Marbled Photo Frames

The next project in my quest to add colour to everything in my room is this cute marbled picture frame DIY! I actually bought these frames thinking that I would decorate them with a tiled mosaic, but that proved to be too difficult. I’m glad I marbled them instead though because this project is easier, cheaper, quicker and filled with just as much colour!
You will need: A container to dunk your frames into, a frame, nail polish in several colours, tape, and a wooden stick.

I decided that I just wanted the front of my frames to be marbled, so I began by removing the glass and backing from my frames and taping the sides to protect them!
Fill your container with a couple of inches of water, and add your nail polish. Be aware that it dries quickly (especially fast drying nail polish!) so you’re going to need to work fairly fast. I found it easiest to pour nail polish out of the bottle with the bottle close to the water, and swirl the polish around slowly. If I poured too quickly, the polish dissolved into the water rather than sitting on top.
Dunk your frame into the water! Since my frame was bigger than my container, I dipped in one section at a time. It didn’t matter if I dipped a part of the frame that had already been dipped, since the overlap had a pretty effect.
I did four or five different nail polish patterns before both frames were covered with the marble effect. The nail varnish left a skin on the top of the water (kind of like the skin on milk when you heat it in the mocrowave.) I removed this with a wooden stick in-between patterns so that it didn’t stick to my frames!

Ta da! All finished. Now you just need to hang your frames! I feel like I say this every time I post a project, but this really is a simple DIY. You could whip these up in under an hour, and the fun thing is that you can marble almost anything with this technique! I think my Van Gough print looks super cute in this marbled frame, and now I just need to buy a print to display in the second one!

DIY Daisy Chain Choker

After using Thermomorph to make a plant pot last week, I had loads of pellets left so I decided to have a go at making some plastic jewellery. I used a cookie cutter again, this time in the cutest little daisy shape! I’ve attached the plastic flowers to a choker I bought from eBay. Who knew 90s “tattoo” chokers would be cool again? Oh well, I’m not complaining!

You will need: Thermomorph, Choker, Cookie Cutter, Acrylic paint, PVA glue, glue gun and glue, paintbrushes, a small amount of felt, scissors, a pencil, a bowl, a rolling pin and a chopping board.

Fill a bowl with boiling water, and add a handful of thermomorph pellets. After a minute they’ll become transparent and be ready to use! / Scoop out some thermomorph, roll it flat and cut out a shape with your cookie cutter. / My cookie cutter didn’t go right through the plastic, so I turned it upside down and peeled the plastic away. / To neaten up the edges, dunk your flowers back into the hot water for a minute and use your hands to push the edges back into shape.

Once they’ve cooled, paint your flowers and once they’re dry, coat them with a layer of PVA glue. / Draw around your flowers on the felt and cut the shapes out. / Use the glue gun to glue the flowers to the choker, with the felt backing the other side of the choker.

And that’s it! The choker I bought was a little wide for my neck, so I’d love to have a go with one that sits further up. I’ve never used sculpey clay but I imagine clay might also work for the flowers. You could totally make a range of daisy accessories with this method – daisy hair slides would be the cutest!

Elephant Plantpot with Thermomorph

When Thermomorph first contacted me, I thought the product sounded a little like a character from a superhero movie. It’s not actually a type of transformer, but a box of moldable plastic! Think play dough for grownups, you pour the little plastic balls into a bowl of boiling water and you get a lump of plastic that you can mold into whatever you like. Because this stuff sets very quickly (I’m talking a minute, maybe two tops) I wouldn’t recommend using it for anything intricate. I cut shapes out of the thermomorph with this miniature elephant cookie cutter, which I used for this cute elephant plant pot! I painted the elephants yellow, obviously, because yellow is my favourite colour and I’m very predictable. Here’s how!

You will need: A pot of thermomorph (which you can buy from amazon here)! A cookie cutter, a plantpot, some PVA glue, a knife, a chopping board, a rolling pin, paint and paintbrushes.

