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

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

My Jolly Jar

Hi everyone,

The time just seems to be flying by at the moment, probably because I am coming to the end of my first year at college- only 2 and a half weeks left! It doesn't seem that long ago that I was posting to you all about how excited I was to go off to uni and now soon I am going to be a 2nd year.

 

But anyway... before I start to get all emotional I will move on. Last week my family went on holiday to the IOW as it was half term. I was at college but my family were lovely to me and picked me up some special gifts, including some garlic fudge (I will  let you all know my verdict on that, lol!?)  and this cool jar filled with fabric and sewing bits and bobs:

 



 



 

 

My  mum said the Lady in the shop made them up her self- she definitely had good taste as all the fabrics were so cool and the buttons and ribbons are all really cute and quirky too. I have set myself  a challenge to take the jar on holiday with me during the summer and make something really cool using the bits inside :) So I look forward to what inspiration takes me....

 

Back to college news Now, pictures from my last project of the year (I will try to hold back the tears! :P). We are each collaborating with a theatre design student and creating one of the pieces from one of their costume designs for a character from the play Duchess of Malfi. My designer set the play in modern/contemporary style and so I am making the fitted tailored peplum jacket she designed for the Duchess' court dress.

 

Here is my little half scale tester- that I made to show my designer to check I was along the right lines with interpreting her design:

 

 

And now here is my work in progress toile, which hopefully I will be able to fit  on my model tomorrow :):

 

 

This project is really independent which is good as it is really pushing me. I am trying to draft the patterns with as little aid from pattern drafting books as I can in order to develop my understanding of the shape of the body and measurements and how they relate to the shape of pattern pieces as best as I can :-)

 

I better get off to bed now, speak to you all again soon and I hope you are all well!

 

Thank you for reading my blog my lovely friends,

 

Byeee XxXxXx

***Spring Giveaway!!!*** :D

Hi everyone,

 

Yes, the time has rolled around for another giveaway! :D

 

I have made this one spring/Easter themed, here is what you could win

 

 

- A sweet floral cotton reel shaped pincushion

A reel of ribbon with little chicks on it :3

- A pack of strawberry stickers

- 3 cute, pink, iron on flower appliques in different designs

- And a lindt chocolate carrot umbrella stick!

 

------*-----*-----*------*------

 

As usual the giveaway is open to anyone, any age, anywhere.

 

All you have to do to enter is:

 

1. Be a follower

and

2. Leave a comment below (make sure to include some way to contact you in case you win :P e.g. a ravelry name, email or blog address)

 

 

Entries close on the 25th of April and the winner will be announced on the same day.

 

------*-----*-----*------*------

 

I hope you like the prizes :oD

 

Goooood luckkk!

 

See you again soon,

 

Byeeee XxXxXxXxX

 

Brothers birthday + creative stitches show

Hello,

I mentioned a few posts ago that my Brothers birthday was coming up- it was this Tuesday (He loved his Domo pinata so I was pleased. It took a while to brake into so I didn't do too badly at making it! :) As usual my dad pulled an amazing cake(s!) out of the hat, this time I got to help though as I was at home and my dad said he couldn't achieve it all in the time without me :0) It was sooo fun and here are the results....

... A whole pizza dinner with drinks, sides and desserts- all made from cake!!!!

here is the mushroom (chopped dried banana  pieces) and olive (black royal icing) pizza:

The spaghetti (royal icing) and meatball (cake, chocolate and biscuit balls- I made these :P) cake:

Margherita pizza. We made the cheese look cooked by pinching the icing circles and putting little blobs of brown caramel biscuit spread on it to look liked the browned bubbles of cheese:

Onion rings (dried apple rings dipped in chocolate and biscuit crumbs), garlic bread (brioche with white chocolate on it sprinkled with grated dessicated coconut dyed green for herbs :P) and dough balls (brioche again!):

Garlic pizza bread cake:

the coke glasses were done by melting chocolate to coat the inside of the glass then filling with crumbled cake before topping with chocolate spread and inserting a stripy straw:

 

Chocolate cake chocolate gateau 1:

Chocolate cake chocolate gateau 2 (I made this one :-):

Safe to say we are still eating it all now, despite giving lots away to people! It is sooo tasty though and so cool to help make- we spent a long time thinking if what sweet items we could use to create the most realistic savoury look :P

Hahaha, In between cake eating I did manage to get to the Creative stitches and Hobbycrafts show at the Excel centre London on Thursday. It was really good and I got onto 4 workshops! (Tomorrow is the last day so get yourself down there if you can :0)

This was one of the workshops I did, ruffled ribbon petunias, so pretty :):

I got to practise my french knots for the centre which was good as now I can do them perfectly, I also learnt the little tufty  (turkey work) in the second flower which was cool as I had never done that before. Lorna Bateman was the lady who ran the workshop and she has an esty/folksy shop where she sells the kits if you like what you see above :P

This was the second workshop- making a creative textiles book cover from this material called spunbound made by Vilene. It was so cool- you put on this 3D paint through a stencil then heated it all with a heat gun and the £D paint bubbled a grew while the unpainted spunbound shrivelled and disappeared leaving holes. Then you paint it to make it look all colourful:

Then finally, I also did two embroidery workshops run by the Royal School of needlework, they were only £5 each which I think was pretty good value even though the other workshops were free (which is even more amazing value :P).

