A Flock of Feathery Hens!

Remember me telling you I was going to a hen do? Well do you like my sparkly feather hairpiece? Our Bride to be picked the theme 'Feathers a Corsets' for her evening out, feathers of course being a very appropriate theme for a hen do. Sadly I don't think I even noticed the pun until just now! So being as a can't wear a corset (apparently its frowned upon to squash your growing baby) I thought I should mark the occasion by making every effort to don a feathery hairpiece.

Now these are one of my current favourite things on Etsy at the moment: Feather Ear Cuffs. They are just incredible, the only problem is my favourite are the pink and orange and well they were just going to get lost in my hair.

(Excuse the terrible selfie!) 

To add to that, sadly it turns out I was quiet poor last month, or I spent too much, so I couldn't justify the pennies to buy one for myself and instead I set to trying to make something out of the things I had y'know, just lying about. Armed with a glue gun, two types of black feather, some black felt, and old hair clip and some of my favourite sparkly fabric I managed to knock this little gem up in less than half an hour. 

I started out by cutting a piece of felt and a piece of glitter fabric into a heart shape. Then using the glue gun I glue glue glued the feathers onto the felt piece and then glued the glitter piece to the top making sure the edges were all sealed. The final job was to just spot glue a clip onto the back and voila. 

I am really pleased with how it came out, its a great little fascinator and it made me feel ever so glamorous, which is hard when your pregnant and in a constant feeling of frump. I also love it when a little whimsy project comes together so well. Of course we all know it doesn't always go that way 9/10 those little spur of the moment craft projects normally end up looking like something a 5 year old made, but occasionally you can surprise yourself. 

But that is not the end of it, no. Our lovely Bride to be decided to make everyone a little feathery gift of their own to wear on the night so we could all match. Check out how gorgeous this little feather brooch is. I love the colour and its just so delicate. Simple yet perfect and a great little momento from the evening. She made some with wire and beads, some as hair pins and some as brooches. A very talented young lady she is. 

Have you ever made any feathered accessories, or would you like to tell me all about your spur of the moment successes (or failures)? Please feel free to share the love. 

Have you ever made any feathered accessories, or would you like to tell me all about your spur of the moment successes (or failures)? Please feel free to share the love.

Crochet Baby Bear Hat

Who's been sleeping in my bed...? No one at the moment but it won't be long I'm sure till we have a tiny person trying to hog the covers as well as Mr Fox! 

Not having the craft room hasn't been a total disaster, I have managed to crochet this awesome little baby bear hat. Anyone that knows me will easily be able to tell you that my child is going to be nearly permanently in some fancy dress or another! You can't wait can you!

It's still a couple of weeks till we find out the sex so I am still trying to craft neutral, Bears are a great way to cover this even if brown is not exactly my favourite colour. 

The main body of the hat was crocheted using the following Velvet Acorn pattern. The face was self drafted from felt pieces and sewn on with a blanket stitch. Finally the ears were self drafted. I did start off with two giant pom poms for ears but they didn't quiet look right so I made up a new set. 

Using the same wool and hook as the main pattern (you will have to purchase it for that info):

Make a magic loop and sc 5 times into the loop, do not join

Turning the work 2sc in each stitch around (10 sc), do not join

Turning the work sc in each stitch until you reach the last one (9sc), slip stitch, fasten off.

You then just need to sew them on to the body. I don't think mine are quiet equal but meh!

In other news: The Kitchen fiasco continues, we can't get a worktop for 2 weeks so they have had to put in a temporary fix and then they will come back and finish it off. Not ideal, but at least I can use the kitchen for now. We had a major storm, I should not have been laughing at us not flooding at the top of a hill, the garage was underwater, though nothing major so we are counting ourselves very lucky. Also Mr Fox bought a Harley! I am a little gutted I can't have a go until next year but I am really pleased for him, he was so happy!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. p.s. if you have any cute animal baby makes to send my way for trying please do... I probably won't be able to resist.

