Lavender Heart Sachet

I sewed this floral heart sachet out of felt and stuffed it with lavender.  I attached a ribbon so that I can suspend it from a hanger.  I'm going to make one for each of my lovely Eileen West nightgowns, and I'll sew a bunch to give as gifts.

A few more:

Spruced Up Knife Block

 

I've been wanting to freshen up my knife block which was shabby but not in a good way.  The blonde wood stood out like a sore thumb and it had an unattractive Starfrit logo front and center.

I used a hand sander and stripped off the finish, then stained the wood using steel wool that had soaked in vinegar for several hours.

I did an image transfer with Citrasolv, using selected parts of an advertisement I found on The Graphics Fairy.  I finished it off with a coat of mat water based fast drying sealant.

Spring Twigs

Have you seen those bundles of twigs or grasses that cost upwards of $15? Yeah, you can make those for free.

I waited until my lilacs started to bud to remind myself that I shouldn't have to put up with this never ending winter for much longer. Snip them, bundle them, tie them.

Also, If you ever find yourself undecided about painting over old brick, you should do it. I think this was the absolute best cheap makeover I have ever done which yielded the biggest impact.

Matching Crochet Edged Linens

And then I thought, why not edge the matching top sheet?  So I did.

 

Recycled Battenburg Lace

I took down and stored some Battenburg lace valences when I redecorated a guest room and now I've used the lace to make pillows.

The valences were too narrow to make pillows, so I carefully removed the lace with a seam ripper and sewed it to the new fabric, then stitched up the new pillows.

 There is almost always a reason to hang onto everything!

Crochet Edged Pillowcases

I have been wanting to dress up my white linens with some form of lace edging.  While waiting for white yarn to arrive, I got itchy to edge something so I did a test run on some vintage pillowcases I was given.

I love the results, and here's how I did it:

Using sport weight cotton/acrylic blend yarn and a 3.5mm hook, I did a blanket stitch edging all around the pillowcase.  My stitches are placed 5/8ths of an inch apart in width, and 3/8ths of an inch from the edge.  You may want to mark off where your stitches will go if you don't have a good eye for placing them precisely.

Using the horizontal thread section of your blanket stitch, crochet the edging of your choice. I improvised here, and went for a zigzag look, and how I did that was to slip one stitch, triple crochet, then double crochet in each section, and repeat until the end.

This is another pattern I considered, and it is formed with one slip stitch, then three double crochet in each section, and repeat until the end.

You can do this with different weights of yarn and patterns, but bear in mind that you will have to change the length of your blanket stitch based on your design.

Here is a shell pattern done on blanket stitch with 7/8ths of an inch between the vertical stitches.  This shell stitch was done with one slip stitch,and four double crochet in each section, then repeat to the end.  

If you have never crocheted before and feel as though it may be too challenging, I encourage you to have a look at some tutorials for each stitch I have used. I promise you, this is a beginners project, and easy to do.