Upcycling is the new black!!

Having my own curtain shop gives me access to loads and loads of fabric. I don't actually stock any curtain fabrics in the shop. I have hundreds (I kid you not) of sample books where we basically choose a fabric,work out the quantities and then order in what we need It usually takes about a week for the fabric to arrive into our workrooms and then Hey Presto the little elves work away on it and out comes a beautifully finished pair of curtains-I wish!!

See I was not kidding about the huge number of sample books. Eventually these books are replaced by new designs and I have to throw out the books. I have to buy all these books so it kills me to dump any of them.
This week I got a note about newly discontinued books. Usually I groan but in this instance I was happy because they are the most beautiful children's applique (ridiculously expensive!!) fabrics. And I had a plan.

Unfortunately I did not photograph the book before I got my scissors to it...

I made these cushions. Each one different to the next. I knew they would be gorgeous but they turned out even better than I had imagined.

Also this week I have been studying the manual I got with my embroidery sewing machine and figured out a few things. I found out how to repeat a design on one fabric so I tried it out like this.
And then used the designs to cover buttons-Sweet. Thinking of putting them on a white cardi, Maybe...
I have a bag of clothes ready for the charity shop (ready since my xmas clearout). I rummaged through it and found this t shirt.
I turned it into a pair of shorts for Cerys. There's not enough sun here though to warrant shorts so she had been wearing them to bed!!
And I made my first tutorial.Jeepers it takes ages to make one. I think I may have too many photographs in it but it was a great experience to do it. Definitely more to come. Check it out and let me know what you think.
As usual I am linking up to a few blogs:
lush friday (my very own show and tell), amy lou's sew and tell, simply designing ,