Easy and colourful placemats for every-day use

Easy and colourful placemats for every-day use

Originally I bought this cloth to make some curtains/shades for my appartment but then I decided that I liked blinds more, so I needed to find another use for this material. Somehow I came up with the idea of placemats, because the cloth is thick and water resistant.

I cut it in 6 equal parts and provided for some extra centimetres to be folded in the inner side and to be sewed with the sewing machine.

And then some decoration...

... and matching glove

As simple as that!

Project "Hand-made croco clutch bag"                                         

Here's a hand-made croco clutch bag, after a special request by my friend Eleftheria, who saw it in Wendy's lookbook (http://www.wendyslookbook.com/2011/11/happy-friday-prada-sweater-dress-homemade-clutch/) and adored it instantly. And there's no bigger chalenge for me than the question "can you make it?". And they know it and this how they manipulate me...

So, all it takes is a few centimeters of fake croco leather, a magnetic bag clasp and a sewing machine. I also put some grey lining in the inside to make it look more elegant. I had to break three needles before I realise that there is a special tool that is attached to the needle to prevent smooth cloth from sticking onto the plastic surfaces of the sewing machine.

Project "Industrial design - pendant lamp"                      

Several years ago, there was a commercial on greek tv with the moto "now hang your cooking pots up" (τώρα τις κατσαρόλες σας κρεμάστε τες ψηλά) advertising a pre-cooked Bechamel sauce. This commercial came into my mind when my pendant lamp was finished and hanged from the ceiling of my kitchen/living room.

The idea popped into my mind when I first saw these milk pans in the stock shop in my neighborhood. Their colours matched exactly my kitchen/living room colours, so I bought six of them and another three little frying pans in the same colours (of which only two have been used for the pendant) for 2,95€ each.

It required a lot of drilling to make a hole in the center of each pan bottom, so that I fix the sockets. Thank god there was already a hole at the edge of every handle, that helped to bring all the pans together with a long screw.

It was extremely difficult for me to do all the wiring, as I didn't have a similar background, but thanks to the contribution of my friend Yannis, I managed to make this work.

Project "Wedding in an island-what-to-wear-Dress"

Recently I was invited to the wedding of Eleni, a friend since highschool in Chania - Crete. Hm! What to wear in a wedding next to the pool in a beautiful cretan scenery on a hot August evening? None of my "posh" Karen Millen dresses looked appropriate for the occa sion and it's too difficult to find a summer dress at the end of the season both in Brussels and in London. I had to take a look at what was left from the summer sales. This Marks & Spencer blouse size 10 for 17£  would do with some modifications.

All I had to do, was to add a few centimeters of cloth, in order to turn the blouse into a 

mini-dress and shorten the sleeves a bit, so that it looks more careless and summery. 

30 cm of good quality purple lining (for 14€/m) was all I needed.

I cut 20 cm of lining, I folded it in two and I attached it with pins in the inner side of the blouse, on its original stich. I sewed with light blue thread in my sewing machine, after having sewed the two ends of the folded stripe first. And it looks like this:

Next step, I unstiched the sleeves and as a finishing touch I made a thin belt (3cm wide and 1.50 long) of the same purple lining cloth. After ironing, my dress is ready and looks perfect for the occasion!

A special thanks to Dimitris for his valuable opinion.