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Bridesmaids Dress Number 3

Me and my godsister having a good old gossip on the
morning of my wedding - plus a delicious breakfast!

Holy Guacamole! It's Thursday - I hadn't realised... my bad. I'm going to blame it being November, so my writing energies being used up on Nano, and also the fact I was away at the weekend charging around like a lunatic with a crossbow (Twisted Tales... best ever)

AAaaaanyway bridesmaids Dress Number 3 was for Gwennan – Gwennan is my godsister, and as she’s six months older than me I’ve known her my whole life, and she’s been my best friend since I knew what a best friend was – this is everything to do with her personality and nothing to do with the fact that her dress fitted her after just one fitting… Oh, and she chose a pattern with only 3 main pieces, nothing to do with that at all.

Also I can hear you arguing that Godsisters isn’t a thing, but I’ll have you know that the word ‘Gossip’ comes from the information you share with your god-siblings… so yeah, it’s a thing. I’m educational.

Freja's Bridesmaid's Dress

Freja;s design

The next bridesmaid's dress I'll be showing you is that of Freja's - my 9 year old god-daughter, who decided that one outfit simply wasn't enough. I'm sure you all know what a fan I am of the blue/red colour scheme, so I was really pleased when she picked this out. Again, she wanted spaghetti straps (I tell you, they're what all sophisticated young ladies wear these days), which I carried on to be the corset lacing down the back as I had done in her sister's dress (although Freja decided to have a modesty panel - no good picture of that though). I love the way the crossed over straps look - so elegant!

Faye's Bridesmaid's Dress

So - let's start with some bridesmaid's dresses. I asked my bridesmaids to design their own dresses, and whilst the adults had a little steering in the direction of colour and style, my two god-daughters (who were 8 and 9 on the day of the wedding) had complete free reign with their outfits.

The original sketch of Faye's dress

Photos copyright
vollsanger!

Looking cool before we
entered the church

Faye is eight years old (and used to be known as Erin, and before that Poppy, and before that Erin again - she's a fickle pickle! I'd complain, but I was exactly the same at her age), and she had some really specific design features that she wanted, foremost of which was 'spaghetti straps' which I understand are the highlight of sophistication! (Actually, initially both girls wanted strapless dresses, but we managed to talk them out of that...)
I made this pattern from Butterick 4385 and it was a relatively easy sew, although the pattern sizes are 7-12, and I had to make the 8 year old's mostly in the age & size, and the 9 year old's I had to grade down from the age 7!

Wedding Decorations

Many thanks to all the people who took photographs at my wedding (most notably luthaisea and vollsanger) - going back to work after our staycation honeymoon many people asked me if I had any photographs... to which I responded in a baffled tone "No... I didn't take any... I was a bit busy"

The entrance to church - with my mammy waiting for me

Anyway, so on to the decorations.

The way in

The way out

Outside the church we had some hessian bunting which I made myself - it was super quick and easy to do, just stencilled letters and white acrylic paint - couldn't have been easier. I made it so they said our christian names on the way in, and then Mr & Mrs on the way out - super cute, almost vomit worthy, but if there's one day I can get away with twee decorations it's my wedding day right?

Two Tiny Dresses

So, before I throw you fully into wedding madness, something else FAR MORE IMPORTANT happened in September. My godsister had a baby girl! This was awesome for many reasons, including it being her first child - and she is utterly gorgeous! My godsister lives way out in crete, so I can't go and meet the little darling, but I could send her some presents.

Please excuse the creepy model in these pictures, it's a doll I'm fixing which my niece broke, and was a convenient model to use.

I decided to whip up a couple of little peasant dresses, just like I made for my cousin's baby girl. The first of the dresses I made absolutely true to the pattern - although I lined it, as I made it out of broderie anglaise. I used the same lining technique as I did on my maxi dress (although obviously much MUCH smaller) and also lined the adorable matching bloomers.

