You may notice some changes...

Hi everyone,

You may have noticed that some changes are taking place on the blog...

I hope you think they are nice changes as I would hate to upset you lovely readers, just as I have mentioned before I like my blog to grow with me, so as I feel the main content of my blog start to shift, i.e. from knitting, to Kawaii crafting to fashion, costume and bridalwear, I like to update the look and style of my blog.

I like this approach rather than starting again, as what has gone before is my history and the growth of my knowledge and interests as a person- not things I want to delete and remove or sweep away to be forgotten!

I hope you will stick with me and follow me further on my journey as I enjoy talking to you all,

speak to you again soon!

Bye,

Jordan xxx

p.s. the blog address will remain exactly the same, and please do leave comments of what you think of the revamp below :)

P.p.s the giveaway enrty deadline day for the recent vintage style giveaway is coming soon- don't miss out! Enter it now if you haven't already :D Good luck!

Byeee xxx

News!

Hi everyone,

I have two bits of news, and then some pretty pictures of my half scale kimono!

Firstly- I AM NOW ON ETSY!

Yes, I have finally set up my new shop with some new bits (Including one of my lace bridal headbands). I spoke to people and the general consensus was mainly that people seemed to know their way around Etsy a bit easier so after all my Folksy item listings expired I started setting up my Etsy shop.

Here is the link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/StitchedbyJordan

Please do drop if you get time as I still have some more new items to add over the next few days and would really like peoples feedback :-)

Secondly- Today I had a mini interview type thing with Queenie and Ted (see their website they do some really cool up-cycling of clothing!!!: here!) and..... I get to go back on Wednesday next week and work with them and learn all about what they do :D I am sooo excited, it will be a great bit of experience! I will make sure to show you all what I get up to next Wednesday using lots of juicy pictures :P

Hehe, now I am done with all my news I will show you the pictures of my kimono, my first project I did at uni, which I got back in the last week of term and have now completely finished up:

I made it so that it was pretty much reversible using my colour scheme, here is the 2nd option:

I am really proud of it. It is nice to have it all done to show people (like all of you lovely people).

I hope you are all having a lovely week- and if you have any news please do leave a comment below, I would love to hear :D

Speak to you all again soon,

Bye XxXxXx

Symposium! (and stuff :)

Hi,

 

Last week was a really good week for me as it was 'Symposium week' at my college. What this means is basically a week off of timetabled lectures with loads of fun and interesting workshops, talks and performances going on instead :D

 

I booked myself onto loads of the workshops including zumba (which was really enjoyable), dream catcher making, sword fighting (super fun!!!!!) and I did quite a few costume related ones, including 3 morning workshops about Kimonos :0)

The lady was really nice and knowledgeable and bought in tons of the kimonos from her collection from martial arts related ones to bridal.

 

Here are a couple of her most extravagant kimono over-robes:

 

 

And here is me (from behind so you can see my freestyle- tied

 obi which hangs down) dressed as a Geisha :) It was cool being dressed up- I learnt a lot about how it actually feels to wear the kimono as well as how to put it on properly:

 

The obi is done up so much more tightly than I imagined it was and there is a lot more padding than I thought there was underneath too :P Brian who is next to me was dressed up like a shogun (military warrior). The lady who ran the workshops also rents out her kimonos etc... and has a website- where there are more pictures of all the kimonos we all tried on at symposium: here!

 

Another workshop I did was trauma makeup. Hahaha, a lot of fake blood was used! and some cornflakes mixed with coffee, golden syrup and red food colouring to make stuff that resembled blood clots.

 

I warn all those who are faint hearted to LOOK AWAY NOW!

 

As the following picture of my work I did in the workshop although FAKE (of course! :) is very gory:

 

 

I think I actually did get it quite realistic looking thanks to the techniques of the tutor :-)

 

Another thing that made my week really good apart from symposium was finding out that I was the special winner of a free Royal School of Needlework day course from the draw I entered at the creative stitches and Hobbycrafts show at the excel :D I am soo excited and have chosen to do a course on 17th century design inspired metal/gold work button brooches- It sounds so interesting- that is in November so kind of like a great early Christmas present!

