...making corsages (part 2)

Here it is everyone - the much-anticipated follow up to my first "...making corsages" post, "...making corsages (part 2).

They're back...and this time they're made of wool!!

Those of you who have read my earlier post, which focused primarily on the fabric corsage family, will already be familiar with my slight obsession with corsages. These little babies here were inspired by the knitted corsage recipe in this fantastic book. Everything in this book is amazing (there are endless gorgeous and original projects which are very easy to follow and beautifully presented) but I was particularly excited to find a new method of making corsages - knitting them!

Given that my knitting exploits have not yet advanced beyond a trusty scarf (albeit the biggest scarf in the north east of England) and one pair of leg-warmers, I was slightly nervous about tackling something which looked so intricate. However, I am pleased to report that this knitting recipe was jargon-free enough for even the most inexperienced knitter to understand and it produced an end product which actually resembled the beatiful chenille corsage pictured in the book. Bonus!

So pleased was I with the result of my beige wool corsage (with crystal sparkles) that I immediately set to work on a second one, this time in a metallic red wool.

Not even the heckle from Mr Kat's friend of "What exactly are you knitting? Another ball of wool?" could dampen my sense of achievement after finishing these little lovelies. That said, I'm not sure I'll be revisiting my knitting needles again any time soon - I end up with really achy hands after gripping the needles for too long. I suspect my technique may not be up to scratch - must seek the advice of older learned knitters such as my Grandma.

Now finally for a small update on the clutch bag front - with just two weeks to go until the big day, I may finally have found my pattern of choice. I think I shall attempt a prototype this weekend and, all being well, will work on the finished article next week.

Until then!

X

...new cars and broken cars

No pretty picture today I'm afraid - mainly because the only picture which could possibly be appropriate given today's turn of events would be a picture of my slightly wonky looking car or a picture of my very sad face, neither of which are going to inspire that Friday Feeling in anyone!

The reason for the sad face is that, in the same week that I win the Lottery Bonus Ball draw at work (£96!!) and my little brother buys his first car, I discover that a fairly minor (so I thought) 'bump' into a kerb last week may have left me with quite a significant and costly amount of damage. After a few days of fairly persistent - but not too alarming - squeaky brake noises, I decided to take my little car into the local garage for the car doctor to take a look at. Expecting nothing more than some minor alignment issues and a bit of brake dust, I was rather taken aback to discover that I have a "big problem" and that "the steering really shouldn't do that, you know".......actually, no, I didn't know. Turns out I've been merrily driving my car all around the North East of England without the faintest suspicion that there was anything wrong with it despite the fact that - "now you mention it..." - there is a slight pull to the left when I'm driving and the front passenger side tyre does look a bit wonky. Fast-forward a few days and I'm now being advised to take her to a bodyshop garage asap and that my "big problem" aint gonna be cheap to fix!

Poo pants!

Why does life always seem to throw up these crazy symmetries? I just wanted to be able to celebrate the day my brother buys his very first car, and perhaps treat myself to a few creamcakes with my little windfall, and now I'm going to spend the day sulking petulantly about all the money I'm about to fritter down the drain just because I couldn't park next to the kerb like a normal person!

Aaaaaaaand........relax.

If anyone else has some horrendous car tales, please do share them. I would take great comfort in knowing that I'm not the only person who seems to spend more money repairing her car than actually running it!

Time for me to slink off into a darkened room for a few hours. When I return, I will bring tales of colour and sparkle and joy!!

Thank you for listening.

X X X

P.s. I hope you're all having a truly Fantastic Friday and looking forward to a blazing hot weekend of BBQs and trips to the seaside!

P.p.s. I do realise that this is not a huge problem in the grand scheme of things. I really do. But, for now, I could definitely weep a little at my own misfortune (stupidity).

...Antipasti!

