Skirt Re-fashion.

i saw a lovely skirt on the internet the other day
it was steam-punk-y with a corseted laced type back
and i thought hmm i could do something like that
so of to the charity shops i went looking for a skirt to re-fashion

i needed to find one several sizes too big
so i could lace the back of it
and found this one for the bargain price of £1.50
in a size 2/3 times too large.
oh dear
when i put it on it wasn't so big after all
which if you saw the ammount of biscuits i've been consuming lately shouldn't have been such a surprise!

anyway it was a really good quality skirt
the fabric is lovely
and as i stood looking at it an idea formed . . .

so i grabbed my tin of pins
and got pleating and pinning

i put in 12 pleats/tucks up one side and
stopped about 10" from the hem

i put two tucks on the other side too
i think it has a neo-victorian look

i like the way the lining shows

i searched through my button stash and found
a matching set of 14 buttons and stitched
up the first side.

the result is fairly soft folds ruching the fabric

does my bum look big in this?!

these are my new christmas boots
they make me want to wear skirts!

after sewing on the 12 buttons and trying it on
i felt it didn't need the two on the opposite side
but i'm not 100% sure on that yet.

so now i have this sticky out bit
i pinned it in several ways but decided that it needs
to be loose at the bottom for ease of walking

at the moment i'm thinking of finishing it like this
would you call it a kick-flare hem?
i'm going to use two buttons and a little elastic
loop to close it
unfortunately that is all the buttons used up
which leaves none for the other hip pleats,
the perils of using vintage supplies!
OR
i could use one of those frog-braid fasteners
hmmmmm
and i might trim the shirt with black ric-rac
what do you think?

lickety split

i did a little bit of sewing today,
years and years ago i used to do
counted cross-stitch,
i was quite addicted to it for awhile
so had a lot of aida fabric left over
and today i had an uncontrollable urge
to stitch this phrase!
i like it BUT i find the fabric very restrictive
if you see what i mean?
i think need to be more free flowing with my embroidery.

{SOLD}
i've been continuing on my mission
to card up and list my button mountain

these blue buckles are from the buckle porn post
from months ago - that's how long it takes me
to get my act together!

http://www.folksy.com/items/256437-blue-buckles-vintage-mother-of-pearl-

*******

i got my puff collar#2 all sewn up, i'm really pleased with it but unfortunately it takes way to long to produce to be viable for me to make and sell :0(
i've bought some more fabric to make another as my daughter wants one, so i'm going to time myself very strictly to see how long it actually takes.
no photo's yet i'm afraid as i've been busy
and today it was too sunny to take photo's
when i had the time!

lovely post today!

look LOOK what the postman brought me today!

my lovely friend Lisa knitted these for me

it was her first attempt at cable
isn't she clever?

i LOVE them!
i look like some old victorian granny
in a shawl and miser's mittens!!!
{but i am very happy!}

*******
my christmas wreath won the crafteroo advent calendar competition
and here's what i won

a book about stupid sock creatures!

it's great!

a scrapbooking calendar

and a Hotdog and me
http://www.folksy.com/shops/hotdogandme
sock creature set

it did come beautifully presented in this bag
this photo was after it was rescued
from the dogs jaws
she is getting really naughty in her old age :0(
no real harm done though :0)

*******

plus some new listings in my Folksy shop
just in time for Valentine's

hearts
http://www.folksy.com/items/232297-half-a-dozen-hearts-of-glass-vintage-buttons

bullets
http://www.folksy.com/items/232273-coral-bullet-buttons?shop=yes

Puff collar #2 - a work in progress

i love my purple collar but i really wanted
to make something bigger
so i bought a plain man's t-shirt to cut up and experiment with,
i bought a size M because they were out of XXL
but i've managed to get twenty-four
various sized puffs out of it!

here is the start of the collar pinned together

and here i am trying it out for size

this time i wanted to extend it to the shoulders and chest, so while i was still wearing it, i continued pinning on more puffs till i was happy with the shape

i still have a few puffs to add and a bit of fine tuning
to do before i start stitching it all together,
as this is all hand-sewn it is pretty time consuming and i'm having a break from it today!

i'm really happy with how this collar
has taken shape - it's kinda hard to know where to stop so it's good i've run out of fabric!

Suffolk puff scarf/collar

i started on this scarf before christmas
whilst in the height of my Suffolk Puff addiction!

i found a scarf in the charity shop
and really liked the colour
i made a whole bunch of puffs in various sizes
from 6" down to 1.5"
then i arranged them into a scarf and pinned them together

then i tried it on and decided i needed more puffs
but had run out of fabric
so the scarf went on the back burner

until i picked it up again the other day whilst

i was having a tidy up in my craftroom
i slightly rearranged the puffs and
suddenly i loved it!!!

the two largest puffs at the back

smaller ones filling the gaps

here it is all sewn up with a hook and eye fastening

trying to get a decent shot of myself
wearing the scarf was not easy!

getting distracted by my wall hanging storage!

i got the idea for the hanging storage from Craftzine, it is an old cot base - waste not want not!

this is the true colour{above}

best thing about it is it is SUPER warm!
and cost me about a pound to make!

snow stops crafting!

snow stops crafting!

daughter

son
{yes he is wearing a monkey scarf!}

cold enough for even me to wear a hat
{stolen from daughter!}

being attacked by the super mean close range snowball fiend

yeah yeah very funny son!!!

the last two pictures were taken today after it had snowed for about 4 hours - we were very disappointed with the lack of snow we've had and getting very bored with the scary ice.
My son's school hasn't shut for one single day and apparently never does {i did keep him home to play in the snow on wednesday though because it's so very rare for us to get proper snow here}
on the other hand my daughter got sent home on Tuesday and it's still closed tomorrow!{she is very happy as are her friends, they've all been having great fun playing and sledging in the snow}

*******
in crafting news

my wreath won the crafter...oo advent calendar competition
which i'm very happy about :0) thanks to anyone who voted for me
if you're not a member of Crafter...oo why not?!
go on join up it's fun
http://www.crafteroo.co.uk/smf/index.php

my wreath is also on the front page of Crafster as a featured project
which makes me super proud - last time i checked it had over 2500 views

http://www.craftster.org/blog/?p=6857

I hope i don't seem boasty here but i'm really proud
and a bit shocked at how well received it has been.

2009 - my favourite makes.

2009 - my favourite makes., originally uploaded by maximum RABBIT designs.