Here is my first finished piece from the Jacobean Crewelwork workshop:

Again, I learnt some new stitches and got to practice my french knots so that was all good. I will show you my silk shading sampler I started in the other workshop when I have finished it :)

Haha, after all that learning I got round to doing some shopping, well quite a bit of shopping actually.

I got these two Paddington Bear cross stitch kits, only £2.00 each! 

I am going to make something for my dad with them as he loves football, Paddington bear and he teaches maths so I thought they were perfect :P

Then I got all this:

All of the items cost me £1 or less each- what bargains :D

I better go now, got to get to bed to get my beauty sleep before my cake filled breakfast :P

See you all soon- when I may have another giveaway up my sleeve for you all.... so keep your eyes peeled :0)

Bye XxXxXxX

A patchwork charm bag for me :)

Hellooo,

 

I hope you are all well :) 

 

This weekend apart form some costume history work (I am planning to do a post soon on some of the stuff I am learning in that lesson as it is very fun and interesting- I may even make some mini garments for my doll from the times so they can model and show you all 'the look' :-P) I didn't have tons to do which was good as it means I got to start another craft project!

 

I was inspired by the pouch I saw on Steph's blog which she made to put some Halloween treats in. I decided to start making a similar patchwork style purse/bag out of different bits of scrap fabric and all the findings, charms and beads I have been collecting for so long and haven't got round to using yet!

 

I want to make each square/patch say something about me or what I like, I have only got the main sides done so far, still the flap and then all the sewing together and lining left to do but here are some work in progress pics;

 

 

Hehe, I love sponge bob so he had to be featured :P

I also love apples!

I think leopard print is really cool, and different cool/cute dolls which is what I put the Russian doll fabric in for :)

The little scrap of African fabric in the corner under Spongebob was given to me By Stefany the dressmaker where I work sometimes so that is special to me too :3

 

My sweet tooth is also huge!

 

Christmas is probably my favourite holiday of all time!!!

 

With Halloween coming close because cute creepy stuff is amazing too!

 

I don't have too much stuff going on Tuesday so I will probably get down to work and try to finish it then. I reckon I will manage it as now I am back at my uni house I can use my machine which I brought with me, at home I have been hand sewing everything (which I don't mind actually) :P It is so much fun just being so creative with it and sewing on all the ribbons and buttons and charms making it all personal to me!

 

See you all again soon,

 

Byeeeee xxx

 

 

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

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

 

 

Sunday Style

Hello,

 

It has been a while since I posted a Sunday Style outfit so I thought it's about time I did!

So today I bring you the mix and match blue kimono style jacket/top I designed and made with matching blue wig and crocheted Minnie mouse style head band :0):

 

 

(Once again I haven't had a chance to wear it yet but when I do I shall post a picture :)

 

The back is done in the same half and half style but opposite so it looks cool and different from the back too! I got the two different fabrics in the IOW a while ago and then one day got thinking how it would be cool to use them together and they are quite contrasting but sort of do compliment each other in a way too:

 

It fastens at the top with a little bow of blue heart ribbon.

 

And here is a close up of the head band- the novelty yarn I had was perfect for making it with:

 

I am really pleased with this look to add to my Sunday style collection.

 

I hope you all like it too! :3

 

See you all soon, thanks for letting me share my creations with you :)

 

Byeeeee xxx

 

Fathers day bunting

 Hello,

As I am sure many of you will know this Sunday is Fathers Day :D As my dads handmade gift I wanted to make him something fun and happy. I picked up some cool ice cream/lolly fabric in Rainbows in the Isle Of Wight but I wasn't quite sure of my plan when I bought it but it made me smile. About a week ago I decided on bunting! My dad had to throw away his other bunting as it had faded because it was outside in the sun (and rain) for the last two summers. I found some more fabric and ribbon from my stash and..... here it is all finished:

 

 

I have wrapped it up ready, I hope it likes it :0) I went with Chelsea football club blue (my dads favourite colour because he loves Chelsea! :)

 

On Sunday we are all having yummy banana splits to celebrate Fathers Day too :P mmmmm.... I can't wait.

 

Hehehe, I hope you all have a lovely weekend whatever your plans are!

 

See you all soon,

 

Bye XxXxX

Sunday style

Hello,

 

Today I thought I would show you my latest outfit I have finished- I haven't had a chance to wear but I got a bit excited to show you all so I displayed it on the mannequin :):

 

 

I didn't sew the hoodie from scratch, I just created this patchwork style heart and then sewed on some ribbon I pleated and some diamonds too, to add a bit of sparkle to go with the fairy/magic theme!

 

This is the knitted hair bow I made...

 

... and here is a close up of my playmobil unicorn necklace, hehehe it was very fun to make! :P

 

I will probably put up a quick picture when I do get a chance to actually wear it all :)

 

Some may say it is all a bit of a pink overload- true- but seen as it is my favourite colour I am happy with the look! :D

 

I can't wait to wear it all, I will probably put up a quick picture when I do get actually get a chance :-)

 

See you soon,

 

I hope you all have a lovely week,

 

Bye Bye xxx