A little craft for the travel freaks here. This passport cover is easy to make and is absolutely fun to make. It didnt took me more than 15 minutes to complete this project. I love projects that are completed in short time and in one sitting. This one absolutely one of those projects: fun to do, exciting, useful and quick.
So lets just begin.
You will need:
1. Faux leather. I used textured Creme and dark brown for the name tag.
2. Sewing Machine.
3. Any Charm. I used star, an aeroplane charm would have looked better but I couldn't find one.
4. Passport.
Steps to follow.
1. Cut out the leather of the size of the passport when opened plus 0.5 cm. i.e. 0.5 cm's extra of what the size of the passport is. this is mandatory because we will stitch on the margin of the size of the passport and leave the extra fabric. we will cut two stripes of same size, height equal to the height of your fabric and width equal to 1 to 1.5 inches.
2. Put the two fabric pieces on the each end of the main body fabric. Hold with pearl headed pins and start to sew using sewing machine.
3. Cut out the extra fabric from the sides and make the corners round. Put in the passport and see if it fits well.
4. Your cover must not fold your passport and neither should it come off easily. Make sure to mark it appropriately to make it a perfect fit.
5. Cut our a round cornered rectangle out of dark brown leather less than 1cm of height. With the help of permanent pen write down your name. That is easy, If you have enough time and resources, you can opt for embossing on leather. I fixed it to the cover by stitching on the two ends. You can also use the studs as well.
6. I have an Indian Passport and the cover fits it well and looks absolutely cool. You can also make similar covers for your other diaries, booklets and other small cute books that you have. Tag us in your posts and share your creations with us.
Note: This pattern is original pattern by Hobbiesinn. Please do not claim this pattern as yours. If you wish to share it, you may link to this pattern but please do not copy on your site. You can use it for personal use but DO NOT sell the pattern/pictures or distribute it.
You can however, sell the products of this design but do credit the design to me @hobbiesinn. Permission is NOT granted for mass production or factory manufacturing of any kind. Thank you for being respectful and for your understanding!
Yay another faux leather tutorial. I have been working on leather projects for quite some time now and i intend to add as many different DIYs as possible. Today's post is a jewellery project. A fun and Boho styled Faux leather earrings. I will add more jewellery projects in coming days. And also some General information about the faux leather, its types, uses, and other such stuff. If you want to try out some other cool and easy leather DIYs check out my apron tutorial and this tassel tutorial.
and I'm super excited as I have compiled it to basically show you guys how I embroider using leather and sequins. you too can use them to create beautiful designs that are easy and quick.
1. Faux Leather
I used 2 shades: bronze for background and camel color for the flowers.
2. Flower sequins
3. Small pearl beads.
4. Tapestry needle and thread.
5. Silk or embroidery thread.
6. Little beads to hand at the bottom.
7. The earring hooks.
What you have to do:
1. Cut out two stripes of equal length and width. This is entirely your choice as to how big or small you want your earring to be. My earring stripes were almost 3.8 inches long and I divided it into half for front and back of the earring. The width of the each strip is 1.5 inches.
2. Take the camel color leather and cut out 10 small flowers from it. 5 for each of the two earrings.
3. Take one little piece of leather and begin stitching the flowers to it with the help of tapestry needle and thread.
I added little sequins and pearl beads to make flowers more lively and colorful.
4. Take the white embroidery thread, place the two pieces of leather together and stitch around the border.
5. At one end, fix the earring hook and at other a little dangling bead.
Ta-da! You are done.
Wasn't it easy?
I have compiled a little video on this Earring. Watch me making it.
Note: This pattern is original pattern by Hobbiesinn. Please do not claim this pattern as yours. If you wish to share it, you may link to this pattern but please do not copy on your site. You can use it for personal use but DO NOT sell the pattern/pictures or distribute it.
You can however, sell the products of this design but do credit the design to me @hobbiesinn. Permission is NOT granted for mass production or factory manufacturing of any kind. Thank you for being respectful and for your understanding!
Today is our 6th birthday. I first posted on this
blog on 16 February 2013. It all started
“Just For Fun” while I was still at college. I was always very crafty and would
experiment with various arts and crafts. Back then, Internet was not so used by
People in Kashmir as it is now. Facebook was other name for Internet,
literally. Not many people knew that there is other side of this service other than
the Facebook. For them internet meant Facebook! For many it still means the
same. :D
I would look up for stuff on Google and immediately fell in
love with the idea of blogging. I perceived it as a learning and teaching
process. When I saw people around the world showing their crafts, I was
motivated to do something like that too. I knew about blogs and stuff and came
across the free blogger platform-Blogger by Google. After thinking a lot, I
named my blog as Hobbies Inn – A little Inn for Hobby enthusiasts. And it still
has the same name. Though I changed the domain from Hobbiesinn.blogspot.com to
HobbiesInn.com.
