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 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

***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

An update :)

Hi,

I hope you are all well and have a good weekend planned :) I am excited as next week I have a reading week so get to spend lots of lovely time with my family! (though, I mustn't forget I do have a bit of work to do in-between :P)

This week I have managed to get a lot further on the kindle case I am making for my mum, I just have the ribbing left to do, and then just sewing it up:

 

I also managed to Finish the little cross stitch I wanted to sew onto the front for decoration:

 

I should be able to give it to my mum this weekend as I reckon I will get it finished tomorrow, my aim was to get it to her before my family go on holiday to the IOW the week after next (my holiday is out of sync with my family this time) so I am well within schedule :P

 

I have actually got a lot done this week, now I am more used to doing all my washing etc... and I don't faff so much I can do more stuff! I baked some flapjacks for all the girls on my costume course. They were chocolate, date, raisin and sticky toffee:

 

 

I doubled up on the recipe so everyone got a nice big one :) They really enjoyed them so I was very pleased, I thought they were tasty too! We were thoroughly spoilt today though as it is one of the girls Birthdays coming up and a couple of the other girls made her a really tasty gluten free lemon cake and brought it in. It was very moist and delicious :-P

 

Today we also started making corsets!!! This is our next project, I am very excited about it. We get to be models for each others so I am making one for someone and they are making one for me :-) Today we started the master patterns which tomorrow we are changing to fit our person:

 

They are taken from historical corsets (I chose the 17th century one) so at the moment the patterns are very tiny, people were so much smaller- my wrist just about goes through the armhole! :P

 

In about two weeks we should get our Kimono stuff back (it is being marked :) and then I can show you all pictures of my kimono- which was my first project as I mentioned.

 

Hehe, that is about it for my update, but just before I go I remembered the other day that I hadn't put up the picture of what was inside this years mini parcels Christmas giveaway, silly me! So here it is- just in case you were curious :o):

 

 

See you soon,

 

Bye xxx

Christmas catch-up!

Hello everyone,

I had quite a whirlwind of a Christmas- which, looking around here on blog land it seems everyone else did too :)

 

I had a great Christmas- it was so lovely spending the whole day with my family, eating lots of lovely food, watching telly and giving each other prezzies!

 

My family and friends were extremely generous and also thoughtful so I would like to thank them all very much and say that I am lucky and thankful to have them all around me xxx

First up on my Christmas catch up is Christmas eve :) Here is a picture of the white chocolate, vanilla and strawberry yule log (the recipe I made up through my mini knitted yule logs :P) I made for my nan to take round when me and my family went round in the evening:

 

 

Haha, I made the holly decoration from icing to make it look like an exact big version of my knitted pattern, lol :P I thought it tasted really nice, I will definitely be making another one in the new year sometime. Very sweet and tasty :)

I may even like it better than milk chocolate log.... mmmm, a hard decision..... I think I'll just stick to having both :P  My nan thought it was cool to have a different version for a change :)

 

For my aunt, whose house we went round before we went to my nans (Christmas eve was busy this year!) I made two of my little Christmas tree decorations:

 

She hung them straight on her tree :) Yay! :-)

Hehe, now on to Christmas day, and first up, these little cuties:

 

 

Aren't they sweet! They were presents from my parents, because they know how much I love hamsters :3

 

I also got Norman (hehe I named him, and also decorated him :) to help me with my life drawing:

 

And my nan got me another lalaloopsy, with beautiful red hair, to be friends with scoops my other lalaloopsy:

 

They are getting along well :)

 

My build a bear (Georgia) even got a gift this year, thanks to my (Wonderfully fabulous!) brother:

 

So adorable- her little elf boots match the ones I made for myself, that made me smile a lot!

 

I got some wonderful costume and fashion books and things too, as well as my new pride and joy- my half scale mannequin!!!!!!:

 

Which I have already started to practice my draping and patternmaking on! :D My parents were worried it was too small as they thought half scale was bigger but when I opened it I assured them that it was utterly perfect! It is really great for practicing patternmaking on as you don't use up so much fabric.

