A Happy Festive Wren

Before we get into this post I want to tell you to keep reading as I have something exciting to tell you at the end!

So lets get into it by saying hi, and a big welcome to 2017! I'm not going to start out the year with a big rundown of everything I made last year (I think I have hashed that stuff out enough on here) nor am I going to do any plans for the year ahead. Instead we are just going to show off a simple sew which I quickly knocked together when I had an urge for a new festive outfit.

For me 2016 trailed off a bit with both with the sewing and the blogging. I have to admit I really lost my mojo there for a while, so its nice to start off the year by celebrating something made. Hopefully I can keep it up as much as possible in 2017.

About the dress then. Its the fitted version of Colette's Wren dress made using a gold studded Ponte Roma fabric which I got online from Fabric Godmother. Sadly I think I bought up the last of this fabric but its really lovely, I love how the gold spots are actually raised on the fabric, it gives it a real festive glitz appeal. Its hard to tell in this picture but I will see if I can get an image of them in later.

Generally speaking this was a really quick sew, I cut it out and stitched it together in 2 short evenings which is pretty good going. The fabric did fight me a little, my machine definitely did not like those little raised bobbles going into the feed dogs under the presser foot. I also had a massive issue with skipped stitches using my twin needle which I could not manage to rectify. In the end I just gave up and used a straightforward zigzag stitch. The fabric is so stable that this hasn't been an issue at all and you really cant see the stitching.

I made the same fitting adjustments on this dress as I did with my last version of Wren (cutting the front pieces on the fold, and doing a FBA). The FBA is definitely needed for me, it could maybe even do with a bit more as it still gapes in the armholes a little bit, something I didn't notice on the last version as it has the sleeves. I cut the bottom half in a straight size 4. I do think its a little on the clingy side so I might want to consider drafting out to a 6 in the hips but the fabric is lovely and stretchy so I think I have got away with it. The dress was also made, and worn, before the Xmas food blow out, so I think it probably fitted me a bit better a fortnight ago!

Sewing this up in such a rush I have misaligned the top and bottom front pieces when sewing them together, which is I think what is causing the pull you can see under the bust. It hasn't stopped me wearing it though, you would only notice if you really inspected it, and I hope no one is inspecing my bust that closely in public anyway!!

Moving on to something completely different, I am sure you haven't failed to notice the shoes. Santa (A.K.A. Mr Fox) was very generous and bought me this beautiful pair of irregular choice shoes for Xmas. I have been eyeing these up for a very long time, I mean whats not to love, they are pink ombre glitter heels! They are so completely impractical and I don't attend near enough special occasions to justify them but they are so pretty! I suppose I best get finding excuses to go out more.

So, finally on to the exciting news, you may have already been able to guess, but I was really trying to suck it in in the earlier pictures. The Fox family will be welcoming a new little fox cub in the summer :). We are very excited, happy and looking forward to meeting the little person. I hope that Master Fox enjoys becoming a big brother and I can't wait to find out what kind it will be in a couple of months. So that means lots more sleepless nights for us, dirty nappies and of course baby sewing!

I hope you all had a lovely festive break and I can't wait to hear from you and share the exciting year ahead x.

Major News Alert! (and Simplicity 1710)

Have you managed to guess what the major news is yet? For those of you who read my blog and know me in real life I apologise for the old news, but for those readers who don't know me, you guessed it, we made a Fox cub! You know how much we like to make stuff around here, well now we are making a person as well.

Of course I wouldn't be me unless I made this little announcement to the internets in the form of craft would I, so I introduce to you Simplicity 1710.

As soon as I found out the news of course I started searching for some sewing patterns and this one just couldn't be resisted. I have had the pattern for weeks but I didn't want to jinx anything. However as we are now out of the major danger zone I think we are probably ok to start crafting now (and crafting we will!).

The pattern pack has a lot of cute options, but we love cats in this house so it had to be the kitty booties, there was no question really. The pattern pieces are nicely sized to fit on a single piece of felt which is very helpful. Although the pattern is really straight forward these did feel like they took an age to make! I am really happy with them though, they are so cute!! I think its just that there is a lot of fiddly bits with machine sewing the faces on, but it was just time consuming, not difficult.

So you will now see why there has been a lot less garment sewing going on. This is mainly because I don't want to put my heart and soul into making something which will only fit me for a couple of weeks (and I am already out of most of my normal sized clothes unless they are made with plenty of stretch!). I do hope to be able to get on to some maternity sewing, but again, I am not quiet the right size for that either yet so I can't really test it out for fit. Watch this space though.

This does of course mean the blog will take a bit more of a turn towards crafting for babies/toddlers etc. I hope that's OK with you, personally I can't wait! I have always been drawn to crafting in bright colours and things so I can't wait to get my creative juices flowing.

I also need to get on the look out for some more kiddie craft blogs for my feedly so if you have any great suggestions let me know :)

And here is a little picture of the bubba for those more interested in babies than shoes...

DIY Glitter Bow Clips Tutorial

Look Look! A tutorial using all of my favourite things: Glitter, Bows and Shoes Clips!!! For me this literally couldn't  get better (well I could have chosen pink, but sometimes its nice to be different). You could make a pair of these bad boys in just a few minutes if you follow my instructions below:

You will need: 

• A sheet of A4 glitter fabric (I got mine from ebay and here)
• Shoe clip blanks (ebay)
• A pair of skissors
• Glue gun

First of all cut out 4 pieces from your glitter fabric. Two pieces measuring 2.5 x 1.5 inches and two pieces measuring 2.5 x 0.5inches (as above)

.1. Fold one of your larger pieces in half along the length with the glitter on the inside.

