Showing posts with label furoshiki. Show all posts
Showing posts with label furoshiki. Show all posts

Sunday, September 11, 2011

The birthday season

One of the things I love about this time of year is that it's the birthday season!  Not just mine but those of many relatives and friends. Obviously (!) I''ve lots of lovely furoshiki for wrapping all those presents - here's one I did earlier this week, a simple blue wrap for a 15 year old boy.


As well as enjoying experimenting to find the right wrap for a gift, I'm always on the look out for eco friendly and original cards to add to my stock.  I have some great re-usable Cloth & Card cards like these made by my sister, Oli;
 
Dig the Earth is another favourite for his bright, zingy designs;


Aleximo Croissant's alien is a big hit with my nephews;


and I was really pleased when I finally got round to visiting The Gift Tag, a gem of a shop in our village, to find a great selection of handmade cards and photo cards with local views.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

In like a lion

I love our house - it's part of a much larger mill owner's house which was added to over the years to create a marvellous Georgian / Victorian hodgepodge. Our bit is the oddest shaped (very tall and narrow) and quirky with a tower room which, the estate agent told us, was built so the owner could look across the village to the churchyard where his young wife was buried.  Nothing like a story of doomed romance to entrance a buyer. Rather more prosaically (and probably), it also has an excellent view of the entrance to the mill yard and any dilatory workers!

There is a price to pay for character though and the blocked up doorways and rickety floor boards all make for quite a draughty home.  Our living room door, in particular, would never stay shut so I had a play and now we have a furoshiki doorstop!

 
The wraps shown here are the basic furoshiki gift wrap - which has the advantage of creating a handle for when you want to move the doorstop - and a more dramatic looking wrap created by putting all the corners up above the centre, then knotting one around the others to hold them in place. The furoshiki themselves are about 1 metre square and made from remnants so tying them in different ways creates different patterns.



The inside is a calico bag with a velcro fastening which can be filled with sand or rice or beans or whatever you have to hand.


And there you have it - a quick, easy and flexible solution to doors with a mind of their own!  Available soon from the myfuroshiki folksy and etsy shops.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Rays of sunshine

We've not had the best start to the new year and as a result myfuroshiki has been sadly neglected.  Catching up, it really brightened my day to see that myfuroshiki has been featured in two etsy treasuries recently - such a lovely surprise, especially when they are such charming and colourful selections as these - thank you Gemeaux Designs and smora79


Saturday, November 27, 2010

Ta da!


Time for a little bit of furoshiki-ing in a day packed full of sport (cricket, cross country - well done, Thomas! :) - and rugby to come).  Just thought I'd sneak in a couple of pictures of our new style wrapping instructions, which form a wrap in themselves.  Perhaps a little fancifully I was thinking of kimono belts - with the paper folded to show two different layers and everything held in place by a recycled offcut of fabric, left from when I hemmed the furoshiki.  Must dash to watch the rugby and wrap some more...

 

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Pretty Party Bags

My social life has gone completely to pot, but Lily and George are the veritable party animals. George's 1st birthday party is coming up this month and I was wondering if there was a more eco friendly alternative to the conventional plastic party bags. Here are some of the furoshiki party wraps that I've been working on which are available on Etsy. Each has a pretty fabric tie attached, so you simply fill the centre of the wrap with goodies and then scoop them up inside and make a bow around the top to form cute little party treat bundles. Pretty, original and reusable!


Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Recycle, recycle

A special piece of recycling for today - a return visit to a previous post on how we recycle when making furoshiki and their accessories.

We try to recycle in various ways, using recycled fabric (such as ex-display curtains) for furoshiki bags and using fabric remnants for patchwork, ties and pom poms. My favourite though are Oli's card creations, made from left over fabric and old packaging. The cards are in themselves reusable - simply replace the paper insert - and come with their own message for the recipient:

"Please reuse me again & again. A gift for the planet, as well as a friend."




A selection of cards is available on Etsy - with free shipping!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

See Jane go green

Very appropriately for Recycling Week, here's a blog I just came across which is well worth a read. Written by someone who describes herself as an 'average Jane', it covers a range of environmental issues and actions we can all take to go that little bit greener.

The author likes Kathy Reichs and furoshiki - and even mentions us - she should be good and she is!

Recycle week: 21 - 27 June


We try to recycle where we can and it's very easy to do with those items which crop up on a regular basis - paper, glass and tins in the recycling bin; vegetable stuff on the compost; plastic and card to the local recycling centre and, when it's available, fabric into furoshiki :)

Other things though tend to accumulate and so inspired by Recycle Week, I'm going to do what I've been meaning to do for ages (ever since the sun starting shining in on all those dark corners of clutter!) and start a big clear out! My son's outgrown bike is going to his cousin and I'm finally going to find out what best to do with various unused electrical goods. Unfortunately I'm not near a BHF Furniture & Electrical store but if you are (there are more than 90 across the UK), you can donate old electrical items in your home that are in good working order and help them raise money for their charity. To find your nearest BHF Furniture and Electrical store or for more information please visit www.bhf.org.uk/recycle

Thursday, June 17, 2010

My flexible furoshiki two handled bag



And here are the links to the instructions for the other bags shown: grocery bag, loop handled bag, ring handled bag, summer purse and the drop bag, plus some ideas on different fabrics to use. Happy wrapping!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Monday, June 14, 2010

My flexible furoshiki loop handled bag


And here are the links to the instructions for the other bags shown: two handled bag, grocery bag, ring handled bag, summer purse and the drop bag, plus some ideas on different fabrics to use. Happy wrapping!

