Tiny hand-made things

When I was busy with Uni work last week I needed a new notebook and popped into Wilkinsons, I found a pencil case on sale (I've been looking for a new one for ages) and pens with clock print on them and a matching document wallet. I have a weakness for pretty stationary! It really cheers me up when I'm working. I even decorated the notebook to match everything else at the start of my week off. I used some ribbon I had lying around and the cameo from a necklace I got in a charity shop a while ago for 99p.

I've also done a few bits of sewing this week.

I made a brooch to match my pink jumper because I wanted a moon to go with my vintage star brooch =] I designed it free hand onto some denim I had left from shortening these trousers, back-stitching the outlines (and unpicking it many times when it wasn't right) because I couldn't find my tailor's chalk. Then I filled it in with long stitch. I ironed interfacing onto the back, then covered that with a layer of PVA (paranoid about fraying much?) then I glued it to some cardboard, covered that with felt and added a brooch back, so it's cute but not waterproof =P.

I made the mouse today, it's for my mum as a mother's day gift. It was going to be a bear, but my affinity for mice clearly came through and it's nose looked so mouse-like that I added the big ears, tail and whiskers! I made it up as I went along so it's not surprising it didn't turn out quite right, in fact I'm amazed that all the pieces fitted together at all, even allowing for the fact that when I stuffed it all the seams went crooked =P Not bad for a first attempt at a non-sock toy and the smallest I've ever made though, it's only 3 inches tall. Next time I won't use felt (even through it's great for small seam allowances; no fraying) because it's stiff and that makes the small pieces hard to turn the right way round!

I've also been making jewellery so watch this space for updates on that soon I promise!

A goth wearing pastels?

I mentioned in my post about style experiments that I would be customizing a pink jumper I've had languishing in a drawer for years and including it in some outfits - to see if I can get into wearing pastels! Don't worry, I don't intend to drop any of my other style influences (or my mostly monochromatic wardrobe), but Fairy Kei and even Nu-Goth have shown me that pastels can look pretty cool. Not to mention the Lady of the Manners fondness for Black and Pink!

However, can pastels work on me?

You decide:

 
Once again, ignore my lack of head - It's a very bad skin week.

What I'm wearing:
Jumper - Primark a few years ago £10
Skirts - Black Pinafore dress - Miss Selfridge, Black lace skirt - New Look
Tights - Black Flower Print - Primark, Pink - Primark kids (they are a tiny bit short in the leg but I couldn't find any adult tights in pale pink)
Brooch - Isn't it adorable? And it's vintage. I brought it from SugarPinkMoon on Etsy, a shop run by Beth Leintz of Gathering Dust.
Detachable collar - made by me because I couldn't find a nice black one. It's made from some left over black cotton fabric, with interfacing between the two layers for a bit of rigidity. Then I stitched on lace trim and the ribbon ties. The back fastens with a lobster clasp and has an extender chain to make it a bit more adjustable.

In this close -up you can see that my attempt to customize the jumper was not entirely successful.
I used more of the left over cotton I used for the collar but despite the fact I ironed all the fabric onto fusible interfacing it still frayed quite a bit, so the edges aren't very neat.

If it continues to fray i'll have to make new stars and moons (don't worry I kept my newspaper pattern pieces) from different fabric - probably use an old black t-shirt.

I think it looks like something Hermione would wear to the Library at Christmas, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, right? She's cool =P

What do you guys think? Pastels yay or nay?

Military touches

I got these trousers at a charity shop a month or so ago, they are from Old Navy and still had all of the tags on =], quite a bargain too at £4.

I liked them how they were but wanted to add something. because I have several pairs of black jeans already.

To add the stripes I used some grey ribbon I got for 29p because it was a remnant. I didn't realise quite how bad the sun fading was until I'd finished (which serves me right for not sewing in good light). I quite like the effect though so I hope that when I wash them a few times the colour will even out. 

The original buttons were plain black so I swapped them for these pretty silver ones. They were expensive though £7.20 for 8. Which means they cost almost twice as much as the trousers but I like them so never mind =P Next time though I won't buy buttons in John Lewis when the Rag Market is closed!

Not the best picture but at least I cropped out most of my bum =P (I cropped my head out of all the pictures  too because I'm having a bad skin week, I think that I may be allergic to the new face wash I brought too...)

Hopefully this is the last hand-sewn project for a while because I finally took my sewing machine in to be serviced! I've asked them if they can keep it until I get paid again though because it turns out I need a new needle arm and that's an extra £25 on top of the £48 service. I think maybe putting the needle through my finger screwed it up =P

As we go round the sun again

I've stolen the title of this post from a song written by the band my college boyfriend was in, because I liked the lyric so much it's stuck in my head for 5 years (I'd post the song, but none of them would thank me for it).

I hope that you all had a lovely holiday season and are enjoying the beginning of 2013. I hope this year brings much joy and happiness to all of my readers!

I'm very much looking forward to the next year which I hope will be full of exciting things like fieldwork for my PhD, volunteering with my local history group to help digitize their archives, presenting my first conference paper, attending a short course about Human Osteology (one of the modules that got cut from my masters), setting up my Etsy shop, maybe even buying a house with Ash (excitement, terror, feelings of bank account emptiness approaching =P)

Normally I don't make New Year's resolutions or make them and forget them by the end of January, so this year I'm going to make it simple for myself:

Look after yourself better.

