Ella's Peep Peep Sleep Suit

I have made my Grand-daughter Ella a new sleep suit.

I adapted the pattern from Small Dream Factory. This is a really good pattern in itself but I made some minor alterations to the length and also the position of the zip which I decide to put centre front.

If I were to make the pattern again I would keep the zip to the side as suggested in the original pattern as it would probably work better.

I used FreeSpirit’s “Baby Talk” fabric in cream for the outer fabric, a Lemon Polycotton for the lining and “Warm & Natural for the insulation.

For the shoulder closures I used large press studs with large pink buttons for decoratio.

The outer fabric is lovely and I must admit I was quite chuffed when I had finished :-), Thank You Small Dream Factory

Blue Peter inspired CD Rack Update

Here's my Blue Peter inspired CD rack in use, CD collection in alphabetical order to appease my OCD, it does remind me of my student days :-)

My lovely Hubby Scott pointed out with much mirth that Organise CD's has the same initials as OCD, eek scary lady lol :-)

It make's me happy alphabetizing my music lol

Oh the little things

Blue Peter Inspired CD Rack ;-)

I've been a busy little bee this weekend, trying to organise my sewing room. Desperately needed a way of storing my CD's so I have access to my music.........

Enter stage right;

• One large shoe box,
• Sheets of fancy handmade paper, 
• Cellotape,
• Scissor's,
• and last but not least my memories growing up watching Blue Peter come up with brilliant idea’s for craft makes to re-cycle household rubbish into wonderful useful items, (Fairy Liquid Bottle Space Rockets and the elaborate Tracy Island comes to mind), though I’m sure my Mum & my Gran would have disagreed with the last statement but they were cool to me at the time ;-),

After an hour or so the images you see below are the items I produced from the list of materials above which works wonderfully well on my windowsill, and though not a permanent structure has provided the template for my lovely hubby to produce the shelves in wood, Yeah, good old Blue Peter inspiring the re-cycler in me even now ;-)

Kind of Jubilee Fairy Bun's !

To get me into the Jubilee spirit I have made these quirky little buns, though they are not perfectly pretty, and the Red White & Blue is more Pink White & Sky Blue, they were lushishly delish and I thought I'd share the recipe. But be warned they are super quick to make and lasted less than 24 hour's :-)

Jubilee Almond Fairy Bun's

Ingredients

175g SR Flour
50g Ground Almonds
100g Margarine
Pinch of Salt
100g Sugar
1 Egg
2 tsps. Almond Essence
Milk

Topping

Icing Sugar
Lemon Juice
Blue Food Colouring
Blackcurrant Cordial



Method

1. Into a bowl put the flour, ground almonds and salt, rub in the margarine
2. Stir in the sugar and make a well in the centre of the mix
3. Add the almond essence into the beaten egg and pour into the well and mix into the dry ingredients
4. Add small amount of milk as required to get the mixture to a soft dropping consistency
5. Place mixture into 18 small bun cases
6. Microwave the buns in batches of 6 at a time for 1.5 to 2 minutes on a power level equal to 650 watts (for my microwave that’s about level 6, but consult your microwaves instruction manual for exact levels)
7. For the topping mix icing sugar and lemon juice in 3 small bowls or saucers, leave 1 white and add blue food colouring to 1 and blackcurrant cordial to the other 1 and decorate your cooled buns

Voilà & Enjoy!

Atonement Green Silk Dress

Last year (2011) a friend of mine asked me if I would create a dress for his daughter for her end of school evening dance, the dress she wanted me to make was an interpretation of the Green Silk Dress designed by Jacqueline Durran as worn by Keira Knightly in Atonement.


I started by doing the usual research, I hit Google lol, below are some of the links I found;

Sunday Couture - This is a really good explanation of the construction of the dress, a "must read" for anyone who wants to have a go at making a dress for themselves
Famous Formal Wear
Costumer's Guide
As I Said...Blog

Vogue 7365

I also had very little time and only a couple of fittings so I used Vogue pattern 7365, I would have liked to of started from an original block but as fittings and time were quite limited I found it easier using the pattern initially to get started on the basic shape and develop my own pattern from there.

Firstly I used Susannah's measurements and altered the pattern to include a waist band and allow the straps to come down the back.

In the original design custom-dyed emerald featherweight silk satin  was used to create a dress with very fluid movement in the garment, it also allowed for the detailing around the neck line to be produced by laser cutting, I obviously didn't have the luxury of time and budget ;-) one can only dream lol. If you ever read my humble blog Jacqueline the dress you created was truly beautiful and my version is in homage.

In my version I used 100% silk satin for the outer fabric and 100% habotai silk for the lining, the dress was fully lined, gathered at the back zip, plus I created a sash that was also gathered and attached at the back zip and tied at the front. Three fresh water pearls were used as buttons for the waist closure.

Vogue 7365 has no waistband so a tracing was taken from the original pattern this was then cut and adjusted so to incorporate the waistband.

I made 2 toiles before I made the final dress the first to get a general feel for the design the second to make adjustments for Susannah, each time altering the pattern so as to capture the essence of the original dress. I should have taken photos of the work in progress but hindsight is a wonderful thing, instead I have included pictures of the finished garment.

Though a lesson I've learnt from this project is to take photo's that I think I might use on the Internet without loads going on in the background, ie without showing my messy workroom and having to spend a couple of hours blurring the background lol.

Upper Back Detail

Lower Back detail

Back

Side

Front

Susannah

Cute Kitten Hat & Cardigan

Baby Cardigan & Hat by Sue Batley-Kyle

Check out the gorgeous baby hat and cardigan pattern on Mollie Makes Blog, it will look lovely on my grand-daughter, I am sure I can find some wool to get it started. 

 Go to Sue Batley Kyle's Ravely page to source the pattern as it is no longer available on Mollie Makes Blog, but it can also be found in King Coles Baby Book 4