Tag: hallowe’en

Hats to order

Russett cloche with organic cotton lace

I was doing well for a while, keeping up with the blog, and then I was ill, and then busy catching up with work, and here I am behind again. This is one of the things I’ve been up to – a new hat! It’s my favourite asymmetric cloche shape, with an organic cotton lace motif and Swarovski crystal trim. Available now in the Etsy shop, or made to order in a colour of your choice!

Nicola's ORANGE hat!

I’ve popped a few other hats in the Etsy shop too, so that I can make them to order. This is one of the first hats I made, and I’m still completely in love with the giant felt flower. You can now order one of your own, though it doesn’t have to be bright orange of course!

I never did get around to making fascinators with the other felted flowers that I made, and they haven’t sold at all well on hair combs, so I think they’ll be coming soon to a hat near you.

Hand blocked wool felt fuchsia pink cloche hat with black guipure lace and button trim

This is one of the simpler styles of hat, a plain round cloche trimmed with guipure lace. I think it’s the one I’ve made the most of (three pink and one grey, at the last count), and now you can order one for yourself. The hat can be made in any of 25 different colours, but the lace is only available in black or ivory.

The next step on the hat journey is going to be pillboxes! I’m just waiting for a clever widget to arrive from Guy Morse-Brown, which will allow me to use my existing blocks to make little felt pillbox shapes. I’m not sure yet how I’m going to trim those, I need to see how they sit on the head before I decide. At the moment I’m thinking big felt bows, or maybe lots of little flowers. We’ll see.

Milly's witch's hat

And just by way of a complete contrast, I spent the weekend making this! The reason it looks a little bit too small for me is that it’s intended for my three year old niece. Although I have to confess I’m pretty tempted to make another one that I can keep! This one has a secret pocket inside the brim (where else does a witch keep her important things?), complete with a little packet of “Magic Dust” for casting spells with. I really hope she likes it!

Scary Little Pumpkin

Scary Pumpkin!

I was going to whinge on about how poorly I’m feeling (working day seven of nine today, half term holidays, should have taken the opportunity not to work the weekend when my boss offered it to me but I’m a sucker for agreeing to stuff), how frustrating the house move continues to be (blocked drains, compost heap full of dog waste, where have the removal men hidden my laundry?!), or how I haven’t knitted anything or checked my email for nearly two weeks (argh!!), but instead I thought I’d show you this lovely picture of my little niece being a scary pumpkin.

As mentioned when I made it, this is Butterick 3772, and I have to say it’s been a brilliantly versatile little pattern!

Milly's First Birthday Party

I made one for her first birthday, which she wore as a dress, and then as a top, until the armholes got too tight.

Milly & Me

I made another one for her second birthday, this time with an enormous pocket on the front.

The pattern has loads of cute variations, although I’ve only ever made the simplest version, with a bit of lace or an improvised pocket. (Or a puffball hem and a pumpkin face. As you do.) Up to age 3 you only need a metre of 44″ wide fabric which, given the size of my stash, is pretty easy to come by. You can squeeze the smallest size out of half a metre, if you use a different fabric for the facings. In fact, I only used a metre for the pumpkin version, which is fully lined.

To be honest, it’s such an easy dress to make that I feel like a very bad aunty for not making more! Maybe once I’ve unearthed my sewing machine, I can have a rummage through the fabric mountain and make a few more.

Milly’s Pumpkin Dress

Milly's Pumpkin Dress

It’s two years since I last made a hallowe’en costume for Milly, so I thought I’d better fulfil my role of Aunty Who Sews, and make another one!

My Mum spotted a knitted pumpkin hat in a magazine, which is what gave me the idea to make a matching pumpkin dress.

This is Butterick 3772, in orange polycotton, with black felt for the face. I think it’s the third one of these that I’ve made now. This one’s fully lined, partly because the fabric’s quite thin, and partly because I wanted to bag out the hem to create a puffball effect. The lining was cut about an inch shorter at the hem, and about an inch narrower on each side. The top layer was then gathered to match, and the difference in length between the inside and the outside pulls the seam underneath. It’s not quite as puffy as I’d have liked, but I think it will look very cute!

And now, at long last, we have a moving date! After months of waiting, we’re making the move next Friday! Eek! So, this is the last thing I’ll sew (by machine, at any rate) before we move. My task for this afternoon is to pack up the machines, and start shoving the rest of the contents of the Shed into boxes. Wish me luck!

Is it Hallowe’en yet?

I sometimes describe myself as a “recovering Goth”, but I discovered yesterday that I am still rather prone to the occasional relapse! About eight years ago I started a business called “GothStuff”, specialising in, well, stuff, for goths. I made skirts in a variety of styles, and Paul and I invested in a t-shirt printing kit. The t-shirts were designed by Paul and Selina, and they seemed to be quite popular.

We closed that business for a number of reasons, one of which was that I wanted to concentrate on working with organic, sustainable, recycled and Fair Trade fabrics, which are mostly plain, and mostly cream. Not very Goth, really. However I still have a terrible weakness for skull prints, and working part-time in a fabric shop I have to exercise quite a lot of self-restraint to prevent me from snapping up these little beauties!

Skull Fabrics!

The four fabrics at the top left are a fine nylon mesh – two with skulls & crossbones, and two with little skeletons. So cute! They’d be perfect for 1950s-style dresses, as a pretty top layer over a very full skirt. We also stock cobweb mesh in a wide range of colours, which I used to make pretty mini skirts back in the GothStuff days.

The eight fabrics down the right hand side are all 100% cotton prints. You have no idea how much willpower it has taken not to come home with many metres of the mini skull print in black and pink! The larger skull print also comes in several other colourways, but not a pink one, sadly.

The four fabrics at the bottom left are polar fleece. As this is manufactured from recycled plastic bottles, I have given into temptation and bought ten metres of the pink and black! I have two orders for hooded tops already, so you’ll be seeing pictures of those towards the end of the month.

I only wish that I could find a pretty skull print on an organic cotton. That would be my Fabric Nirvana, I think!