A Sew Creative Day Out

Hubby took me to Stitch Sew and Hobbycrafts Show at Westpoint in Exeter.  I did not manage to get there last year so I was keen to look for ideas and materials for my evening class.

I also wanted to see the costumes for Les Miserables and the first one I saw was worn by Russell Crowe:  The costumes were very well made as in the past I have seen costumes from  some productions and I have wondered how they managed to stay together!

This was a very smart uniform made of lovely fabric.

This coat looks like it made of leather but up close it is on sort of lightweight canvas.  Again, very well made and must have fitted well.

Next up were the costumes worn by the actors named above.

Reminded a little bit of what Helena Bonham Carter wore in Harry Potter but a different colour scheme! Tiny waist too.

This is really quite a bright yellow in real life!

Then last but not least.........

This is a much nicer in colour that this picture suggests and I am not so sure that this is quite in focus.  A bit shorter in height than I was expecting but again a lovely costume!  

These were the best set of costumes since the Titanic set that I saw quite some years ago.  Pity there were not a few of the child actors costumes as there were quite a few children in the film.  Brings to the fore that sewing and designing has a possible career for the youngsters to aspire to.

Wonder what they will have next year.

I shall post tomorrow what else we did today as Strictly Come Dancing is on and I need to take some pictures in day light tomorrow.  The evenings have certainly drawn in this past two weeks.  Even bought my winter knitting projects today as well.

Bye for now.

xx

Le Challenge - October Theme

Many thanks for the large number of visitors and those that left comments for my September Heroes entry for Le Challenge.  We now start all over again.

Our next theme for October Le Challenge is

THRILLER!!

Any suggestions?  I have a few which of course might link in well with Halloween.

x
PS I should be getting my evening class sketchbook back at the end of this month and I will be posting some pages from it.  I have just been to my third class for the new year and I think I have now established what I hope to achieve this year.
My tutor told me that I got 19 out of 20 for each Unit that I submitted work for which is a good average.  Repeating that again this year is going to be really hard to do.
Wish me luck.
xx

Make do and Mend

Michelham Abby

I you have the chance to visit Michelham Abby in Sussex then do pop along.  It is an English Heritage property  and seeing as we joined over the summer my SIL took us along so that we could get the use of our membership off to a good start.

I was a bit of a funny old day near the end of August but perfect for taking some pictures for my A2 Art Textiles evening class.

However my main interest ended up in a completely different direction.

The Abby has a very long and involved history which is too long to put here.  However during the war the house was host to quite a lot evacuees and on the upper floors of the house rooms that they used have been set up with articles and pictures of the time.  Plus skills that all hard working Girls and Boys should learn.  

Just take a look at these...........

I have bought a recent print copy of this.

There is an awful of information here that still has a place today, but we perhaps look at things differently now.

Recycling

What about these?

HHmmmm, not so sure about these..........

These did make me smile but resistant Materials/Product Design in school is still needed.

I am seriously thinking of trying to find this as a poster.  Maybe Ebay or Amazon would have something similar.  have started Year 7 on learning how to sew on a button and I have had to explain at some length why!!

These posters were really fun to look at and still relevant to today in many ways.

Le Challenge - Heroes

 In July the new Le Challenge was set and the theme was Heroes.  Quite a difficult theme and what to make took ages to work out.  I had not tried Cross Stitch for ages so the technique was decided, next was which Hero or how to interpret the theme.

Often at work I feel that to be able to keep up with what I need to do I should and need to have the abilities and gadgets used by Wonder Women!!

So my hero was decided.  So I completed my Wonder Woman mini panel which I was going to put on to a big magnet I have and intend putting it on my magnetic board.  However my magnet seems to have gone AWOL so it has not been attached to it yet.

I did enjoy the portability of this cross stitch project and Sophie had not heard of this super hero before and thought that I was making it up!  So here is my September offering for Le Challenge.

Have a good week.

Design your own hat for Charity....

My little hats are all wrapped and packed to be sent off tomorrow.

I found on The Big Knit website a section where you can design your own hat and then share it on Facebook or Twitter if you have an account.

Above is my effort and I have put this on Twitter.  If you would like to have a go here is the LINK and Innocent Drinks will donate 10p to AGE UK.

