Colorful Spring!

Bangalore has so many flowering trees and so many different colored flowers..violets, yellows, pinks and reds…oh my! I was truly inspired when we went out to our friend’s house the other day. Hmmm…another spring round the corner and this time flowers have bloomed inside my home too! Yes, my very own artificial flowers. :D
These flowers were made out of organti material. Luckily for me I had these different colors in my materials basket and was able to create a really colorful bunch. I referred to a blog for the basic idea for this kind of flower and modified a little to make it easier since I had to make so many of them. For the vase I’ve used an old ice-cream box and covered it with newspaper rolls. Since the flowers were so colorful I thought it would be best to highlight them with a plain and simple base. And here it is, spring season at home!

Modern Art!

I learnt this art through Neil Buchanan’s Art Attack. He showed this simple, easy and effective way of creating a modern art. First draw around some objects like a mobile phone, a greeting card, a bangle, etc. with some of them overlapping each other. I’ve made use of my mobile, a TV remote, my wax-crayon box outline and a few freehand geometrical and non-geometrical shapes. The next step is painting. The point to remember here is, in Neil’s words,”Do not use the same color on two sections that are next to each other”. And that’s it! It really did look like some complicated modern art! I’ve gone one step further and tried to frame it myself using cardboard and cling film. Since this being my first attempt, handling the cling film was real tough and it showed up wrinkles in the corners. Nevertheless, I think it is a good piece of modern art!

Satin Ribbon Cushion Cover

The face of this cushion cover was made entirely of satin ribbon. I’d bought these ribbons for making satin roses, but later realized that their width was not enough to turn them into roses. They’d been lying in my materials basket since long. That is when I saw this method of cross-weaving with satin ribbons on the net. Though the process was actually simple, it needed quite some amount of patience to handle these silky soft ribbons. Finally when the cross-weaving was done, I attached the edges to red satin ribbon and then fabric for the inside and back of the cover. Since my sewing machine is still under repair, I had to use fabric glue to hold the pieces together. Working with fabric glue is much easier and lesser time consuming than stitching, but I still doubt on the strength of the glue. Anyways, hoping this lasts long.

Crochet Bag

Me and my husband have always tried reducing the usage of plastics. We take our big-shopper with us while out shopping and try reusing the plastic bags that we already have rather than getting a new one each time. This idea of making a cloth bag originated from this same thought.
Initially I’d thought of making one with fabric but later on had to move to crochet since my sewing machine was under repair. I’ve used the same stitch like the one for the mat, but this one went layer by layer vertically. Once I’d finished with the black crochet, I moved on to maroon for the pocket in the front and back. For the pattern on the pocket, I’ve made use of shiny anchor embroidery threads. When I’d completed the pocket I realized that my bag was a see-through bag! I had to then give a fabric lining to ensure that things don’t spill out of my bag through the gaps between the threads. Once the lining was completed, the only thing remaining was the handles. Since I’d run out of maroon wool, I had to use similar color fabric for the handles. 3 strips of stuffed fabric were plaited to form one handle. When the handles were securely fixed into place, I included 2 press-buttons next to the handles. And there, my eco-friendly handmade bag is done!