easily distracted by shiny things…
Posted in crafty things, embroidery on May 15th, 2012
My parents have been clearing out the loft before they move house, and my Mum had vaguely mentioned a box of embroidery transfers. Turns out that the box is about the size of a ream of paper, and crammed absolutely full! Most of the transfers are from the 1930s and 1940s, with a few from [...]
Posted in costume, crafty things, sewing on Apr 3rd, 2012
This is what reminded me that I hadn’t shown you the silk steampunk outfit – I finally found the time to make one of the accessories to go with it! In our original sketches, we’d talked about a beaded silk collar and matching wrist cuffs. I haven’t made those yet (I’ve run out of gold [...]
Posted in crafty things, sewing on Mar 29th, 2012
This, in the centre, is that holiest of grails: organic cotton sewing thread. Not only that, but it’s available to purchase in the UK! This is something that I’ve been trying to track down for a long time. It seemed ridiculous to be sewing organic cotton fabric with polyester thread (right), and in fact I [...]
Posted in crafty things, shopping on Mar 28th, 2012
Yesterday I needed a pen, but couldn’t find one that worked. This minor crisis precipitated the tipping out of all of the stationery drawers (yes, drawers, multiple), and a huge sorting out of all of our stationery. Before you decide I have an even bigger problem than you’d thought, not all of this is mine! [...]
Posted in crafty things, sewing, tops on Mar 19th, 2012
This morning I rediscovered the gathering foot for my sewing machine, and combined it with Pretty Jane’s continuous bias tape tutorial. Half a metre of fabric turned into around twelve metres of tape, which I then ran through the gathering foot. This resulted in about four and a half metres of pretty ruffled trim! It’s about [...]
Posted in crafty things, museums, teaching on Feb 2nd, 2012
Have I mentioned lately that I love my job? I run the Toddler Time sessions at the Museum of English Rural Life (every Friday during term time, 10-11 & 1-2), and part of that is to come up with an activity every week – preferably one that’s linked to the museum’s collections in some way. [...]
Posted in costume, crafty things, jewellery on Jan 11th, 2012
Oh dear, I’m doing it again. Blogging all enthusiastically, then disappearing for a week. In my defence I’m still working on the costumes for Neverwhere which, as well as doing the odd day or two of overtime at work, is taking up every spare minute of my time and then some. These are three raven [...]
Posted in crafty things, fabric on Dec 8th, 2011
Hello! I feel as though I’ve been away for ages. I’m so busy at the moment I’ve barely had time to breathe, never mind blog, but I made this yesterday and I thought it would be a nice little something to show. It’s a somewhat experimental piece of nuno felt, about the size of a sheet [...]
Posted in costume, crafty things on Aug 26th, 2011
Oh my goodness, the feathers. Fluff everywhere. My Shed will never be the same again. Once the glue’s dry, I’ll be getting out the hot glue gun to attach these feathery extravagances to the sides of a mask. The black feathers and the sparkly bits were originally attached to the mask in the first place, but [...]
Posted in crafty things on Aug 7th, 2011
These are fifteen silk-covered buttons, waiting to take their place on a waistcoat to match the pirate shirt. They have to wait until I’ve made all the buttonholes by hand. This could take some time…