Blanket into posh jacket / dress

Hello people!

Everyone thought I'd suddenly become posh and spent a lot of money on clothing! NO WAY! I bought a sesame colour, fleece blanket on ebay.co.uk for £8, and added some scrap fabric. Then to accessorize I added a beautiful vintage brooch which finished off the look. I originally made this as an indoor dressing gown but realised it looked too good so I now only wear it out as a warm, 100% fleece jacket.

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TUTORIAL:





1) Lay out your 165cm/120cm blanket, flat like seen on photo 1:












2) Fold the blanket in half, length ways (so it looks like a long skinny blanket) as seen on photo 2:

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3

3) At one end of the folded blanket, measure 25cm down and slightly off the middle, towards the fold edge, and cut a 20 cm strip hole, as seen on photo 3:
















4) Now 10 cm bellow those holes, sew a belt strip of some scrap fabric you have or any beautiful fabric you like. I chose this fabric because I found that it complemented the colour of the fleece blanket and stayed in the elegant theme. Both photos show the same thing: The fabric, belt strip sewn onto the blanket/jacket.

4 b

4 a

5) Now put your arms through the holes, and wrap this beautiful jacket wrap around you and tie with a brooch. then make the collar look the way you like it, and with a discret sewing pin, pin it in place. Voila! You're ready to go out!



 










I hope you loved this project as much as I did! Let me know what you think and if you try it out for yourself!

Love xx


J

Scarf into bag/tote

Hey everyone!






I have such a cool tutorial for you right here, right now!

This is a no-sew, really quick and useful project!

How to turn a scarf into a bag or tote.














TURORIAL

1

1) Choose a beautiful, big, square scarf, and lay it out flat

2 a

2) Fold the middle bits on themselves, all four of them and leave all the corners out, like you see on photos 2 a and 2 b.

2 b

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3) Fold the 2 bottom corners to each other, like on photos 3:

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4) Now fold the 2 top corners to each other, like on photo 4:

5) Grab the bag by the 2 big knots (the corner knots) and there you have your tote bag! Unbelievably cute and easy!

Stuff all your goodies inside and off you go!

Have a nice day!

Love

x

Scarf into poncho

Hello again Ladies and Gentlemen!

Here is an easy peesy tutorial on how to transform an unused scarf into a beautiful, fun poncho with just 1 seam! All you need to do for this one is sew a 45cm straight line, and that is it! Awesome or what?

       

These are 3 beautiful ways to wear your new, fun and modest looking poncho. My favourite is the 2nd one with the frilly bits at the back. Go ahead and make this, then experiment with how to wear it and let me know in the comment section below! Can't wait to hear from you.
You'll see that I made this poncho before preparing the tutorial and I forgot to take pictures while I was making it. So the one in the photos in the tutorial (orange) is different from the one at the top (grey).


TUTORIAL

1

step 1) Lay out your scarf length ways

2

step 2) Fold it in half











step 3) Sew along the line, where the yellow ruler is. Start from the frilly end and sew for 45 cm, leaving an unsewn gap at the top, for your head to go through





step 4) Open up your poncho, put your head through the hole, and enjoy your new top! Love it or what?



I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!
Love
x

Turn a scarf into a cardigan

Hi everyone!

I decided to show how to make simple clothing as well as reusing what we have at home and how to transform old clothes into new clothes. Scarves are great because they're just a piece of fabric that you can turn into anything you like.

The first tutorial is how to turn a scarf into a cardigan:

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1) Step 1, choose a scarf that you like (you will be able to re-use your scarf as the same scarf later)

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2) Fold it in half

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3) Knot the 2 top right corners to each other

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4) Take the top left corner piece and knot it into the the other know (bring the left corner onto the right corner and knot it all together

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5) Open it up, you will see 2 holes, they are the 'sleeves', put your arms in those holes and adjust the cardigan around you







There we go, let me know what you think.

Peace x

Hankies - Baby wipes - Face cloth etc.

Hello and welcome to this new month!


