New Book!

Hello :)

A couple of weeks ago I saw this book on Etsy. For those of you signed up with Etsy, you’ll be well acquainted with the newsletters that get sent out regularly with all sorts of useful links and blog posts, and the book was in one of these. I casually posted the link on Facebook with the caption ‘I want this book!’ and thought maybe it would help someone but maybe not. In short I didn’t give it much afterthought. But then to my surprise a few hours later whilst on the phone to my wonderful boyfriend he announced that he had bought it for me! I'm so lucky :) I just can't wait for it to arrive now!

xo

Cupcakes! And a bag commission..

Hello all!

A couple of weeks ago I went to my boyfriend’s sister’s wedding. As I was wearing a green dress and don’t own a green bag (and in the name of self promotion) I took a clutch that I had recently made. This turned out to be a smart move as not only did I get plenty of confidence boosting compliments but I also scored a commission out of it! The lady in question was clearly very stylish and requested something in dusky pink and grey so I set to work. I love working with recycled or vintage fabrics where I can so the fabric I chose was a recently savaged t-shirt with a pink, grey and white flower pattern on it. Unfortunately I completely forgot to take photos of it but I can show you the bag that I took to the wedding.You can purchase this bag and others in my Etsy shop.

Pink and green Amy Butler print clutch bag - one of my favourites!

The inside of the bag, complete with magnetic snap closure.

Now on to the cupcakes... the bride’s mother had very kindly offered to make (or had been roped into making... I’m not sure which) nearly 200 cupcakes for the reception. They were spectacular. So very pretty and all decorated with roses, they must have taken forever to make! A week or so later, her other daughter asked for some for her fiancé’s birthday and I offered to help, and managed to get a free cupcake decorating lesson in the process. I never thought I would be able to make such pretty little cakes! Once back at home I decided to buy a petal decorating tip for icing and give it a go myself. And here is the outcome...

Early Morning Baking

Good morning my lovelies!

I woke up quite early this morning so I thought I would take advantage of the house being quiet (my housemates are asleep) and make some yummy peanut butter cookies! You can find the recipe here. The only thing I found was that the dough was a little dry using just egg yolks so for a double batch I use one whole egg and one yolk. Enjoy!

The gap in the centre is from sneakily eating one myself whilst they were still hot!

Colette Patterns Negroni Shirt Pattern

Hello!

At the beginning of last month it was my dad’s birthday. As many of you will have experienced, men are ridiculously hard to buy for, so this year I decided to try and make something that would have real value, instead of trying to find a suitable gift in one of the many shops in Brighton.

I had absolutely no idea of what to make, or what I was capable of making. I had previously considered making a shirt but it just seemed too difficult. Then, whilst browsing one of my favourite blogs, I came across this review. This lady is so very talented, and she really inspired me to give the Colette Patterns Negroni shirt pattern a go. So, spurred on by her blog, I went to the ray-stitch site and bought the pattern and 2 meters of lovely pale blue organic cross weave cotton. I also copied her idea a little bit with putting a contrasting fabric on the back yolk. My dad is a massive fan of cycling, so I used a remnant of a liberty print fabric I bought a couple of months ago when I first had the idea of making a shirt. The print is adorable, and features lots and lots of teeny bicycles!

The pattern is remarkably easy to follow. The clear instructions and diagrams were very helpful and the whole thing only took a few hours to make, which is much less than I had first anticipated!

As I had never attempted to make a shirt before, the whole experience was new to me. I learnt new skills such as how to make a collar and sewing flat felled seams. It was also incredibly rewarding to see that even with no experience of making this type of garment, I still ended up with a product that looked quite professional – my dad remarked on receiving the gift that the only indication he had that it was hand made was that there wasn’t a tag in the back of it! What a compliment! I read through the instructions before I started making the shirt and thoroughly scared myself as it contained techniques I had never used before and some bits that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. However, once I started making, the instructions became a lot clearer! My advice to anyone making this shirt (or anything in fact) is to not get scared looking at the instructions. Once you have the relevant pieces of fabric in your hands, it will all suddenly become clear what is required of you.

