Birthday bedding

A cushion and a pillowcase I made for my brother who moved to London in 2014. Not as colourful as my usual choices of material but he chose the material and who am I to argue!

Patchwork notebook

I love a bit of patchwork - and since my patchwork dress I haven't had a chance. But with a beautiful collection of fat quarters of fabric from Amsterdam for my birthday, I decided to have a go covering some books as presents. I cut out lots of tiny squares and machine patchworked them together.

Then I covered brown plain paper notebooks from Paperchase. For two of them, I then stitched a ribbon horizontally across the book at the spine so they could be tied shut. Unfortunately, the pictures I have are of the one I gave my dad - without a ribbon.

Another picture frame earring holder

I made an earring holder with a photo frame for myself a few years ago. Al's sister saw it when she came down and asked for one for Christmas. This one was a little different. The frame was from Llama's Pajamas - the Buddhist centre charity shop on Roman Road. The dark wood and frame style meant it made sense to keep the back to the frame. I replaced the twee oranges with some hemmed elephant material and then wired up the front of the frame.

Homemade cosmetics boxes

I don't know why I'd never thought of this as an idea for a present before. It's a box of goodies, but all with a homemade or personalised touch.

I started out by ordering some old, interesting looking, glass jars from ebay.  This sort of thing:

I also had some of my own jars and pots - and the Lush pots I decorated with Pebeo paints.

I filled these with potions and lotions - moisturiser, bath salts, bath milk and bubbles. I added material to the top and tied string around to keep it on. I added beads and twisted wire to the label ties.













I covered two small cardboard boxes (I think these ones used to be Lush too) with Christmassy material to make little baskets to store them all in. I also added little parcels with the jewellery I'd made.

Using Pebeo Prisme Fantasy Paints

Last year, Natasha Judd gave me some bits of kit to have a go with. They were all from the London Jewellery Supplies store that she (and more recently, I) have been doing some work for.

I've never used Pebeo Paints before. They're fascinating things. You add them to the surface with a pipette and, as they dry, they create fantastic patterns and swirls. Then you drop resin over the top to round the surface and keep it protected.

As you can see from the picture - I had a bracelet and earring moulds - but I was enjoying myself so much I added it to the top of old clean Lush pots as well (Lush pots are great for decorating - here I do it with buttons and beads). They've got a nice rim around the top of their lids which makes it perfect for this kind of paint. I mixed blue and turquoise paint in different ways to add to the effect (it was all a bit of an experiment!).

After these had dried for 48 hours, I added the resin to the top.

I tried adding glitter to one lid. It was too much. I went too far! 

I put moisturiser in the pots and used them as Christmas presents. I presented the bracelet on a piece of card.

I gave this to my sister in law along with some earrings, a pot of moisturiser and other goodies in a Christmas box.

Wire wrapped earrings made with a jig.

It's been a while since I updated Patchwork Pea. In my defence I have been busy leaving my old job, travelling to America, starting a college course, going freelance (my new website clarerosefoster.co.uk is here) and finding new part time work.

But I've still had time to make a few bits and bobs. For my 30th birthday I received London Jewellery Supplies vouchers from one friend and a whole starter jewellery making kit from another.

It was a good opportunity to make use of my box of old necklaces as well - I dismantled them and started collecting the beads and findings.

I bought a beginners jig and started trying to twist some wire.









Jigs are fantastic pieces of kit. You place the pegs wherever you want to make a pattern and then twist your wire around them.

Here are some of my first experiments:










The silver one with the pink beads has a wire wrapped bead on the end. I wanted to use this shape and technique to make some earrings as Christmas presents for a friend having a Christmas party. Here they are in process:
















And here are the finished earrings, in a little presentation box with some cotton wool:

Personalised pillowcase presents

Patterned, personalised pillowcases make great presents. They're useful, used everyday and everyone has a pillow to put them on. Plus they brighten up a bedroom. I've made a number now. I turned a patchwork dress into a pillowcase here and made some for Alex here.

I've made three recently. The first was for Pete's 30th;

The second and third were for Claire and Will who are off to Norway for six months. I chose some  material to remind them of London and England.

London town for Will

And English gardens for Claire

Here they are in their (almost all packed up) flat with their pillowcases.

And here they are in situ in a very plush looking Oslo apartment. Hope they're comfy!