Fit for a King (or Queen) Crown Tutorial

 

You will hopefully member my felt crown post here; well here is the long awaited tutorial and PDF so you can make your very own! 

You will need:

• Your pattern which can be downloaded here
• Some felt in main colour (yellow or grey are good crown colours but don't limit yourselves)
• Scrap felt pieces in either 3 or 5 colours
• Thread to match your main felt colour
• Interfacing
• Scissors
• Some Velcro, or poppers if preferred

Step 1. Cut out two pieces from the template on the fold using your main felt colour. You will also need to cut one piece in the interfacing.  On one of the felt pieces you will need to trace and cut out the holes, this will be the front piece and the one without the holes the back piece. Now attach the interfacing to the back piece. Be careful not to melt acrylic felt with the iron if using iron on interfacing. Sew in facing will work fine.

Step 2. Using I you scrap felt cut out 5 squares big enough to cover the holes and leave a bit of seam allowance. 

 

Step 3. Carefully top stitch around the edge of the circle on the front of the crown making sure to catch the scrap on the underside. You will now be able to see the colour of the scrap piece through the front of the crown like a little sparkling gem. 

 

Step 4. Place the front and back crown pieces together with the right sides facing out and the interfacing and scraps on the inside. Top stitch all the way around the outside of the crown piece to secure the front and back together.

Step 6. You might now find that your edges aren't totally aligned. Not a problem, just take a good pair of scissors and trim the edges so there are no uneven sides.

Step 7. Sew your Velcro to the tabs at the end with one piece on the inside and one on the outside so when they are out together you get a flush circle. I would recommend hand sewing these on so you can't see the stitches on the other side.

And that's it. Now you can give the crown to your little prince or princess who can happily play dress up. Please note that I have a tiny head and this doesn't fit on mine. If you need to make the crown a bit bigger my suggestion would be to increase the size of the end tab to 4 inches to allow for more head to go inside :) 

Thank you very much for visiting, show me pictures of your crowns when they are done. I would like to see the different colour combinations people go for. 

The Craft of Christmas Past

Are you still in the festive spirit? I know I am.

We might be past the official event now, but with a lot of us, including the kids, still on holidays and the chimes of New Year in the not to distant future I thought we could have one more quick post before we start trying to make those resolutions. 

I made a couple of quick items of festive headwear just before the last day of work. A tiny tiny elf hat out of felt (above) which is attached to a hair clip to make it great for wearing at a a jaunty angle. I also made some reindeer antlers on a headband to match my Christmas jumper. The headband is just some fleece antlers stuck on to a headband. I did try to wrap the headband in felt and glue it down but this just didn't work well for me. Instead I decided to wrap it in wool to cover up the mess underneath. This technique would work well for other headband ideas.

I have officially scrapped the Sewing Bee tunic, the instructions in the book are stupid and I have done too much seam ripping to selvidge this now. Instead I am attempting to make myself a pretty new frock for New Years. Fingers crossed it all goes to plan. 

The Velvet Acorn Knitted Hat

Are you feeling the cold as much as I am? There is a chill in the air now, and we have even had a few frosty mornings here in the UK, so its definitely time to get the hats, scarves and gloves out.

I recently purchased a PDF pattern from The Velvet Acorn on Etsy for a chunky knitted woolly hat. You should check out her shop though, there are some amazing patterns in there, not least a knitted fox cowl pattern which is incredible (I just don't think I would wear it myself, maybe I should think about it as a Christmas gift for nephew Fox) Can you think of anyone this would be suited to? Anyway, here is the hat I knitted for myself:

What do you think, did I make the pom pom big enough? 

I had to knit it in toddler size, because I have such a stupidly small head, but my guess would be the sizes are true as it was too small for Chris's head. It was a very simple knit, and pretty quick because of how chunky the wool is. The instructions on the pattern were also very straight forward and easy to follow. The pattern includes some Mitts so I may knit these up quickly at some point with the leftover wool.

Has anyone else gone straight for the knitting needles now its cold outside? I would love to hear what you have been knitting.