Hectic November!

November is pretty much over and this is my first post for the month! I'm very sorry and I promise it's not that I'm being lax, I've had a lot to make and do this month and most of it I can't share yet! A few sneaky peeks won't hurt though ;-)

My wonderful sister/bestest buddy, Faye, is getting married this year, on Christmas Eve!! She's asked me to play a major part in the organising/details and I cannot express how thrilled and delighted I am about that, as such I've had lots to keep me busy. 
I made the invitations and response cards to send out this month and was really pleased that both the bride and groom were very happy with the finished result. They (she) wanted a snowflake theme so I combined shimmery card with vellum and embossing them together with a snowflake pattern before using a snowflake stamp and silver embossing powder to add some intricate detail. It's hard to capture the detail in a photograph but here's a close-up of the top and bottom...

We have had our hair trials which was a lot of fun. Faye realised she needed her hair accessory for it on the Wednesday beforehand. No problem, out came all my white and silver beads and I got to work on it. 

There's nothing quite as motivating as a tight deadline but I got it all finished and thankfully it was just right for what she wanted and she loved it. Here's a sneak peak in her hair...

Also, it was her Hen Party last weekend and that too involved lots of organising and making, all of which was a surprise for her. We had a truly amazing time making cocktails followed by a boat cruise. As there were 26 of us, I got the Shrink Plastic out and made badges for everyone- any excuse for some Shrinkies action ;-)

On top of all this I have had a few Christmas orders, including my favourite- owl doorstops. Here's two I made today ready to be stuffed and weighted.... 

This hasn't left me with much time to blog I'm afraid, sorry!
And with the countdown to the Big Day in full swing I don't think I'll be much better in December, but I'm incredibly excited and will try and share what I can.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read my post, I really appreciate it and would love to hear any comments you have!
Until next time, craft in earnest. Craftin' Ernest xx

Altered Dress

I have been most remiss in terms of posts so far in July, I am sorry! There's been so much going on and with the Sun shining so brightly, July has just whizzed by so far.
There has been lots of making going on though, the most important of which has been two wedding gifts. For part of one present out came my trusted air-dry clay and letter stamps to make a pair of coasters. As you may have noticed from previous posters I just love the results achieved this technique.

I have also altered a dress, into a skirt, to wear to one of the wedding parties.
Here's a picture of the dress to start with on a hanger, I wasn't keen on how the top part looked on me but love the fabric. It also has a belt (and belt loops) but I forgot to put it on the dress to take the before picture.

The first thing I did was cut the top off from one side of the zip to the other side, without cutting the zip, about 5cm above the seam with the skirt (2cm above the belt loops). I then unpicked the stitches attaching the zip, handily it's an exposed zip which is very popular at the moment so this was very easy. (I think if it was a concealed zip I may have been less inclined to do this step, and would have just folded the top of the zip over and sewn the sides down?)

Also, before starting I had thought I would zigzag stitch the cut edge, fold it over and sew but I hadn't thought about the fact it was lined. This made it very easy- I turned down the outer fabric inwards and the lining fabric down outwards, pinning them together. I made sure the lining was a millimetre or two lower than the outer fabric so it wouldn't show. I then sewed the two together using matching thread, 5mm in from the edge.

I then had to sew the zip in with the top now in-line with the top of the skirt. As the original holes were still visible from where I unpicked, I simply used these lines as a guide, folding the tops in the same manner as it had been originally when it was a dress. I secured this with a few hand sewn stitches. (Now is the time to confess- I had cut the the top off just by eye and hadn't checked the levels on either side of the zip before sewing the seam and sewing the zip in, it resulted in the zip not lying flat. Naughty me! This meant I had to unpick one side of the zip and part of the top seam to make them even before reattaching the zip. Lesson learnt- a quick check saves time!). I left the excess of the zip attached but this could be cut off if it was bothersome.

All in all it took less than 2 hours (and that's including rectifying my stupid mistake) and means I have an item I'll wear in the wardrobe rather than something that just takes up space- yippee ;-)

Until next time craft in earnest, Craftin' Ernest x

Feathered Hairband

My friend asked me if I would make her a feather and bead hair-band to wear to an upcoming wedding. Err crafting with feathers and beads? Definitely count me in!
As it was going to be a case of trial and error I thought I would document how I got on and perhaps it would help if you wanted to make one.

My friend sent me this photograph to show me the sort of thing she was after but she she wanted it with black beads....

I decided to use white goose feathers and a plain, silver coloured, metal hair-band (rather than wrapping it with ribbon as in the picture and my friend was happy with that). Also I decided to do it all by sewing rather than gluing, I have been let down by glue in the past (glue, how could you?) and just felt sewing would be more secure.

Firstly I trimmed and stripped the feathers to the size I wanted as they were quite big. I wanted them to be about 8cm long so cut the shaft and stripped the barbs from the end (here's a link to a diagram of the parts of the feather courtesy of Ducks and Clucks http://ae7950.blogspot.co.uk/). I also tried to curve the feather slightly with varying degrees of success. I did this by running my fingernail along the shaft on the underside of each feather, sort of like the way you can curl plastic ribbon with scissors. This also made some "rotate" a bit but once sewn in place this wasn't to much of a problem (it's not really visible in the photograph).

