Hatty, sorry I mean Happy New year!

Hello everyone!

I hope the first few days of 2015 have been as fabulous as you mean for them to go on! :)
I Haven't made lots of resolutions this year, just 2 main ones. To develop my skills as a costumier further and do well on my course and to keep working on becoming a better, happier and more positive person to be around. They will keep me busy enough for the year I think though!

I have started the first one off with a bang by getting to work and using some of the millinery materials I got for christmas on starting to make a new hat.  It is inspired by a 1950s style fashion interpretation of a sailors hat.

First I modelled it in card to check fit and proportion /look:

After posing round the house in my cardboard model I then got onto cutting out the buckram pieces, attaching the wire Around the crown and the brim, coating all the pieces in fabric using glue as necessary... which left me a bit messy :p And now after several hours of hand sewing I am on the verge of having a completed hat! Look:

Just lining, inside petersham band, hair loops and a bit of decoration if I choose so :)

Haha hat making is very addictive. I want to make a bonnet next!

I'm off to bed now so I can finish my hat in the morning... possibly running into the afternoon :p

Speak to you all again soon!  And once again Happy new year my friends!

Bye xxx

Happy new year!!! :D

Hi everyone,

I hope you all had a good New years eve/day and I would  like to wish you all a happy and healthy new year! :)

 

Normally I have a whole long, long list of new years resolutions but this year I didn't really have any that I hadn't already started before new year, so my new years resolutions aren't so much resolutions, more continuations :P

 

My first aim is to become more chillaxed and happy as exams really stressed me out for A levels and all that but now I am finished and have started uni I am trying to stress less and not be afraid of getting things wrong sometimes. It is going well so far as I already feel less inhibited in my crafting and other things now I am allowing myself to make the odd mistake, which at the end of the day is just learning- making me better at my craft and other things anyway :P

 

My second aim is to keep reading and working hard at uni an trying to learn new skills to improve my sewing and crafting abilities :) hehehw I think learning new craft/sewing skills and improving at them will be on my list forever as I want to be amazing!!!

 

And my thrid aim is to look for more lovely blogs to read, as well getting a bit better at keeping up to date on all the fabulous blogs I already read. Sometimes I miss a blog post and don't see it till the next week so my comments are late- bad me! Now I am more settled in my routine I should be better :)

 

And my fourth and final aim is to keep working on and improving my shop (and blog as usual :) and try to make some happy customers this year :D Heheh I have already uploaded some of the new stock I made for the new year:

 

>Decorate your own button monster kits! (do you remember the button monsters........:

 

 hehe :)

 

> Friendship bracelets

 

>Fimo cookie buttons

 

And I have many more plans for other items!

 

I am looking forward to the year ahead :D I even have something very exciting happening tomorrow- I am meeting my blogging/ravelry friend Eleanor from My life, my thoughts, my hobbies :) We are going to catch up and chat and do a bit of sale shopping together so that will be uber fun, I can't wait!

 

See you all again soon,

 

Bye xxxxxxxxx

Chinese New Year (+ my button box :)

 Hi,

Happy (belated) Chinese New Year everyone! Even though I am not Chines, nor do I have any Chinese relatives I love to celebrate Chinese New year (as some of you will know from me posting up the chopstick case pattern I made one year :P). This year I had two special Chinese dinners, a takeaway one and a homemade one and I did this cross stitch kit in celebration:

 

The fan was a little mouseleoft kit and I added the writing to commemorate this year :) I think I am going to turn it into a pincushion using some oriental style silky fabric I have as a backing and I might maybe add a charm to the corner too to make it extra pretty :-)

 

On the Sunday of Chinese New Year I also went to see Cirque De Soliel 'Kooza' with my mum at the Royal Albert hall :D my parents had got me the tickets as a gift and it was AMAZING!!!!!! I can highly recommend it to everyone! The acts were mind blowing and the costumes were so detailed and interesting, I couldn't take my eyes away! On the way to the show we stopped off in John Lewis as I had finally chosen the sewing machine my parents promised me I could have for my Birthday and we ordered that which should be coming soon, I am soo excited :0D (so basically I had the best day ever! :P I  hope you all had a lovely weekend too)

 

And now, as promised I finally bring you all the pictures of the giant button box my nan gave me:

 

 

 

 

There are just soooooo many pretty/cool buttons...... I know they will all come in handy on some project at some point in the future.