I’ll leave you with some photos of the details of this shirt, which make me very happy indeed. I may even make another!

xo

 

The shirt hanging up

The collar and back yoke detail

The back yoke detail - beautiful Liberty print

Etsy

Hello there!
I’m sure most of you are familiar with the Etsy website. I have been hooked for several months now, ever since I bought the fabric to make the quilt in the previous post. And now, I have my very own shop, which you can find here! All manner of little bits and bags are in there and if you have a request for a custom piece, please do not hesitate to get in touch and I will create a listing for you! 

Happy browsing!

xo

Hello Kitty and fabrics from far away

Hello all :)

It was my youngest cousin’s birthday recently, so a few months ago I had the idea of making her a special quilt for her. It was the first quilt I had ever made, so I spent quite a while researching how to make and bind them and picked up some good tips which I will share with you in just a minute. Being that she was turning 5 and a massive Hello Kitty fan, I started looking for Hello Kitty fabric in the shops near where I live. When I discovered that it is actually pretty hard to get hold of in shops, I turned to the Internet, and Etsy in particular, where I found some with no problems.  I was surprised to find that the fabric I desired would have to come all the way from Hong Kong! I ordered 8 fat quarters in total, each bearing a different HK pattern, all cotton and all in various shades of pink or cream. I then bought 3 more fat quarters of ‘filler’ fabric, also in pink, from a local store. 

I cut all of the fabric into 12cm x 12cm squares – giving me a 1cm seam allowance to sew with. I then started sewing them together in long rows of 14 squares, aiming to have a quilt that was roughly 140com x 140cm at the end of it. (In hindsight, I could have made do with using a lot less fabric as 140 x 140 is massive, which I did not realise at the time of planning!) I then attached all the rows together, pressing the seams as I went to give a good flat finish. the next step was to put the quilt together with the wadding and backing fabric I had chosen. One of the tips I had picked up from another sewing related blog was to use spray adhesive to keep all the layers together. This helped enormously, as dealing with a large amount of fabric is difficult on its own, without having to sew through all the layers without them moving! So I glued the wadding to the quilt front, then took the fleecy backing I had chosen, and glued that to the other side of the wadding making a big quilty sandwich. Next I sewed around the edge of the square to keep everything extra secure and started on the border. I took strips of the backing fabric and sewed them along the edge of the main quilt body, making sure that the back and the strips were right sides together to conceal the seam on the back. Then on the front I turned the edges of the strips under and sewed bright pink bias binding over the top to hide any messy edges.

The final step was adding the personalised panel on the back, which I hand-sewed with embroidery thread.

 I was so very excited to give her the gift; I couldn’t wait to see the look on her face! It was a priceless moment. But what was even more flattering was when my aunt asked ‘where did you buy that? In Brighton?’... I couldn’t believe it! She was over the moon that I had gone to so much trouble!

So I shall leave you with some photos of the quilt. I hope its used for many, many years.

xo

The quilt on my bed :)

Folded over so you can see the backing and message

Where the panel edges were captured under the bias binding

Hand stitched message

Fabulous 50's

Hello all and a massive welcome!

As this is my first post I thought I’d try and catch you up on the last few months (in terms of things I have made!) I'll start with one of my most favourite projects ever.

 This is one of my very favourite dresses and the only one I have made without using a printed pattern. There are plenty of envelope patterns out there in this style, but for some reason (that I fail to remember now) I decided to draft the pattern on myself using a plain white cotton fabric which later became the dress lining. As you can well imagine it was very difficult to make as it features a fitted bodice, and it took a lot of maths, frustration and re-cutting of pieces to finally achieve what I set out to make. All of this effort, however, has not deterred me from making another, it has simply made this one very special to me as I remember all the hard work I put into making it. 

The dress is based on a 50’s rockabilly style and is fully lined with bones in the top half. I used a simple cotton fabric as full skirts can end up being quite heavy if you use a heavy fabric, and while this is an attractive feature in some styles, it is not what I was aiming for. The skirt portion of this garment has great “swoosh-factor” and I just love twirling around in it (when no-one is looking of course!) and the bodice fits me like a glove! These elements combined make it an extra special dress to wear.  

(PS. sorry about the dark and overall not great photos, I just managed to remember to take them before it got dark completely!) 

Until next time,

xo