Happy Belated Christmas

Hi everyone, 

This is a Happy Belated Christmas post as my Internet was down for a short while. So first off I'd like to say that I hope you all had a fabulous christmas!!! :D

And next, as we have passed the christmas period I can bring you a picture of the contents of the crafty christmas advent Calendar;

Now onto a little bit about my Christmas, I had a lovely day with my family eating a delicious Christmas dinner cooked by my dad :D And then there was lots of present exchanging which is always fun too! Everyone was so generous and I got some lovely presents :-)

I got a wig stand (in my size :) which is extremely useful for testing hat patterns on:

And then I got lots of hat making materials So I can get to work and make a range of hats and fascinators using my new hat books I also got for inspiration:

I also got a book on wedding traditions in different cultures.  I have learnt so much from it  already! All the information will come in really useful for my 3rd year project I plan to do so I have been taking notes as I read :p

my last present I want to show you is my sylvainian families harvester. This is an older sylvanian family set so my family had to put quite a bit if effort into sourcing it! I thought it was really cute though and filled with all my sylvainian people and a bit of extra food and look at my bustling bistro!:

My last bit of christmas news I bring you is of the hats I helped my family make for christmas eve for fun. I used my new millinery skills. My hat is the crazy stripy one in the middle!

:p they were all based on historical styles I was really making everyone be a costume nerd :p

See you all again soon,

bye xxxx

Christmas stars!

Hi everyone, 

On Saturday my family and over some food friends for a dinner party :) Each time they come over- especially at Christmas I like to make some little table favours :)

This year I decided to implement some of my new found knowledge from the different skill weeks at college- I used printing!

I cut out my own little design of a star stencil and then printed 8 of them onto calico using some gold Dylan fabric paint though the stencil with a brush- a different method to college as I didn't quite have all the proper equipment :p

I then ironed them once dry to affix the paint fully, before backing with Christmassy fabric, placing ribbon between the two layers then sewing around.

Lastly I pinking sheared around them to stop fraying and give a simple decorative looking edge. And voila,  my little decorations were then complete; 

I think they looked nice on the table and they got some compliments so I was very happy :) they were also fairly quick to make due to some simple stencil printing being there main feature. I will definitely be experimenting further with this technique :-)

The Christmassy crafting really got me into the festive spirit too! It is soo close to Christmas now- I can't wait!  I hope you are all doing well and are happy,

see you soon,

Bye xoxoxo

Dancewear!

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well and starting to get into the Christmas spirit as that is not far around the corner!

 

Today Is just a quick post again- but I do assure you they will start getting longer no I have finished college for Christmas and I don't have the end of year hecticness. I mean I need to return to wigs to tell you all about how to work some crazy updos! :P

 

But back to the topic of today- Dancewear! Yes, this was the last week as part of my series of 4 weeks at college covering different disciplines within the area of costume.

 

We got to choose to make either a leotard or a catsuit in a design of our choice. We had to be realistic with our choices though as we only had 4 days to complete them- including pattern drafting and fittings.

 

I chose to make a leotard, and kind of wanted to go with something that looked suitable for a gymnast (We could take inspiration from dance or sports). We made them for ourselves which means I got to parade around in mine on Friday (I looked a bit silly but it was fun!)

 

Here it is, I kept it quite understated but there is a flash of sequined fabric at the collar and cuffs to give it a bit of pzazz! :0P

 

 

It was quite high cut- a little bit 80s aerobics but it fit well in the end so that made me happy. I had never worked with stretch fabrics before last week so it was good to start learn the techniques :)

 

That is about it for this post (I said it would be short and I wasn't fibbing)

 

But I will be back super soon, hopefully with some Christmassy related posting material :)

 

Bye XxXx

 

 

 

 

More wig-iness!

Hi everyone,

Just  quick a quick post again today (I promise they will get longer soon!). I just wanted to show you the last couple of the wig styles I worked on last week in college :)

First up is the style I designed for the character titania (the fairy queen) for Shakespeare play midsummer nights dream.  Well all designed and worked on a wig for different characters so by the end of the day it was like we had the whole casts hair :p

I was really proud of mine as hair is not something I am user talented at and before starting the week I never could have imagined I would be able to achieve anything like it from just a straight hair wig!:

And then here are a couple of shots of the finger waves me and a friend managed to do:

They were a super popular style in the 1920s and another thing I an proud to say I can know do!

