Papered Parlour - Hen Afternoon!!

A little later than planned, but I just had to blog about my wonderful Hen afternoon at the Papered Parlour in Clapham. To be honest, the idea of a hen party filled me with dread. I just didn't know what to do. I knew what I DIDN'T want to do (strippers, L plates, plastic willies etc), but it took me a while before finding the right thing.

I started off thinking of cupcakes and cocktails - two things I really like. There were plenty of High Tea options at fancy hotels to choose from, and the odd cupcake decorating classes. I knew I liked the idea of something crafty to do, but the local options were very limited in Kent, so realised we may have to go up town.

In desperation one day I resorted to asking my Twitter followers for suggestions and the lovely Monda-loves suggested the Papered Parlour to me - and I'm so glad she did!! I googled them and found their site - link which had everything I had wanted, craft, cupcakes and cocktails!!

We started off the day on the train - in First Class no less - drinking bubbly, eating chocolate cupcake lollies which I made for everyone, and all wearing our corsage flowers made by my lovely big sis Zoë (Zed Designs) who had also put together the most wonderful goodie bags filled with brooches, bangles, magnets, mirrors, hairclips etc many of which she had bought from the very helpful Anna from Lilies and Daisies I felt very spoilt indeed!

We were made to feel very welcome on arrival at the Papered Parlour by Claire, the decor in the Parlour section was adorable, with reclaimed doors as the bar, vintage teacups hanging from the beams and Buddy Holly playing on the original 1950's record player - wonderful!

I choose the silversmithing- ring making class, so that we could all make something we could keep forever. It was quote challenging, but every single one of us made a ring to be proud of by the end of the 3 hours. We learnt how to measure, anneal, shape, solder, file, sand, hammer and stamp a strip of silver until it resembled a real life ring!!

Here are some of the photos from the day!

Thanks Papered Parlour for a wonderful experience - and thanks to all the girlies for joining me (especially my gorgeous sis for her thoughtfulness!)

xxx

Craft and Cupcakes Day!!

My friends are very encouraging of my "sewing stuff" and I decided to call their bluff the other day and invite them round for a craft and cupcakes day. The house was filled with chatting, babies, buttons, fabric and high calorie treats and we all had a splendid time!!

It gave me the opportunity to make use of some of my new fabrics and my array of notions.

We started off with a tissue pom pom blitz, as these are so easy to make. Everyone chose their favourite colour, Jo of course had to have the pink which matched her nail polish! Baby Sam chose not to participate - but boys tend not to get overly excited by pom poms!!

It wasn't long before the cakes were out and we ever so daintily stuffed our faces! We then moved onto woolly pom poms courtesy of my new clover pom pom makers. The wool turned out to be highly unsuitable for pom poms, but the colours were nice anyway!

We finished up by making some fabric corsages. Must have been too tired to remember to take photos at this point, so the first one is a photo taken the next morning of my effort made from some lovely dupion silk. The second one is Jo's lovely corsage which works wonderfully on her denim jacket!

It is far too easy to get lost in your own world when you craft, and as wonderful as chatting online to fellow crafters is, nothing beats the hands on fun of a group of girls making lots of pink things!!

Craft Review 2009

Well, I finally had a few minutes spare to gather my thoughts about 2009. For me it was a year in which I re-discovered my creativity and finally felt that others appreciated what I made. Ironic really considering that my day job is as a product designer!! And for the past 9 years most days I have been designing and developing giftwares for thousands of people to buy and give as presents.

When you work in mass produced products you lose your connection to the item. It is produced rarely for its aesthetic beauty or to win design awards - it is created purely to make the most amount of profit - 70% usually for the big High Street guys!! (Don't tell them I told you that!!). Don't get me wrong, I do like my day job - much better than previous jobs (chambermaid, cleaner, checkout girl, office junior, pound shop worker, call centre salesperson, canteen assistant, graphic designer), and I still get excited when a DHL arrives at work from one of the Chinese factories with my designs inside.

But it's different when you have crafted something by hand, tweaking the design along the way. Wondering whether it is something you could sell, something a friend or family member would like - or even something to keep myself!! Not overly caring that you have just spent £20 on materials, thread, books, a new pair of scissors, buttons, ribbons or just had to buy a new desk, or chair or storage unit to house your ever expanding stash! It's not about the money for me - it's about the sense of achievement and the thrill of other people noticing my work and commenting - and when I sell something I get a real rush of adrenalin - followed usually by a tinge of sadness knowing that I cannot keep it for myself now!

Learning to sew again and embroider, appliqué, lino printing and needle felting have made me a much happier person - and the friends I have made - mostly online through this blog, flickr and twitter have opened my eyes to a whole new world - one that suits me down to the ground. Not only can I be creative with pretty fabric I can also indulge my inner geek and learn about blogging, seo's, keywords, meta tags and nettiquette (still need to work on that!!).

Before I blether on too much, just a wish for 2010 - that I can find more time and energy to do the things that I love!

Happy New Year everyone!!

x

(these are just a few of my creations from the past year - the whole collection can be found on my flickr page)

 

I made this!! Christmas Stockings!!

So it's my first proper Christmas as a crafter - last year my craftiest effort was using brown paper and making my own button gift tags. Seemed like a good idea at the time but over a hundred presents later it became a little tedious!!