One good thing about Mr Kat going to Glastonbury (and they're aren't many - sniff....) is that I get to stock up the fridge with all kinds of wonderful and indulgent non-vegetarian treats. It's not that my semi-vegetarian diet causes me any great hardship - I'm actually quite fussy about meat products these days anyway - it's just that, as an all-round appreciator of food, it's nice to be able to eat exactly what I fancy once in a while, meat or no meat. And so this is exactly what I did last night. Sitting on my back step in the sunshine, I devoured the biggest plate of parma ham, olives and mozzarella cheese I think I've ever seen. 'Twas bellisimo!

The only thing to hamper my al fresco dinner was the sight (and faint smell) of a wheelie bin approximately 3 ft from my dinner plate (we have a very small back yard). However, this is something I am hoping to attend to over the course of this Summer. There's not much I can do about the size of the yard, but I have many grand plans for prettifying it up a bit. This is going to involve lots of pots, brimming over with bright colourful flowers, a couple of small troughs for Mr Kat's vegetable selection, a spot of decking to cover the rather grim-looking exposed manhole cover in the corner of the yard, a nice wheelie bin store to disguise our ugly old wheelie bin and a lovely new table and chair set, which I hope to adorn with all kinds of beautiful handmade things (a nice tablecloth and napkin set might be a good place to start).

We moved into the house last September and, what with the unpredictable British weather and the mountain of other jobs that we needed to do around the house, the yard has pretty much been ignored until now - I can't wait to get stuck into it! I'm going to try and keep a photographic record of our progress (something that I wish I'd done more of in relation to the house itself) and will post some pictures when they're available.

In the meantime, I will continue to eat my dinner off my knee on the back step in the sunshine and just try to ignore the big green monstrosity which lurks in the corner......

X X

...pretty things for my hair

Happy Monday one and all!

I can't believe I've left it so long to make another post - time really does fly by in Blogland doesn't it! It seems I am constantly thinking about new projects I want to try and lovely things that I want to tell you about and yet, try as I may, they never seem to make it into a post as soon as I would like them to. Darned life getting in the way again.

This week's distractions have included:-

1. Helping my younger brother to find his first car, including assisting in test-driving duties (it's quite scary for a brand new driver to go out onto an actual road at actual rush hour with an actual stranger sitting next to him - so I agreed to do the honours, with him closely monitoring any ominous-sounding rattles and squeaks from the back seat)

2. Going out for fantastic World Cup-avoidance drinks with friends on Friday night. Unfortunately, the only thing which equalled the brilliance of the evening's festivities was the brilliance of my subsequent hangover. This completely obliterated my Saturday.

3. Taking part in the Midnight Walk (a 10km fundraising walk starting at, you guessed it, midnight). Said walk took place on Saturday night/Sunday morning and actually nearly killed me. Never again will I drink to such excess and then attempt to participate in a 90 minute hike the following night.

4. Assisting Mr Kat with Glastonbury preparations - although, in fairness, this mainly involved lending him a backpack and dropping him off at the bus stop. Can't really use this as an excuse for anything. I reeeeeaaally wish I was going with him this year. Nowhere near as much as I wished I was there last year mind, when Bruce Springsteen tore the place apart with a display of pure rock magnificence- the man's a pro.

Anyway, I am determined to continue in my quest to become an Ultimate Blogger, and to try and avoid taking on too many other things which may detract my time and attention away from more creative pursuits.

The most recent of my creative pursuits are show in the picture above. I recently stumbled upon this wonderful blog and found a very crafty way to combine my love of all things flowery with my love of good grooming. Actually, that last bit is a complete lie - truth be told, my hair is usually somewhere between 'devil-may-care unkempt' and 'atrocious mess'. However, that's not to say I don't appreciate a good hair accessory when I see one and these beautiful handmade barrettes instantly piqued my imagination. Aren't they gorgeous?

