Espadrilles

Loving espadrilles at the moment.

Here are some of my favorites.

www.espadrill.co.uk £18

www.topshop.com pink strappy platform £70

http://www.net-a-porter.com/ Missoni crochet knit espadrille sandals £250

www.next.co.uk  Floral espadrille wedges £30

www.schuh.co.uk  £15

www.asos.com  River Island slingback wedges £49.99

www.riverisland.com cream crochet espadrilles £12.99


Choices Choices ????

Bag Giveaway !



Style: green with brown spot  x2



Style: flower x1

Style: stripe x1

Style: Spider and Snail x2



Style: Banksy print x1



Style: Blue with brown spot x1

I have 8 handmade bags to give away. All of these shopper style bags were lovingly hand made by myself for my past label BooBags!  They are fully lined and 100% cotton, perfect for the summer.
Reason for giveaway: surplus stock and to entice new followers.
How to enter: Simply follow me and send me a message telling me your name, blog address and which style bag you would like to be in with a chance of winning.
Closing Date: Sunday 3rd July 2011
I will notify the 8 lucky winners by Sunday 8th July 2011
Good Luck x

To Buy or Not to Buy.

Took a trip to the Candle Workshop www.cheshireworkshops.co.uk in an attempt to keep my niece, nephew & little girl amused for the day.
Whilst there I came across the most beautiful bag upstairs in the craft shop. I'm a sucker for shoes & bags and this bag was to die for. It was heavy in weight and not practical for everyday but I continued to justify in my head why I should part with £40 to own this gorgeous item. The best I came up with was hand luggage for when I travelled. Unfortunately the sensible side of my brain kicked in & I walked away & now I'm sitting here wishing I'd bought it.

They had another style(shown in the photo below) which I wasn't as taken with. Much preferred the single clasp fastening & simple design.

Yep perfect for traveling, so much room!

Maxi Skirt x

I gathered the skirt and trapped it in between the yoke& lining

Next I bagged out the yoke to give the waist a neat seam.

Lastly I sewed an invisable zip in the side seam & closed the seam.

In a previous post I showed you a floral summer dress I made for my daughter for the up and coming garden party . I have now turned my attentions to my own outfit. My mind was set on a maxi skirt with volume and I wanted to some how tie in a garden theme. So rather than go for a floral print fabric, I have taken photos of my favorite flowers in the garden and my oh so talented colleague and friend will use these images as a reference for some hand embroidery down the left hand side of the skirt. (This is in progress as I type, but will post finished pics when completed.) Not had any thoughts about what to design for the top, will probably do a little research over the weekend. The images below are the photos that I took to be used for inspiration for the hand embroidery.

Poppy

Foxglove

Rose

Cakes, cakes and more cakes. x

Planning for the Garden Party is coming along nicely.
As you can see from the photo above I have finished sewing the bunting, the handmade cards(which have been lovingly put together by my mum) have been made and are ready for posting, all 30 pots of strawberry jam have been topped off with a circle of fabric and tied with a ribbon and finally, the cake stands have been sourced from charity stores. 
We still have quite a bit to do however my work colleagues are greatly benefiting from the variety of delicious cakes that are arriving in the staff room every morning awaiting feedback on the taste.  My mum has gone into overdrive cooking till 3am to perfect her recipes. There's being a perfectionist and there's plain bonkers.She is defiantly the latter x

The mix of prints work well together.

Really like the mis match of plates.

Project 3 Geek Club

Shown above is a photo of Origami in a front fitted piece. Although it may not look it, this by far has been the most challenging project I have set my enthusiastic geeks.
The 1st part of their challenge was to learn about grading. They then had to grade a size 12 fitted bodice block up one  size to a 14 and down one size to a size 10. For this you must know your horizontal from your vertical and after a few puzzled looks they produced different size blocks. :)
The 2nd part of their challenge was to incorporate origami in their bodices. This involved drawing design lines, slashing and adding folds and re-cutting in fabric before attempting to match the oh so many notches. This was extremely difficult but they did it and the results are great.

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Mad Hatters Tea Party

My parents anniversary is fast approaching and to mark this occasion my mum has decided to have a traditional Garden party with a huge variety of cakes, triangle sandwiches and tea drank out of a cup & saucer the way it should.
As I have been summoned to help organise this event, a 'to do' list has already been drawn up (sad , I know,but my middle name is organisation)
My 1st job is to make the bunting (decorative flags) to go inside the marquee. So I spent most of my breaks today sewing what felt like a million triangle flags together ready to bag out.

Doesn't look that many flags, maybe it's the angle of the photo.
I then returned home to make my daughters dress for this event.  Sticking to the floral theme for the Garden Party I sourced out three disgusting old garments from the boot sale bag each chose for their print, not their style. I then proceeded to cut the garments up into strips and create a very pretty maxi dress for my little girl.
I can see a busy few weeks ahead with the 'to do' list I've got to get through, still at least I've ticked one thing off my list.

Subtraction Cutting Workshop

In previous posts I have wrote about my love of Subtraction Cutting. So last Friday I delivered a workshop on this method of pattern cutting. I asked the group before they started to sew various pieces of fabrics together for a more interesting outcome. Some kept their dresses basic, others began to introduce circles to experiment. The end results were great. Below are pictures of just four of the dresses.

Front

Back view

Project 2 'Geek Club'

In a previous entry I spoke of Geek Club. For the 2nd challenge I looked to a book called Pattern Magic for some inspiration.
My geeks had to create a full skirt and cut a small hole to which a fabric made tube was placed inside & pinned. New design lines were drawn on  the toile using the hole as a focal point. The lines needed to radiate out from the tube. Scissors were taken to the new design lines cutting the toile up and patterns were taken from this.  
Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to get photos of both skirts on stands, so the best I could do is take a photo of a photo.  No time was wasted with the photo shoot for these skirts and the results are amazing. This was a really strong portfolio piece & the quality of the skirt was top notch. My geeks rose to the challenge.

The Hannah Dress

Once again, another dress created using Subtraction Cutting. The 'Hannah dress' was made using stretch t.shirt cotton and features  a tulip sleeve and gathered sections. Really pleased with the way this turned out, it has a grecian feel to it and my friend was tall enough to carry this look off. Loving the new maxi. : )