WindCatcher

I love wind catchers. This one I have bought a very long time ago at second hand. It has been scaring bad creatures away from our property until last year when it lost one part of it. I found it and took it all down to make sure nothing else will be lost. Since that I have been seeking a thread to fix it. Nothing was found until now. 

See, I wanted to use UV-resistant thread to make sure it will last even longer after I fix it. Wet cloth and these were all I needed. The tread is a fishing hook cord. I bought it at our super market's fishing department.

At first I took few proper pics of it by my smart phone to make sure I can put it all up again. Then I unwind it all and wipe by a wet cloth. I love the impression how the time and the weather has applied the metal parts so I didn't do anything special to them.

I oiled the wooden parts by a nut oil I found in my kitchen! I gave a nice look for the wooden parts. Also this is real FashionNOW. There was no need to throw the broken wind catcher away. It still plays a beautiful sound so I just fixed it.

To create even more power to its protective feature I added some traditional shiny Sámi culture element by a mirror glass. I used a glue to attach the glass on the both sides of the lowest wooden part. It should be frost resistant but we'll see that in the future.

ZipperEnd -tutorial

One of my long-term-projects is finished now. It is the new covers for the dog beds. Here you can see the old cover of this wooden bench the dogs use as one of their beds. The old covers were made of brand new furniture fabric over 15 years ago. Inside the covers I used an old mattress of old sofas we had received old and at the end recycled after over a decade use. The mattresses inside are still perfect.

Slowly the old covers arrived to the end of their lives. That's why I have collected old jeans in purpose for this project for years. I used my last collection of old jeans in June 2015 for the SeaSideOfficeChair. 

I used the leg parts of the jeans and one jeans jacket. Every now and then I had quite a puzzle of this on the floor of my sewing room. I could have made much more complicated patchwork quilt covers of the jeans. I decided not to and sew only as few seams as possible. Because the covers will face quite a pressure so there will be less seams to get broken.

The dogs sleep in the library where's also the SeaSideOfficeChair by my desk. Also the SummerOfficeChair is still in use.

I show you how to make the zipper ends in the way that it needs a bit more work but actually makes it all easier in sewing and in use in a covers like these. You can do this also without the fabric ends. If you are using the zippers bought by the meters they don't have the factory made ends. That means the critical place of the zippers to get broken are the ends if they are facing the strong pressure. That's why I make the fabric ends for example in these dog bed covers. Also, I made longer ends to get them over the corners. If the zipper ends in the corner, that creates the pressure too.

Once you've made the fabric ends for the zipper, sew the zipper from it's one side, but leave the 1 cm seam allowance without sewing at the end. 

Turn the other side and use scissors to make a small cut in this way. Cut only the basic fabric, not the zipper or its fabric end. Make the cut end 1-2mm before the sewing stitch end. Now you get a kind of triangle at the end of the sipper.

Turn again the right side up. Push the triangle in and pin.

Do the same for the both zipper ends.

Stitch the zipper's seam allowance first on the side you worked on. Then pin and sew the other side of the zipper. Ta-dah, you've done.

***

This is FashionNOW project. Almost all the materials used are recycled. The jeans are old ones which have got too small. One zipper is from the old cover and the other zipper is new because one old cover had already old re-used zipper and it finally needed to be changed. The mattress are from old sofas.

FireStarters -tutorial

I had the kettle on because I needed more fire starters. I made cotton pad fire starters 5 years ago. I still have few left. I do have made up a fire more often 240 times in five years but I don't always need to use fire starters. Since January 2019 I've been saving more candle ends and now it has came the time to melt them for the new project.

You need an old kettle which you use only for candle project. Notice: you can't use it or any other equipment you use in this for cooking anymore. 

Just mild heat is enough to melt the candle ends. If there will be even tiny mini-bubbles, it's getting dangerous hot. Make sure you have fire blanket next to you.

Trashes in the soup are ok. It is easy to avoid them and later on you can use some stick to get them out.

Before starting cover a tray by baking paper. If you want to make more decorative ones, use paper tissues. In that case take off the uppermost layer of a paper tissue. Place it upside down (print facing down) over the baking paper. Dip the cotton pads in the melt candle wax. Use a tool, not fingers!