This year I will be buying my gift wrap but making a few presents and decorations instead!!

I've started off with the essential stocking - bought a couple metres of thick red felt (why is this so expensive!?) and a few machine blanket stitches and finishing touches later there are stockings!! The beauty of using felt is that you don't need to worry about linings or right and wrong sides or fraying!! Really like the naive look (I'm good at that!!)

I made this! - Wooden Button Brooches

Now I know these are nothing new - but after making one of these for myself the other day I thought - hey, other people might like these too - could be a nice idea for my noths shop? I have a growing collection of gorgeous large Italian wooden buttons and already had the brooch backs (from making my corsage brooches) so with a little fiddling around and a little super glue - hey presto - button brooches!!

I couldn't just glue to buttons to the brooch back - that would be too easy!! I had to over complicate things (as usual). I cut out small circles of linen to glue over the brooch backs - so that you cannot see the silver through the button holes (which would look weird) and then I threaded and glued embroidery thread through the holes for the finishing touch!

I made this! - Mortimer Sock Mouse!

This is my newest addition to my sock mouse family. A commission for Zoë Power. The brief was that he or she had to be pink and purple. Recently if I come across a pair of socks I like I just have to buy them now - it's become an obsession! This time I had to hunt down the right pair - not as easy as you would think - even when I had the whole of Oxford Street to choose from!!

But finally in Topshop I spied this lovely pair - and I just love how the large spots work with the shape. This time I made the heart belly a little smaller so it didn't wrap around the sides too much and I used piping inside the tail to create the nice rounded shape. Not content with having Molly Mouse my friend Mandy has commission me to make another mouse now with the other sock in this pair!

Think this sock mouse lark might be taking over my life . . .

I made this! - Sock Mouse!

Always been a bit of an animal lover - especially anything cute and furry.

So I thought I would turn my burgeoning sewing skills towards creating something cute and woolly!

As I cannot knit I thought I would make good use of the many colourful pairs of socks that are bought for me each Christmas - many of which remain unworn.


If anyone wants to try making one of these here's my mini tutorial -



1. Firstly take a sock - preferably clean - preferably unworn. Cut down the back through the heel to the toe


2. Cut a heart shape out of the sock - any shaped heart will do!




3. If you want to add an appliqué shape on the belly then you will need to pin the sock heart shape onto an embroidery frame - I used some hideous fabric that I wouldn't dare use on anything else - don't worry no-one will see it!! Then I pin the appliqué fabric in position and draw the shape I want in chalk. Using a close together zig zag stitch you carefully sew round your shape.


4. Remove the fabric from the frame - cut off any excess hideous fabric then very carefully trim around your appliqué shape. The first time I tried this I snipped through the sock and had to start again!


5. Now is the time to decide to what kind of tail your mouse should have. On Marvin mouse I spent forever turning piping inside out - which creates a stiff rat like tail. For Molly mouse, she has a more simpler tail - a strip of fabric with the raw edges folded in twice - stitched one line along the whole length then knotted the end!



6. Once you have trimmed off all the fabric and made your tail fold the shape in half and pin. Contrary to my photo I would advise starting from the tail end - if you look closely at my photo you can see a white mark on the right hand side - this was my stop sewing mark. If you start from that end and sew towards the nose end it is much easier!! Learn from my mistakes. Before you start sewing tuck the tail inside and position - it is much neater and more secure if you machine sew this on as part of the seam.


7. Once you have sewn the back seam, turn inside out making sure the nose is as pointy as possible and start stuffing! I use natural lambswool but you can use anything you like.


8. When you have finished stuffing you will need to weight the mouses bottom - I use a large plastic button which weights it and creates a flat surface helping your mouse sit up. But I'm sure there are many other ways to do this!!



9. This is a rare sight of Molly's bottom! This part needs to be hand sewn. Naturally the open ends come together as shown above - but if yours doesn't just trim bits off until it does!! Tuck the raw edges in and use invisible stitching (ish) to bring it all together.


10. All you need to do now if add the finishing touches - The ears - are just two Pac Man shaped pieces of felt, and the eyes and nose very small buttons - but beads could work just as well.


The Beauty of these little meeses is that they will all be different - no matter how many you make!!

Would love to see other peoples sock mice - post a link to your image - or share on flickr. Other images of Molly and Marvin can be seen on my flickr gallery

I made this! - Easter Egg Card

Instead of those calorie ridden, overly sweet and naughty eggs we gave my other halfs sisters money this year for Easter. But to "Easter it up" a little I just had to make a little fabric egg card to hold the money in!

Are quite simple to make. Cut four egg shapes from card (I used foam board which is about 3mm thick). Two of the eggs were about 5mm smaller. Using alot of pritt stick, UHU, sellotape and double sided tape I smothered the cards in tissue paper for one of the smaller ones, Velvet with foam padding for the back, spotty cotton with a pocket for the other smaller egg shape, then for the front I sewed ribbon and buttons onto some stripey cotton using lots of different stitches.

Glued all the bits together with bright pink grosgrain ribbon to hold the front and back together and to also tie the card up with a big colourful bow!! Pressed under a weight overnight to set (all that glue takes a while to dry!!)

After all that I think the money was the most exciting bit for the girls - but I still enjoyed making them!!

Happy Easter everyone!!