 

My Dad made a fabulous Christmas dinner as usual and we even tried some of the cranberry and orange stuffing with it that I put in the hamper I put together for my family :) And in the evening I had some quality streets and chocolate from my stocking, so overall a fantastic day!

 

I would just like to thank my wonderful family and friends again for their generosity and to say that just being able to spend time with them is honestly enough of a gift, I love them all very much xxx

 

And thank you to all readers of my blog too for popping over and saying hi to me too, I hope you are all having a lovely festive time surrounded by family and friends too :) xxx

 

Last bit on my catch up before I go, today me and my mum went to see Dirty Dancing at the Piccadilly Theatre in London, we had front row seats (surprisingly front row was cheaper!?) which meant we had an amazing view, up so close I could see all the costumes and the show was really, really, great- I recommend it highly if you can get down there to see it :)  Very fun, and lots of good dancing!

 

I will speak to you all again soon, I am off to my other Aunty's house tomorrow so that will be nice, we always go for a walk to the shops to do some sale shopping so that is fun to see what bargains we can find :P

 

Byeeeeeee XxXxXoooXoOoO 

 

A festive dinner party!

Hi,

 

Last night we had some family friends over for a festive dinner party :) I worked hard on the table runner I mentioned that me and my family were making in my last post and managed to get that all together ready for the occasion and I also managed to finish making the 8 mini Christmas yule log (on my free patterns page :D) place settings that I wanted to give to everyone too.

 

It all looked nice on the table I think, I was really pleased with the pattern I made for the table runner, It was perfect size (I took measurements :) for our table and the pointed edges hung over the ends of the table nicely:

 

 

Now I will show you a close up of each of the rectangles that me and my family decorated individually.....

 

This is my brothers:

 

He wanted to go for a rustic look and I think he did a really good job :-)

 

 

This is my mums:

 

It really makes me smile when I look at it because it is so much my mums style- it reminds me of her and Christmas- two things I love! :P

 

My dads rectangle now:

 

This one is very much my dads style so I really like it :) The house underneath the big star is meant to be our house and the little car coming towards it is the 'Amazon' van delivering all our prezzies we ordered online :P Hehehe :)

 

And last (but hopefully not least :0P) is my rectangle:

 

 

I did some decorated baulbaules, which I stuffed to make them rounded and stand away from the fabric like real baulbaules :) I didn't even realise it but when I looked at my finished rectangle again I realised I had basically done a baulbaule style for each of my family members, lol! The pink beaded one for my mum, the green one for my dad, the yellow chain stitch star one for my brother and the pink girly heart gem one for me! Hehe, it shows I am always thinking about them- even subconsciously :P

 

I really enjoyed making the table runner with my parents and brothers designs included, I love sewing (can you tell? :)- seen as it is what I am studying at uni :P) so it was really lovely to have them join in and share my passion with them. I am hoping maybe next year we can do another family project, maybe something out of my comfort zone even- like some woodwork, then my dad can share the tips and tricks instead of me :)

 

My little yule logs were received really well so that made me super happy as I did work hard when making the pattern to make them as cool and realistic as possible. I added little labels for each person and of course popped a choccy inside:

 

 

I am actually going to try and make a real, edible, version of my winter wonderland mini knitted yule log! I don't think the recipe for it actually exists- it just looked nice in knitted version :P

I got a big vanilla and strawberry Swiss roll, which I am then going to coat in white chocolate and after that add a final coating of vanilla buttercream, before decorating with a bit of holly and a dusting of icing sugar (rather than glitter, lol!).