When they are cool and set you can cut the pads off. It turns out zero waste if you use the left over paper tissues also as fire starters because for sure there are candle wax drops all around them.

When finished, you can make a small cut on each. You can fold the pad when lighting it on. It starts better when the fire faces the pad inside first.

It is an easy one evening project. I made 200 fire starters this time.

By choosing different kind of paper tissues you can create different kind of outfit.

They are suitable also for gifts too. Useful, low budget and eco friendly gifts. 

KuukkeliUkko

Last weekend I had a pattern making course in Salla, Finland. It was about my siida Sámi costumes. We had a hard working weekend and all the students succeed to finish their individual Kuolajärvi siida Sámi costume pattern, either for men or women.

I stayed at a friend and helped her family in Kuolajärvi siida Sámi costume pattern making. We had time also for some empowering nature activities. 

If you ever visit Salla region go to see the museum Noiti Viessu (Hetteentie 4, Salla). It is very interesting regional Sámi museum. It is there, just go to see. You can find (at some time) even cafe and accommodation there. It is run by a private Forest Sámi person.

These mysterious horn work miniature sculptures you can see on this post are made by Kuukkeli-Ukko. He is Forest Sámi and makes volunteer work for our Kuolajärvi siida. I bought these two miniature sculptures (to support my siida) for Him and YoungLady who were at home while I was away. This reindeer calf is for YoungLady; my own calf. The adult moose is for Him.

Kuukkeli-Ukko is the artist name of Jukka Säntti. Kuukkeli means Siberian jay and ukko means man. There´s Advent calendar post Kuusâk about Siberian jay in Forest Sámi culture.

ClassroomChair

At my new work my office chair was a bit worn out. It works perfect but the fabric is getting old. That's why I took it with me on one day when I left work. 

I needed a screwdriver...

and plier...

...to get rid of the staples.

I succeed with determined work.

I used the old fabric covers to create the patterns for the new covers.

On the next morning I took the chair back to the work with me. I am happy with the result. It creates a bit color into the classroom. See how the grey shade of the chair frame calms down the color shade and  a bit restless pattern of the fabric. I made this cover of the fabric which was donated to our adult education center. 

I have re-upholstered office chairs before on 2015 and they both are still perfect and in use at home. I did SeaSideOfficeChair and SummerOfficeChair but also MassageTable. If you want to save the nature resources and your money take a look at these posts to discover how to do yours. 

ForPens

This time I decorated the glass jars by sand, recycled wooden beads and some ribbon. This is another budget idea for a lovely gift for someone special. These goes for persons whose pens are always lost! You can see more ideas for using glass jars in low budget gifts by clicking the label "glass". (First you need to view the WebVersion: scroll down to find the button if on a mobile device.)

Happy spindles

 

He has made me drop spindles. They are unique and easy to notice they belong to me. The size, weight and form of the drop spindle impacts on spinning. These are for the students to try out drop spinning and discover which suits them best. 

GlassJewellery

This week I participated on a short course at work to learn to make jewelry from glass. 

It is an interesting material and has fascinated me for years.

For example, in these pieces I used a special glass for the decor. Depending on the light the shade varies. These are just my first trials and I must say I love it.

I've done Tiffany Glass Work before and have tools for it... and materials... but not a room yet to start any project. See my first Tiffany Glass Work project.
 

Shell&Beads

This my own design necklace is made of leather, two different kind of wooden beads and a shell. The wooded beads are recycled, leather cord is made of left over leather and the shell has been bought for craft making. 

Tigers and stamps

After the penguin episode we needed something easy to do. That's why we chose this cute little 500 piece puzzle from a set of 3 puzzles we had bought from a supermarket.

I must confess I was totally positive surprised when we went to the supermarket to buy a puzzle and wellingtons for YoungLady. She had to come with me because I could not cut her legs off to test the boots. So, she was allowed to pick up a puzzle too. And what a surprise it was that right on that very moment a saleswoman was unpacking the delivery of puzzles and with the boring scene puzzles some extraordinary popped out too. W O W ! ! !

