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Saturday, 25 July 2015

Felt Bookmark Tutorial


I recently did a n Eid Gift Swap and one of the gifts I made was a Felt Boookmark, so I thought I would show you how easy these are to make.

Requirements:

Felt
Embroidery thread and needle
Metal grippers
Jewellery or beads (I used an earring piece).



Instructions:

Step 1: Cut out a rectangle piece of felt.
Step 2: Sew a blanket stitch all around the edges. You could also add more decorative stitches.
Step 3: Add the metal gripper.
Step 4: Add any decoration you have to the gripper. I used an earring piece.





Sunday, 19 July 2015

DIY Bow Tie Tutorial


It is rare that I get to do sewing for my son!  It was his school Prom this month and he wanted to have a nice Tie for his suit and I decided I would make him one instead of buying one and that way it would be unique too! Can't believe he starts college in September insha'Allah. I also added a matching pocket scarf to match!

Requirements:


  • Fabric for Tie
  • Needle and Thread
  • Fusible interfacing (I actually used hemming webbing)
  • Elastic for neck
  • Iron


Step 1: Cut out 3 pieces of fabric. I did one piece slightly smaller, but you can keep it the same size. Approx size is 11cm x 24cm. The small piece only needs to be small about 8cm x 5cm. I originally cut it larger and then had to cut it down.
Step 2: Add the interfacing if using, I used hemming webbing! Place enough in the middle and fold the large part halfway lengthways. Iron the fabric.
Step 3: Once you have ironed the webbing place some more in the middle as in the photograph and then fold the ends down securing in the middle with the webbing and iron.
Step 4: Repeat these steps with the 2nd piece of large fabric.
Step 5: Place some webbing into the small piece of fabric and iron and make the centre piece for the tie.
Step 6: Place the 2 main parts on top of each other and then stitch in the middle to secure the two pieces together.
Step 7: Then place the centre part over the bow tie and stitch at the back. Leave a small gap to insert some elastic.
Step 8: Attach some elastic to the bow tie. Size depending on neck width.
Step 9: Optional - with any remaining fabric you can make a pocket scarf. 



I watched quite a few video tutorials to give me an idea on how to do this. One video which I thought was very good at explaining step by step was this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TydoohGHCRY

The above link also made a fabric neck band not an elastic one which I did. My son was so happy with his Bow Tie and Pocket scarf. I used fabric I already had at home so this didn't cost me anything.  There are also some video tutorials which show you how to make Bow Ties without sewing! here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRp-l65V2mQ






Saturday, 11 July 2015

Homeschool Reports 2014-2015


I unfortunately never did get another homeschool post put up as we are always so busy. So I thought as it is now the end of the school year (not that there is an actual date when you homeschool) I would do a different style post.  I thought seeing as all the schooled children are all receiving their end of year school reports, that I would write up a short Educational Report on both my girls, in a homeschool style way! And below my reports are just some of the photographs showing what my girls have been up to this past year. I apologise in advance as I will sometimes alternate between using the word 'homeschool' as I have always used this word and the words 'Home Education' which is what most UK parents prefer to use. I have to say I got this idea of reports from my friend Hazel who did this on Facebook for her child and I thought it would make a great blog post!

Child Aged 8

She is such a bright child and so eager to always learn new things. She loves to be challenged and loves to choose her own topics to study. Her favourite subject is Science and she loves trying new experiments, sometimes even doing them after midnight! She loves studying the topic Ancient Egypt and she was overjoyed to get the chance to see an actual mummy in a Museum. She is very social and really enjoys the company of all her home educated friends and non-home educated friends too. She enjoys attending interest clubs such as Brownies and Games clubs. She loves being able to have the choice to study outside and not always inside the home. She has attended many outside Science classes, History classes, Field trips and many other social home education meet ups.  She has been growing her own produce which includes potatoes and strawberries. She is very artistic and has done so many beautiful art and crafts projects. She excels in Maths and loves books and is an excellent reader.  She loves watching documentaries on TV or on the computer. Her PE lessons include a range of different sports which include, bike riding, tennis, swimming, running and gymnastics. She loved her trip to the BBC Television Studios and meeting the presenter and getting to have a go behind the camera. She loves visiting Museums and takes a very keen interest in learning new things and has no hesitation in asking the staff any questions she will have for them.  She loves attending the Home educated group Art lessons and also the great beach and park meet ups as she loves the great outdoors and loves anything to do with nature.  I think she should do well in the future and I have no doubts she should succeed in whatever she sets her mind on doing.  She is such a charming inquisitive girl that has been a pleasure to teach, she has actually taught me a thing or two!  Signed, her loving mum.

