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| Thomas in the potato patch in Stanthorpe |
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| potatoes fresh from the ground lightly steamed are very tasty |
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| a potato flower |
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| as the flowers die and wilt, the plant is ready to harvest |
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| mulching on top of some potatoes in a vertical patch made of recycled tyres |
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| a pair of orange sandals for a flat footed Barbie doll |
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| two pairs of shoes for a flat-footed Barbie |
To make these doll shoes, I use some recycled black vinyl, I can't even remember where I picked it up from. You sometimes can find this on packaging or old things you might throw away, so keep an eye out for it, you don't need much. Any kind of flexible plastic you can pierce with a needle will do. I trace around the soles of the doll's feet to make a paper template, then trace that with white crayon onto the vinyl, and cut out the soles with sharp scissors. Then I pierce the plastic with the largest needle I have, pushing it all the way through, 3 times each side where the shoes strap will go.
I then use my 1.25mm crochet hook, and push that through the needle holes to make sure they are big enough. Then using fine crochet cotton, the first row is three single stitches (UK dc), then 4 rows of 2 ch 3 dc (UK trbl). The last row is some slip stitches and singles again to attach to the other side. Sometimes I'll add an ankle strap of chain stitches like I did with these red ones. I always put the shoes on before finishing the final stitch to make sure they'll fit. They don't take long to do, especially as I chose not to spend too much time fiddling on these ones.
In the package I'm sending to Darwin, I'm also popping in some doll knickers which I made ages ago using a pattern I found at crochetville. I'm not happy with them, they have ties but I'll pop them in the package none the less.
Then I just had to make a simple pull on party dress, didn't I?
How many of these things am I going to need? I do not know, but I just feel like making a bunch!
I drew up this simple pattern on a square piece of card. This way I could do it while watching tv, when I prefer not to have to read patterns. The square board is as big as the back of the jacket, and I've made markings for the sleeves and front sections. This pattern really was very straight forward and easy, all you have to do is make 5 rectangular shapes and sew them together. But instead of making up the sleeves separately, I just worked them right onto the made up vest in rounds.
I used my left over purple and white dimples yarn from Lincraft, I think I used the 4mm hook. I chose some very cute recycled flower buttons, and gave them a quick scrub with Earth Choice detergent and a recycled toothbrush so they came up just like new.
This was very easy to whip up, it took me just over an hour using some nice blue wool from my left overs bag.
My pattern for a simple pouch
I wrapped it up in some recycled tissue paper with a tiny homemade tag and posted it off to Western Australia! It fit inside a prepaid envelop which only cost $1.40 which I thought wasn't too bad at all.
Today these fotos came back from my friend in W.A. I'm very pleased to see the GPS actually fits inside. Really, why wouldn't it? Oh, I don't know, I thought I might have made it too small!!
I'm glad something I made so simply is a useful thing! |
| pretty outfits for four Kelly dolls |
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| how I found these 4 dolls at the market for 50 cents each |
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| matching beach outfits for four Kelly dolls |
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| after some hair care the bonnets fit perfectly |
When I went to the Salvo's store a couple of weeks a go with David, I picked up a couple of special pink treasures! This is my Pink Saturday post for this week, which is hosted by How Sweet the Sound!
I had already looked on ebay for some miniature doll's tea sets and found they were a bit overpriced for my very modest doll collection. I remember when I was little, I was given a couple of tiny doll's tea sets. I'm really sad I haven't been able to keep any of them. I did treasure them for a little while, but as a child I lost them or they broke. Then I saw this set for just $1! This tiny tea set is part of my Barbie's Pink Tea Party setting.
Also at Salvos, David spotted this small bag of cheap crochet cotton. Well spotted, David! Most of you will know how expensive new crochet cotton can be, but I picked this up for a total of $2. I'm really keen on that unused ball of pink, it's the perfect shade for something special! And it hasn't even been used, what a bargain find! I've already made my first small pink doily with it, which I use as a doll's coffee tablecloth.
Using the pink cotton, I also made these special tiny pink scuffs for the flat footed Barbie I gave my niece. They were very easy, I just pierced some black plastic vinyl with a large sewing needle, then used those holes to crochet tiny straps to form the top part of the shoe. Easy Peasy!
Thanks for stopping by for my Pink Saturday post this week, be sure to check out the other great pinks at How Sweet the Sound!
<3 <3 <3
My selected highlights from this week's party
David and I now have a goal to get around to all the markets at least once to check them out, and the Brisbane Markets at Rocklea are apparently one of the most popular. So the first one we have gone to was two Saturdays ago, for the Saturday Fresh Market.
home right away like I wanted him to. I don't think the fresh food prices were cheap, but that wouldn't be the reason you bought food from here. The food is fresher and straight from the farmer, or so we are told, but it's not the place for a bargain you can't get anywhere else. I can get in season fresh food from coles online, I just get what's on special so the prices are very similar. And there are no crowds to contend with! There was also a bit of traffic, thank goodness David was driving.
