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Random Odds and Ends

My camera charging cable has vanished so it's going to be random odd stuff until I can locate it.  It's also the reason I didn't blog on Monday.  Too busy looking for it!

I hand made most of my Christmas presents last year.  Sadly, I was so busy sewing I forgot to take pictures of most of them, but here's a couple I did photograph!

This is an apron I made for a friend who does a lot of cooking.  Actually, a lot of my friends got aprons (as did my husband!) but this is the only one I remembered to photograph.  It's made of the softest cotton and I learnt a new thing with it as I learnt how to make my own bias binding.  It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be.

 This is a tiny doll replica of another friends larp character, Captain Hel.  I worked on getting as many details accurate as I could, but there are surprisingly few photos of Hel so it was mostly from memory!  The armour is tiny scraps of upholstery leather, the top is inside out chinese brocade and the poncho is green jersey scraps, luckily in the same fabric as the actual poncho!

Empire Kit

Ok, so I didn't go to Empire due a number of things (largely because I'm too chicken where large events are concerned).  However, I have friends who did and one of them gave me a black velvet doublet to play with for his kit!  The only rules were no wings and no pink.  Sadly, he knows me too well...

Stupidly I didn't think to take before pictures, but when I was first given it, it had skirt panels, sleeve caps and the sleeves were zipped on.  Oh and horrid plastic toggles!

I swapped the toggles for some shell buttons, took the skirt panels off (they became my test panels), took of the sleeve caps, and got rid of the zips.

 I picked out a selection of ribbons and eventually we decided on the green and silver look.  The other thing I did, which really pleases me but no-one else will ever know about is I took the lining out and replaced it at the end so the stitch lines don't show.

The little beads are seed pearls.  I used 3 packs and they are hand stitched on. Excellent work to do under a blanket in front of the telly when it's cold!

I felt it needed something more at that point so I found the larger beads and experimented until I liked the look of the sunbursts and instead of a centre ribbon I did a line of beading instead.

 The sleeves were reattached by the simple addition of eyelets (I now have my own eyelet punch which I love!) and a narrow silver ribbon.

So there you go.  One pretty league doublet!  It went to Empire and I'm promised it (and it's owner) had a fabulous weekend!

Little Red Riding Hood

My sisters school had a dress up day a while ago and they all had to go as a literary character so she asked me to make her a red cape.

 I've no idea what the fabric is as it was a random bolt I found in the local shop, but it's soft and drapes beautifully!

The ties are satin ribbon and it's unlined.  I over locked the seams to give a neat finish which apparently impressed my sisters pupils (those who do textiles anyway).

It has a nice baggy hood and my sister likes it so much she's debating getting a dress to go with it so she can wear it again!

I'll try an post tomorrow with a sneak peak at a very exciting project I'm working on!