I've been making fabric!

Have you tried out Spoonflower.com yet? I've attempted my first fabric which is this:



I'll let you know how it turns out.

All so, Crafty Sunday this weekend with Pil and Galia!

Mini Beret

A friend of mine made me a lovely wooden mini beret block. I've been going crazy using it. This is the second hat I made, nearly finished.

My Cloche

Apparently, cloche means "bell" in french. I studied French for a couple years in high school but, I never remember learning that one. Or maybe I wasn't paying attention. Highly probable. My french teacher had a very high voice combined with a very heavy french accent. At the time I found her more funny than interesting. I'm kicking myself now.

My latest hat is this bell shaped cloche. I made using fur felt and trimmed it with a lovely ribbon that I picked up on etsy.com from Carmelos' shop. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5800916

Kanzashi

Well, I found a Kanzashi tutorial on the web (http://www.mookychick.co.uk/diy_ethic/kanzashi_tutorial.php) and had a go. It's surprisingly easy. Though I've not attempted to do any of the hard stuff. This was what I made:

Definite possibilities.

xx

Paris - La Forme

This is one of the amazing places I visited in Paris. The video is pretty informative so I don't have to do much explaining. I will say however, the palce is called La Forme and they make blocks for hats here.

Paris

I've been away for a while having adventures in France. Mostly in Paris. Now, I have a love hate relationship with Paris. At the moment I'm loving it but, I've had some really crappy visits there.

The first time I went I got most of the money I had brought along stolen from my hotel room. It was the first night of a 6 week long trip. I was in college at the time and didn't have access to any other money so, I was struggling to get by and eat. Then after a few weeks the hard rubber bit on the bottom of one of my heels came off exposing the hollow inside of my plastic heel. I sounded a lot like a horse. By the end, I was so tired of croque monsieurs.

The next time was lovely. My Grandma and I went and had a fantastic time strolling around eating raspberry tarts and looking at the beautiful old buildings. I loved it.

Then I went again for a holiday with my boyfriend and his son. It was perfectly miserable. I spent the time leading up to the trip trying to devise things for us to do but, was told that it wasn't necessary. We'd be fine just hanging out and the little one would be happy just to do whatever we were doing. WRONG. He was so bored and seemed very intent on making sure we knew it about every 5 minutes. At this point you'd think we would have gone out and done some sight seeing or something, but it was pissing with rain for most of the time. We stayed with friends in there amazing open plan flat and I'm not sure how they put up with us.

That was more than two years ago. I've not really wanted to go back since, though looking at my previous track record with Paris I imagined that the next visit would have to be a good one. Well, it was. We took the Eurostar over on this past Valentine's Day and checked in to a lovely hotel near Saint Germain. The hotel felt like it had a touch of David Lynch about it which I liked. That evening we went out for one of the tastiest meals I think I've ever had and on the way back to our hotel we decided to stop of at Notre Dame. There underneath a beautiful art nouveau street lamp and in front of a beautifully lit Notre Dame my boyfriend asked me to marry him. Wow. Now you may be a bit jaded and think that this is a all too cliched but, I still cry at films and think romance is alive and well. So, I thought it was simply magic.

Once again, Paris has been redeemed.

xx

a little bit more..

That's the latest one finished. I put a bit of veiling on it and I shifted one of the bow ends.

This blog has been quite quiet as of late because I've been trying to finish some stuff up. Like the gloves I started before Christmas! Eek.

There's also patterns that are stacking up and my boots which are very near to completion. In fact they should be done by this evening! Stay tuned.

Hat Cave!

Hat Cave, that's what I decided I wanted to call my shop if I had a hat shop. It would have to be a small place that was fully lined in hats. It doesn't sound that chic though. I'm not sure the ladies that lunch would come by. Do other people than that buy hats?

Anyway, I've not been writing for the last couple of weeks because I've been beavering away on the millinery. The first hat I completed was this sweet pillbox meets turban:

This hat is a made from a lovely greenish-gold velvet, a vintage brooch and feathers! The brooch has made it want to tip forward so, I had to add some extra loops at the back for pinning it into my hair.

I did wear it out and it was appreciated by the people of London. Except one guy, who was a little upset about the peacocks.

Then came the fedora. I'm not sure it can really be called a fedora now. It looks a bit more like a pimp hat. Well, just because it's so big. I guess it would be more of a madame hat because it has a couture sort of look to it where as a pimp hat would be expected to be a bit more naff. This is it:

It doesn't look so massive in the pictures. But, I swear if you saw me walking down the street with it on it would be the first thing you noticed.

