Follow my blog with Bloglovin 

Am attempting to get set up on bloglovin' ready for when google reader goes away.  Ignore this post and have a happy Saturday!

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!

Super Sekrit Project

A certain someone had a birthday yesterday.  I spent the afternoon running up  few little bits and pieces for her before watching her almost explode with excitement whilst opening her presents later!

I started of with a set of pouches.  All cotton, they have a button fastening and a tiny bit of lace trim for prettiness.

The colours were chosen as they happen to be favoured by the birthday girl.  Making to pouches was fun, but I felt something more was needed.  So I decided on a few things to put in the pouches.

I ran up a tissue pack cover out of the gingham scraps and tucked that into the largest bag.

This is a nail file case, made to match the pouches again. I put this in the middle pouch. I love making matched things! Though the last gift doesn't match...

A Captain America key ring.  Partly to match the amazing cushion made for her by another friend and partly because I like making key rings!  This was tucked into the smallest pouch and I think was a happy surprise!

This is going to be my only post this week, as I'm off home for a few days tomorrow.  I'll try and make next weeks posts longer to make up for my lack of writing this week!

Hearts

I was given a kit on how to make lavender heart sachets for Christmas and a few weeks ago I finally got round to making them up!

They have a linen front and a plain cotton back.  The kit provided everything even the bows cam pre-made and just needed stitching on!

I

 I think I could do with practising shapes a little more but other than that I'm quite happy with them!  They are now making my clothing cupboard a sweeter smelling place!

As we're on the subject of hearts though, check out this rare knitted thing I made!

I gave it to my husband for valentines day and he's kind enough to tell me it's wonderful.  The pattern was free from The Making Spot and nice and easy for a beginner knitter like me to follow!

For now though a very important pattern has finally made it to me from customs and I need to devote all my energy to doing the best possible job on it! 

I'll be back later in the week with a doll and an apron or two to share...

Fur Tabard

Rose has recently taken to wearing armour.  It's not a lot and it's as much for warmth as anything (fun fact, fleece cloaks do not do enough aginst bitterly cold wind chill).  However up until very recently she's been borrowing Caled's armour, only when Caled and Rose appear at the same time that means there isn't enough armour to go around...  So I made her some!

This is her tabard, the  outside is fake fur (imitation poodle I believe) and it's lined with green cotton (because that's that I had to hand at the time).  Please excuse the slight randomness of this photo.  It was meant to be the one showing just the lining.  However, blogger is having a temper tantrum and refusing to let me upload the photo of just the tabard.

I've been wanting a bandage bandolier for a while now.  Thing is, the colours you can buy them in seem to be limited to brown and black.  Not really what I had in mind.  So I founs the very last scraps of the green faux suede I made Roses orginal kit out of and ran up one of my own!

It's fastened with a green cotton ribbon, that I think I picked up as part of a charity shop bundle!

Next week I have some little heart things to show and some of my christmas makes.  I've been sewing shirts this week, but I don't want to put them on here until their intended wearer has hold of them!