I AM SO SORRY (and so MARRIED)

OH MY DEAR SWEET BLOG READERS - PLEASE FORGIVE ME

This is me entering the church with my big brother and
one of my super efficient bridesmaid's (Photo copyright
Vollsanger)

I haven't posted in FOREVER. I got wrapped in up moving house and getting married and doing all sorts of important things like that - so I have some posts photographed but not yet written, that you shall get to see soon, and hopefully pictures of my new house as it shapes up nicely (the kitchen has gone from HORRIFIC to AWESOME)

Obviously, I will be doing full blog posts regarding each intricate detail of the wedding - I made 4 bridesmaids dresses, my own dress, designed my bouquets (which my bridesmaids, God love them, made the night before the wedding, whilst I was sat up hemming my wedding dress...), and a bunch of the decorations... plus a LOT of jelly, but I don't think there are photographs of that!

This is me and Mr P, making our vows with
my big brother and his best friend, oh and
the back of Luthaisea's head with a very
pretty hair clip (Photo copyright my cousin)

In the mean time, I've filched some pictures that friends have put up on social media sites, so I'll share you some loveliness from the day.

Petticoat Tutorial

WARNING; YOU WILL ENCOUNTER
TULLE... LOTS OF TULLE

EXCITING TIMES… you get a bit of a ‘wedding preview’ today… or rather, you get a peek up some wedding skirts – scandalous I know! I made petticoats for myself and my adult bridesmaids, and they were actually SUPRISINGLY EASY TO MAKE – so I thought I’d share how I did it.

What you will need for this tutorial:

• Sewing machine
• Lining fabric
• Tulle ribbon
• Gathering foot (technically, yes this is optional, but trust me, you don’t want to do this without a gathering foot… you really don’t)
• Overlocker (genuinely optional – I used it, you could just use a zigzag stitch wherever I’ve overlocked) (Also this is a Serger to anyone who is speaking american... just to confuse you)

Rohan Skater Shorts

Please excuse the rubbish last
minute photos taken on my bed

So, I promised to talk about shorts - and shorts I will discuss! I actually made two pairs of these, one in a size 6, and one in a size 2 (that’s boys sizes btw) but I only have pictures of the size 6 - so apologies for that, if I get pictures of the other pair, I’ll put them up at a later date!

I knew I had to make something for my nephew and my godson, as I’d already made not one but two<link> outfits for my niece, and my goddaughters are getting new clothes for the wedding - so I figured it was the turn of the boys. I’m not ultra familiar with sewing boys clothes, but my nephew had gotten a skateboard for christmas, so I thought a pair of the Rohan Skater Shorts by the crafty kitty would be perfect!

Failure on the First: BLOG FAILURE

Handmade shorts for
my nephew

So, this month's failure on the first is on the second. THAT'S THE FIRST FAILURE. The second is that I haven't updated in like, 2 weeks. I'm really sorry guys! 

Totally easy to make petticoat

And this isn't even a real blog post. I can tell you what I've got coming up though - I've made these cute shorts for my nephew, they're way too big for him, but I'm pretty proud of that. I'll do a full blog and pattern review shortly (heh, no pun intended!)

I've prepped a tutorial for making petticoats that look like this! Cute huh? And they're really easy to make as well, make sure you stick around to check that out.

Chocolate bajillionaire
flapjack!

I made some blueberry muffins and some apple muffins. They are TASTY. And I totally managed to sew in an invisible zip. This is ACHIEVEMENT OF THE GREATEST KIND I also managed to make chocolate millionaire flapjack which was DAIRY FREE, which is quite impressive, as I had to condense the soya milk myself in order to make the caramel. And then I added hundreds and thousands, which made it chocolate bajillionaire flapjack by my standards!

Muffins are tasty, and
contain fruit, so they must
be healthy too

Works in progress include a couple of cute little baby outfits for my friend who is expecting a little girl in September, a rag rug which is going swimmingly and using up ALL MY SCRAPS, it's the ultimate scrap busting project. Work on my dress is going well and still top secret, the two adult bridesmaids dresses are finally finished, and I've started on the kid's dresses.

This was my rag rug a few
weeks ago, it's much more
huge now!

Hopefully, Mr P and I will be moving house shortly, so I shall have some HOMEMAKING posts to update you guys on - it's still a rental, so my hands will be tied with regards to a lot of things, but I'm excited, and I've already got loads of plans!

