St Patricks Day Burlap Shamrock Bunting

Inspired by last weeks post, where I featured a paper shamrock bunting for St Patricks Day from Lolly Jane blog, I thought I would create a Burlap version.

Armed with Burlap, Potatoes, Paint and a Knife I set to work.

Strawberry Basket the Prefect table centrepiece

Strawberry Burlap Basket

 The boys have been begging me to go to the local Strawberry Farm to pick their own strawberries. We went last year and they had such a great time, they have been waiting patiently for strawberry season to start. 

For full instructions on how to make your own Burlap Basket press

Burlap for Retail Displays

It's school holiday time and last week we were fortunate enough to take the whole family to tropical Far North Queensland. The kids had a fabulous time Go Karting, going on the Skyrail and Kuranda Steam Train. We even went to Paronella Park where you can walk around the ruins of an early 20th century Spanish castle. A magical place and a must see if you are in the area.

Burlap Doorstop Pattern and Instructions - a gift for someone with everything

A great idea for a fast, easy and cost effective gift is a Burlap Door Stop. Last week was my Mothers Birthday, and the problem I have every year is what do you buy for someone who has everything? So usually I end up making some unique creation which I know she can't buy anywhere else. So this year I decided to give her a Burlap Door Stop perfect to use for the doors opening to her newly rennovated outdoor room.

The Finished Door Stop

Here's how I made it.

Materials:

Burlap
Contrasting Fabric (I used an upolstery remant, but cotton or polyester would also work well)
Ribbon for tag
Ziplock Bag
Sand
General Sewing Supplies

First I created my pattern by drawing a 15cm by 15cm square for the base. I cut two of these out of Burlap as I wanted the base to have extra reinforcement so it is two layers. Then I drew a horizontal line 15cm long. Then at the midpoint (7.5cm) I drew a vertical line 15cm long. And then joined the top midpoint to the two edges of the horizontal line to form a triangle. This sounds more complicated than it is - see photo for example.

Preparing Burlap for Sewing and Crafting

When I got my first delivery of Burlap coffee sacks, I was so excited to get sewing straight away, that I thought I must prewash and press my fabric, as I do for every other fabric, and get sewing. So I enthusiastically threw all the sacks in the washing machine and pressed 'start'. An hour later I went to retrieve my new fabrics and found a spun web of burlap fibres and the twisted remnants of my prior sacks. For weeks I was still retrieving fibres from the washing machine with each wash. So learn from my experience and never put your burlap sacks in the washing machine.

A "Clever" Burlap applique shirt for Under 8's Day

Here's a Burlap sewing project for all you Mums out there. Last week was the annual 'Under 8's Day' at my son's school. The request came home from school that children wear a shirt decorated with one of the following words: Sporty, Dream, Happy, Fun, Clever, Special or a similar word of their choice.

After much deliberation my son choose clever, despite my trying to convince him that dream would be nice - with a nice cloud (a la easy for mummy to sew). But alas 'Clever' it was. So we discussed what makes someone 'Clever' and my 6 old thought that he is clever because he knows that 10 + 20 = 30. Can't argue with that!

So we found a plain black shirt in the wardrobe and set about designing the shirt. Always keen to incorporate Burlap into a project I suggested the following design and it was agreed. He went off to bed and Mummy was left with the challenge of bringing his creation to life by morning.

So here's what I did, in case you too need a shirt for a 'Clever' child!

How to: Baby Shower Favour, Burlap wrapped Candle

As promised here's the 'How to' for the Burlap Wrapped Candle I used as a baby Shower Favour for my son's Baby Shower.

I knew I was having a Boy, but if you didn't know whether it was a boy or girl you could just use white or yellow or green ribbon instead. And of course, if you know your having a girl then use Pink ribbon.

For the full how to press read more bellow or view our youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfhIR_oybFU

Burlap vs Hessian vs Jute - What's the difference?

When I first started working with Burlap (or Hessian as we call it here in Australia), I was bombarded and confused by terms such as Hessian, Burlap and Jute. They seemed to be used interchangably, but I wasn't sure what the exact difference was. So I went to a reliable source in our digital world - Wikipedia.

Wikipedia.com defines Hessian as follows: 

 

Crazy about Burlap

Whether you call it Burlap or Hessian, you can' t find a more useful and versatile fabric. Burlap has an earthy and rustic quality to it that adds a special charm to any project.

And the best part about Burlap is it is often free! No more outlay at the fabric store for some fancy cotton print, just a visit to your local farmer or food producer should yield an abundance of cloth to keep even the keenest sewer or crafter busy for ages. And what's more, by utilising this by-product of the food industry you are actually helping the environment by recycling an otherwise often discarded product.

Burlap Wrapped Candles for decoration at food buffet and then also functioned as a lovely Shower Favour !