To be honest I had no blog plan or I didn’t know about SEO
and other things too. I would post occasionally about the crafts that I did. I
was not aware how blogs work (Which I am now). But no matter what, as much as I
enjoyed doing my crafts, I equally enjoyed posting about them.
Since I was a college student, my studies demanded much more
from me. I was a top student and worked very hard on my subjects and hence I was
not able to post that often. But Hobbies Inn survived, because, I am a very
passionate crafter and arts and crafts is my first love and the blog stats was
always positive and great.
I had a major dip in blogging In 2014, I posted only 7
posts, well we were drowned in devastating 2014 floods with hardly anything to
eat. You cannot imagine a girl to craft in that situation and post about it! Also,
we had no communication of any sort for almost 1.5 months as well! Moreover, my
college projects and internship demanded so much from me. Tough time that was! We
hadn’t seen such devastating floods in about 100 years. Whole city was
submerged in water for more than 1 month. Read more about 2014 Kashmir Floodshere.
My blogging again saw a dip in 2016, for nearly 6 months, we
had no internet or phone communication in whole state. We are habitual to
frequent Internet/communication gags and that one was the lengthiest one I suppose.
It was not the internet alone, we too were gaged inside our homes from June
till November! That year I completed my college, had a bad case of chicken pox
along with my sister, read almost 20 books in a month, tried my own weird hair
styles, exercised a lot, procrastinated a lot too, had no idea about where my
friends were, never wore anything else other than my pajamas, didn’t use phone (gaged),
didn’t watch TV (It was gaged too), would listen to anything on radio though
and that included vividh Bhariti… wow. And yes crafted a lot with everything
that I had(I didn’t photograph them or
write about them, I couldn’t have even if I had wanted to. I just enjoyed doing
them). When my supplies were over, I turned to gardening and that included
pretty much watering the plants and de-weeding.
Never the less, we were depressed to the core. We were
scared and sad, people were being blinded and killed. Many of us suffered psychological
problems and the sufferings seemed unending. Read more about 2016 Kashmircrises here.
By the time all was over, I had lost motivation for
everything, I had stayed too much Inside my home doing everything that I wanted
to or didn’t want to that next few months of 2017 were spent in doing things
that were none of them! It was very hard to again start studying and working on
career goals.
However, I managed to work on my blog a little. I created
social media handles on Instagram and Facebook and also started a YouTube
channel. I had a Facebook handle for my blog back in 2014 but I deleted it because
it was getting burdensome at that time of my life. However, now I have a plan
and a greater ambition for this little blog. I am posting more often and with
more details. I am more focused and have certain goals to achieve. I have
learned a lot not only in various crafts that I do but also in the profession
of blogging. At this point, I am quiet motivated and have a plan.
Through all this thick and thin, my sister was my partner in
crime, co-conspirator and full support system. When I say “I” it automatically includes
my sister by my side. She critiques my projects and crafts and I make her proof
read all that I write on this blog. Many of the projects here are outcome of
both of our creative minds. She helps me in photographing the projects and
reminds me of my unfinished ones as well. Crafting alone is good but crafting
together is great.
Now, the situation in Kashmir valley is different, more
people are coming towards crafting and handmade business but Hobbies Inn stands
as the only craft blog whose purpose is to learn and teach rather than sell. Our
goal is to promote healthy habits and help people come towards creativity from
their sedentary lifestyle. We try to expose people of Kashmir to more and more
crafting and how can they achieve all that in terms of technique and where to
get the supplies as well.
We try to change the meaning of “Internet” from “Social
Media” to what it actually is. Kashmir is a beautiful place with beautifully
talented people, our motive is to motivate them, kill the depression and
anxiety and help them lead a creative and healthy lifestyle especially among
women.
We post mainly about Crochet, Sewing, lifestyle, foods and other random crafts. We have also introduced our own stylized leather crafts and we hope to add more to these categories.
This is our Journey so far, hope you enjoyed reading it and
hope to add many more great years to it. Keep reading, learning, loving and
supporting. Your Support means a lot and keeps us going.