Lastly I've got a few finishing touches, mainly feathers to add to this fascinator:

Watch out. I think this thing is going to look pretty sweet when it is done and on.

Lastly, I'm sad to report that I still haven't finished my boots. It may be another 2 more weeks before they are done. However, I'm finishing them up with a lot more help and attention from the teach so they are going to come out much better than expected! Yay!

Crafty Sunday is this coming Sunday with Pil and Galia.

Foxy.

Underway

My fedora is the green one on the left!

Lately, I've had the hardest time finishing anything. My boots are still not done from my course which ended in November. I've been waiting for a call from the tutor but, I' think I'll have to bug him once again. I guess I won't be taking anymore classes at the London College of Fashion. The classes are a bit over subscribed and expensive.

My hat making class on the the other had is awesome. I've started a felt fedora this past weekend and have nearly finished up a pillbox hat. It looks a bit like a turban so I've ordered up some peacock feathers for it and have been scouring ebay for the right vintage brooch. The last thing will be getting it to stay on my head. I'd like to use combs but I can't seem to find the small ones anywhere. Any suggestions?

I've also been plugging away at my next quilt. I'm just working on the squares at the moment. I've been doing quite a bit of applique. Pictures to come soon. Is there a place in the UK that quilts things for you? I mean after you have the topper done and the backing picked out?

This weekend I also finally got around to starting curtains for Jude's room, that's my bf's son. I finished up one but haven't started on the other one yet. I put it up though because the curtain that was hanging there was so disgustingly dirty. It is really London's fault though, it's just so darn dirty here. I don't really notice it all the time. But then once in a while you get grey curtains, or grey suds when you are washing your hair and you realize how bad it is. Jude's room isn't even on the side of the house that faces the street!

Has Mercury gone retrograde yet?

2009.

Christmas and New Years came and went. Is it just me or did it go by incredibly quickly?

I managed to make some truffles and that's about it. The rest of the time I spent hanging out with family, eating and trying to stay warm. Christmas Day and Boxing Day were great cause I finally got to see the fruits of my labour lovingly received by my family.

These are some earrings I made:

Now comes the part of winter that I don't really care for. It's when you feel like you're waiting around for it to get warm. In England there is a fair chance that it might not get warm and sunny again before it's cold and miserable once more. Summer can be as short as two here.

I picked it though. So no sense in moaning.

Anyway, there are loads of things to do. I'm trying to get our flat ready for a new little grey flatmate. My parents' cat is coming to live with us sometime in March. I'm also working on another quilt and reading Suzi Quarto's autobiography. (I love the story but, I'm not sure I like the writing style.

Hats in the city, Hats in the city tonight

This is my hat out and about on the town and finished off. Isn't it ace?!

I bought a block so I can make more at home. At the moment I'm stupidly excited about it!

Try this one.

I've been planning on making boxes for some of the christmas jewelry I've been putting together. I finished up one, quite quickly, out of regular old white paper. It came out alright. I think I'll now move on to a thicker colored paper.

Check it out, try it out:

http://u-handbag.typepad.com/uhandblog/2007/11/quick-and-easy.html

This one is for me.

Christmas is about giving. Sometimes it's about giving to yourself!

On my last but not latest trip to the Cloth House I bought this most fabulous plaid fabric with skulls woven into it. It's so lovely, I had to make a little purse for myself out of it. Someone else maybe getting a little something made out of this fabric too. It so luscious I would love to make a party dress out of it but, at £15 a metre (the fabric isn't to wide either) it would cost a pretty penny.

My latest trip to the Cloth House was today. It was for some buttons but, I forgot to bring cash and got sucked into the £10 card limit thingy. So, I found some dark green felt which I'm hoping to use for a pillbox hat. I still hadn't spend enough so I rummaged around and found this sweet horseshoe print fabric. Oh the possibilities.

Pearly Lee.

I've been working on making jewelry for the ladies and girls in my family. It's not been inexpensive or quick. Which hopefully makes them all the more special. All the findings I bought were sterling silver and I decided to use semi-percious stones, pearls, swaroski crystals and a few pieces of czech glass.

Then one day while I was making I devised a really lovely way to present them. On the heads of Victorian Ladies.

This pair is for my Mom. She's already seen them so, even if she reads this the suprise hasn't been spoiled.

Tonight I'm thinking about trying to make a vinyl record bowl.

With a bow on top!

Saturday, Rosie and I embarked upon a great trek to deep south east London for our first hat making class. It was such a journey. A bus to the train to another bus and then a 10 minute walk. It was also freezing outside and very early. The was sort of a bonus for the morning journey. It took a lot less time to get there than it did to get home.

