Drift, driftin' away.....

Okay, so I haven't been doing much sewing but I did make something instead of painting another piece of furniture (you can hear Mr Fish breathing a sigh of relief in the background). I saw a gorgeous mirror with driftwood around it in a Better homes and gardens mag a while ago and kept it in the back of my mind. After about 3 trips to the beach recently we had a bucketful of driftwood (had to be fairly straight bits) to get started. First I painted a square canvas that was lying around a brown colour, do you think I can remember what I originally bought it for!?

Then I stuck a mirror that used to be in littlest fishes room in the centre with double sided tape. It's one of those cheap mirrors from the warehouse so I wasn't worried about wrecking it if things didn't work.

And then I started playing around with how to put the sticks on. I had in my mind a round looking shape (a bit sun like) but quickly decided that required to much fiddling with angles and was a bit tricky so I went with a simple square shape instead. After snapping a few to fit them in the gaps I glued them down and added a few more pieces to the sides when the top was dry.

The finished mirror came out pretty good and you can't really see the canvas unless you're really looking for it. Being on a canvas it's not as heavy as it would have been on a piece of mdf or ply.

(the picture you can see in the mirror is on the opposite wall, I thought it framed the painting nicely!)

Posted on My house of giggles

Really quick plastic bag holder tutorial

After Ashleigh left a comment on my last post about making a plastic bag holder I just had to get stuck in and make one, couldn't resist you know! This is my version of one with a bit of a water/beachy theme. I cut out 6 rectangles of fabric, the top and bottom ones are 5" by 16" and the four middle ones are 4 1/2" by 16" (I made the top and bottom ones slightly bigger as they have the drawstring and elastic in them) This was just measured roughly against a tea towel to get an approximate size. Sew all the strips together along the 16" sides to make a big rectangle like the one above. I topstitched each seam and overlocked around the edges to keep it neat.

Fold the rectangle in half lengthwise and pin along the edge matching up the seams. Measure down 1 1/2" from the top and put a pin in then measure down another inch and put another pin in. Sew all the way down the side leaving the space between the pins unstitched (this is for the drawstring) make sure to anchor your stitches either side of the space so they don't unravel later.

You should now have a tube that is starting to look like a bag holder. Finger press the side seam open at the top and fold the top edge down to just above the space. Stitch the hem of the casing all the way around the tube just under the space. Your drawstring casing is now done.

Sew a hem on the bottom edge of the tube to form the elastic casing, leaving a little gap to thread your elastic through ( about 8" of thin elastic). I tied mine in a knot instead of sewing it but that's up to you. Thread some nice looking trim (rope, ribbon, cord etc) into the drawstring casing and cut off a whatever length you want and knot the two ends together so it can be hung up on a hook. That's it, now you have a nice plastic bag holder to replace the old yucky one that you keep meaning to get rid of but never do!

There you go Ashleigh, my plastic bag holder! Hope you like it :)

Wee nest

Here is a pic of the nest with all the wool wrapped and secured and another pic of the nest after it has been "furnished" with feathers and eggs.

Wee nest tutorial

Okay, here is my wee nest tutorial for anyone wishing to make a funny little nest to put a bird and some eggs in.

1. cut 25cm lengths of wire (I used plain old hobby wire from bunnings ) until you have 6 lengths.

start with 2 pieces and make a cross. twist the pieces in the middle so they are joined.

Get your next 2 pieces and place in between the cross to form an X and bend and twist these together with the first 2.

Take the final 2 pieces and place in between the other wires so they are opposite each other and twist together. You will have to bend the X pieces around a bit so the next to can fit in evenly.

You should end up with something like this-

Don't worry if the bit in the middle is a bit messy as it will be covered in wool.

2. Grab some interesting looking wool ( one was sort of nobbly and had different colours throughout and the other one was a bit feathery looking) in one or two sorts.

Tie the main wool onto the centre of the wires and start to wrap around going in-out-in-out (remember those paddle pop xmas decorations we made when we were little?) until you have gone around a few times.

3. take a length (1m or so) of the other colour wool and wrap the 2 wools together til it runs out then keep wrapping a bit more with just the no 1. wool. Then take another length and do a bit more with the 2 wools again.

4. As you start to get further out start to bend the wire upwards to form a shallow bowl shape and keep wrapping until you have the desired size nest you want. Tie off the wool on one of the wires.

5. bend the wires over and loop the end around the next wire to form the rim of the nest. Go all the way round and reshape the rim if needed to be nice and round. (if your nest is quite little, cut the wires down a bit before bending and looping)

6. grab some more wool and weave it around the top to conceal the wires going in and out of each loopy bit a few times til all the wire is covered.

7. find some cute little eggs and some speckledy feathers to put in your nest and hopefully a lovely bird will decide to call it home!