So yeah, failure on the first, is failing to be on the first... or even for the past two weeks. I solemnly swear I shall endeavour to do better (and show you cute baby clothes!)

Katy

OONAPALOOZA MAXI DRESS

So, when I saw that Sewcialists had made July be oonabaloona month I just KNEW I had to take part. Seriously. I have MAD SEWING LOVE for Oonaballoona (creepy stalker like sewing love if we’re going to be specific about it) – so I decided to take part… the challenge being to sew something Oona-inspired… and immediately, I hit a bump in the road… and by bump, I mean mountain…

I am not Oona. I mean, that’s obvious, but I’m about as FAR from being Oona as it is possible to be and still sew. Oona sews in bright colours and clashing prints ALL THE TIME… I prefer muted plain fabrics (because I’m boring snoring, and prints scare me). Oona sews FASHIONABLE clothes that are ON TREND (no really, she even made hareem pants), I sew clothes that look like I should live in the 1950’s (no really, I wish I did). Oona adds thigh high slits to show off her AMAZING LEGS, one of my sewing goals is to update my wardrobe to be more modest… Oona is tall and skinny and gorgeous (I MEAN SHE’S AN ACTRESS PEOPLE) – I am short, and curvy. Oona is SO AMERICAN, I mean, COME ON, she uses the word ‘y’all’ – I AM SO QUINTESETIALLY ENGLISH I WROTE A POST ABOUT SCONES (remember, rhymes with gone, unless you’re in Scotland/are the queen)…

As you can see – me, sewing something Oona-inspired? So not going to happen.

Look! I took a photo of me... by some
steps... to be JUST LIKE OONA

But then I remembered something, something that had been floating in my mind for a while, something that was ON TREND, something that would require BRIGHT COLOURS and a BOLD PRINT, something that would be GLAMAROUS… something that might, just MIGHT, be worthy of being part of an OONAPALOOZA

So, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you… THE OONA MAXI!

I even… in honour of Oona, have posted PICTURES OF MYSELF WEARING THIS DRESS, rather than the usual mannequin pictures (which will undoubtedly return next week!)

Pics to show the back of the dress...
it's the same as the front

I’ve wanted a Maxi dress for a while, but I’m not really the right shape for an off-the-shelf maxi – for starters, I’m pretty short, so they’d always be too long, and more importantly, maxi dresses all seem to be strapless, or have spaghetti straps, or a plunging neckline… Now, I don’t mean to be graphic here, but I am of a bust size that means that not wearing a bra is NOT AN OPTION… So I needed a maxi that would work to those specifications.

I decided the simplest thing to do, would be to make a peasant style dress – with elastic under the bust. I know peasant style dresses suit me (even if they do accentuate my ‘mumsy’ figure) – and more importantly, they’re super quick and easy to make! And I had a pattern that I could totally cannibalize to turn into it (which just meant I had to lengthen it really)

Didn't have a new york style street to
photograph in... so went to the park

The only thing I don’t like about this, is it’s not QUITE as long as I’d hoped, it looks awesome with heels, but not so great with flats. However, if it was much longer I’d be tripping over it all the time! So perhaps it’s a good thing. It took me a couple of hours to make (in between cooking and chatting), I decided to make it on Saturday evening, and then wore it to church on Sunday morning! That’s what counts as a sewing win. It’s super comfy, it feels like wearing a nighty, but it’s appropriate outdoor wear! Maxi dresses are the future! I may be on the hunt for more cool fabric to make a few!

Oh, and cost wise? This cost less than £5 to make and I still have a meter or so of the fabric left (although not of the lining) – admittedly, I did buy it from the £1 p/m section in my local fabric shop – but it’s awesome fabric! So it totally works!.

Complete win! £5 and a couple of hours effort and I get a new glamourous, OONA INSPIRED dress.

Thanks Oona!

Katy

I might not be oona-style elegant - but I'm thinking I don't look dreadful in this maxi!

Broderie Anglais Skirt

It's just like it looked in my head!

