Charity shop finds...

I know I know...I've been lazy with the blog again. *slap on the wrists for me*

BUT...I have been very busy.

I got married :) 

So far it has been the best 5 months of my life. I love being married. In all honesty, not much changes, but in another way, everything changes. In a good way :)

I've also now finished my degree in Architecture!! So I've been busy for good reasons.


Anyway, no crafty bits to show you...YET! So here are some charity shop finds.

Black and white floral skirt. £1.

I don't tend to wear skirts at all, but I am always drawn to them. This one is a light cotton fabric, and I quite like the length - it falls just below my knees. I'm also tempted to make this into one of those high-low, dipped hem-type skirts that are popular now. I'm a fan of anything that makes sure it covers my bottom!

A nautical looking jacket. £1.

Yes this jacket is a few sizes too big. But I love it anyway. It is a light jersey fabric - perfect for summer. I like these sorts of jackets because they look posh, but they are cool and comfy to wear even as it gets hot.

Look at that pinstripe sleeve turn-up!

I also love the pinstripe bias-binding on the inside of the jacket. 

No one will see it but me, but it's so cute!

That's all for now guys. Now that I have some free time, I do plan on blogging more, I may just have to save up all of my interesting posts and then blog them all at once. I don't know. we shall see :)

My newest little sewing treasure...

Hi guys, no crafting updates today, but look what the Mr bought me!!

How stunning is this?!


It's a little pin box (I think), and it's all enameled with little gems stuck on in places. The machine is a deep purple colour and the base is a pale baby pink. It even has a little cotton reel on the top!

I love this. I love my Mr for buying it for me. I'm so very lucky.

Granny dress refashion...

Hello all!

I picked up a rather large granny dress in the summer with the intentions of making it fit me. I really liked the pattern and the light fabric. (Plus, it was only £1!)

(It was a size 20 and someone had hand-sewn up the buttons for modesty. How sweet!)

I usually take ages to plan what I'm going to do with a refashion. But this time I decided to just dive in and chop bits off!

(I chopped off about 10 inches from the bottom)

(I took the sides in and here's what I was left with.)

Now normally, I would have stopped there. But in all honesty, am I really going to wear a summer dress in the freezing cold, windy Plymouth winter? No. Also, I just didn't love it. I'm trying to make things i'm actually going to wear, not things to live at the back of the wardrobe waiting for good weather, or waiting until I have the confidence to wear. So I carried on chopping.

Here's what I finished with....

(A cute little blouse!)

I'm quite pleased with this. I left the sleeves as long as this because it's cold, and I think it's a more mature length. I unpicked the hand-stitching down the buttons so that it would open up again. This allowed me to take the sides in a bit more to make it more fitted. You can't see it too well, but where the buttons finish, is where the bottom of the dress started to fan out. It now forms a little bit of a peplum, which is quite flattering on my hips.

I'll be trying to make some handmade Christmas gifts over the next few weeks. I won't be blogging about them until after Christmas though, some of my readers are some of the people who will be receiving those gifts!! 

I'll try and update soon!!

Halloween refashion!

Good afternoon everyone!

(That would have said good morning had I not been so fragile earlier today. Great night out :) )

Ok, so as you probably know, I study architecture. It pretty much takes up all of my time. So when I was invited out with the other half, one of his friends and his girlfriend for halloween, I was sure it was just going to be a calm evening. No dress up involved. Then I found out I had a few days off and we could actually have a proper night out!!

I only found this out on Wednesday. Halloween was Thursday. I haven't gone out for halloween in years, and I didn't have an outfit!

Enter...this 4 sizes too big, flappy sleeves, ankle length red little number that I bought for 50p and one of our charity shops! (it was 2 for £1 day, so I got another new top as well :D )

(I forgot to take a photo of me wearing this, sorry!)

So the dress was a lovely heavy jersey fabric, and barely even needed proper hemming to be perfectly honest. All I did was cut off about 35cm from the bottom and cut off the flappy sleeves - luckily the way it was sewn in meant that if I pulled the sleeve tight enough when I was cutting it, it pulled all the little loose threads out too, so it was literally just a case of cutting them off! Oh, I did tighten the sides of the sleeve a bit when I added darts to the side. Nothing wrong with them, I just didn't want people to see the sides of my bra. The best thing about this project is it took less than half an hour!