 

See you all soon,

 

Byeeee! xxx

 

P.S. Happy Valentines day for tomorrow I hope you all have a super day with your loved ones!

 

Bye :o)

 

 

Im back, and a bit of an update :)

Hi  everyone!

 

I am back from my holiday now, I hope you all had super super happy New Year!!! :D Hehehe, I had a super time at Disneyland paris, here are some of the best holiday snaps:

 

 

These ones are of the Disney christmas parade :0)

 

My fave ride i went on was probably Space mountain on the last day with my mum, hehehe I thought it was going to be terrible so I was a bit nervous but it wasn't all that bad it was actually fun. In the shop I got a Tiana doll (from the Princess and the Frog) as her dress is my fave of all the princesses

:-)

 

In other news yesterday I went sale shopping and in John lewis I got a mini felt craft kit to make your own woodland friend felt toys, they are so suppperrr cute! The kit was by Paper and string, I reccommend checking out her blog/shop, all her felt kits are very sweet! I will post pics of my finished friends when they are done :-)

 

Soon I will also put up a pic of the purse I recently made from a kit my aunty got me for Christmas too.

 

See you all soon,

 

byeeee xxxxx

 

P.s. soon I will be setting up a page to put up pictures any of you lovely people send me of things you have made from any of my patterns or tutorials or makes inspired by any of my posts as I got a lovely pic of some mini octopuses from my patterns, too cute not to be shared!

 

Bye! :)

 

New year Giveaway!

Hi,

To start the new year off with a bang I decided to hold another giveaway! As it is the first one of the year, I wanted to giveaway something special... I love my blythe dolls, and making things for them so..... the prize for this giveaway is a cute mini vintage style Blythe doll (and pet :0) which you can love and make outfits for too :) oooh and a yummy chocolate star as well! :P

All you have to do to enter is:

Be a follower and leave a comment at the bottom of this post saying one of your new years resoloutions (just for fun :)!

Please also make sure to leave a way for me to contact you in case you win! e.g a craftbubble or ravelry name or a blog or email address

The giveaway is open to anyone anywhere :)

Entries close on the 15th of January and the winner will be randomly selected and announced the same day :D

I hope you like the giveaway,

Good luck! xxxx

Happy new year! <]:0)

Hi everybody!

****HAPPY NEW YEAR! :D****

Image from: here

Hehehe, do you like the fireworks? No expenses spared! lol :0)

I hope you are all having a wonderful time :) Me and my family are celebrating by having ice cream coated with sweets and sauces as a special treat :P YUM! and we are watching a film and playing games too!

I'm sure many of you have made new years resolutions, I managed to achieve many of mine from last year so I'm going to try to do the same this year :) Here they are, well the fun ones anyway :) :

• Continue and complete my portfolio ready for applying to a textiles university course! (try to do at least 10 minuites a day)

• Continue to improve my sewing, knitting, crochet and general crafty skills by trying new techniques, reading, designing and making :)

• Continue to expand my doll collection and make lots more lovely clothes for them (and maybe even try some customising!)

• Continue to have fun posting on my blog and keeping in touch with all my lovely friends online and meeting new friends too :-)

Hehehe, I wish everyone a really, really, happy new year, again! :D

Keep a look out tomorrow as the special giveaway I mentioned may just open! ;0)

Hehehe, see you all soon!

Bye XXX

*First Blogiversary!*

Hi guys!

Exactly one year ago today I posted my very first blog post, so that makes today my first blogiversary!!!!! :D

(Photo taken by Rachel of Millie Holloman Photography and found here)

I'm soo happy and excited as my little blog has come so far (mainly thanks to all the kind and wonderful readers :) So to celebrate and show you just how far the blog has come in only 365 and a 1/4 days (hahahaa, the 1/4 makes all the difference :) I thought I would share some stats with you from over the year...