We were so happy and cheerful about this cute little puzzle. As you can guess, this was finished quite fast. After this we started the one He had bought us to brighten up my and YoungLady's home school and home office days.

I love letters and stamps. This 1000 piece puzzle was such a charming joy to both of us. It was also very educative and we learnt quite many old stamps of Finland.

We loved to do it but already from the begin we had a weird feeling. We always start with the edges but could not find each part for the edges. We seek and seek but no, the pieces were not in the box. Instead we found one very small and weird piece from the box. At the end we turn the house upside down, seek them under the fridge and oven... from every possible place. I have never ever lost a piece from a puzzle. Simply never. When he had checked out the house too we had to believe it, these 2 pieces must not have been in the box.

I contacted the company and told what had happen. I also send the pics from the puzzle. Believe or not but they sent us the two pieces we were missing out! It is extremely rare a puzzle misses a piece (if you have bought it new). I learnt that if any part is missing it is from the edge. It is because of the process of manufacturing the puzzles. It is so rare that we have never faced this despite making the puzzles over twenty years! I should try out lottery for the next!

Buns

I just realized I have not shown you the promised pics of the hair and the dress yet. Unfortunately you won't see the proper pic of the dress because I don't have any which I could show you on public. Instead I show you just the hair I did myself for YoungLady. It consists of 3 buns. To get it fit and last, you just need to

1. make 3 pony tails first very close to each others
2. plait each pony tail
3. form the buns one by one 
4. pull O N E hairnet over it all
5. use pins to fasten it all

You can see tons of hairstyle videos in YouTube. For sure you will find similar to this there too. The tips above are the ones I learnt when doing this and remember the time I needed to do Ballerina Hair for the ballet lessons and big shows.

I have blogged about another easy hairstyle with beading before.

Puzzling

COVID-19 has at least one good influence: people have found puzzles again. Making puzzles is cheap hobby you can do at home. You can swap puzzles with your friends by leaving the puzzle behind the doorstep. 

Puzzles are perfect for family time sessions. They also create mindfulness moments. Both are good for the mental health and well being, at crisis time especially.

At the moment we are using old school desk board as a base to make the puzzle. It is easy to carry from a room, floor or table to another. PuzzleMat is more practical if you can't let the big puzzle hang around all the time or don't have much room to have it around. I have made PuzzleMat-tutorial so you can easily make your own. It is low budget and beginner level to do. 

Puzzles has been our family hobby for a long time. I have loved puzzles since I was a tiny toddler. I did it at my teens too. My kids have inherit that love into puzzles. When the oldest started the high school it was time to leave the puzzles behind and make them only at summer holidays. 

Since MrW moved out we have not made any in this house. Last Christmas SantaClaus brought this puzzle for me and YoungLady. We did this on skiing holiday on the week 10 in March. YoungLady fell in love with puzzles again and we had so much fun when doing it.

That's why we investigated the house and see what MrW left behind. We found few puzzles and decided to do also this on sking holiday. This is very old and I remember how extraordinary it was with the fluorescent effect. If i remember it right, this was bought from Lidl. Lidl was one of the shops that literally brought the miracles of the big world to our grocery shop selections! They still say Finns love to do scene and "familiar building" puzzles. I claim it is because Finnish shops never sell anything but those!!! Sometimes it is very hard to find anything else but something from scene or architecture collection.

By Easter we did this. This one is also very old and one of the rare different ones we managed to find. I usually hunted these special puzzles for the whole year to get one for Christmas!

After the wolf and Easter we decided to start this one. Also it is old and special for us. This is one of the challenging ones I show you here at this blog post.

My intention is to be educative -as usual- for those who are not experienced with puzzles yet. Compare the pics above. This is a very difficult but also that's why it is very time consuming (if you need such puzzle). Look at the snow at front. That's challenging. Look at the sky. That's extremely difficult. So, when you pick up a puzzle, if you need challenging or difficult one this type is a good choice. It has easy parts but also very difficult ones. BUT you need to have good nerves and patience with this one. We, I and YoungLady, did the sky for days and at some point even considered to have a hammer to force the pieces to fit!