Wall Streamers and "Handy Dandy Notebooks"

The handy dandy notebooks recipe comes from the Granny Chic book by Dottie Angel and Ted & Agnes. The idea is partially a way to reuse unused bits of paper or recycle old envelopes. So the first thing you need to collect is the stacks of paper you wish to reuse. When I am working at accounting jobs there are often unused pieces of paper, so I had a stack of unused pieces that I recycled. For fabric I used some old pieces of Liberty fabric that was pretty much swatches for upholstery or thicker household fabrics.

They do not have a recipe for streamers in the book. However, there are a bunch of pictures of them in the book itself. Plus in Dottie Angel’s Flickr photo albums there are enough pretty streamers draped across walls to make you want to create your own.

If you have basic sewing ability it is easy enough to figure out the streamers. If you are a real novice at sewing I can give you a few hints. You need a long piece of ribbon to hang your little bits of fabric scraps on after you have cut them into the shapes you desire. After that I found it easiest to sew a small zigzag hem on the little bits of fabric. Then attach them to your ribbon where you want them, with another zigzag stitch across, and remember to leave the edges open for space to hang the streamers.

If you get carried away or wish to make more elaborate streamers you may want to check out this video:https:/watch?v=er43ZIKEh64. I also attached it to my DIY recycling videos page. Aya’s project is much more intense, but if you really want to get into streamers, since they are colorful and pretty then this is another route.

These two are small projects that don’t take a lot of time. They could also make nice gifts to send to people over the holidays. The little streamers are nice since they can quickly cheer up a bland-looking dorm room where someone has just moved in.

I haven’t gotten to more projects from this book just yet, other than the “quirky & jolly string,” which I made heart-shaped strings from, and the “perfectly peach half pinny” aprons, which are made of vintage fabrics, pillowcases and linens. Both of the links to those posts are attached to the bottom of this post. I also bought Simplicity’s Dottie Angel pattern 1080A in two sizes so before too long I can make dresses for my daughter and myself from Tif Fussell’s pattern. Tif Fussell is the creator of Dottie Angel. Both Tif and Rachelle Blondel, who are the authors of Granny Chic, previously had blogs. Rachelle now has another blog, Dock & Nettle. If you wish to see Tif’s previous blog posts from her blog they are at http://dottieangel.blogspot.com/.

Rachel Blondel’s current blog is at http://www.dockandnettle.com/.

If you wish to see her previous blog posts from “tales of ted & agnes,” they are at http://talesoftedandagnes.blogspot.com/.

I hope you enjoyed this post and are enjoying the beginning of fall. I have attached a small gallery again of pictures from the Granny Chic book.