embroidered fox collar dress!

i was out shopping with an old friend when we spotted the best, most blank dress ever, it practically begged to be customized, so customize it i did:

it's not a particularly sophisticated piece of embroidery, essentially just random running stitch in the shape of a fox, but i'm rather fond of it! i drew the basic shape in pencil and then got out the embroidery hoop. i don't know if i'm going to dip dye the hem as well, or something, anything : D there's just so many possibilities with a dress this plain!! yay! 

homemade lavender eye mask : )

it's been an age since i last had a chance to post! uni was coming to an end and essays and presentations took over for a bit there, but i'm back! and i have been making things while i was away. one of these was this eye mask:

it was super easy, i just found a cheapo eye mask which was lying around, drew around it on two different fabrics and some wadding, layered them with the fabrics right sides together and the wadding on top, tucked in some ribbon on either side and hand stitched the lot together (leaving a little gap so i could turn it inside out). ladder stitch and press to finish. oh! and if you want it smelling nice then pop some dried lavender in before sewing up the hole after turning : )

pom pom cheat tutorial and pom pom bugs (bee, ladybird and caterpillar)

everyone knows how to make pom poms - you wrap wool around a ring for aaaaages and then cut around the edge, tie, and neaten up. i'm just not quite patient enough for that, also i work with small children who's attention spans might not be big enough for that just yet. so! i've made up a pom pom cheat, and it goes like so:

first up, wrap wool around your fingers:

then once there's a fair bit of wool on there, stop, and tie loosely in the middle :

next, slip the lot off your hand and pull your knot tight, and then double/triple knot it in place:

now you just treat it like you would a normal pom pom - cut around the edge and then even it out with scissors:

(before)

 (after)

of course, once you have your pom pom, then you have to decide what to do with it. i opted for bugs (planning stuff for my next group of home-school kids), which turned out to be super easy! just glue googly eyes to something furry and it looks like a cute animal thing : ) add more pom poms, felt etc to be more specific in terms of animal...

 

comic book crafts: key rings and hair bobbles

it's superhero saturday! this saturday! and if you find yourself in aberdeen's town centre then you can drop by hobbycraft and get your face painted/your costume judged/get a photo taken in our awesome superhero photo area/make superhero crafty things! also, there'll be some very cool and/or yummy things made by the staff which you can pick up for a small donation to together for short lives. i made hair bobbles and key rings:

we sell key ring blanks at work for £2.99 (pack of 12) in the kids area, so i spent this morning going through some cheap comics (3 for £1 in the forbidden planet sale bin) and cutting out the good pics of super folks and putting two and two together. for the hair bobbles you make yoyos, glue gun those to hairbands, cover a button in an image from a comic and glue gun that to your yoyo. alternatively you can pop down and give something in the region of a pond to charity and pick one up ready made : )

superhero saturday at hobbycraft aberdeen! also, fashion week...

there's a lot happening this saturday - it's superhero saturday at work which means it's all go on the fancy dress/face paints/charity crafts/raffle front : D and on top off all that it's fashion week. union square (the shopping centre my branch is attached to) has given us a glass box in the centre to display some of our stuff in for the event, and i was the one chosen to make the stuff! woo hoo! the only problem is that i had to somehow combine the two....this is what i came up with:

it's a pretty simple set made from neon and black polymer clays, ribbon, cord, and findings. i'm pretty chuffed with them. the only think i will say against polymer clay is that if you roll this stuff too thin it will be super frail once it's baked! so thicker is better (i learnt this the hard way....there were twice as many lightning bolts to begin with). 

homemade bow ties!

a couple of days ago, to my horror, i realised that i had never tied a proper bow tie before! for shame!! so i set about making a couple (i needed a bow tie to practice with). there are some really good free patterns online, i used this one from angela osborn, it's got loads of instructions which are really clear. here's how mine turned out:

and here's how my first tying attempt went:

the flash! applique top

we're having a superhero saturday at work this weekend! (the aberdeen branch of hobbycraft) we're raising money for together for short lives with face paints and selling crafts and whatnot. i was going to be wonderwoman, but then i realised that hot-pants might not be work appropriate! so i sewed felt shapes to my red top (previously meant for wonderwoman) a la the flash:

i just drew around a saucer onto white felt for the round, and then drew a lightning bolt free-hand onto yellow, then back-stitched them both with embroidery thread onto the top. super easy! the top cost £2ish from primark, and the felt (on 3for2 at work at the mo) is 50p a sheet. so my top cost like £3 in total : ) win!