Crafty Ady

My Creative Space

2012-02-08T22:07:00.000Z

Hello friends! My creative space is rather crowded this week with 3 projects on the go simultaneously.

First up is the crocodile stitch hood. This is going well. So far, I have finished the cowl part and have just started working on the hood. The pattern is made up of two parts which will be stitched together in the final finish. This is the finished cowl ...

And this is the beginnings of the hood ...

I had not worked with skeins of wool before - otherwise known as hanks. When I started the cowl, I just snipped the bits of yarn holding the hank together, found one end and started crocheting. Bad move! I soon found myself having to unravel and untangle myself ever so often. Hugely annoying. Thankfully I got to the end of the cowl and decided to spend a bit of time unraveling the messy skein and rewinding it into a centre-pull ball which you can see in the photo above. This is sooo much better to work with. Now I know, I have starting planning a DIY yarn swift project involving a recently purchased cheap lazy susan from Ebay. The idea is to make something that works like this. Hopefully, this will enable me to wind my skeins into balls quickly and easily. I'll keep you posted on that particular project when I get it started.

Back in the space ... up next is a small project I've wanted to do for a while now but just had not gotten around to. The project involves this stack of folded cartridge paper ...

I'm going to try to turn this stack of paper signatures (each sub-stack is called a signature) into a little handbound journal. Somewhere in the depths of my wardrobe is an offcut of some mauve-coloured suede leather. Perfect stuff for a cover for the journal. I'll keep you updated on the progress of this one later.

And finally, based on this fabulous tutorial, I am almost finished making Missy Moo a Rapunzel wig for Book Character day at school on Friday. Here she is trying it on for size. The end of the wig finishes right by her heels. It actually just sits on the floor by her heels.

I still need to weave in a dozen or so little pink roses and tie a small wrist strap onto the end of the braid to help her keep the thing off the ground when she is running around school on Friday. She is extremely excited about Friday and can't wait to show her fun wig to all her friends.

There are a couple of tee-to-tank refashions in progress somewhere around here to. Busy busy busy! Just how I like it!

Find out what else is happening in other creative spaces around the world over at the home of creative spaces here.

Have a creative day, friends.

Easy stitch marker

2012-02-05T13:40:00.000Z

I wanted to make a stitch marker for my crochet projects. A quick rummage in my chain-maille box yielded a reasonable sized lobster claw clasp. Add an aluminium ring and a small bead and I got this ...

It’s easy to use and took me less than a minute to put together. And it does exactly what it was meant to do.

Next time I pop into the craft shop, I’ll look for slightly bigger lobster claw clasps and maybe some little beads or charms.

We had snow last night. This morning the temperatures have risen and it's all now very slushy, brown and generally icky. Hope you're having a good weekend, friends.

The hood project is underway

2012-02-04T12:26:00.000Z

The crocodile stitch neckwarmer was the warm-up project … the supporting act if you like, for this lovely project.

This is how mine has started.

This is a Fyberspates sport weight 4ply yarn called Scrumptious … and believe you me, it is truly scrumptious. 45% silk and 55% superwash merino wool. It’s so soft and has that wonderful sheen you get with the silk blends.

I am very excited about this project. Can’t wait to finish it especially after seeing all the wonderful versions on Ravelry.

Have a wonderful weekend, friends.

The crocodile stitch neckwarmer is finished!

2012-02-03T13:21:00.000Z

The crocodile stitch neckwarmer I started a few weeks ago is now finished! Yay!! I lightly washed it, gently dried it and blocked it and it has made it's debut this week as we're presently experiencing very cold weather.

I realised when I was doing this that I had inadvertantly made it smaller than it ought to have been by using a 4mm hook. The pattern calls for a 4.25mm hook which doesn't exist over here in the UK. We get 4.0 or 4.5 - and yes, I hear you, I should have gone for the 4.5 or above but I made a beginner's error by moving down instead of going up in hook size. I have also discovered that I tend to crochet quite tightly - note to self ... loosen up!!

When I got to the end of the number of rows etc in the pattern, I realised I had almost run out of yarn and couldn't really add any any more rows in the same colour. I thought it might loosen a bit once blocked. It has loosened somewhat and thankfully does fit around my neck! If it hadn't, it would have ended up as a neckwarmer for Missy Moo.

I haven't found a suitable button or toggle yet. So far, I've been wearing it with a little hair-stick as a pin fastening it close. That works really well and I think I will stick to using a pin instead of a button.

This was made from 2 balls of Baby Rooster which is a 100% machine washable fine Merino wool. It's halfway between a 4ply and a DK I think. Very soft and not at all scratchy - which is good for me!

Can you see the bit of crochet and the dark red yarn at the top of the photo? That's my next project which is the Marte Crocodile stitch hood. I bought some incredibly beautiful 55% merino and 45% silk blend yarn at the weekend and couldn't wait to make a start on my hood. Very excited! I'll keep you posted on my progress later.

Have a great day, friends.

Tee to tank refashion

2012-01-26T22:02:00.001Z

Yesterday I showed you this ....

which got cut up like this ...

and now looks like this ...

Thanks to this fab tutorial over at Crafterhours, I now have a great 'new' tank to wear to my fitness classes and during the summer. I hacked a hideous old tshirt of Mr CraftyAdy into strips and used one of the strips to make the straps for this tank and actually left the hem on this tshirt untouched. It's so comfortable to wear. I love it!

I'm off to hack up a couple more old tees to make more tanks.

My creative space

2012-01-25T22:43:00.003Z

The crocodile stitch neckwarmer that was in my space last week is still there. Only it's now grown to 12 inches in length. I reckon I have maybe another 6 or 7 inches to go before it's done. It looks pretty much as it did the last time - only longer.

I've been sidetracked ever so slightly by a couple of quick projects. This one is a fabric headband which I spotted on CraftGossip several days ago. It's from a tutorial on Able to Sleep's blog here. I reckon this would be a really nice project to use up bits and pieces of scrap fabric.

The second quick project comes from this fab tutorial over at Crafterhours. Mr CraftyAdy was chucking out a whole bunch of old tshirts and I took the opportunity to snag a few to refashion. I reckon these will be great for summer and also great for me when I go to the gym for my fitness classes. Anyhoo, here's the old tshirt I scrounged from the man ...

and here's how far I got tonight ...

I'll finish it off tomorrow night after my fitness class. If it turns out well (and I can't imagine it won't), there are 3 more tshirts waiting for the same treatment.

Find out what other creative peeps are up to around the world over at the home of creative spaces.

Have a creative day, friends.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2012-01-23T07:07:00.000Z

Kung Hei Fatt Choy!!

"Kung Hei Fatt Choy" means "Wishing You Prosperity and Wealth".

It's the Year of the Dragon and it begins today! The Year of the Dragon is considered to be the luckiest of the Chinese lunar years. The Dragon brings us the promise of change which is traditionally associated with new beginnings and good fortune.

My Lunar New Year here in the UK normally begins with lots of Pineapple tarts! In Malaysia and Singapore, pineapple tarts are very popular during this time of the year. I made some last year and the year before that which I blogged about here. This year, I've made them again. Mmmmmmm ....

I started a bit later than usual this year with my pineapple tarts which meant that I was in a baking frenzy last night! Still, 175 of these little gems are packed and ready to go to the office with me this morning and there is another batch of pastry sitting in the fridge awaiting my attention tonight.

For all my friends out there who celebrate Chinese New Year, I wish you a very happy and prosperous year ahead. Kung Hei Fatt Choy!

My Creative Space

2012-01-18T21:42:00.000Z

There's not a whole lot going on in my creative space right now. I have some bits to cut out for a boxy wash-bag but haven't gotten around to it yet. The only thing floating around is the crocodile stitch neckwarmer I showed you last week. One week on and it's only grown 3 inches.

Slow progress but progress nevertheless I suppose. I intend to persevere on this one.

Find out what other creative peeps are up to over at the home of creative spaces here.

Have a creative day, friends.

A couple of small UFOs and a bit of stash-busting

2012-01-15T18:00:00.000Z

I was hunting around in the plastic storage boxes on my desk when I came across a little stack of small rectangles of fabric. I reckon I must have cut them out to make little zip pouches but got distracted by something else and they ended up being forgotten.

It didn’t take me too long to knock them up into small lined zip pouches. They are the blue floral one in the back and the red one on top.

Once I got motivated to start on them, I spotted some off-cuts left over from making the wash-bag I showed you a couple of posts back. I figured I would use them up by making yet more lined zip pouches and managed to squeeze two out of what I had left.

I’m sure I have a handful of big UFOs somewhere that need to be cleared out. Just need to go find them.

I've had a good weekend so far - worked on these little projects, did a few more rows of my crocodile stitch neckwarmer and met up with some good friends for a fun evening. I find that weekends tend to pass by far too quickly for my liking. Hope your weekend is going well, friends.

My Creative Space

2012-01-12T21:58:00.000Z

One of my New Year resolutions was to try to improve my crochet skills. Being a leftie, I’ve always struggled with my crochet. I have discovered that Youtube is a terrific resource – there are quite a few very helpful video tutorials there for left-hand crochet beginners like me. Anyway, this is currently occupying my creative space right now.

It’s the crocodile stitch and this is the beginning of a scarf or maybe a neckwarmer. Probably the latter since it's shorter than a scarf! It took me a while to get started and to figure out the instructions. Five days on and I’ve only managed this much ...

My crochet has always been painfully slow. I’ll get there in the end.

Have a creative day, friends.

Another UFO is no more

2012-01-10T06:17:00.002Z

This Un-Finished Object (aka UFO) has been hanging around in a corner of my workspace for some time now. Looking back, I think I blogged about this foldaway shopping bag in one of the My Creative Space posts way back in July! How disgraceful is that?!

So last night I decided to stop procrastinating and finish the poor little bag off. It is now done.

Here it is all folded up and ready to go shopping with.

If you fancy making one yourself (and hopefully you won’t take as long as I did), you’ll find the tutorial link in the Tutorials bar on the left.

Wishing you a great day ahead, friends.

Pressa's new cover

2012-01-08T08:07:00.007Z

One of my new year's resolutions was to make a new cover for my little table-top ironing board. This is Pressa. Pressa came from IKEA well over fourteen years ago ... I am trying to think when I actually got this little ironing board and I am sure I moved into our present house with it in 1997.

It lives right next to my workspace and was increasingly looking sorrier and sorrier for itself. The original white cover got browner with age and a lot of use and more recently, started to wear through. I couldn't bring myself to even take a photo of the now discarded hideous cover. I am too ashamed. So instead I will show you Pressa's new cover.

I'd been putting the task of recovering Pressa off because I thought it might be cumbersome and difficult. In the end I bit the bullet and it turned out to be a pretty simple make. I took off the old cover (cringing with shame as I did so!) and unpicked the binding around the edge. There was a piece of thin and sorry-looking fleece under the fabric cover. I used it as a template to cut two new layers of Insulbright which is a kind of fleece-y wadding used for placemats, oven-mitts etc. I then used the old cover as a template to cut a new cover piece from some old Debbie Mumms quilting-weight cotton fabric from my stash.

I used the old binding to measure out a piece of new bias-binding. I reused the nylon cord from the old cover and inserted it inside the binding as I sewed the binding around the new cover. The fleece layers sit on top of the metal frame and the new cover over the top of that. Then the cord is pulled and the new cover tightens itself around the frame and holds the fleece in place. The whole project took just over an hour to complete (with coffee break included!)

I am very happy with this project and Pressa looks as good as new. As far as new years' resolutions go, this was a quick win for me.

Hope you are having a good weekend, friends.

Tom's wash-bag

2012-01-06T06:28:00.005Z

This year, I gave my team at work handmade presents for Christmas. Two of the ladies in my team received quillows for Christmas. One lady received a glasses case and another lady received a jewellery pouch. One of my team members is a great young man named Tom. When I was trying to work out what to give to each team member, I realised that the stuff I make is all very 'girlie' (handbags, purses etc) and that I had very little in the way of masculine fabric. My fabric stash (aside from the fabric I normally use for lining pouches and bags with - ie the polka dots and the odd striped fabric) was very much female oriented.

Tom's a keen swimmer and he plays water-polo very regularly too. A casual discussion few weeks before Christmas gave me the idea of making Tom a zippered pouch or wash-bag for his swim stuff like shower gel etc. I found the outer fabric for this wash-bag in my local quilting shop. Here's the wash-bag I made for Tom for Christmas. Isn't that a great fabric for a sporty kind of wash-bag?

I cut one piece of outer fabric, one lining (polka dots from my stash), one iron-on interfacing and one piece of fusible Thermolam fleece, all measuring 14 inches by 16 inches. The zip I used came from my stash too and is a 16-inch (roughly) open-ended slightly chunky nylon zip.

