Gift 2: Sparkly Sequin Earrings

As many will know I have a love of anything sparkly, I do very often get side tracked in shops if I see something glittering.  I also have a love of dangly earrings, my collection grows bigger every week, but unfortunately it is an expensive hobby!! So when I spotted dangly sparkly sequin earrings in Tescos I couldn't resist, although the price tag of £8 seemed very unreasonable for what they were.  I knew I had all the materials at home so I decided to make my own.

On my first attempt I ended up making all the jump rings myself which took forever , they were all different sizes and shapes, but they were a labour of love and it looked awesome!! Until, I accidentally left them in my bag, all the sequins got scuffed and lost their sparkle, I did the same with a sequin necklace too. Note to Self: Never leave sequins in a pocket or bag always hang up after use!!

For my Birthday my lovely friend Gemma bought me a voucher for Hobby Craft, so I decided to start again and bought jump rings (it will save so much time!!), beads and earring hooks in gold and silver.  The best thing about this is I know most of my friends and family wear silver so the gold is all for me yay!! I have a huge bag of sequins which I bought when I was about 12 and still haven't run out, but these were from a table confetti pack.  I loved the combination of colours; turquoise, lime green and opaque yellow (the pictures really don't do them justice, I will take some more when it gets sunnier).  They only cost a pound and I had loads left over so will have to think of something else to do with them.

Now for party time, these are the perfect accessory to glitz up any look!!

Gift 1: Warm Ears

I have not been very good with presents lately, Christmas or Birthday.  I blame it on University taking all my money, but as that was over 2 years ago now and I got away lightly compared to the students of today, I feel some making up is in order.  Fortunately I have been doing lots of research on the interwebs to find some ideas.  I made some mock ups for myself to show everyone and they love them, the perfect Christmas presents at a low cost but with a lot of handmade love...

When the cold weather started I decided I really wanted to make some ear warmers.  At first I had decided that I would learn to knit and make them out of wool but after browsing around the blogasphere I came across some gorgeous ear warmers made from different fabrics over at delia creates.  This has since become one of my favourite blogs, I love all of her ideas for accessories, the home (I just can't wait to get my own place to decorate) and her recipes look divine, that peanut butter cake yum!!

Anyway back to ear warmers, I did try to hunt for fleeces to cut up (like in the tutorial) in the charity shops around work, but I either couldn't find a material that wouldn't fray or a colour that I liked.  I ended up buying some grey fleece from John Lewis which at £7 a metre was pretty pricey, but I loved the colour and texture and as it was for myself at the time I didn't really mind paying £1.75 for a quarter.  I also wanted to change the design slightly, I made it thinner with only 2 flowers and to add a bit of colour I used deep pink buttons and thread.  After my first attempt which went horrendously wrong I also decided to scrap the button on the back and use a popper instead, I still stitched a button over the top to make it look pretty.

 My friends loved the design and have all requested one for Christmas, of course they all wanted different colours so I had to make a trip to the fabric market in town to buy all the supplies (a lot cheaper than John Lewis!!).

I'll be posting again soon with the results, I hope everyone likes them!!

Three Little Ducks

A couple of months ago my Granny gave a bunch of Lavender from her garden so I decided to make some lavender bags.  I didn't want to make the traditional square or tied bag so I browsed the internet for ideas, (browsing is one of my favourite hobbies!) I found quite a few bags shaped as animals so I had of course my first project had to be a stuffed duck.

I found some gorgeous Amy Butler fabrics in John Lewis, but as it was expensive I didn't want to waste it, so used some cheap black fabric to practice with.  My first duck made out of 3 pieces was a traditional rubber duck shape, it is fat and has a very thin neck which flops over to one side even though I stuffed it full of rice to try and pack it out (I didn't want to waste the lavender), he had to be named Fail Duck.  The second is more stylised, I got rid of the beak and neck and made it out of 4 pieces with a felt beak, although this made the design very square.  I am only just getting used to my mums sewing machine again so I sewed right to the edges of the fabric, BIG mistake, he is huge and wonky, he is named Fat Duck.

So the third duck is much smaller I made the edge pieces curved to give the design more shape and I added some webbed feet as Mum kept saying it looked like a bird (I realise a duck is a bird but you know what I mean!).  As it looked so awesome I decided to replace the rice stuffing with a rice and lavender mix so it still had some weight but smells fragrant, very fragrant!! I might not need so much lavender next time, he is named Stuffed Duck.

As I am doing a million and one things at once I shall continue my stuffed adventure in the new year, but right now I have the mammoth task of making all my friends Christmas presents.  I hope I have enough time to get everything finished, It's already 5 days into December and so far I have nothing except the ideas, better get started.  Although I have tonight off as I'm going to see my friends band Ghost in the Static play their first gig after getting back together, to the Cellar Bar Wahoo!!