The good, the bad and the very ugly!

Hi,

 

I will start with the good news as it is always best to go for the good stuff first :)

 

Well, I am having a sale on my shop! I am thinking of moving over to Esty from folksy so it is easier for people not in the UK to buy items. EVERYTHING in my shop is now £2.50 OR LESS (most items are less!) so get over and check it out, if you've had your eye on something for a while now is your chance to get it at a bargain price: click here!

My other good news is that I finally actually started to finish off the Kameez I drafted the pattern for aggess ago after I went to the Asian wedding fair and my mum bought me the fabric bundles, here is what I have got so far:

 

 

Just the neckline, cuffs and vent sides left before I am done :D I reckon I will finish it by the end of my holiday, I have the whole of next week still left which is plenty of time!

 

Further good news, I am all ready for mothers day tomorrow :) I finished  my mums card today, I turned the little cupcake cross stitch kit I completed a while ago (and blogged about :) into a cute little brooch to go on the front:

 

I hope she likes it!

 

But now.... We come to the bad news and the very, very ugly......

 

.... Yesterday I went to the tailors and dressmakers I still visit when i get time off and I broke the machine needle, I was changing it but I didn't turn the machine off. I was just thinking that I should turn it off because I reckon I could do myself a nasty injury and- BOOM- the machine needle suddenly goes straight through my finger! I remained calm and just kept apologising to Michael and Stephanie and saying 'I'm such an idiot for not turning the machine off!'

I didn't pull it out (which was the right thing to do- you should leave it in to prevent fainting, lots of bleeding, infection etc...) and Micheal took me to the hospital and I was in and out in under an hour- the hospital was really great. luckily I didn't hit bone, the needle only went through my nail and the top of my finger. Hehe, I was back rhinestoning a wedding dress and Micheal and Stephanie's with one arm in a sling afterwards! :P

 

So remember to turn sewing machines off when you are fiddling with them! Don't be lazy like I was!

 

Here is a picture of my finger with the needle as I know some of you (like I usually am :P) may be curious (Micheal told me to take a picture- I was more worried about getting it out at the time!). There is no blood in the picture as my finger did not bleed- the needle held it in so there is no gory stuff but I don't recommend looking if you are extremely squeamish- I don't want to upset any of you :) just warning you of the dangers of sewing machines!

 

So look or look away now:

 

Here is what I have got for the next few days:

 

One bandaged up finger.

 

Some lessons you learn harder than others I suppose, and I am thankful to the hospital for sorting me out so quickly, the nurse I had said she had done the same before and so had Stephanie so that made me feel less stupid! I have to wear a plastic bag over my hand in the bath- hhehe I don't think anyone could make me feel less stupid about doing that :P

 

One last pointer- never ever hold pins in your mouth, this is something I actually never do, I have heard too many horror stories about that.

 

But sewing is relatively safe, so don't be put off! :) It hasn't stopped me sewing, I was working on my Salwar all of today!

 

I hope I haven't scared any of you with my post- just go back to the pretty Kameez fabric at the top and treat yourself to something in my shop if you feel shaken! Lol

 

I promise no gruesome pics next post. See you all soon I hope you all have a lovely Sunday tomorrow,

 

Byeeeee XxXxXxXxX

Corsets and chocolate :)

 Hi,

Last Friday I managed to finish my corset!!! I was so happy as I though I would just fall short because I had a lot of hand sewing over the eyelets to do but I managed to really get into the flow of it and got it all done :D Here is my finished corset, the mannequin is not quite the right size so you will have to some imagining to think what it would look like on my actual model who it is made to measure for:

 

 

It is fully boned a the front and laces up at the centre back and the straps are off the shoulder.

 

I am so happy my 17th century corset is done :-) It was a lot of work but I am very proud of it and enjoyed making it. Next is onto the wheel farthingale (period skirt supporter) to go with it!

 

I am off on my Easter break now though and my Brothers Birthday is coming up really soon. I wanted to make him something for his birthday but something different to the kind of things I normally make. I also wanted it to be really fun so I came up with the idea for a Domo Pinata!:

 

 

I made it from a cereal box, 4 toilet roll tubes, some red and white card and painted it all.

 

I have filled it with lots of tasty sweets:

 

 

Hehehe :)

I hope my brother likes it and I hope it holds up to a little bit of whacking before it breaks open :P

 

In my final bit of news for this post I finished the first of  the different bridal headbands I have begun designing and making recently. I am really pleased with the finished result:

 

 

I made the little ribbon roses and I put together the middle piece using the lace applique technique onto a fine net/gauze type material. There are little diamante in the centre of the flowers which sparkle in the light (you can just about see them in the photo :). I thought the peacock feather looked pretty and added a bit of interest. It is quite bohemian and vintage in style. I am still working on the others so it will be interesting to see what style/vibe they give off when they are finished.

 

I hope you are all very well and that you are having a good week so far :o) I am very excited for tomorrow as my brother is off school so we are going to the local park to play tennis then he is treating me to a Costa Coffee (my favourite!!!) lunch- sandwich, cake and everything! So generous! I treated him to a cadbury's creme egg mcflurry today- very tasty, I do recommend :P

 

Speak to you all again very soon,

 

Bye XxXxXxX

Wackiness and weddings

Hi everyone :)

Sadly I can't bring you any pictures of the wedding fashion show as it had to be cancelled due to the organiser having a family emergency so my thoughts go out to her. The wedding fair did go ahead though so the lady I applied for work experience with said I could still come for an hour or so to look around etc. The building it was held in was really lovely and historic/period and when I got home I was in a bridal mood! I decided to finally start making some of the bridal headbands I designed ages ago. Here is a work in progress picture:

 

It will be interesting to see them fully done, they are coming along as planned so far :P

 

Hehe, talking about bridal wear and bringing me on to the 'wackiness' section of this post.... me and my brother went to Ripley's believe it or not in London this weekend and they had this exhibition of wedding dresses made from toilet paper!:

 

Hehe they are soo good! My dad said they are alright as long as it doesn't rain, which is very true! :P

 

In ripleys they also had these tiny shoes called lily shoes- they do really weird stuff to your feet but I just thought they looked like cute little pixie shoes:

 

They even seemed to have a pattern for them:

 

I may try it one day but a modified version as I don't want to squeeze up my feet to be all tiny!

