Avert your eyes! Neon tutu tutorial

The brief was 'neon tutu' I think I nailed it don't you!

I love orange and pink together, I think its my favourite garish colour combo. I am desperately trying to decide whether put some orange back in my hair again, last time I got told I reminded people of a tutti frutti! Haha I don't think that's a bad thing do you?

Anyway, why have I made a neon tutu I hear you wondering? Why not? Honestly though there is a reason. I recently went to Leeds for a friends hen do, the theme was 80s and we were told we should be wearing neon and tutus! I did do the obvious and look on ebay for the cheap option but every time I looked at them I couldn't help think 'I'm not paying for that!' I didn't really have a plan beyond that though and by the time it was 3 days to go I realised I was a bit late to order one, there was no fancy dress shop near work and so I was just going to have to make it.

I did a bit of a search on the net for how to make tutu's but most of the results were for the no sew kind, and well I wanted to yes sew kind. I thought being as I just made up a process I would quickly type up how I did it whilst I show off the tutu in all its neon glory!

I bought one meter each of two different coloured cheap fancy dress nets from my local fabric shop (thank you My Fabric Place in Beeston) in these amazingly neon pink and orange colours. I then folder the fabric in half width wise and then in half again width wise and cut along the folds. This gave me 4 x 1 meter long pieces of both colours (8 pieces total).

Please note that I do have a small waist and whilst there is plenty of material here to make larger sizes if you want a bigger tutu, or in fact a fuller tutu you might want to consider buying 1.5 or 2 meters of each fabric colour.

Next I cut a piece of elastic which I measured to fit comfortably round my waist where I wanted it to sit (with a bit of stretch) and then added an inch for where it meets at the back. Make sure the elastic is not too stretched its uncomfortable but not so loose its not going to stay sat on your waist where you want it. I then marked the middle of the elastic with a pin.

I then lay 4 of the pieces of fabric on top of each other. I alternated mine so orange pink orange pink (have the colour you want facing out on top). You can of course do this however you like it, play about with the colours and see what works for you. You need to do the same with the remaining 4 pieces but keep these to one side we are going to be working on one half at once.

Next you need to attach the net to the elastic. You do this by making lots of large folds in the net and pinning it to the elastic. You don't need to stretch the elastic, but it might help if you do give it a little stretch as I did find my waistband didn't have much give. You want to put in enough folds that the piece extends just beyond the half way pin so there is a bit of an overlap.

Once you have done this with the first 4 pieces you then need to do the same with the second 4 pieces starting by overlapping where you left off and continuing to fold until the piece reaches the other end.

Finally you can get out your machine and using a zig zag stitch sew that bad boy down! take your time and make sure you catch all the layers.

Once you have done this overlap the two ends of the elastic and sew some tacking stitches to close the waist into a circle and that's it, time to twirl!

I did trim a couple of inches off the bottom of mine after I had stitched it as I preferred the shorter length, but you can choose whether you do this or not after trying it on.

 

It certainly is neon isn't it! I'm pretty sure I'm now at a point in my life where I am getting too old to wear outfits like this but regardless we had an amazing weekend away and had a great laugh (as well as some rather odd looks as we walked the streets in the day dressed in neon tutu's!). 

FYI, the matching bow I made using my Tulle Bow Tutorial

You have to excuse the lack of my face in these photos, I was a bit sleep deprived when I took them and my gaunt baggy eyes really didn't do these pictures any justice!

I hope this was a useful tutorial, or if not then a fun look into a crazy outfit! I do actually love this skirt, and I think its all to do with the colour. If only I had more occasions to dress like this!!

Have you ever made anything like this? Or bought one of those cheap ebay tutus? You should totally try making one, this one cost me £5, which was £1 less than ebay, and much nicer I think.

Now I want you to show me your crazy makes (or tutus) so I don't feel so silly!

DIY Clay Kitty Plant Pot

Come on.. admit you don't instantly want to make one of these yourself now? I knew you would! 

I wanted to get a couple of plants for the new kitchen, and one for my new office desk, but just wasn't too inspired by the plant pots they come in, or ones you can buy. I mean why doesn't your local DIY store carry Kitty plant pots? Silly people. 