The inside seams have been enclosed in bias-tape. I also cut a 4 inch by 7 inch piece of fabric to make the handle.

The finished wash-bag measured approximately 10.5 inches long, 5 inches wide and 3 inches deep. I had sufficient fabric leftover to make myself a washbag exactly like this for my gym stuff too and it happily holds my sweat bands, knee support, weightlighting gloves and a 50ml sports drink bottle. I think this is a great size boxy zippered pouch for all kinds of purposes and I plan on making a couple more to hold my crochet / looming projects. I might even try to see if I can put a photo tutorial together when making one of these. What do you think?

The general plan for 2012 and a finished UFO

2012-01-04T17:15:00.011Z

Hello friends! A very belated Happy New Year to you all. I hope you've all been well over the festive season and had wonderful times with your friends and family. Mr CraftyAdy, the kids and myself stayed at home and thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas break. The kids have been off school since 16 December and they return to school tomorrow having enjoyed the long break. Mr CraftyAdy and I were off work for 9 days (not including weekends). It was the longest break I've had all year and I very much needed it.

I spent some of my time during the break doing some sewing and enjoyed that a lot. I decided that one of my 'resolutions' for 2012 is to do more sewing - specifically using the stash of fabric I have accumulated over the past couple of years. In no specific order, I thought I could commit to the following resolutions:
1) do more sewing and use the CraftyAdy fabric stash
2) try to pick up crochet again and actually learn to do it properly
3) re-cover my table-top ironing board
4) find all UFOs (Un-Finished Objects) and finish them.

On that note, on New Year's Day whilst looking for something in a storage box, I found 6 squares of fabric in a little plastic wallet. Two 15-inch squares of brown printed upholstery-grade fabric, two 15-inch squares of a red lining fabric and two odd-sized small bits of the brown fabric. I must have cut them out sometime ago intending to make a bag from them and just never did. I imagined the smaller pieces would have been intended as pockets. I found some black quilting cotton in my stash and put them altogether to make this bag for myself. The black strips across the body of the bag are strips of grosgrain ribbon.

I think originally I might have been intending to make a basket-bag like the first one pictured in this blog post which has a magnetic closure. I decided I actually wanted a zipped closure instead. So I used the odd-sized bits of brown fabric to form the gusset zip closure in the top of this bag.

I like the bright red lining and thought I could omit the pockets. The handles and the inside facing were cut from a long quarter (as opposed to fat quarter) of black fabric and the silver rings are actually flat split rings.

I've been using this bag for work this week and it's a nice size for me. It felt really nice making such a positive start in 2012. Last year's resolution was focused on stash-busting of the paper variety and I thought it went really well and hopefully will continue into this year too. The theme of stash-busting continues this year with the focus on fabric.

What are your resolutions for this year, friends? Is there anything in particular you wish to achieve, hope to learn or want to make this year? Whatever your resolutions, I wish you every success and may 2012 bring you lots of wonderful things.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T21:03:00.004Z

As the festive season is upon us, I look back on the past year and remember the big and small things which have shaped my year in many significant ways. I think overall I've had a pretty good year and I hope you have too, friends and fellow bloggers.

I wish you all a very happy Christmas and a New Year filled with peace and prosperity.

Small Christmas gifts

2011-12-24T11:24:00.004Z

As these were commissioned by a friend for her friends as Christmas gifts, I am happy to share these with you before Christmas! These are little purses made using Keyka Lou's Zip Pocket Pouch pattern.

When open, each has a zip pocket and a slip pocket (behind the zip pocket). A bit of velcro holds the pouch close.

The friend who commissioned these pouches specifically asked for cat themed fabric.

I made this one in two sizes.

The slip pocket in the smaller pouch is perfectly sized for credit cards. I made myself one of these for myself a couple of months ago. I added the loop and split-ring as I like having the option of adding a wrist-strap if I wanted to later on.

These are great fun to make and I have three in progress on my sewing table at the moment.

Non-Slip slippers for mum and a quick tutorial

2011-12-20T14:31:00.020Z

When my mum was visiting me, she happened to mention in passing that she could do with some non-slip house slippers to wear when she was at home in Malaysia. Her house in Malaysia has terrazzo flooring which can be quite slippery if you're wearing socks and besides, the weather is far too warm for sock-wearing about the house. I had seen this stuff called 'Slipper Grippers' which is a non-slip slipper sole fabric. It's made from natural hardwearing thick cotton canvas which is embossed with rubber non-stick little 'feet'. I ordered some and it arrived the day before mum was supposed to fly home! Talk about Just-in-time! Here are the slippers I made for her.

To make the slippers fit my mum, I drew around her feet including a rough quarter inch allowance. I then measured across the bridge of her foot and drew onto my template where the slipper band would go.

I then traced and cut out the slipper gripper fabric, some fleecey interfacing, some iron-on interfacing and some quilting cotton weight fabric for the inner sole. I ironed the iron-on interfacing to the wrong side of the quilting cotton fabric.

Then I created a stack with the slipper gripper fabric right-side out at the bottom, the fleecey interfacing in the middle and the quilting cotton weight fabric right-side up on the top. I basted all around the stack to hold the layers together.

For the slipper band, I drafted a pattern following the template I sketched out earlier and cut two each of the quilting cotton fabric for each foot. I also cut some fleecey interfacing to give the slipper band a bit more body. Placing the fabric pieces right side together and the fleecey interfacing onto the wrong side, I sewed along the long sides (top of the band and bottom of the band). I then turned the bands right side out, pressed them, top-stitched along the top and bottom edges and basted the open sides closed.

I basted the bands to the soles and got mum to try them out for side and fit. Once we were happy, I sewed bias binding around the slipper edges.

I noticed that Wendy aka The Crafter's Apprentice had made very similar slippers for her spa kits (aren't they a fab gift idea??! Wendy - I might just nick that idea from you for next year's Christmas makes!) and she refers to this tutorial which illustrates the binding process wonderfully. (Thanks Wendy!)

Mum was very pleased with her slippers. She promised to send feedback on slipper performance once she's had a chance to use them properly at home.

I've had a few other last minute Christmas makes and will share them with you as soon as I am able to load up the photos.

5 sleeps to Christmas!! Eeeekkkk!!! I am so not ready ... food to be bought, gifts yet to be wrapped .... how about you? Are you ready for Christmas?

The last Crimbo cards of the year

2011-12-19T13:57:00.005Z

I finally managed to finish my 2 dozen or so handmade Christmas cards for family and close friends. Whew!! Most have now been posted off to their destinations.

These were the last four cards I made.

Sorry I haven't been around much. My lovely mum visited us for 5 weeks from Malaysia and we've had a wonderful time together - although it's meant that the amount of crafting I was hoping to do didn't really get done!! Mum flew home to the warmth over the weekend and I think she was glad to escape the cold.

I managed to make a few gifts for Christmas. My little team of five colleagues at work all got handmade gifts from me this year which I was very pleased about. I'll share some of them with you after Christmas as I don't want their surprises spoilt. I also made mum some quick and simple house slippers. I'll share that with you very shortly.

Have a great week ahead, friends.

My creative space

2011-12-01T08:20:00.003Z

The space is still full of Christmas cardy bits and bobs. I finished a few cards last night.

I have maybe another dozen to finish off before I can get on with a few last minute Christmas makes.

Find other creative spaces here.

Have a creative day, friends.

More cards to share with you

2011-11-29T13:08:00.010Z

Some time ago I went to a craft fair and picked up a pack of paper, card and bits for card-making. I used the pack to make up some birthday cards. There's a red, pink, black & grey theme to these cards.

It's amazing how a few glittery stick-on gems, the odd punched flower or butterfly can make a card look so pretty. Short lengths of ribbon are nice additions too.

I also found a cheap pack of doillies in a local kitchenware shop and cut bits off to paste onto my cards. Pretty, aren't they?

A lot of it is just layering paper and card on top of each other. I use double-sided sticky tape a lot and double-sided sticky foam tape under the little messages. I also discovered these wonderful little things (described as brads without legs) called Card Candi. They're the little round red and white dome-shaped things on my cards.

I've made more cards than I need this year. So I took a bunch of cards into work and put them into a box on my desk. My colleagues can come help themselves to handmade cards if they want to and leave a contribution in the box in return. My colleagues are quite happy with this arrangement and some have already helped themselves to some cards from the box. All good!

It's a cold blustery day here in Birmingham and it looks like it's going to start raining any minute. Hope you're having a fine day where you are, friends.

My creative space

2011-11-23T18:21:00.005Z

I'll be spending the next few days making up Christmas cards for my friends and family. My creative space is littered with bits of card, small bottles of glitter glue (I love the name Stickles!), marker pens, bits of scrunched up tissue and my lovely Japanese water-brushes.

I need to get them done by next week. Royal Mail tells me that the last posting date for countries outside Europe are 5th and 9th of December if I want to make sure they get there in time for Christmas.

To see what other creative peeps are doing around the world, visit the home of creative spaces here.

Have a creative day, friends.

A handful of Christmas cards

2011-11-22T15:13:00.005Z

Here are the Christmas cards I made a couple of days ago using some freebie stamps that came with a craft magazine and a couple of other stamps I bought at a craft fair last month. The stamps are inked in black and I then coloured them in with watercolour pens and marker pens. The red patterned paper was another freebie in the magazine. Don't you just love freebies?!

I have many more to make and must do them soon if I want to be able to send family and friends abroad their CraftyAdy Christmas cards this year. I have no idea when the last posting dates for Royal Mail are. Note to self - need to find out asap!

Cute button paperclip bookmarks

2011-11-21T11:00:00.007Z

I recently bought some metal cover button kits and some giant paperclips. The cover buttons are metal buttons which can be covered with fabric. Dritz do a kit which comes with the plastic tool you need to make the buttons up. I used scraps from my stash and a small round circle of wadding to cover my buttons.

I then hot-glued them onto some giant paperclips which I found on etsy.

These make great little gifts. I have a few around the house - either as bookmarks or paperclips to hold my sheaf of bills together. They're a quick make and make good use of fabric scraps which might not be useful for anything else.

A few cards

2011-11-20T17:51:00.008Z

In my last My Creative Space post I was showing you a birthday card I was working on for a young boy. It turned out quite nicely I thought.

I used the same range of papers and cutouts to create another one for my card stash.

Here are a couple of other birthday cards I made.

I love these next two cards. The bunting in the card on the left is stuck down with small bits of double-sided foam pads so they stand out from the card. I nicked a few small star-shaped stickers from Missy Moo's sticker stash to use on the bunting.

I've not made very many cards which would be suitable for male friends. I realised recently that my cards are all very 'girlie'. This card is a lot less 'girlie' than many of my cards.

I have a few more cards planned and laid out on my desk - all ready for an evening of sticking and colouring in. There are a few Christmas ones in there too. I hope to be able to show them to you soon.

Hope you're having a great weekend.

Chain maille jewellery for a friend

2011-11-20T17:37:00.003Z

A couple of My creative space posts ago, I blogged about some chain maille I was working on. I made a necklace and matching earrings for a very dear friend of mine who was taking early retirement.

This is a variation on the Byzantine weave and has additional rings on each side. I think it worked really well. I didn't make a full necklace. I personally find them slightly uncomfortable to wear. So I made 8 inches of chain and used a length of silver fancy-link chain to make up the rest of the necklace.

I was very pleased with the finished pieces and my friend was delighted with her leaving present. I quite like this weave and might have to make another one for myself sometime soon.

My Creative Space

2011-11-17T11:20:00.005Z

The creative space is full of bits and pieces right now - mostly card-making type of bits and pieces. Here's a birthday card for one of Dinoboy's best friends.

I have a stack of cards to make up and have started on a handful of Christmas cards.

My friend was very happy with her jewellery which I made for her (see my last My Creative Space post here) - I did take some photos but have not had a chance to upload them. Sorry! I will try to post the up soon.

Visit the home of creative spaces to find out what others are doing around the world.

Have a creative day, friends.

Hat number 10

2011-11-15T20:56:00.004Z

I finished all my hats in time for the date my work colleague had set for the making up of the office shoeboxes for the Operation Christmas Child Project. Whew!

This is hat number 10.

Made on my green Knifty Knitter round loom with half a ball of leftover Rowan Big Wool yarn. It turned out to be a lovely warm hat with a nice little rolled brim.

Missy Moo wholeheartedly approved.

My creative space

2011-11-09T06:50:00.006Z

A slightly early My Creative Space post this week. I wanted to be sure I didn't miss it like last week! Doh! There are a few projects on the go in my space right now. The most pressing is this one.

