DIY patterned pillow case scarf tutorial

For Christmas I made my dear friends Theana and Harriet scarves. I bought a bed set (quilt, under sheet, duvet cover and pillow case) for £1.99 or £2.99, I can't quite remember, from a charity shop, and vowed to make as many things as possible! 

So to start, I examined the cases and patterns. I googled tonnes of variations of 'make scarf out of pillow' and there was nothing, so here is my tutorial to you. If you're a wisened seamstress this will be much too basic for you- please don't think I'm being patronising I'm just writing for people who may not have sewn before (only because I read tutorials sometimes and I'm like woahhhh there lassie, what are you saying).  

Lay your patterned cases out- think about the way the pattern will look once seen e.g. if I just sewed these two together like this it'd look awful. 

But if I were to sew them like this instead then it's much nicer (always fold and think about it before cutting or sewing)

Next you need to cut the unnecessary panel away; I started by halving the pillow case (cutting both the longest vertical side seam and across the top seam) and then cutting close to the white 

If you're concerned about losing any of your inner pattern then cut closer/on the blue and you can just sew a lot closer than this, I personally was more concerned about a huge middle seam and opted to cut close 

Place together and think about the middle pattern again- I moved these flowers to have the darkest ones in the corners opposite each other

Place on top of each other and ensure they are lined up correctly- you don't want to unpick your stitch. For me it was ensuring that all the white lines were in the same place etc 

Pin and sew along this edge

Fold sewed edges out and iron over- Erm I'm not sure why. For good measure. And cause mum makes me. From here you either need to hem, shear (zig zag cut) or fray the edges to finish off, I was going to shear but then decided fraying would probably look nicer! Just pull a couple of strands out all the way along 

I unfortunately didn't get a photo with one before I gave them as presents,but perhaps we can ask Harriet and Theana if they could kindly send us one.... :) if you use this pattern/idea please link back! I'd love to see what you've made!

Almost the 99p store

Happy New Year all!! I hope you had a good night yesterday, Michael and I KO'd before 12 unfortunately.. I think we've turned into old people before our time?? But oh well, I don't regret a thing haha.

Before Christmas I found (okay found is misleading. It was never lost but I hadn't been there before) a new charity shop, and pretty much everything was 99p... SCORE. My kind of shop. Here are the beauties I found-

(I haven't stopped wearing this, it's borderline obsessive, dang turtle necks) 

A lovely chunky knit

 Very handy soft jumper. Nothing extraordinary but good for layering :) 

I'm gutted I had my hair cut after I see it's length in these photos! Have you been thrifting lately? I have to admit that I went again today as I wanted some mid heels to be able to wear to work, and most of the shops I was looking in had a £20+ price tag. I found these bad boys for £4 in British heart foundation (no idea how but my favourite buys are always from these!). I'm not sure about the bows in all honesty and I'm looking into their removal :p

And also these for £6 from primark - not sure how long they'll last being primarni but that's okay. 

Just one thing left to buy (a nice blazer, but the hunts been on for years) and I will be content. This has definitely been the best year for sales shopping and I worry that it's just because my standards are slowly dropping...

Photo dump/mammoth weekly roundup

I haven't done a weekly catch up in months so here's going to be one HUGE photo dump, but I'll try and keep it snappy (hehe). 

Bucket O ribs and sweet potato chips 

Almost wished my name began with an A when I found this for 99p

My boyfriend, ladies and gentleman 

Hairstyle for the ball

Dressing table I'm loving

Hehe the pup loving the head massager 

Isabelle storing kitchen utensils in my boots 

Lovely sofas that 'aren't Michael's thing' 

Christmas Eve round the British Legion with the grandparents 

Good ol' bumpits

Christmas raffle fun 

Mm lovely bath 

The best chocolates! 

Michael got a little wet pumping up his tyres 

£100 charity shop writing table :( 

Starting to get organised for my new job- always wanted one of these. Gona be so pretty. 

