Shabby Chick

TUTORIAL: Vintage china cake stand

By Jennie Hughes

Do you wander around your local charity stores picking up the odd pretty, but mismatched, china plate? Beautiful ceramics and bone china are so enticing, but what do you do with them? It’s not sense to keep them stashed away in a cupboard, and an entire un-matching dinner service takes some chutzpah to carry off, but what about a pretty cake-stand?

It is, just as it seems, a pile of three plates of decreasing size and two sherry or liqueur glasses, preferably one of each so they are of decreasing size also.

The other thing you need is Araldite – that’s the glue that comes in two tubes, an adhesive and a hardener. Trust me – no other glue will do.

Free vintage-style labels

The very lovely Eat Drink Chic has free downloadable labels for oil, vinegar and bit-and-bobs-boxes. They are stylish, have muted, vintage-look colours, and would add the perfect finishing touch to a home-made gift or shabby chic larder.

For full instructions and the link to download go here.

CRAFT PROJECT: Vintage decanter lamp

Junkmarket Style is one of my favourite websites and this tutorial for turning a vintage glass decanter into a stylish lamp, is brilliant (and brilliantly simple, too).

All you need is a decanter, a lighting kit, a two-inch wooden dowel and a lampshade.

Related posts: Brilliant tutorial for salvaged drawers | Decoupaged IKEA wardrobe

Decoupaged IKEA wardrobe

I love this decoupaged IKEA wardrobe. The boring plain original can be seen here, but look how pretty it is now!

Manhattan Craft Room used snazzy designer wrapping paper for the front panels, some new handles from Anthopologie and a little bit of patience to get such a superb smooth paint job.

[Via IKEA Hacker]

CRAFT PROJECT: Fat Quarter Handbag

New to bag-making? Want a simple project that you can complete in an afternoon? Of course you do!

Jennifer Ladd's fat quarter handbag tutorial is easy-to-follow and uses minimal materials - a fat quarter of delicious fabric, solid colour lining fabric, fusable interfacing, thread, and a pair of bag handles.

For clutch purses, bags, laptop cases and baby booties in delicious fabrics, check out Jennifer's shop.

Related posts: Sew-Your-Own Wine Tote | Scrabble Tile Pendants

Brilliant tutorial for salvaged drawers

I saw this ages ago on Monica Ewing's wonderful blog and I was convinced - convinced I tell you! - that Shabby Chick had covered it.

It seems I was wrong and I thought I should remedy that immediately. This is such a brilliant use of old, salvaged drawers, that I have an urge to go skip-diving immediately*. 

The full tutorial is here and if you live in the San Franciso area, you could even nab yourself the original - Monica is selling off some of her previous projects to pay for new ones!

*Not really.

Related posts: Tutorial archive

CHRISTMAS CRAFT: Beaded stars and icicles

By Jennie Hughes

I hesitate to call this a tutorial because it started as I so often do, just looking at the shiny things in my collection of beads and wondering how I could make something new for decorating this year’s Christmas tree and then messing about until something emerged.

Still, hop over the cut for step-by-step instructions!

CRAFT PROJECT: Recycled slippers

These slippers are made from recycled wool material (in this case, a second-hand blanket), a little bit of fleece and some bias binding.

Nature-and-credit-crunch friendly and kind to cold tootsies this winter!

Find the tutorial at Sew Green.

Related posts: Monogrammed handkerchiefs | Quilted list taker

Artist's Make-Up case

Junkmarket Style is a beauty of a website. It is stuffed to the rafters with thrift store finds and brilliant projects for turning junk into covetable pieces.

I love this quirky idea; Kimberly Melamed has taken an antique artist's box and transformed it into a make-up case using sandpaper, some vintage wallpaper, glass door knobs and a little ribbon.

For more projects and inspiration try our craft archives

CRAFT PROJECT: Monogrammed handkerchiefs

The wonderful Grograin has posted a tutorial for these monogrammed handkerchiefs. They're cute, they're useful, and they're a brilliant way of using up scraps of fabric.

Better yet, it's another simple sewing project perfect for beginners or nervous nellies (that'd be me, then).

Related posts: Ribbon cushion | Scrabble Tile pendants