 

I am hoping it will be delicious, my nan and mum and granddad don't really like chocolate cake so when I looked at my winter wonderland mini roll I thought why not make it in real life- it will hopefully be a non-chocolate cake lovers perfect Christmas yule log :-D

 

I will put up pictures and let you know what it tastes like- just in case any of you decide you may want to whip up my random creation :oP

 

I am off now to get ready to go out to the Olympia horse show which my parents booked for us all for some Christmas family fun. I am excited!

 

I hope you are all well :)

 

See you soon,

 

Bye XxXxXxXxXxX

Slightly less busy than an elf... for now...

Hello,

 

I hope everyones Mondays were not too bad :)

 

My making and crafting craziness has slowed down slightly now, my elf boots are all done:

 

 

And the Christmassy biscuit village I decided to make for when my friends came round on Friday didn't go to badly either :):

 

 

I think they enjoyed it, I thought it was quite tasty!

 

Hehehe, Lalaloopsy had her eye on it before my friends came round, bu I told her she'd have to wait :P

 

 

Saturday morning I managed to get all the headbands I wanted to make for my little cousins, all ready for Christmas eve! I am really thrilled with how they came out- I hope they love them:

 

They are modified version of the gnome hat pattern I made for the innocent smoothie, I added a gem, ribbon and a pom pom to make them super girly and kawaii! :3

 

Hehehe, they barely fit into the bags (Which I popped a chocolate freddo in too :P)

 

 

Just as I started to finish all my Christmas crafting projects, I and my family(!) have managed to start another- a Christmas table runner! We were watching the Christmas episode of the great British sewing bee and they did this group table runner project where each of them decorated their own square on the table runner and then they all got sewn together. It was lovely and we thought it would be nice to do the same :0)

 

I took some measurements of our table and came up with a design:

 

The middle panel and two end triangles are in red Santa fabric, all of the borders and dividers in a gold Christmas fabric and the four rectangles (with a cross in them in my sketch :P) are the rectangles me, my mum, dad and brother are going to decorate one of each!

 

This morning I drafted up the pattern, cut out all the fabric pieces and started sewing, here is one of the triangular end pieces so far, just to give you an idea of the fabrics:

 

Hehehe, now I just have to come up with a design for my square.... I have a couple of ideas so far.

 I will keep you updated on my family project! :D

 

Speak to you again soon,

 

Byeeeeeeeeeeee XxXxXxXxX Tis the season to be jolly, falalalala la la la la! xxx

 

P.s. My shop will be closing on the 18th of December for Christmas, so get in quick if you have any last minute shopping to do :P But it will be opening again shortly after Christmas day, with new stock coming for the new year! :)

 

Bye OXOXO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Busy as an elf :P

Hiii,

Although I am off college for my Christmas Holidays now I have been keeping myself super busy completing all the different activities I wanted to do from the list in last post and more!

This week I have done more work on my elf boot pattern and have managed to completely finish one of them:

 

Fully lined with glittery Christmassy coloured fabric too :P

 

 

Just the other one to stitch up now, which shouldn't be too hard since I have made one of them I now know the easiest way to do everything. I reckon I will have them on my feet by Saturday morning as I have some time to sew tomorrow evening and Friday morning- between work at the tailors/dressmakers and me and my friends Christmas party :D

 

Hehehe, then I really can run around like a mad, busy elf, lol!

 

Other festive crafting I am doing involves making 8 of the mini yule logs (from the pattern I posted up :) for when some family friends come round on Sunday, only 1/2 of one left to knit and then the making up/decorating to do:

 

 

I will definitely have them done!

 

Today I managed to wrap my first presents of the year- for my friends, ready for our party :D (and I made all my present labels for everyone):

 

 

And me and my dad made this sweetie tree:

 

 

Mmmm, yummy!

 

I am off now to go and relax in my bath now, with- you guessed it- Christmassy bubble bath in it! Heheh, then it is time to get back to working on those mini knitted yule logs so I can start on my next knitting project- cute Christmassy headbands for my little cousins :-)

 

See you all soon, I hope you are well :)

 

Bye xxx