Sentimental Stuff

So, after a week of standing silent I set the sewing machine in motion again yesterday!  I'm off to a steam punk larp in march and whilst  I'm not making all new kit I'm planning on adding considerably to my wardrobe by making all the little detailed things I didn't have time for last time.

First things first, I made this...

Petticoats are an amazing invention!

I'm planning to use this to bulk my skirts out a little.  It's kind of sentimental to me though, as the fabric is the lining fabric spares from when my mum made my wedding dress (yup my wedding dress was lined in blue) and the lace was given to me by my gran.

Pretty delicate fabric and lace, what more could I want?

This is the 4th time I've made this skirt or a variant of, so it was a reasonably easy sew.  the lace was also easier to add than I was expecting, which was a bonus!

I love how the lace looks like fans

In other crafty type news I'm knitting a scarf to a pattern!  Ok, the pattern is one line long, but it's still a pattern!  It's looking quite pretty and more importantly the intended recipient has given her approval.

Christmas is coming...

And what with my in laws coming for a visit, feeling ill and actually needing to do housework and gardening not a lot of crafting has happened here this week.

One thing I did make though...

Yes, I know my kitchen is as untidy as the rest of my house :P

I love making mincemeat!

Halp?

So, I've been feeling slightly better since teatime meaning I found the energy to knock up a new hat!  Thing is...  I can't decide if I like it or not...  Opinions please?

Excuse how messy my house is, please...

I got the pattern from the Sewing Book, by Alison Smith, which was lent to me by a lovely friend and is so awesome I had to buy my own copy!

The fleece was an off cut in the remnants basket at Fabric Land

It was a lovely simple sew, taking less than an hour, from start to finish!

Really not sure about the tassels though...

So anyway, please leave me a comment or email me or something and tell me if I should leave the house wearing this...

Bleh...

Sorry for the lack of updates on Thursday, I've not been feeling all that great, so have lost all energy and motivation to sew. :(

Instead I've been knitting...

Sorry for poor photo quality...

These are tiny little hats for premature babies.  And very good knitting practise for me.  They mean I've done lots of casting on and off, relearned 'stocking stitch' (It's going to be the new long division, I can tell...) and also practised knitting two together...

I love this wool...

And yeah, that's about it really.  I'm supposed to have started my evening dress by now, but I really can't find the energy, so I think that will have to wait for next week.  In the meantime I'm spending a lot of time on the sofa, watching TV and knitting a new pair of hand warmers for myself...

Pyjama bottoms and other stuff...

Here are my new camping/sleepover pyjama bottoms.  I am sick and tired of never finding pyjamas in a longer length.  Surely I can't be the only person with this problem?  Anyway I made some of my own!  They aren't great but they are warm and comfy.  I have plans for a top to follow so I will be even warmer and snugglier in bed, but that's possibly a project for another day...

I'm feeling too lazy to change clothes and model today, sorry...

These are made out of the same stretchy fabric as the dress I made a short while ago and trimmed with the left over blue ribbon.  The waist is simple elastic and that's about all as can be said about them really.  They are amazingly comfy and huge and the bottom hem skims the floor so all in all I'm happy!

A close up of the hems, which I had to take up twice!

In other news, anyone want to venture a guess as to what costume this is going to be?

Yes I'm disturbed by it as well.  Share my pain! :P

I may have less frequent posts as the run up to Christmas begins, as obviously I can't really post pictures of what I'm making people because it'd give the game away.  However I've got some stuff saved up that I haven't shown you all yet and I'll probably make stuff for me or kit and stuff so there will be some things, but yeah...  Basically advanced apologies if I go a bit quiet!

Deadline achieved, just...

I got the coat finished!  It looks pretty cool (if I do say so myself) and Panda is happy with it.  Sadly I finished it with about 2 minutes to go, so there wasn't time to get detailed shots of all the little flounces.  However this is Panda in full kit :)

Doesn't he look good?

I think it goes nicely with his hat and I'm very pleased with the epaulets.   It's made from navy and red faux wool, with silver trim.  The buttons are the ones that are meant to be fabric covered, but I left them plain as we wanted huge shiny buttons and that was the easiest (and cheapest) way of achieving it.

Tomorrow I should have some pictures of a pair of pj bottoms I made and possibly a hat depending on how I feel today.

Running close to deadline...

Very quick post today, as I need to be sewing really!  I'm halfway through making a frock coat, which needs to be completed tomorrow night...

But in the meantime whilst I had free time on Saturday night (the frock coat needing a fitting before I could go any further at that point) I made this -

I love this fabric so much!

The white fabric was given to me in a fabric swap by my lovely friend Abi, and the lining was already cut out from an earlier failed attempt to make this cloak in another fabric.  The trim is loveliness itself and such a bargain at 35p a metre!  I'm not admitting to having bought another 10 metres of it today though, oh no! 

This is me with the hood down :)

Right, back to the sewing machine, hopefully I'll have a fab coat to show off in Thursdays post!

So...

I am now part of a D&D campaign on Thursday evenings.  This is great fun, but I tend to try and have something small to make whilst we role play.  It seems to help me think better.

This is what I made last night.

It's a pin cushion.  I embroidered away as my character bickered, mewed, howled and shot her way across the landscape, then this morning I trimmed it with this cute broderie anglaise, backed it, stuffed it and turned it into a cute little pincushion.

I think it's really cute!  And I have plans for another one (different design) for my Grans birthday.

Not Larp Kit!

Despite what Sam says, I've made this dress to wear for work.  I chose the material because it was so pretty I knew I needed something made out of it, and it was originally destined to be a hoodie.  However this way, I can wear it to work and be warm, plus I think it wil be a lovely dress to chill around the house in so I'm quite pleased with it.

Yes I know this is a bad pic of me, but it's a pretty good one of the dress...

It was a free prima pattern, from the magazine I think, and the only modification I've made is adding a ribbon tie to the back to give it a little more shaping.  I'm toying with the idea of adding trim around the neckline, but I'm not sure.

A slightly better picture of me at least :)

It's been a week for magazine ideas, as the other thing I've made came from the Company craft page a few months back.

Isn't it cute?!

I wasn't sure about my fabric/lace choices when I made this but I love it now!  I'm planning a few more in a range of colours, for steampunk props...

Crochet

I'm back from witw :)  A good time was had, but possibly more excitingly in terms of this blog, I made a lovely new friend, who very kindly taught me to crochet!

I started normally with a chain in wool.  Then as we were doing this in character it got suggested that crochet out of wire would be more useful.  As I had a reel of jewellery wire on me and I'm mad enough to go for a challenge like that...  I may have made a circlet/headband thing.  Oops?

Sorry this isn't the clearest of photos...

For the most part it's just a chain.  The thicker bit is a treble stitch (I think?) but it doesn't really work well in the  wire.  It does however look quite funky in a modern jewellery kind of way!

Then, mostly to see if I could remember what I was taught I made a tiny square up today!

Again, sorry about the photo!

I'm not entirely sure that I've done it right, but I'm still quite proud of my first and second pieces of crochet!

This evening I have a cushion I want to sew, which looks fairly simple so hopefully I'll have something to show you all tomorrow as well!