Fill a bowl with boiling water and add a handful of thermomorph plastic balls. / Once the plastic is transparent, use a spoon (or tongs) to remove a chunk of plastic. Use your rolling pin to roll it flat, with a depth of a cm or two. Cut the thermomorph with the cookie cutter, and wiggle around! / This stuff is pretty sticky so flip the cutter over to pull away most of the excess plastic. / To remove the thermomorph from the cutter, submerge it in a bowl of cold water. Because the plastic sets quickly, go through this process one elephant at a time! Add more hot water if the bowl cools down before you’re finished.

My elephants were still a little imperfect around the edges, so I dunked them back into the hot water for 5 seconds to soften them, before cutting away the extra plastic and shaping them around the curve of the pot. / Use PVA to glue your elephants down! / Paint your pot. I did several coats of white acrylic first, and then used yellow acrylic to pick out the elephants.

I’m not sure whether this plant pot is sophisticated or if it looks like a pre-school project, but either way it’s cheerful and it has elephants on it so you can’t go wrong! I’ve been pinning lots of plant-filled rooms onto my home inspiration board and longing for a jungley home, it’s just a shame I’m not very good at keeping plants alive. You can’t kill cacti though, right?

*Thermomorph was sent to me for free, but all opinions (and my addiction to the colour yellow) are my own.

DIY Thread Holder

I’ve been doing  a lot of sewing recently, and as a result I’ve collected a lot of thread! I could no longer close the lid on my sewing box so I knew I needed a better storage solution. This yellow thread holder stores a lot (181 spools to be exact) and it’s beautifully colourful 🙂 Now I just need to fill up all that empty space! I decided to use nails as bobbin holders on the bottom half only because I usually have much more thread than bobbins. And here’s how I did it…

You will need: A large rectangular piece of MDF (mine’s 1220 by 606mm and it’s 6mm thick) 10 metres of 6mm dowel sticks, a drill and a 6mm drill bit, a saw, a pack of thin nails, wood glue, 2 picture mounts and screws, 2 picture hooks and some paint (I used spray paint, but in retrospect regular paint would have been better.)

To begin with, saw your piece of MDF exactly in half. / Decide where you want your spools to go. I drew lines 2.5 inches apart both horizontally and vertically along one half of the MDF. / Drill holes through the MDF at each point where the lines you drew intersect. If you haven’t used a drill before, get someone to help you! / Saw your pieces of dowel into 5.5cm long strips.

Squeeze a little wood glue onto the end of each strip of dowel and insert them firmly into the holes you drilled. / Once the glue is dry, cover the back of the MDF with wood glue and adhere this to your second piece of MDF (not pictured.) Whilst drying, I placed jam jars over the strips of dowel and balanced heavy books on top of the jam jars. That way, the MDF will be sandwiched firmly together when dry and you won’t snap any of the dowel strips! Once this is dry, paint the entire thing. / When the paint is dry, hammer nails in between the dowel strips. These will hold bobbins! I only hammered nails onto the bottom half, since I usually have more spools of thread than bobbins. / Screw picture mounts onto both top back corners.

Hammer your picture hooks into the wall and hang up your thread holder!

This project ended up taking me a long time because the wood needed so many layers of spray paint. Note to self, use paint brush paint in future! I feel like I’ve done a lot of DIY posts featuring this corner of my room lately, so hopefully that means it’s nearly finished. I’ll hopefully move into my flat in Edinburgh next month, and I’ve been doing  lot of furniture browsing and decorating planning. I’m so excited!

DIY Fabric Covered Lamp

One of the things on my to-do list for this year is to revamp by room a bit. I love my carpet and walls, but I’m in desperate need of some better storage solutions and some of my furnishings could do with a more colourful update. I also have plans for a big gallery wall! Project number one is my bedside lamp. I like the yellow base, but I’ve had the old lampshade for so long that it had doodles on it from when I was younger… so I covered the lampshade in vintage fabric and used some lace to spray paint a pattern on the base!

You will need: An old lamp, vintage fabric (1/2 meter would be plenty). hot glue gun (although PVA would probably work too), fabric scissors, wrapping paper, patterned lace, spray paint.

