add trims, ribbons, embellishments, stickers etc 

This is the tin lid covered.  

The next bit is a little tricky and requires a lot of patience which I ran short of!  Take your palette and place it on a flat iron/hair straightener..or use a hair dryer...or a lighter with caution...just heat the bottom of the palette for about 30 seconds, this will help the glue on the eyeshadow pans to loosen.

You then want to use a safety pin and a pair of tweezers to gently tease the eyeshadow pan out of the palette case.

Here they are all done with a few accidents, if you dig into your eyeshadows add a couple of drops of rubbing alcohol to them and press them back down.

Next I took a piece of strong card and superglued all of the eyeshadow pans to the card and then stuck a little bluetack to the back of the card before popping it, along with the eyeshadows, into the tin.  

Some people stick their eyeshadows directly into the tin but I didn't want to do that as I want the tin to be reuseable.  Also I have seen other crafters use magnets or those little double sided spongy stickers and attach those to the back of each eyeshadow pan so that the tin can be reused once the eyeshadows are finished.

 Voila all done!  The most time consuming and fiddly bit was depotting the eyeshadows, I would advise putting old towels on your work surface AND the floor as you can end up with little bits all over the place & you can't see until you tread on them!!! not too hot with the black or darker eyeshadows!

Sleek Make Up Palettes

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Lekala Patterns Review 1...from Russia with Love?

Ok, so I have been toying with the idea of buying some of these Lekala downloadable sewing patterns for a while...so I bit the bullet and spent 5 euros for 10 patterns/units, a bargain...I will do an individual pattern review as I go along.  There's a great range of patterns on their site, some are really quite unusual and just to let you know the "knittings" section is for knits, it took me ages to suss this out and as I am rather partial to jersey fabric, this was great.

Anyway, in order to get your patterns you first need to purchase them via Soft Key, which I did and paid easily with Paypal.  Within a few minutes Soft Key sent me my account registration details (keep a note of them) and then the activation code needed to register with Lekala and then lastly the 15 digit number which Lekala require when purchasing your patterns.  It all sounds a bit complicated, but it was easy and all came through really quickly via email along with instructions for the next step...just remember to keep a note of your passwords and activation codes

The next thing I did, was decide on my patterns (you don't need to choose them all at once, just keep a note of how many units/patterns you have used and  your "password for the construction of patterns") clicked to order and entered my measurements in centimetres and the 15 digit passcode.  I chose the patterns without a seam allowance as I think this option counts for 2 units/patterns instead of the 1 unit without the seam allowance included.  Its easy to add the seam allowance in whilst you're sticking together and cutting out your pattern.

I chose the patterns to be sent to me in PDF format, A4 sized paper and they all arrived within an hour of entering the details, fab.  The patterns are really easy and simple to print off and stick together (not too many pages either, I think the biggest is 30 pages but most tops and simple dresses are like 14 pages), I printed with no scaling at 100% actual size.

I copied and pasted the instructions and the photo of each pattern from the Lekala website (some of which were dodgy Russian to English translations lol) into Word and saved under the pattern number.  Even though some of the translation is a little peculiar, if you have basic common sense and some sewing experience, you can get by...I hope!!!!

Well, that is all I can report for now and I am happy with the service speed and process of receiving the patterns and will report back once I get down to sewing individual pieces. Pin It

Fabric Bracelets (from plastic bottles and fabric remnants)

Ok, so I have been having some real fun today making bracelets from old plastic bottles and fabric scraps.

I normally recyle what I can but sometimes I love to just reuse the items instead plus I am always on the look out for ways to use up my fabric remnants.  These bracelets were inspired by a tutorial on Favecrafts (which is a fab site for allsorts of crafts) and I added my own twist to it as always.

 Ok, so the first thing to do is cut up a clean and dry old round plastic bottle, I used a 1 litre sized one.that had a wide enough circumference to make a bracelet to fit me.

Then, I cut out strips of plastic of various widths with some plastic left over for who knows what as yet :0)  

Once you have cut out your bracelet shapes, staple or glue the ends together (I did both as the glue didn't want to stick) to your desired circumference.  I just used a shop bought bracelet I already had to gauge this.

 The next thing you want to do is cut a long strip of fabric, I didn't measure the length or width, just winged it.  Now if you like, you may want to hem the raw edges so that you have a nice smooth wrap of fabric around your braclet.  

Then, you need to apply some hot glue or other suitable glue to the inside of your bracelet and start to wrap your fabric strip around it, adding glue each time you stick down the fabric.

 This is 1/2 way through wrapping the fabric around the bracelet...keep wrapping and glueing and wrap it tight!

 Once you get to the end, you want to cut off the end of your fabric strip (if there is a lot left) and turn the end into the inside of your bracelet

 This bit is optional, but its for a Flower embellishment: - draw  2 or 3 circles of different sizes onto the back of your fabric (or another fabric if you like), I just used a couple of different sized pots I had lying around

 Cut out the circles, they don't have to be perfect as you we will be "singing" the edges

 Then cut some little nicks into your circle (I did 4) to form the petals

 Now using the heat from a lit Tee-Lite gently waft your fabric flower close but not in the flame.  The fabric will start to curl and take more of a flower shape....please note, I used polyester satin, I am not sure how this would work with other types of fabric.
(PLEASE BE CAREFUL TO NOT CAUSE A FIRE - IT MAY BE WORTH HAVING A BOWL OF WATER NEARBY JUST IN CASE) .

 So here are the 2 layers to the flower

 Next I hot glued the smaller layer to the bigger layer, stuck the flowers to my bracelet and glued on a few rhinestones and voila!  I also made a pink one out of a remnant of Sari fabric that has been used in so many different projects it has an endless lifespan!

Until next time, Zoe xxx

I am linking this post to these fab sites linky parties...

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Plant Pot Jackets

First you need to measure the circumference and height of your plantpot..add 1/2-1" to both measurements

to allow for your hem

 Next using your measurements, cut out your fabric and hem all the way around all 4 edges

 Then sew on some Velcro (hook and loop)..I put the loop on the right side of the fabric and the hook on the wrong side

Wrap your finished jacket around your plantpot and voila!  I like that these can be put in the wash and changed when I get bored of them.

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Valentines Melt and Pour Soaps

Spring Inspired Valentines Soap

I melt my soap using the double boiler (dish over pan of simmering water)

but some people choose to use the microwave, either are just fine :0)

I used Food/Cosmetic Grade Liquid Colourants and Cosmetic Grade Fragrance Oils

 Valentines Layered Soap with Spring Inspired Embeds

Valentines Soap Cupcakes

 Sorry...it's a bit difficult to read this...the soap icing/frosting is made by melting white melt and pour soap.  Once melted, add 1 tbs of liquid castille soap to each ounce of melt and pour soap...add any colourant and whisk with an electric mixer until it resembles icing.  I made 2oz and this was plenty, enough to make some little wax tarts...see below

And these are the "tarts" from the left over icing with a few embeds thrown in there!

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