 

2. Then fold the tops down towards the outside in half again, pinching in the middle (it looks like a bow already... does a little jig). Its a bit like a concertina or fan.

3. Wrap one of the smaller pieces around the bunched up middle, with the ends at the bottom, and secure with a blob from your glue gun.

4. Using the glue gun, glue the shoe clips to the underside of the centre piece as above and your done! I honestly didn't manage this stage once without getting completely stuck to the glue and getting stringy glue gun bits everywhere but the stringy bits come off so its not a problem if this happens to you as well.

You can round of the edges with a pair of skissors at this stage if you would prefer them to be a bit smoother. Personally I don't have a preference as to which is best, they look great either way.  

5. Now repeat with the other two pieces to make a pair and clip em on your favourite pair of shoes... and then make some more because that was so easy and you need a pair of these in every colour and so do all your friends!

 

If you make a pair of these I would love to see them, so leave me a link below. Also, don't forget these would not be limited to shoe clips. You could make brooches, hair clips, all sorts using the same method but different findings so let me know if you come up with any good uses for this template. 

Tulle Pom Pom Shoe Clips

Check me out! I have clown noses on my shoes! I am sure I have told everyone this already but in case you didn't know my new favourite accessory is a shoe clip. I love how you can brighten up any pair of shoes and make one pair look different every day of the week. 

These little lovelies are made from some thin tulle which I had left over from the wedding decorations which I wrapped around some card (the same way as you make woolly pom poms) with a shoe clip glued to the back of each one. Mr Fox did tell me I looked a bit like a Jester before I left for work this morning, but do we care? No of course we don't, it's bringing me a little bit of joy on a dreary Monday morning. 

Do you own any show clips, or have a favourite accessory that might overtake these? Let me know. I also encourage you to make some of these yourself for a bit of a chuckle xx

Post Wedding Round Up: The DIY Glittery Shoes!

I am finally able to start blogging some of the DIY craft done for the wedding, I'm so excited to be able to show you now that I have some decent professional photo's thanks to our fabulous wedding photographer Ed Godden.

You will all remember the DIY Glitter Shoes tutorial that I posted a couple of months ago. Well not only did we glitter my shoes but we also glittered the bridesmaids shoes. The idea was that they could pick the style of shoe they wanted and then they would end up matching as we used the same glitter on them all. They turned out fantastic don't you think? I am so pleased with them and they matched the dresses so perfectly.

The Glitter on my shoes was a very chunky nail art glitter with large heart shapes in. This created a lovely effect, but the finish was not particularly smooth. The blue on the other hand was an extra fine glitter which produced a much smoother sheen with a more professional finish. Which do you prefer? I really can't make my mind up!

Next up I want to show you the DIY Bouquets, they were so much fun to make, and so simple. I know, I know, you want to see the dresses and what we actually looked like. I hear you don't worry but I wanted to show you the elements before I put them all together. It will all come along very soon I promise, so watch this space.

Shoes and Glitter, What more does a girl need?

So in 4 weeks I will be Mrs Fox, Exciting! I have been trying for a number of years to find the best way to publicise my crafting obsession, and have always been stumbled by the fact that I can't EVER stick to just one craft, and so specialising for me is really hard. However, one thing I have learnt about myself on the journey to crafting my wedding is why try! There are so many wonderful ideas out there, craft tutorials, pinterest boards, blog posts, everything. So the DIY Fox is born. My vision is to show you what I have been up to, with tutorials as often as possible, links to tutorials I have found this week, favourite sites, and reviews or 'try it myself' anecdotes from tutorials from all the other talented visionaries already out there. I will try to, from time to time, have a Fox related theme, but for now GLITTER!

I so want glitter shoes for my wedding, but I have been struggling to find the 'perfect' pair in the style and colour I wanted for a reasonable price. So I decided why not D.I.Y. There are so many tutorials and videos out there for how to do this, but I wanted to quickly run through mine with you. Firstly, because most of the tutorials I found were American (Modge Podge to us is just simply PVA, or School glue), and secondly to show you how pretty they are.

So here we go:

1: First you will need a pair of heels: new, old, borrowed (probably best not!) just make sure they are clean, and its probably not going to work so well on anything suede/fabric. Patent or leather are likely going to work best.

2. Gather all your supplies. You will need:

Shoes

PVA Glue (or Modge Podge if you are reading this from over the waters)

Some kind of brush or sponge

Glitter

Newspaper

(optional: tissue paper for stuffing inside the shoe to stop glitter getting inside, masking tape)

3. Using your glue and brush, cover an area of the shoe in the glue. You will likely want to work in smaller sections to make sure the glue doesn't dry out, but you can put the glue over the glitter so there will be no gaps. If there are any areas you specifically don't want to get glitter on you might want to masking tape these areas.

4. Carefully sprinkle your glitter over the area covered in glue, making sure that any spare glitter lands on the newspaper. Repeat the last two stages until you have covered the desired areas in glitter and leave to dry completely. You may find you need to tip some of the glitter from the newspaper back into a tub to re-use. This is easily done by just folding the paper in half and tipping down the crease. 

5. The final stage is to cover all the glittered areas with a clear sealer. This is a picture of the one I used which I was able to buy from the internet. It is a clear Acrylic spray which dries with a gloss finish. Spray this over all the glitter and leave shoes to dry. This will stop your glue from chipping, your glitter from getting everywhere and also helps to waterproof them. 

And finally - TA DA!!! prance around in your super glittery shoes whilst trying to find as many items around the house that you can also cover in glitter! 

I hope you enjoyed the first instalment of The DIY Fox. I hope to see you soon.