Crochet bag from Molla Mills

For some while I have been following a Finnish crochet artist Molla Mills. She is not only a gorgeous girl, but also has amazing crochet ideas and products. Following her recipe from her book "Modern crochet" I crocheted this nice net bag. For the handles I used an old belt, which was cut and sewn.

The book has many other cool home and personal accessories, which are explained in an easy way and have detailed pictures, so even the beginners, like myself, can produce some cool things.


PS: You can buy the book on the Amazon.

DIY: Coffee scrub

Recently I discovered a genius way of recycling - lovely body scrub made of used coffee grounds! Besides dried coffee grounds there are only two other ingredients: sugar and oil. The scrub with coffee gives extra stimulation to your skin not to mention the smell!













Ingredients:

1 cup dried used coffee grounds
1 cup sugar
Approximately 1 cup of oil (here I used coconut oil, but any oil would do)

Mix all the ingredients and put in a jar. Enjoy!





 

DIY: Lavender eye pillow

Recently I discovered the benefits of eye pillows, which has relaxing effects (I didn't even know that pillows for eyes existed!). These are used to relax after yoga, or just to fall asleep. I am really happy for mine with lavender fill (for extra relaxation). It is a very easy DIY project, which doesn't require too many ingredients or skills.

Use only the flowers and not the stems

Ingredients: 
1. Dried lavender flowers
2. Linseed
3. Some leftover fabric
4. Sewing machine, or you can also sew by hands (after all not much sewing is required for such a small pillow)
5. If you need even more aroma, you can add some lavender essential oil (for me that was't necessary)





Steps: 

1. Sew a small rectangular pillowcase (the size is up to you), leave a little opening for the filling.



























2. Mix approximately equal amount of linseed and lavender flowers and fill in the pillowcase. I rolled  a paper tube to make it easier to put the mix in the pillow.

3. Sew the opening and voila!

 
I would suggest to make a separate removable pillowcase, so that you can change them and keep them clean.

Crochet pullover

The summer is almost over and it is soon time for cozy warm pullovers! After crocheting a huge blanket with bubble stitches and with some leftover yarn, I decided to get into another project, this time a pullover (in total match with my blanket! Wonder if anyone would find me under the blanket wearing the pullover).

The project is still in the process, but it is almost there!

Crochet blanket. Finally!

After some months with on and off crocheting I finally managed to finish this blanket and damn satisfied with the result! 

Crochet craze - bubble stitch blanket

Working on a large crochet blanket with bubble stitches. Takes time and lots of money for yarn, but I know it will pay of! The bubble stitch looks complicated but quite easy really. I learned it from this video tutorial.

Weaving!

Recently I finally invested in a weaving loom! I had some previous experience with it, but that was 15 years ago, and I loved it! So now - weaving it is!!! 

DIY: My first kantha blanket!

I was always fascinated by colourful eastern patters and textiles. One of these that I find lovely is the Indian kantha blanket. So using a couple of old sarongs, an old fleece blanket I decided to make my very own kantha. Although I am not a sewing person - just not accurate and patient enough for big sewing projects, I find that making kantha was fun (especially because the stitches don't have to be perfect and you can decide yourself the distance between the stitches). The stitches on my blanket have 0,5 cm in between in the middle of the blanket and 1 cm on the rest of it. Except for not requiring a huge accuracy and sewing techniques, the advantage is that you can use old fabrics, pieces for kantha, so you don't have to spend a lot of money to buy fabrics. Using an old fleece blanket in between the fabrics means that you can wash it safely wash it.

And of course the best advantage of it all - I found hand sewing soothing and fun while binge watching "Orange is the new black".

Now that I know how to make it, I ordered a number of beautiful used saris from India (you can find them on eBay for a very good price) which can perfectly make a huge blanket (saris are rather long - 4 meters on the length and 1-1,5 meters wide).

1 cm stitches in different colours 

Final result

A little update on the crocheted bookmark

I think the crocheted bookmark I made earlier was a bit dull. So I made a little tassel to it. How do you like it?

DIY: Paper flowers decoration

This weekend I was busy with arranging a confirmation/ nonfirmation party for my daughter. I spent some time working on the decorations for the party and I made a huge amount of paper flowers. Some people asked how did I make them, so here I am sharing tutorial. As you can see there are endless versions you can make.












You need: 

• paper napkins in different colours 
• scissors 
• colour papers 
• paper stapler 

1. Start with making the middle of the flower by cutting coloured paper (I chose black here, but you can choose whatever suits you).

2. Cut the napkins in a shape of flowers. It doesn't have to be perfect.

3. Layer the shaped napkins and the coloured paper (the middle of the flower).

 4. Staple in the middle

5. Now the most lengthy phase - shaping the flower. You have to detangle all the layers of the napkins one by one for a nice and fluffy flower.

6. Then just fold all the "petals".

 and voila!

DIY: Upgrade your sofa with new pillows

From time to time I feel like changing the whole furniture in my apartment as I get new inspirations. But instead of making huge changes, you can make small upgrades with large effects. 

knitted pillowcase from leftover yarn 

wooden beads as buttons

Tunisian crochet also from leftover  

DIY: Knitted pillowcases instead of headboard

For a couch/bed potato like myself it is essential to have good pillows and blankets around. Our bed doesn't have a headboard, which makes reading or doing things that one does't supposed to do in bed (like checking emails or surfing online) rather challenging, especially for some people's necks... In order to solve this situation, some huge pillows were bought (80x80 cm) and I started the following project - a knitted pillowcase.

very early stages 

.

sewing a zipper to the pillowcase... 

the final product!

DIY: Crocheted bookmark

Although I really enjoy the convenience of using electronic books, I still have a huge crash on paper books. What can be lovelier than reading outside on a sunny day. But that can be a challenging affair in windy Scandinavia, with all the pages blowing away. So why not use a rubber band to keep the pages from blowing and keeping it as bookmark at the same time? 

Everything you need is a rubber band really, but I decided to make it a little prettier, so I crocheted around the band. 

It took me maybe 10 minutes to get this done and I think it looks pretty, not to mention the usefulness of it.

A rubber band, scissors - all you need!
But I made some crocheting around the band ...

 

Voila!

My own little herb garden

Friday greetings to you! Today I have made my very own herb garden in my kitchen, using recycled cans and plant hangers (see the tutorial). How do you like it?
 

Plant hangers again again ...

I just couldn't keep my hands off making plant hangers. Same recipe as before, but this time with wooden beads in them. Damn satisfied! Happy Sunday!