As I walked past an antipasto stall I got a good whiff of the mouth-watering aroma. I just love marinated artichokes but settled on some feta stuffed olives. I didn't realise how expensive they were until I felt like it was too late to decline. I should have just been honest with the guy and said "doood, that's too expensive!" but you know, I couldn't do that could I? These very, very yummy stuffed olives cost me $8 for a small container. That's $8 that could have been better spent, so I had to enjoy them! David doesn't even like olives so I got to eat them all by myself. Oh no, what a sad, yummy loneliness!
Then last weekend, we went to the Sunday Discovery Markets, also at Rocklea. Once again the weather was gorgeous with cloudless blue skies, but there was a chilly bite to the wind as well. We got there just before 11am and they started packing up early for the midday finish. So we had about an hour to wonder around, looking at all the treasures. Besides the blue vase I posted on Monday which we picked up for $3, we also got some cute little trinket boxes which we thought were a good price for $6-$7.50 ea. I also grabbed another cane basket for $2, which was solid except for a small break in the handle which I can cover up with ribbon.
And just like a good friend, if I'm making a mistake sewing something the wrong way around, it Knows it isn't the sewing machines fault. So it says nothing, and just keeps sewing, trusting I will see my own error sooner or later. My sewing machine ain't gonna tell me I'm wrong and remains silent. I've known people like that!
After a couple of hours of me checking the Pink Saturday blogs and he playing a computer game, we got peckish for some breakfast. We were in the mood for our favourite lovey dovey breakfast, sausages and tomato with love heart eggs and mushrooms!
On Saturday, David took me to a Salvo's store (Salvation Army charity shop). We hadn't been there before and there were lots of bargain treasures to be found, some of which I decided I coudn't bring home. One thing I did grab was this very good toy for developing fine motor and hand-eye coordination in very young children. It's pretty solid, not flimsy, so I grabbed it for $3. In the background you can see a red love-heart bag. I can't remember where I got it from but I keep some Barbie things in it, it's so cute. Also in the background you can see my tiny teddies where they live now, sitting on one of the vintage doll's chairs to keep Barbie company. The doily you can see I believe was made by my great-grandmother, which I hope to try copying one day.
Another bargain treasure we found at the Salvo's store on Saturday were this pair of lovey dovey coffee mugs. We've decided to collect coffee mugs with love hearts on them, as well as other things with love hearts because we are sooo lovey dovey! /awwww... lol! These are probably not so great because the shape means that one is smaller than the other. I don't like the idea that to be in love one person must be smaller.
We got four, one broke and has been thrown away. That's a shame, I really must remember to keep broken crockery for my mosaic projects I hope to do one day. Two of the remaining three mugs have broken handles, so one is now used as my pens holder by my pc. That's why I'm afraid to use the 3rd mug for drinking as I have a terrible vision of someone spilling hot coffee over them when the silly handle breaks! But they are just too cute to throw away, they are too lovey dovey! When a coffee handle breaks, it can still be recycled into something useful.
I also took a photo of this very cute red chocolate tin. It cost me $5 full of chocolates from Coles online last Valentine's Day. I havent' decided what it will be used for yet, but I'm sure it will turn out to be nice. It's sitting on top of the table my great-grandfather made, which I will do a post about one day. |
| a family of 5 tiny teddies |
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| practice teddies while I worked out the pattern |
Every wardrobe is not complete without a few of these covered coathangers! I don't know why I haven't made these before, they are so easy.
I searched around on the net for ideas on how to do it, but they all seemed a bit too fussy. For mine, I just cut up some recycled foam packaging and secured it with elastic bands. Then I simply hand stitched the pretty material straight over the top, folding in the edges, using blanket stitch. I folded in the ends and stitched that down, too. The lavender ones have pretty white buttons to secure the ends. I then finished off with a very simple little bow to cover the tiny gap for the hook. These are a cinch and don't take long to make at all.
I've been wondering if I could use recycled plastic milk bottles to make buttons, and thought to try it today with some of the left over love heart print.
This post about how to make a fabric button made me wonder if I could make the pieces from recycled plastic, instead of buying the kits from the craft store. Buying new something so simple just to make a button seems wasteful to me. I had three goes at making the pieces from the plastic, going smaller and refining it as I went. My result is, I don't think this makes a very strong button! You could use it as a decorative button only, not a functioning one on clothing. I also cut and covered a small piece of plastic to form the missing piece for an old fabric button, which worked ok.
So then I went back to the net. This post about how to make a fabric button without a kit prompted me to go through my large button collection for any faded buttons that were candidates for a fabric covering. The large once-were-purple buttons worked the best, the smaller faded blue ones were more fiddly. By trial and error I found the smaller ones really need a round of cloth that was neither too small or too large. I also watched this video on making fabric buttons with a kit, it looks very simple and I wonder if I could make my own. I really like the picture frame on the wall behind her, it's holding 4 rows of cotton threads, looks cool! (wonder if I could make one from recycled materials ... )
So that was a productive day today - I learnt how to cover buttons with fabric! I'm sure to need that skill at some point ....
