Up-cycling complete!!! Yay!!

I detest sewing!

There, I've said it!!

Why you ask?? 

Well, to up-cycle a duvet was jolly hard work as the material that you work with is really big. Not easy for sewing crochet motifs onto :-(!! 

So, here's the story...

We had a duvet that was cream with lilac material squares dotted over it. Here's one of the squares -

And the other type it had on it was this one - 

All very pleasant when we had a lilac bedroom and no children! Some decorating and three children later, the duvet lacked a certain cream element but did have some delightful biro and felt pen elements instead!! 

So, me being me, I thought I can do something with this! 

The first thing I did was remove all of the lilac material squares then, after a trip to my local DIY store our duvet was no longer cream. I dyed it a pebble colour.  

Now to the crochet addition. 

I knew I wanted some sort of mandala effects on it but wasn't sure what. Time to do some research on the Internet!! 

I found this lovely blog by Zooty Owl with wonderful mandala designs on it. (Do check her out as her designs are lovely - zootyowlcards.blogspot.com) My favourite quickly became the Starflower Mandala one. Isn't it lovely? 

I just needed to remember that Zooty Owl is American so the stitches would need converting to the English equivalent. Plus although I was desperate to use those beautiful vibrant colours, I knew I was going to limit myself to the palate used on our curtains -

Not as inspiring I grant you!

Next, get the crochet hook and away I went creating the mandala design in numerous sizes by finishing the pattern after different rounds. 

Here are the finished Starflowers using my colour palate -

The massive central motif ...

The medium one ...

The little one ...

And the itsy-bitsy one ...

You can see I did use a brown but in small quantities as our curtains are predominantly brown so I wanted to balance that out before our room became universally known as the brown pooh room!! The other shades I used were Rico Design essentials cotton dk in Aqua and Silver. Oh, and the brown was from the Freedom Gorgeous dk range by Twilleys.

I varied the medium and small designs by alternating the Silver and Aqua and made  some Silver and some Aqua of the itsy-bitsy one.

The overall design - rather pleased ...

Really should have ironed the duvet on the reverse before putting it on the bed for best results, however I was so excited to have FINALLY finished, that at midnight last night I was insisting that the duvet be put on!! Husband not amused!!

More images of my up-cycling ..

Goodness the creases do look appalling - I am such a slovenly housewife! Never mind, I make up for it with crochet delights I like to think 😃

And the reason I hate sewing? 

It's a blooming nightmare to get your hand up inside a king size duvet to sew a bit of crochet on the front without puckering the duvet underneath it - yes, there is the odd pucker!! Grrr! Plus, it gets really hot sitting for three evenings with that all over your lap! Plus plus, have you ever tried pinning things onto a king size duvet?? It grabs the back of the duvet too so you have to then re-pin everything with your hand up the inside of the duvet cover before you start!!! I refer you back to the first rant point!! There, rant over!!

Nearly forgot the pillow cases! After consultation with the husband we decided that one of the small designs with the more Aqua than Silver looked best on the outside top corner of each pillow case. See...

Glad it's over I must admit but also secretly very chuffed with myself. Feel a bit precious about it though. No lounging all over the top of it until I've gotten used to it! 

Now back to my other projects. 

And yes, I'm fully aware that I've been neglecting my Granny Squares of late. Not sure my Granny Square blanket will be of a particularly substantial size by Christmas but I'll do my best. 

Til next time, happy crocheting (and up-cycling)

Xx