Do you ever get that thing where you mentally plan an outfit, and then realise you’ve included an item of clothing you don’t own? I do this all of the time – mostly it’s with stuff that I used to own, but don’t anymore – I have a moment of ‘oh, those shoes would go perfectly with this’, rummage around to find them, and then realise I threw them out five years ago...

Very occasionally however, this happens with clothes that have yet to exist – and on Friday, I’d just had my nails done (shellac nails, they're awesome, unless you have nails that grow super fast like mine do...), and was deciding what outfit would best match them to wear to my grandmother’s the next day (for her 90th birthday party... in which I hid in a corner because nobody told me about the dozens of strangers I'd be forced to share the room with... even if they were all old and adorable), when I thought I should wear the white, gathered broiderie anglais skirt with my denim jacket… at which point, I realised I didn’t own said skirt… BUT THIS WAS NOT A PROBLEM.

The Coat

The Coat that was in my head

So – I realise that the middle of summer is not the right time to be posting a blog about a coat. But seriously. This coat has taken FOREVER. So, I can’t remember how long ago I dreamt up the idea for this – the first time I came across that super soft fleece stuff – I don’t know what it’s called… it’s like fake sheep wool, but SO SOFT, like you have NO IDEA HOW SOFT. The softness of this coat is immense. Anyway, so I envisaged this coat, in navy blue, with a white collar and white cuffs turned back.

And then I didn’t do anything about it

Look at that adorable flash of Red
Mr P is a genius

I try to limit my fabric spending, I always have a million and one projects on the go which I already have fabric for, so I try really hard and not spend money on fabric until I’ve run out of things to make with the fabric I already own – but my work gave me a fabric voucher for my leaving gift (now, it’s worth noting her, this is not the job I’m in now (obviously), not the job before this one, but the job before THAT), so I decided to spend the money on the coat that I’d been dreaming of – and bought enough super soft amazingly soft fleece, and some navy blue corduroy, and a pattern. I started out with Burda 8292 – but wanted more flare in the skirt, so self-drafted some godets (or Bidets as Mr P likes to refer to them as), I also rounded the collar a lot, because I wanted that soft peter-pan look.

Failure on the First: Chocolate Fudge Cake

Chocolate fudge cake failure

I know what you’re thinking – how can anything involving the words ‘CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE’ be a failure. Well… me… that’s how.

This tale starts off with a planned trip to visit some friends one weekend, and during the week before I turn to Mr P and say ‘Hmmm, if I have time, I might make a chocolate fudge cake to take with us this weekend’ … wait no, let me write that correctly… “Hmmm, if I have time, I might make a chocolate fudge cake to take with us this weekend” which resulted in him telling said friends that I was making a cake… he’s a crafty so’n’so… ensuring he gets his cake that way!

So, anyway, I make the chocolate fudge cake the night before… I know you’re all dying to know, so here’s the recipe (hailed as magic chocolate fudge cake, because it contains no dairy and no eggs)

10 oz SR flour (less 1 tablespoon)
6 oz caster sugar
1 tbs cocoa powder

The chocolate fudge icing is really the crème-de-la-crème of this recipe (please note, not crème-de-la-crème-de-la-edgar! I AM NOT TRYING TO DROWN MY FRIENDS… also, kudos if anyone actually gets that reference), it’s even better, because there are NO QUANTITES, which means you must do it by taste, which means LOTS OF TASTING CHOCOLATE FUDGE SAUCE and invariably burning oneself on it… but oh well.

Melt an equal quantity of dairy free margarine and golden syrup together until the mixture is smooth – to taste, add cocoa powder and icing sugar (I know this is called something different in America, but I can’t recall what it is) until the mixture tastes goooooooood. WARNING, this will solidify really quickly, it will also not look elegant on your cake as it splooges everwhere and then turns into gooey fudge… but it tastes so good it doesn’t matter.

“Where’s the failure” I hear you all cry… well, it’s coming… So, I made said, inelegant, but tasty looking cake – got home from work, and removed cake from the fridge in order to take it with me. We got half an hour down the road to our friends (a 4 hour drive away… this is a long way in England) and I realised THE CAKE WAS STILL SAT AT HOME… WHAT A FAILURE.