Here's what I ended up with...

(Nice eh? Not bad for a simple refashion)

And just because it was for a halloween outfit, here it is with me all done up...

Oooh, also...look at all the extra fabric I've got! I don't know what to do with it really, red isn't something that's normally in my colour palette. Any ideas?

It's ok though, we were all safe that night. There was a doctor present at all times :)

An actual wearable item of clothing!

Hi guys! So I've not had much time for crafts lately, final year at uni and 11 weeks until my wedding is just consuming every waking minute right now. BUT! I had a spare evening last week so I decided to knock something out that I've wanted to do for ages...

(not the best pic, hastily taken in the mirror with my new camera that I still don't know how to use!)

Ok, so this may not look like the most technical blouse ever, but it had a lot of elements that I wanted to try. I've made clothes before - I used to make those massive dresses you see in old western re-enactments, but a lot of those techniques are different to what we do nowadays. 

(what I often made. Gorgeous pattern)

I've made clothes for myself before as well, but they were things like summer dresses, pyjama bottoms etc. Things that were allowed to be baggy and wonky looking. But I wanted to make something I could wear all the time.

I drafted the pattern myself, based on a favourite blouse I already had. I made a few changes. I allowed for the back to come down a lot lower, to allow for my builders butt that often comes out when I'm working in the studio!, I added darts, and I added bias binding around the neck and arm holes. The original top just had a seam and it was a bitch to iron!

(here's a blurry pic showing the length at the back and the lovely drape of the fabric)

(This shows how I made the sleeves thinner and added bias binding)

(Close up of my bias binding. Bit wonky now I look at it. Too scared to use the 

machine on my first attempt at it!!)

Now I was quite naughty. I didn't make up a practice top (muslin?) I had this beautiful silky fabric and only 3 hours. Luckily nothing went wrong and I had almost no wastage or anything like that. I got lucky!

So, things I learned:

-how to do bias binding

-how to hem a curve

-where to put a dart in without a pattern

-that this fabric was lovely to sew with and to stop being scared of anything new and just do it!

-that I'm smaller than I think I am! I tend to allow loads of room for movement, but I've actually lost weight!

-use a zig zag stitch in replacement of an overlocker

Most importantly, this little project has given me more confidence. I am good at sewing. And I'm not saying ti to brag or anything, but it's something I can actually do quite well. After finishing this blouse I had the courage to take in one of my cardigans that I've been meaning to do for ages. Bit scary cutting the sides of the knitting, but it worked and it's lovely now. I may show you that when I get another free evening.

Just remember guys, just do it. If you're afraid of a new technique, just have a go at it anyway. It might be easier than you think, and it'll open up loads of opportunities for you!

I've been bad...

Ok guys, I've kind of neglected my blog these past few months *slap on the wrist for me*, but I'm trying to get some stuff together to blog about as we speak!

Well here's an update of what I've been doing.

I've finished my second year of uni, hooray! Had a few rough nights churning out work and getting ready for numerous deadlines, being buried under insane amounts of paper and mount board, literal blood, sweat and tears went into it all. But it was all handed in in early July. Phew! :)

Since then I've been pretty much just bumming around being lazy, sleeping, not doing anything uni related (even though I'm meant to be working through my reading list), and seeing family back home.

Ooh, the partner and I have been getting ready for our wedding in January. When it's 6 months to go you can start booking things and it's been mental with meetings and trying to get everyone to be free on the same day, blah blah blah..... But we've done a lot of work for it, and I'm actually making the invites this week :D

Anyways, I will return soon with a proper update of what I've been doing. I've not been sitting on my bum for 6 months, honest :)

New things...

Hello! Long time no blog!

Sorry everyone, it's been really hectic lately, been back in my home town, been back here, had a birthday, had a hangover, had lots of uni work, had no time for crafts. However, here's something I made before it all went mental...

It's a little pin cushion jar!

You can take the lid off and store your pins too

How useful is that?! I made a bigger one for my mum which was about 8cm in diameter, but these little cuties are only 4cm in diameter, they just fit pins in quite snugly. I made them in a few colours...

I like the pink one the best :)