• The blog has gone from 0 followers to a very healthy 55! (thank you followers!)

• 128 posts have been posted (including this one :)

• Over 150 comments have been posted by readers

• 11 people have become lucky giveaway winners!

• 12 free patterns have been put up

• And this is perhaps the most amazing stat of all, the blog has had over 12,919 views from people around the globe and has been mentioned on several different sites!!!!!

I would just like to say thank you to everyone, I really do appreciate every single one of those 12,919 page views!

I'm so thrilled and I hope by the time the next blogiversary comes around I will have even more amazing stats to share with you. I'm going to keep improving the blog and posting about even more fun and exciting stuff so please do stick around for another year! :0)

See all you lovely people again soon :)

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

P.s. Oops I nearly forgot the cake, silly me! You can't have a celebration without cake :) Help yourself to a slice....

(Image from: here)

Mmmmmm..... :0)

Bye x 8-)

Happy Chinese New Year!

Wooooo, hoooooooo!

Hello everyone :)

Im very excited because on the 3rd of feb it is Chinese new year, which although im not Chinese I reallllly love becuase it means takeout all round! (this is something we only have very rarely)

As its a special occassion I have created a free pattern for all you readers to enjoy (the first of the two febuary patterns I mentioned :0)

Its a pattern for a chopstick case!!!!!!!!!

If you get started now you could have yours finished ready for the special day!

You will need:

• 1 pair of 3 1/4 mm knitting needles
• 50g (not the whole lot will be used) of Red, or any colour DK yarn
• 1 button
• 1 yarn needle
• AND one pair of  26.5cm (standard size) chopsticks to put in your case! :)

Tension:

There are about 7 stitches and 8 rows per 1 inch squared.


Pattern:

Using the 3 1/4mm needles and DK yarn cast on 7 sts

Gst 3 rows

Then stst 154 rows (starting with a P row)

Next Gst 19 rows

Next row: K2tog, k3, K2tog (5sts)

K1 row

K2tog, K1, K2tog (3sts)

Cast off  the three remaining sts.

Abreviations:

• K= knit
• Gst = Garter stitch (Knit all stitches on all rows)
• stst= Stocking stitch
• st/sts = stitch/stitches
• K2tog = knit two stitches together
• P = Purl

To make up:

 Fold your (very long!) rectangle of knitting so that the cast on edge meets with the point where the Gst section at the end of the rectangle starts:

Then carefully oversew down both sides so that a case shape is made. After that create a button hole at the end of the Gst flap, big enough to fit around your chosen button using the following method: http://ysolda.com/support/pictorial-guides/sewn-button-loops/

However only do two loops instead of three.

Then stitch the button to the top of the case, just under the Gst strip near the cast on edge.

At first you may put your chopsticks in and not be able to fold the flap over:

But do not worry just push the chopsticks in harder to stretch the case out a bit and your chopsticks will then fit in nice and snugly:

and you'll be able to fold the flap over and fasten the button :) 

You can add any decorations you fancy, I stuck on some small gems with craft glue:

FINISHED!!!!!!

Enjoy, and have a happy Chinese new year :)

mmmmmmm.... Takeout chinese!

Happy new year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello everyone and happy new year! 2011 :)

As always i've made a list of new years resoloutions so here they are:

 

• Keep on learing new knittting and crochet skills ( like sock knitting, clothing things , circular knitting , dpns etc...)

• Design more and more of my own patterns!
• Improve my blog and just keep making it better and better :)
• Draw one design for a knitting project everyday.
• Start writing my own knitting/crochet book :)

And just have another great year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Pictures found on internet not owned by me)

I hope everyone else has an amazing new year and and are as excited at the prospect of what can be achieved this year as I am......

.........Happy new year everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)  

P.s dont forget to enter the scarflette giveaway only 3 days left....