Here’s another couple of crafty projects I’m pretty pleased with – my new gin lamp and my kimono!

Here’a the kimono I made all by myself on a whim…

I don’t have any good pics of the finished thing, but here’s one of me wearing it at Christmas while my niece stuffed my belt with wooden spoons….

It’s super comfy, made of thin stretchy t-shirt type fabric, and I love it!

Here’s my gin lamp.

It’s relatively easy to make, here are the steps

1. The most important first step is to select your gin bottle. Nowadays there are loads of artisanal gins on sale in lovely bottles. I chose this one specially for it’s lamp-like shape, plus I like blue, and I also like Bombay Sapphire.
2. Drink all of the gin. This part is also quite fun.
3. Buy a bottle lamp kit. There are several different ones around, and they are fairly cheap. The ones with the cable coming out of the bottom require you to drill holes into the bottle, and without practice and the right kind of drill I was worried about smashing it, and being forced to drink yet more gin (tragic I know) so instead I bought the easy kind that you just pop into the top of the bottle – and you can change the bottle base any time you like.
4. Buy a lampshade that you like – I went for a plain cream one as I couldn’t find any nice blue ones I liked. However it was a little too plain, so I went an extra step.
5. Optional – make a beaded cover for the lampshade. This took AGES and was quite fiddly but I do love it now that it’s done. Beads were cheap and bought online, and the pattern was adapted from a nice one I already had from a homemade Christmas bauble kit.

I adore my new lamp, and I now only purchase gin based on the shape of the bottle so I can make some more…