A very dear colleague and friend of mine is taking early retirement and she finishes this week. I wanted to make her something nice and since she likes jewellery, I thought I'd make her a chain maille necklace with matching earrings. I don't know if there is a name for this particular weave ... it's a Byzantine weave variant. The accent rings are smaller in diameter than the silver rings and there's a single accent ring locking the box together at the top and the bottom - forming a little cross of sorts.

Visit other wonderful creative spaces around the world here at the home of Our Creative Spaces.

Have a creative day, friends.

Lip balm making in time for winter

2011-11-08T06:47:00.005Z

The kids and I get chappy lips a lot during the colder months of the year. So I normally buy a lot of lip balm aka chapsticks etc. This year I thought I'd have a go at making our own. It was actually pretty successful - we ended up with 4 little pots and 10 sticks and I had leftover balm mixture left to half fill an old small lip balm tin.

I used the following:
15gms of cocoa butter
25gms of shea butter
20gms of bees wax pellets
roughly 10gms of mango butter
40mls of sweet almond oil
a few drops of peppermint flavouring oil

If you search for lip balm making supplies on Google, you'll find lots of shops online which sell these. Normally these online shops also specialise in soap-making supplies too (next year's craft perhaps??)

I melted it all in a heatproof container in our microwave in short 20 - 30 second bursts. When it had all melted together, I poured the liquid balm into my containers and put them into the fridge for an hour or so to set. I was a bit slow in my pouring and the balm mixture actually started to set in my heatproof container. I had to return it to the microwave a couple of times to reheat. I had read somewhere on the internet that shea butter can go grainy when it gets too hot and I think the reheating of the balm mixture made this happen in my lip balm. In hindsight I might omit the shea butter altogether in future recipes and perhaps use more mango butter or more cocoa butter. Ours was a smidgen grainy but the grainy feeling dissipates really quickly when the wax melts on the lips.

I was very cautious with my flavour oil and the resulting lip balm is not very minty. It can stand a bit more next time.

Have you ever tried making lip balm? Do you use shea butter and if not, which other type of butter do you use?

Ending Halloween on a happy note

2011-11-02T06:50:00.004Z

31 October fell on a Monday this year. Normally the kids would have been at school but this year, Monday 31 October was a teacher-training day so the kids were not required to attend school. They got the day off to hang out with me and got all excited about a Halloween party they got invited to.

I had one last pumpkin left and asked Missy Moo what type of pumpkin she wanted me to carve for her. She immediately declared that she wanted a 'happy' pumpkin. I think she's probably had enough of scary pumpkins this year. So a happy pumpkin it was.

I didn't hollow out this pumpkin - I just carved into it. I also did not break into the middle bit. I'm hoping that the rest of the pumpkin might still be OK in a couple of days as I intend to cut the face bit off and roast up the rest of it to make a bit of pumpkin soup!

I hope you had a fun Halloween. My two certainly did - they probably ate far too much junk food and sweets and spent most of the evening running about scaring each other and their friends to bits.

Wishing you a happy scary Halloween!

2011-10-31T15:49:00.003Z

Boo!!

Meet another one of our Halloween pumpkins - this is Scary 'Two-Face' Jack.

CraftyAdy, Dinoboy and Missy Moo (and Scary Jack too) would like to wish you a happy scary Halloween. Have fun and be safe.

Fang-tasmagoria

2011-10-30T09:07:00.009Z

Here are my second and third attempts at 3D pumpkin carving.

Meet Franklin Fangs ...

And his brother, Fred Fangs.

I am really enjoying carving up pumpkins. Before the kids were born, I spent a year and a half studying the art of woodcarving under the tutelage of a master woodcarver. I mostly carved small decoy ducks, leaves in relief, one or two Welsh lovespoons and an owl. Then Dinoboy was born and I packed my chisels away (small children, no dedicated workspace and sharp chisels do not mix well together). Pumpkin carving is a little like woodcarving - yes it is a lot softer material than wood but it also has some similarities in that it is subtractive in nature (once you've cut it off, there's no going back!) and like wood, pumpkin has grain too which makes 3D carving a little challenging.

The kids very much enjoyed watching the pumpkins come to life and are quite accepting of the temporary nature of these carvings - they start decaying shortly after they're done being carved. Franklin's got mold growing on him as I type this (he is now 10 days old) and will shortly be sent to rot away in peace in the compost bin.

Fred's probably gone the same way too - we sent him into holiday club with the kids last week.

A whole new take on pumpkin carving

2011-10-29T18:10:00.006+01:00

For some months now I have been thinking about trying out pumpkin carving ... and not just the regular sort of pumpkin carving. I've been spending a lot of time thinking about 3D pumpkin carving. I have been very inspired by two guys in particular. I'd like to introduce them to you.

The first chap is a friendly and incredibly talented guy named Ray Villafane. Here is the link to Ray's website, Villafane Studios.

Here's one of Ray's amazing pumpkins ...

And this one is one of my favourite pumpkins carved by Ray.

The second chap is an equally talented and amazing carver named Scott Cummins whose website can be found here. Scott also has a great carving tutorial on his website.

Here's one of Scott's pumpkins ...

And here is another. Cool, huh?

Pumpkins started appearing in our local supermarkets some 2+ weeks before Halloween. I had found a ribbon tool as part of a clay modelling kit in a local craft shop. Armed with the ribbon tool, a vegetable peeler and a small paring knife, I decided to have a go myself after studying Scott's tutorial and watching a whole bunch of 3D pumpkin carving videos on youtube. Here is Dinoboy with my very first 3D attempt - Sir Percival Pumpkin.

Missy Moo liked Percival a lot too.

Percy taught me the value of a good plan (mine was not a good plan as I broke through into the middle whilst doing one eye so decided to cut both eyes out as a consequence) and I learnt what I could or could not do with the tools I had. I tried scraping the skin off with the ribbon tool like Ray and Scott do but that did not work for me - I struggled a lot so decided to use a vegetable peeler instead which worked a lot better for me. I also got quite excited once I had one 3D pumpkin carving under my belt. So off I went to the supermarket to hunt for more pumpkins to mutilate. I'll show you my other efforts in my next post.

Hope you are having a good weekend, friends.

9 down, 1 more to go

2011-10-28T20:57:00.004+01:00

I am very close to achieving the target of 10 woolly hats which Missy Moo set for me when I first embarked on this year's hats for the Operation Christmas Child project. Here is hat number 9 on Dinoboy.

Of course Missy Moo had to inspect it too for quality assurance purposes.

This one has a little rolled brim instead of the usual doubled-up one. It's kinda cute.

The past week and a bit has been pretty busy as I've been trying my hand at pumpkin carving. I'll show you my efforts in my next post.

Magnetic words for Missy Moo

2011-10-25T13:35:00.006+01:00

Missy Moo started school this fall and is enjoying it very much. She is in Reception year which is the first year of primary school here in the UK. Pupils in Reception are usually aged between four and five. Missy Moo is 4 and a half. Reception year students follow what is known as the foundation stage in the National Curriculum. One of the areas of learning at this stage is Communication, language and literacy and students like Missy Moo learn to expand their vocabulary and learn to read.

Missy Moo was sent home last week with a couple of sheets of some of the high frequency words the kids in her class are currently learning. I think the idea was to cut the words out, play matching pairs games with them and use the words to form sentences.

I decided to use the sheets to make magnetic words. We have a small home laminating machine and I used that to laminate the cut-out bits of paper first. I then stuck them onto a sticky-backed magnetic sheet. It couldn't be easier.

We've used them a lot over the past few days and she enjoys making up different sentences from the words we have got. Here is Missy Moo lining the words up randomly on our fridge so she can start picking individual words out to make her sentences.

She thinks she is playing and I know she is learning. So it's a win-win situation for all. We have a little magnetic wipe-dry white board too and she prefers to play with her magnetic words on the little white board on the floor of the playroom.

She can't wait for her next set of words from school so we can make more magnetic words and she can make more sentences.

A slightly late My Creative Space

2011-10-21T08:01:00.003+01:00

Apologies for this late My Creative Space post. I've been a day behind all this week despite having a clock in our house which tells you the time and the day+date. I spent the whole of yesterday thinking it was Wednesday. I happened to glance at the clock this morning and noticed the day+date bit and realised it's now Friday! Part of me is going "Woohoo!! Friday!!" The other part of me's thinking "Oh no!! I've got a ton of stuff to do before the weekend!"

I finished hat number 8 - here it is modelled by Missy Moo who insists on being my Quality Assurance inspector.

I started hat number 9 which is currently in progress. Here it is on my KK loom.

I'm still working on using up as much leftover wool as I can. The brim of this is made from the leftovers of a ball of Rowan Big Wool (I totally love the Big Wool yarn. So soft and so chunky!) The body of the hat is being made using two strands of two different grades of yarn. One is supposed to be a chunky but is not really very chunky at all (not for looming anyway) and the other is a thin black and grey 4ply I think.

There are so many beautiful projects on the go in creative spaces all over the world. Check out some of them here at the home of creative spaces.

Have a great Friday and wishing you all a wonderful weekend ahead, friends.

Hats for Christmas

2011-10-14T21:29:00.003+01:00

Last year I made about a dozen woolly hats on my round loom and they went into wrapped shoeboxes that some colleagues at work were putting together for the Operation Christmas Child project. I enjoyed making them very much and thought that I'd do the same again this year.

Missy Moo has set me a target of 10 hats to make. I've made 7 so far (8th is very nearly done) and here they are. I haven't had to buy any yarn this year - just trying to use up the yarn I got last year or yarn friends have given to me towards the project.

DinoBoy and MissyMoo tried them on for size and said they were very soft and warm. MissyMoo expressed her gladness at knowing that these hats were going to be part of some christmas presents for children in another part of the world.

I had to throw this next photo in for a giggle - this is what you get when you tell your subjects to say "Fromage" instead of "Cheese".

I am glad it's the weekend. The weather people on telly said that the weather might be quite good this weekend. I hope so. Wishing you a wonderful weekend wherever you are, friends.

My creative space

2011-10-13T05:50:00.005+01:00

I have been missing from blogosphere for many many weeks due to that thing called "work". I'm sorry. The past 2 and a bit months have been crazy but I have not been idle. I have found some quiet moments in the middle of the madness to do some little bits of crafting - which has kept me sane. I thought today was a good day to come back to blogging. It is My Creative Space day. This is occupying my creative space right now ...

Over the past two weeks, I have been making warm woolly hats on my green Knifty Knitter loom for the Operation Christmas Child charity boxes. I was supposed to finish this hat last night but got sidetracked by some ironing. I have finished 7 hats to date and this one is my 8th. Missy Moo has set me a target of 10 hats to make. I'll show you those in another post.

In the meantime, I am heading off to visit other creative spaces at the home of creative spaces.

Have a creative day, friends.
(It's good to be back!)

The chintzy hat

2011-08-07T17:02:00.005+01:00

The hat is finished. Very chintzy isn't it?

It's lined with a bright red pin dot fabric.

And it's actually big enough to fit my big head!

I intend to make another but with a slightly narrower brim. This hat was made using the Nicole Mallalieu adult hat pattern. The instructions are excellent and the largest hat size fits me perfectly. I'm also contemplating making this in wool or velvet or felt for a nice winter hat. What do you think?

Hope you're having a great weekend, friends.

Leaving present

2011-08-03T21:15:00.005+01:00

I made this foldaway shopping bag last week for a friend who was leaving our workplace to go work somewhere else (lucky them). I wanted to make her something and we realised that I hadn't made her one of my bags. She has a quillow but not a bag. Now, she has this ...

It's made from one of Amy Butler's home decorator weight fabrics from the August Fields collection. It comes in green too but I particularly like this colourway. I think it's very striking.

I have another foldaway bag still in progress .... yes, I know ... I blogged about that in the last post. Nope - haven't finished it yet. It's next on my 'To Do' list .... as long as I don't get distracted by something else!

Hope your week is going well so far, friends. Happy humpday!

My creative space

2011-07-27T18:00:00.006+01:00

There are two projects lying about in my creative space right now.

There is this one which is a very nearly finished foldaway shopping bag ...

And there is this one which is a partway there bucket hat for me. I think I must have a big head as store-bought hats are always too tight around my head. This one is looking quite promising.

There was enough fabric leftover from one of my recent summer tops to make this hat. I have a lovely red polka dot fabric which I think would work great as a lining for the hat.

Find other creative spaces here.

Have a creative day, friends.

Gifts for the teacher

2011-07-22T15:03:00.006+01:00

It's the end of another academic year. You might recall that at the end of the last academic year, Dinoboy asked me to make 3 zipaway totes for his teachers which were blogged about here, here and here.

Thankfully, this year we have just the one teacher to appreciate and since this teacher had been working with Dinoboy all year on his literacy skills, I thought she might like a journal jar ... as well as a bag of course! Here is the basket Dinoboy and I put together for her.

