10 Summer Haberdashery Projects Ideas

Now that the sun has finally made its summer debut, summer haberdashery project planning is in full swing!

Summer brings plenty of opportunities for new creative projects. Unlike winter, where most projects revolve around the home and big woollies, summer gives you the chance to create wonderful things for both inside and outside your home. Importantly, it means that you can get your kids involved in messier (and somewhat riskier) projects outside in the garden – opening up a whole new range of opportunities!

We’ve pulled together 10 haberdashery project ideas to help take you through the summer and can also help you to entertain the children during the long summer holidays. Enjoy!

1. Beach Bag
A beach bag is a very different kind of bag. It serves a far more specific purpose than a usual bag and therefore needs to be made in a very unique way: big, sturdy and easy to carry. We recommend that you find a pattern which will create a bag around 15 x 7.5 x 17 inches. Once you’ve found your pattern, you can pick your fabric. Choose from one of our cotton fabrics or fashion fabrics to find one that suits you. You can then follow this step by step guide on how to make a bag and attach your straps.

2. Swimming poncho
A swimming poncho is a great little garment for your and/or your kids to slip on in between dips in the pool or sea. It’s important to measure the height of the soon to be poncho owner so that you get it fitting properly, rather than trying to make a one size fits all! You can choose a variety of materials to make your poncho from but we personally recommend cotton fabric as it’s easy to clean, quick to dry and breathable! Check out the how to make a poncho guide here.

3. Garden party bunting
One of the best things about summer is being able to be outside. For those lucky enough to have a garden to host guests in this year, we believe that garden party bunting is imperative to any gathering! In classic bunting style, use our patchwork squares to pull together your very own unique bunting that you can hang anywhere you fancy (and probably take inside on some days!)

4. Plant pot cosy
A cosy shouldn’t just be reserved for winter… Make a summery plant pot cosy for either your indoor or outdoor pots. To give them a lovely summer vibe, make your plant cosy from macramé. This will offer a Moroccan-style appearance to your garden so even when it’s raining (as is inevitable in Britain), you can feel like you’re roasting in the heat of Africa just by looking at your plants! Find out all about macramé here.

5. Picnic blanket
You can never have too many picnic blankets so why not take the dive and start making your very own? Your picnic blanket can look any way you want it to look – from a mismatch of patchwork squares that you’ve carefully selected, to bright bold patterned fabric - how you want it to look is totally up to you. The most important thing to bear in mind, is that you may want the underneath bit to be waterproof, so take a bit of time researching the best fabrics for you to use to attach underneath your main body of fabric. You also need something to tie it together it when it’s rolled up so either use a longer piece of the same fabric that’s sewn to one side, or sew on a hook and button.

6. Footprints in the sand art piece
It’s time to get messy! You can create a gorgeously unique piece of artwork done by your children which requires minimal artistic talent from both you and them… Take your kiddies outside and have them paint an A3+ size piece of white card, yellow. They can then paint flecks of darker and lighter yellow/white onto it to make it look like sand. Leave this in the sun to dry (perfect time to get an ice lolly!). Once dry, paint your little one’s feet in a dark yellow/gold (darken with brown paint if necessary). Once fully painted, make them walk on from one end of the paper to the other. This will look like your kiddie’s footprints in the sand! You can then frame this and show it all summer long.

7. Flip flop bag
There’s nothing worse than getting to the car after a day at the beach and sand getting everywhere. Just when you think you’ve got away from it, it follows you into your car for you discover when you’re packing Christmas presents in the car 6 months later. In order to avoid this, try making your own flip flop bag that you can whack your sandy flip flops into before the family bundles into the car. Make a bag for each member of the family or just one big one which has a draw string at the top to prevent as much sand spread as possible! Why not choose some of our beautiful butterfly designs?

8. Sunglasses case
Not all sunglasses cases have to be hard. We know how easily they can get lost too so we think it’s important to have a back-up or two for when you need to put your sunglasses in something soft to protect them from dirt and scratches. This can be a very simple project – great to start kids out on. You will need two separate pieces of fabric that are sewn together, leaving an open top on one end. Pick whatever fabric you would like and decorate how you would like too! Take a look at our crafts range for some inspiration.

9. Summer phone case
Why not change up your phone case with the seasons? You can purchase cheap plain or clear phone cases on Amazon that then give you a clean canvas for decorating! There are hundreds of different ways of decorating your phone case – from painting it, to sewing a design and super gluing it on, covering it in buttons, making a mini collage of photos, sticking a knitted design onto it… The list is endless!

10. Ankle bracelets
There’s only one time of year that you can wear ankle bracelets… And that is now! Find coloured thread that you like, and either plait several pieces together to make a strong base, or bind them together in other ways (multiple colours). You can then thread beads onto this, attach rings or other bits and bobs. This is minimal effort and great fun – your kids can even make them for their friends too!

We hope these have been useful ideas for your summer haberdashery projects and as usual, please do get in touch and send us your pictures should you do any of our ideas!