So, with my collection of fabric scraps laid out before me, I decided to have a go at making my very own rose hair accessories. I currently have no felt in my collection so I plumped for some scraps of cotton instead. To try and make the cotton as rigid as possible, I decided to cut out two of everything from the pattern and stitch the two pieces together (right sides out) with a piece of interfacing in between them. Once I had all my stitched together pieces in front of me, I set about building them into a rose as so expertly illustrated by the Purl Bee.

My 'stitched-together' approach lends quite a shabby-chic feel to the end product, one which I actually quite like. I also slightly adapted the pattern by gluing a nice round bead in the centre of the rose.

I attached my first rose to a barrette...

And my second to a hair bobble...(is there a more grown-up name for hair bobble, does anyone know? Hair elastic perhaps...?)

I was quite pleased with these when I finished them and would definitely like to have a go at the original felt version once I have replenished my stock.

But for now, its back to my blessed clutch bag conundrum. What to do, what to do......

X

...making a clutch bag

A very good friend of mine is getting married in July and I shall be proudly taking on the role of bridesmaid for the second summer in a row (she says smugly). Now, although this is of course a very lovely thing, it does throw up some very important questions:-

1. Shall I attempt to make a wedding gift for my friend and her husband-to-be and, if so, what? (Perhaps I should have been asking myself this question a bit sooner than four weeks before the wedding date.......probably a bit late now to be coming up with any grand ideas for a handmade wedding quilt.)

2. Where am I to find a sophisticated yet very 'me' bag to match my (nice) purple bridesmaid's dress?

I suspect my answer to Question1 will end up being "maybe for the first anniversary instead......"

My answer to Question 2 is considerably more waffley and (rather selfishly) is causing me the biggest headache! For a while now I've been toying with some ideas for a new clutch bag and I really thought this would be the perfect opportunity to bring my ideas to life. I have even picked out the perfect Amy Butler fabric from my little stash, which has exactly the right shades of mauve, lilac, indigo and mint green for my dress. Sadly, I am yet to come up with a design for the bag which will do this fabric justice and so, for now, it remains folded in a neat little square in my fabric box.

The problem is, I cannot seem to come up with a design which is formal and dressy enough for a wedding. Is this even possible with cotton fabric? I think the secret ingredient, which I am sorely lacking at the moment, is structure. I appear to be incapable of producing anything which doesn't just look like a glorified make-up bag! Case in point.....

Now admittedly this floral fabric is very make-up bag-esque but, still, it looked so much more versatile in my imagination! I was really hoping that the very simplistic and fuss-free design would make it look quite chic and understated. But no, it just looks like something which belongs on the dressing table. Don't get me wrong though, as make-up bags go, its really rather useful - tons of capacity and lots of rummage-room, which is always nice. And I absolutely LOVE these colours together - red and aqua truly are a match made in fabric heaven.

So there we go. A pretty enough make-up bag but not something which I will be re-creating for the wedding.

I based my design on a simple cotton book-bag design that I had - but, instead of adding straps, I added a second magnetic clasp so that it locks into place when folded over.

So where does all of this leave me and my gorgeous Amy Butler fabric? I think I am going to have to ponder this some more and get back to you.

My spidey senses tell me to look for a pattern or tutorial for a more structured clutch bag. Perhaps something a bit more boxy in shape, rather than a floppy little envelope like all of the other ideas I have come up with. I have been through my three favourite sewing books (pictured above) from cover to cover but nothing quite fits the bill. There's a very sweet looking quilted purse in Cath Kidston's Sew! but I'm not sure that this would be dressy enough for my wedding needs.

If anyone should stumble upon my little message in a bottle, and has any ideas or links which you think I might find useful, please do leave me a comment to help me on my way. I'll be your eternal servant!

Failing that, I shall keep you posted on my continued efforts!

X

...making corsages

If there is one item of clothing/accessory which is synonymous with me, it has to be the humble corsage. I just love 'em! I think it's because I'm also a big fan of the scarf (the chunkier the better) and find the two to be a most decorative, and indeed practical, coupling.