There is a pretty notebook tucked away behind the bag and the jar. The jar contains over 40 strips of paper. Each strip has a statement or a question on it. The idea is that Miss R (Dinoboy's teacher) would randomly select a strip of paper, stick it on a page in her pretty notebook and write a journal entry relating to what was written on the strip. The strips were geared towards teaching - so there are questions like: "who was your favourite junior school teacher and why?" or "Is anyone in your family and teacher and how have they inspired you to become a teacher?" or "When did you first become a teacher and why?" According to Dinoboy, Miss R really likes the journal jar.

As is traditional (for me and Dinoboy anyway), I made Miss R a bag. It's a foldaway shopping tote. We popped into The Cotton Patch and Dinoboy helped pick the fabrics (apparently, Miss R really likes purple).

The concept of this is very much like my foldaway shopping bag. This is a simple, lined tote with a squared off bottom. I used black 1 inch webbing for handles and the handles tuck into the bag before folding the bag up. The flap and poppers are done exactly like the foldaway shopping bag and I incorporated a bit of black piping too.

I really like this fabric combination and I think I might just have to make myself a bag with these fabrics (I actually have just about enough leftover fabric to make myself a bag).

I like the journal jar idea a lot. Dinoboy and I have discussed making a journal jar up for him to use over the summer vacation. He can pick a random strip whenever he fancies and write about it in a notebook. This way, he'll get some writing practise over the summer which will stand him in good stead when the new academic year starts again in the fall. He's decided I can make up either questions like: "who's your favourite tv character and why?" or "write about something fun you did today" or maybe even single words like "Pirate" or "Jungle" and he'll use that as a theme for a story.

School finished really early today so I treated Dinoboy to a nice lunch and we did a spot of shopping - actually I did a spot of shopping. Dinoboy just trailed along contemplating what he could spend his meagre pocket money on.

I'm going to get myself a cup of tea now and plan what bag I want to make for myself over the weekend. What are your plans for the weekend?

Have a great weekend, friends.

Yet another Pendrell

2011-07-21T06:44:00.006+01:00

I love the Pendrell pattern from Sewaholic. I like the ones I have made so far (two others not including this one) and I wear them a lot. They're comfy and pretty. I picked fabrics which do not require ironing after laundering which is always a big win in my books.

This is the latest one I've made. I like the fun ditsy dot fabric print. I found this fabric in one of the local Asian fabric shops near my area. There is a major road in our city which has many Asian fabric shops on it. I've lived in our area for over 10 years and had never ventured down there for a look. Recently, a friend and I decided to go check out the fabric shops on that road and found a couple of really good ones. This fabric is a thin matte satin of some sort - definitely a polyester. It's got a thinner handle than a microfibre and is very lightweight.

I tried to make the cap sleeves smaller but they ended up looking rather like clamshells sticking out from my shoulder. Not a good look. So I folded them in half and stitched them down so they're now a slightly poufy frill. It seemed to work and I was happy not to have to try unpicking the sleeves. What a nightmare that would have been!

Work is starting to get to that crazy time of the year again. In about 3 weeks time, thousands of students here in the UK will get their high school exam results. Adminstrators like myself who work in universities across the country will be trying to match results to course requirements and trying to get as many students as possible onto our courses. A stressful time for the students and for us too. I might not get much spare time to sew or get crafty - so please excuse the sparse postings in the coming month or so.

Have a great day, friends.

A few more cards

2011-07-10T08:24:00.006+01:00

I made 4 more cards over the past 2 nights. These two lovelies were made using Penny Black stamps with card, paper and cut-outs from my card-making stash. I borrowed the kids' felt tip pens to colour the pictures in.

I really like this cute stamp called Birthday Gretel by CC Designs. It makes a really nice card for little girls. Missy Moo likes Gretel a lot.

Here's another Birthday Gretel in progress.

It's a nice, bright and sunny Sunday here in Birmingham. I've just cut out my third Pendrell top which I hope to get started on today. What are your plans for today?

Whatever your plans, I hope you're having a fab weekend, friends.

Resolution still going strong.

2011-07-04T21:02:00.008+01:00

Back in March, I shared about my New Year's resolution to make more with the stuff I have accummulated over the past couple of years. The idea was to use up my accumulated stash of card blanks, coloured cards and paper, scraps of wrapping paper, my small collection of stamps and punches, bits and bobs which come free with crafting magazines and make my own greeting cards for friends and family.

Halfway through the year, I am happy to report that I am still making my own cards. I spent a couple of happy evenings during the past week making up these new cards as my stash of handmade cards had dwindled significantly.

This little Kokeshi chipboard cutout and the matching sheet of paper came from a magazine I bought in January. Seriously cute.

This stash of cards should cover my needs right up to October or even November I reckon. Then I think I might make a start on some Christmas cards.

Hope you're having a great week so far, friends.

The outcome of the Hottie Challenge

2011-07-03T06:24:00.004+01:00

Not so long ago, I took part in a challenge to make a hottie cover (ie hotwater bottle cover) for a charity. Fellow blogger, Curlypops, started a new challenge over at her blog in aid of the Margaret Pratt Foundation Heart Lung Transplant Trust in Australia. It seemed a fun thing to do for a worthy cause so I jumped in.

My blog posts about my hottie are here, here and here.

I posted my hottie to Australia in the hopes that it would arrive on time and it did. Whew! Thank you international post fairies!

If you are in the vicinity, here's your invite to the exhibition of all the hotties. It's being held at the Open Drawer Gallery and the address is 1158 Toorak Road, Camberwell (Hartwell), Melbourne.

The exhibition runs from 1st July to 24th July and features all the hotties including those from the challenge Curlypops organised. The exhibition opened last night and you can read about it here.

The hotties look amazing all hung up in one space like that. (I'm so excited to see mine hanging up there too!!) A big thank you to Cam of Curlypops for organising the challenge. Well done, Cam!

More summer sewing

2011-06-30T11:53:00.006+01:00

I'm still sewing stuff for myself. I have another two slightly modified Pendrells to do soon. Here are the most recent additions to the working wardrobe.

The first is a Sorbetto tank in a lovely chintzy print.

I decided to go for a bold contrast with the black bias binding and etched buttons.

I bought about 2 metres of a black non-crease polyester fabric from the local fabric warehouse. It was a cheapy buy at £3 a metre. I managed to cut 2 skirts from the piece I got. This is the first of the two skirts. This is a simple one seam, elasticated waist skirt. Nothing fancy - just a simple plain skirt.

I'm trying to figure out how to insert an invisible zip for the second skirt. Have to go do some online research now.

Hope your week is going well, friends.

Pendrell number 2

2011-06-27T08:01:00.007+01:00

I made the Pendrell again. This time from a soft drapey crepe-like polyester which was in the bargain pallet at a local fabric warehouse. I bought 1.5 metres and it cost me just under £3 because the fabric was priced at around £1.50 per metre.

It's very red, isn't it? The hem isn't crooked ... it was just a bit windy yesterday afternoon when I was trying to take photos of it!

I made it short again like the first version. It rides just on my hipline. It's a good length for me. I made the cap sleeves a bit smaller than version 1. I think in my next version of the Pendrell, I might do away with the cap sleeves altogether and just keep the shoulder frill which I really like.

The weekend was a bit of a sewing fest for me. I finished this top, another Sorbetto tank top and a simple one-seam elasticated waist skirt for me. I'll show you the other two items later.

Today is a big-ish day for Missy Moo. We have a 1-hour visit to her new class which she will join formally in September. Today's a bit of a mini induction I guess. She's wearing her new uniform (this is the summer dress) and is very excited.

Dinoboy is in the Junior school linked to the Infant school Missy Moo will be joining. They will walk to school together but once the school day starts, they won't really see each other until after school when they will both be at the after-school club together. They are both quite looking forward to September.

Have a great day, friends.

Where I hone my powers of resistance to temptation ...

2011-06-26T19:51:00.010+01:00

... and fail miserably probably 6 times out of 10!

I've lived in our home for 14 years now and I regularly have to drive past a wonderful shop called the Cotton Patch. I don't always drive past it ... sometimes I walk past it. And every single time I do, I have to say to myself "No, you don't need anything from there - move along please!"

It's quite hard for me to move along when the inside of the shop looks like this -

Or this - look at those rolls of oilcloth.

There's a shelving unit full of Amy Butler fabrics.

There are baskets of neatly folded fat quarters.

There's a wall full of books and magazines.

Right next to that is the Moda rack with tempting layer cakes and jelly rolls.

Every nook and crannie is filled with fabric, nifty gadgets and all manner of quilting goodies.

In my house there are boxes full of fat quarters, half yards and the odd full yard. I am slowly working my way through my stash ... very slowly. I don't really need any more fabric - yet sometimes when I have a day off work, I am drawn to this lovely place. The staff there are great and don't mind if I wander in for a chit-chat, see what's newly arrived and spend a few moments touching the bales of gorgeous fabric lovingly and staring at the shelves in awe. Sometimes I go in and manage to leave without making a purchase - not very often mind. More often than not, I cave in and walk away with a little bundle of fabric clutched to my chest possesively.

The Borg were right. Resistance is futile.

Gathered pouches

2011-06-22T08:02:00.007+01:00

A while ago I made a couple of gathered zippered pouches using Noodlehead's pattern here. At the weekend, I decided to make a couple more. They are lots of fun to make. The construction is easy and the gathering and band on the one side makes it a bit more interesting than a plain zippered pouch.

I adore this bunny fabric. It's so cute. I have a lovely pouch which my longtime friend & fellow blogger Fiona made for me in the red version of this bunny fabric. So when I saw a fat quarter of the blue bunny fabric in my local fabric shop I bought it immediately. Too cute to pass up.

One of these pouches has a new home with a good friend of mine whose birthday it was last week. I shall keep the other for myself. There's enough fabric left over to either use in a bag or to make another largish pouch or a couple of smaller pouches. I like the fact that fat quarters can go a long way.

It's hump day today. I hope your week has gone well so far. Not long until the weekend. Enjoy the rest of the week, friends.

The Pendrell top - First attempt

2011-06-18T21:01:00.004+01:00

Not that long ago, I came across Tasia's (aka Sewaholic) blog and saw her Pendrell blouse pattern and her sewalong. Since then, I've seen loads of Pendrell tops all over blogosphere. So this is the Pendrell ...

I really like view B with the frills. So I decided to get the pattern and make one. Here's my first attempt at the Pendrell.

I have a habit of picking busy prints like this one. It's hard to see the frills and the princess seam detail in the photo with all that funky print action going on. You can see the shoulder frill a bit better in this next photo.

I traced the pattern out onto tracing paper and realised that the original pattern was pretty long. I lowered the neckline a little and hacked 3 inches off the pattern length. I think the shorter length works better for me. This is a nice polyester microfibre fabric. Wonderfully light and soft with great draping quality but the handle is a little more substantial than a crepe de chine.

I like the princess seams a lot and the pattern was pretty easy to follow. I intend to make another one soon.

Hope you're having a great weekend, friends.

My creative space

2011-06-16T06:12:00.003+01:00

I just finished my first attempt at the Pendrell blouse. I'll take pics and do a post on it soon. The space is presently being taken over by strips of dotty fleece.

Summertime is a good time to pick up cheap fleece throws or blankets. The house furnishings warehouse near me always does sale offers on fleece blankets in the summer. The fleece blankets are great for making kids scarves. I trimmed the finished edges of the blanket, then cut it widthways into 6 inch strips. Each scarve has fringed ends. The fleece doesn't fray so there is no need to edge-finish the long sides. I got 12 scarves out of a single blanket. These will be put aside until later on in the year when I start making up gift-boxes for the Operation Christmas Shoebox charity project.

Find out what other folk are up to in their creative spaces here.

Have a creative day, friends.

Weekend sewing

2011-06-12T20:49:00.006+01:00

The weather this weekend was not brilliant - although Saturday morning was by far the best as the sun was in the skies long enough for my laundry to line-dry. I had my washing out on the line by 8 am and when the clouds rolled in later on after lunch, everything was pretty much dry. Then it started to rain. It rained most of today (Sunday) too.

The kids managed to find things to amuse themselves with (which in Missy Moo's case, involved harassing and annoying Dinoboy a lot! Poor lad!) and I managed to get a few sewing projects done.

I made 3 quillows - here's one of them.

I love the duck-egg spotty blue fleece. I managed to get 3 of these in a local warehouse sale. Two have ended up as quillows and one will be cut into 12 kids scarves for the Operation Christmas Shoebox project later on this year. Here are the other two quillows I made this weekend.

