Patch Happy

home-made patchwork sofa

Patches. Make me happy.

A few years ago I re-covered a very drab Ikea sofa in a grey leaf design:

It did look tasteful but after 5 years I thought the room needed an injection of colour. I have been saving up bits of upholstery fabric for a couple of years. A local fabric shop sells oddments for 50p each in beautiful reds, golds and blues. I had a few bits from charity shops and leftover robin-egg blue from the curtains I made which you can just about see.

I also had material from the Maureen stash (a stack of haberdashery I inherited from Great Aunty Maureen) including this lovely oriental style fabric that I had already used to make the bird cushions and a pale green one with pink roses that had been a pair of her curtains at some point but she was planning to recycle. Some of her fabric dated back to the early 1970s, which makes it quite vintage now, just like me. It is so very satisfying to finally use up fabric that had been saved for over 30 years - a tribute to a fellow hoarder.

Detail of Maureen fabrics 

It took about a week to complete and I finished it off with a matching cushion. The teal up-cycled cushions harmonise well.

Patchwork. It is like an infection. Now I can see all sorts of patching possibilities. Soon we will be living in a patchwork house.

decopatching a Roberts radio

Decopatched Wireless

In 2006 when we were all beginning to ride the retro wave I was given a beautiful Roberts kitchen radio. It looked like this, all shiny and new:

After 9 years in the kitchen something had happened to the false leather casing. Just light pressure was causing it to shear off and it was in a very sorry state. Must have been all the fry-ups degrading the material.

All was not lost, however. Last week I discovered a new craft: Decopatch. All you need is deco patch paper (I used 3 sheets) and the proper glue and a stiff brush.

First clean off all the faux leather casing (using the side edge of a darning needle, it just scraped away like frosting). Then wipe it with surgical spirits to remove any residual grease.

Then for the fun part:

• Tear the paper into small strips. 
• Paint the decopatch glue onto the surface to be covered and the strips and just like paper mache, cover the entire thing. 
• Care needs to be taken at edges to ensure a neat result (I used strips of the edges of the deco patch paper). 
• Paint a layer of glue over the strips as you apply it.
• It dries in hours    
• Or watch the video tutorial:

The results are so pleasingly professional, I guarantee once you try this craft you will be looking around at familiar objects through decopatch-tinted glasses. There are so many possibilities.... 

My deco patch Roberts radio - better than new

Up-cycled tights tidies

There is nothing worse in the morning than fighting through a twisted knot of tights in a drawer that barely closes, trying to find the brother of a sock that might or might not be squirrelled away in the dark depths. It is like starting the day by fighting a gorgon, and it makes me as grumpy as I am when making a bed.

Well those days are at an end. I now have 'tights tidies':

Tights tidies 

The idea came from this peg bag I made a few years ago which is still going strong. I decided to use thinner lighter hangers for the tights bags to save room. You can just about see that I have actually sewed the bags onto the hangers, unlike the peg bag.

Handmade quilted peg bag

Another irksome thing about mornings is locating what seems to be a pair of plain tights only to discover on putting them on that they are actually 'fun' or novelty tights, which just won't do for work. So at first glance 4 tights tidies may seem extravagant, but in the interests of segregation it makes good sense.

So here we have the nude tights bag (all bags are lined with organza left over from the mandala quilt). The skirt is a remnant from a cushion and the purple is left-over backing from my first quilt made in about 2004)...

nude tights tidy

...and then there is the plain dark tights bag. The skirt is a cutting from the car seat-covers I patched in 2009 which had seen better days, the legs are from the mandala quilt and the pale blue is backing from my mum's 60th birthday quilt...

dark tights tidy

...and then there is the woolly tights bag. The backing is of course the same as the peg bag and the legs I am so happy about because they are leftovers from the last post so in the end very little of the marathon cape knitting disaster went to waste...

woolly tights tidy

...and last but not least there is the fancy or novelty fun tights bag. More up-cycled car seat patch covers for the skirt and old quilt backing strips for the legs. Even the buttons are orphan buttons from my button box.

novelty tights bags

Oh and if this seems a little o-c, a quick internet search reassures me there are always others who take it that one step further. Some people have really thought this through- see wear at work tights storage, odd socks and pretty frocks storage, kitty cat stevens - how I organise my tights, lana red tight tights.

So the problem I have now is finding storage space for the tights storage. Life is a series of challenges. 

up-cycled cushions and other things

upcycled cushions

I look back with fond memories on the Year of the Cape 2012 - it was a quietly celebrated. There were complications of the technical kind. However I think we need to put those times behind us now.

From their quiet unassuming attitude one might never suspect these lovely cushions started life as this:

capes should be left to superheroes and consulting detectives 

I much prefer to benefit from those hours of knitting by enjoying these cushions instead of the slightly ashamed slightly frustrated feeling I had every time I didn't wear the Pilar cape. And to keep them company I made these lovely soft faux-tweed fleecy grey cushion covers, replacing the white Ikea ones I made 5y ago to match the Ikea couch I upholstered (yes I know the white ones never really worked but they did the job) :

In with the new

Out with the old

Other things: My sewing table pincushion foam circles were inadvertently hoovered up so I used the opportunity to make some new ones using a baby bath sponge and...

1. A cut off from a cowl I knitted in the round which was slightly too big:

pincushion made from old cushion covers and off-cut knitting

 2. Patchwork car seat covers I made 5 years ago which had seen better days:

pincushion made from old patchwork seat cover

sewing desk replacements: better than the original foam circles

On the subject of pincushions this beautiful cross-stitched pincushion was made for me by my mum and is the pride and joy of my small collection:

cross stitched handmade pincushion by mum

patches

I was born and raised down in Alabama
On a farm way back up in the woods
I was so raggedy, folks used call me, “Patches”
Papa used to tease me ‘bout it
Of course deep down inside he was hurt
‘Cause he’d done all he could...

Ingredients for upcycled patchwork pants:

1. 3 old fleece jackets, cut into patches

2. leftover crocodile shoe fabric 

3. leftover hot water bottle cover fabric

4. some faux fur 

5. cow cotton lining

6. leftover sleeve ends for pockets (lined with cow cotton fabric)

matching evening ensemble

cow cotton lining

up-cycled sleeve pockets

On special occasions can be worn with a Patch jacket.

“Patches
I’m dependin’ on you, son
I tried to do my best
It’s up to you to do the rest”