I got the pattern from this blog:http://www.spoolsewing.com/blog/2008/05/16/bird-mobile/,
which I found through one of my favorite sites, whip-up. The pattern is available via a free PDF. It's a nice project to help use up all sorts of fabric scraps. I used a bunch of bits I'd been saving from a variety of salvaged items. There's some nice black velvet from an old dress of mine, some awesome bright green brocade from a 1960's gown, and some funny maroon cotton with copyright signs all over it from an old shirt of Jake's. I used two different fabrics for each one, except the brocade. For that bird, I used the "right" side for the top and the "wrong" side (which was equally pretty) for the belly. I think it looks like a parrot. I'm not sure the other bird species are readily identifiable.
The birds are really easy to make, but the construction of the mobile was a bit more difficult. The birds kept doing nose-dives off the branches; I finally ended up using thin wire to keep them on. Then the twig kept twisting as I tried to tie them together for hanging. The eye-screws were the right solution. I also cheated a bit -- instead of finding the exact right single balance point for each branch, I put in two screws, so there's a bit more stability.
Next up, I did some more "upcycling" by taking the material off my favorite, but sadly, broken umbrella. I had found a neat article in Craft magazine about making various things out of umbrella fabric (why put that nice waterproof stuff to waste?). The article is in Volume 7 of Craft and there's a link here: http://craftzine.com/07/recycle/ (you need a subscription to see it). [On a side note, I think Craft is a great magazine, and the web site & blog both have a ton of great projects to oogle and inspire.] The article suggested making a cover for your backpack or laptop bag, but I didn't really want to make such things. What we here at 83 Durant could really use in the way of waterproof stuff was some bike seat covers. Jake has all these nice leather saddles, and when we go travelling with the bikes on the back or roof of the car, we need to protect them from the weather. A quick search led me to an instructable on making a bike seat cover: http://www.instructables.com/id/quick-and-easy-bicycle-seat-cover/
But this one seemed overly complicated. Thus far, we've used showercaps to protect our bike seats, so why mess with the simplicity? I cut a rough shape that looked like it would fit the seat, sewed a casing around the edge, threaded some elastic through, and ta da! Bike seat cover!
Since the casing and stitching are all gathered up underneath the seat and bunched together by the elastic, I didn't worry about the fact that it was a kind of uneven and messy job, as I had cut a rather asymmetric shape. Also, another bonus, the umbrella fabric doesn't fray, so no need to turn down a hem within the casing.
It was so easy, I made two. Now I need to find more umbrellas. If you have a busted umbrella, and have time to cut the fabric off, send it my way! We have a lot of bike seats to cover here!
I also made a couple of plastic bag holders to contain the frightening number of plastic bags we accumulate. We use reusable bags (like the one I made) for our big grocery shopping, but somehow, we still seem to have a lot of bags. I like to have some to use for trash can liners and the like, so now we have a handy place to store the ones we have for future use:
I got the fabric at IKEA. It's awfully cute, and I think I'll have to make something for Lucy with it.
I also recently finished my second pillowcase bag. I found the really great pattern and instructions here: www.kootoyoo.com.au/page10.htm
I got the pillowcase at our local St. Vincent DePaul here in Lowell (it's a really great shop!). I bought a small lot of 15 or so random packets of bias binding on ebay, so as you can see in the photo, I used two different colors. I'm using this one as a laundry bag for Lucy's clothes in the downstairs bathroom. I love making these bags. I had previously made a pillowcase bag back in April:
It was my first attempt at bias binding. It's an easy project with a big payoff -- it makes a HUGE bag! I'm on the lookout for old pillowcases.
That's about all for now. Happy 7 month Birthday to Lucy!
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