I wanted to have a go at the Sorbetto tank top which is a freebie pattern from Colette Patterns. I wanted to make a muslin first just to make sure the pattern was OK and didn't need tweaking. I found a piece of Malaysian batik in my stash basket. It was not a very large piece of fabric but there was enough to make the muslin of the Sorbetto. It's a pure cotton fabric and I think about the same weight as quilting cotton.

This was a pretty quick top to make. The fit is OK. I made it a bit longer than the original pattern. The batik print is rather busy so the box pleat on the front is a little lost. I might see if I can find a lighter weight fabric - maybe a cotton/silk blend - to make this again.

My next sewing project will be the Pendrell blouse by Sewaholic. I have the perfect polyester microfibre print for it. I'm a bit apprehensive about it as it looks a bit complicated (I've not done princess seams before) but the instructions look reasonably straightforward. I'll let you know how I get on.

Have a great week ahead, friends.

Boxed sunshine

2011-06-11T08:03:00.006+01:00

In early summer here in the UK, the Asian food shops near the area where I live start to display a whole load of slim cardboard boxes in stacks. The boxes are full of honey mangoes or Chausa mangoes from Pakistan.

The season is short - only about 4 to 6 weeks at the very most. It's one of the highlights of my summer and I have a tendency to become very mango-centric! It made me laugh when I popped into a local shop to get my first box of the season just over a week ago (having spotted them on my way home, screamed like a banshee in the car and then hurriedly pulled over at the first opportunity to run back to the shop) and the shopkeeper (an elderly gentleman) laughed and said "I was thinking when you were coming. Mangoes come, you come!"

I have been known to dash into a shop and exit with 4 to 6 boxes of mangoes for friends and colleagues! Mango madness. I love these tasty gems packed with vitamins and minerals – vitamin A and E as well as iron and selenium. I heard somewhere that a medium-sized mango has about 100 calories. Not too bad I guess. They have an amazing flavour and make me think of sunshine when I'm eating them.

I'm heading out to the shops shortly to get a few boxes for friends at work ... and maybe pick an extra one up for myself!

Have a great weekend, friends.

Hottie finished

2011-06-07T12:46:00.005+01:00

I finished my hottie cover for the Hottie Challenge over at Curlypop's blog last night.

Here's the front ...

And here is the back which is the same as the front.

The leaves and stems were cut from a lovely soft flannel scrap.

The top had to be kept open so the cardboard cutout could be inserted. This was the only rule in the challenge. There's a sew-in popper underneath the sun to secure the top opening.

I'll be posting this off tomorrow morning and I hope it gets there in time for the deadline. Have a look at the Flickr group here to see the other entries. Hottie number 3 which can be seen here is my favourite so far.

Hope you're having a good week, friends.

Rookies and a cool design concept

2011-06-04T07:02:00.005+01:00

I can't even remember how young I was when I first started to use chopsticks. I do remember I started out gripping both sticks tightly together and not using them very effectively until I was maybe about twelve when I finally got the concept of holding the sticks apart.

For Missy Moo's birthday, a friend gave my two kids these rookie chopsticks and they are seriously clever! Missy Moo got a pink rabbit one like this -

and Dinoboy got this super cute Penguin one.

Look at this for perfect placement of fingers! Missy Moo found it quite natural to curl her ring finger and pinky in to support the one side of the rookie stick.

Dinoboy was still finding it slightly awkward and wasn't sure how his ring finger and pinky should sit but he'll get there eventually.

Dinoboy was even picking peas up with his new rookie sticks!

I didn't give the kids any instructions - I just passed them the rookie sticks along with the packaging it came with and let them look at the sticks for a while and get a feel for them. Within a minute, they had figured out how to hold them. The design is simple and intuitive. The size of the silicon finger rings clearly indicate which fingers go where and the kids were able to figure it out for themselves without much intervention from me. Fun and cool!

Have a great weekend, friends.

Fancy some granola? I do!

2011-06-02T22:07:00.004+01:00

Inspired by a friend’s comment that she had made some homemade granola, I had a go at making my own. At the end of my granola-making session, I had two questions:
1) Where have I been all this time that I didn’t know about granola?? (You’re probably thinking that too aren’t you?!)
2) How can something this easy be so darn yummy and why do they charge so much for those fancy boxes of granola in the supermarket?
Sorry – that was really 3 questions.

I have a confession … as much as I love fresh grapes, cranberry juice and cherries; I seriously don’t like the dehydrated versions. So I am therefore not a big fan - actually not a fan at all – of raisins, currants, sultanas, dried cherries or craisins / dried cranberries. Some of you will probably think I am bonkers for disliking dried fruit – but that’s just me, I’m afraid. I’ll always remember that quote in the movie Benny and Joon where there is a discussion about raisins and Joon says “They used to be fat and juicy and now they're twisted. They had their lives stolen. Well, they taste sweet, but really they're just humiliated grapes. I can't say I am a big supporter of the raisin council.” I couldn’t agree more, Joon. Anyhoo – I digress. Sorry.

I like muesli … but the boxes of muesli from the shops pretty much always come with dried fruit in them (especially raisins and sultanas) and the thought of picking all the dried fruit out of my breakfast cereal every morning drains my will to live. It also does not seem like a productive use of my precious time. Not to mention a waste of dried fruit. So consequently, I don’t buy muesli. I never ever bought granola either which I used to think was some kind of posh other word for muesli – after all it sort of looked the same in the boxes.

When I did some online research about making granola, I realised that you could pretty much put in or leave out as much or as little as you liked. So after browsing a ton of recipes and having some idea of what went into making granola in my head, I went to the local health food shop and bought a bag of jumbo rolled oats and a variety of nuts and seed. I pretty much had everything else I needed in my kitchen cupboard.

Here’s what I ended up with and it is totally yum! Now its summer and soft fruits are starting to appear en masse in the local shops, a handful of fresh fruit turns breakfast into something healthy and delicious! No humiliated fruits in sight either. Yay!!

The recipe I used is an amalgamation of a variety of recipes found online.

3 cups of jumbo rolled oats
A third of a cup of almond slivers
Half a cup of desiccated coconut
1 generous cup of chopped nuts of your choice (I used a mix of chopped pecans, brazil nuts and hazelnuts. I bought plain, unsalted nuts from the health food shop)
A third of a cup of seeds of your choice (I used pumpkin seeds.)
Half a cup of banana chips broken into smaller pieces
A generous tablespoonful of flaxseed or wheatgerm (I used flaxseed)
Half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
A teaspoon of vanilla essence
2 tablespoons of sunflower oil (I guess you could use canola or vegetable oil – some recipes don’t have oil at all but use a lot of applesauce instead)
Half a cup of maple syrup
A third of a cup of unsweetened applesauce (I had a jar of plain store-bought applesauce in my fridge so I used that instead of making my own but I think in the autumn when I can get some windfall apples from neighbours and friends, I might make my own.)

Preheat the oven to roughly 165°C or 325ºF.
Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper.

In a large bowl, mix up the oats, flaxseed, chopped nuts, desiccated coconut, almonds and ground cinnamon. In a smaller bowl, mix the oil, vanilla essence, maple syrup and applesauce together. Pour the contents of the smaller bowl into your large bowl of dry stuff and mix it thoroughly until there are no dry bits. Tip the mixture out into your baking tray and spread it out.

Pop it into the oven and bake it for 10 minutes, then take it out and gently stir it about to bring the stuff at the bottom of the tray to the top. Pop it back into the oven again for another 10 minutes, then bring it out and stir it about again. I then pour in the pumpkin seeds and banana chips and stir them into the mix. You basically want to bake it until the mixture in your tray is a gorgeous golden brown, stirring occasionally so the mixture browns evenly. This normally takes about 30 minutes or so. Apparently the browner the granola gets (without burning) the crunchier the granola will be.

If you’re adding dried fruits, apparently you should add it after your granola has been baked and is cool. You can also add chocolate chips if you want to the mixture once it has cooled down. The result is a lovely crisp textured cereal with just the right amount of sweetness for me. If you prefer it sweeter, I guess you could add some soft brown sugar to the mixture when you’re mixing it in your bowl at the beginning. This is fabulous eaten with cold milk and a scattering of fresh fruits.

Do you like granola? How do you eat yours? Do you make your own?

My creative space

2011-06-01T21:56:00.004+01:00

I'm still working on my hottie cover for the Curlypops Hottie Challenge in aid of the Margaret Pratt Foundation Heart Lung Transplant Trust.

I've completed one side of my hottie cover and am rather pleased with it.

It's quilted and has applique flowers on it with yoyo and button centers. I've not done much applique before ... or yoyos for that matter.

It's a fun little project to have in my space right now. I'm hoping to get it finished soon and sent off to Australia in time to meet the deadline.

To find out what's happening in other creative spaces around the world, visit the home of creative spaces.

Have a creative day, friends.

Hottie cover in progress

2011-05-30T12:22:00.006+01:00

After a quick sketch on the back of an envelope, a quick trawl through the scrap fabric boxes and a cup of tea, I got started on my hottie cover for the Hottie Challenge over at Curlypop's blog in aid of the Margaret Pratt Foundation Heart Lung Transplant Trust.

I'm still playing about with placement of the flowers etc. I'm sort of winging the sizes of the shapes. I cut out a circle for the red spotty yoyo hoping it would be the right size and as luck would have it, it was perfect.

I need to pin the layers of each side (upper layer + puffy lining + orange cotton layer) together but for now, I wanted to see how it would look. Have not decided on a colour for the bias binding yet.

It's looking quite nice so far. Quilting the layers together is the next task. Should be fun. It's a Bank Holiday Monday here in the UK (day off work, yay!!) but we're mostly spending the day indoors at home as it's miserable and wet outdoors.

The Hottie Challenge update

2011-05-29T06:51:00.003+01:00

I recently blogged about fellow blogger, Curlypops's new challenge over at her blog in aid of the Margaret Pratt Foundation Heart Lung Transplant Trust in Australia.

I had decided to join in and Curlypops sent me my kit which arrived in the post a few days ago. There's a standard template which I have to use and the hottie cover must be openable at the top / neck so as to display a cardboard cutout which was sent in the envelope. That's the only rule there is to the challenge.

I'm still mulling over a design. Quilted or appliqued or both? I shall ponder it further and let you know how I get on. I have to make a start on it asap as the entries must reach Curlypops by 23 June and I need to post it to her all the way from my end of the globe.

Hope you're having a great weekend, friends.

Happy birthday Missy Moo!!

2011-05-28T06:38:00.006+01:00

This is Missy Moo a couple of weeks after she was born.

I can't believe that was 4 years ago!! When she was born, a small ... albeit very small ... tiny ... miniscule ... part of me wanted to snatch her from the midwife and stuff her back inside me to keep safe and warm and still a connected part to me. Hmmmm, on second thoughts (thoughts about cankles, thoughts about my toes being so far away and out of sight it was like they were on another continent, thoughts about the post-baby blubber I carry around like the proverbial spare tyre which I am incidentally still trying to rid myself of) .... maybe out is best after all.

She is loud, vivacious, ever so stubborn yet funny, loving and bright as a button. She loves to sing, throw a few dance shapes on the patio and harrass her big brother until he grits his teeth in exasperation. She always comes looking for me to see what I'm doing, even when I am in the littlest room of the house taking nature calls. She'll yank the door open, grin at me and say "Mommie, whatcha doin?" (I blame Isabella out of Phineas and Ferb for the constant use of "Wotcha doin?" said in a sing-song voice) She adores all things pink and princessey.

She goes to infant school in the fall - yeah, this fall!! As in September 2011!!! Waaaaahhhhhhh!!

I love this kid and I don't even want to think about or imagine the hole that's going to be left in my heart when I wave her off on her adventures in life 14 or so years time down the road. For now, I'll just enjoy the fullness of my heart.

Happy birthday, Missy Moo.

The Viking boy

2011-05-27T06:35:00.005+01:00

So last Friday, when I went to pick Dinoboy up from school at 5pm, he said he had a school letter for me which said that he needed to dress up as a Viking on Wednesday for a role-play session they were holding as part of their history module on Vikings. He asked if I could make him a Viking costume.

So the thinking cap went on, a bit of Google research was conducted and a swift trip to the local fabric warehouse early Saturday morning was arranged. I didn't want to spend too much and we figured that his dark (almost black) school trousers would serve as viking trousers sort of as long as we added something to it. We found a metre of brown fun fur and a piece of cheap cream calico in the bargain bin.

I used a large tshirt of Dinoboy's to draft out a quickie paper pattern for a vest and also for a tunic / shift. As we weren't looking for a fitted type of costume, big was fine. Here's the tunic.

And here's the tunic and vest together, accessorised with a wide elastic fashion belt from my wardrobe, a wooden sword from the toy box and furry leg-wraps.

