How to jazz up doilies, Kirstie's way...

As you all know by now, I am a HUGE fan of the woman who made crafts cool again, the one and only Kirstie Allsopp, and her new series 'How to fill your home for free' is as creative and inspiring as her previous ventures to try and bring us all round to her way of upcycling, crafting and decorating your home.
Her new show heavily features how to upcycle old furniture, giving existing or unwanted pieces a boost and instantly changing the way you look at a room. It ties in nicely with the news we received this week - we had an offer accepted on our first home!! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!! ... Ahem. But it's ok - because Kirstie has pretty much taken care of all the furnishings we'll have, because I'm not planning on going to IKEA once! No no, I'm planning to keep myself very busy with decoupagé, painting, distressing and fiddling about with scaffolding boards too. If you have no idea, what I'm talking about, go to 4OD and watch her new series. It will amaze you.

In the mean time, Kirstie gave me my Bank Holiday Monday activity in this week's episode: DOILIES.
I so happened to buy 6 lace doilies from a bootsale some time ago, planning on doing this with them:

But I didn't. Through lack of confidence that I wouldn't end up setting my flat on fire.
So there they sat in my sewing box all this time, until now.
Kirstie showed us all that doilies can be cool again, by simply dying them the colour of your choice and adorning your upcycled home furnishings!!

Here's what I did:

1. Prepare what you need; I used one sachet of Dylon purple dye, a plastic mop bucket, 6 lace doilies (and I also used two white pillowcases I had with a bed set, which would match the rest of the set better if they were in fact purple!) table salt, and rubbergloves and apron.

2. Prepare the dye according to the packet instructions. Then add your fabric to it and stir for 15 minutes without stopping.

3. Then over a 45 minute period, stir intermittently. After, rise out the fabric under a cold water tap, then I put all mine into the washing machine and put it on a super fast warm rinse for 14 minutes at 30 degrees.
Leave on a drying rack somewhere warm to dry.

4. Iron your dry doilies so they sit flat on the surface you want to put them on.

5. ADORN!!!!

I'm really impressed! Yes, it's a little bit twee, but they do look pretty and certainly not at all frumpy or old. It gives them a nice modern twist, and they cost next to nothing to jazz up.

What did you do with this lovely sunny bank holiday??

Lots of love,

BB xxx