I recently bought a bargain coat that I love, but when I wore it I realised that the shoulders of the coat looked too big. Power shoulders don’t always work for me so I decided to remove the shoulder pads . Naturally, this all turned into a blog post.

What you need: Some cotton, a needle and a pair of scissors.

1: Turn sleeves inside out and find the sleeve with the stitching that is on the outside like the picture below.

2: Use your scissor to unpick the stitches that are on the outside in order to make a hole in the sleeve.

3: Pull the jacket through the hole you just made until you reach the shoulder pad.

4: Use your scissor to cut out shoulder pad and repeat step 3 and then cut out other shoulder pad.

5: Push shoulders of jacket back in and then use your needle and cotton to sew hole closed.

That easy!

Admittedly my before and after picture doesn’t show much difference but I can definitely feel the difference. I’m much more comfortable when I wear the jacket now.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a second-hand leather bag that I bought for R5($0.13) at a flea market. I was shocked when the seller told me the price, so that is not what drew me to it. I really liked the colour and patches. It’s not a perfect bag, but I think it has character. I was thinking of a way to spice the bag up and came up with the idea of turning it into a chain bag. They’re extremely trendy right now and I have been meaning to buy myself one. Here’s how I did it:

1. Take bag that has loops for a strap attachment.

2. Get some chain and some ribbon or any other string or thong you wish to use. I got these at a haberdashery near my work.

3. Pull ribbon through entire chain.

4. Attach chain to bag. To do this I opened up the last loops of chain, attached it to the bag’s loops and then hit it closed with a hammer. You could also buy some kind of fastener for a more elegant solution.

And there you have it. I think the chain transformed this little bag into something current and it’s also a cheaper alternative to buying a new chain bag.

Have you done any DIY lately?

All the sweet comments I received on my scarf post motivated me to finish the scarf I’ve been knitting. I am very happy with the end result. It’s very bulky and warm which is just what I wanted.

This scarf took me very long to knit! I kept on forgetting about it and picking it up for about two years. I became so used to knitting it and now I miss it! I will now move on to a needlework project that I have been neglecting for some time. Hopefully that won’t take as long.

I read in a magazine quite a while ago that knitting was “in”. I’ve been knitting since I was 8 and thought, “Finally!”. A lot of people say that fashion fades, but style remains. If that is the case then knitting is very much my style. Here is some snippets of a scarf I am almost done with.

I must say that people find it weird that I knit, but after reading blogs where people make things to sell and craft is more celebrated than berated I feel like I am in good company!

Have a great weekend!