The Dolly Bobbin

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee was a carnival of colour, craft and general homemaking - streets were laden with carefully crafted bunting & home baked delights. And I thought to myself it's about time i got in on the era of homemade! This is a journey of a newbie 'craftier' in the world of sketch, crochet, paint and sew....

[thedollybobbin]

Lots of Lovely Bunting!

I don't know what it is about bunting that I love so much, but I think it makes anything look pretty and fun.

I have loads of scrap fabric and thought making circle bunting would be a good way to use it. Making it is easy; Cover the fabric in a watered down PVA to stiffen it, let it dry (overnight is best). Cut out lots of lovely circles and simply use a straight stitch on your sewing machine to sew through each circle. Continue sewing past the fabric before adding the next circle on to create the distance between each little circle.

Simple and Effective!

[brownfinches]

DIY Paper Cut-Inspired Wall Hanging - Poppytalk 

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Yarn wrapping twinkle lights gives them a whole new personality, doesn’t it? Check out the very simple DIY at you are my fave guested by The Homebook.

[thedollybobbin]

And to celebrate my 1 year birthday I think I will dress up the flat with this lovely yarn fairy lights idea - so cute!

[thedollybobbin]

The Dolly Bobbin turned 1 today! Crumbs that went quick! My new years resolution is to create more, post more, and learn from other fine folk in the creative hemisphere. Who else is in on that?

[thedollybobbin]

Sewing the Good Old Way My latest bargain find: 150 swedish kroner (£15 for my British buddies!) for a fully functional vintage Husqvarna machine. Love.

[thedollybobbin]

'A Clear Mind Creates a Clean Canvas'

Being a newbie craftier is hard work. I have decided I am over-inspired and have tried my hand at far too many things. I am lacking focus on what I want to acheive and have a zillion unfinished projects. Anyone else suffer this fate of over-indulgent creativity?!

I have managed to organise my lovely customised shelving space into my crafting cupboard (see my previous post - ta dah!), but I still have a very unorganised mind. So I am now in 'just do it' mode (such a useful term/kick up the backside that doesn't just apply to heavily marketed running shoes!) and as a result friends and family are now receiving lots of lovely handmade gifts. One friend has waited over a year to see her cross stitched birthday pressie!

I think this is a valuable lesson in how to make progress. There is so much out there to inspire, just don't fall into the same trap as me!

Pick one or 2 skills that you really want to learn and develop and keep focused and get to the finish line. That doesn't mean don't do anything else at all, keep pinning, photographing, sketching and whatever else helps in the creative process to keep your mind engaged and excited about driving your passion and skills further.

[anndrawsdaily]

[idonethis-blog]

Make progress, on your own time, on your own terms!

[thedollybobbin]

Good point! Must keep reminding myself that!

[niftyncrafty]

101 Simple Sewing Tutorials !

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It's about time to get to grips with the Sewing Machine....

[truebluemeandyou]

Five Things To Do with Homemade Ugly Crafts from the craft snob here. Someone once wanted to interview me because I used the term “homemade ugly” but I consider it a badge of honor to have made lots of “homemade ugly crafts”. But I almost always turn them around. See #3.

[thedollybobbin]

Ta Dah!

I am over the moon with the result of this furniture makeover! A little bit of time and patience has been worth it to get the pieces I wanted.

I am going to share some top notch advice for anyone seeking to do the same. 

I read a zillion posts about not having to sand down furniture but the book case I bought was a high gloss laminate - no real wood here! And I wanted to be sure my paint did stick. So I did very gently sand it just to ensure the paint work would last. Lets face it if you are going to the effort to make over a piece of furniture might as well do it right.

So my top 5 tips are:

If you aren't going to sand and are painting on laminate make sure you buy an adhesive primer - which you should be able to get at any good DIY store. Do not leave out the primer stage the paint will not stick otherwise!

Paint thin coats of primer on and watch out for pesky drips - they stick and are a pain to sand down again! This goes for the painting stage too!

I read that if you have a dark wood buy a grey primer so you don't have to paint loads of coats. I couldn't find a grey adhesive primer which was too bad as I had to cover this baby in 3 coats!

if like me you have bought something with very neat fitting drawers don't be a plonker like me and slap on loads of paint on the edges  - I couldn't shut them afterwards! So if you want to paint the edges - sand them down first so the fit is all nice and snug!

Once everything is painted leave it for approx 5 days before placing all your lovely possessions onto it to ensure the paint has properly hardened.

And finally go bold, be creative and have fun!

[thedollybobbin]

Furniture Makeover Time!

Last year I gave my garden furniture a much needed makeover. I have a real thing for the British beach huts and wanted to bring those colours into my garden - I was so pleased with the results!

Now I am living in a rental, and all my project ideas, fabrics, sewing machine etc. is taking over our flat and I thought enough is enough I need a new storage solution. Yes I live in the land of Ikea, but I really didn't want another generic piece of furniture. So in my thrift hunt for fabric I also scouted out some great pieces of furniture...

Well actually they were kind of ugly - but I thought back to my garden project, and also to a previous blog of 'sew little organisation' and came to the conclusion that anything has the capacity to look pretty and be very useful! So the project begins....

[thedollybobbin]

Look at these vintage lovelies! I have a couple of projects in mind and need some pretty fabrics - so was delighted to have my eyes opened to the world of thrifting here in Sweden - it is a big deal here! Not only do I find a lot of one off pieces and unique fabrics - but I am also wearing an environmental hat. Love It!

[thedollybobbin]

I want to be a sewing bee....at last what us newbies have been waiting for; a whole TV show on sewing loveliness!

[thedollybobbin]

The lovely handmade hearts by my great aunt Gudrun. 

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Love this Daisy Chatelaine by Dawn of Sew Ritzy~Titzy.

(There are lots of pictures to demonstrate how to make one of these yourself.)

[thedollybobbin]

Love this cute little crochet piece - vintage inspiration

[thedollybobbin]

The Return of TheDollyBobbin!

It has taken a move to a new city in a whole new country, a year of thinking about all the great things I could make and several hours, days and weeks of 'pinning' crafty ideas to get me to sit back down in front of my sewing machine. And it never felt so good! 

So why has it taken this mighty change to get back into the groove? Hands up I have to admit I was afraid of failure and I didn't want to be disappointed in my creations - how lame! But it did make me think I am probably not the only person who has 'stage fright' like this. So why does it happen?

My guess is procrastination is a definite assassin but also the envy of the wonderful work of others and feeling like your work will never hit the mark. But how can your work ever evolve if you don't make a start? My sketchbook has now become my best friend, along with my smartphone to record every tiny idea. Sure some of it is utter rubbish - but its a closed book for just me to see and unbelievably there are a few hidden gems in there waiting to be realised into projects.

A really great piece of advice I read recently in Mollie Makes, who had tea and a chat with Danielle Thompson, founder of Kitschy Digitals was;

'If you aren't 100% satisfied with something you have made, let it go'

As obvious as that sounds - it took reading it in black and white to realise how true that is!

[thedollybobbin]

A winter walk and a new start....