Broken Girls Club

For the past few weeks I've been doing some sewing work for Hollie from Broken Girls Club. It's a fun label that she's put together that has a right mix of gear. I met Holllie when I did a small sewing job for her through the tshirt printing company I sometimes work for. She got in touch and I ended up customising some tshirts for her.

Since then I've constantly had some of her work on the go! She gave me a pile of cut off denim shorts with pinned on bits of fabric which looked like an exciting prospect and this is the result!! I'm quite inspired to get the old tye dye out tbh.

 I hope they sell well on her site, they're super fun to customise!

The past week I've been on a dress making kick. One evening Hollie popped over and had a good rumage through the pile of vintage patterns that I have in that suitcase. She chose an awesome design and I got to make one of the prettiest dresses ever!! hehe

She's left a bin bag full of curtains to make lots more in the same design. I'll take photos as I do them and of course share with you guys!

The Mushroom Footstool!

For my dear ol' boyfriend's 30th birthday a few weeks ago I decided to make him a toadstool footstool. It's an idea that I've been wanting to make for ages but this just seemed like the apt moment! It took about 4 evenings but over the space of about a month - I was keeping it secret and only really had a chance to do work on it when he'd gone out!

It stands about 20" high and is filled with about 1 1/4kg of toy stuffing rammed firmly inside! I put a circle of cardboard in the bottom too so it has a good flat base. Its also crochet out of robin chunky knit wool.

His face was a delight when I finally gave it to him! I'm glad, as I'm super proud of myself for making the pattern up and just the scale - it's definitely my biggest crochet piece to date!

As you can probably tell from the photos, I've made it up in the round just increasing my stitches until I felt it was big enough. I was surprised how easy it was to do (although had to use the stitch counter religiously!). So far I've only put 4 spots on it, one big un and the rest are the same size, not sure whether to do some smaller ones as well. It is looking a tad Mario at the moment - this wasn't intentional! Would love to know what people think.

Amazing Gifts

You always meet such a wide variety of amazing people when you do stalls at craft fairs. You don't always get amazing people like my new buddy Val who give you piles of stuff! Val's mother had been a serious dressmaker and knitter and having passed away not too long ago, she was left with all her craft stuff. Thankfully I have been the lucky receiver of all the amazing things her mother collected over the years!

A whole vintage suitcase full of vintage 50's/60's/70's dress patterns. Most are still in a fantastic condition and there are some great styles!

A sewing tin full of vintage tape measures, lots of needles and pins, tailors chalk and a tracing wheel and more hooks and eyes than I could possibly ever use in my life time!

Two whole buttons tins, I was fizzing over the top of the glass when I found these bad boys! There was also another carrier bag full of buttons that she'd sorted into colour and design!

And a whole another vintage suitcase filled with trimmings, bias binding, ribbons and zips! Talk about 7th heaven! I'd asked Val if she wanted the suitcases back but her reply was to chuck them down the tip!! I don't think she realises I've got quite a collection of vintage suitcases and vanity cases and these two are just as good as the contents hehe.

Folksy Shop

Hey I just wanted to share that I've been hiding in my bed for the past two weeks as I've been mega ill, but yesterday I took some photos so tody I've been listing my most recent crafts on my Folksy page which you can check out here

I've got lots of things to share over the next few weeks I've started lots of projects that just need last little finishing touches before I share.

Snapped Up

Sunday was a corker! We had so much fun down at the Printhaus with the Snapped Up market. I had a stall selling some of my crafty makes, purses, jewellery and crochet plush and then also was running a small have a go printing your own bandana workshop. The morning started off slowly but the weather was beautiful and daylight savings and all that jazz. It was really busy by mid afternoon especially the print your own teshirt stall!

Check out some pics from the day

The next market day is going to be in the summer, the plan is to have the theme as music as Tom's buliding a stage there for SWN festival soon and we thought we could have a little Snapped Up music festival!

I thought i'd also tag on the end a sneak peak of my pieces for the 50/50 Affordable Art Show that's on tomorrow night in the Undertone in Cardiff from 19.30.

These are 2 that I'm quite proud of and can't wait to see them up in the show!



Aprons and Something for the weekend!!

I made a couple of aprons for my friend Kirsty, so I thought I'd share :)

Please dont judge the chaos that is my work room atm! lol!

If you're out and about in Cardiff on Sunday then come along to the Printhaus where we're running a big open day!

Event - Snapped Up Market 5

Theme – Cowboys & indians

Location -The PrintHaus Workshops, 70A Llandaff Rd, Canton, Cardiff, CF11 9NL

Date – Sunday March 25^th 2012

Time - 12-6pm

Free entry

British summer time starts here, with another installment of Snapped-Up Market with a Cowboy and Indian themed activity day. All your favorite stallholders and loads of fun for all the family!

T-shirt printing - All your favorite rooting tooting designs ready to adorn a t-shirt of your choice!

Etching Press - Plenty of fun to have making cards or postcards for your loved ones!

Fabric Printing - Print your very own bandana, just make sure its not used for a stagecoach heist!

Kids Table - Big man Dan Mitchell will be hosting the Kids Table, Creating pretty much whatever he's told!

Tea, Coffee & Cake - and other refreshments will be available all day.

I'm running the print your own bandana stall which is going to be a blast!! I've made 2 different designs that people can choose from and I'm currently working on a tshirt design too! My friend James Reed has done a tee design too which you can check out here

But for now here's my designs to get you excited hehe!

Super looking forward to printing these bad boys!! Dont worry I'm gonna blog like crazy about it at the weekend!

India travels and a little robot fella

So the lack of blogging has been down to the fact that I've been away in India!! I went to the Tamil Nadu region to do some volunteering for the Safe Foundation. (If you click the link you can see the project I was working on ).

I got to do some great crafty work with local gypsy women who make amazing bead work purses and jewellery. I was sent over to try and share my crafty recycling knowledge and ended up trying to share how to create various things out of plastic bottles!

I did a little talk for a group of teachers too, so we could maybe set up a project teaching local kids about recycling!

One of the most amazing toys I think I've ever seen!!

Did enjoy a bit of intestine ripping at a roadside temple! I love the colours, everything is so sun-bleached and dusty but is really vivid.

Saw soo many elephants too!

Since I've been back I haven't had much time for making, but I did manage to squeeze this little fella out ;) for my friend Chris' birthday. I had a book given to me few years ago called Crobots and decided to take some inspiration from it but design my own! He's only about 4" tall but super cute.

I'm also feeling quite inspired and ready for spring after seeing this super kawaii little shoe display in River Island. Now those who know me, know that I ain't much of a heel wearer, but I could be convinced with either if these paired with the frilly socks! yum yum!