I wanted to add a new change this month to make my life more eco. As you might have read I don't use toilet paper and I don't use store bought menstrual pads. So it was hypocritical of me to still blow my nose in paper tissues and use paper wet wipes (although I haven't used wet wipes in ages, I just use a wet flannel for kids)! I bought some hankies a long time ago and tried using them but I just didn't like the fabric, it would wet through and I just found it too eww to use.

Change the World Wednesday!

This morning though, I really wanted to find something to work on and join the Change the World Wednesday (There is a general theme for the month and each week a new challenge to support it). I didn't particularly connect with the current theme but decided that tissues were something that I personally really NEEDED to get rid of. So I looked through my fabric organiser and found some muslin. I had bought 2 Muslin 45cm squares for £1 in poundland in December, just because I thought it might be useful. And this is what I made with them today:

TUTORIAL for muslin hankies/baby wipes/face cloth... (they're also good for light exfoliating)

45 cm square of muslin x2

these are 100% cotton

1) Start by laying your 100% cotton, muslin fabric on a flat surface

2) Put them on top of each other so you can cut through both at the same time and save yourself a couple minutes.

3) Cut through vertically then horizontally and make 4 pieces.

Cut 1

Cut 2

 4) You should have 8 pieces (if you put them on top of each other before cutting like I did)

8 bits of muslin

5) You could stop right now and you have a stack of 8 awesome hankies/wipes.To use them on baby's bum, just soak them in warm/cool water and use as is. After using them as wipes or hankies, wash them in the bathroom sink in warm water and soap then hang them up to dry. They dry very quickly because the fabric is so thin. And yet they are very absorbent too when in use. If you want to carry on and make them a bit more 'professional' you can sew the edges as to not risk fraying.

pin and sew

6) Double fold the edges, pin down, and sew (by hand or sewing machine)

Finished result

so easy to wash and dry, machine wash after a couple uses

7) FINISHED! (Muslin is great for embroidery, so if you feel like it you could embroider yours to make them extra pretty!)

It's also so easy to carry them around in your bag. You can wash your hankies and wipes in any public bathroom and even dry them using the automatic hand dryer. They dry so quickly! Then pop them back into your bag or pocket and you have a fresh hankie!

Hope you liked this tutorial, let me know in the comments. A lot of people have already switched, have you? What fabric did you use for yours? I'm so happy to have finally made these!


PS: Check out this super easy HANKIE-POUCH to carry your hankies in! And the WET/DRY BAG to carry the nasty, dirty ones if you couldn't find anywhere to wash them. You don't want them getting messy with your keys or your mobile phone, jumping around your handbag!! So make one of these little pouches and pop them in your bag! Also see my post on how to make the most of your hankie so you don't waste any inch of it!


Lots of peace and love!
xx

Immune-System Boost Drink!

Hello everybody!


HISTORY

Today I'm going to tell you about the drink I have been making myself for over 30 days now and I can testify that this really does make you healthier! Well, it made me healthier! I have quite a low immune system, and in the last 10 years or so, I've been ill at least once a month nearly every month! It's annoying and tough getting through life like that. I would get the flu a lot and chest infections (and any germ or bacteria flying by) and sometimes be in bed for weeks at a time, knowing that I would have to go through it again next month too. So as you can imagine I couldn't have a job at that time and life was pretty boring... Now in the last 2 years, I've had a much healthier lifestyle and got sick less but I would still get a cold and severe migraines (the ones where you go blind for half an hour) at least once a month.

PRESENT DAY

For 33 days I have been drinking my immune system boost drink, composed of several easy-to-find ingredients and well known for their healthy benefits! There have been many mornings this month when I woke feeling the sickness setting in but as soon as I had my drink, the symptoms vanished. So I was healthy for a whole 30 days! It's quite magical for me all praise be to God! Huge smile!!! Even the days when I thought I would be sick, it so quickly cleared off. I have also been doing my new oral routine, including Oil Pulling which helps with getting rid of sickness. I think that this whole new morning routine, all together has really helped me improve my overall health!

