A New Enterprise

I have been busy, busy and more busy these past few months. To begin with , my house help had vanished for almost an entire month. But more importantly I had been making handbags, lots of them. What began as a hobby, ended up in an exhibition, at a crafts bazaar. And my dear friends supported me hugely. Thanks a ton girls...........love you all. Now is the time to share my creations with the rest of you. I have uploaded the pictures of some of my pieces, of course, the best ones are taken.....already.

There is more to come................I take orders for custom made bags too.

My new ironing board

Like I usually mention , I like to do things by myself....get a thrill out of it. And this time I re-invented my ironing board, gave it a face lift and also made it slightly more energy efficient.

Well there was nothing wrong with the old board to begin with. It was strong and sturdy and did its job well. But I kind of got bored of its cover. It was orange with tiny teddy bears, cute but I was done with the teddies. Besides, there was an old cotton bed-sheet with a better print and I really wished to re-commission it. If things do not get thrown or given away, I re-use them in a new avatar. So I started this new project. Measured up the board and the sheet, cut according to size and got stitching. Hand- stitch that is... An hour of sitting on the floor with my poor neck craned upwards, not a very comfortable position though, the job was done.

And for the energy efficiency, I slid in a layer of aluminum foil between the new cover and the old one, before stitching. The foil will reflect the heat from the iron and make the ironing process easier and quicker. I had read this somewhere and promptly applied it, I hope it works.

Restless hands

Yes, as the title suggests, my hands are getting restless. And this time around I am not re-inventing my blanket. Instead, doing some art and craft, just like in the school days. Lots of glitter and glue, laces and ribbons, scissors and sticky tapes.

I am making some hand-made name cards(I don't know what is the exact term). The ones that you attach on a gift or a bouquet. Actually, last weekend we were buying gifts and preparing for the upcoming occasions. And during the exercise I realized, how ridiculously expensive the tiny tags are, and there is nothing special or unique about them. Just mass printed stuff with a tinge of glitter. I decided to make my own. So now I have 24 pretty name cards that are all unique, made from scratch and totally hand-made. I am happy , and hope the ones who receive them will be delighted too. 

One task, One lesson!

I love to recycle and then reuse stuff. What i do to my clothes has been mentioned in on of the older posts. Last week again, I gave myself one such task, a new project. On one of our visits to India, we went to Ajmer and Jaipur. With just two days of stay and rainy season, street shopping (my favorite kind of shopping) was out of question. But we managed to find a Handicraft Emporium that had everything under one roof. After selecting Bandini suits and looking at some jewellery,we entered the home furnishing section. Immediately we fell in love with these two handmade quits. So soft and warm, beautiful print and above all really worth the price. Needless to say we bought them both.
Two years down the line, those same quilts looked worn out and the stitchs were giving away. I did not have the heart to give it away. So I got some material and opened up an old bed cover. Combined the two and got a cover made for one of the quilts. Now I can use the same quilt with all the memories in a new avatar. The only sad part in this whole exercise was that the tailor did not do his job to my satisfaction. But then, like it is said - If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Lesson learnt!

CREATING A NEW LOOK

These last few weeks all I was doing was cook and then write about it. Nobody will disagree with me on that, I am sure. Now I am kind of done with it, at least for some time. No more experiments in the kitchen. Although there will be experiments...this time with my sewing kit. My hands simply cannot stay still.
I have got a load of stuff that needs to be revamped. Not that they look bad now, but its just that if something more can be done, I will do it. Sometimes I buy things because I can see revamping potential in them right away. So after I buy it, the first thing I do is open the sewing kit.
In the past I have recreated one of my straw handbags by changing the handle from woven straw to an embroidered lace, it looks great now. I had also chopped up a casual harem pants to make it a 3/4 semi-formal trouser. Those pants had been bought on whim, but I rarely wore them. Now in the new avatar I look for opportunities to wear them. Another success was this beautiful Ritu Kumar kurti that hubby dear bought for me. I wore it as it was for quite some time, and then my hands started itching to do something. After a lot of thought I picked up the scissors. Yes I redesigned a designer outfit, halved the sleeves and created a few pleats. One of my friends didn't even realize that it was the same kurti. And for your information, it is all my handiwork, hard work no doubt.Unlike the new look of this blog which was changed with a few clicks.
Now its time to get my sewing kit out and see what new looks I can create again.
Lets see whats in my closet......