Fathers Day!

Hi everyone,

As the title of this post suggests, this post is mainly about Fathers day :P However I would like to begin by saying a big thanks to Steph (see her blog here!) who sent me this lovely bundle in the post:

 

 

 

They are the most awesome cross stitch charts ever and she even put in an adorable little Hamtaro charm she found for me! (for those of you that don't know I love Hamtaro and hamsters in general :-)

 

How kind and lovely Steph is, I can't wait to start on some of the charts! Thank you xxxx

 

Hehe, now onto fathers day :P

 

First up, I managed to finish the Paddington Biscornu I was making for my dad just in time:

 

My dad loves Football

 

And he does some primary school maths teaching (Just to explain why I chose those Paddingtons, in case I haven't already)

 

I stitched the words 'I love You Dad' and a little heart into the opposite corners:

And I added two little love heart charms to make it extra special:

 



 

My dad really liked it and said it would probably take him years to sew something that didn't look nearly as good, lol :P He also thought the shape was cool.

 

Making this Biscornu has reminded how much I love the shape of them too, an dhow fun they are to make. Maybe I will whip up another couple using the charts Steph sent me.... ooohh.... a Hamtaro Biscornu.... I am in heaven!!!

But before I drift off into Biscornu world, back to fathers day. As well as his other presents me, my mum and my brother all clubbed together to buy ingredients for a special Fathers day picnic. I then did some baking with it all (with a bit of help from my brother) and voila:

 

We had to have it indoors because it wasn't very sunny outdoors, but I think it still looked pretty and we still had fun. There were benefits also like not being bothered by any insects, lol!

 

The round bread loaf you can see in the picture is actually a giants sandwich (a hollowed out loaf that you fill with your sandwich filling them slice it and eat it). I filled it with green salad leaves, roasted tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, basil and some Quorn ham- we managed to finish it all, it was tasty, even if I do say so myself :P

 

In terms of baking, I made peanut butter cookies:

 

Cherry and Cinnamon cake (the recipe for which can be found here)- which went reallllyy well with custard!:

And finally some black bottom cupcakes (chocolate and a blob of cheesecake mix, with cream cheese frosting on top) from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook:

 



 

Everything went down well :) Pretty much everything I know about picnics, dinner parties, and cooking in general I have learnt from watching and helping my dad (and a little bit from GCSE food tech, lol) so it was nice to get to treat him by showing him all he has taught me, and by doing all the hard work he normally has to do to put everything together for him.

I LOVE YOU DAD! XXX

After the picnic we all watched a Paddington bear DVD (my present to my dad) and the Harry hill movie (one of my brothers presents to my dad), which was amusing- and one of the main characters was a hamster, lol!

 

I hope all of you had a good weekend/Fathers day too. I better go now though, I have got to get off to college in a moment to finish my jacket,

 

See you all soon,

 

Bye XxXxXxX

A huge post! (incl. cupcake walk #2 with my friend; stitch b*tch :)

Hello,



Today I bring you a very, very full post! Full of lots of lovely costumes and cakes, shall we begin....?

First up I thought I would show you all the most recent pictures of my Line and form project (collaboration with a designer :). Here is my finished toile- which basically means the mock up of the garment to get the fit perfect:

I have now started to make it up for final as I had my fittings this week and made the small alterations to the patterns needed. Now I have got to power on and get it finished perfectly! I am really enjoying this project though, as we are learning all the skills needed to interpret a designers sketch- something that really intrigues me as,  as well as bridal, couture fashion clothing making (being in an Atelier and interpreting fashion designers sketches) is something that I would really liked to be involved in in the future :)

Talking of bridal though- I did a bit more work experience on Saturday for Sharon, the lady who let me help out with the bridal fashion show. She has just opened a new bridal boutique. I was front of house in it on Saturday. I managed to make an appointment for a bride to come in to try dresses on so I was very happy! Hehe, here was my view from my mirrored desk (ooh fancy! :-):

On to more lovely things now....

....today I was walking around London for about 5 hours- no exaggeration as first I went to see the Graduate show for all the 3rd years at my college at the OXO Tower Bargehouse and then I went onto my 2nd cupcake walk of the year :P

The Graduate show was really good, lots of really high quality pieces :) And the setting of the Bargehouse was really cool and interesting- kind of like an old warehouse but nice and bright from all the windows:

The lovely pieces speak for themselves so I will just let you enjoy the photos- rather than natter on about my thoughts :P

As I was wandering round I couldn't help but think that that will be me in two years, presenting my work as a graduate! That made me feel really excited and inspired :)

Then after that, as I said, it was on to my 2nd cupcake walking tour of London of the year. I enjoyed the one I did with my mum soo much that I asked if my friend from Uni wanted to go with me on another one. She has just started her own blog recently and I highly recommend you check it out and drop her a comment or two :o) It is really interesting, and I am not just saying that because I am her friend: http://www.stitchbtch.blogspot.co.uk/. Her blog is titled stitch bt*ch, as believe it or not that is the often used nickname for members of wardrobe departments in theatre etc! :P

First up on the tour was the cupcake bakehouse- Owned and run by Lorraine Pascal:

I had a mini chocolate cupcake from there:

Then it was onto Laudree- their macarons I would say could not be improved, they are perfect:

Sweet couture had some new flavours for this walk so I was super excited, I had cookie dough, and Grace had oreo (a good choice! That's What I went for on my first walk):

Mmmmm... cookie dough was so nice!!!!!!!  I want another one!!!! (P.s. I think Sweet Couture is my fave cupcake place)

Then came hummingbird bakery:

And another delicious red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting:

Yauatcha is a place I am so happy I discovered form the walks- their macaron varietys are so cool!

