Angry Birds Plushies by Obsessively Stitching

I'm loving these Angry Birds toys by Obsessively Stitching!

Not that I've been at all addicted to the game (ahem)! These cute creatures are so spot on I couldn't help but smile :)

There are a whole crew of angry bird tutorials to be found for free on Obsessively Stitching's blog, and the original red bird is available on Etsy for the less creative of you.

James' Shirt

I've never been a massive fan of denim, but there's something about it.  I like the way it presses and how the stitches look when they are holding pieces of it together.  There's something very satisfying about creating garments out of it.  So when I was asked to make a shirt I was quite excited to get going on it.


The fabric itself is quite thin, for denim, however as it's a shirt and not a jacket this was important.  I chose the lightest weight I could find knowing that the yoke and the pockets would all weigh it down.


Here is the result :-)

Ebay

Hola! So I've been away from the blog for ages again, mostly making christmas presents and all those aprons last year, but my excuse this time is the shop I have been setting up on ebay. I thought I'd have a go with these fun skull and crossbones/rockabilly type fabrics and see what I came up with.

Here's a baby dress to give you an idea of the sort of things I want to do - you'll have to excuse the rubbish photo I was in a bit of a hurry to get it all listed yesterday so it won't be permanant!

Check out my ebay shop here

Aprons.. lots and lots of them!

I realise I haven't posted anything for ages again - but I have a good excuse! I've not had a lot of time to myself recently as I've been crazily preparing for Christmas, making these lovely aprons which I will (hopefully) be selling at the Craft Fayre at the Komedia on Sunday in Brighton.

If you'd like one then they will be available in the shop soon, or if you can't wait then email me and I'll send you one. These aprons are reversible and made from cotton and viscose suiting fabric, so as well as looking stylish they are also fully washable (on a low temperature) so you don't need to worry about getting covered in cake, or steak, or whatever floats your boat.

I thought after all the cute girly aprons that I'd make something for the boys too, so these are available at £25 each.

Black with White Stripe with grey/white stripe:

Black with white stripe / Mottled black and white

Brown/Blue tweed stripe / mottled black/white:

Brown/blue tweed stripe / Grey/white stripe:

And more for the ladies! I've now got this lovely apples and flowers fabric with hot pink polk dot, cupcakes with chocolate and turquoise and a little tailored skirt apron made with the black and white stripe fabric and the grey and white material.

Emma's bridesmaid dress.

I made this dress for my friend Emma in September for a wedding. She was a bridesmaid and had just been told to buy a burgundy dress and that was it. I really wanted a bit of practice at making something for someone else, so I offered to make it for her as an excuse :-)

I did have more photos of this dress but I seem to have lost a memory card! The fabric and lining are both silk and it took about a week to complete.



It's actually the same pattern as one I made for myself (as a brithday present) Emma and I are a similar size so I was lucky that I could try it on when she wasn't around.

The pattern is Burda 7488 for anyone wishing to make one, I just omitted the contrast fabric from the bottom and instead used one piece.

Chris's Shirt

I've been wanting to write about this one for a while but I've had to wait until I gave it to a certain someone for his birthday before I could make it public!

I loved making this shirt, the fabric is beautiful and it felt like a proper challenge to get all the checks to match up. I changed a few of the design features - omitted the pocket flaps after deciding the fabric was too heavy for them, changed the shape of the front yokes and added small darts from the pocket down for extra shaping.

Making this has made me seriously think about going into menswear as it was so nice to put together. I've taken an order for one more in plain fabric, which should be a lot quicker, so watch this space :-)

It fitted it's recipient perfectly (phew!) though I still need to get a photo of him in it to prove this (when he'll let me..)

Birthday Frock

I decided on Fri (22nd) that as I was going out that night I had better make myself a new dress! I found this lovely Paul Smith fabric and some yellow silk and spent the whole day up in my room throwing around pieces of fabric and paper.



By 6.15pm on Friday I finally gave up and realised it wasn't going to happen that night. So Saturday, complete with monster hangover, I put the rest of the dress together. This is the result, a classic style dress (that looks lovely on, but unfortunately no professional photographer was around today to take a picture of me in it!) with a silk lining and big bow at the front.

I think I actually love it.

Summer Dresses

Remember back in May I posted a photo of a model in a magazine and said I was going to copy the dress? Looky here to recap. Well here's the dress, I finally got around to posting up the photograph (courtesy of Helen Tinner Photography)



Also Helen shot a better photo of me in the floral dress I blogged about last May



And the tulip dress I was in the middle of making in June

Wrap around skirt

I designed this skirt for my pattern cutting class last year. It was loosely based on a few pictures I'd seen in vogue (which I should upload but they're in the attic). I think I mainly designed it because I wanted this skirt, rather than challenging myself by making something more difficult! None the less, I love it, wear it all the time, and often get compliments on it. It looks great with cowboy boots!

Hot Pants for Winter

I made these in September? October? 2009. I've given up trying to post in chronological order now. These were from a burda pattern for my dressmaking class. I'm really pleased with them, they're so comfortable I'm making another pair in corderoy.

Tulips

Just thought I'd give a quick update on what I've been making as its been a while! I got out of the creative zone and into the work zone for a bit, but I'm back now and this is coming along nicely. It's the bodice part of a dress I'm making for my NCFE course, and will be exhibited at the Connaught Centre in Hove on the 27th and 28th June.

This last week I've been sewing like a little pixie attempting to get my shirt dress design finished (the one described in an earlier post). It's pretty much there, I've made the calico version but there are a few changes I need to make before starting on the final piece.

Tomorrow I'll be back on the knitting as I'm taking a little solo break to St Ives to get the creative juices flowing properly again. So expect more pictures soon!

*Edit* See completed dress picture here

Ideas....

Ok so I got up today with the intention of making something new and getting some coursework done, which has sort of happened, but I seem to be more content writing about said things I want to get done rather than actually doing them. Here's some pics of what's in my head right now.. The fabric I want to use, a sketch of what I was thinking of making and a photograph of what I think it might transform into.. and some random drawings of other things in my sketchbook that one day I might get around to making.

*Edit* See completed dress picture here

Full Flared Floral Frock

I had this lovely fabric from my pattern cutting tutor and thought I'd attempt the party dress again but with much more flare. I also lengthened the original design and made the middle panel slightly wider - this was actually a mistake because I thought the fabric could do with more ease, but it turned out that it was just right if I rouched it.

*Edit* See here for a better pic!