<![CDATA[Kitsch Kitten - How to...]]>

<![CDATA[Kitsch Kitten - How to...]]>Sat, 14 Apr 2012 22:31:14 +0000Weebly<![CDATA[How to make a mirror jewellery stand]]>Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:26:29 +0000http://www.kitschkitten.com/2/post/2011/03/how-to-make-a-mirror-jewellery-stand.html

If you want a unique and vintage-esque place to display your jewellery, then look no further than this pretty mirror idea. If like me, you have a few key pieces of jewellery you wear a lot and want to be more easily accessible than in your jewellery box, then this jewellery stand is a lovely way of showing them off. You can use any images you want, but I have uploaded some nice copyright free ones to our Flickr photostream for you to use if you want.

What you need:

Mirror (old or new, old is best as the glass is nicer but I could only find a new one of the right size)
Printed images (doesn’t matter how they are printed, i.e. laser or inkjet, but the paper needs to be a decent thickness and as a result magazine pages probably won’t work as they’re a bit on the thin side)
Oven cleaner (take care this stuff is toxic!)
PVA glue
Hot glue gun
Decoupage glue or other suitable one that is for use with glass and dries absolutely clear, I used Diamond Glaze as it’s what I had to hand
Felt
Scissors
Paintbrush
Rubber gloves
Something to scrape the silvering off the mirror, ideally a plastic spatula
Newspaper to protect the table you are working on from the oven cleaner!

1. A quick word on old versus new mirrors: Older glass will generally show the printed images as floating away from the mirrored parts, the same way that on an old mirror, if you put the edge of a coin against the surface, the reflection shows it as having a bigger gap between the coin and its reflection. New glass doesn’t show as large a gap and images generally look flatter against the mirror. So think of what effect you want to create and choose a mirror accordingly. I love old mirrors but size and shape concerns lead me to use a new one.

2. First choose which parts of your images you want to use.

3. You will need to prepare your images, as these will most likely need to be sealed for use with the decoupage glue, as it can cause the ink to bled and spoil the end result. PVA glue is perfect for this, use the paintbrush to brush on a layer of glue to any parts you want to use. Err on the side of caution and do a large border around the part you want to use in case you get a bit carried away with the scraping of the silvering and have a bigger area to fill! (Yes that is what happened to me).

4. Set the images to one side to dry thoroughly.

5. Give the mirror a quick clean, particularly if it’s an old one.

6. Then put down the newspaper to protect your work surface as you will be using oven cleaner and it’s pretty toxic stuff. So MAKE SURE you wear rubber gloves and work in a WELL VENTILATED area, ideally outside, or at least with all the windows open wide, and follow any other instructions given on the oven cleaner.

7. Oven cleaner works to break down the silvering and expose the glass where you want to place your images for them to show through. Put your mirror face down and squirt some oven cleaner roughly where you want the images to go. Honestly if you go have a cup of tea now and let the oven cleaner do its stuff is the best idea. If like me you’re a bit impatient then you can watch it and start scraping off the silvering.

8. Using a plastic spatula is probably the best thing, but as I didn’t have one of those, I used an old rounded butter knife. This will probably scrape the glass, but as I wanted a shabby chic look, that wasn’t a problem.

9. This stage takes some time and I’d advise building up the areas gradually in case you’re left with no mirror at all! I still want to use mine as a mirror so I’m just concentrating on taking off the silvering around the edges.

10. I washed off the oven cleaner and reviewed the mirror several times before finally counting myself finished.

11. Now give it one final thorough wash to get rid of all the chemicals and dry let it completely dry.

12. Next play around with your images and decide what you want to go where and then cute these out.

13. Use your decoupage glue and put a thin layer on the exposed glass and carefully place your image face down on it so it shows through to the other side. You may need to do this quite quickly depending on the glue, Diamond Glaze is pretty fast drying and I had a bit of a near miss with a trapped cat hair on my fete image!

14. If you have any catastrophes and an image doesn’t work, don’t worry, you can carefully remove the image, wash it off and start again, just don’t get the water near any of your other images, because you’ll have to re-do the lot then!

15. Finish the rest of the exposed areas and then leave it to dry thoroughly. It really doesn’t look too pretty right now! But don’t worry about that, we are going to use some felt to cover the back completely and tidy it up, so thankfully any near misses can be hidden!

16. Next you need to completely stick and seal the images on their reverse side with some PVA glue. Again set aside until completely dry.

17. Finally cut out the felt to seal off the back, tidy it up and protect any surface you are going to display it on. Use the hot glue gun to stick it to the back of the mirror.

18. Enjoy placing your new jewellery stand and displaying your pretty items on it!

]]><![CDATA[How to make a sailor/ nautical fascinator]]>Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:15:00 +0000http://www.kitschkitten.com/2/post/2010/03/how-to-make-a-sailor-nautical-fascinator.html

I wore this to a nautical themed night out and my hat actually got a round of applause! So I thought it would be a good one to add here. Sorry there are no pictures, but I’ve only needed to make the one hat, which I did before this site. However, you should be able to make it no problem. If you need any extra help, please ask in the comments.

It'll go really well with our Nautical Helm bracelet!

