Sunday 31 January 2016

I hate armholes aka chambray dress part 2!

Make the chambray dress part 2. Yeah why not, fun little job for a Sunday. WRONG!

First things first, got this bad boy out for the second time







Oh yeah, second time overlocking. This is some beautiful, near perfect overlocker work...







This is not... Not even close to where I'd basted it. Frickety frick frack.






Moving along swiftly from taking it in I decided to crack on with the shape of the neckline. Used a vest to get the line I wanted and made a sort of pattern-ish thing to cut it. Super pleased with myself, but as usual I was cut down in my prime!








Somehow managed to tuck part of the edge somewhere and shredded it. Bugger! I've overstitched (is that even a thing?!) to stop it fraying even more but am still in a strop about it.

Now onto the title theme... How the effing jeff does one sew armholes? I thought it would be easy enough just following the line of the old ones but oh boy was I wrong.







This is what an armhole looks like when someone who has no idea what they're doing makes it up as they go along!

But I persevered. Now in a really serious grump. Incidentally, a good way to determine the hem length when you're in a bad mood is to just hang the dress up and cut at it. Works wonders!

Anyway, I'm now cooling off with a cuppa while the dress hangs in the sin bin. Here's the final result. Annoyingly it was perfect fit across the bust until the armhole incident. Oh well, onwards and upwards!





















Thursday 28 January 2016

Chambray Dress

I saw a lovely buttoned chambray dress on good old Pinterest and wondered whether I'm capable of buttons or should leave them well alone.

Then along came the January sales and this (not particularly flattering unless you're a stick) oversized dress popped up on Asos.




Bingo - some creative attacks on the sleeves and length, and I reckon I can make that into a sundress.

Part 1... Remove sleeves and collar




Parts 3 to 370 to follow!

Sunday 3 January 2016

Kitty vs Table Runners

I crazily managed to volunteer myself to make table runners for a friend's wedding next weekend, thinking how hard could some straight lines be. We ordered 16 metres of fabric, which I cut into three and stitched together to then trim to the correct sizes.

Today I pressed and sewed the last four (27 metres in total) but they're done and dusted!

However, one little man decided he would try to help me. Some pictures of his various 'assistance' throughout the process...











All culminated today in a makeshift dress to distract him!





Saturday 12 December 2015

Christmas Jumper

Tis the season for office Christmas parties throughout the land...

So I decided to spice things up by making my own Christmas jumper this year. After previous felt based agony, I had the genius idea of just pva gluing it to the jumper. And it worked pretty well!

I give to you Rudolph vomiting Christmas decorations, accompanied by sequin trousers...





Friday 4 December 2015

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Just been wrapping presents (that's right, super prepared this year) and thought I'd try adding a little extra touch to some Christmas cards.

Some mini baubles from Paperchase later, et voila....





Wednesday 11 November 2015

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's nearly that time of year again... Time to let the festive crafting begin!

Office Secret Santa this year is buy something for £1, and also decorate a plain mask with something Christmas themed.

Found a lovely deer mask pattern on www.illistyle.com/masks (good old Pinterest!) and thought it'd be easy enough to adapt to Rudolph.


Step 1 - deer fur. Or felt, y'know whichever is easiest to get hold of.






Step 2 - eyeholes.









Step 3 - ears.









Step 4 - that bit of deer face thing.









Step 5 - a little red nose.









Step 6 - antlers!










Need to replace the antlers with extra thick felt so they stand up on their own, but then happy days!

It's a bit girly for my male Secret Santa recipient, but I think his two year old daughter will love it.

Pretty damn proud of myself!


Sunday 1 November 2015

Halloween

Some friends had a fabulous Malice in Wonderland dinner party last night for Halloween. I wasn't feeling brave enough to make a full costume but I did make some ears for my White Rabbit outfit.





Just a bit of stiff felt with some blusher for the pink bits, but pleased with how they turned out!

Also made some gluten free chocolate cupcakes...





Happy Halloween!