Another Birthday Bag!

I made my mum a satchel style bag for her birthday.

I chose brown corduroy as I think this will match most of her outfits ad found a cute bird fabric for the lining.

I turned the lining over the outer edge for all the outside pockets to give a little bit of contrast.

It has three pockets inside (all made from the lining) and is fastened with a ribbon loop and a wooden toggle. The pattern is my own design and there's not really a lot else to say about it!  I think mum likes it though, which is good.

Window Display

A change from the normal today, I just wanted to show off the shop window display I did a couple of weeks ago!

Apologies for the bad photos. I'm playing with Blogger mobile atm so these are mobile pics!

Birthday Bags

Bags seem to be a bit of a theme for presents from me atm, but then again, what's not to love about a bag?  They can be used for so many purposes!  Today I'm going to show you a knitting storage bag I made for a friend of mine.

The outside is blue corduroy and the inside a floral printed poly cotton.  There are two pockets on the outside, one intended for patterns and one for knitting needles/crochet hooks.  I didn't make that pocket too big though, as she already has a knitting needle roll.

 Making this was a really fun afternoons project!  Next up I'll show you a different birthday bag.

Brave Merida Cosplay

I don't usually go in for cosplay, as a larper I prefer to make my own characters.  However, ever since Brave came to the cinemas (heck ever since the adverts hit the internet) I've been a huge fan of Merida and I love her outfits!

So when I was asked to organise a Brave themed party for work, my costume choice was obvious!  I had some pale linen in my stash and I ordered some blue wool from here (excellent service as always from them btw!).

I decided to make Butterick 4377 and adapt it to my needs.  Mostly this involved adding ruffles to the under dress neckline and cuffs along with fake elbow 'puffs'.  For the over dress I added a front decorative lacing and drafted my own sleeves.

 I'm really pleased with the result!  The skirts are swooshy, the dress is comfortable and everyone at work was suitably impressed!  The children even told their parents I was the 'real' Merida and quite frankly, who can ask for better praise?

Oh, in case you're wondering, yes that's my hair, not a wig.  I don't really like wigs so I dyed it with a temporary dye and used this tutorial for the curls.  It worked well, but the curls were so tight I spent a lot of the morning pulling them down so I didn't just have a kind of curly halo....

Hopefully I'll be back to normal posting from next week, sorry it's been lax lately but what with one thing and another I've been dealing with life and have had no time for blogging.

Sword Storage and Shirts!

A friend of mine has just bought a house and noted a distinct lack of sword storage so for a house warming present I ran him up a sword hanger!

I fell in love with this traffic print poly cotton a while ago and I knew it'd be just the thing! 


As my overlocker is currently out of action (sob!) I made the sword loops with a wide herringbone tape in a cheery red to match the red background.

Continuing the cheery red theme, he's also had a new larp shirt for an older character of his, as shown in these pics below.

 

And now I must dash as I have a few last minute touches to put to a new make.  See you soon!