 

And if all that wasn't enough for one week me and my mum went to the John Paul Gaultier fashion exhibition at the Barbican Arts centre/Theatre in London which was fabulous.

 

It was really different to other exhibitions I have been to as they gave some of the mannequins faces using digital projection- they even talked! I thought this really brought the whole exhibition and the clothes to life a bit more.

 

Look at the amazingness of these dresses!:

 

 

Another thing that was cool and different was that they actually had a moving catwalk! All these mannequins were dressed and on stands that moved around the catwalk, again this brought so much more life and excitement to the clothes making them look even more spectacular than they already are:

 

Well, that's just about it for the catch up of my week...

 

.....No.... Wait! I have one more fabulous thing to tell you about :P The Chocolate festival I went to on Sunday with a friend from college at the London Business and Design centre  (I really did have a crazy fun week :oD)

 

There were quite a few different samples of yummy chocolate to try and lots of baked goods on sale. As a treat I went for this brownie:

 

 

It was sooooo delicious, it was called a 'buckeye' brownie. It was a normal chocolate brownie topped with Oreo cookie frosting and a layer of milk chocolate ganache mmmm... I want another one!

 

My brownie was from Batch bakery: http://batchbakery.co.uk/

 

My friend had a peanut butter brownie which she said was amazing from the Brownie Bar: http://www.browniebar.co.uk/

 

They do a really good price online delivery of brownies so I think I may have to get some of those sent to me in the near future as they looked good too but I couldn't fit a second brownies in after my Oreo- sugar overload one :P

 

I hope you are all well, and now I promise my post is officially finished :)

 

Don't forget to enter my Spring/Easter giveaway if you haven't already as as I found out last week you never know your luck!

 

Speak to you all again very soon,

 

Bye XxXxXxX

Eyelets and phones

 Hi,

I hope your weeks are all going well :) I am happy with how my corset is going in college so that is good, I will show you some more pictures after I have completed the next few steps as then it should really be coming together.

 

This week I have also been working on my 1/2 scale red dress that I designed and draped, I have been hand sewing the little eyelets down the back so then I can lace the dress up with red ribbon:

 

 

It is going well- only about 18 left to go :P They are soo small as they have to be 1/2 normal eyelet size to be in correct scale. I think I may have placed them slightly too close to the edge to be in correct scale but not majorly so it will be ok, no one is actually going to wear it so there won't be much strain on them.

 

In other news last weekend I got a new phone! :D A red Samsung Galaxy s4 to be exact. It was a big step up from my old phone, that I had had since I was 10 and so old the guy in Carphone warehouse said the makers had gone out of business, lol :P I have been spending time this week trying to get used to all its amazing functions. I downloaded several free bridal dress catalogues to flick through as extra research for my new work experience and tons of other stuff, it is helping me to get more done each day which is good. I really love my new phone but am really protective over it as I don't want to damage it! Hehe Sunday I made a case really quickly from a sock I hadn't worn and added a kawaii hello kitty button to keep it safe:

 

 

Hehe, now though I have an case which is apparently what the army use to protect their gadgets from rain, sand, you name it- it is virtually indestructible!

 

Hehe, I am off to bed now, I need to get a good sleep so I can power through my corset sewing again tomorrow,

 

See you all again soon,

 

Byeeee xxx

Briliant bargains!

 Helloooo,

I hope you are all having a good week, with college tonight I am going to see the live streaming of the National Theatres War Horse. I have never been to a live streaming but it is meant to be an interesting experience so I am excited  :D

 

As I mentioned, last week my family were on holiday in the IOW. They were very kind because thy had bought me home quite a few little gifts for me that they had collected from around the island, Including this bag of felt scraps my mum picked up:

 

I was really impressed because it is a whole bag, stuffed full of really nice, quality, felt and she got the whole thing for £1.50! I think that is such a bargain as nice felt can be really expensive.