The journey is however the only thing I can really moan about though. The day was amazing! I was the first one there. Eager beaver! But by 10 there were 6 of us. 3 beginners and 3 more experienced students. As beginners we worked on the obligatory fascinator.

We each got a wooden head which we covered in plastic wrap. We picked out which color sinamay we wanted to use and we were off. I used black, Rosie went for purple and Loretta used silver. We made the base first which took us a few hours. We blocked out the sinamay and sewed on the wire and edging. I didn't want a tear drop shaped base. They just remind me of 80s weddings, so I made a circular one. All the while there was Albanian music pumping from the floor below.

After we finished the base of the fascinator we went on to the trimming. There were three ideas on offer for decoration, leaves, rolls or a bow. I (obviously) went with the bow, Rosie decided on the feathers and Loretta the rolls.

Check it out.

I'm so pleased with my creation and inspired to make more that I'll definitely be going back, to make a felt fedora!

There wasn't enough time for me to get a photo of my finished piece with the feathers on but, I'm djing this weekend and I'm thinking about wearing it. So stay tuned for that photo.

Christmas Craft Sunday

So I went to take some photos on Sunday at craft day but, my camera died after the first shot. The first shot is also very blurry. Err. Anyway, we had a little bit of a late start. I was messing around at home and lost track of time. So everything wasn’t really setup and ready to go till about 3:30. We started working on making Christmas ornaments. I brought along Styrofoam balls, that people could cover. There was felt and all kinds of other bits.

After a few minutes into crafting one of the cats did a big stinky one. We all nearly ran for the hills. Nasty. We persevered on. This is the ball that I covered: There were some really awesome ones that the others made too. I'm so annoyed I couldn't photo them so, I’ll try to describe them. Pony made one that was covered in pom-poms and tinsel covered pipe cleaners. We dubbed it planet Christmas. She also made a pink and purple owl which was pretty fabulous. Mae made a very delicate leaf covered ball which was a white christmas berry, Emily rocked the craft table with a orange reindeer with glitter blue antlers (sort of pictured above) and a pastel spot bauble. Clare made a rather amazing and dedicated shooting star which involved sewing, beading and a whole lotta glue.

It took me most of the day to make this though: I saw an photo on Cathy of California’s blog of vintage Christmas ornaments which I decided that I wanted to copy. I’ve dubbed it the Peruvian Christmas chicken. It may get some brothers and sisters and become a Christmas present. We shall see.

I don’t think we’ll have a craft day at the end of December, though maybe with everyone off of work and such, it might be a good time? Not sure. I’m thinking the one in January might be a knitting workshop. Yay!

Fascination Street

My friend Rosie and I are taking a hat course tomorrow. I’ve been looking forward to it for a while. I’m not sure what I’ll get to make. It’s only a day, well actually I think it’s only a 4 hour class. It would be so nice to make a felt fedora but, I know it just isn’t possible. I actually emailed the woman who is teaching the class to ask what I could make but, no answer. Apparently, when Rosie called her initally about booking she was a bit awkward or off putting. I also left her a phone message to which she never responded. She did cash my cheque very quickly though. Hopefully, I'm just being somewhat horrible and really she is just a very busy person.

For some inspiration I watched Philip Treacy's 2003 couture show on his website. http://www.philiptreacy.co.uk/ It was that show all inspired by pop art. I love the Andy Warhol hair hat but, the photographic image stuff didn't excite me as head wear.

Last night I finished off this fascinator. It's very tame in comparison!

I used chicken feathers from my parents’ birds. A while back the roosters where being roosters, and waking the entire neighbourhood, so in they had to go. It was always known that they'd have to go so, it wasn't too sad. They were very beautiful birds, so in that respect they will be missed. I think killing them wasn't so easy, as my parents decided to snap the necks instead of chopping their heads off. Supposedly, it's more humane and easier. I'm not sure about that.

Anyway, I asked for the feet too but, I never got them. I think my parents may have thought I was kidding when I mentioned chicken foot brooches.

Rave about it.

I've been off knitting in the wilds of Cornwall. I'm not sure where Pony has been.

Currently I'm working on a cardigan from this old Fleisher's Sweater Book:

It's just a black cardigan made with this knobbly "fiesta" yarn made by Texere Yarns. It's 100% wool and was bloody cheap at about £2 for 1 cone. I think it's 100 grams per cone. Definitely look at their website texereyarns.co.uk.

I also finally sign up to Ravelry. So far, I'm not really using the forums but, I have been looking. through patterns and checking out what other people have been making.

This Sunday is craft day. Yay!

Foxy.

More, more, more.