Before sharing it I right hand clicked and saved the image in my pictures so that  I could post it here.  If you decide to design a hat pop it on your blog and pop a link in my comment box and we can visit each others posts to see the hats we have designed.

Best wishes

xx

Website Wednesday

I am currently at my first evening class of the new academic year.  After my A grade in August I am basically starting again and working towards the full A'level next summer.

£6.00 including P&P

100% cotton almost canvas like fabric.  Lining is made of cotton fabric.  Mother of Pearl buttong and ribbon loop fastening,

Over the coming weeks leading up to Christmas I shall be featuring something from my UK website for items that I shall be lnewly listing.  All prices include P&P.

If you like the shape/design the item can be made in another colour way.
Some of the items are samples and are reduced in price to reflect that.  All items are wrapped in blue tissue paper and package carefully hopeing to give a OooHH" factoe when opened.
Any questions then please do email me.

All items can be seen using the link at the top of this blog.
I shall post news of my evening class at the weekend.

xx

Blackberry Express

I was given this cookery book by a very good friend of mine (who may be reading this!) and I am gradually trying out some of the recipes.  Some previous posts can be found in the margin under recipes.

Having come back form my SIL house to find my blackberry runners full of blackberries I thought about what I could do with them.  My SIL had made us a dinner from a cook book that she had never tried before and this gave me the incentive to do something new.

So out came Nigella and I looked in the index and found Blackberry Crisp.  If you have this book it is on page 52.  It is bound to be on her website as well.

Here are the pages and a lovely picture of what it meant to look like.

Here is my attempt....what do you think?

The crispy topping makes a refreshing change from the usual crumble offering and went down really well at dinner today.

The blackberries were just right and the recipe is so easy you could in fact make this when you get in from work and it takes 25 mins to cook.  We had ours with clotted cream, Sophie opted for cold custard.  Vanilla ice cream would be good as well.

Other berries could be used and Nigella also suggests chopped pears if you can not get enough blackberries.

This recipe worked and was a winner.  Well worth a try.

xx

I have signed up..........

I have managed to sign up for the second time to Chookyblue's Secret Santa Christmas Swap.  I took part for the first time last year and it was good fun and due to being on a cruise ship over Christmas I had to sweat it out until 28th before I was able to get home and open my received swap.

I will soon find out who I shall be sending to and then it will be think, think, think 

then

sew, sew, sew

by the 

deadline, deadline, deadline!

Well I have done it now............ used the festive word for the first time on my blog!!!

What swaps are you signed up to?

I have two on the go, I have nearly finished my Halloween swap items.  Deadline soon.

xx

OPAM -August Round Up.

These little cuties are now numbering  in at 14 and they have been a lot of fun to make. Deciding which colours to put together and making lots and lot of teeny weeny pompoms!!

I have had fun,, can you tell?

A look at some Textile Club makes for next term, such as these felt fortune cookies for next January.  

My entry for Le Challenge in September (Yep I am actually ahead of myself here!)

I shall reveal this next month on the 15th.

Then some of the above was turned into.........

Book marks!  I made some a few years ago and gave them away.  Again I am looking for little activities for the, yet to start, Textiles Club.

These are quick and fun to make, using up scraps from other projects and learning skills such as cutting, pinning, hand stitching and of course sewing on a button.

I weighted to ends of the bookmarks with a button as I felt that the last ones I made needed something more substantial at the other end of the ribbon.

The pink flower version is going into my teaching planner for the new term and the round one is going to be my teaching example.  This will be the first activity that we will start with in a couple of weeks time.

I think that is everything for August.

How did everyone else do?  With such a fantastic summer here in the UK perhaps the number of finishes might be a bit down over here this month.

xx

If you stop by please say Hi as it has been so quiet round here.  Massive pageviews but no comments.?

Rebecca Shaw - The Village Newcomers

This is another of my uploaded books on to my kindle and I read this on my holiday (which I still need to post about).  Again this book is a bit grittier than previous books and I have noticed a different tone to these books recently.  A real page turner which costs less on the kindle if you have one or the app for the ipad.

It follows the villagers and of course some newcomers who arrive with a secret that very very gradually unfolds.