 

As soon as I saw the bag I had an idea of what to do with it. Al the little strips reminded me of paper strips and I thought; what can you do with paper strips?- Quilling of course! So I attempted to try a quilling style look by rolling and sewing the felt in different ways, it was fiddly but fun so I am glad I thought of it! Here is a flower brooch I made yesterday:

 

I have ideas for tons of little brooches to make, like trees and butterfly's all in my new felt quilling style, I better get started... :P

 

Another bargain I just had to share with you guys (this time non craft related) is the birthday cake bargains me and a friend from college managed to pick up on our way home in the local mini Waitrose. We got 3 big birthday cakes for less than £3.50!!! Two vanilla and jellybean birthday tray bakes for 99p each and this chocolate hedgehog cake for £1.49. Look!:

 

 

Just in case you didn't believe me, here is the sticker :P:

 

 

Hahaha, I am taking some home for my family to share with them at the weekend, my friend kept some for her flat and then the rest of the tray bakes we are bringing into college to share today, Mmmmm :)

 

I am off now as it is almost time for me to head off to college- cake and corsets  are calling me. Hehehe!

 

See you all soon,

 

Bye XxXxXxXxX

 

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

Exciting news... I finally have my own shop!!! :D

Hi

PLEASE NOTE I HAVE NOW MOVED MY SHOP TO ETSY AND THE NEW SHOP CAN BE FOUND HERE:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/StitchedbyJordan

THANKS xxx

Yes I am very excited as I now have my own online shop on Folksy!!!!!

Image from: here

I have been waiting for ages to set up my own shop as I had to wait to be old enough and then set up paypal etc... but it is finally all done :D Yay!

I have listed two little items so far but have many more to come, including some cute knitted brooches very soon :)

Here is the shop address:

http://folksy.com/shops/handmadebyjordan

Please do take a browse every so often, just in case you see anything you might like. Also if anyone has any feedback or comments on anything about my shop or would like to show me their shop I would love to hear so please do comment below!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend :o) (And don't forget if you haven't already to enter the Halloween giveaway in the post before this one- only 4 days left now!- Good luck)

See you soon,

Bye XxXxXxX

Just a quick hi

Hi guys,

Byeee xxx

No, hahaha, it is not that quick! I just wanted to check in with you all :) I had my first proper day at uni on Wednesday (as I mentioned in my last post) and since then it has been pretty full on (10- 5 each day :-)  I am really enjoying it though!

 

We are working on lots of little samples at the moment but making sure we get them very precise and accurate to get our sewing up to professional standards.

 

I am hoping I can resume to more frequent blogging soon- I am just still working on getting my head round fitting in all the things adults have to do in a day for themselves like; working, cooking, shopping, cleaning, tidying etc...! Hahaha, I will eventually manage to fit in and remember everything without writing huge to do lists :-P

 

I will also hopefully get back to being able to check up on every ones blogs- but my blogger reading list has gone a bit funny recently and keeps telling me I am following no one :/ Ahh well, it will come back eventually- it always does, then I can have fun catching back up with everybody :0)

 

Hehe, that is about it for my quick 'hi' but I hope you are all well and thank you for bearing with me- I am just a bit slow to adjust! :oP

 

See you soon,

 

Byeeeeeeeeee XxXxXx

 

P.s. This is a message for Melissa Graham- I am still holding the prize you were the winner of from the Llama naming giveaway a while ago- if you want to email me your address to: iitki@hotmail.co.uk I will pop it in the post to you :)

 

 

My New Room :D

Helooo,

 

My room is now complete- from top to bottom! So now I bring you pictures- of mainly my parents hard work :P I tidied but they did all the painting and DIY and hard stuff.

 

Though I did help with the painting of my multi-coloured fireplace:

 

 

It was my dads idea and we painted it together :)

 

Here is my new sewing table- my pride and joy, my baby... you get the point! :D I even now have a proper lamp so I can see what I am doing for once:

 

And my new craft storage boxes make my crafting life a lot easier:

 

Hahah, yes all of that is only my craft materials. I have collected lots over the years :-)

 

I have a teddy hammock for all my cute plushes- me and them combined were getting too much for my bed to hold up! And my dad kindly treated me to a new TV because my old one was broken, so I can now watch Create and Craft shopping channel in the morning :oP

 

My bed- I went with leopard and zebra print because I think it's Jazzy, and my new house shaped bejewelled mirror:

 

Hehehe, and now the last of my room pictures- my new fluffy doorstop friend, Mr piggy (yet to have a full name! :P):

 

Sooooooooo cute! and he does his job very well :-3

 

So thank you verrry much again to my parents for helping me and funding my room makeover!