As promised I will bring more info on how these wee achieved if anyone fancies potentially sporting one if these styles :p

I hope you are all well

bye xxx

WIGS!

Hi,

This is a really quick post as it has been too long since I posted but I don't quite have time to go into all the detail I want to.. yet! As I mentioned last time I post this week I am working on wig dressing in college. It is such a new and exciting experience for me as seriously I have 2 styles hair down or hair up in a ponytail- I know nothing else :p

But look at the fancy styles I have been being taught how to create:

I will shortly bring you more information on how these looks well created, as well as info on the rest of the cool hair related stuff I learn the rest of this week too!

Speak to you all soon,

Bye xoxoxo

Printing, breaking down and dyeing

Hi guys,

The title of this post pretty much tells you what I have been doing all this week :p Yes, I have just finished the second week of the skills carousel I am currently completing at uni.

We started the week by learning about dying. This was pretty interesting as it is something I have never really done before properly (just with kool aid on some wool! :p). We learnt how to colour match- to dye fabrics to be the same colour as seen in a picture or painting etc. Then we practised some different dying techniques such as ombre (a gradual colour change from light to dark up/down the fabric) and patch dying (different colours of dyes applied/layered onto the fabric in a blotchy way).

Here is my ombre sample:

And here is my patch dying sample:

patch dying is a good method to use when breaking down as it can make things look old and distressed  depending on the colours you use.

Talking about breaking down, that is what we moved onto next. We all had to pick an image of a character wearing a broken down costume from a film or play. I chose my image from the original piranha movie as I love that film :D

Here was my shirt before it was met by sandpaper, fabric paint,  a Stanley knife etc.:

And here is it after:

I am really proud with how it came out as breaking down was something I found quite challenging at times. You have to try and be realistic and make things like the blood look realistic and build it up in layers- I am not great at art/painting so it was quite hard to get something that didn't just  look like a halloween costume I made in 5 mins! Even the stages you have to curve at the ends and fray slightly so they don't just look like you did then with a knife. I liked putting my shirt on once it had dried- I felt like an extra from the movie :p

And now last but not least printing. Again something I had never done properly before but and it was a thoroughly enjoyable and interesting experience.  Cutting out my stencils were a bit fiddly but in the end I was happy with the effect/pattern I achieved, and it was cool to play around with the metallic paints, foil and puff paints.

Here are my finished samples and printed tshirt:

Next week I have a reading week so I can prepare more work and research but then after that is wigs... so that should be interesting to tell you about :p

I hope you all had a lovely weekend,  talk to you again soon!

Bye xxx

2014 Advent giveaway winner!!!!

Hi,

The entries are now closed for the 2014 crafty advent calendar giveaway are now closed. Thank you to all those who entered :)

Now, Drumroll please! The winner as chosen by random number generator is....

LINDACEE! 

Congratulations :D

I have contacted you via ravelry to help me get your prize on its way to you ASAP ready for December 1st!

Once again, thank you to all those who entered and as always more giveaways are not far around the corner! 

Speak to you again soon,

Bye xoxoxo

Millinery meanderings

Hi everyone,

At college at the moment we are on our carousel of different costume techniques that don't feature as part of the day to day of our course :) We get to do one week of millinery, dance ear , dying and breaking down and also a week of wig dressing. 

The week of millinery has just gone and it was such an interesting and enjoyable week. As some of you may remember I did a millinery course at the London college of fashion last summer. That course mainly focused on blocking techniques, whereas the week just gone at college we looked at cutting and shaping buckram to make hats- something much more achieve able at home without too much special equipment. I was so pleased with the result. We had to focus on the period of the 19th century to base out hat designs on. Here is the reference image I chose as a starting point for my hat, I found it in a book in the library: 

I didn't make my hat from straw however as I wanted to try fabric covering it so I went with a kind of golden straw coloured velvet instead.

Here is my final hat, I was really proud of it. Everyone else's was amazing too- it was amazing to see all thst had been produced in just a week!:

It is pretty big- you would need a lot if hairpins through the loops I sewed in to hold it down!

