27 December 2015

Fused Glass Decorations


How beautiful are these? I have my very talented friend Stevie Davies to thank for letting me and my mum loose In her workshop and showing us how to create these. Stevie is a very talented fused glass artist in Derby and you can find out more about her work on her website here (and her work is much prettier than these samples made by myself and my mum). She also teaches workshops around the East Midlands and I would definitely recommend, she's a brilliant teacher.


My mum has always been drawn to fused glass Christmas decorations so for a long time I have been meaning to sort a time for us to go and do this as a surprise for her. I think she was pleased and I think her decorations are amazing. I'm not going to get technical and pretend I know what I'm talking about, I will leave that to the experts, but here is a brief description of what we made. The first image is a fused glass tree my mum made which is mounted onto a clear glass candle holder. The tree is made of two layers of clear glass with some thin green coloured glass in between the layers and the snow effect added To the top to give a 3D effect. Her second piece, the star, is made of 5 triangle pieces which have been overlapped when fired to create the shape. These are only one layer of glass and my mum has added tiny pieces of coloured glass to the top which has melted and fused together and created this lovely mottled star decoration. I think she has a natural flair for this don't you! 


I made three pieces, the first tree has had some small chunks of glass added in between layers to make the tree bauble effect and a small wire star on the top which has fused into the glass to make the hanging which I really like. The second tree was made using very thin rods of glass cut and layered into the tree shape on top of another piece of clear glass. I love the bumpy feeling of this one and the colours! Not very festive, but I absolutely love this colour combo. 

Finally I managed to make my own star which has small thin pieces of coloured glass on top to create the colours and graduates from purple through blue to white snowy tips. 


I really enjoyed doing this, it was really interesting to learn how the glass works with each other in order to create the different finishes and this is something completely different to what I make normally. If you have never tried doing fused glass I really recommend finding a workshop near you (or booking one with Stevie) as its loads of fun and really easy to make something truly beautiful. You don't have to just make decorations for Christmas but for all year round, they would look lovely hanging in a window where the light can really show them off. 

Do you have a favourite type of hand made decoration, or make any of your own? I'm always looking for new ideas to try and inspiration so let me know. 


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13 December 2015

Handmade Halloween Baby Pumpkin King Outfit



How adorable is this little pumpkin king! Honestly I don't know what more I can say about this other than that I am so so proud of this little tiny Jack Skellington costume.

Master Fox hosted his very own Halloween party this year for all his little buddies that he met and local playgroups. Of course it was really just an excuse to get them all dressed up in daft outfits for our own amusement. A lot of costumes for baby boys though are all either Skelleton or pumpkin onesies. Cute yes, but very samey so I wanted him to have something unique which is when I came up with the idea to dress him as the pumpkin king.

I ordered some fabric from eBay which was black with a white stripe. Sadly it turned up and was a bit thin for suiting and very shiny but we worked around this with some interfacing and lining fabrics to make it more stable, comfortable and warmer. 

The jacket is taken from this free pattern which I found on the Internet. The pattern was really simple to follow and did make up a great little jacket. Master Fox is however a little on the small side and whilst I wasn't stingy on the seams it did come up a little tight in the tummy for him at 11 months so do bear that in mind. I obviously added the tails which I made freehand and I think these worked really well. 


The trousers are a pattern from my other favourite new kiddie pattern place which is Ottobre magazine, a quarterly from Finland which that you can get easily shipped to the UK. This one is from 3/2015 and has a lovely little dart in the pants seat. This pattern is also really nice and easy on the overlocker and is aimed at jersey fabrics. If you are interested in sewing clothes for children 0- teen then you really should take a look. Browsing the PDFs of all their back issues is so difficult I can never decide which one I would want to get next!

So I hope you agree that this little outfit (and of course Master Fox) is super cute! Obviously this isn't a licensed product and I will not be reproducing this item for sale but it is a great example that if you have something in mind there is a way to achieve it, you just have to put your mind to it. Making this outfit really did give me a sense of accomplishment in my sewing skills and has given me more confidence to try and make some other new things for him, and hopefully myself again in the not too distant future. 
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