Of course you can buy a sketchbook but at some point of any
crafters and artists life, a handmade sketchbook is all that is “wanted”. The
joy of creating ones own version of art supply is irresistible and of course
using it gives even more joy.
There are several ways of making a sketchbook or a diary,
however in this tutorial we will see how to join pages using stapler and glue
and then making a cover of faux leather to give it a beautiful look.
The size of this sketchbook is A5 i.e. 8x6 inches.
MATERIALS.
A4 size drawing sheets.
Soft cardboard for cover.
Stapler
Eraser
Craft glue/glue gun
Faux leather.
Sequins
Tapestry needle and thread
Binder clips
Scissor.
Sewing machine(optional)
STEP 1: FOLDING THE INSIDE PAGES
Before starting to fold the paper you need to choose your
paper. The paper chosen must be of quality good enough to support your artwork.
If you sketch often then a sketching paper will work good, if you are a
watercolorist then I suggest you to use good weighted watercolor paper so on
and so forth. Also, keep in mind that too thick paper will not fold easily so
avoid going above 300gsm paper.
For this particular sketchbook I have used a 120gsm drawing paper.
If you cannot get separate loose sheets in the market or your local art store
then purchase an A4 normal sketching pad and use its paper.
Take 2 sheets together and fold them in the center. The more
neat the fold the more perfect the sketchbook.
Don’t be sloppy!
Now open these pages and at the crease put them on the eraser
on your table. Staple it where the eraser is underneath.
Pull the eraser out of the stapler pin and manually close
the pin. Do the same at the other end.
I made total of 9 such sets of folded paper, i.e. I have
used about 18 A4 sheets. My new sketchbook will have 36 pages.
Each set well stapled and folded neatly.
STEP 2: JOINING THE INSIDE PAGES TOGETHER
Now that we have 9 sets of inside paper we will join them together
before proceeding to make the cover.
On the crease (center) of 1 set apply glue. Put the other
set over it and paste them together. Make sure the pages are lined properly and
neatly. Do the same for each set. Hold them tightly with the help of a binder
clips till it is dried. Check my video below and see how I did it.
STEP 3: FOLDING THE COVER
The paper to be used for the cover should be heavier than
the pages used inside. You can use a paper of more the 300gsm of weight or
simply use the cover of the sketchpad like I did.
Fold it in the center. You can check my video below to see
how I did it. Exactly the way a notebook cover is folded.
Tip: I like to make my cover ½ – 1½ cm larger in width
and height than the inside pages so it neatly covers everything inside.
You can paste this cover with the help of glue to the inside
pages here and decorate the cover as liked. This step completes the sketchbook
unless you want to cover it with leather.
STEP 4: CUT OUT THE LEATHER COVER
I have not pasted the cover yet because I want to add
leather to it.
Cut out the faux leather fabric + 1 inch more than the cover
on all sides. Cut the corners too.
STEP 5: EMBROIDER THE COVER
Use the sequins and some leather flowers and stitch them in
a floral pattern on the front side of the cover. This step may take time but it
is worth it.
Here at this point you can also embroider your name or
anything you may like to. Check out some small embroidery inspirations from Pinterest.
I used sequins and leather flowers because that did not
require any special skill or material to do but just few of my crafty things
put together. Hence, anyone can do it and it is not difficult at all.
You can check my video to see how I did it. I have fast
forwarded it a bit to make the video short and enjoyable.
STEP 6: PASTE THE LEATHER COVER
After you are done with the embroidery, join the leather
with the cover.
Apply the glue to one side of the cover paper and paste it
to the leather. Let it sit till it dries.
Now either use a sewing machine or use a tapestry needle and
thread sew the edges of the cover. It holds the leather in place, makes it
durable and gives it a pretty look.
STEP 7: JOIN THE COVER TO THE INSIDE PAGES
Take a spare drawing sheet and paste it to the inside of the
cover to hide all the thread.
Take the binder clips out of the inside pages, you will see
they are completely dried and opens like magic.
Put these pages at the center of the cover and fix with the
help of the glue.
Hold tightly using binder clips again and let it dry for at
least a day.
After this you will have your sketchbook complete and ready
to use.
This project does take time but all the work and time
invested is worth it all. In the end you will have one of a kind
diary/sketchbook that only you own in the whole world. You can take pride in
using your own beautiful book for your beautiful thoughts/sketches. The perfect
pretty sketchbook for perfect pretty drawings and perfect pretty you.
I love the fact that I did this little love from the very
scratch.
