World book day

World book day was not really going to be a day for which i intended to sew a costume. But last minute, I got the guilt about sending my child to school in an un-original store bought Gruffalo costume. So having previously made a broomstick and a wand so that my daughter could pretend to be the witch from Room on the Broom, we decided to make up the rest of the look. It may not look like much but i was frantically sewing until the night before. Maybe the most ridiculous part of it is that she only had to wear it for three hours, as she's at a part time nursery! Anyway, it will go with the rest of the dressing up clothes, so hopefully it gets some more use in the future. Here are the things i stitched.....A wand, a ginger plait with a clip in bow, a pointy black hat, a cape with broach and a polka dot skirt. And that skirt was entirely hand polka-dotted! Phew..its over, now back to the rest of my things.

Feather hairband

  This is a hair band I made for my daughter to wear to a friends Swan lake themed birthday party. I used tinted feathers and stitched them onto a small felt base that I made. I hot glued strips of sequin fabric carefully on top and then piled on Swarovski crystals to make it really sparkly. It was pretty quick to make and looked really cute. I love making hair bands for little girls, you can let your imagination go pretty wild...if you have a confident child that is! Its always quite handy to have a few hair bands in your supplies as they tend to be requested pretty last minute, or at least, they do in my family. These type of projects are great for using up left over scraps of fabric and odd beads, as pretty much anything goes. You don't have to be able to sew either. Most shop bought hair bands are 90% glued anyway. So get your random old buttons and odd bits and pieces at the ready and glue up something fabulous!

Fairy costumes

Almost 7 months ago, just after my youngest was born, I promised two little girls some fairy costumes. They loved the idea of being Tinkerbell ... In pink of course! I found an official Disney fairies pattern and they each chose which fairy they wanted to be. They each then chose their favourite shade of pink, at the fabric shop and we gathered all our materials. Lots of flammables, netting and polyester, oh how lovely!

Almost 6 months later and all I'd done was cut out the pieces! I thought I'd get a fair bit done, despite the new baby. He's an easy chap after all. But somehow it just didn't happen. With my sisters wedding looming and my list of work filling up.. I decided some late nights were in order. I had to get these done. There is nothing worse than unfinished work to clog up my conscience! My mother often mentions she's found another bag of something  unfinished lurking in her spare room. I can't do that any more. I get some kind of creative block if I haven't finished projects. It becomes hard to start something new or approach it with a clear head. Much like spring cleaning i suppose. Always good to start with a clean page.

So this project had to be stitched up to enable me to carry on. May not be the best fairy dresses you've ever seen and they are a size too big (just pre-empting my slowness!) but the girls seem happy. Will try to get a proper photo of each one soon.

(yes, that is my little boy, teasing out the layers of net. Diy, sewing, he's pretty handy with it all!)