Saturday, June 12, 2010

My flexible furoshiki ring handled bag

Made for smart sauntering!

And here are the links to the instructions for the other bags shown: two handled bag, grocery bag, loop handled bag, summer purse and the drop bag, plus some ideas on different fabrics to use. Happy wrapping!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

My flexible furoshiki bag fabrics

One of the (many) great things about making furoshiki bags is that there are so many beautiful fabrics to choose from and each one gives a slightly different effect. Here are some that we've tried:

2 lightweight cotton fabrics - in this case, one hand screenprinted with one of our own designs - form a reversible furoshiki for a super versatile bag, with twice as many looks. There are more examples of Olivia's creations in our Etsy store.

A single layer of slightly firmer cotton creates a soft summery bag. I love these tied in the style with two loop handles, which can be adjusted to open and close the bag.


Lightweight calico, for an everyday, hardwearing bag. These have been handstamped with our logo.

I'm also planning some calico furoshiki with designs screenprinted in opposite quadrants. This gives a very quick and easy way of changing the look of a furoshiki bag, particularly a drop or purse style one - by just changing the diagonal on which it's folded, a different element of the design becomes visible.

Lightweight furnishing fabrics are also ideal for the metre square furoshiki (as in our Folksy shop) and the ones with larger scale designs are very effective. They also make great picnic tablecloths.


Really any square of fabric can be used as long as it's not too bulky to knot and not so slippery that the knots work themselves loose; a silk scarf or, as suggested by Audrey's Cat, a piece of kimono fabric could make a stunning evening bag.

And here are the links to some bag tying instructions: two handled bag, grocery bag, loop handled bag, ring handled bag, summer purse and the drop bag, plus some ideas on different fabrics to use. Happy wrapping!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

My flexible furoshiki summer bag

Summer time - and the women's magazines and weekend supplements are packed with advice on where to go for the best holiday, how to achieve that gorgeous beach body and what to wear when you're there but, when you've packed the perfect capsule wardrobe, with an outfit for every occasion, how do you manage to fit in a bag for every look?

Simple - just tuck in a metre square furoshiki and a pair of handles and with a two or three knots you can create bags to take you from shopping at the market to picnicking on the beach, off sightseeing and out to dinner...

Here's a reminder of how to tie the drop bag, with instructions for the others to follow:

And please take a look in our online shops over the next few days where lots of fabulous fabrics, ideal for summer bags, will be listed soon.

And here are the links to the instructions for the other bags shown: two handled bag, grocery bag, loop handled bag, ring handled bag and the summer purse, plus some ideas on different fabrics to use. Happy wrapping!

Furoshiki for today - shoulder bag


What a glorious day, 28 degrees and a gentle breeze. It was certainly no hardship watching my son play cricket this morning ... and, of course, furoshiki came too. This is the standard bag wrap; which makes a roomy bag, ideal for toting around the Sunday papers, sun cream etc.

* Apologies for the picture quality - taken on my mobile.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Furoshiki for today - grocery wrap


I had to stop off at the supermarket for a few groceries today and so out came my trusty furoshiki (I think the checkout lady thought it was a little strange!), on piled the groceries, two opposite corners were knotted together, then the other two and, voila, a grocery wrap!

And look how much I managed to fit into it (the crisps are not all for me ... )

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

What's in the furoshiki today?


Now that the weather's getting warmer, I've been taking packed lunches to work wrapped, of course, in a furoshiki.

Just place your lunchbox in the centre of the furoshiki, across the diagonal; roll the top and bottom corners over the box and then simply knot the right and left ones. The furoshiki holds everything together, with the knot forming a handy handle, and when unwrapped doubles up as a placemat / napkin - how easy is that?


The bento box is from the Japan Centre and I wish I could show you some beautifully arranged Japanese style contents but it's just some salad in one layer and cherry tomatoes and grapes in the other! Just take a look on Flickr under 'bento' tho and you'll find lots of really amazing designs - even if I didn't have a child to hurry out of the house and a train to catch in the mornings I couldn't manage these.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Furoshiki for today

Here's how to carry home an A2 sized pad of tracing paper with ease - just take one metre squared furoshiki + apply a portfolio wrap! Now I'm all set to copy my new design for screen printing tomorrow!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Super cute kawaii

Super cute kawaii is the place to go for a daily dose of handmade cuteness and Japanese kawaii so I was really pleased to see that myfuroshiki been featured there.

Thank you, Claire & mar-c et merci Monsieur Le Bun!