If you want to spray paint onto your base like I did, remove the lampshade and wrap the patterned lace around the bottom of the lamp a couple of times. Secure at the top with tape. I used gold paint, but I’m not sure of how it looks against the yellow. If I did it again I’d probably use black or white! Spray all over, leave to dry, and remove the lace. / For the lamp shade, place it onto the wrapping paper, and roll it around 360 degrees whilst drawing around the shade. / Add an extra couple of inches at the top of the bottom and the side of  of the semi-circle, and cut out the shape. / Pin the wrapping paper shape to your vintage fabric, and cut out the shape.

Iron one of the vertical sides over by an inch. Drape the fabric over the lamp, making sure to smooth out all the creases, and glue the un-ironed vertical side onto the lampshade. / Squeeze a strip of glue onto the back of the ironed side of fabric, and press down. / Fold the fabric at the bottom under into the lampshade and glue down. Cut off any excess fabric. / Fold the fabric at the top over into the lampshade and glue down. Cut off any excess fabric, and this is what the inside should look like!

And you’re finished! I think it’s a pretty cute lamp. Soon my room will be full of clashing patterns and fabrics, yippee! And if you’re interested, the artwork at the back is something I did for my A level art, as part of my “teacup” project. I know it’s twee, but it’s colourful so I like it! The teapot was a gift from James, and I made the log vase!

How to Make A Lacy Bra

Lately I’ve been drawn to triangle bras on pinterest, like this one. I don’t actually wear bras day-to-day, but they’re fun to have for special occasions! Underwear is so expensive, especially for the small amount of fabric that you buy, so I decided to DIY my own triangle bra. Joe took these photos for me when I was in Southampton last week, and we had so much fun!

You will need: 1/4 metre of cotton fabric, 1 metre of wide lace, 1 metre of thin elastic, greaseproof paper, measuring tape, pen, scissors, needle and thread, sewing machine.

First, you need to get your measurements. I don’t have any expertise in pattern cutting, so there’s probably a different way of doing this, but this is what worked for me! For the width of each cup, measure the distance under your bust where the bottom of a bra sits, and add an inch (let’s call this length 1.) For the height of each cup, measure the distance between the bottom of your bust and just above your armpit and add an inch (let’s call this length 2.)

For your pattern piece, draw length 2 on your greaseproof paper, then draw length 1 two inches from the bottom. The rest is just a matter of joining up the lines as above, making sure all three are curved! Cut out your pattern piece and use it to cut two bra cups from the cotton fabric.

Insert a dart which runs from the middle of the bottom of each cup to the middle of each cup. To get the dart right, I tried on the fabric piece and adjusted it until it curved in the right way / Hem the edges by 1/2 an inch, with a zig zag stitch / Cut a strip of elastic to go around your torso, and sew the ends firmly together / Sew the cups onto the elastic so that the elastic is on the right side of the bra. Cut two strips of elastic for the straps, and sew these onto the cups and the back of the bra. To get the right positioning, keep trying things on as you go! Remember that the cups should be far enough apart that you can add lace to the inside of each.

Finally, sew on your lace! I stitched the lace where it met the elastic at the top and bottom of each cup, as well as along the inner edge of the cup. And you’re finished! I later decided to add an extra dart to the side of each cup to give it more of a curve.

This isn’t really a practical bra, but it is pretty. Would you ever attemp to make your own undies?

How To Make An Elasticated-Waist Skirt

I spotted this red pu leather fabric in a shop in York and I knew that I had to make it into something! I decided that it would make a really cute high-waisted skirt and I spent the morning sewing one, and that afternoon wearing it! This is a really easy and worthwhile project – skirts like this are such a wardrobe basic! If you’ve never made your own clothes before, this would be a great place to start. You don’t even need a pattern!

You will need: One meter of your chosen fabric, a needle, thread, scissors, sewing machine, measuring tape, pencil and elastic two inches longer than the length of your waist.

