05 March 2011

Wedding decorations.

In August twinny is getting married. Yay!
Being the crafty pair we are and having a very large marquee to make pretty I have cracked on with making some decorations.

I have begun with bunting. lovely bunting.
All red and white and many, many metres of it.Twinny sent me a link to Martha Stewart's DIY Wedding website, which has lots of ideas.

I have since made coffee filter pom poms.
These were much easier to do than I expected and look really nice when strung across the room.
DIY tutorials suggested ten coffee filters to a pom pom but I went with six which worked fine. I will do some more and dye them red.
Paper garlands were also on the DIY wedding website.
These looked good in the red and white paper I used but were very time consuming for not many meterage!Martha Stewart has been a suprising help. For now I am going to carry on with the bunting and will keep looking for other super DIY wedding ideas as there is still lots to do.

15 February 2011

As seen on TV.

I will start with a dress I made for twinny.
This is a Simplicity pattern from their 1950s collection.
I had a call from twinny DEMANDING a new dress, I made her this on evening and yesterday she wore it to the Brits, I did not see my dress on the telly. Boo.
She likes it so much I am now making her a second one.

I liked the cut of the dress so much I made myself one.
This dress has a grey pencil shirt with a pink and white polka dot top.
This dress has been on the telly. Yay!


A friend recently handed me a bag which contained a greasy pair of mechanical overalls. He asked if I could turn it into a jacket and line it with fluffy yellow fabric.
Here is the result:

After accidentally sewing up the pockets, I have since added two more.


With the left over yellow fluff I made him a cushion.


Cross stitch, I like to cross stitch and here are so of the little ones:

Ah Ha for all good Partridge fans.


Exactly!


FUCK YEAH! Indeed.


Especially when I have cake!


Sometimes.


Here is some bunting I hsve made, all from leftover bits of fabric


These are some girls dresses I made from a pattern my Mum gave me, it was an original one from 1970

I picket the bright spotty fabric.


I love the small spotty fabric, especially the one on the left




Next blog:
More things I have made and two knitting pattens.

Lemon & White Chocolate Cakes.

This is a recipe I attempted the other day and the cakes were so tasty I thought it would be rude not to share:

Lemon & white chocolate cakes.
Makes 12ish.

You will need:

A mixing bowl, wooden spoon, scales, sieve, cake tray, pretty cake cases, grater, lemon squeezers (or a clean hand), dessert spoon, cooling rack.

Cake:
100g Butter/Marg
100g Sugar
2 Eggs
150g Self Raising Flour
1 Unwaxed Lemon - juice will be used for cake and icing.
100g White Chocolate

Icing:
25g Butter/Marg
100g Icing Sugar

Making the cakes:
Line the cake tray with the cake cases and pre heat the oven at gas mark 5/180 degrees Celsius.

Start by beating the 100g butter/marg in the bowl into smooth.
Add the sugar and mix.

Break the eggs into a separate bowl, making sure there is no shell, pour into the mixing bowl.


Mix.
Sieve 100g of the self raising flour into the mixing bowl.

Mix.
Wash the lemon and using the small holes on a grater, grate the yellow rind of the lemon into the bowl.

Cut the lemon in half, keep one half for the cake icing, using the other half squeeze the juice into a bowl, making sure any pips are removed.
Pour juice into the mixing bowl.
Chop the white chocolate into small piece and pop into the bowl.

Mix and sieve remaining 50g of self raising flour into the bowl.
Mix together, until no flour can be seem left and the only lumps are the white chocolate.

With a dessert spoon, spoon the mixture into the cake cases.

Place tray in the oven for 15 minutes, until cakes are golden and fluffy to touch.

Remove cakes from tray and place on a cooling rack.

Once cool, prepare the icing:
Beat 25g of butter/marg until smooth, sieve in half of the icing sugar.
Mix.

Using the remaining half of the lemon and squeeze the juice into a separate bowl, making sure any pips are removed.
Mix and add the rest of the icing sugar.
If the icing seems too runny add some more icing sugar.
Spoon the icing onto each cake and smooth over, no need to be too neat, as they will be tasty however they look.

Leave the icing to set.
Put on the kettle, make a pot of tea.
Settle down with a cuppa and cake.

30 January 2011

It's been a while.

Nearly six months since my last blog. Tut tut.
In that time though I have finished my job of eight years and been half way around the world aka whenIwastravelling - said in a whiney voice) and spent a lot of money.

So, I am now back at home with the folks and unemployed. I love it. The time off that is but defo missing the bright lights and friends in the city.

Sorry, right, back to the matter in hand. This blog is for the things I have made and so here are the things from 2011 so far, most of which will be for sale on folksy:


Pink tutu. Age 1-2 year old.


Purses.


Cassette Tape wallet for my little brother.



I love this fabric and had often picked up a few fat quarters on ebay, but it was never quite enough, so when I found some in America I got a few meters and made this dress, originally not for me, but when it fitted so perfect, I just had to keep it.


This knitted pouffe from Pickles has been on my to-do-list for a while, but the pattern said it needed 18 balls of wool, I finally managed to find 18 balls of wool which all matched and got started. It was with massive needles so was quick to do and in the end only took four balls. I now have 15 balls of grey wool. Might make some more pouffes.


Large jigsaw cushion.


When I picked up this Elvis fabric I couldn't wait to use it to make a dress and here it is.



My Mum dug out some dress patterns which she got in the 70s, here is the results of one of the girl dress patterns. For 1-2 year olds.


Still cross stitching, here is one for my friends club night and one for Mollie.

My to-do-list keeps getting bigger.
I have dresses to finish and a few to make and also lots and lots of bunting. I also want to finish a shrug I am knitting so I can start a new project with some green and pink glittery wool I have found. I also want to make a pom pom rug.
That is all.