ScrapHappy September 2022

It was time to turn a pair of hand-me-down straight-legged jeans into flares, and get rid of the bulky pockets at the back which made it look like I was growing two carbuncles on my backside.

I started with this tutorial and changed bits of it as I went along.

The inserts were cut from an old pair of jeans that had seen better days in certain areas, and were obviously never going to get mended while in my possession.

I zigzagged the inside seams because that wasn’t in the tutorial, and I also topstitched after ironing flat. Then I added a few random stitches in perle embroidery cotton. Different on each side. Because why not? I suppose I should have machined-stitched the hem in a light colour to match the original hem, but I was getting close to the end of the project and needed to finish it before running out of steam.

The horrible back pockets got ripped off and replaced with new ones from a pile of denim samples someone once gave me. I’ve been hoarding those samples for far too long and it’s time to use them up. I see now that I didn’t align the pockets when sewing – but finished is finished and it’s good enough for me.

I enjoyed doing this when I finally got around to it, especially when it came to putting a big tick next to “flare jeans” on the to-do list.

It’s only Kate’s ScrapHappy initiative that inspires me to write a blog post these days; I’m hoping to get some more creative energy flowing again soon. In the meantime, here’s a list of crafty people who also participate in ScrapHappy once a month:

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue,Lynda,
Birthe,Turid,Susan,Cathy,  Tracy,
Jill, Jan, Moira,Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen,
Sunny,Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera,
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol,
Preeti, Debbierose, Nóilin and Viv

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something else with lids

Taking a short break from hats. Phew.

I did something with lids and coasters some time back and still have a stack of tin lids for recycling. I was thinking tree decorations?

I just made up some circles and kept changing the colours, although you could adapt a nice coaster pattern (like the one Janette used here: http://crochet.about.com/od/vintage/ss/aa052606.htm)

Back soon x

How to turn a door into a shelf

1. Find an old door (a long time ago already)

2. Put it in a corner of the spare room and forget about it for a long time.

3. Suddenly remember the door and get the urge to do something with it. Carry it from the spare room to the patio, not realising how heavy it is. Put your back out. Spend the next three days lying on your back, swallowing Coxiflam, and decide you hate the f*$#ing door and never want to see it again.

4. Months later: take the wrong turn-off from the N2 one day on the way home from Milnerton and so drive past a vintage furniture shop in Salt River that you didn’t know existed.

5. Visit the shop immediately. See that much of what is being sold is revamped old stuff, and remember the blasted door and think about how nice it could look.

6. Be realistic and accept that you will not be the one to make it look nice because you never seem to have enough time. Also you swore never to touch it again.

7. Ask Rob to put the door in the car and go back to the shop and ask JP and Gerald to do their thing.

8. Go back when JP phones to say your door is ready. Take cash and Rob.

9. Get the door home. Allow Rob to put it up on the wall.

10. Be as happy with it as if it was all your own work.

sunny sunday

Today was the third day of an unseasonably warm sunny spell in the middle of what really should still be winter here. Jessie took the opportunity to tan her tummy.

Some of the flats where I live are having new uPVC windows and frames installed, and the old wooden ones are getting chucked out. They aren’t particularly quaint, since the complex was only built in the 1960s, but still – an old frame’s an old frame, right?

I bought new sandpaper last week for the belt sander that Rob inherited from his dad. I asked the man in the hardware shop for very coarse sandpaper and he said, Okay but be careful, it’s really coarse. Maybe you should try something a bit finer? Nah, I said, I don’t want to mess around. I should have listened – a couple of secs of power sanding with the coarse stuff got me right down to the wood, much further than I’d wanted to go.

I had to repaint it.  And put Rob in charge of the sanding process this time:

And now I have this:

Not owning a spirit level meant we had to go by eye, but my eye never was very good when it came to getting things straight. I used to do a lot of sewing in my 20s, and never ever managed to get a straight hem on a skirt or a dress.

Anyway, skew or not, I’m very pleased with my window with the turquoise doily bunting.

Back soon x

through the window

I picked up this old window frame from one of those little hole-in-the-wall shops off Main Road in Salt River. Set me back a whole R40.

This week, with all this lovely sunshine-in-winter we’ve been having, I finally a) got it outside, b) sanded it down a bit, c) blobbed on a bit of blue paint,

d) sanded it some more, e) screwed in some picture hooks on the inside, f) added some hearts, and g) hung it up.

  

As you can see, I left the back pretty much untouched and, even though I got a couple of splinters, I still couldn’t be bothered to fix it. It’s the rough look, okay. I like it. And yes, it’s because I’m lazy.

The mosaic double-heart was made for me by Rob, and the one underneath is a ceramic heart by a very talented Cape Town artist whose name I simply cannot remember. I do remember buying it for R90 at the Constantia Waldorf medieval market a couple of years ago.

Back soon x