I have had an inkling to play with some air dry clay for a little while now, especially as I knew I would be without the sewing machine for a while. I got quiet a lot of the inspiration to have a go at this from our recent trip to Rhodes. All the white houses and churches amongst the green landscapes were really pretty. I then thought about the types of shapes which would lend themselves well to a plantpot, and added my own little quirky style and this is what we got. I will admit that (close up) this first attempt does look like someone gave a 5 year old a lump of clay... give it a go, see if your 5 year olds can do better then me! but I am pleased with the overall shape of it. It also looks a lot better after a layer of paint, but there are definitely some things I would do better next time. But its still really cute and so I don't really care about any of this!

How to make a clay kitty plant pot: 

1. Get some air dry clay. This will be available in your local craft stores. You can buy white clay so you don't need to give it a layer of paint, but any colour will be fine.
2. Take a lump of clay and start hollowing it out into a sort of bowl shape. You can use an old plant pot or bowl (or even a plastic pop bottle) to help get the shape you want if needed. Make sure to try and keep all sides quiet even in thickness, and no area to thin. Also make sure there are no holes... add more clay to these areas if you need. 
3. On one side pull the clay up at the top to form two pointed kitty ears. You can add an extra bit of clay to form these bits, but remember you will need to make sure they are smoothed into the base if you do it this way so they don't fall off.
4. Using a soft paintbrush and some water smooth out the lines and finger prints from the outside of your pot (the step I skipped!)
5. Leave your pot to dry - this can take anything from 24-48 hours depending on the size, but I would leave it a few days to be sure.
6. Paint your pot with some white (or any other colour) acrylic paint and leave this to dry.
7. Using a pencil first draw on your kitty face then go over this with black acrylic paint and leave to dry
8. Pot up your plant and admire your handy work.

 My advice would be to plant up some sort of cactus or other non thirsty plant as the clay will likely soak up a bit of the water. You want something which doesn't require too much watering. 

Please do send me a link to your pots, I would really really like to see these. Two of my favourite things in one... DIY and gardening <3

The Ava Sweetheart Neckline

What could be more romantic than a sweetheart neckline review on Valentines! I had a lot of trouble understanding the instructions for joining the two neckline pieces on the Ava by Victory patterns instructions. Its not that they are badly written, just as a new sewer it completely baffled me. I also know from when I tried to search the internet for help that it had stumped a few others as well. Since I have now done this 6 times I decided it might be helpful to visually describe how I did it. Please excuse the fabric choices and bad darts, I am using one of my toiles as my example.

Firstly, the picture on the pattern shows you attaching from the right first, I couldn't comprehend sewing this way so I started on the left.

Starting in the middle, first don't forget  to snip the middle of the neck, this helps A LOT. you need to be careful not to go too far, but you can snip a little and cut a but more away later. on the top bodice piece identify the middle of the point, 5/8 in from the point (luckily for me, this is about at that dot) then pin this exact point 5/8 from the center of the lower bodice under the snip. use the pin to mark out that spot (you could make a mark using tailors chalk or similar). Pin the top and bottom bodice pieces together at the edges working from the center to the left edge.

Now, from the left edge, sew towards the center 5/8 from the edge until you get to the pin/marker in the middle of the neckline. Make sure the needle is down and lift the presser foot.

You now need to pivot the whole lot, so the bottom bodice is lined up with the 5/8 marker on your machine ready to sew. This is where the snip comes in handy. If you find this difficult to pivot then try making the snip slightly longer, but not too close to the needle. Then, you need to pivot the top bodice piece so it lines up. You will notice it gathers a lot in the middle (see above) that's fine. At this point I found it easier to pin by lining up the right hand armhole edge and working in towards the needle in the center. Make sure that there is no fabric being pinched together under the needle (just give it a quick pull/stretch with your hand) pop the foot down and sew to the other edge. 

You can see that there is a lot of the top bodice fabric gathered in the middle underneath but this doesn't matter as it will all get tidied up when you trim the seam allowance and top stitch it down later on. 

And fingers crossed you end up with a nice, smooth, unpuckered sweetheart neckline. Now give yourself a pat on the back, breathe, make a cuppa, and get on with the rest of the pattern.