I Joined the Christmas Jumper Parade

So its all gone a bit mad on the old Christmas Jumper front, and you can't turn round in the shops without seeing one either for sale, or one already on the shoulders of the person stood next to you. Now I am not saying this is a bad thing, I love a scandi jumper and wish I could knit one myself, however there are some truly tacky versions out there as well.

 

Anyway, being as Save the Children, Costa, as well as many other places have been naming 'Christmas Jumper Day', and work are almost insisting on it as a uniform as part of the last week of work, it only seemed polite to join in. Of course I was not just going to nip to primark for a cheap one was I, not when the opportunity to applique one presents itself.

So here we have my Christmas reindeer jumper styled on my own Christmas tree decoration design, complete with woolly pom pom nose. It is just machine sewn on to an old jumper using fleece fabric so anyone could give this a go.

Are you styling a Christmas jumper this year? If so, what have you gone for, traditional knitwear, large prints, or are you donning your own DIY version? I would love to know.

Quick Edit: How well timed was this post after Patrick's applique reindeer on GBSB! 

Fit for a Queen (or King) Crown

I love it when you get a little idea for something whimsical and it turns into such a great little successful project. This one was really quick and I am so pleased with the outcome. Isn't it a spectacular crown, I am sure any little future King or Queen would be happy to receive this. 

I have made this one for a friends daughter (hence the 'Queen') as a little Christmas gift, so I am really hoping she likes it. I can see me making more of these in my future.

 

These are made using two layers of felt fabric, with a layer of iron on interfacing in the middle. You could make it without, but it make it much sturdier. 

The pattern idea basically came from combining the following two tutorials:

Dress up Crown by The Long Thread

and Royal Felt Crown by Long Things

I hope you like my felt crown, and I urge you to have a go at one of these yourself for any young Kings and Queens (or in fact yourself) in your life. 

Post Wedding Round Up: The Bouquets

I purposefully didn't want to purchase real flower bouquets for my wedding. The idea was to hand craft as much as possible. I started off, like I usually do, collecting images from the internet with ideas and popping them on (yep you guessed it) pinterest. There were actually tons of ways to DIY flowers out there I was surprised at the amount of different ideas I got from it.

So after a couple of evenings with my bridesmaids trying out different techniques, with some attempts more successful than others, we finally settled on these. It was actually something which I didn't find an image or tutorial for but just happened to cobble together from the collective ideas I got. I think it worked perfectly and the colours really complimented the dresses. I think the finishing touch of the ribbon which my mum did really helped as well.

I am not planning on writing up a tutorial on these as there is some vague twinkle in my eye about making them for sale. But should that not happen I will of course show you how to. In the meantime, check out the board (sorry it's on my old account) and hopefully find some fabulous ideas for yourself. It's actually really easy to make your own wedding bouquets and the best thing about them is that they will keep forever as a souvenir of that special day.

A little sneaky peak there at the dresses! but look at how well they work with the colour scheme.

I plan to run the wedding bits as a series of Friday posts, so watch out for next weeks installment!

Photos by Ed Godden

Christmas Gift DIY

I am full of festive cheer at the moment. Any excuse to put on a christmas tune and have a sing a long. So naturally we are all thinking about the decorations and the gifts. 

My mum has always had a fascination with wrapping anything and everything for under the tree, something which has rubbed off on the rest of us. So I wanted to hand make a couple of the stocking fillers this year. 

All my family are huge gardeners, from my grandad to my younger sister, so naturally all enjoy relaxing outdoors enjoying the fruits of their labour. So I decided to adapt my DIY ombré candle tutorial and make these cute little terracotta plant pot candles.

They are scented using citronella which it perfect for these as it is known to be an excellent insect repellant, so great for lighting outdoors in the evening. 

I also had an excellent brainwave for the wicks, instead of tying them around, if you pull them over and then tape them to the outside using duct tape then you get a much better wick placement. 

A word if note as well if you are thinking of starting the is to plug the hole with either a bit of duct tape or cover it with a penny. 

I hope you, and they, like them. I would love to know what wonderful/quirky Christmas traditions your family have passed down, or what DIY stocking fillers you are planning to make this year.

Little Fox Jumper

Foxy Make number 1:

I had lots of fun making this little number for my nephew as it is his 2nd birthday in a couple of days. 

I can't take any credit for the design idea, I found the inspiration for this on pinterest and it is 100% credited to Elise Hooper Designs on Etsy. So if you want one, I would advise you head over there and purchase one of her excellent hoodies. But this was a super fun project to fill a Sunday morning whilst Chris was sleeping and feeling snotty.