Oh my. I just love cherries. These lovely little bags are made out of this sweet cherry vinyl Mr. Man picked out at the local fabric shop.

I've been sort of racing to get stuff together for Christmas. With my family not being in England I've got to get this stuff out early.

I drew up the pattern for these and then made them out of photo printed vinyl, cotton lining cloth and 7 inch zips.

Let's get Purse-onal

I drew up the pattern for these little purses the other day. Then, while I was at my boot making course on Wednesday night (by the way the boots are coming along very well but, who knew it would take so long to put them together! It’s partially down to the fact that there are way too many people in my class all vying for the teacher’s attention and direction. I’m not sure I’d take another course at LFC because the classes do feel a little over crowded. Anyway, back to Wednesday night.) I found some bits of scrap leather hanging around. I took it home with me and made up these purses.
They have cowboy style pearl snaps and colored stitching for a bit of flair.

I know it's only November but, I am trying to get together an arsenal of goodies for the impending holiday. These would make quite nice little gifts. Even better if I stuff them with some of the jewellery I’ve been making. I’ve spent a bomb at The Bead Shop in Covent Garden recently. Eek.

Foxy.

Danny Glover.

Well, I started on a new pair of gloves. These ones are also being knit on two needles but are done on smaller needles and are mostly done in stockinette stitch.

These are for my Mr. Man though the pattern is actually a vintage ladies glove pattern. Now, he by no means has little lady hands, so I had to increase the size of the needles. The rest of it is custom. Each finger is knit as long or short as you need it to be.

This is the pattern:
http://www.knitting-and.com/wiki/Bon_Voyage_Gloves_%28Vintage%29

I decided to fore go the cables and just casted on 54 stitches on 2.75mm needles and knitted in a rib pattern of k3, p3 for 20 rows. Then I started with the ‘commence the thumb gusset’ part of this pattern.

As a side note, I went to go buy more of the Jaeger wool that I had started these gloves in. They didn’t have any at John Lewis. When I asked one of the ladies who works there where the Jaeger wool had gone to she informed me that they are no longer making wool. Oh my! I bought some Debbie bliss stuff that is the right size and color but it is softer than the Jaeger I was using. Oh well.

After I finish these I’m thing about doing another pair, with an intarsia knit pattern in them. I thought it would be great to have snake gloves!

Foxy.

The dress that came too late.

This was supposed to be my Halloween dress. Not a costume but just a dress for Halloween. Is that odd? I dunno. It seemed right at the time. Anyway, I started cutting it out before Halloween and soon realized that I did not have enough fabric. My bf bought me this fabric from some random fabric store he saw one day in some neither region of London. Meaning, I couldn't get anymore from him.

I looked on ebay and found what I thought was the same fabric. Ordered it and waited. When it arrived and I noticed it was the same print but a totally different fabric. Err. I decided that I wouldn't let that ruin the spirit of Halloween, even though it had already passed, and I soldiered on.

The new fabric was much stiffer than the old one. I think, it probably wasn't quite right for this dress. I mean, one arm on it is seriously puffy. But, overall it's not so noticeable.

The pattern itself is a vintage Betsey Johnson Pattern. I love Betsey. I'm in the shop so much that the girls that work there know me. Maybe I shouldn't admit that but, my love of all things Betsey has given me even more joy about my new creation. Oh yes. This dress rocks.

Get Together Craftily November 2008

Here is the flyer for the next one:

There may be some gingerbread house action going on and maybe some wreath making!

Found! and then some

Well, my lovely scarf has been found. Yay! It's been hiding out at The Boogaloo. No doubt it was a nice bed for Starsky and Hutch. (the pubs lovely cats) I've not seen it yet though, as Hanna picked it up for me. Hopefully, we'll be reunited tomorrow.

Monday was Jim's b-day and I baked him his favorite cake. A chocolate chestnut torte. MMM!

It's so so good. There is no flour in it though the recipe says to flour your baking pan. I ground up some almonds and used those instead. Fierce.

This is similar to the recipe that I used:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/CHOCOLATE-CHESTNUT-TORTE-13203

I didn't put any rum or brandy in, my recipe called for brandy. Maybe I should have cause Jim would have liked that but, I like it better without. I also just made the icing out of some more melted dark chocolate and a tablespoon of butter. Actually, it's probably worth mentioning that I used Lindt 70% dark chocolate bars for this one. A little expensive but, very good. I've made this with Nestles choc chips once before too and it was still darn good.

Foxy.

Lost!

I lost my diagonal knit scarf. Damn! I think it was this weekend but, I'm just not sure where it could be. What a bummer. It hurts that much more when you actually knit it! Err.