Bargain presents for mum- she can get her craft on! Not that she needs ANY more craft stuff ;) 

Fewf- I won't bombard you with any more photos from my life, I will just try and do weekly round ups more regularly again :) have you had a good week? 

Relocation, Relocation, Relocation

No.. I'm not doing some weird kind of review of the TV program, Michael and I are moving! Here starts a long story with lots of components:
-After our short trip to Prague and our long journey home, I had a job interview in a county near to Michael's army base. I think it was two full weeks or close to two weeks later, they called and offered me the job stating there was a delay because they didn't know which team to put me in.
- The job I applied for is in one area, whilst Michael's is another, so we are meeting it the middle and commuting each day. We decided, when I applied for the job, that it was a step we were ready to take together, but that we would leave it up to fate - if this is the job I got, when I'd applied for a few, then it was meant to be. And it's all worked out, so it was clearly the right choice!
-Flat hunting and contract waiting later, we viewed a flat and pretty much fell in love. We had to wait for a week or two again for the contract, but the new council's HR department are super lovely and I'm so appreciative of this.
-Crazy times sourcing and looking for furniture. (charity shops, of course!)
-Contract came, contract was signed, contract was sent.
-Estate agents was contacted and the flat we loved was ours! Well... credit and reference checks later (long, so long), we found out Friday that the flat is ours!

Pinterest has been an absolute God send for all of this, check out my relocating board here. It's a place I like to keep picture of my absolute goal, so I can keep them at the forefront of my mind and don't end up buying crap.

The Flat:
We have a top floor unfurnished flat that has two bedrooms (aka a bedroom and a study, Michael gets the garage!), a kitchen, bathroom, lounge, airing cupboard and coat/shoe room, garage. oh and a little patch of grass we have to take care of. The floors are mostly laminate, bar both bedrooms which are carpeted.

Finding Furniture:
This makes me laugh, because Michael kept going to family gatherings and texting me like 'I've got us a bed, I've got a mattress, do we need a nest of tables?' We are very grateful to both families pulling together to help us with all of this - furniture is expensive stuff! We thought we would just get items to begin with; this place is not our home, I don't need my forever pieces, it doesn't have to be perfect, it can be just so - we'll replace it when the time comes. The kitchen is already all sorted - I have tonnes of stuff from Uni, and luckily white goods are already in the property. Currently we've managed to nab - bed frame, mattress, dining table, bed side cabinets, nest of tables. I already have a beautiful vintage side board that will be used as the TV stand (and storage!), and Michael's parents have bought us a three seater sofa and an arm chair. Wardrobes are already built in, so our current needs are;

• Desk
• shelves for study
• rug
• drawers for bathroom

Bathroom Drawers/Storage

The bathroom is mostly set, there's a medicine cabinet etc but no shelves in the shower or place to store toiletries, hence the need for something like this -  

                                              Ikea                                                    Argos                     

The lounge

The floor is yellowy wood laminate. I love grey so the sofa and arm chairs are grey. To set the room off I know I need a colour scheme, as grey is just the base, and I'm currently crushing on these colour variations. The place has blinds up and I'm not sure if there even are curtain poles in the property, but that's something I  might need to think about too 

 

(already purchased - Tesco)

 

Pinks/Greens - but always dusky

 

Just the shade of green on the right - not the shelving, that's not my kinda thing. 

Ikea - I need this in my life - imagine that over the sofa. 

Lounge tables 

The Study

My initial thought was wooden - it's always wooden, but dark wood. Then I thought about having a big steel workbench of a desk and the ideas started flowing. I would like a metal desk, and also some metal shelving - for books, but also creeping/hanging plants - that mix of silver and green is just going to be perfect.

 

 

Other

These look like handy little contraptions 

hehe, so appropriate

I think that's it for now, it's so nice to have them all down in one place so expect another installment. And then of course a house tour! All links are on my pinterest, either on the 'relocating' board, or the 'for the home' (for the lounge colour schemes).