Repurposed Bag

DIY Flower Pin

You'll need:

-Pieces of fabric. You'll laugh when I tell you where mine are from. The hem of a maxi dress that my mom cut out when re-adjusting her dress, my old voile curtains. Just to say that the more scraps you have, the better off you are, more choices and more designs.

-Beads
-Needle
-Thread
-Scissors
-Paper
-Pencil
-Pin

(1) Cut a square the size of the flower pin you want. (2) Draw a leaf on paper(the shape of your leaf determines your flower design, so play around with it and find what suits your purpose) and cut out to make a stencil

(3) Fold into quarters (4) Pin your stencil

(5) Cut out the leaf, being careful not to snip away the middle part of your square.

(6) You want to obtain a four leaves flower shape on opening the "square". Duplicate this as many times you want

(7) Repeat using a smaller square and a smaller stencil. Again duplicate the shape you obtained

(8) Layer the shapes. Sorry there's no proper picture of what I actually did. But you should get the idea from the above one.

(9) Press all the layers and sew a cross shape in the middle. The tighter you sew it, the more "bud-like" the flower pin will look like. I made mine practically flat.

(10) Then sew the beads to hide the stitches on the front. You can also use felt, buttons, etc.

(11) You can glue/stitch to a pin. Or like me, stitch directly to the "make-up bag" I made from old jeans.

Sorry for the quality of the images, the weather is crappy today, while the flash is blinding.

DIY ruffles cushion cover

.:Made from T-shirt scraps:.

My raw material was these small (approx 25x 25 cm) jersey squares. I chose hot pink for this project, since it'll go well with my decor. And who can resist a girly ruffles pillow in hot pink! But two old xxl tshirts in any color should do.
Obviously, it was a bit of a maths problem figuring out how to make use of these small pieces of fabric. I started by sewing 2 squares together (x2 for the other side of the cushion) to obtain the base for my cushion cover (40cm x 25 cm) and got cracking for the fun part, ruffles. Here's a step by step for making ruffles...

(1) Start by cutting strips, 1 inch large. It's better to scale up or down depending on the size of your cover, etc. For the length of each strip, the basic rule is that the length of the strip should be twice the length of your ruffle.

(2) Set the tension on your sewing machine to lowest. I used white thread so you can see the stiches, but of course use a matching thread color. Stitch down the middle being careful to leave reasonable amount of thread at one end so you can pull. I find that sewing by machine yields a better looking ruffle, which won't disintegrate. But in any case, it should be fine if you use a needle+thread.

(3) Pull on the bottom thread (4) Spread the ruffles along the length of the strip


(5) Pin the first row, leaving a bit extra fabric over the edges (6) Set the tension back to normal, sew over the middle of the ruffle, closest you can to the stitches holding the ruffle.

(7) Repeat until you have enough rows and then you can assemble your cushion cover. I simply sewed it like a pillow case, without any buttons or zippers.

Voilà!!!

P.s: I am no expert at sewing (self-taught). However, I'd advise you to practise making a ruffle or two beforehand. As for fraying, I haven't washed yet, but I'm confident it should stay put. Do sew the rows as close as possible though. Oh, this isn't the first or best tutorial on ruffles cushion covers, still hope you like it:) Don't hesitate to ask if you have any question.