Actually, I decided that I wanted the cake so much (and so did everyone else) that the next day, I made cake AT MY FRIENDS HOUSE. It was like friendship cake. Chocolaty fudgey friendship cake.

Which also meant that Mr P and I had a second cake to eat when we got home.

Wait… why was this a failure again?

Lesson learnt: Don’t tell Mr P about plans until they are definite… he will share them with the world just to get cake.

Rosebud Dress

Please excuse the photos taken with it pinned
to my ironing board - I don't have a small
enough mannequin

So, I’m guessing if you’re here, then you know about sewing blogs, and if you know about sewing blogs, you must know about Lindsey from The Cottage Mama. Lindsey’s work is truly incredible – most of us make clothes for children for them to wear, she makes tiny works of art to put on her children – seriously, the time and effort she must put into each and every piece, it’s like couture, but for kids. I’m a massive fan of hers. 

She has released a free pattern, WHICH JUST MAKES ME LOVE HER MORE, The Party Dress was originally released as a sketched pattern, but has since been rereleased to her email followers as a proper pattern, in sizes 6months through to 10 years (I KNOW!) - and it is just ADORABLE. I decided that I wanted to use it to make my flower girl’s dress for the wedding, but before I did that, I wanted to do a wearable toile, to see how long it would take, and to judge which size I needed to make it in. 

LOOK AT THOSE GORGEOUS
ROSEBUDS - THEY'RE JUST SO CUTE

I braved the button box for these

Now, a few weeks ago Mr P’s mother gifted me a HUGE bag of fabric – she doesn’t really sew anymore, and she had a lot of things from Mr P’s grandmother, who used to make bridal dresses when she worked! I was obviously, completely delighted, FREE FABRIC, that’s the best kind of fabric – and whilst I was rootling through it choosing what I would take away (all of it), our little niece was “helping” me. I decided on a whim to ask her what she would like a dress made out of, and she picked out some pink poly-cotton, and some sheer green fabric, I couldn’t tell you what it is. I was dubious at first, but then I stumbled upon these darling little rosebuds – I have SO MANY OF THEM, I only used a few for this project, as I felt too many would have overdone it, but it made for the perfect dress. 

I wasn't convinced on
the colour combo -
I AM NOW

 I lined the whole thing in dark green lining fabric (also from Mr P’s mother), and the buttons were from the button box she gifted me, OH YES, I GOT A LOT OF TRIM WITH THIS STUFF TOO. TRIM AND BUTTONS AND ZIPS AND ALL SORTS OF VINTAGY GOODNESS. 

Yes, the ironing board is
leaning against my dressform
#don'tjudgeme

 I will admit, the button box overwhelms me at times – I have OCD, and the mismatched array of buttons doesn’t sit well with that, HOWEVER, I managed to steel myself for long enough to search through and find some buttons to go with the dress – at the time, I also managed to find the CUTEST buttons for her flower girl dress, but you’ll have to wait to see those. I didn’t hem the green sheer fabric, just used the selvedge as the bottom hem, it kept it nice and light, and was neatly finished already – I’ve still got loads of all of these fabrics left, so suggestions would be welcome! (Although I’ve a plan for part of the sheer fabric, but not a lot of it…) and this was such a quick and easy sew, I made most of it in an afternoon at a friend’s house! (Craft Khaleesi, go visit her for AWESOME SCALE MAIL KNITTING).

Such cute button loops
Decorative stitches are the best!

 I finished the armholes and waistband by hand – because I like hand-finishing things. That being said, this is not the neatest sew I’ve ever done – it’s for a little girl, so I’m not bothered, because much though I love my little niece, she is VERY GOOD at destroying things – so I don’t expect it to last five minutes in her hands! I think one of the cutest features on this were an accidental feature! I hadn’t bought any ribbon or spare fabric with me to make button loops, however, I discovered that I’d cut the pieces for the sheer overskirt too long – so with a bit of chopping, I had enough of that to make into some adorable button loops, with the use of a decorative stitch on my machine – as advised by Craft Khaleesi, and oh my goodness, didn’t they just turn out cute? 