I had another Jaffa cake one because I couldn't resist and I also tried caramel cashew and pistachio:

We got three choices there this time as Fortnum and masons was unavailable for a sample this time. I didn't mind though as I do love Yauatcha.

And finally onto Patisserie Valeire for a caramel truffle and chocolate macaron:

So lovely!

The tour went via Saville row which was cool as you could see the workrooms through the windows below the pavement level.

Hehe, you can go get a drink and have a relax now- I am finished.

I promise :P

I hope you all had a great weekend too. I am off now to watch TV with my mum and work more on my dads Paddington bear cross stitch fathers day present.

See you all soon,

Bye XxXxX

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

Cupcakes and a chemise :)

Hi,

I hope you all have had a good week :0) I managed to finish my 15th century ladies chemise yesterday so that made me happy, wooo! My pattern is based on THIS pattern, though I changed it up a bit for my final garment. Here it is, in all its historical linen-iness :P :

Here you can see the gussets under the arms and the gores at the bottom:

It was very voluminous, before I gathered it up I felt a bit like I was drowning in all the linen :P

Now onto lots and lots of cupcakes...... where I was drowning in frosting and sprinkles, lol!

As I mentioned on my last post my mum booked for me and her to go on a cupcake and walking tour of London last Saturday. It was absolutely fabulous!!!!!!!! I got so much more cake and macarons than I had expected and in a greater array of flavours than I could have imagined (I thought I would just get a quarter of a vanilla cake at some different places and that still would have been good!).

First we went to Lorraine Pascal's bakery- cupcake bakehouse where I had chose a mini red velvet cake which was yummy. Lorraine has tried to make her icing fluffier by changing the sugar content and it sure was nice and light :)

Then after a macaron or two at Laudree it was onto Sweet couture where I chose this oreo cupcake as my sample- sooo yummy!:

 Mm mm. .. It is making me want another one just looking at it :0P

From the Hummingbird bakery we all got a red velvet cupcake, again nice and yummy!

On the tour we also stopped off at a cool Japanese resturant and bakery called Yauatcha where they had a range of over 20 macarons yo choose from. Me and my mum tried some crazy flavours including: apple crumble, banana and cinnamon and apple crumble which were all very tasty. I wasn't keen on the lemon tea one we also tried but 3 out of 4  isn't bad!:

 After a couple more stops at fortnum and masons and patisserie Valerie the tour was sadly over :/ but that didn't stop me and my mum, we headed back to Sweet Couture and picked up 4 more cupcakes to take home and try with my dad and brother:

 Another oreo (because that was so nice), a chocolate one, a red velvet one from there and the one with the bunny on is gluten free cherry bakewell. I liked them all! Though I probably did eat a bit too much cake that evening as I had about 7 quarters worth :p

In other news I have finished the first half of my dad's Paddington bear biscornu that I am making him for fathers day:

I am pleased so far. I kind of winged the back stitching by looking at the picture on the front of the kit because it was taking forever to keep looking backwards and forwards at the chart.

I'm off to the theatre now to see 1984 with my mum and brother. I have never read the story so am quite excited as I have heard it is very good. Then it is my friends birthday party tonight, yay!

I hope you all have a great bank holiday weekend,

BYE XXX

A post that is bursting at the seams! (no pun intended :P)

Hi everyone,

I hope you have all had a brilliant week :) There is quite a lot in the post so I recommend grabbing tasty treat before you start!

First up I would like to apologise for posting about finishing my Kameez (my friend told me this is its actual name :) twice- I got so wrapped up in all the work I have got going on at the moment that I forgot I actually had already posted about it.

 

Now I actually have some NEW photos/news for you :P

 

First up here are the pictures of my finished early 16th century foundation wear (wheel farthingale, bum roll and petticoat) and corset, being worn by my lovely (and very patient may I say!) model:

 

 

This is effectively early 16th century underwear so wandering around like above in those times would have been pretty obscene, lol! But my model looks beautiful and I loved working with her on the project so thank you to her! XXX

I enjoyed my time of being a model too, I got to put on my pretty corset, bum roll and petticoat and prance about outside among the trees on campus in the sun- so fun!

