Category Archives: sewing and crafts

Origami DIY…

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So you might remember the origami birds chair that I reupholstered and upcycled for Oxfam Ireland last year. Well it seems that is has inspired quite a few of you to go on and reupholster chairs of your own using the same origami birds fabric. One of my lovely customers bought a metre of origami birds a few months ago to reupholster a chair of her own, and today she sent me some pics of how her little project turned out. I am so delighted that she is letting me share the pics with you…the chair looks AMAZING!!! And hopefully it will inspire more of you to try this simple and easy way to turn old not so pretty looking furniture into new beautiful statement pieces for your home. yay for upcycling : )

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Here’s the before/after pic of the chair I originally upcycled for Oxfam Ireland.

BeforeAndAfter

And here is one of a set of deck chairs I recently recovered up for a customer using the Origami Birds design in an extra heavyweight cotton…

origami birds deck chair

Introducing my new and oh-so-fabulous aprons…

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I have been so excited about these for so long as I had to wait untill I had touched down in SA before I could start developing them properly. The vintage ones in particular were something I have always wanted to do and I am super excited about the way they have all turned out! Now the plan is to shoot these all professionally so please excuse the way I have styled the pics for now but I just can’t wait that long to show you…

I have 2 different styles. The 50′s vintage inspired ones which are honestly so beautiful! They are made from a soft 100% cotton (same as my napkins) and there is alot of detailing and pleating and the finishing touches are just so pretty. They wrap generously around the waist with a full glamorous skirt with a matching pocket. You probably won’t want to get these dirty : ) The other style is a standard chef apron made from linen cotton canvas or a strong 100% cotton, these will brighten up any kitchen and are ideal for cooking and/or painting and/or anything and/or just looking pretty : )

All aprons can be made in all designs, vintage and chef styles, and the chef aprons can be made up in kiddies sizes if you want to have matching ones. Try the space rocket solar system or beep beep designs for these.

Vintage Aprons
Cup O Tea, Origami Birds and Vintage Bikes

Chef Aprons

Vintage Bikes

Cup O Tea

Sweet Hearts

Indigo Blue

Indigo Red (pretty “christmassy” don’t you think?)

Pink Flamingo!

handmade by me.

Look at the pretty bunting I made…

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And now it is available to purchase from My Etsy Store, Hello Pretty and the Bay Harbour Market. There are 14 different designs in each, and each one measures over 2m in length. I can also custom make bunting for any special occasions, I can change the size or the designs, or if there is just one design you love so much you want it everywhere I can make that happen too. Chat to me about making all your bunting dreams come true : )

 

Here it is as a work in progress…

And while I’m at it here are some pics of my items gift wrapped…not to missed at Christmas time.

 

 

 

handmade by me.

Celebrate Home…

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Earlier this year I was approached about doing some Handmade By Me advertising up for a new home magazine that was being created and launched in the United States called Celebrate Home Magazine. There was an article being written about a lady who had a collection of over 500 tea towels, and being a tea towel collector, maker and seller myself, how could I resist? Check out “Dish Towel Diva” on page 93. There was also a lot of support for young designers like myself to use this as a platform to get their products and ideas out there so I am really happy to help promote this gorgeous magazine, not to mention all the beautiful recipes, homewares and all kinds of great ideas it has inside.

Don’t forget to look out for the two Handmade By Me ads : ) I would love to hear what you all think???

Here is a link to download a free pdf of the mag and from here you can order a fully printed version should you like. Please feel free to send the link on to family and friends and enjoy!

http://cindydyer.wordpress.com/2012/10/02/a-labor-of-love-celebrate-home-magazine-is-born/

“The Fall 2012 Celebrate Home Magazine debuts on the first day of October with the mantra of “making the ordinary extraordinary.”

Published quarterly, Celebrate Home Magazine focuses on family, food, entertaining, gardening, art, crafts, hobbies, personal expression, hospitality, pets, decorating, communities and neighborhoods.

The time has come for a magazine like this—highlighting ordinary people doing extraordinary things. No matter your budget, your skills or the size of your space, we’ll enthusiastically share experiences of those who nurture the space they call home. Let us inspire you!”