I've not been eating properly, often skipping meals, eating too much junk, not enough fruit and veg. I need to change that. I can see it's effect, not just on my body, but also my mental health. I suffer from hypoglycemia; I get low blood sugar easily, it runs in my family. When I was young with low weight and a high metabolism this meant I had to eat every 8 hours or start to shake and get dizzy. Now my metabolism is slower and I have larger fat reserves I don't get sick so easily so I thought it was less important to eat regularly. Recently though I've noticed that when I skip meals I start to get generally unwell after a couple of days, especially that I get anxious and depressed more easily because I'm putting unnecessary stress on my body which is fighting hard to keep my sugar levels normal.

My weight is higher than my 'ideal', but right now I'm unconcerned by that; although I feel big and cumbersome I know that I'm still within a normal BMI range and objectively still quite small. I do however feel that my fitness really is too poor (I get out of breath walking uphill far too easily!) so I am going to try and do more exercise. I'd like to swim more but unless I can fit it into my daytime schedule it will have to wait until the night's are lighter (I hate walking home from the pool in the dark; it's not the best area of town). In the meantime I will try to do some simple exercise like hula hooping or sit-ups at home!

I'm going to try to do a few other things to look after myself better too like change to a sulphate free shampoo; I recently had a bad reaction to a face-wash which contained sodium laureth sulphate so I'm starting to think that the reason my hair is kind-of crappy is because my scalp doesn't like it either. I might even get wild and try to remember to take my multi-vitamins =P

I was going to post lots of pictures of the home-made gifts I gave to everyone, but realised I forgot to photograph almost all of them before hey got wrapped! None of the necklaces and only a couple of the sock animals got photographed, oopsies!

Here are the pictures I did remember:

The  cat was for Anya; I like making cats, although they take such a long time, because I made the pattern myself - I didn't think any of the sock cats I saw online looked cat-like enough!

The owl with the top hat was for Ed who just got engaged earlier this year, at an owl sanctuary! I made Flick, his fiance, that I've known since school, an owl with a veil to go with it! Cute huh? I wish I had a photo of them both together.

Officially completely batty!

I've been collecting supplies for making more chokers, but I am waiting for my local craft shop to get more extension chains in stock before I can complete them (I could order some on-line  but I like to support the shop because it's independent and the owner is such a lovely woman).

In the meantime I've been working on a few projects for myself. I think my obsession with bat prints is starting to get a little serious =P

I brought this fabric in Poundland before Halloween. It's supposed to be a Halloween scarf, the bats are velvety and the green is a gauzy type of fabric:

I do love the green but for this project I carefully cut out some of the bats and then hand-stitched them onto a skirt I got in the charity shop for 2.50. It's a pretty shade of purple but I wish I had checked the label before buying it; it's linen so it creases really easily! Still I can't too much complain because it was so cheap. Sewing the bats on took me about 6 hours, but I really love the effect!

I know that when you look closely there are tiny traces of green left but from a couple of feet away you can't tell so it don't think it matters too much =]

I might add some stripes of black velvet ribbon too when I have another 6 hours to spare!

I've also finished some sock animals I started making a while ago, well almost finished, I need to get some buttons to add to the butterflies wings. I might put them in the Etsy shop if I don't give them as Christmas presents.

Oh my, what delights have we here?

I've been looking on in envy at all of the wonderful halloween items available in the US this year, especially the wonderful skirts Bane at GIY made. Oh how I wanted some fabric that beautifully spooky!

I've caved in and brought some from Etsy;

This Nevermore fabric

and

This Ghouls Night Out fabric

There were some other pieces I really wanted, but with shipping costs on top I can't really justify spending so much money on fabric; I can't really afford the pieces I just brought even...

If I could afford it I would have brought this Tula Pink Coven fabric, which I absolutely adore, but would probably use for decor, not clothing (too colourful for me I think) and I don't have anywhere to decorate at the moment... It might be years before I have a house. This crows at the graveyard fabric which is also lovely, but I have a bag with a similar design already. I'd also like spiderwebs and these owls in an ideal world.

I can't wait until the fabric I did order arrives though! I'm not sure what I'm going to make with the fabric yet. I'm fairly proficient with a sewing machine but I've only made a few garments so I'm also worried that I'll ruin the expensive fabric. Maybe I should save it until I can afford a professional seamstress? What do you think?

First attempt at making a complete item of clothing in 5 years

Yesterday I decided to make a skirt.
It was a pretty spur of the moment decision. I brought some black cotton fabric, lace trim and pink velvet ribbon and a pink zip.

When I got home I made a pattern from newspaper.

The waistband is my waist size plus 3 inches for seam allowance.
The skirt is made out of 4 panels which are half my waist measurement in width (plus seam allowance).

I gathered the 4 pieces so that they were each one quarter of the waistband in length, then sewed the side seams, attached the waistband, then put in the zip and hemmed it.

Finally the fun part; I added the trim and ribbon =]

I'm so proud of myself because I've not made a whole piece of clothing since I left school, and I'm happy that the homemade pattern didn't cause any disasters too!

I'm wearing the skirt here with a top I got for Christmas from a friend a couple years back; I don't wear it enough because its hand wash only (also it never felt quite right- so I added a bit of lace trim to the neck today; which is of course my usual response to clothing dilemmas)and some pink and black tights I've had in my drawer for years.
I wore my top hat because today is the first time in ages its been warm enough to leave the house without my beret!
The belt is actually a magnifying glass necklace; I just had to wear it because it has pink crystals on the chain =]