feather shoe clips

the one thing about making stuff that i really do hate is that sometimes it turns out exactly as you had planned...and sometimes it really, really doesn't. take these shoe clips for example:

now one set (the pale grey ones) turned out all pretty and understated, the other set (peacock) are kinda gross. what's worse is that the grey ones i made for me and the gross ones i made as a present - i can't give those away! they're awful and i'll totally be judged forever as being the person who made the tacky peacock shoe clips : ( so i'm giving the ones that were meant for me instead...now i'm stuck with the monstrosities.

 

(to make shoe clips you'll need: shoe clips, felt, feathers, gem, glue gun and better taste and foresight than me)

baker st pillow case - i am so not a natural at machine embroidery!

i wanted a baker street sign pillow case and figured it would be pretty cheap and easy to do, and there are so many ways on could do this; fabric paint, applique, permanent marker...but i thought i'd try my hand at something new- writing out the sign on using my sewing machine. it was so much harder to do than i had anticipated! especially the curved bit of the letters : ( here's how it went:

admittedly it didn't go badly enough that it hasn't ended up on a pillow, i probably should have ironed it first so i could take a better picture of it, but ironing pillow cases is wrong, just plain wrong. but yeh, basically i drew it in pencil straight onto the pillow, then i tried my damnedest to sew on top of the pencil.

first go at fabric covered buttons : )

these are super easy. a while back i was wondering what to do with scraps of fabric (and then the patchwork was born (update to follow)), but then i was faced with the problem of scraps of scraps! really not big enough to be anything, but a lot of the fabric in my patchwork was given to me by friends and family so it feels wrong to chuck the remnants. however; winter is coming, cheap plain cardies need to be made less boring, and i now own a button maker (£2ish from work). here's the bee buttons i made: 

'tidying my room'...making storage etc.

so yeh- my room is usually something of a bomb sight (i tell myself that this comes with the territory of being a crafter/student), however it has managed to reach pretty epic proportions of messiness of late...something must be done! here's some storage i made:

the tubs once contained m&s treats and the paper i used to cover them is the sort that comes free in crafty magazines - much double sided sticky tape was used. i also covered some cheap note books while i was at it as uni starts next week.

it did occur to me that making more stuff was also making more mess, so they sort of cancel themselves out...oh well.

fake movember

i am seriously considering doing movember this year. just one teeny, tiny problem - i'm a girl. solution: wear fake moustaches for a month and get people to sponser me!

i know there's over a month until movember, but i've got to be creative about the stuff that's going to go on my top lip! (it kinda has to get bigger as the month goes on) plus i need to double check with work that it's ok... made a mo space this morning, obviously a bit empty at the mo, but will no doubt get fuller towards the end of next month : {D

painting a plate for mummy

it was my mothers birthday a few days ago and she asked for a nice little plate for having cake on. so i got a plain white plate, a blue pen that draws on top of glazed plates and set about drawing as much of the 'owl and the pussy cat' poem as i could on a small round surface (it's a cute poem, plus it gave me an excuse to draw a very stylised owl-and-cat-on-a-boat in the middle) here's how it went:

mummy took the photo - she included the neckerchief and cross stick key ring that i gave her (neckerchiefs are so cool!!!). i must say, quinces really are the most dull looking fruit to draw ever, other than that i think it looks rather nice....however, to my dismay, mummy thought it was so pretty that it would be a shame to eat off it, so it's going on display!!! how awful : ( whoever invented the plate stand should hang their head in shame. grrrr.

first attempt at needle felting

i finally went home to see my folks! (hence the totally lack of posts) but while i was there i did do some crafting - dad took me to the brighton maker's fayre, where i sat with some hippies who taugh me how to needle felt : ) it turns out that learning something new costs £2.50, this pleases me. here's what i made:

it's a bee!!! turns out that needle felting as actually quite easy; you sort of stab at the wool with the felting needle until it looks right. you'll notice the bag of dyed sheep's hair in the background? they gave me that, along with a needle and another blank wool-ball for an extra £2.50.

....i like hippies...and felt. so yeh, pretty ace day out!