I chose the owl pattern, and made it with felt eyes instead of plastic ones, as it would be for a newborn baby. I also added a rattle inside, by putting some beads into a little plastic spherical container and nestling this in the stuffing. The container is from one of those vending machines that looks like a gumball machine, which you sometimes find in petrol station loos (usually containing a wet wipe or a fuzzy brush). I knew it would come in handy for something & I hate throwing away plastic, so why not recycle it!

As the current fashion seems to be for really bright almost fluorescent colours, I made this one in fluoro pink, with a grey leaf and purple centre. There’s no sewing involved: it’s all about cutting the pieces carefully then slotting the inner petals in place through the leaf/outer petal. The actual making of it was easy, but the cutting took the most time as you have to place the slots in exactly the right place. I think it looks pretty cool! The best thing was that when I gave it to Lucy, she was wearing a fluoro pink T-shirt, so it matched her perfectly.

Here you can just about read the message inside: it says “Johnny Clash Rinsin’ It” which is a pun based on his DJ name. This soap was made with orange zest and essential oil for a fresh scent.

The other soap is clear on top, with an opaque ‘dirty’ base made with kaolin clay. You can’t yet read the message (it will appear as the soap is used) but it says “Dirty Punk Rocker” inside:

I think this one turned out just as yummy as the last one, and I like the pink frosting with the brown chocolatey cake…. yummmmmm. The only trouble with these darned cupcakes is that they make me want to eat real cake!

So I decided to knit an outer shell to cover the tub. I made it with acrylic yarn so it could be removed and washed, and would withstand being left on the patio. But it looked a little plain, as you can see.

I then decided to embroider some cherry blossoms on the outside, to jazz it up and make it look special. I added some matt glass seed beads in a vibrant red to bring the whole project to life. I think it looks really sophisticated with a red pelargonium inside.

This is one of my favourite projects, because I think the results show that recycled stuff doesn’t have to look cheap or all earth-mother-hippy-ish. I can’t imagine how many of these tubs get thrown away every day, when they could be used to make something really pretty. I reckon there’s loads of ways they could be customised, so I will have a think about how I can decorate the next one. And of course it’s another excuse to eat loads of flapjacks and mini swiss rolls. “But I NEED to eat them because I need to use the tub. Honest!”

Here’s a project from my back-catalogue, one I made last year but forgot to post until now. It’s a stripey knitted case suitable for glasses, iPhone or iPods. I didn’t follow a pattern, but made it up as I went along, randomly alternating a few knit/purl rows to give a textured stripe.

I recycled a microfibre cloth sunglass case to form the lining, which you can also pull out and use to clean your iPhone or glasses. It also meant I had a ready-made drawstring and toggle, so I didn’t have to faff around making my own. I really love the candy colours and the cotton yarn means it can be easily washed if it gets dirty. Here’s another looksie:

As she’s quite a popular gal, I knew we’d need a lot because she’s got lots of lovely friends. I kinda got carried away because the lovely Miss Jane gave me a cupcake cookbook for Christmas, and the recipes all sounded so yummy, I couldn’t resist making a few different kinds. In the end, I made 64 cupcakes, in 6 different varieties, adding my own twist to the recipes:

• Cappuccino – a coffee flavoured cupcake with mocha buttercream frosting
• Bakewell Tart – wheat-free almond cupcakes with a cherry inside and a lemon glaze
• Vanilla Buttercream – vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting
• Sweet Almond – wheat-free almond cupcakes with a fondant glaze
• Bittersweet Symphony – coffee flavoured cupcakes with a dark chocolate ganache
• Lemon Zinger – vanilla cupcakes with a zesty lemon glaze

They went down a treat, but I will think twice about making so many cupcakes all in one go… or at least next time, stick to one or two different types! They looked (and tasted) amazing – which you probably can’t tell from the awful iPhone photo above – but it took me several hours and the kitchen was a wreck afterwards. Whew – I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

While I don’t make a lot out of it, it does mean you can get prints, canvasses, framed prints and calendars done quickly and easily through RedBubble, rather than me having to go out and do it. And with Christmas just around the corner and me being rushed around like a whirling dervish, I thought that was the best way to do things.

I have put a few of my favourite things on the site, but I hope to add even more over time.

Visit my RedBubble site to check out my photo prints

I made this one from two different patterns I found online. The top is from this pattern on the Bittersweet blog, and the cupcake base is made from another pattern that is no longer available online* (sadly). But this one from Good Housekeeping is pretty close. I liked the curly icing from the Bittersweet pattern, but wanted a stable base for the pincushion rather than a curved one. My other variation was to put a little piece of felt that had a 2p coin glued to it in the bottom, to weight the pincushion to keep it from toppling over when using it. I also looked all around to find some pearlised pins to put into the top – I wanted to make sure they looked like sprinkles or those little metallic sugar balls you find in cake decorating shops.

The coolest bit about this gift is that loads of Mairead’s friends had decided to group together and buy her a joint gift of sewing lessons at a London costumier, so my little pincushion present couldn’t have been more appropriate!

* If I can find the printout of the pattern I used, I will post it, because it really is good and I know that the original author said anyone could use it (I will be sure to credit if I can!).

I made this one from crochet, which is not really how you are supposed to make felted things, but there you go. I think knitting rather than crochet probably makes a smoother felt, but as crochet is thicker and sturdier, I figured why not give it a go? I pretty much followed the same pattern as I did when I made the recycled jeans bowl – which is really easy: just crochet in the round and increase when you want to make the bowl sides go up & out, decrease when you want to make the opening narrower. Anyone could do it.

I picked nice manly colours and used Rowan Super Chunky wool. He loved it and it goes well with his decor. Yay – now what will I make him next year ?!?