I love corsages so much that it became a bit of a running joke with my friends at one point as to which part of my person I would be adorning with a corsage next. As already mentioned, the scarf-corsage combo is a frequent winner but I do also love to fix one on the side of a trilby or maybe clip them to my handbags. The options truly are endless and they will always add a nice individualistic twist to the most unoriginal of outfits.

So, in view of my slight preoccupation with these pretty accessories, I have taken it upon myself to begin researching some of the techniques which can be used to make your own. Honestly, I never knew there were so many lovely variations.

I don't want to bore you with flower talk for too long today so I'm just going to show you a couple of my favourite first efforts. This first one is probably a bit too 'groovy' for my usual tastes but I just wanted to have a go at the technique first and perhaps worry about colours later.

That said, I actually quite like the contrast between the mega-bright psychadelic fabric and the vintage-esque button that I've sewn on the centre. Not sure I would wear this one on my person but it could be a nice centrepiece on a summer clutch bag or perhaps a nice bright coin purse....I shall ponder this some more.

Generally speaking, I'm more of a 'big and fluffy corsage' kind of person and this one is one of my favourites out of all of the ones I've made so far.

I made it quite simply by stitching together loads of scraps of fabric into one long beautiful patchwork ribbon then revisiting one of my childhood pastimes of pom-pom making! I had forgotten just how much fun that can be! I hope I'm not the only one who used to spend whole afternoons quite merrily wrapping ball after ball of cheap wool around cardboard hoops and wondering why no-one was quite as impressed as me at the end result...?

Anyway, this technique seems to work really well, especially with nice flimsy fabrics like the ones in this picture. I'm still not sure what I would use as a brooch-back though as a simple little stitch-on finding would get lost amidst all those layers of fabric! I need something which would hold the back of the pom-pom nice and flat - I'm sure there'll be something suitable out there amongst all these clever haberdasheries and specialist internet shops. It must have been so much harder to source clever craft materials and gadgets in the days before the Internet became such a huge part of our lives. But I bet people didn't spend their pocket money quite so quickly!

Well that was rather more rambling than I had intended to inflict on you at the start of this post so I think I'd better leave it there. More corsage talk another day.

Wishing you all a most lovely Thursday - hope the sun is shining where you are cos it seems to have well and truly deserted us here in the North East! Fingers crossed for a brighter weekend.

X X

...starting a blog!

Hello all and welcome to Dreaming of...

After many months of silently slinking around Blogworld and peering into the lives of so many wonderful bloggers and creative-types (really not as sinister as it sounds), I have decided to try and carve out a little corner of this world for myself.

I'm not altogether sure what is going to come of all of this yet, or indeed what type of Blog this will end up being, but here is a short list of things that I will be striving for:-

1. To reduce the amount of time I spend watching TV by at least 50% (this may require a small miracle).

2. To massively increase the amount of time I dedicate to making things, reading about making things and talking to other people about making things (this will also prove difficult, due to stinky 9 - 5 job which often turns into 9 - 7 job, but I am the master of my own destiny and, in the immortal words of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, I will "make it so").

3. To use this slice of Blogosphere to bring some focus and discipline to my currently slapdash approach to crafting (oooh, sounds exciting doesn't it!?), with a view to this becoming much more a part of my day-to-day routine rather than something I dabble at on a weekend if I have time.

4. To meet as many other like-minded people as possible and to learn as much as I can from all of you!

5. To create a colourful and descriptive account of my day-to-day life, which may prove to be quite interesting and insightful for any mini Kats that may come along in the future.

6. To find more ways to display and utilise the gorgeous collection of buttons which Mr Kat's grandma left to him (so far, they've made their way into my Banner, the photo on my first post and one of them even sneaked its way onto this knitted green corsage which I made a few weeks ago)...

To summarise:- I love making things and I want to get better at it. In an Ultimate Mega Perfect Ideal World, I would love nothing more than to be able to do it for a living. However, sadly, this has not been possible up to now. I live in hope!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my first post - here's to many more to come!

Kat X