 

 

I hope you are all having a lovely week,

 

I will see you soon  with a list of entries for the fluffy llama giveaway, which you only have a day left to enter so don't miss out on the fun! :)

 

Bye Bye 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

Today is the start of something new :D

Hi everybody,

 

Today I finished the last ever of my A-level exams meaning I am done- finito- done, done, done, done, done!

 

It is a fabulous feeling as now the next chapter of my life can finally begin- what I worked so hard for- to go to university and study costume production; my dream career!

 

I have the holidays and several weeks and lots to do before I head off to do that but I am so happy as now I can really start the rest of my life :)

 

Hehehe, I was just so happy I wanted to share my thoughts with you all!

 

Thank you all for all of your lovely comments and reading my blog and everything as all of it really helped me through my Alevel/exam years being able to talk to all you fabulous people!

 

xoxoxoxoxox

 

See you all soon (when normal posting will resume- but with all the new stuff in my life included too :P),

 

Byeeeeeee XXX

 

Change is coming!

Hi guys,

 

I have been meaning to change up my blog a little bit for a while and thought why not now! The change isn't going to be huge, the blog address will remain the same and I wil still be posting regularly. I will just be changing the title and other little bits as from my beggining of only being a knitter I have experimented with so many different crafts and developed a huge love for sewing and costumes/interesting fashions (what I am going to study at uni soo :D) and wanted to show this through my blog title etc.. I will still be posting about any knitting and crochet projects I do, I will just be posting about even more stuff and all of the other things I make too- I will feel I can post about even more if my blog theme covers more! lol :P

 

See you all soon when posting will resume,

 

Look out for the changes and let me know what you think!

 

Byeeee

 

Jordan xxx

Little bits and bobs :)

Hello everyone,

 

Today I just had a couple of little mini projects to show you. First is this little felt pasty:

 

 

I made it for my mum as she had to go to the hospital (nothing serious) and I wanted to make her a little mascot to let her know I was thinking of here. She really liked it and my dad thought she should be called Patsy pasty so that is her name now! :)

 

My other little project has been these little crochet keys:

 

 

I haven't quite perfected the pattern yet but when I do I may put it up. I think I might make a few and turn them into some crochet jewellery which will hopefully look cool!

 

I'm off now to finish of another of my projects which I have been working on which I will be making into a tutorial soon....

 

... I will leave you on that cliffhanger :P hehehe!

 

See you all soon,

 

Bye XxXxXxXx

 

A cat and a chilli

Hey guys :)

Last week I finished another one of the Christmas cross stitch kits I have been working on, here it is:

 I said to my friends he either wants a hug or is doing Jazz hands and they all decided it was jazz hands and named him Jazz cat! Lol :0)

I like Jazz cat! <3 Next I am making a penguin one which my friends have already decided will be called Pingu!

I also finished this little knitted chilli pepper:



Hehehe, it is to go on a present for my brother for Christmas  (he likes chillies! :) I made up the pattern myself and decided to call him Mr Hot 'N' Spicy :P

I hope my brother likes him!

I am off to work on more of my Christmas crafting, so much to do so little time!

See you all soon,

Bye! :D

x

Holiday and crafting update

Hey guys,

It's not long till I'm back home for a while (then I'm off to Cyprus :) so I thought I would do a bit of a IOW holiday/crafting update and show you my very special new design I have been working on.....! :D

Firstly on my holiday update, I have been back to the haberdashery shop.... some of my families savings are still intact, I promise! (hahhahha :) My (lovely <3) mum treated me to another two cross stitch kits. I chose a pretty seahorse one and funny cat-buried-under-snow one:

I finished the Oriental Lady kit I got :) I haven't decided exactly what to do with her yet but she is very pretty!:

My mum also bought me this bag of different material scraps for me to make some great stuff with :D It was a bargain for only a £1! and that £1 went to charity :) All the material is sooooo coool, I can't wait to start some different projects with it:

In other non-crafty holiday news :) my (brilliant :) Dad bought me this fun Wonka anniversary chocolate bar from a local sweet shop:

It is so great, you even get a replica golden ticket inside! I was like *EEEEEPPPP* when I opened it! hahhaa :D

He and my mum have also bought me mountains of pic and mix and various cookies/cakes....mmmmmmmm :P

Now for some designing news...