Child Aged 13 

She is such a pleasure to teach. She aways listens and is always the first to help others. She often helps her little sister with topics when needed. She has always had a creative mind and prefers arts and crafts rather than subjects such as maths. However due to the fact she no longer has classroom disruptions, she finds learning much easier now that she can study alone without distractions.  She is now way ahead of her peers for her Maths, English and Science subjects. She is also ahead for her History and Geography subjects too.  She has since found that she enjoys photography and even had her photographs published in our local newspaper.  Since home education started she now has her own crafts business and has so much extra time to spend on her passion of arts! She loves drawing, dress making, crochet, candle making and designing, henna art, face painting, bag making, jewellery making, painting, clay modelling and other general crafts. She has just this year started selling her jewellery and other crafts on Etsy which is a great achievement in itself. I do foresee a future in the arts for her. She also attend clubs like Girl Guides and she  volunteers at the local church helping run the after school clubs and the mother and toddler group, she is such a natural with children and shows great leadership skills. She will be starting to run crafts sessions for the local ladies club after the holidays. She is an avid thrift shop / charity shop bargain hunter and knows how to haggle to get what she wants. She is a great little cook and loves cooking and cake designing too. She has been a pleasure to teach and she is such lovely company. Signed, her loving mum.

Some photographs showing my girls growing flowers and produce, they have looked after all the containers all year round. They have grown potatoes, strawberries and rhubarb.


 Some photographs of some Museum visits we have done. Or anything related to History.


Some more photographs of Musuem visits. My youngest daughter even got to go on stage a few times to participate in experiments.


Some food related photographs that my children have been involved with.


Here are some photographs of some home education beach visits. Since my daughter has started making sea glass necklaces we get to the beach often looking for the sea glass.


Some photographs of alternative Physical Education (PE) Lessons. Bike Riding, Rock Climbing, Running, circus skills and many many more.


Some photographs showing science lessons and some coding lessons.


My girls loved the group home education visit to the BBC studios, they got to meet one of the TV presenters and had a practice reading the news and my daughter got to have a go behind the cameras. 


My 13 year old had some of her photographs published in our local newspaper. A 2 page spread of her lovely work.


I don't need to post many photographs of all their crafty work as I do this every week here on my blog or my daughter posts her projects on her own blog. Here are a few.




I hope you liked this post, it is a bit different from my normal posts. I have probably missed so many things from this post as our live is just so busy doing so many different things. I am so grateful that I have the chance to spend so much time with my girls and that I can homeschool them.   My eldest child, my son has now finished school and starts his journey in September at college to do his A Levels. So a new beginning for him.  I did teach him his French GCSE at home as school didn't offer that subject, so he has had some homeschooling too! 




Monday, 6 July 2015

Flip Flop Makeover



My daughter bought a pair of cheap Flip Flops recently and I thought I would give them a bit of a makeover for her.  So she now has some very unique Flip Flop Sandals which also stay fastened on her feet!


I am not really going to do a tutorial for these as it was quite simple to do.  We just used up an old bright scarf and cut it into 2 strips, one for each flip flop. I then just twisted it around the plastic strap.  I did attach the scarf with some hand stitching at the back to secure the scarf so that it didn't come loose. You could quite easily just keep swapping the fabric and having different styles which would be great for the summer holidays now starting.

There are many different ways to give your flip flops makeovers, you just need to google the words 'flip flop makeovers' and you can see so much choice. One of my favourite using a scarf is this one: http://misskristurner.com/2012/07/24/diy-gladiator-wrap-sandals/