"Cornishware" Ruffled Shopping Bag
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Give a plain old tote bag a pretty ruffled makeover with scraps of fabric. Stripes of blue and white give it a look reminiscent of Cornishware pottery.
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Upcycle old Christmas Cards into New Gift Tags
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Are you de-Christmassing your house about now? If so, this is when you need to be making next years gift tags.
Read MoreIdeas for your colouring pages
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Do you enjoy colouring? It's still popular but what do you do with the pages when you've finished? Here are some ideas.
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Retro Patchwork Bedspread made into a Snuggly Throw and Bag
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I finally turned the old patchwork bedspread my Nan made for me in the 1970's into a cosy new throw and a fun tote bag.
Read MoreRecycled Plastic Valentine Hearts
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Make cheap and simple valentine decorations from old plastic food containers and nail varnish.
Read MoreTurn Old Cards into New Cards
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Save the Christmas cards you are sent and recycle them into unique cards to send to your loved ones.
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Clutch bag recycled from an old knit
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Saving an old piece of knitting and turning it into a little clutch was a bit of a fiddle but I think, well worth it.
Read MoreGlobe Makeover
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Take an old kid's globe and give it a classy makeover with white spray paint and silver sharpie.
Read MoreCath Kidston Notepaper Bangle
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I love Cath Kidston's beautiful designs so used some scraps of pretty floral notepaper to makeover an old bracelet.
Read MoreCross Stitch Planter
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Use the simplest of cross stitch to upcycle an old tin into a pretty plant pot.
Read MoreKitchen Tin Planters and a cautionary tale
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Turn old food tins into cute planters for your kitchen window sill. Not quite as simple as it seems, there are a few things you'll need to bear in mind with this idea.
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"Too tight at the hem" Top Fix
/Here is a very simple fix for a top that is just a bit too snug at the bottom.
I bought this top from a charity shop recently just because I love the colour and the size seemed about right for me. When I got it home and tried it on it was just a bit too snug round the bottom (it's bottom not mine - or maybe it's both!)
It doesn't look TOO bad here, a tiny bit "sack of potatoes" maybe. There wasn't much room for movement though, that bottom band was stretched to the max!
At first I thought maybe I could just remove the bottom band but I didn't want to loose any of the length. I also considered taking off the band but adding lace, like I did on this t shirt here. I didn't have any suitable lengths of wide lace in my stash but whilst I was looking I found some lovely handmade looking lace that is pretty with the coral top.
In the end I kept this really simple and used what I already had.
Undo or cut depending on how your top is made, the side seams on both side about 10cm or 4".
Try it on to make sure you've gone high enough to make it comfy to wear.
Trim any seam allowance away.
On my top the seam joining the band to the top was starting to unravel a little so I added just a couple of stitches to secure it:
Pin a length of lace long the raw edge, folding the edges under like so:
Stitch the lace into position. I stitched mine by hand. The pinning was a bit of a fiddle and I imagined it would be even trickier to machine stitch.
Hand sewing didn't take long and means it's easy to adjust the lace into position as you go. If you feel confident on the sewing machine you could easily wizz it on the machine.
Repeat on the other side and that's it, done!
Not the best photos ever but you get the idea, my "photographer" was not available so I had to take these of myself.
The fit is SO much better now, much more comfy to wear and hopefully a little bit more flattering.
I think this would be nice with ribbon or bias binding, maybe even scraps of a patterned fabric instead of the lace. Oh, the possibilities! Do you have a top that needs just a bit more give around the bottom that this idea might work for?
I'll be linking up to all these great link parties, why not go and have a look!