 

In other news it is my friends birthday coming up this weekend and we are all going to Wahaca the Mexican restaurant to celebrate. I wanted to make her a little something to go along with the rest of her gifts.

 

(P.S if you are my friend whose birthday it is you should stop reading now to prevent ruining any surprises!!!!)

 

I wasn't sure exactly what but I knew I wanted it to be cute. In the end I decided to go for a panda and then just started making and Little Tall Panda was born:

 

 

He is a brooch. I called him little tall panda as he is small but his body ended up quite long :-)

One of her favourite colours is purple so I added the purple bow and buttons to make him look all snazzy and such-like. I hope she likes him :0)

 

And my last bit of this post is just an update on my corset! This week Wednesday to Thursday is the last 3 days we have to finish our corsets (though we may get a little bit of time later on if we finish our 2nd part of this project early). I am getting there with mine, it does resemble a corset properly now and all the bones are in it:

 

Just some more bias binding, putting the eyelets in and then all the tabs which will be the fiddly and potentially time consuming bits but I hope I will get it all done :-)

 

I am off to bed now to get my beauty sleep, lol :)

 

See you all soon and thanks for reading my lovely friends!

 

Byeeeeeeeeee XxXxXxXxX

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

Exciting news!

Hi,

Just a quick post today as everything is a bit hectic for me at the moment, but in a good way! I have been trying to find some work experience recently and was really lucky to get a reply from a bridal boutique near me. I had an interview today and was really excited when the lady who owns it said she is really happy to give me a trial period during my Easter break and after that to consider taking me on for more experience on Saturdays.... and as well as all that.... something extra exciting.... she invited me to come and help out backstage at the bridal fashion show she is involved with next Sunday!!!! :D I am soo excited about how much I will get to learn. I will keep you all updated and hopefully bring you all some pictures of the fashion show next weekend :)

Talk to you all again super soon and hopefully for a bit longer :p

Byeee 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

 

Macaron madness! (and other stuff)

Hiiii!

 

I hope you have all been having a lovely week and it's Friday tomorrow so the weekend is not far away either :)

 

As I mentioned in my last post, the Saturday just gone I took my mum for a cream tea at Hush Brassieres in London- it was very nice and they had mini macarons. I wasn't sure if I even liked macarons (I didn't think I did) but after one bite I was hooked- they were soo tasty and fun!

 

When I went out with my family on Sunday my dad treated me to a box of mini macarons (just like the ones from the cream tea) from Marks and Spencers. I have been very much enjoying working my way through them:

 

Mmmm yummy!

 

I have officially been bitten by the macaron bug as on Tuesday this week after I finished early at college I tried making some of my own raspberry ones. I wasn't sure how they would come out as I had never made them before and had heard that they are notoriously difficult. I did some searching on the internet and found this youtube video: click here! I followed all her tips to the letter and left them with their filling inside in the fridge overnight (to moisten slightly) and they were almost perfect, apart from they weren't the pinky colour they were supposed to be as I couldn't get any food colouring :P:

 

 

 

I was so proud! I still have to hone my skills as I think I may have got a bit lucky how they came out with their feet and everything first time. I shared them with the girls at college who said they were really tasty so I was happy- I thought they did have the right macaron texture and flavour :)

 

And Just in case I hadn't made enough macarons already I ended up creating a pattern for a crocheted macaroon that evening! lol:

 

I think it is quite kawaii- now all that is left to do is make up lots in different colours (or flavours :P).

 

Hehehe, in other non-macaron related news yesterday after college one of the 3rd years ran a mini recycling project thing (as part of his final year project) which was really fun. We got to work with wrappers which was cool as I like to use these in crafty ways too. We made oyster card holders by fusing plastics together with the heat from irons and then sewing the plastics together. Here are mine:

 

One skips one...

 

And one Cadburys marvellous creations on (I love this chocolate!!!)...

 

I will definitely be using the heat technique to maker more wrapper stuff in the future!

The last instalment in this rather long post is a couple of pictures of the tasty food I ate at Giraffe - a really fun restaurant I went with my family on Sunday and a picture of my Ice cream from the Harvester which I went to with a friend from college today :) It was all so good, I had to share it with you guys!

 

This is the Farmers market burrito from Giraffe, sorry the picture is a bit blurry I was excited to get eating it :P:



 

and here is my brownie and ice cream dessert from Giraffe:

 

Warm, gooey and sweet- delicious!

 

I will definitely be going back to Giraffe as the food was really good and tasted really fresh :)

Hehe, and last but not least my minty aero Harvester sundae:

 



 

Again, very good, but safe to say I didn't need any dinner today and am also a bit worried about possibly having to do a corset fitting tomorrow, lol :P I actually went with the girl who I am making a corset for but luckily I did her fitting this morning, before we went and ate tons of salad bar and ice cream!

Sorry- I am done now! You can go and rest your eyes now :-P

Speak to you all again very soon,

Byeeeeeeeee xxxxx