As this post was millinery themed, I thought it would be a good time to show you the fascinator I was making outside college that I just finished :-) It was from a kit from Hats on Heads (a millinery company- I bought two more of their kits from create and craft as well). It was pretty fun to make and not too much of it was given to you pre - done so I did actually lean quite a few skills.  Here it is:

Now I just need an occasion to wear it to! :p

Hehe,  I better be off to bed now, I hope you enjoyed my millinery meanderings.  Please do leave any comments below or ask any questions if you have them xxxx

Also don't forget tommorow the advent calendar giveaway ends do if you have entered already go do so now before it is too late! Good luck :-)

Speak to you all soon, 

Bye xoxoxo

Royal school of needlework class!

Hi everyone,

Today was the day of my Royal School of needlework class that I was the lucky winner of from the hobbycraft and creative stitches show a while back now. I had a lovely day- stitching away on the classroom at the amazing Hampton Court palace!

The tutor was Becky Hogg, she was really nice (and has her own etsy shop if you want to try some cool embroidery!: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BeckyHoggEmbroidery

We were embroidering some 17th century inspired  button badges today. Here was the kit we got given:

 

The buttons involved using different metalwork embroidery techniques such as cutwork, couching and sewing on spangles- things I have never done before so they were good to learn! Here is my first finished brooch:

I am very proud of it, even if it is not exactly as prefect as the tutors one. The metal cutwork threads (purl threads) were so fragile which made it quite challenging at times- I will have to practice!

And here is my 2nd one so far (once I have finished it properly I will put up a picture also :):

I hope you are all having a good weekend and hello to all the new followers! Also I am do happy with all the entries for my advent giveaway- I am so glad everyone is excited about it!

See you all soon,

Bye xxxxx

***Advent Calendar Gifts Giveaway-2014!!!***

Hello everyone!

The time has come for the return of the Crafty Advent Calendar Giveaway!!!...

I am once again giving away to one person 24 festive crafty gifts to countdown to Christmas- a crafty advent calendar! :0D

Here are the 24 parcels:

I felt like one of Santa's elves wrapping all of them :P

Image from: here

I had fun finding all the different little festive themed gifts that could be added to/used in Christmas craft projects over the whole of December :) 

If you win you can put them all in a fancy bowl, or a fill-it-yourself decorative calendar (those felt/stitched ones with pockets :) and then open the right one each day from the 1st to the 24th of December (like the choccy calendars) to get your little surprise!

Here is what was in the last crafty advent just to give you some idea (though I have got some different stuff for this year of course :-)......

-*-*-*-

Giveaway entries are open until the 16th of November 2014 and the winner will be randomly selected and announced on the same day!

The giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere! :)

HERE IS HOW TO ENTER:

To be entered you must:

> Be a follower

> And leave a comment below with some way to contact you in case you win! :)
(e.g ravelry name, blog or email address etc...)

ALSO---- If you buy anything in my shop from now until the closing date of the giveaway, and/or link to this giveaway on your blog or social media (leave me a link!) you will automatically receive an extra entry :)

-*-*-*-

I hope you all like the giveaway, and I hope you had a great Halloween too- I will bring you updates on mine soon :)

Talk to you later,

Bye xXxX

Waistcoat all done!

Hi,

I hope you are all having a good week :)

My waistcoat that I was making in college is now all complete! As I mentioned a post or so ago, for our first project we had to make a men's waistcoat in any style we wanted, it also had to be decorated in some way.

Here was my design, which was inspired by comic book villains and gangsters:

The front sections interlock.

And then here is the back, my decoration was inspired by the glamorous girlfriends gangsters and villains often seem to have in the movies :p:

And now, after a few weeks work, here is my finished waistcoat, front and back:

   

Then here are some close ups/different angles:

 My machine and hand appliquéd hand motifs (the little xxx are hand embroidered):

Satin stitch hand embroidered kiss :):

It was hard to get the lapels so sharp (and the pocket flap points too!):

It was a fun and challenging project. I learnt so much as this was my first ever piece of menswear.  I am really proud of the result though :-) please do leave me any comments below- I would love to know what you think.

See you all again soon, when I will be announcing a special giveaway........!

Bye xxx

P.s. All images in this post are copyright to me (Jordan Norrington)