Patchwork Door Curtain

This is a project that I started last winter & finished this winter. I have quite a stash of fabric left over from various projects.

 In an attempt to help reduce my every increasing fuel bill I made a patch work curtain for the back door. I don't use the door during the winter months so I made a static curtain with tabs which were just pinned up last year.

I cut out rectangles of fabric the width of my quilting ruler. I didn't want to do anything too fussy.

I had some left over wadding but had to buy 1 meter which cost about £2. For its first winter I pinned it up as it was. This year I have backed it & edged it with an old duvet cover. I bought some poppers to fasten the curtain tabs. They cost me 79p.

It's been difficult to get the final picture with the light shining through bit here it is. It's hung from an old shower curtain rail which is covered in a scrap of pipe insulation. It cost me less than £3 and keeps a surprising amount of cold out and heat in.  

I'm Back Online

I had interment problems with my phone line & internet that started at the beginning of December. By the New Year, it had just about given up completely. I swapped suppliers & have been back online for a couple of weeks. So 2016 got off to a slow start. With no internet, I had more time to sit & crochet. I spent cold, dark evenings working on my Attic 24 Coast Ripple Blanket. I hope to finish it by Easter. 

  I'm being careful with money at the moment. I haven't started any major DIY projects, but have done a few make-do-and-mend ones.

This lampshade broke a while ago. The shade part kept falling out of the fixing. I ran some stitches around it screwed it back together & it's holding together nicely.

 I fixed a broken picture frame with a piece of ribbon.

I've made a draught excluder for the front door and started making a curtain for the back door. Hopefully it'll keep a bit more heat in.

And finally, I organised my wool colours as inspired by Lucy on Attic 24. 

Scrappy Draught Excluder

Another item on the 2015 to do list was tidy up the lobby by the back door, It's been a bit of a dumping ground over the years. The back door was also in need of some TLC.

Once I'd cleared all the junk out, I could get to the door, sand it down & give it a couple of coats of varnish. 

The lobby can be cold & there's quite a draught that comes in around the door. This has been wasting me money as my heat escapes. I put some sticky back draught excluder around the door frame.

The longer term plan is to make a door curtain to help to keep the heat in. 

That's going to take a while to finish so I made scrappy draught excluder for the bottom of the door from leftovers from other projects.

 I covered a length of pipe insulation with some wadding.

 I just tucked the ends of the wadding into the tube.

Final Step was to cover it all in fabric. It took less than 2 hours to make and cost me nothing.

Holding back the draught & helping me be a bit more frugal.

Frosted Glass Film on the Bathroom Window

When the house was extended about 20 years ago, we made a bit of a boo-boo with the bathroom window & put in a clear not frosted one. We didn't actually notice until the work was finished & we started using the room. It was added to the list of things to sort out one day.

2015 is my year to sort these jobs out as frugally as possible. I found some frosted glass film on e-bay for £7.99. It comes with a paper backing. I cut it slightly larger than the window. 

I'd cleaned the widow to within an inch of its life the day before. I cleaned it again with a slip of washing up liquid & water. I sprayed the window again, peeled off the backing & positioned the film. The kit came with a squeegee to smooth the film down.

Once it was as air bubble free as I could get it, I trimmed the edges with a sharp knife & a straight edge. It was rather like hanging wallpaper, a skill which my Dad trained me in at a very young age.

All done and other job crossed off the list.

Make Do & Mend - the Laundry Basket

I hate throwing things away and will always try to fix something to get a bit more life out of it.

The laundry basket lid was showing the signs of its age, not helped by that fact that my youngest cat Brian liked to chew it & run off with bits he'd broken off.

I decided to recover the lid to stop any more bits disappearing. I drew round the lid onto some calico.

Cut it out & sewed it onto the lid. The sewing was a bit tough as I couldn't always find a gap in the basket weave to put the needle though.

It took me several evenings of sewing to complete.

A similar basket in B&M was priced at £14.99. I spent about 70p and the basket is maybe not as good as new, but has a few more years left.