I have been working on a new design recently which I hope is gunna look REAALLLLYYY GOOODD when I have finished, it's my new DICE SCARF!!!!!

I'm aiming to finish it before I go to Cyprus so I better keep working hard! :0)

I really hope it's going to look good, I really, really hope! I came up with the design a while ago but had to get the yarn I needed which I didn't have a chance to till now.

I'm off to go eat another cookie and then get back to work! :)

I hope you are all ok and having a nice week,

See ya!

Byeeee xxx

X-Stitching

Hi guys :)

As many of you will know last month I was sent a cross stitch kit by my partner Laura in the cute and quirky swap. I was really pleased as I had wanted to learn how to cross stitch properly but didn't really know where to start :/ It was great as it really helped me to learn the basics, for example I thought for cross stitch you used the whole thread but you actually only use a couple of strands at a time. (No wonder I found it difficult and it didn't look right when I tried once before, the thread was too thick!)
To my surprise I managed to follow the chart well and kept all my little cross stitches facing the same way!

The kit made a sweet little seagull picture which I turned into this pincushion once I'd finished :D

I don't think it's bad for a first try :)

I backed it with some pretty blue fabric I had and added a couple of buttons for decoration :0)

I have got to perfect my cross stitching though so I get into a rhythm and don't have to check each stitch!

In the future I want to cross cross stitching and knitting/crochet to see what I can create :-) But I have got to do some more practice first. I might try to pick up some more little kits when I'm on holiday seeing as this one was soo fun and helpful! (I have already bought a copy of Cross stitcher magazine which is great too and has loads of cute mini motifs to stitch, so I might try some projects out of there too)

See you soon,

Au revoir :)

Super stars! (*o*)

Yo People!

Do you remember the mixed pastel coloured yarn I got sent by a swap partner? If not here it is :0)

Well it inspired me to create these...

They are quite quick and easy and I think they are quite cute :3

My friends birthday is coming up soon and she is having her party at Thorpe Park!!!! Soo exciting!!!

She is very lively and energetic and quite funky and I wanted to make her something special, So.... I thought I would use my new pattern to make her a bright rainbow star scarf. I've made nearly half of the stars:

I have still gotta make the blue ones, purple ones, pink ones etc.. and then I'm going to sew them all in a row :-)

Hopefully she will like it, then I want to get on and make myself one!

See you all soon,

BYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEE

XXXX

And now for something completely different: 2011 Knitting and crochet blog week (Day 5)

Writing in yarn, thats pretty different, eh?

I also thought I would write a little poem about my love of the fiber arts especially for this special experimental day  (P.s I know its not great so please don't judge me! :0)

Ode to knitting and crochet

I love my needles and my hooks

And all my wonderful pattern books

I also love all the beautiful wooly yarns

from the cute little sheep down on the farms



Stocking stitch, garter stitch and double crochet too

None of them ever do leave me feeling blue

One day I'd love to have my own yarn wall

Huge and big and wide and tall

Basically all thats left to say is, I love to crochet and to knit

Way more than just a little bit!

Voila! :D

(I hope you thought it wasn't too crappy :)

As well as being the 5th day of the 2nd annual knitting and crochet blog week and April fools day, it is also my brothers birthday! (he's 12 :D)

My dad always makes us special cakes for our birthdays (as you'll know if you saw my brithday post) and this year my brothers cake was, as every birthday cake is, completely and totally out of the ordinary and different so I thought It was perfect to be featured in this post:

It's a giant crabby patty from Spongebob Squarepants!!!

The burger part is brownie and all of it is edible (apart from plankton)

It's amazing and it tastes sooooooooooo great!

I also made my brother something a little crazy for his birthday, a tiny knitted globe:

He loves travel and geography so when I found the pattern: http://krakendesign.blogspot.com/2010/02/knitted-tiny-earth-pattern.html

I thought it would be perfect!

Well thats it for the different/experimental/birthday/april fools day post, I will leave you with another bit of yarn writing :0)

xxx