I cut white fleece material into 2 triangular shapes with rounded corners. Originally I wanted to use white felt but the only felt I had was 4mm thick and that was far too thick. I think a thin felt would be ideal.

Also, I planned to use a plain metal hair-band but I then found one with a small flower design on the side and thought this would help hold the feather section in place due to not wanting to use glue. To be honest I think maybe a plain one would have been easier in the long run as the flowers got in the way for the later sewing. If you decide to make one I suggest using a plain band and glue the top triangle to the top of the band then sewing over it. Anyway I sewed the top triangle to the hair-band- narrower end facing down, with the bottom approximately 2cm above the ear.

It was then a case of sewing the feathers on. I started in the top right corner and worked leftwards. I stitched each feather about four times by stitching over the shaft, I then covered the stitches with the barbs of the next feather and worked along like this.

With the last feather in the row I only did three stitches missing the stitch near the top so that the first feather on the row below would cover the stitches, this row worked left to right. I carried on in this fashion until all the triangle was covered with feathers, mine took approximately 40 feathers. Don't worry too much about the bottom corner being very neat as this will be covered with beads.

I used 2 different types of beads and just sewed them on randomly closely together, roughly in a triangle.
(I must admit that I did sew the tips of an extra feather to each side of the beads to make it fuller but didn't photograph this sorry.)

All that was left was to sew the second triangle to the first underneath the hair-band, I whip stitched them together.

I think is something that looks better in person than in a photograph but my friend was happy with it and that makes me happy!

They're not the best photographs as well sorry.
Let me know what you think. Until next time, craft in earnest! Craftin' Ernest x

Ding Dong The Bells Are Going To Chime

I do love a wedding, it's such a delight to share in a couple's "Big Day".
I can totally appreciate all the hard work that goes into making the day so special and all the decisions that had to be made along the way.

I also love a bit of wedding related crafting! It's the most perfect time to get busy with the pearls and crystals, lace and ribbon.

I recently had the pleasure of making my close friend's sister-in-law-to-be's beaded tiara and the bridesmaid's hair accessories! (Not great pictures sorry)

Also, as I mentioned in previous posts I had the great honour of being part of my friends' Becky and Steve's wedding. For part of their wedding gift I thought I would make them something personal to commemorate their special day and decided on a cushion.

I used transfer paper for inkjet printers to copy an image of their hands with their wedding rings onto white fabric. It took a few attempts as the instructions didn't mention anything about letting the image cool after ironing before peeling off the backing paper. Probably very obvious (especially as it's not the first time I've used it) but I forgot so trial and error certainly played a part, as did some choice words.

Once I'd finally got it right, I machine embroidered the lettering. I used white tissue paper to space the words just as I wanted them.

I went over each letter a number of times with two different colours. To finish it off, what else but a few buttons- heart shaped, shell buttons were perfect for this project in my opinion.

I think the happy couple were pleased were the result, it's certainly very personal to them.

We have a few other wedding this year to look forward and to keep me busy :-)

Until next time craft in earnest, Craftin' Ernest x

Jet Setting Part 1 - Poland

Well, I've had a super busy week jet setting about, as you do. 

As I mentioned in the last post my oldest friend, Becky, married the love of her life, Steve, on Thursday in a truly beautiful ceremony in Poland! The day couldn't have been more perfect and I was truly delighted to be part of it as Matron of Honour and one of the witnesses. The wedding took place in Niepolomice Castle about 25km outside of the wonderful city of Krakow: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niepo%C5%82omice_Castle

Krakow is a lovely city with lots to do and see, we went on a few day trips (for example The Salt Mines in Wieliczka), took part in two walking tours and consumed an incredible amount of chocolate at Pijalnia Czekolady Wedel: http://www.wedelpijalnie.pl/pl/o-nas

There were quite a number of shops selling handmade items, including Kiku Miku, below, which sells a wonderful mix of accessories and gifts.

 

I treated myself to a cute, little brooch made from a bottle cap -https://www.facebook.com/MANIFESTO.SHOP

I also bought my sister a pair of earrings as she has a thing about Paris.

These were most deserved as later on the trip, whilst on one of the walking tours, my eagle-eyed sister spotted some wool in the window of a shop which was the first port of call after the tour had ended. There are lots of little passage ways in Krakow hiding all sorts of places and at the end of the one with wool in the front window was this wonderful treasure trove -

It was packed full of goodies, everything from buttons and wool to zips and patches. The brilliantly helpful man behind the counter didn't speak English but was really great, producing all sorts of extra colours of items I was after. Buttons, naturally, were a must and I couldn't resist a few other things. The zips for example were a bargain at the equivalent of 50 pence each! 

I think Krakow is well worth a visit! In the next post, I'll fill you in on Part 2 - Ireland. Until then, craft in earnest, Craftin' Ernest x