 

 

Spring into summer with Handmade by Me

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Spring is finally here! The flowers are out, the sun is out, we even made it out, and had our first picnic this last weekend. Albeit it was in the beautiful Cederberg which is always a couple degrees warmer, but all this sunshine and spring talk is really getting me in the mood for summer!! And with summer comes outings, picnics, sundowners, festivals, all those things I love to do. And so I thought I would share some of my new tea towels and napkin sets with you. All designed with the summer in mind, get ready to make your picnic basket the most wanted item in the southern hemisphere : )

And for those of you who need a little help getting that spring in your step I am offering a 5% discount on any matching tea towel and napkin purchases made via my Etsy store over the next 2 weeks. All you have to do is buy a set of napkins WITH a tea towel and enter the coupon code SPRING2012 and your basket will automatically be discounted and updated!

Here are some of the latest additions you can look out for…for the full collection please visit my Etsy store.

Pink Flamingo! napkins

Pretty Proteas napkins

Striking Strelitzias napkins

Origami Birds tea towel

Fly Away Birds tea towel

Indigo Blue tea towel

Pretty Proteas tea towel

Sweet Hearts tea towel

And just because this little guy below hasn’t had a chance to feature anywhere yet…

Space Rocket Solar System cushion cover

handmade by me.

Flamin’ Flamingos!

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For those of you who aren’t friends of handmade by me’s facebook page you might not know the exciting news yet! I am also delighted that this is my first and very happy post from sunny Cape Town. I received an email a few days ago to let me know that my Pink Flamingo! Cushion Cover has made it to the shortlist of 250 products from OVER 2 MILLION to be presented in the DaWanda Lovebook for Winter 2012-2013!!!

This is such exciting news for handmade by me as “the Lovebook is sent to journalists from across Europe, the US and Australasia, who may then select products for publication and publish them in magazines and newspapers. Products from previous Lovebooks were later published in Time magazine, Vogue, Gala, Brigitte and many other publications.”

Take a look at the Lovebook Summer 2012 here:

And for those of you who haven’t seen my Pink Flamingo! design here is the cushion cover and matching tea towel, and the design is also available in napkins…

Now lets hope this is the beginning of great things to come! I am working on some very exciting projects so as always…watch this space!

handmade by me.

Time for tea…and finally the move!

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So next week is the big move! And as much as I am absolutely excited to get my little business going in sunny South Africa, there are lots of mixed emotions with leaving Ireland, my home for the last 6 years. Anyways with that in mind, I won’t be posting much over the next 2 weeks while we enjoy our last few days in Dublin, and start getting settled into life in Cape Town. I can’t wait to begin posting again because that means I will have started to get cracking on my next set of ideas and projects, and I won’t be able to wait to show you all. So while we get on and move, I’ll leave you with some pics of my new tea towel range, all ready and waiting to find themselves a new home : )

And don’t forget if you want to keep up to date with any news in the meantime you can go to http://www.facebook.com/handmadebymeblog and “like” handmade by me’s facebook page.

My new Cup O Tea design…

Pink Vintage Squares


Birdy Num Num

Pink Flamingo!


Blue Origami Birds

Striking Strelitzias


Red Vintage Squares


Indigo Red

Handmade by me.

Cats and dogs go home…

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Remember the bespoke design “cats and dogs” I created for my friend’s serah and paul? Well they sent me some pictures of their lovely cushions and napkins in their apartment and I would love to share them with you!

If you want to see the original post I did….including the super cute photos of their cat Greebie and their dog Bluff…and for more information about my design…click here.

And so….here’s how things turned out!



Handmade by me.

Oxfam upcycle project…read all about it!

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Remember my lovely origami birds chair I upcycled as a part of the Make Space for Oxfam Campaign, well here is the article from Stellar Magazine that featured the different designers and what they did for the project. As much as I hate that there is a full body picture of me in here, the chair looks great and I am happy I could help be a part of such a great campaign!

Here’s the article below, and if you would like any more information on the campaign itself click here. Here’s hoping my lovely chair generates some good money for them!

To see my original post on the project click here.


My original before and after pic…

Plum Crazy!

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My friend Claire asked me if I would design her a wallpaper pattern for her new foodie blog called “The Plum Farmer’s daughter“. I thought I’d keep the pattern fun and modern because there are so many “same old” fruit prints out there. The beauty of digital printing is that it allows me to play around a lot more with photographs and textures and I wanted to combine the two with my very distinctive digital style. I also wanted to develop the pattern into napkins, tea towels and eventually aprons so the pattern had to be bright and colourful. I only found out AFTER I had created this design that Claire isn’t really into purple!!!! (ha ha I know!!!) So I created a slightly more blueish version for her to use.

Here they are below…soon to be available in napkins and tea towels for all people plum crazy : )

Handmade by me.