The leg-wraps were just trapezoidal pieces of fun fur with black grosgrain ribbon from my stash sewn in criss-cross lines to give the illusion of bindings. I used velcro to hold them closed. This meant that he could throw them on over his school trousers at dressing up time.

The fun fur vest had shoulder seams and side seams and didn't need hemming. Yay!

On Tuesday night I was trying to convince him to let me make him a viking hat of sorts with yellow braids sewn in (LOL!!) but he was having none of that! Shame - imagine how cute he would have looked?!!

Psssst!! Freebie alert!

2011-05-26T19:53:00.004+01:00

I just spotted this on Grosgrain's blog and thought I'd bring it to your attention too.

Sarai of Colette Patterns has got a freebie pattern to download from her blog. Check it out here.

Photo borrowed from the Collette Patterns website.

Cute, huh? I've just downloaded it and am off to try to figure out what fabric I have in my stash which would be good to use for this top.

My creative space

2011-05-25T22:03:00.003+01:00

The space is currently in that between-projects phase. I finished the Simplicity 2599 top I was making and then set about whipping up a quick viking costume for Dinoboy for a school event (more about that later). The space is littered with bits of fluff from the fun fur I used and teeny bits of the crepe de chine.

Once I have cleared all of that away, I shall work on this ...

It's another quillow. The ribbed fleece will be the blanket and the funky printed fleece will be the pocket. There's enough printed fleece to make 2 or maybe even 3 pockets for quillows. I might just have to drop into the local furnishings store to see if they have any plain fleece throws in the upcoming sale at the weekend.

Hop over to the new home of creative spaces to see what others are getting up to this week.

Have a creative day, friends.

Simplicity 2599 top number 2

2011-05-25T19:51:00.006+01:00

After the successful muslin I made of the ruffle front Simplicity 2599 top, I bought myself some pretty crepe de chine and made a second one. Here's how it turned out.

I now know that the fabric for the muslin was more like a satin than a crepe de chine. The red crepe de chine has a finer handle and frays like crazy if you even look at it. It was seriously a bit of a pain to sew with and I am certain that my hem is crooked. But it hangs beautifully and the ruffles are soft and sit nicely.

It's the perfect weight for a summer work blouse. I found the lightness of the fabric made the sides of the opening at the back saggy. I also realised I need a lot more practise at sewing lightweight fabrics like this - the top-stitching is all over the place and wonky.

It's a nice top nevertheless and I'll get a fair amount of wear out of it this summer. I hope your week is going well so far, friends.

My Creative Space

2011-05-19T09:57:00.003+01:00

There is another Simplicity 2599 top all cut up and ready to sew on my creative space today. This is a polyester crepe de chine. I rather like the colour.

I'm going for another ruffled one like the last time. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

What are you up to today?
Visit the home of creative spaces for inspiration.

Have a creative day, friends.

My fleece quillow tutorial

2011-05-15T17:18:00.007+01:00

I’ve made quite a few fleece quillows over the years. We have maybe four or five around the house of varying sizes. The kids have one each, there’s a baby one from Dinoboy’s toddler days, Mr CraftyAdy has one and I have one too. I love making them to give as gifts. It’s a really quick sewing project – especially if you use a store-bought fleece blanket or throw.

In case you don’t know, a quillow is a blanket (or a quilt –hence the name) with a pocket. The blanket folds up into the pocket, creating a pillow. You can pretty much make a quillow from any blanket or quilt. All you have to do is attach a pocket with a finished width which is a third of the width of your blanket plus roughly 1 inch for seam allowances and a length of about a quarter of the length of your blanket plus 1 to 2 inches again for seam allowances.

Now the pocket isn’t just for tucking your blanket into. When using the quillow, the pocket makes a really nice foot-cosy for tucking your feet into.

Here’s the quillow I made over the weekend.

Actually, I made 3 identical ones. I had recently purchased 3 fleece throws from a local warehouse sale. I then bought a metre of the purple floral print fleece off Ebay. It probably took me just over an hour to make all 3 and I was working slowly (with lots of interruptions from Missy Moo). The fleece throws I bought measured 140 cm by 200 cm.

When finished, the blanket tucks into the pocket. See?

There are lots of tutorials on the internet which tell you how to make a quillow. I thought I’d add my own photo tutorial to the list.

So – to make one of these, you’ll need:
1) a fleece throw or blanket
2) a contrasting piece of fleece for the pocket
3) matching thread

I like my quillows a little fat. This means more folds of the blanket inside the pocket. Most tutorials say to go for a pocket that is a quarter of the length of your blanket. For this one, I’ve gone for a sixth. So I measured my fleece blanket again to be sure and determined it was indeed 140cm by 200cm. I then cut a pocket from the printed fleece measuring approximately 49cm by 36cm. I pinked the edges of the pocket piece with my pinking shears to make the edges pretty. You don't have to use pinking shears if you haven't got a pair. Fleece fabric doesn't fray.

(So - just to recap, whatever size your blanket is, you'll need a pocket with a finished width which is a third of the width of your blanket plus roughly 1 inch for seam allowances and a length of about a quarter of the length of your blanket plus 1 to 2 inches again for seam allowances.)

I then turned down one of the wider edges by approximately 3 cm and pinned it.

Then using this stitch on my machine …

…. And my walking foot … (By the way, I'm using my walking foot because my sewing machine is not very keen on sewing fleece material with a regular foot. No idea why. I've found that it's easier to sew fleece on my sewing machine using my walking foot.)

I sewed a line of stitching all the way along to the end.

This forms the top edge of the pocket. You can use any stitch you like really. I like this one as it’s kind of decorative and matches the hemming stitches in the blanket.

Take the blanket and fold one of the narrower sides in half. Make a chalk mark to note the center point. My blanket didn’t really have a right side or wrong side. If you are using a blanket which has a right and wrong side, you should make your mark on the wrong side of your blanket.

Fold the edge at the bottom of the pocket in half, right sides together. Locate the middle point and make a chalk mark. Remember that this mark should be made on the right side of the fabric.

Spread the blanket out flat. Placing the pocket right side down onto the blanket, match up the two chalk marks. The edge of the pocket should sit along the edge of the blanket. Smooth the pocket down with the palms of your hands to ensure both the blanket and pocket lay flat. Then pin in place.

Following the direction of the arrows, sew down one side of the pocket using a half inch or 1.5 cm seam allowance, starting from the red star (back-stitch a few times at the beginning to strengthen the corner of the pocket) down towards the bottom of the blanket. Then sew across the bottom of the pocket and back up the other side until you get to the top of the pocket where the little red heart. Back-stitch a few stitches to secure and strengthen that corner of the pocket.

Remove your pins and you’re done! Now to fold your quillow:
1) Turn your quillow so the pillow is underneath the blanket.
2) Fold in each side so blanket is in thirds.

3) Then fold the blanket over in half, bringing the one end up to meet the other end where the pocket is.

4) If you have made your pocket so it’s a quarter the length of your blanket, then you just have to fold over in half again. If like me, you’ve decided to make your pocket one sixth of the length of your blanket, then you have to fold it in by a third …

… and then fold again.

5) Now flip the quillow over like this …

6) Stick your hands into the pocket and grabbing the blanket ends, turn the pillow right side out tucking the blanket into the pillow.

Here you have it – your quillow.

I hope you find this tutorial helpful.
Happy sewing, friends!

The Hottie Challenge at Curlypops

2011-05-15T07:06:00.004+01:00

Fellow blogger, Curlypops, has started a new challenge over at her blog in aid of the Margaret Pratt Foundation Heart Lung Transplant Trust in Australia.

I decided to join in. So watch this space!

If you fancy having a go, then have a look here for details.

I've been working on a really quick sewing project and took some photos last night. Look out for a tutorial coming your way shortly.

Hope you're having a great weekend, friends.

My creative space

2011-05-12T07:56:00.000+01:00

The space is quiet and empty today as I am in that momentary lull between projects. I've just completed my Simplicity 2599 muslin (or test garment) and will get started on another one tonight I hope.

The muslin turned out surprisingly well given how slippery the fabric was.

I was particularly pleased with the button and loop closure.

Here's the muslin I made. It turned out very wearable and I think I'll get a lot of wear out of this over the coming summer months.

Creative spaces have a new home here. Why don't you drop in for a visit and see what others are up to all around the world.

Have a creative day, folks.

My Simplicity 2599 muslin

2011-05-11T06:57:00.008+01:00

There are lots of reviews here for Simplicity 2599 and PatternReview.com voted it as one of the top patterns for 2010.

I wanted some new tops for work during the summer months. I had seen the ruffled silk top in Boden (see my last post) but was put off by the price. So when I saw this on Patternreview.com and read all the positive comments, I thought I'd give it a go.

The fabric I bought has a bit of a busy print as you can see. At £3 a metre - plus it had the right sort of silky handle I was loking for - it was a good buy.

The ruffles sort of get lost in the print. As this was intended to be a muslin, I wasn't too bothered about the print (I actually quite like it) being busy.

Pattern Description:
Six different designs of tops, with separate patterns for B, C, and D cup sizes. I chose view D which is described as a shell top with three horizontal ruffles under the neckline. Only I added an extra ruffle making it four horizontal ruffles in all.

Pattern Sizing:
The pattern is sized 12 - 20 and I cut a size 16. From my measurements and the instructions given, I cut the B cup pattern. It fitted really nicely.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Yes it did - except I added the extra layer of ruffle.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
Yes. I was surprised at how easy it was - although I did struggle very slightly with the facing - especially on the front where the ruffles were.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
How easy it was, once I tamed the front facing. The neck facing didn't sit flat, even with the understitching. And the ruffle stuck out like one of those funny dog collars the vet gives your dog when they want to stop the dog scratching. It could be due to the thickness of the double layer ruffle (each ruffle comprises a double layer of fabric). I rolled the facing forward a little and 'stitched in the ditch', tapering the roll of fabric off towards the shoulder seam. This left me with a section at the front neckline which looks like it's been bias-bound. I might actually use bias-binding on the neckline next time instead of the facing.

Fabric Used:
A cheap polyester silky handle fabric - it's a woven. I have a feeling it's a polyester crepe de chine. It doesn't crease at all and feels lovely on.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
I added an extra ruffle but made it slightly shorter than the other three.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
Yes! I will most definitely sew this again, and possibly one of the other views, although I do really like this one! And YES - I wholeheartedly recommended this pattern.

Conclusion:
I love this pattern! I've actually finished this top and will wear it to work today. Hurrah for wearable muslins! I didn't get a chance to take a final photo of the finished garment last night. I'll do that as soon as I can.

Have a lovely day, friends.

A card and news of a WIP

2011-05-10T06:46:00.006+01:00

I am doing well on one of my new year's resolutions to not purchase any birthday cards at all this year. It's May and I have yet to buy a birthday card from the shops. Most of my cards are very girlie as you may recall from previous posts. But I recently needed a boy card for my god-son who turned 6 a week ago. Here's the card I made for him with a sheet of scrapbooking paper I found in a local shop.

I am currently working on a project which was inspired by this top here at Boden. I liked the look and the ruffles but was not keen on the price tag and some of the reviews were not positive.

So enter the WIP aka Work In Progress. I started searching through all the pattern sites (you know which ones I mean ... Vogue, Butterick, Simplicity) and I found this pattern.

I thought the top in yellow on the pattern cover looked like the Boden top only with smaller frills. So I now have this pattern and I bought a cheap and cheerful silky polyester bit of fabric from the local fabric shop (£3 per metre in the sale rack) to do a muslin with. I'm halfway there and it's looking very positive.

I'll share more tomorrow.
Have a great day, friends.

A spot of sewing

2011-05-06T18:17:00.005+01:00

I recently went to a good friend's house and her mother-in-law was telling us about her new phone. She was so worried about scratching the screen, she kept it tucked into a sock in her handbag.

I decided that the sock needed to be replaced by something better. So I made her this phonecase using my glasses case tutorial.

It's got a flex-frame opening. See?

It's a glasses case really but I shortened it by an inch or so and added a loop so I could thread on a nice silver split ring. She was delighted with her new phonecase and the sock went back into the sock drawer.

I hope to do more sewing this weekend ... not sure what yet. What are your plans for the weekend?

Whatever your plans, have a great weekend, friends.

A bit more chalk fun

2011-05-04T08:11:00.008+01:00

Here are the last two chalk drawing photos Dinoboy and I made last weekend.

A nod to Harry Potter ...

And a moment to relax ...

I think I might try digging about in the loft for my pastel chalks from my arty days and have a go at doing more on the patio over the summer months. I am hugely inspired by these guys who do the most amazing Trompe d’oeil pieces with chalk on street pavements.

One of my favourite pavement chalk artists is Julian Beever.

Here is a link to 44 of his top pieces.

Another amazing artist is Tracy Lee Stum.

