Craftiness

Bumblebees and Boats- stitching on books

5 July, 2012

What CAN’T you do with a needle and thread?*

It can be therapy- like these prisoners who learnt to stitch their stories.

It can raise political consciousness and beautifully challenge social norms. 

It has helped people find the meaning of life – like this jolly chap who went on a journey to find out about where his clothes came from and ended up trying to sew them all himself.

And then, at its most simple,  it can just make ordinary things look pretty. . .

From that crafty wizz Martha Stewart

I love how needle and thread have replaced pencil.

From Paper Stitch (loads of beautiful art on there)

And I wanted to give it a go.



We have a few funny old books, this one above is from a 1950’s one called “Getting the most of of life” – really, it is just such a load of nonsense. But has a lot of words that evoke images.

If you look carefully you will notice there is poo in this vessel.



These two pages are from “A Treasury of Thought” a delightful book with excerpts from  Shakespeare, indexed by subject. The one above is from the Ships entry and the one below from Bees. I know for some it is pretty much an Awful Thing to be treating books in this way, but I kind of feel you are giving them an extra kudos- letting pages see the light of day that might not otherwise.


They do only take a couple of minutes to do, but I know if I had a tiny dot more patience and took them a bit slower they could look LOADS better. Darn my laziness.

I did wing this one by Ramona to see if she could tell what they were though. “BUMBLE BEE” she yelled. *fist pump*

(Yeah, okay.  Bumblebee is Ramona’s current fave word and is what she defaults to most of the time but still, a leetle bit recognisable, no?)

Joining in with this months Pinaddicts Challenge  over at the luscious  Love Bump – check out the other things I hope to make one day soon on my Pinterest Board. 

PS- So remember that beautiful vintage magazine, Pretty Nostalgic, came to our house to take some pics? Well, the issue is out and you can catch a glance here. The whole thing is STUNNING!

Just a little confession though, our house is not normally that tidy. Not even close. My mum even came round the night before to help us clean up the piles of washing, the  raisins scattered all over the floor, the crumbs and pop corn and garlic skins on the kitchen side, the toys in every corner. Just so you know. Also, just so you know, we don’t normally look quite that wild eyed and deranged, promise.

PPS- I just started a Facebook page, are you on there? I would actually really love it if you wanted to come and say hi, or even just like it, if you are a shy one.

*You can’t:

Eat with it, unless it is really fine spaghetti.

Use it to catch a ball, or put an energetic baby to sleep, or win an Olympic medal with it, or fly with it. Etc, etc.

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  • momoftwosalums 5 July, 2012 at 3:54 pm

    This is so cute! Great job, and it’s totally okay to do ANYTHING for craft purposes 😉

    • lulastic 5 July, 2012 at 8:15 pm

      Yeah, I pretty much agree with you on that. Mostly.

  • beetlebirdhare 5 July, 2012 at 11:07 am

    oo oo oo feeling quite inspired : ) now to find the time!

    • lulastic 5 July, 2012 at 8:17 pm

      It only takes a minute girl, minute girl etc etc

  • Danielle Askins 5 July, 2012 at 11:53 am

    Looks great, What a fab idea.

    • lulastic 5 July, 2012 at 8:16 pm

      Thank you, and thanks for popping by and leaving a comment 🙂

  • jennastobbs 5 July, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    Aaaah, sewing a bee on a page……..I geddit!

    I think this is a great idea. They would look lovely on a nursery wall.

    That mag looks great, just up my street, might have to make a special trip into town on sat to go purchase. Then i’ll get to have a proper nosy at your house!!!! 😉

    • lulastic 5 July, 2012 at 8:16 pm

      Hehe, you mean, “sewing bee”, I love how you are adding all these new layers of meaning to my words hahaha.
      Do get PN, it is SCRUMPTIOUS

  • Lakota [Faith hope and Charity Shopping] 5 July, 2012 at 7:21 pm

    I think they look great, and the bees are definitely recognisable. I have just been whining in manner of moany toddler to the Mr about Whyyyy isn’t myyy house all lovely and magazine worthy?!

    • lulastic 5 July, 2012 at 8:15 pm

      Hahaha, oh noooot. I am sure most people who actually know us, when they heard, were like “A mag is doing WHAT? What will they take pictures of? Your raisin covered floor?”

  • butwhymummywhy 5 July, 2012 at 7:33 pm

    These are gorgeous, so simple yet really effective. xx

    • lulastic 5 July, 2012 at 8:13 pm

      Why thank you there m’lady! 🙂

  • theremakery 7 July, 2012 at 6:31 am

    These book pages look simply stunning! One of my many faults is getting so excited about a project that I rush it and always think ‘if only I had taken my time…’!
    This is an idea that I could use in my children’s sewing classes, thank-you for the inspiration!

    • lulastic 9 July, 2012 at 6:47 pm

      Oh thank you! If you pencilled on first, and used right angles shapes rather than curved it’d be dead easy x

  • Liz Burton 9 July, 2012 at 5:34 pm

    I love this idea. The bees are very Winnie the Pooh-esque.

    I have plenty of old books (surprised yeah?) with pages falling out of them. Another to add to the list… x

    • lulastic 9 July, 2012 at 6:44 pm

      Yeah I was too totally aiming for Winnie the Pooh-esque!