easily distracted by shiny things…
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 inspiration, museums, nature, photos, volunteering on Oct 13th, 2011
Four corvid skulls, waiting to be put away in a little box. The skulls had been part of a temporary exhibition to illustrate the functionality of differing beak shapes in various species of bird. It was an absolute joy to get out the boxes of bird skulls again, and to have another little look through [...]
Posted in shoes on Jul 24th, 2011
This is the second pair of skulls & roses shoes – this time with an organza ribbon for a little bit of variety.
Posted in shoes on Jun 22nd, 2011
This is the next pair of shoes – a pretty gothy pair with skulls and roses. I’ve actually made two pairs of these, and I’m extraordinarily tempted to make a third pair for myself I don’t want to make eleven identical posts about the prototype shoes, so I’m hoping that the fabulous variety of fabrics [...]
I made these over the weekend, despite the best efforts of my sewing machine and overlocker. I don’t know why both of my machines are still playing up, but it’s driving me mad. The top thread keeps snapping on the overlocker every time I come to sew across a seam, and my ordinary machine has [...]
I know I’ve already made one little jacket in this fabric, but when I looked at the whole outfit together on the dressform I wasn’t sure. S, I had a little browse on the internet, dashed down to the fabric shop, bought another pattern and made another jacket. As you do. This one’s Butterick 4731. [...]
Here’s what I’ve been working on this weekend – a matching corset for the skulls & roses outfit. The intention is that the skirt, bra and corset together should give the overall impression of a dress. I drafted the corset myself – I needed to update my pattern because all the corsets I made for [...]
This is pair of knickers number five. This time I started with Kwik Sew 2100, the most striking aspect of which was the ridiculous width of the gusset, especially as the sizes increase. I modified that part of the pattern to make more anatomical sense, and I was impressed by the instructions for putting together [...]
This is Simplicity 2478, view C. I made it exactly as per the pattern (for once!) and then embellished it with the very last tiny pieces of my broderie anglais trim and a pretty red frog fastener. What can I say? It went together really easily! It helps if you have prior experience of sewing [...]
So, this is a bit of a departure from the type of thing I’ve been sewing lately – in fact it’s a skirt pattern that came from my first business, about eight or nine years ago. There are four layers of skirt altogether, each with four panels for fullness. The inside three layers are black [...]