Heart Shaped Pocket Warmers Tutorial

A couple of weeks ago I shared with you my heart shaped pocket warmers which I made for Mary for the last Handmade Swap I participated in. Even though Spring has sprung here in Australia, I thought these might come in handy for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere who are just about to embark on your cool season.

So here is the tutorial of how I made them:

1. Cut two heart shapes out of felt. I used a printed felt for the front and a solid yellow for the back.

Entries for the Royal Show

Tis that time of year again in Brisbane when the Ekka comes to town. The Ekka is the Agricultural Show when 'country comes to the city'. It's also the most competitive show in the State for Crafters. This year I've opted to enter three categories:

• Funky Fabrics and Wearable Art
• Christmas Decorations 
• Childrens Toy

And for once, I'm actually somewhat organised.

So I thought I would share with you what I am making. The first is the Christmas decorations. Given many people celebrate 'Christmas in July' now is a good time to share with you my Burlap Christmas Trees.

Here's the final product:

If I were displaying them around the home, I would probably sit them on top of wine or champagne glasses at varying heights, but for now, they are just sitting on the table.

To make, they are really simple. Take a large sheet of cardboard (I used old manilla folders) and roll them around using one corner as the point to form a cone shape.

Last minute St Patricks Day gift for the boys from a Leprechaun!

This is a great last minute St Patricks Day gift that is quick and easy to make.

My boys are now 7 and 5 and I thought this year it would be nice for them to celebrate a bit of their heritage with St Patricks Day. They are also old enough to start to understand where they come from and the concept of generations past. So I thought why not surprise them this year with a gift from a Leprechaun to get into the St Pats spirit!

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.

Sweetest Burlap Ring Cushion

I don't know why, but lately I seem to noticing the coolest DIY Burlap Projects for Weddings! I wish I had of seen them before I got married, I would have had a Burlap Wedding for sure.

Anyway, browsing out there in the Internet this week I noticed this great little DIY tutorial from Ruffled for this gorgeous Burlap Ring Pillow. Click the link to see the full DIY tutorial.

Isn't it just the cutest thing?

I would love to hear about any other cute Burlap Wedding Ideas you may have and feature them on this blog. Leave a comment with your ideas. 

Seek and You Shall Find - Sourcing Burlap

Burlap is one of the most affordable sewing fabrics. Burlap can be purchased in most fabric stores by the metre. It usually comes in extra wide rolls and is very affordable. It also comes in a range of colours, where the manufacturer has dyed the natural hessian in to bright and vibrant colours. This is important to keep in mind as not all Burlap sewing and craft projects have to have the natural Burlap colouring. In fact Burlap can be quite striking when the coloured versions are used.

Burlap Wedding Bouquet

I just love the versatility of Burlap and I am constantly amazed at the creative uses people find for it. For example Wedding Bells magazine blog recently showed this gorgeous Burlap Wedding Bouquet (to view their blog click on the link). Such a lovely idea. It's super affordable, original, and best of all you can keep it forever without it wilting or turning brown. Imagine having a bouquet like this that you could hand down from one generation to the next - wish I had of thought of this for my wedding! (Though now with three boys - doubt it would have got used again anyway!)

Antique Therapy

Today I managed to steal an hour to browse the New Farm Antique Centre. It's located at 85 Commercial Rd New Farm and is a collective store filled with 53 different dealers mini stores. 

Burlap Cushions

It was a treasure trove of gorgeous vintage and antique finds, but as usual I was drawn to the Burlap items.

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

How to Grow a Sack of Potatoes

- Literally!    Even if you live in a tiny apartment.

If you've ever grown your own potatoes you would be familiar with the great potato hunt that occurs at the end of each crop! For those of you that haven't, I'll explain. Potato's grow as a plant that comes out of the ground, whilst under the ground the potatoes are forming. The potatoes are ready when the plant dies off. The problem is you then have to find the potatoes by randomly digging through the ground around the plant. This is relatively easy for a potato farmer with a tractor but not so easy for the home gardener.

But I have a Burlap solution of course!

Growing your own potato plant inside a burlap sack makes the process of retrieving your loot of potatoes really easy because you know that all your potatoes will be contained within the sack. It is a great project for kids, and non gardeners as well, as it is very straightforward and low maintenance. Plus it looks fabulous in any garden or deck and also makes the perfect apartment garden.

For full instructions on how to grow your own sack of potatoes 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

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 !