DIY: Collage-covered diary

I've always been slightly obsessed with notebooks, journals, diaries and scrapbooks since I was a child. I have also long-loved the haphazard look of collage, so spent one sleepy Sunday beautifying my academic year-planner in preparation for going back to uni in September. Hopefully if it looks pretty then I'll be more inclined to actually use it...

I started with a plain black diary from WHSmiths. It's quite chunky as it's a day-by-day one.

I had a browse through my stupidly large magazine collection and tore out a few pages.

I then cut lots of pieces out before deciding on which ones I wanted to use.

I began arranging the pieces in the cover...and then had a brainwave.

RED PAPER! I covered the diary in vibrant red paper. Sometimes you get ideas as you go along, and that's what I love about making things - you never know what the outcome is going to be because inspiration strikes unexpectedly!

I drafted a quick handwritten sign but decided to go with the collage theme and use cut-out letters instead. 

Here's the front:

And the back:

I laminated the whole thing to secure the pieces and prevent the corners from wearing away. I'm really pleased with it :) 

TRAID Rucksack inspiration - reusing old fabric for new things

I have a lot of projects in my sketchbook and there's no set way of tackling what I want to make first. More often than not, my selection process revolves around what I need, and right now that's a bag. I'm fed up of buying bags from the shops and having them break within a couple of months (maybe this says more about me than the bag!), so I've made a bag from an old vintage dress I've had for ages. This is also inspired by TRAID, who have recently posted about reusing denim to make rucksacks. You can read the post here: http://www.traid.org.uk/transforming-denim/ 

Here's the dress on my dressmaker's dummy: (Gotta love the smudgy pic! Forgot to wipe the lens. I am such a novice)

You can see how massive it is, which is great as there was more fabric to play with! It's made out of a

thick heavyweight cotton which is perfect for this project, as a rucksack needs to be made of a more stronger, durable material.

I deconstructed the dress by cutting at the waist seam, and then the side seams of the skirt. I then ironed the separate panels of the skirt, placed the pattern pieces on accordingly, cut them out, and sewed them up! I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the instructions were to follow.

I used an old shirtdress made of a black and white apple print cotton to line it. I did the same as above - cutting the side seams of the skirt and pinning the pattern pieces to be cut.

    And here's the finished product!

I didn't just recycle the fabric - even the metal d-rings are from an old bag...

Here's an awkwardly blurry pic of the inside. The top corners are fastened with Velcro, but I'm not sure I like how pointy it makes it look. I might draft a drawstring closure for the next one I make to give a more rounded appearance.

...and the metal snap closure below is also from an old bag. A 100% recycled bag!

I'm pretty happy with this little delight and have plans to make another in faux suede with a pom-pom trim so watch this space!