Make your versions of this sketchbook and tag us in your
creation on Instagram.
Watch the video tutorial below to understand it more effectively.
Don’t forget to pin it, subscribe to our channel and follow
our blog.
See you till next time. Bye.
Note: This pattern is original pattern by Hobbiesinn. Please do not claim this pattern as yours. If you wish to share it, you may link to this pattern but please do not copy on your site. You can use it for personal use but DO NOT sell the pattern/pictures or distribute it.
You can however, sell the products of this design but do credit the design to me @hobbiesinn. Permission is NOT granted for mass production or factory manufacturing of any kind. Thank you for being respectful and for your understanding!
I am from a place where you will get yarns of varying sizes but no one actually knows what to call what. In a typical Kashmiri yarn store (that are quiet few and not everyone knows about them) almost no yarn is with a clear label that states what its weight is. The yarns come in great quality and pretty colors but pose a difficulty in understanding its weight and hence in yarn projects.
The weight of yarn is important to understand and know especially when 1. Reading and understanding patterns. 2. When using scrap yarn for scrap yarn projects to use yarns of equal weights. 3. When using a substitute yarn.
Yarn weight Standard.
These standard yarn weight measurements are used and understood universally and used in both UK and US terminology.
How to determine the weight of a Yarn? The WPI (Wraps Per Inch) method.
In case you don't know how to determine the weight of a yarn that has no label on it, like I used to get pretty confused when buying any yarn, then follow this easy and simple method and classify your yarn stash.
It's very easy. All you need is
1. A Binder clip.
2. The mystery yarn.
3. A Ruler.
4. An object with consistent circumference, such as a Popsicle stick or a pencil.
Hold one end of your yarn with the help of binder clip with the object of your choice. Now begin wrapping it around it. Count the number of times you wrapped the yarn around the object for the measurement of 1 Inch. That number will tell you what type of yarn you have.
Remember not to wrap the yarn too tightly, the goal is to get the accurate measurement of the yarn and not distort it by pulling too hard.
Also, if you are using a yarn with inconsistency, like eyelash yarn then wrap for a bit more than 1 inch to get the accurate result.
You can also directly use your ruler to wrap the yarn for the measurement.
How WPI(Wraps per Inch) works?
The yarn measurement is determined by the diameter of its strand. The circumference of the object doesnt matter because we are working in the diameter of the yarn strand and not on its length and hence that doesnt matter. It makes no difference to the width of yarn strand whether it is wrapped around a popsicle stick, a pencil or a bottle, the measurement will remain the same.
WPI Chart.
0 - Lace weight Yarn
WPI: > 35 (No of wraps around the object is greater than 35)
Makes up to 9 stitches per inch.
1 - Super Fine/Fingering
WPI: 19 - 22 (No of wraps around the object is between 19 to 22)
Makes up to 7 or 8 stitches per inch.
2 - Fine/Sport Weight
WPI: 15 - 18 (No of wraps around the object is between 15 to 18)
Makes up to 6 or 6.5 stitches per inch.
3 - Light/ Double Knit Weight
WPI: 12 - 14 (No of wraps around the object is between 12 to 14)
Makes up to 5.5 or 6 stitches per inch.
4 - Medium/ Worsted Weight
WPI: 9 - 11 (No of wraps around the object is between 9 to 11)
Makes up to 4 or 5 stitches per inch.
5 - Bulky Weight Yarn
WPI: 7 - 8 (No of wraps around the object is between 7 to 8)
Makes up to 3 or 3.75 stitches per inch.
6 - Super Bulky Yarn
WPI: 5 - 6 (No of wraps around the object is between 5 to 6)
Makes up to 1.5 or 3 stitches per inch.
7 - Jumbo Yarn
WPI: 0 - 4 (No of wraps around the object is between 0 to 4)
Thicker yarns work quickly than the thinner ones. You can even buy WPI tool kit from Knitpicks.com
I hope this piece of write up was helpful and will come handy in future. So, pin it and share it.
Talk about Hoarding, Kashmiri's are masters in it! Talk
about Decluttering, it is a blasphemy!
We Kashmiris hoard about everything and anything. We love to
stock things that we need not. The list can go on and on, utensils, clothes,
furnishing are just few examples.
Why am I writing this?
I am on a Decluttering drive and it is driving me nuts and also recently I saw two of our next door neighbors roughly constructing
garden sheds and cupboards under their ground floor verandahs ( in addition to
the warehouses ) just to accommodate the junk that was littered all over the
place! We need serious organizing here! Seriously!