 

Next point on this whistle stop tour of all my weeks news is my finished Mens period shirt:

 

 

 

This was the project we have been doing this week and are meant to do next week. I finished my shirt this week (like some of the other girls) so next week we will be making a period womens chemise. Hehe hopefully I will finish that too  :P

 

Now onto my last bit of news- The wedding fair catwalk show I got to help out at as a dresser!!!! I had such an amazing day- chilling backstage with the models (hehehe, I love saying that as it makes me sound really cool! lol :P), then helping them to change into each wedding dress really quickly before they had to head back onto the catwalk again :)

 

Here are the beautiful ladies in their finale dresses:

 

 

These were all the hardest ones to get them in as most of them were lace up and not zip ups!

 

Here was backstage all the space we had for the dresses, the 5 girls, me, and the bridal boutique owner and her daughter. It got pretty hectic :P:

 

 

We had to lay the dresses next to go on the girls on the floor like big meringues so they could just step out of their other ones and step straight into the new ones and we could them pull them up and zip them up quickly, before finding a veil or fascinator to match: 

 

 

Here are all the models in their 2nd wedding dress each (they had 3 wedding dressed and one bridesmaid dress each- times this by 5 and there were 20 dresses overall!):

 

And here they are coming off the catwalk:

 

 

We did two shows, one at 12.30 and one at 2.30. I think we did really well as there was only 3 of us dressing 5 models and we managed to keep a constant flow of dresses- the catwalk was never empty. Without a rehearsal this was really good. The models were so good and all really nice which helped as they got their walking routine and order of going down the catwalk sorted pretty much by themselves which meant we could focus on getting all the ensembles and order of dresses ready in time. I have been invited to help out at the fashion catwalk the lady who owns the bridal boutique is going to host when she opens her new shop- yay! I am sooo excited :D I can't wait to do it all again with all new dresses!!!!

 

Wooo, after that long post I think you deserve a rest. Thanks for sticking with it and reading all my news, I better let you go now and I better get in bed as I have quite a bit of work to type up this weekend for college, and also tomorrow me and my mum are going on a cupcake an macaroon walking tour of London and I would hate to be too tired for that :0)

 

Speak again soon,

 

Bye my lovely friends XxXxXxXxX

 

I finished my salwar (quite a while ago now :P)

Hilloo,

 

Just a quick post today as I didn't want to neglect all of my lovely blog friends but I just finished my corset and foundation wear project at college Pictures coming soon :P) and have been hard at work getting all of my written work ready for Tuesday when I hand it in and my presentation on Monday, but anyway enough of my business and cue the pretty pictures!.....

 

I remembered the other day that I had forgot to post up any pictures of my Kameez that I actually finished a couple of weeks ago now, silly me :P

 

I thought better late than never though so here it is:

 

 

I am really pleased with it and it fits me really well. I started scratch from looking at pictures in the magazines I picked up at the Asian wedding fair all the way through making the pattern and toiling to finally making it up in the final fabric so it was nice that it came out exactly as I had imagined it in my head :o)

 

A tiny bit of quite exciting news... If you remember the wedding fashion show I was invited to help at was cancelled before, well, this Sunday I have been invited to do another one- an even bigger one with a full dress rehearsal and two catwalk showings! I am supppeerr excited as it will be such great experience for me. I will post pictures and tell you all about it after. I can't wait :-D

 

I'm off to bed now to get a good nights sleep ready for the weekend- The Eurovision song contest (Yay!) Saturday and the wedding show Sunday.

 

I hope you all have a good weekend planned too,

 

Speak soon,

 

Byeee XxXxXx

 

 

Pretty little lights!

Hi,

 

Today I went on a course at the V&A museum in London to do with 'Soft circuits'- incorporating electrics into sewing :)

 

 

It was very interesting and gave me loads of ideas to try at home once I buy myself some conductive thread and some more LEDs and stuff. You literally just sew the path of the circuit, here is mine- I went for a really crazy up-down-across-and-everywhere circuit! As long as your threads didn't cross and you joined the LEDs on in parallel you were fine:



 

 

When you pull the drawstring the lights come on (as the little pieces of conductive fabric at the top get pulled together and complete the circuit). I had four lights in total- 2 on the back and two on the front:

 

The battery is tucked away inside secretly :P The tutors were really lovely and let you be really free and creative which was nice- here is their website in case you fancy learning more or seeing some of their cool projects- http://codasign.com/

 

Maybe I will do a tiny tutorial on making something with lights- a little thing I had an idea for while I was making my bag today, when I pick up some of the stuff :)

 

Another good thing about the course was that I met some cool new people including a lady called Janine who makes these really cool pop/geek style headbands which were super fab! I really may have to treat myself to them one day! Here is her Etsy shop if you want to look at it(which I recommend you should if you like kawaii, cool and fun things :P): https://www.etsy.com/shop/JanineBasil

 

Hehe, in other news I am coming to the end of my 16th century corset and foundation wear project at college (the last week is next week). I have now finished my farthingale!:

 

I am getting there- just a bit more written work and my petticoat and bum roll to complete- I can do it!

 

I hope you all have a great bank holiday weekend :D

 

Speak soon,

 

Byee! xxx