Recycling fleeces

Along with the wonderful donations of jeans (seized by Trading Standards as designer imitations), Lance Haggith recently passed on a number of hoodies and other fleece lined items, also seized as "designer rip-offs".

The idea with this was to use them to line bibs, using the inside of the garments.  Some of the seized jeans were used for the front of the bibs, with various embroidery designs used.  I will put these up as individual items in later posts.  The hoodies etc were cut up for the linings.

The batch of items pictured produced about 20 bib linings.
The linings were then sewn, with the logos hidden inside the bibs and the fleecy lining used as the bib backing.

Lots of learning points from this:
There are only a few parts of the hoodies suitable for cutting up - the sleeves are great, as is the back, but the pouch on the front makes part of it unusable. 
Trousers produced very little usable fleece.The images on the front of the bibs are often very hard to sew over - they seem to stick to the presser foot and stop the fabric from moving.
The fleece is of much better quality than the cheap blankets I was using - and it comes to me free!

Thanks Lance!

Harry Potter phone cases

More larger size cases, this time with the Hogwarts school emblem. Harry Potter doesn't seem to go out of fashion, I'm glad to say.

Pocket phone cases

These were an early creation, and have remained popular.  Interestingly I have had to adjust the size.  When I first made these, the most popular and best selling size was the one which fitted an iphone 3 (or 4!).  Now phones have got larger, and I needed to reflect this in my latest batch of cases.

This is a great way of using front pockets, and I think the pocket is really useful in a phone case - a space to hold your headphones!

Herd of elephants

I thought I was doing really well when I finished these 20 elephants, and believed such an increase in stock would keep me going for some time. not so - they have all now been sold!  On to the next batch...

Elephants stomping

Here are the latest elephants.  These are still selling amazingly well, and I am looking forward to making more.

Some of these are doorstops, with feed filled with sand.  I have now had a request for some lion doorstops - still trying to find time to complete these!

Pineapple elephant

This ear lining fabric has pineapples on...
This elephant also has a lovely button up pocket on his side.  I am sure there are so many potential uses for an elephant with a pocket!!

Back to the elephant sanctuary

Yet another batch of elephants.

I love the striped fabric in the middle one!

Elephant doorstops

Here is a selection of elephants for your pleasure!  I've decided that if I post them one by one, this elephant will become a wildlife sanctuary rather than a sewing blog.  Suffice to say these are proving extremely popular, and I am cutting them out and sewing them up almost permanently!

These four are designed as doorstops.  I filled plastic food bags with sand and put one in each leg before stuffing the rest of the elephant as normal.  They are just the right weight to hold your door open. 

Blue elephants

Two with shades of blue in their ears.  Both have pockets.  I think they are both quite girly in style.

Sunset elephant

I'm loving the fabric on ears of this elephant.  Such lovely African sunset colours.

Shared at

Bright eared elephant

The fabric on these ears is actually an outline of The Gambia, I think!
Notice the pocket on his bottom?  I love using pockets!  This placement may be my favourite...

April's animals

I still have to put some of these on this blog as posts, but here is a snap shot of (some of) the animals I have created this month.

Yes, only some of them.  There was another set about the same size, and I sold at least five animals before I could get photos of them!
Not a bad production line - it is clear that April included some holiday time and thus time to sew!

How do you eat an elephant?

...One bite at a time.
However, that is not how I am making the elephants - more like ten at a time!
Here is another example.

 Part of the fun of cutting these (which I do in front of the TV) is using the seams to add interest, and mixing colours of denim.  Very satisfying.

An elephant in the room

Another of this lovely design.  The ears are lined with fabric from The Gambia, brought back by a dear friend.  These animals provide a great opportunity to use this lovely material as a feature.

Purses which speak for themselves!

Animal keyrings

These are such fun, but so intricate to set up in terms of thread colours that these are the only ones I have managed.

I may have to return to them when I have more patience!

Black and white owls again

This seems to be becoming a recurring theme.  These black and white owls have a certain formality to them which I love.

I do enjoy playing with fabrics - I feel so blessed that I have this opportunity to do it.

Bibs restock

More of my embroidered bibs - another popular line.  Actually, these ones are not so much a restock as a finishing off of some which got abandoned part way!

There are such a lot of lovely embroidery designs out there - it has given me real pleasure to create these.

Slytherin purse

Those in the Slytherin house are often among the more wealthy families.  So perhaps they will have particular need of a purse bearing their crest!

Spotty owls

These came from the second pack of fabric I treated myself to at Hobbycraft.  I couldn't help myself - the colours are just such fun!

Aren't they gorgeous?!