I like these series of books and may not be on a higher level, but for me I need books that are entertaining and make me want to turn the page without needing a PHD to fathom out what is going on.

I have already uploaded the next book but I am keeping that for a bit as I am now reading a paperback given to me by my SIL.

I love the summer.........reading is a great pastime I just wish I could devote more time to it.  If you find it in your library it is worth booking it out.

Best wishes

xx

Mollie Makes - Felty Fortune - OPAM August

I have been asked by a lot of students to go back to a weekly Textiles Club after school.  Last year I tried just having workshops that students could sign up to, these were popular but the desire to have something more became apparent.  So I have been spending time finding a range of little projects for them.

I looked through all of my Mollie Makes and found a cute little project, it is in issue 22.

Felt fortune cookies.

Sophie caught sight of what I was up to so we both sat down and set to work.

Very little felt is needed and the templates can be found on the Mollie Makes website.  They suggested that you use fabric to write your fortune cookie message.  I found that actually using paper might be easier for the students to write on and you can still stitch through it.

The hardest bit proved to be the stage when you shape it into a cookie and stitch to keep it in place.  Managed it in the end and with a bit of manipulation of the stuffing you do get what you want.  We used a range of ribbon, I used some that came with an earlier issue of Mollie Makes, but got it upside down, Doh!  So I shall use plain or pattern ribbon with the students.  I also tried one with an Indigo Blue label as well.

I am going to keep this idea and use it when it is the Chinese New Year and look up which animal the students are for the year they were born and other facts.  We did have fun making these, they do not take long and do not use much in the way of materials.

I have a few more projects lined up so I may add a new page at the top of this blog and post some pictures of any of the students work there as well.

Have fun and take care all.

xx

BigShot Embossed - Decorated Dividers Tutorial

Here is part two of how I have decorated my dividers for the Malden Personal Filofax so far.

This may appeal to those of you who like scrap booking or card making and by changing the measurements you can create lovely dividers very quickly.

The above picture is a close up of an embossed piece of card.

I used one of these which I have had for some time as I make cards to order and for sale at work.  This uses different dies and embossing plates and what I really like is that the bigger dies will also cut fabric.

To create the pattern in the first picture I used the above plate which is made out of a plastic which can put up with being put through a mangle style gadget without cracking and breaking.  Lovely design isn't it.........sorry I digress but textiles is my day job.

I put a piece of cream card and sandwiched it between the embossing plates and passed it through the Bigshot.  (Show you how in a minute) and then stuck it on to one of the cheap dividers that I referred to in my last Malden post.  You can leave it is this stage...or.....

... you can add to it.  Seeing as this is very similar to the hand drawn Zentagle designing I showed you in the last Malden post simply get a pen, here is am using a gold paint pen, and highlight certain parts of the design.

Leaving some areas untouched will help to promote a 3D appearance.

Here is a section of the design.  Do not over do it, stop every now and then to look at what you have done to see if it is enough.

Then attach to your divider. You could use any pen really, even good old felt tip pens rather than buying anything special.  I have used these embossing plates with just a kitchen rolling pin which I pressed down firmly with whilst rolling at the same time, but this can take a bit of practise and can be a bit hit and miss.

These plates can be bought online, from Hobbycraft, Ebay or The Range to name but a few places that I have bought them from.  Shop around they do vary in price.

I decided to go one stage further and if you intend on selling your Filofax n the future this may not be for you.  I intend on keeping my Purple Malden so I went for it..........

By using a longer plate I could insert the Filofax divider, but I left the tab sticking out.

I put this through the Bigshot.

I hope you can see it, hard to photograph and the light is not good today here in Cornwall.  The whole of the divider is now embossed.

This design is much more delicate then the first so using a paint pen will be too much.  So for now I shall leave them but I might rub some pastel or inks over it lightly with cotton wool or watercolour paints.

Part of me wishes I could get an embossing plate big enough for my A5 but then on the other hand my personal Filofax is for my website, blog , projects and art ideas so  think I shall be keeping it strictly in the personal size for now.

If I add anything to these dividers I will show you but if you have a Bigshot give it a go with either some dividers that need a revamp or some that you cut out yourself.

If you have any questions about what I did or used then leave a comment below.

Take care

x