First you need to draw your pattern piece. The skirt will be made up of two panels – one for the front and one for the back. Begin by drawing one half of one panel (as above.) To work out the length of side 1, measure the widest part of your hips, divide this by four and add 1 and 1/2 inches. To work out the length of side 2, measure the widest part of your hips, divide this by four and add 1/2 an inch. To work out the length of side 3, measure the distance between your waist and the part of your legs where you want the skirt to end and add 3 1/2 inches. Lastly, join up side 1 and side 2 by hand, including the small curve at the top.

Cut out all sides apart from side 3. Fold the fabric over along side 3 and draw around the other three edges to form a whole panel. Cut this panel out and trace around it to get your second panel.

Place your two panels right sides together and sew along the right and left edges 1/2 an inch from the edge / Turn the fabric at the top edge over by 1/2 inch and sew down / Fold the fabric at the top edge over again, making sure to leave enough room for your elastic to pass through the waistband. Sew almost the whole way around, leaving some room to thread your elastic through / Thread your elastic through the waistband and sew the edges of the elastic firmly together!

Sew up the gap that you used to pass the waistband through / Fold the fabric at the bottom edge over by 1 inch and sew to create the hem.

And you’re finished! I found sewing with this fabric really hard at first, but if you put a sheet of tissue paper over the fabric as you’re sewing, it won’t get caught under your machine foot and you can tear it off straight after!

What do you think? If you make something like this I would LOVE to see it!

Crochet Socks

For Christmas (how long ago was that?!) I promised James that I would crochet him a pair of socks, and I have! I thought socks would be a lot easier to crochet than they were. I crocheted along with this video which shows you how to make socks for a ladies size 7. James has big feet so I had to make a lot of adjustments, and some of them were more successful than others! As a result, the socks are slightly different sizes but I’ve been told they’re comfy and that’s what matters 🙂 The thick wool I used made for gorgeously chunky socks, perfect for lounging around the house and keeping your toes warm.

If anyone uses this video to make socks, drop me an email and I can tell you where I made adjustments. It was definitely helpful to have James around so he could try the socks on as I was crocheting. Hopefully now he’ll stop stealing mine!  I’ve been browsing pinterest for patterns, and I’m tempted to crochet a whole wardrobe!
p.s. Jessthetics now has a facebook page! I’d appreciate it if you could pop over and give it a like 🙂

Mario Mushroom Crochet

I am so excited to have finished this project! Sometime in summer I read this post by love elycia about her Mario Mushroom blanket. My little brother is seriously obsessed with everything Nintendo so I knew I wanted to make one for him. It started out as a birthday gift but it had to become a Christmas gift because it was taking me such a long time. Three months later and it’s ready! When planning out this blanket I only left myself a couple of days to sew the squares together. It turns out the granny squares take just as long to be sewn together than they take to be crocheted.

Before I made this blanket I had never crocheted before. I’m very much a dive-in-at-the-deep end kind of girl when it comes to crafts. I learnt how to crochet a granny square using this lovely Youtube channel and I learnt how to crochet the squares together using this blog post. My first granny square took me between four and five hours but once I got the hang of it they took around twenty minutes. There’s close to two hundred granny squares in this blanket though, so it still took me a long time! Crocheting is a craft I’ve really enjoyed. It’s nice to come home after work, watch some tv and get crocheting. It’s like being lazy and productive at the same time! I’ve also been taking my granny squares on train journeys with me, which has been lovely when I don’t feel like reading.

(This is what the back of the blanket looks like.)

I’m so pleased with how this blanket turned out and I think my brother is too (if you’re reading, it’s on its way!) And I learnt a new skill. Crochet socks and a granny stripe blanket are next on my crochet list! Have you ever crocheted anything?

Autumn Stitching Club #12

I know what you’re thinking, Autumn was a long time ago! Yes it was but I haven’t finished my autumn embroidery project yet so let’s forget that it’s now January. This is the penultimate pattern for the Autumn Stitching Club. I’ve enjoyed it, but I will be glad to see it finished. I feel like I’ve been embroidering forever! This week’s pattern is a cute little smiley acorn.

I hope your week’s been off to a good start. This is my second week of my new job and new house! I’m enjoying it, but I miss sleeping in. Oh well, there’s always the weekends! Happy Tuesday 🙂