Kurt Wenner's chalk drawings are incredible too.

I also like Edgar Mueller's work.

Don't these guys (and gal) just take chalk drawings on pavements to a whole other level?

Hope you're having a good day, friends.

The Jamie Dress as a tunic top

2011-05-03T13:30:00.004+01:00

After my Sis Boom Jamie dress which I made not so long ago, I decided to make another one but this time shortened it to a tunic top.

I reduced the bottom part significantly so it is nowhere near as gathered as the dress was. It goes well with jeans.

I've had this Robert Kaufmann oriental print in my stash for a couple of years and there was just about enough to make a tunic top from. I did have to make the bottom half by piecing a few bits of fabric together. I'm pretty pleased with this one and it will get a lot of wear during the summer months I think.

Did you have a good weekend?
Did you watch the Royal Wedding? I was glued to the TV all morning on Friday. Wasn't that dress awesome?

Have a great week ahead, friends.

A bit of chain maille before the sewing

2011-04-26T14:22:00.005+01:00

I have a few sewing projects I want to finish off soon. There is also one major sewing project that I need to start which will probably take me an entire year to do. But before all that, I want to share a bit more chain maille with you.

Here are a pair of Kingscale bracelets I finished recently. One's in turqouise, gold and silver. The other is in turqouise, gold and black.

What do you think?

Which do you prefer?

I think the sun must be tired after working so hard over the weekend. It's gone away for a bit of a rest today and left us with an overcast and slightly chilly day to contend with. Nevermind. I hope it comes back soon.

Hope it's sunny where you are, friends.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T10:13:00.003+01:00

May the glory and the promise of this joyous time of year,
Bring peace and happiness to you
and those you hold most dear.

It was very sunny yesterday. Today it is overcast but dry and still a little warm. The children will get their chocolate eggs a little later and we'll do the usual thing of rationing the chocolate out over the next few days. Given a choice, Missy Moo and Dinoboy will quite happily eat their weight in chocolate in one sitting ... and then we'll have to deal with the sugar rush that will undoubtedly jump in with both feet and the resulting 'hangover' afterwards when sugar levels hit rock bottom. They don't seem to mind the rationing - they do get small bits and pieces now and then throughout the day.

Wishing you a happy and blessed Easter wherever you are.

More chalk fun

2011-04-22T13:15:00.007+01:00

This morning was bright, sunny and warm. The kids were straight out the door to play in the back yard as soon as breakfast was finished. We took the opportunity to have a bit more fun with chalk on our patio.

I drew a giant anglerfish of sorts (Dinoboy wanted a scary fish - and anglerfish are pretty darn scary to me) and the kids took turns lying down and posing for fun shots.

Missy Moo wondered if she could take scary fish for a walk like a puppy.

Dinoboy took a bat to the poor fish.

Aaarrrgggghhhhh!!! Scary fish!!!

The kids enjoyed thinking up scenarios involving Mr Scary fish.

The skies are blue and the sun is blazing away. I've done my grocery shopping for the week, we've just had lunch, my laundry is out on the washing line and I'm lazing on a chair out in the backyard in my Jamie dress. Bliss!

Hope you're having a great day, friends.

Chalk fun

2011-04-21T22:21:00.006+01:00

After seeing something similar here and some really interesting photos in Jan von Holleben's Dreams of Flying portfolio, I was inspired to try a simple bit of chalk fun with the kids.

We have a nice big slabbed patio which was just the place to try this. Here's Dinoboy flying away with his balloon.

And Missy Moo with her pink balloon.

I stood on a plastic stool to take these photos.

Tomorrow we'll try to draw something else. I think I'll dig out the step ladder tomorrow and try to take photos from a slightly higher vantage point.

It's the big Easter holiday over here in the UK. We've got tomorrow (Good Friday) off work and Monday is a public holiday too. My place of work has kindly given us Tuesday off too. Nice!!! I intend to consume lots of hot cross buns and chocolate this weekend.

Have a great weekend, friends.

The final cut

2011-04-21T21:56:00.004+01:00

In the end, I decided not to spend forever unpicking the skirt off my Jamie dress. I hacked 5 inches off the bottom to make it a knee length dress as opposed to a calf length dress.

I like it better at this length even though I do not think it's the most flattering dress for me. I do intend to make another but with significant modifications to the skirt. The poufiness is not working for me. Nevertheless it was a really good sewing experience and the instructions which came with the pattern were superb and very well illustrated with lots of photos.

Thanks to Sara for hosting the sew-along and here is the linky party for the sew-along.

Taking a brief moment to drool

2011-04-19T20:42:00.007+01:00

Aren't these just the most perfect shoes for those who love sewing?!!

Sorry but I couldn't help but have a shoegasm moment when I saw these and thought I ought to share them with you.

These are Christian Louboutin's Measuring tape sandals. They come in white too ...

There is of course the signature Louboutin red sole peeking out from under that 4-inch heel.

Drool-worthy shoes, don't you think?
I don't think my fear of very high heels or my unfortunate bunions will permit me to 'rock' these shoes. Given the Neiman Marcus pricetag of $795, I don't think my bank manager will permit me to 'rock' these shoes even if my feet were up to the task.

They are unconventional but utterly fun and sassy. Mr Loubi, I salute you!

Now if you'll all please excuse me, I need to go wipe my keyboard dry and lie down for a short spell.

Not feeling the love so much ...

2011-04-18T20:39:00.010+01:00

OK, I have finished my Sis Boom Jamie dress. I have issues with this dress. (I'm having a bad hair day today - hence the headless shots. Sorry!)

I love this fabric - it's kinda wacky and so not a colour I would normally gravitate towards (I normally live in dark blues and black). And having seen some of the other fab Jamie dresses out there - like this lovely one by Monique or sew-along hostess Sara's gorgeous Jamie dresses here and here or Amanda from Kitschy Coo's awesome Zebra dress here, I felt inspired enough to have a go. This is the result.

Sorry for the appalling shot - the only long mirror we have is inside the door of the cupboard under the stairs.

But seriously folks - I am not feeling the love for this dress. It's not the fabric - that's OK. I think it is the skirt. It's pretty big. The gathers and bigness of it is of some concern to me.

OK - it doesn't help that I have bad posture in this and Dinoboy always takes unflattering shots of me ... perhaps it is something to do with the angle given that he is a shortie still.

I might have a go at reducing the skirt mass ... or I might designate it as "only to be worn in one's back yard" and have another stab at making the dress. Perhaps a tunic might be more up my street. What do you think?

Have a great week ahead, friends.

Joining in with the Sis Boom Jamie Dress sew-along

2011-04-16T11:51:00.007+01:00

Sara over at Sew Sweetness started a sew-along using the Sis Boom Jamie dress pattern. I really like this dress and all the finished sew-along dresses look so nice.

I decided to join in and have a go myself. This orange/yellow/gray/black cotton print was in the sale at one of the online shops I frequent - Doughtys. I thought it would make a nice summer dress. *Fingers crossed*

So here's how far I've gotten so far. I pinned the straps in to the finished bodice so I could do a quick fit before continuing.

I read somewhere that one should cut a size up on this pattern for the bodice and waist. So I did. But I then realised that I ended up with quite a large bodice width-wise and had to take it in at the sides. I think given the amount I cut back on, I should have gone for my original size after all. But that's OK - I'd rather be able to take it in than to find out I'd cut it too small.

I have made a boo-boo so far. I wanted to extend the waistband piece to the back bodice. I also wanted it to have the same rouched effect as the front. But in my haste to cut and make the bodice, I've ended up with a back waistband which is taller than the one at the front. Duh! *slaps forehead*

See the inch gap between the topstitched edges of the bands? I am such a numpty! I've decided to continue on with the dress - ignoring the mismatched bands. Good thing I decided to make the band in the same fabric as the main body of the dress. The mismatched band would have looked even more obvious if I had gone with a contrasting band. On to the skirt next.

Hope you're having a great weekend, friends.

Chainmaille watch

2011-04-14T20:17:00.008+01:00

The chainmaille bug just won't let me go! Recently I made myself this purple and silver half dragonback bracelet ....

Then I thought the half dragonback chain might work well with a watch face I picked up not so long ago at a craft show. The watch face came from a beading shop. I had some pink anodised aluminium rings going spare so I used those with the silver bright aluminium rings to make two short chains.

I linked up each chain to the watch and used a 2 strand slide clasp as a closure. I really like these slide clasps. Just tug on both mushroom ends at once, and the clasp will slide apart into two pieces. I think this type of clasp works well for bracelets. It locks snugly for a sleek and secure fastening.

Pretty, don't you think?

Sewing is next on the projects list as I quite fancy making a Sis Boom Jamie dress. Sara over at Sew Sweetness is hosting a Jamie dress sew-along and I rather like the idea of a new dress for the summer. No idea what it would look like on me - but I'll have a go at it anyway.

Have a great day, friends.

Mock smock rocks!

2011-04-10T22:00:00.005+01:00

A while back, I saw some mock smock Disney fabric at Joanns Fabrics and knowing Missy Moo's love for all things pink and princess-ey, I bought a yard of the stuff, intending to knock up a quick summer frock for her.

This stuff is fabulous! The fabric is pre-shirred and hemmed. So making the dress was dead easy.
Step 1 - measure the required length and cut.
Step 2 - placing fabric right sides together, sew up the seam to form a tube of fabric.
Step 3 - add straps.
Step 4 - put finished dress on child, sit back and enjoy the prettiness which took less than an hour to do.

Missy Moo adores her dress. She kept telling me all weekend how much she loved it. I made elasticated ruffles straps from a contrasting gingham. I thought I might eventually add a ruffled strip to the bottom hem of the dress too.

She wore it on Saturday and Sunday. I have strict instructions to ensure it is washed and dried and ready to wear next weekend!

It was the first weekend we've had almost summery weather - the mornings were slightly chilly but the afternoons soon warmed up beautifully.

I've heard that Walmart sometimes have mock smock fabric in store but not having a Walmarts over here, I wouldn't know. Hancock has quite a few on their website too - some in adult lengths! My problem is they don't ship to the UK. Drats!

This was such an easy and fun sewing project. And the client was totally satisfied. What more could I want?

Wishing you a great week ahead, friends.

New Year's resolutions ... so far so good!

2011-03-29T20:23:00.007+01:00

I try not to make too many New Year's resolutions ... I am not very good at seeing them through. This year I made 3 resolutions - just 3. Resolution 1 was to learn a new craft. I have done this with much gusto as you've probably realised from my recent posts. I am of course referring to my chain maille pursuits.

Resolution 2 was to use up my accumulated stash of card blanks, coloured cards and paper, scraps of wrapping paper, my small collection of stamps and punches, bits and bobs which come free with crafting magazines and make my own greeting cards for friends and family. I shared some of the simple cards I made earlier in the year on one of the My Creative Space posts. I made about 6 or 7 for myself and almost a dozen for my mum. At the weekend, I realised that I was down to my last birthday card and broke out the stash to make a few more.

A little coloured card goes a long way when it comes to punching out a few shapes and sticking them together. The odd metal brad adds a bit of interest.

I found a couple of packs of die cut flower shapes and thought it might be real cute to add some 3D-ness to one or two cards.

There are those metal brads again. I love these metal brads. I'm always worrying about the shapes I stick on the cards falling off and the brads provide that bit of security. These shapes are going nowhere!

There's a bit of a floral theme going on with this bunch of cards. Mr CraftAdy peered over my shoulder when I was sticking some bits down and said "They're very girlie." I guess they are but I like them.

I think I need to start looking for a few 'un-girlie' bits and bobs to make cards for the guys. Otherwise, I'll only have girlie cards like this one.

For now the stash is getting used and I don't need to purchase any store-bought cards for my girl friends.

Resolution number 3 was to do more sewing .... hmmmm, I have several months left in 2011 to try to achieve this resolution. For now, two out of three ain't bad, huh?

Have a great day, friends.

Half dragonback in silver and gold.

2011-03-28T10:55:00.004+01:00

I finished this half dragonback bracelet in silver and gold recently. A friend of mine had asked me to make it for her.

I like the gold and silver combination.

I have decided I need more of these in my life ... maybe a silver and pink one for myself. Or silver and violet .... hmmmm.

I seriously love this weave - it's substantial and feels wonderful when worn. As it's made from bright aluminium rings, it's light and ever so easy to wear.

Have a fantastic week ahead, friends.

Comic relief

2011-03-24T21:42:00.005Z

Comic Relief is a British charity founded back in the mid 1980s in response to the famine in Ethiopia. One of the main Comic Relief events is Red Nose Day, a telethon held in March every year to raise money for good causes throughout the world.

