Recycle: Pencil Holder {Tutorial}

If you happened to find some paper cores or paper tubes from your kitchen, toilet, badminton court, craft room or writing table, please don’t throw them away, … recycle them into these yarn wrapped pencil holder and get back to school!!!!

There are many sources that you can get the paper tube for free, just to point out a few….. from your cling wrap, aluminum foil, or kitchen paper towel in your kitchen; toilet paper roll; shutter cock tube after your badminton match; yarn tube, fabric roll tube found in your craft room; even thermal paper roll of the fax machine!!! Turn the trash into treasure and help mother Earth in reducing the dumping load. I got mine from the raffia yarns I made for the recent crochet straw projects, i.e. beach bag, sun hat and the daisy brooch.

I made them for a recent charity event and all of them were sold during the pre-sale. Many came back to me and asked for more…. so I made a “come back” but in a DIY way. This is so simple to make and if you have the materials on hand, it costs nothing!!!!

Let’s get to the how-to after the jump…..

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Crochet: Straw Daisy Brooch {Tutorial & Pattern}

This is the 3rd raffia yarn crochet project I did in a row, I really get crazy of it. But, after this, I am going back to my other crafts, like sewing, knitting etc… they were yelling at me for leaving them alone for too long. Guess that I have to take turns for each craft and to be fair to all of them…lol!!!

You probably saw this straw daisy brooch peeping in the pictures of my 2 previous posts, this and this. You are right, I used the same crochet technique for the disc florets of the daisy, i.e the first layer is a simple back loop only single crochet, and after we finished the 1st layer, work backward and crochet the front loops with slip stitches.

And if you have been browsing through my other crochet tutorials and patterns, you probably won’t missed out the popular loop stitch shaggy bag I have made. The petals of this daisy are done by loop stitches crochet, the same technique used in the shaggy bag. The slight different is the loops are cut and the raffia yarns are stretched out wide in the daisy petals. If you are new and haven’t got a clue on how to crochet a loop stitch, don’t worry, watch this video.

Get the crochet written pattern after the jump… there are also some pictures showing the processes after that.

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Crochet: Straw Sun Hat {Pattern}

Isn’t it summer hot and sunny? Some of you enjoy the sunbeam but I am not, too bad huh~~~ I need a sun hat to cover and protect my head and face… in fact, I need this all year round over here… lol!!!

This straw wide brim sun hat matches the straw beach bag perfectly (click the link to go to the tutorial on how to crochet the beach bag). Upon finishing the beach bag, I have to buy extra rafia (raffia) yarn to make this sun hat, love the finishing that the rafia yarn gave. The flower brooch on the hat is from the left over rafia yarn from this hat, and I also bought some green yarn to make the petal (pattern  and tutorial coming soon here).

The crochet technique is the same as those in straw beach bag, a 2 layer crochet by using the back loop and front loop of a stitch respectively for each layer. You may refer the tutorial on how to crochet it in the straw beach bag.

Get the crochet pattern after the jump. ….

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Crochet: Straw Beach Bag {Tutorial & Pattern}

This is a crochet straw beach bag (drawstring type) I designed and made with rafia yarn recently. The rafia yarn is thin and flat like plastic strips, softer than rafia twine. It is easy to crochet and the result is surprisingly soft and gentle to touch.

This shoulder bag is made by a double layer crochet technique. The 1st layer is single crochet (back loops only) from bottom to top, then you work upside down for the second layer, just slip stitch on the front loops for each and every stitch. As simple as that!

Remember to crochet 12 holes for the eyelets. Used a long fat white elastic band ( I bought it from hair accessories shop) and sew a fabric to the ends as the ribbon ties. The elastic drawstring closure is superbly convenient, now you don’t have to pull-to-tie and untie-to-release the bag when taking things in and out. Didn’t summer supposed to be easy and relax?

Get the crochet pattern and some how-to photos after the jump. ….

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Sewing: Puppy Plush Toy {Tutorial & Pattern}

I was fascinated over sewing a plush toy after had a great pleasure on making turtle pincushion sewing kit, piggy pillow and tiger softies. To keep the momentum going and trying out others free pattern, I searched around and found this little puppy plush toy in Woman’s Day (Get the free pattern & instructions here). This puppy is too cute to let go, so… a pair of them were born here, a male and a female puppy. I added a yellow tie for the male puppy. Aren’t they a lovely couple???

[Remark: There are also some other cool stuffs over in the Woman's Day sewing, crocheting & knitting categories. Go and dig them out!]

Also, I made and contributed 5 of the female puppies to a charity event to raise fund for the hearing impaired student in my country. I am glad to have some of them sold to help in raising the fund…. or fun?

As usual, here are my tutorial or pictorial but you must read the full print-out detail because my photos  ….

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Sewing: Note Book Cover {Tutorial & Pattern}

Let’s dressed-up your note book and personalized it to your taste with a new cover!!!!

I made mine after buying a cheap note book from the stationery shop! Why spend more on the cover that I will throw away upon finished up the whole book? I salvaged some left over fabrics from my stashes to sew it, which I can use it repeatedly, book after book. Look familiar? You are right! Those left over fabrics are from my trifold floral wallet project. Now, I have a set of matching wallet with a note book!!! What’s next, may be a bag? May be, thinking, thinking, planning, planning!!!

This pattern is for A5 size note book, if you have other sizes, don’t worry, you can still adapt to this pattern or you can make a non sew-up back cover with a strap for adjustment to suit different width. Read further for more info about how to sew this note book.

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