Hand finishing!
Yay!

Overall, a pretty adorable little dress I think – I’m hoping the recipient likes it, and I’m feeling really confident about making the flower girl dress :-D as it should be even easier to sew up, as it’s only got one layer… I say should be… famous last words!

Why I Sew

Oh goodness – what a tricky question. I guess, in part, I sew to create. I’ve always said that my true passion is making clothes, and sewing is just a convenient way to get there. Growing up, I enjoyed textiles classes at school if only because it was the only ‘arty’ sort of subject that I was any good at. All my friends at school were very artistic, and I felt like the dunce of the class whenever we were doing painting, drawing, or clay modelling – but in textiles my work was passable. I was always overly ambitions as well, our final textiles project was to make a piece of clothing from a pattern – everyone else chose pyjama trousers (as our textiles teacher recommended) and I chose a fitted shift dress, which I made in a lilac fabric (I still remember it) and actually, I didn’t do too badly (although my grandmother put the zip in when she came to visit!)

I didn’t really sew much once textiles stopped being a compulsory subject, the occasional flag when we’d made a cool den and wanted to put our mark on it, or some clothes for my dolls (yes, I’m talking about being between the ages of 14-18 – I have delayed emotional development, so I act quite a lot younger than I am) until I graduated from school, and decided on a dress I wanted to wear to results day – which just so happened to be a dress that existed only in my head – so I made it (badly, I hasten to add, but I made it none-the-less)

That turned into a bit of a theme, wanting clothes that didn’t exist, like the time I was in my first year at Uni, and wanted a denim mini skirt with yellow ribbon edging to wear out (that evening) – I didn’t own it… I did own a torn pair of jeans though… I hand stitched the entire thing, because I didn’t have a machine with me!

By the time I’d reached my second year at uni, I’d stolen my mum’s Toyota – which I mostly used to make kit for LRP events – which was all I made throughout uni, until I started working, and needed a black skirt for work, and I happened to have some black corduroy. The rest is history!

Mostly, I love being able to envisage something in my mind and then create that thing. I’ve never been the sort of person who can imagine a picture, or look at a landscape, and then transfer that to paper – but I can envisage a dress, or see a skirt that I want to copy, and make it for myself!

Recently I’ve gotten more into hand sewing. The ladies over at Simple Simon & Co wrote a wonderful post entitled ‘Heroes of Homemaking’ – I won’t go into it now, pop over and read it, but the essence is that the dull tasks are when we can let our mind be free. I’m terrible at setting aside time to pray each day (I have a friend who prays in the shower, but oddly, I just can’t pray to God when I’m naked… which is stupid…) but I pray whilst I’m swimming lengths of the pool in the morning (which is a fantastic start to the day!) and I pray whilst I sew – mostly I pray around the garment, either thanking God for creating the amazing people who went into the pattern designing, and the fabric making, or thanking Him for giving me such a wonderful gift. If I’m making a gift, I often pray to Him to help me be a better friend or relative to that person – at the moment, I’m doing a lot of work on my wedding dress, which means I’m praying for His help to become the wife that Mr P needs.

Handsewing has also become my portable hobby – I used to read all the time (on trains, in cars, anywhere I had to be sat down but didn’t have anything to do) but sadly, the M.E. has affected my concentration sufficiently enough that I can’t do that anymore, but I can sew! Although sewing requires concentration, for me, hand sewing is very repetitive, so good for someone with a memory like a goldfish!

In short I sew because I love to create. I sew to keep my hands from being idle. I sew for love, love of fabric, love of clothes, love of God and love of the people I sew for.

This is me at LRP with some of the people who I love dearly. I made the top and skirt
that I'm wearing (although not the corset) (I'm the one in the green skirt btw)

Patchwork Elephant

Rubbish patchwork - adorable elephant!

So, my friend Chrissie loves elephants, with a passion and I found this pattern by Katie over at Made By Enginerds - so I decided I simply had to make her a patchwork elephant for her birthday. Now, a quick disclaimer – I CANNOT DO PATCHWORK, the patchworkyness of this is SUPER MESSY, but it does look quite cute and quirky.

