DIY Miu Miu Cady Shorts

One day I was dream shopping on Net-a-porter and came across these babies, cute! But let's be honest, £1,250 for shorts, no matter how many beads on might not be worth it. I'd rather buy a fancy bald sphinx cat. So yeah, DIY time.

You'll need:

1 pair of plain shorts, mint in colour if you are into copying the Miu Miu ones completely like me
Lots of beads, seriously, a lot.
Scissors
Thread
Hand needles

I got my shorts from Forever21, they were a cheap £12, is everything in Forever21 £12? Anyway, they were the perfect colour and the perfect price if I messed them up.

My beads were a hobby craft special. I think they were £4 for the large size tub and the beads are all randomly mixed so I could pick ones that were different colours and tones, I put in a few golds and browns to make the colours a bit deeper.

Now, I am sure that I don't need to offer instructions on to hand sew beads onto something but I shall leave you with this gem. Be careful with how many bead you sew on the insides of the legs. I went down to just one bead so it wouldn't look weird like it would have if I left it bare, but when wearing these shorts they still congregate in a rather alarming way.

With Love from,

Emma x

DIY Entomology Display Box

Recently I have really been loving these taxidermy butterfly cases. I am not a butterfly kind of girl really but no-one can say that Butterflies aren't pretty. I am not sure if anyone else has tried to buy them off of eBay or Etsy, but they are rather expensive, especially for the vintage ones which are really the only ones I am comfortable with buying. I received four for my Christmas and love them but then I thought they would look really good next to paper versions of them.

(photo credit)

Turns out Origami does not agree with me in a way I do not understand. Never before have I got so annoyed at a craft before, I have sewn thousands of beads in my lifetime and within the few hours I cracked throwing paper around in a huff. I am not sure if it was because my boyfriend referred to it as "applied Maths" that I had such an aversion to it or what? But if you do not like maths or paper I would advise simply cutting out the shapes from silhouettes like these, depending on the paper you used it could look equally as good. You could even layer them to get a similar effect as the origami.

Ingredients:
Paper in different patterns, origami if you have
A deep picture frame

Equipment:
Scissors
Glue

So cut your paper into squares, of different sizes and then look for tutorials for origami butterflies. There are honestly MILLIONS of options, I used ones that had accompanying Youtube videos so it was easier to see what I was doing. Most of the videos have pretty fruity music or dreamy voice overs, maybe this is what made me so angry, but regardless I linked each butterfly I made with the tutorial I used for it.

Here is a Youtube tutorial for this one:

Here is the video for this butterfly:

The video for this Butterfly is this:

Youtube Tutorial for this one

Hopefully you aren't too stressed, keep going, picking different paper, different types of origami and different sizes of paper until you have enough to fill your picture frame. 

Position in the box in an arrangement you are happy with them and stick the flat edges down of each butterfly to the box or mount with glue.

Clean the glass and put the frame back together and you are done! Maybe not as well as me, because it is pretty reflective and hard to photograph! Oh Hi hand.

If anyone makes one please email me a picture, I would love to see it!

With love from,

Emma x

DIY Kitty sleep mask

Ingredients:

Two fabrics of your choice, a pretty one for the front and a silky/ soft one that would be nice to have against your eyes.
Felt
Elastic

Equipment:
A sewing machine
Pins
A white pencil
Hand needles
Thread to match your fabric
Scissors

1.   Get out your felt and draw the mask shape out with a white pencil or tailors chalk, I already have a face mask so I used that for the template and then added the ears. When adding the ears I would make them bigger than you actually want them, as when you sew the fabric it will make them a lot smaller and less defined. Once you have a basic shape fold it in half down the centre to ensure that the mask is symmetrical. And cut around the shape. This felt pattern is the size of the final mask so make sure you are happy with the sizing.

2.       Cut your two fabrics about 2cm bigger than your felt mask to allow for the stitching

3.       I quilted the front of my eye mask but that is optional. When doing this the spotty fabric was really handy as the lines between the dots made it easy to make sure I was sewing in a straight line. If you are not quilting then I would lightly tack around the outside of the felt to keep it in place. 

4.       Measure the elastic around your own head, cut to size and pin to the front of your mask. Sew the ends to the mask, either by hand or with machine. Making sure it is in the 2cm allowance of fabric.

5.       Pin the backing fabric to your mask so it faces the front of your mask, this is so you can sew the mask neatly and hide the stitching within the mask. Make sure your elastic is tucked well inside the mask so it is not sewed into the outside of the mask. 

6.     Sew around the outside of the mask leaving a good inch at one side, I left a space where the elastic was on one side.

7.       Turn the mask out and poke the ears out with the pencil. Hand sew the side you left open so you could turn out the mask and you are finished!

And you get to go to bed feeling like Batman/ Catwoman . There is absolutely nothing wrong with that!

I hope you liked this tutorial! Just as a warning, this gets a bit addictive, since making this cat mask I have been thinking of other ears that would be cute on a sleep mask, like bear ears or a giraffe if you are being adventurous.

With love from,

Emma x

DIY Pocket Tee, One for the boys!

So the boy got Tumblr and this then led to seeing a lot of things that the internet has to offer that he would not otherwise see, and no, I am not talking about pornography. Anyway, I found him about the pull the trigger on one of these tees, I get it, it has sloths on it, but I knew it would be easy to make so I talked him out of it. So here we are, a tee that is guaranteed to fit him and a pocket with a pattern of his choice!

So pick your fabric, fabric shopping with boys is funny, so much wide eye at this unknown and magical land, so take them if possible, even if it is just for laughs.So after a while and steering him away from the curtain and vinyl fabric he was making a go for, he picked this. Good for him, it has dinosaurs and camo. What is not to love I guess?

Ingredients:
10 cm wide strip of a fabric of your choice (or his choice)
a plain tee

Equipment:
Pins
Scissors
Sewing machine
Needle
Thread to match your fabrics
Iron and ironing board.
Pinking shears

I was going to use a pocket from one of my dads shirts to get an idea about sizing, but upstairs seemed so far so I winged it. I cut the pocket a good 2cm bigger than I wanted it to be to make room for mistakes. I used a running stitch to do the top. I then pinned a pocket like shape together and ironed the seams flat. I them folded the pocket in half to check that it was symmetrical.

I then used pinking shears to cut the fabric closer to where I would sew the seams and to prevent the fabric from fraying out. Then pin the pocket onto the tee, I put a book between the two layers of the tee to prevent me from pining the two layers together.

Then tack the pocket on with a wide and light stitch just to hold it down before using the sewing machine.

Then after sewing with the machine, cut the tacking threads out and you are done! And here is the finished product on my model!

With love from,

Emma x