Hat happiness :)

Hi,

As I mentioned from Monday till today I was on a millinery course. It was millinery for beginners and we learnt all the steps of how to make a simple straw and felt hat.

 

It was really cool because we all got to choose the shape of our hat crowns and brims from a whole range of blocks (what you shape the hat on) in a big cupboard so we could do our own design rather than just a standard hat.

 

Making the hats involved a lot of hand sewing as all of the sewing of both the hats was done by hand and the thicker materials (rather than just fabric) meant I kept prodding myself, but ahh well I'm sure my hands will toughen up If I keep making more hats :P Quite a lot of effort was also involved in stretching the fabric so making hats literally involves blood, sweat and tears! But it is still super fun though!

 

Here are some shots of my work in progress:

 

 

 

And here are my finished hats! :D:

 

 

I played around with tons of different trimmings on each but in the end I liked the more simple look for each- sometimes simple is best :) I will be wearing the orange straw sun hat on holiday and I will probably wear the felt hat when I get the right occasion- it reminds me of a bugsy Malone/old fashioned gangster style, Hehehe I think it looks quite cool on me if I may say so myself :P

 

As a thank you to the course teacher- as she was so lovely and really great at explaining everything and helping people I made this little hat brooch for her using a little straw hat and some ribbons/decorations I had:

 

She liked it so I was pleased :-)

 

This is her website where she sells her hat and she also does one on one teaching in case anyone is interested: http://chloescrivener.co.uk/

 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend :) See you soon,

 

Bye XoXo Bye XoXo

*Mini froggy giveaway winner!!!*

Hello,

The time to announce the winner of the mini froggy giveaway has arrived!

Drum roll please :)..................the lucky person, as chosen by random number generator is.................

 

Steph!

 

Image from: here

 

CONGRATULATIONS :0D

 

I have sent you an email asking for your address so I can get your prize parcel on it's way to you ASAP

 

Don't worry if you were not the lucky one this time as giveaways are soo fun to do that I am of course bound to do another one soon :)

 

Congratulations again to Steph!

 

Talk to you all again soon- when I will be bringing you pictures of hats I have made!

 

Byeeee xxxoooxxx

 

One day left!

Hi,

 

This is just a quick post to tell you there is only one day left to enter the 'Mini Froggy Giveaway' - Don't miss out if you haven't entered yet :) 

 

Good luck to everyone! xxx

 

And in other news I am on my Millinery course this week until Thursday so I will post up pictures of my hats when they are finished. It is going so well and I am having so much fun :D I hope all of you are having a lovely week too :-)

 

See you soon,

 

Byeeee xxx

Sunday style

Hi guys,

Today I bring you two Sunday styles (hehehee, because I wore one of them on Saturday- not Sunday but sshhh :P)

 

First is a slightly more sophisticated Sunday style, well no crazy coloured wig this time!

It is this bird dress with long straps that tie at the back of the neck :o):

 

 

It is made out of a spare curtain from a pack my mum bought for the porch. She asked me did I want it and I was like if it's fabric I'll have it! And I think I managed to put it to good use. I wore the dress to dog racing with my family and it was pretty hot so I'm glad what I made was cool and flowy :)

 

Hehehe, a slightly more usual Sunday style now (but still no wig sadly- it is too hot!)..... a pair of doughnut print culottes:

 

With little kawaii blue star buttons I got from japan- this is the first piece of clothing I have flat pattern drafted from measurements to block to adding pockets and a fly so I was pleased they came out with a relatively good fit- a little bit of adjustment needed but nothing major :) The were verrryyy comfy as being culottes and not shorts they were a bit more roomy, I wore them round to lunch at some family friends. They were fun to make and to wear! :P

 

I hope you are all having a lovely week,

 

See you soon,

 

Bye xxx

 

A mini froggy giveaway :)

Hello,

Today I bring you a mini giveaway to celebrate summer- a froggy themed one!  Hehehe :o) quite a random theme but a cute and fun one I thought

 

 Here is the prize on offer:

 

 

-A cute felt pet frog craft kit

 

And

 

 -A pack of colourful 'toadstool' /mushroom stickers

 

:)

 

All you have to do to enter is:

 

1. Be/become a follower

 

2. Leave a comment below this post- making sure to include some way to contact you if you win

 

:)

 

The giveaway is open to anyone, any age, any where!

 

Giveaway entries close on the evening of Wednesday the 24th of July and the winner will be announced on the same day

 

I hope you all like the prize and good luck!

 

See you soon,

 

Bye xxx

It's a felt feast!

Hiii,

 

I have now finished all of the felt cakes/desserts from the kits my dad bought me a couple of weeks ago :) I worked on them over a few evenings (whilst watching Big Brother- my guilty pleasure :-P)

 

I love all the little bits and bobs they gave you to finish of the treats with like the cake box and the doily. I like the designs too, they are different to many of the felt cake kits I have seen/made before.

 

Here is my finished felt feast!:

 

 

I added some little beads as the seeds for the strawberry to add to the jazziness even more!