THE IMMUNE SYSTEM BOOST DRINK

I call it my "boost drink" cos the whole name is just too long to keep referring to it like that every time.

Ingredients:

-Juice from either 1 whole Orange, 1 whole lemon or 2 to 3 tangerines (depends on what I've got in the house. I prefer 1 whole Orange but it seams we buy more lemons...)
-1 teaspoon of crushed, mixed hemp seeds and black seeds (kalonji seeds)
-1 teaspoon of grated, fresh ginger
-1 tablespoon of honey
-1 cup of boiling water

Method:

Squeeze your fruit with a lemon squeezer, pour into big, empty glass. Add grated ginger, the crushed seeds (I grind equal parts of kalonji and hemp seeds together in the coffee grinder and store in a glass jar), then add the honey to taste and add hot water to make it into your morning hot drink. Enjoy and feel boosted!!! try for 30 days and let me know if it has improved your health too! Would love to hear other people's opinions!

Peace, Love x

Ps: on day 34 a chest infection arrised and I'm dealing with it. I feel ill evenings and all night but during the day I feel fine (except for coughing and blowing nose loads!) Im convinced that without the boost drinks it would have happened sooner and probably worse. So now I'm taking my boost drink several times a day whilst ill. I add chilli powder to help get the mucous flowing out. Don't give up on this boost drink. It's not a miracle drink, it's job is to help your immune system do its job. It doesn't mean you can't catch a cold, it means if you do get one, your body will be stronger at fighting it! Amen x

Shea butter lip balm

Hi all!

DRY LIPS

So let's jump right in! I get dry lips all year long. I try to drink as much water as I can but I'm the type who forgets to drink enough... I really am trying... This means I get dry lips and especially in winter!

STORE BOUGHT LIP BALMS

I have bought so many different lip balms over the years but recently as I was coming to the end of my last stick I realised "Hang on minute. What is in this? I have no idea!" Since childhood I always called lip balms "cocoa butter" and assumed that they were all made of just cocoa butter but as I have been researching greener ways to live I have learned that what things are called are not necessarily what they are and that advertising and packaging lies, lies and lies... a lot!

INGREDIENT LISTS

So cocoa butter you say? I has a Nivea one at this time, and could not find the ingredients on the lid of the stick and had chucked the packet a long time ago. I went online to research it and found a huge list of ingredients. I like ingredient lists to have only one ingredient if that's all it needs! Don't you? So I decided to make a 1-ingredient lip balm

COCOA, SHEA OR COCONUT BUTTER?

At the time I was thinking about all this, I only had coconut oil at home which could be a hard enough, oily substance to replace the lip balm. I wanted to fill my empty, lip balm stick with it, but I knew that even if I refrigerated it, it would slowly melt through out the day, in my pocket or hand bag and might leek. So I decided to research cocoa butter (since I always thought that's what it was made of anyway...) and I came across Shea butter at the same time. After reading about both cocoa and shea butter I decided I wanted to invest in Shea butter instead of cocoa.

WHERE AND WHICH BUTTER TO BUY?

I bought a 100g tub of Pure, Organic, Unrefined, Shea butter from Amazon.co.uk for £3 of the brand Naissance. It is a very good quality butter and I love it. I read all the bad and good reviews and decided to get it. I am so pleased!

HOW I MADE THE LIP BALM

I took the empty Nivea lip balm stick, took the lid off and put both pieces in a bowl with boiling water to get rid of any remaining oily, unnatural, substance that previously resided in that tube.

Then I dried the tube and lid. Then I rolled the tube right down and stuffed some pure Shea butter into it. I filled it to the brim. Then I put the lid back on. SO EASY!

And now I use it just as I always have used lip balms.

You could even put it into a little tub with a lid, like Vaseline does it. But I don't want to be touching my lips with fingers that might be dirty... So I prefer using it in a stick shape.

I also grab a lump of it and rub it on any dry skin as a natural moisturiser, either face, arms and anywhere else. It works so well!

Let me know if you try this!

Peace out
x