Every year, the kids' school or nursery celebrate Red Nose Day by encouraging the children to dress up or wear the red nose (all proceeds of red nose sales go to the charity) or have silly hair for the day.

This year, Red Nose Day took place on Friday 18th March. Dinoboy's school said they could go to school with their red noses and wear them all through the school day. Donations of £1 were requested if the child participated.

He wore his red nose all day and promptly lost it at the end of the school day. Good thing I'd bought 3 noses so we have 2 left ... somewhere in the house.

Missy Moo's nursery opted for wearing pyjamas and sporting silly hair-dos all day. Which was a good thing as the red nose I got for her was too big to fit onto her little squishy nose!

She settled for a nice Red Nose Day deely-bopper instead. Good fun!

My creative space

2011-03-23T21:39:00.004Z

Sorry it's been so quiet around here recently. I've been busy with a few chain maille projects. Last week Dinoboy asked if I could make a rainbow rubber o-rings and anodised aluminium cuff for his friend at school for her birthday. After I finished that, I made another half dragonback bracelet for a friend. Right now I am working on a double width beaded helm weave choker for a friend at work.

My poor sewing machine is feeling very neglected. Missy Moo wants me to make her a pretty dress soon. Hopefully once I get this choker project done, I can do Missy Moo's dress for her.

Find out what's happening in other creative spaces over at Kootoyoo's blog.

Have a creative day, friends.

Half dragonback bracelet finished

2011-03-12T07:15:00.006Z

I started this with full intentions of making it a dragonback bracelet. But I decided to skip the last step which was adding the final row of rings on the back through the middle. Due to the size of my rings and probably the aspect ratio of the rings too, the last row would have made the bracelet really stiff. I liked the slinkiness at the half completed stage. So it's staying as a half dragonback. Each side of the bracelet looks slightly different from the other. This side has a curved edge.

You can't see it very well in the next picture but the other side has a ridge of rings on each edge. I used blue anodised aluminium rings down the spine and plain bright aluminium rings elsewhere. These are 5mm internal diameter rings made from 1.29mm gauge (16AWG) wire. It's got a slide clasp as a fastener.

Everytime I made a new bracelet, I decide it's my favourite! LOL! This is my current favourite.

Since finishing this one, I've made an identical one for a friend at work and there is another one in progress with gold rings along the spine for another friend.

If you fancy a go at this, here is the tutorial I used. Oh and if you're making this weave, you need to make your European 4-in-1 starting chain longer to start with. In the 5mm id rings of the same gauge I've used, the finished bracelet has 7 spine rings to an inch of bracelet. The spine rings are the middle row of rings on the European 4-in-1 starting chain.

I have to head into work later as we have an open day today and we're expecting a few hundred people to come visit the university. So I'm off to do some house chores now.

Have a great weekend, friends.

Failure

2011-03-10T18:27:00.006Z

There are lessons we are all taught during our childhood. These are lessons that I in turn try to teach my kids. Lessons that I hope they take with them into adulthood, just as I imagine my mother must have hoped for me when she taught them to me.

Today I realised two things. Firstly that I have failed to learn some of those lessons and carry them into my adult life. And secondly, I was reminded of how fragile friendship is and how easily we can damage something beautiful.

‘Thoughtless words can wound as deeply as any sword, but wisely spoken words can heal’ (Proverbs 12.18).

The words we choose and the way we use them can be profoundly damaging to others. My mother always told me to think before I spoke out loud and to remember that words have the potential to hurt. I remember reading somewhere that it is only in the dictionary that speech should come before thought.

Yesterday, in a moment of thoughtlessness, I said something that hurt a friend of many years. I did not mean to cause hurt but in that fraction of a second, I didn't consider the effects of my words before hand. What I said hurt my friend and I did not realise it until some time later. On my way into work this morning, I was struck by the thought that I might have been hurtful. My thoughts were confirmed later in a brief interaction with this friend.

I sought my friend out at the end of the day and apologised for hurting her. I had not meant to hurt her. My apology was accepted but I somehow feel that something in our relationship has been irrevocably damaged.

Friendship matters. It matters a lot to me. Yet, it is the most fragile of relationships. I'm grateful for each and every one of the men and women whom I count as friends. Through life's changes, they are there for me. And it is my heart’s desire to be there for them. But such is the nature of friendship that it is inherently fragile – easily damaged by careless comments and words.

My failure to remember the lessons I was taught in my childhood cost me today. My heart is heavy tonight and I am saddened by the feeling that I have lost something I can’t even put my finger on or describe. When I am able to, I shall have a chat with Dino-Boy and in time, with Missy Moo too, about hurtful words and try to teach them the lesson I forgot until it was bit too late.

My Creative Space

2011-03-10T09:52:00.005Z

I'm learning a new weave as I wait for some new supplies to arrive so I can start on my commissioned chain maille pieces. This is the Full Persian Weave in 6.9mm internal diameter 16 gauge aluminium rings.

It makes a lovely rope effect chain. There are some great youtube tutorials around if you're interested to learn this weave too like this one, this one or this one.

Since I already have so many bracelets, I'm thinking of working this one up to a necklace. I think it'll look fab as a necklace.

For other creative spaces, visit the home of My Creative Space over at Kootoyoo's.

Have a creative day, friends.

Sales and commissions! Woohoo!!

2011-03-09T21:57:00.007Z

This week has been a great week so far. I sold my first chain maille bracelet to a colleague on Monday! It was one of these neoprene o-ring and multi-coloured aluminium rings bracelets.

That same morning, I got a commission from another colleague who wanted a choker in the double helm weave like the bracelet I showed you in my last post here.

Then a third colleague asked if I could make one of the neoprene o-ring and multi-coloured aluminium rings bracelets for her 8 year old niece. Woohoo - I was on a roll!!!

Over the weekend, I finished my half dragonback bracelet (the one I was working on in my last My Creative Space post last week) and wore it to work on Monday. I bumped into friend at lunchtime who said she was enjoying the photos of my chain maille work. I showed her my new bracelet and she immediately asked me to make her one!

On Tuesday, I sold this bracelet to yet another colleague. Actually, it was this colleague who suggested this particular colourway (thanks Margaret!) and it's worked out really well.

I got a fourth commission this morning for another half dragonback bracelet. Wow! I am going to be very busy in the evenings for the next two weeks at least working on these commissions. I couldn't be happier!

I hope your week's going great so far, friends.

And the obsession continues ...

2011-03-07T19:43:00.008Z

I'd been meaning to try the Parallel Helm Weave for ages but didn't have the right sized rings in my chain maille box until recently. There's a fabulous tutorial here on Jeff Olin's fantastic CG Maille website.

I wanted to make it girlie and throw in a few seed beads. My first attempt at a Helm chain looked pretty enough but it looked too similar to the centipede weave I had worked on earlier here. Then it struck me that I could double up the chains, weave them together and make a fabulous wide chain.

This 7 inch cuff bracelet is made from eighty-two 8.5mm bright aluminium rings, seventy-four 4mm gold-plated aluminium rings, twenty-six glass seed beads and a slide lock clasp. I think this is by far my favourite piece to date. Do you like it?

Just for good measure, I made a pair of matching earrings too.

For some reason, I was reminded of JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings when I was making this double-width Helm chain - I kept thinking of Helms Deep, identified in Peter Jackson's film adaptation of the book as "the great fortress of Rohan".

Have a great week, friends.

My creative space

2011-03-03T07:14:00.004Z

My space is still being occupied by jump rings. This is my current in-progress bracelet. It starts out life as a simple European 4 in 1 weave strand.

Weave in some more rings along the side and you get the start of a weave known as Dragonback. This is possibly the most complicated weave I have attempted so far.

Find out what's happening in other creative spaces around blogosphere over at Kootoyoo's.

Have a creative day, friends.

Ad·dic·tion [uh-dik-shuhn]

2011-03-02T22:03:00.005Z

– noun
The condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or or involved in something.

I am starting to think I have a problem, friends. I am addicted to chain maille!! I can't stop! If I am not sitting at my table messing about with a bunch of tiny metal jump rings, I'm staring at online tutorials for weaves. And if I am not doing that, I'm tinkering with one of my bracelets and wondering what other colours I can do the same weave in. Heck, I even dreamt about chain maille the other night! I ask you - how bad is that?!!

This is my latest bracelet. I wore it to work the other day. It's made from sections of European 4 in 1 chain maille squares linked together by pairs of red aluminium rings. I really like this one.

And this is the Vertebrae weave choker I made for my cousin in Washington (the state, not the city). I can't wait for her to see it.

Everything's been set to one side whilst I indulge in my current fascination with chain maille. It's terrible. On the plus side, I get some fabulous bracelets to wear every day!

My creative space

2011-02-23T21:15:00.005Z

I'm still working on my chain maille. The creative space was cleared of one sewing project (see here) and then it was right back to the pliers and a gazillion little metal jump rings. This is the latest 'in progress' project.

It's another Vertebrae Weave chain - this time it's being constructed from gold coloured anodized aluminium and stainless steel rings in 2 different sizes. I wanted to see if stainless steel made for a sturdier chain. This puppy is tough! The stainless steel does make the chain stronger but boy, stainless steel is hard to work with! This one will hopefully be a necklace with a focal hammered silver ring in the middle. I haven't found the right sized ring yet but at the slow rate this one is progressing (good closures are so hard to achieve in the stainless steel), I'll have plenty of time to look for the right ring.

To find out what's going on in other creative spaces around the globe right now, hop over to the home of My Creative Space here.

Have a creative day, friends.

Centipede necklace finished

2011-02-23T18:54:00.005Z

My first chain maille necklace is done. It would've made a great choker but I don't wear chokers at all so I decided to make it a bit longer and go for a necklace.

This is the Centipede Weave with a tiny Japanese seed bead on each of the larger rings. The larger rings have an internal diameter of 6.8mm ... yep, small! And the smaller rings have an internal diameter of 3.4mm .... even smaller! The beads are 4mm across.

It turned out really pretty, don't you think? I read somewhere that this weave is also sometimes called the Cleopatra Weave.

I'm on the lookout for some nice silver beads now to make an all silver Centipede weave bracelet. I think that would look amazing.

Hope your week is going well so far, friends.

The dinky zipaway jewellery pouch

2011-02-20T22:09:00.005Z

I started this sewing project a while back and finally finished it tonight. Sorry it's taken so long.

Remember my zipaway tote bag? Well, I wanted to try to make something else using the same bag base template and the same zip-away concept. I thought it might be nice to make a jewellery pouch.

There's a little sausage-like thingey for rings in the middle, a zipped pocket on the one end and a flapped pocket on the other end.

This prototype turned out OK, I think. The zip around the outside and the bias binding was a little tricky to sew on given the extra bulk. This pouch now holds all my chain maille jewellery - bracelets in the flapped pocket and necklace and earrings in the zipped pocket.

Here it is all zipped up. What do you think? I'll have another go at making a second one sometime soon and try to document the process for a tutorial.

It's half-term here in Birmingham and I've taken a day off from work tomorrow to hang out with DinoBoy. We'll go watch a movie at the cinema (we quite fancy watching Gnomeo & Juliet - have you seen it?), have lunch somewhere nice as a treat and spend the afternoon at home doing a few chores around the house.

Wishing you a fabulous week ahead, friends.

My creative space

2011-02-17T08:23:00.006Z

In my bid to research new chain maille weaves to find the best ones for a forthcoming project, my creative space is still awash with mini jump rings and my trusty pliers. This one is newly finished (finished it just last night) and needs a but more adjusting for size.

This is the Kingscale or Vertebrae Weave. The red rings are the biggest I've worked with so far with an internal diameter of 9.9 mm. Big rings means that the bracelet makes up faster with fewer rings to an inch of chain.

Hop over to the home of My Creative Space to see what's happening in other spaces.

Wishing you a creative day, friends.

More chain maille

2011-02-15T12:53:00.009Z

Remember my in-progress project last week? The Byzantine chain with the 3 linking rings in 2 colours? I finished it and had rings left over to make a pair of Byzantine weave earrings. This was made using a bracelet kit from one of the UK suppliers of jump rings for chain maille enthusiasts.

I bought another bracelet kit from the same company but this time, it had both anodised aluminium rings and black rubber O rings. I'd not used the rubber O rings before so it was an interesting project - and a very quick one too as there was nothing complicated about this weave at all.

The rubber O rings are stretchy so I didn't bother with a clasp and just made it a continuous cuff. I love this. It'a got aluminium rings in 5 different colours. A fun bracelet.

My next project is a necklace in something called a Centipede weave. Here's a few links hanging off the end of my tweezers. See those small golden seed beads? They are a mere 4mm across and those little silver rings on the side are just 3.5 mm in diameter .... sooooo small! But very pretty though, right?

I hope you're having a great week wherever you are, friends.