Therefore I compiled this guide to help anyone who is trying to make their homes a bit cleaner.
What is clutter?
The clutter is anything you’re keeping around you in your
house that firstly doesn’t add value to your life, secondly, doesn’t benefit
you ever! Decluttering means making room for yourself and things that matter in
your home.
However you may define clutter, it is bad for your health. According
to Psychology Today, people tend to feel like life is out of
control when they surround themselves with more things than they can manage. The
mess causes stress. If you’re not taking care of the clutter in your home, you
may not be taking care of yourself either.
Why Declutter?
Because it relieves stress and provides some sense of
control and accomplishment. Cleaning the junk and freeing that corner of your
house gives you extra space and satisfaction. It is enjoyable and your home
feels more like your home! Whatever the reason, I have compiled some tips to
help you declutter your highly hoarded Kashmiri house.
Don’t discuss that with your Kashmiri mama, you will be
thrown out before anything else!
Jokes apart, let’s begin!
Step 1: Set Goals, Make a Plan.
Before throwing everything out or sitting in a mess from
every corner of your home, make a plan. No matter how much you have to get
through, set goals and try to accomplish them one by one. This will reduce the
frustration and confusion while you are at work.
Make the list of all target areas (rooms, cupboards and
under the bed’s in some cases). Consider the severity of the clutter they have.
Some places are loosely cluttered and are not stuffed with excessive mess,
these are easy to handle. This will help you manage your time effectively.
You should understand that this is a work of few days and
not one day so set completion times and dates for the clutter areas.
Step 2: Sort the things out.
Make two sorted lists. This is for the organization of
things that you find during decluttering. The first list is of the things that “you
need”, “you don’t need”. The things that you need will go into the spaces just
emptied and the things that you do not need will be further sorted as “Recycle”,
“Sell”, “Donate” and “Thrash”
The things that are no longer needed by you must belong to any
one of the above. There are things that are entirely rubbish and will provide
no value to anyone and hence must be thrashed. However, some of the things can
be donated to the needy. One man’s clutter may be another’s need, so, decide
wisely. Maybe those extra sheets or clothes, or those extra pieces of carpets, bedding's
or utensils will fill up need of someone poor. Try to give out things that are
in good condition.
And yes, that plastic and paper is better recycled than
consuming space in your home. Doing this, you are helping the planet earth a
bit too.
Lastly, if you happen to have some items that could be sold
like furnishing, decoration, electronics etc. that you no longer need, you can
sell them at some second hand market place and make some extra money too.
Additional tips.
1.Be committed.
Everyone has some junk lying around, there can be no
denying. And there is certainly some junk that we adore and simply can’t throw
away no matter how old and useless they turn. Talking about myself I too hoard
so many things that I seriously don’t want to part away with simply because I
love them or have spent a lot of money on. They are not junk, they are
memories!
This is the hardest part of decluttering, deciding what
needs to go and what needs to stay. These are real and valid feelings that make
it challenging to part with our stuff.
One must be mentally prepared to part with the things that
one hasn’t used in a long time.
2.80/20 Rule.
When it comes to clothing, we generally only wear 20
percent of the clothes we own 80 percent of the time. This rule hold
true for other things as well like books, kitchen stuff and other house
accessories.
Our mission must be to get rid of things that we don’t use
80 percent of the time.
3.Get over the costs.
Ya Ya, you have spent hundreds over it and simply cannot
throw that away. But that costs have been already incurred and cannot be
recovered back so what is the point? These things should be considered as the
sunk costs except in some cases where the value of the thing may have
increased. You will not get the money back you spent on that thing, but you can
get your little space back and a cleaner home.
4.When was the last time you used it.
They say if you haven’t used it in like 6 months, you don’t need
it. So, do you think that the things that you have accumulated over some 10 –
15 years? If you pulled the item out and said, “I’ve been wondering where this
was!" you should probably get rid of it. And if you didn’t even know you
still had the item in question, you should definitely get rid of it –you didn’t
miss it enough to warrant keeping it.
5. Be
strong.
After you have made the decision, stand strong on it. If
something is not letting you sleep, you can still pull it out of junk the next
morning but try not to do that otherwise you will end up amassing more than you
had planned.
I hope this was insightful and helpful. I will be posting
more guidelines about how we can declutter bedrooms and study rooms effectively and how to find time for it.. Maybe a small post on organizing things too. Till than Bye.
P.S. Comment what you think about decluttering and what do
you do about it.
