#4 - Jelly jelly jelly.

Right, so what do you do when you really can't be bothered to cook, but you have to make something for a party, and said party is not 100% certain on the cutlery front.

This, really. Apparently Mum got the idea from vodka jelly shots.

Not going to tell a lie - kind of looking forward to watching people attempt to get the spoons out of these.

Soundtrack : was actually me and  Mum doing an acapella rendition of Circle Of Life, but I'll just give y'all a song of the day and say See Me In Terror by Autumn In Disguise.

#3 - Skull cutout top.

Guten tagen, meinen (god, what's German for friends? come to think of it, what's German for my? *google translate*) meine freunde! Close enough, anyway.

Today's (and yesterday's) project was this skull cutout top, although this was actually done over 3 days as I had to go out and buy the top I used. So, I present to you, the Top-That-Took-Ten-Times-As-Long -As-I-Thought-It-Would.

http://runwaydiy.com/2011/07/08/diy-zadig-et-voltaire-cut-out-skull-tee/

There's the original link. As you'll see, it looks simple and reasonably quick - I figured three hours as a reasonable estimate? Essentially, it boiled down to draw, cut, sew. Well, as it turned out I worked from 9.30am until 4.30pm on Tuesday, and from 9.00ish-am until 3.45pm today. With two half hour breaks for lunch/fetching tea/changing dvds etc, that comes out at about 18 hours.

18 HOURS!! That, I was not expecting. Most of it came from hemming the 40 or so holes in this top. Anyway.

STUFF I NEEDED - Minimal. I will say that for this project - if I hadn't had to buy a cheap tank top from Primark, due to a sadly depleted wardrobe, it would have been totally free. White top, scissors, pencil and paper, needle and a hell of a lot of white thread.

I drew out the design in rough first (hence the paper) but you could probably get away with going straight for the shirt if you're intelligent enough to know which end of a pencil writes. (All those who don't know - it's the pointy end, and you should probably put down those scissors and go find some crayons or something).

Ta daa. Ok, that's all the bits cut out (which took about two hours for starters). It looks like a mess. Soo, I shall follow step three on the tutorial and sew up the holes.






TOOK ME - *16 hours later* finished!!! 18 hours overall, as I said. *does maths* about 6 times as long as I thought, it turns out. Still, a long time for a holey tank top.

WORTH IT? - Bizarrely, yeah. I have a lovely sense of achievement, and I actually like the end result :O. Still, glad I had a DVD stack to entertain me for all the time it took.

The finished product (worn by me with a top underneath because otherwise it looked daft, and worn by my art board so you can actually see the design. Also, a close up of the terrible hemming I was doing.).

SONG OF THE DAY - Um, there wasn't one, cause I watched TV the whole time. BUT I watched -

• (500) Days Of Summer
• Indiana Jones: Raiders Of The Lost Ark
• Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End
• Star Wars II: Attack Of The Clones
• Star Wars VI: Return Of The Jedi
• Octopussy (the James Bond movie, silly. Roger Moore?)

#2 - Button wristband (really didn't know what to call this one)

As you might've gathered, I'm definitely a bracelet person. Decided to try this one because a. the original pin is cool and b. I don't have any bracelets that look like this already.

http://media-cache-ec0.pinterest.com/upload/268175352780674936_8XYvAvH1_f.jpg

Firstly, I am stupid. When I found this image, I assumed that it came with a tutorial on how to make the bracelets...it didn't. So I worked this one out on my own, which is why the buttonhole's a bit rubbish. Hopefully that's something else I can learn this summer :)

Anyway.

STUFF I NEEDED - Two sorts of material, thread, sewing machine, scissors, needle, button. All stuff I had lying about. Don't think this would have worked without the sewing machine.

The denim came from an old pair of jeans that I made into cutoffs, and the black fabric is from a skirt that I remodelled about a year ago. Woo, recycling! Quick note though -  I didn't like the colour of the denim, so I got some sandpaper and a knife and distressed it a bit, which really made a difference.

TOOK ME - Had to take a break in the middle to have tea with my grandparents (my life gets more exciting by the minute) but overall not more than an hour of a work I would say, mainly thanks to the sewing machine.

WORTH IT? - Yes! Really like this design, will be keeping the pattern (which I made myself to fit my wrist, and got right first time *happy dance*) and making some more. My sister also asked me to make one for her for her birthday, so I figure that's positive feedback :)

SONG OF THE DAY. Hello - Mallory Knox.

#1 - Friendship bracelet. First of many.

What would you do if suddenly confronted with 8 more weeks of summer and nothing to do? If you lived in the middle of nowhere, and the slightly steep cost of public transport prevented you from going out and doing all the cliched summer stuff you thought you'd be doing?

I decided to try out making stuff. I'm not getting any cooler, and seeing as I have a lot of time, a bursting wardrobe and very little in the way of disposable cash, I've been surfing Pinterest (if you don't use it I reccomend, especially if you're interested in art, design or making stuff), and I'm assembling a board of things to try - now I just have to do it.

Picked this one to try out first because I've made bracelets before, and this felt more like adding to something I already knew than actually learning a new skill. However, it came out a lot different to what I expected, and I'm definitely a fan of this technique.

http://forwardknot.com/tutorial.php?id=5 This is the website it came from - it's the first image, the reversed half hitches. Might try out a few more of these if I'm in a rush?

STUFF I NEEDED - nothing special. Didn't have any rope-like stuff, as in the picture, but I raided an old crochet kit and stole some wool. Scissors and sticky tape the only kit needed.

 <-- Could be done with two colours of wool, but I found the instructions a lot easier to follow with the contrasting centre thread.





Colours you want outside - 60cm each
Centre thread - 2 times what goes round your wrist.


TOOK ME - About half an hour/45 minutes, but I was using Pinterest and Facebook at the same time. If I was concentrating, I guess it would take about 20 minutes.


WORTH IT? - I say yeah. I love thread bracelets, they're quick and easy. Hope to have a stack of these by the end of the summer.

 I'd like to try the same design in rope, or emboridery floss, but I think this works.












SONG OF THE DAY. Little White Lies - Deaf Havana ft. Portia Conn.