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Monday, 24 February 2014

DIY Easy Porcelain Decorating

My dad has been using a shot glass as an egg cup for a good few months now...so  I thought I'd buy him a unique egg cup. However the only ones I could find were pretty boring; An excuse to get my craft on.

Searching on the internet I found out how to decorate porcelain easily and cheaply:

All I used was a sharpie pen which I already had around the house and an oven (which I already had around the house....).

I bought 2 plain white porcelain egg cups (they were pretty cheap). I purchased two because I can't draw for toffee, I needed a backup. All I did was grab the egg cup and a sharpie and get drawing. When my 'masterpiece' was finished I put it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Voila unique egg cup.





As the first one turned out ok(ish) my boyfriend attacked the second one with Johnny Depp characters beause Depp is awesome. 

Wednesday, 12 February 2014

Crochet Vodoo/Monster Doll (Pin Cushion)

I made a crochet phone cover ages ago for my old phone and never got round to finishing it off or using it. Now I have one of those MASSIVE phones... small phones seem to have disappeared of the face of the planet...  So instead of throwing the phone cover away I decided I'd see if it came in useful for something.

A few days ago I decided I needed a pin cushion because I keep loosing my needles in the sofa, which could end up very painful. It is very frustrating spending half your time looking for things instead of making things.

So here is where the crochet phone cover came in handy. Just stuff it sew up the open end and add some cute stuff....

The pattern for the phone cover that I used about a year ago can be found Here.  Just made it to whatever size I wanted. Instead of the thick strap for the button I made a thin strap just using chain stitches to my desired length and sewed the end on.

To make it into a pin cushion as I said all I did was stuff the phone case and sew the top up. I didn't stuff the phone case too firmly because I wanted to keep it in a flat shape so that it wont fall off my sofa arm.  I turned the phone case upside down and added a button to hook the chain over which turned into an eye. I embroidered a 'X' for the other eye and a mouth with black yarn.

It still looked a bit plain at this point so I decided to add arms and legs. Here's the pattern for these:

Abbreviations

SC= Single Crochet
DEC= Decrease

Arms (make 2)

Round 1: Chain 2, 6 SC in second chain from the hook.
Round 2: [2 SC in first stitch, 1 SC in second stitch] x 3 (8 stitches).
Round 3-6: SC in each stitch around (8 stitches) (increase or decrease number of rounds for shorter or longer arms).
Finish off leaving a long tail to sew it onto the body, stuff lightly if needed.

Legs (make 2)

Round 1: Chain 2, 6 SC in second chain from the hook.
Round 2: 2 SC in each stitch around (12 stitches)
Round 3-6: SC in each stitch around (12 stitches) (increse or decrease number f rounds for shorter or longer arms)
Round 7: [DEC in first stitch, SC in second stitch] x 4 (8 stitches)
Round 8-9: SC in each stitch aroud (8 stitches)
Finish off leaving a long tail to sew it onto the body, stuff lightly if needed.

I sewed the arms and legs on... still looking a bit plain. Add some hair! All I did was using a needle thread some yarn through a stitch in the head cut the wool to a short length (whatever length looks good) tie the two ends of yarn together. I did this 6 times so I had 12 strands of 'hair' all together.

Then for the last touch I added a patch using a little bit of fabric I had lying around. I sewed this on with black yarn. Done.

The vodoo/monster doll can be just that, a doll, but it works well as a pin cushion too. The body is thin so that pins/needles don't get lost inside and it doesn't fall off my sofa! I also love the chain around the eye (button) because I can keep my DIY stitch markers on it (there are a few of these lost in my sofa alongside the needles, good job they are easy to make, find the instructions for DIY stitch markers here).

(Feel free to copy/amend the design but please link back to this blog if you use it.)

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