You will need:

Fabric – I used a stiff fabric called interfacing, which you can easily get in fabric shops
If you don’t want to use a very stiff fabric, you could create the fascinator from cardboard and cover it with fabric.
Cardboard or plastic circle to form the base
Felt
Ribbon
Fabric glue or a glue gun (I prefer a glue gun)
Sellotape
Headband
Pen
Mirror (to judge where the hat will sit)
Scissors
Decorations – I used a metal anchor charm, but buttons, rope, boats, seagulls etc would all work well too

1. Start by cutting out a circle of cardboard or plastic (I used a plastic lid from M&S biscuits!). The size will depend on the size you want your fascinator, which are generally smaller than a real hat. My completed fascinator measures 11cm diameter, you should make the diameter of the circle slightly bigger than the completed fascinator because you are going to fold it over to create a peak.

2. Cut a straight line from the edge to the centre of the circle.

3. Overlap the cardboard/plastic to create a peak. Stick this is place using glue and maybe sellotape to secure.

4. Put the base to one side and use the stiff fabric for the next bit. Cut out a circle of fabric which is a little bigger than the base.

5. Cut out a strip of fabric which will form the side of the hat. This needs to be long enough to go all the way around the circle of fabric and have a little overlap. It also needs to be deep enough to more than cover the peak of the base!

6. What we need to understand at this point, is that we are going to turn the fabric inside out for the final hat. So taking the circle of fabric, fold a slight lip all around the edge. Use the glue to stick this lip to the edge of the long strip of fabric.

7. Turn the hat over so the sides are sticking up. Fold around the circle to reinforce the shape. Fold the sides over so there is a small ridge of double material all around the hat at what is now the top. Reinforce this ridge by pressing on the edge of the fabric. The side will be longer than you want and this is important to hold the base in place and keep the shape of the hat.

8. Take the base and insert it peak side up inside the fabric. You want the peak to ever so slightly raise the middle of the hat. Turning the hat so you are looking at the inside, start to fold the fabric over the base so that it is now inside the fabric. Use glue to secure the base inside the fabric.

9. This gives a rough finish, as you can see the base so you will want to cover this up. Felt is a good material to do this. Cut out a circle of felt which is big enough to cover the base completely (you might notice than mine is a bit small!) Cut a slit in this to the centre and repeat the wrap over to create a peak that you did with the base. Stick this onto the base.

10. To attach the headband, I find it easiest on this hat to create loops of fabric that secure the headband to the felt on the base. I make these out of the same felt so they are not obvious. You could cover the whole of the headband on the base or just at each side as I have done.

11. Put the headband on and use a mirror to work out where you want the fascinator positioned. Mark the spot with your fingers or a pen which will write on the headband.

12. This is where a glue gun really helps, because it can create lumps of glue which help stick the headband on.

13. As you can see, I have two lumps of glue at either side which help secure the headband, as well as the strips of felt. Wait for this to dry before trying it on, glue and hair is a bad mix trust me!

14. Decorate the hat as to your design; this is how I did it:

I used thin strips of blue and red ribbon around the outside edge. I then glued on the anchor charm.
To create the bow, first I stuck thin ribbon to two strips of ribbon, which create the tails of the bow. I cut the edges at an angle and used a little glue to seal them.
I created loops of ribbon and stuck these together for the loops of the bow and then covered the join with another loop of ribbon. I stuck this onto to hat to complete the bow.
Finally I used a pen to mark on the top the ridges you see in cartoon sailor hats.

]]><![CDATA[How to make a felt heart badge]]>Sat, 27 Feb 2010 19:11:24 +0000http://www.kitschkitten.com/2/post/2010/02/how-to-make-a-felt-heart-badge.html

I wear these a lot, they are great on cardigans, jackets or strung together to make a home decoration. They are also very environmentally friendly in that you can use scraps from bigger projects and not waste material.

You will need:

Coloured felt or fabric (felt is easier for the first time)
Paper and pen to make a template
Needle and appropriately coloured thread
Waste fabric for padding
Pretty button
Pretty ribbon (I often use tags from women’s clothing)
Metal pin back
Glue if you don’t want to sew the pin onto the back

1. Using paper and pen draw out a template heart. I’ve photographed my template so you can use that if you print it out.

2. Using the template, cut out two pieces of felt.

3. Choose what sides you want to use as the best sides. Then put the nice sides together because we are going to turn the heart inside out later.

4. Use a running stitch to sew from near the top all around the heart but leaving an opening on the top. Use pins to hold the other side in place while you sew if you need. If you want, you could use thread in a contrasting colour as a feature.

5. Now turn the heart inside out so the good side is showing. Use a sharp point, such as the scissors to create the shape again.

6. It is easiest to sew the decorations on now (you could do it before if you wanted, after this it is harder!)

7. I started by taking two pieces of ribbon which are folded over to create a bow shape. The join is hidden by the button which you also sew on now.

8. Use fabric scraps to stuff the heart – I’m using an old bit of jumper.

9. Now sew the top hole closed carefully trying not to show the stitches much on the front side.

10. Lastly sew (or stick on) the pin clasp on the back.

Well done!

You can attach this to clothes or for decoration in your home.

If you want to use a fabric other than felt, you will have to either hem or tuck the frayed edges inside, so it doesn’t come apart. For the blue spotty heart in the first image, I pinned two squares of fabric together, and using the template, sewed a straight stitch around the heart shape. This means that when you turn it inside out, the frayed edges are well away from the shape of the heart.

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