 

To me these cupcakes are more like fancy petit fours, I would say the first one is strawberry flavour, then the middle one is marshmallow flavour and the last one is a fancy chocolate brownie square.... mmmmmm..... I'm getting hungry now :P

 

I am tempted to rummage through my 'handmade stuff' box to find all the other felt cakes I have ever made and display them like a huge felt cream tea, hehehe :0)

 

In other news the chocolate walk I mentioned I was going on last time I posted was really good- we got lots of samples from places like; Hotel Chocolat, Fortnum and Mason's, Charbonel and Walker and Paul A Young. My favourite sample was the milk chocolate passion fruit truffle we got from Fortnum and Mason's. In Hotel Chocolat we got some chocolate pasta which will be interesting to try! I will let you know what I think when I try it :)

 

See you all soon,

 

Bye XOXOXO

 

 

A non-chocolatey chocolate challenge!

Hi everyone,

About a week ago me and my family went into London for the day. We picked up lunch in Marks and Spencers where we found some walnut whips which we also got. I hadn't tried them before but they were actually very tasty. They are basically chocolate with a fluffy vanilla/marshmallowy type filling and a little walnut on top. A few days later I made some similar things of my own and they were quite tasty too.

 

I was talking to my friend Springmusician over at My life, my thoughts, my hobbies and she said she had been meaning to make a knitted version of the tasty treat for her mum. I thought a crafty version of the walnut whip was a super great idea so we decided to turn it into a non-chocolatey chocolate challenge and both create our own different versions and post them on our blogs today!

 

Here is a picture of the original walnut whip:

Image from: here

 

mmmm..... I really fancy one now :P

 

 

And here is my crocheted/knitted (I used a bit of both) version- my entry for our challenge :D:

 

 

It was super fun to create, I can't wait to  see Springmusician's creation

  

If anyone else would like to join in on our non- chocolately walnut whip chocolate challenge, just for fun, feel free- the more the merrier. Knitted, crocheted, sewn or even paper craft, all are welcome! Just leave a comment below with a link to your post or send a picture to me at iitki@hotmail.co.uk and I will share them on my blog :)

 

Funny enough I am going on a chocolate tasting tour around London today, hehehe, I wonder if any walnut whips will be included in that :0P

 

See you all soon,

 

Bye Bye XXOOXXOO

 

Vintage couture sewing techniques- day 3, 4 and 5

Hi,

 

Today I bring you some pictures of what I learnt on the rest of my Vintage couture sewing techniques course :) I can't believe that today was the last day, it went so quickly, probably because I was having so much fun!

 

On day 3 (Wednesday) we spent the whole day- over 4 hours (!!!!!) just making this special curved seam pocket. There were so many stages involving different types of hand sewing due to it being couture. The outcome was worth it though, it is the most lovely pocket I have yet seen :P

 

Here is a work in progress picture:

 

And here is the finished project- the pattern lines up all over once constructed, that is another reason it takes so much care and time:

 

 

Day 4 we did this decorative technique sampler including trapunto quilting (the very padded one- padding is inserted after sewing), normal quilting, roleau, different types of applique, openwork and encrusting (the dark blue one- inserting and patch/shape of fabric into the background fabric):

 

And today- the last day, we did some scalloping:

You can use it around hems or cuffs or down the front of fancy garment :)

 

 

And we did some lace applique, hand tucks, machine tucks, a French seam and hand rolled and pin tuck hems:

 

Hehee, yes all of those things are on the piece of fabric above. It is surprising how many techniques you can try on one piece of fabric :0)

 

And finally we tried some different couture finishings/fastenings:

 

It will be so weird not getting up and going to learn more tomorrow, though I only have to wait a couple of weeks and then I am going on my millinery course :D And next week I am going to practice some more techniques at home.

 

I made this pincushion for the course tutor as he was really nice to us all :)

 

I put a T on it for his name, he really liked it so I was pleased, he even started using it today! :o)

 

Just in case any one is interested he runs quite a few courses in different places here is his website- http://www.vonnordheim.co.uk/

 

I hope you all had a good week too,

 

See you soon,

 

Byeeee XXX

Vintage couture sewing techniques- day 1 and 2

Hi,

I hope everyone had a good day :) For the whole of this week I am on a sewing course learning about Vintage Couture (one off, personally fitted/tailored garments) Sewing Techniques! I have learnt so much already- and I still have three days left :0D

 

Day one we mainly talked about what vintage and couture actually mean and we looked inside and analysed a couture Givenchy jacket- It was so interesting to actually get to see all the inside construction and techniques involved (like secret padding to help improve the couture clients shape :P).

 

Then today we did samples of loads of different seams- curved, lapped, welted, square/corner, bound- I have done some of them before on a previous course I went on but this time I learnt how to do them the full, professional tailor couture way which was super cool- time consuming but with great results!

 

Here are some shots of my work in progress and finished pictures of a couple of the seams (I won't bore you with them all! :P):

 

This is the curved lapped one.

 

And this one is the special lapped corner one.

 

Hhehehe, I am already super excited for tomorrow which I think might be on decorative techniques. I will keep you all updated on what I get up to this week :D

 

See you soon,

 

Bye XXX