I made a couple of pieces of patchwork that were big enough for the pattern, and then cut it out. It was really quick and easy to sew up, although there was almost a HUGE DISASTER, when I was clipping the seams to turn it right side out, I slipped and almost cut his trunk off – however, this actually turned out really well, because I just stitched around the accidental incision I’d made, and it made his trunk look a lot better (I wasn’t so keen on how attached the trunk was on the pattern).

Look at that under-ear multicoloured deliciousness

Giving gifts to friends who can sew is always a little nerve-wracking, so I was delighted when Chrissie posted pictures of my little patchwork elephant all over facebook :-D. I’ve never made a stuffed toy before (incidentally, I stuffed him with offcuts of some really soft fleece which will appear for your viewing soon in the form of a COAT) and this was a really easy starting point. I’ve got a few more soft toys planned (mostly because my friend Ruth has a ragdoll pattern that I’m dying to try out!), but I would heartily recommend this one if you’ve not really sewn 3D shapes before.

I did debate making him out of just one fabric, but I liked the crazy patchwork, maybe because I loved Elmer books as a child – although this elephant isn’t quite so colourful! (Also if you don’t know who Elmer is, you totally should!). I made the ears out of just a single piece of fabric, as I thought the patchwork could get a bit overwhelming.

The tail is made out of a plait of several threads of embroidery thread – I think it looks so cute, and kind of matches in with the odd colour scheme that he’s got going on!

His eyes are badly embroidered on. I say badly, because the embroidery itself isn’t actually that bad (I used a woven wheel, it's actually really simple), but because although I measured and marked the eye points, I did it before I sewed him up, and must have not sewed him up perfectly (surprise surprise, this is me, queen of speed over perfection), and so the eyes are quite wonky when you loo k at him head-on. But hey! Let’s not judge an elephant just because he has wonky eyes.

Katy x

p.s. apologies for the terrible pictures, I had to take swift pictures of him before I parcelled him up to be posted off, so they were taken in the dark, with the light from my bedside lamp -.-

A Ruffled Denim Skirt - THE TUTORIAL

Photographs taken on my kitchen floor
#classy

So, a while ago you may recall I showed you a picture of one of my favourite skirts – made out of an old pair of jeans. Well, I had another pair of jeans go (they always seem to get holes right in the middle of my behind! It’s very strange), so I figured I’d sew up another skirt, and whilst I did it, I’d take pictures and tell you how to do it.

This is a picture of the hole in my jeans
#super classy

For this tutorial you will need: A pair of old jeans, fabric that goes well with them, your maths brain, regular sewing stuff, OPTIONAL TRIM… who am I kidding? Trim is never optional… TRIM. An overlocker… I did the first one of these before I owned an overlocker, just zigzagging the edges – but it turns out denim frays, a LOT, so if you don’t have one, you might like to consider doing bias bound seams or something.

And now you see why I sew on
the kitchen floor - can't accidentally
cut tiles

Step one: cut off the top of the jeans. Now, I will say at this point, for this skirt, I feel for me I cut it off too low – it doesn’t sit particularly flatteringly when it’s on, but it’s still wearable with certain tops. You may need to unpick the pockets at this point – I suppose you could just slice through them, but I think that would look tacky. So yes, unpick pockets, and cut off the top of the jeans, just before the crotch (or, if they have a hole in them… just above the hole!). I made sure the cut was even by cutting one leg – which I measured with a ruler, then folding the jeans in half at the centre seam, and cutting the second leg to match.

Shortest skirt ever

This leaves you with the top of the jeans… which could actually be a skirt all by itself… IF YOU LIKE SHOWING PEOPLE YOUR PANTS. I will refer to this bit as the ‘top of jeans’ from here on in. Also, you will note that my waistband isn’t straight at this point – these are well worn jeans, and I always wear my jeans higher at the back – so I know this is how they sit on me – if I were to try and match the front and back of the waistband up, the bottom seam of this section would end up all wonky when I wore it – so bear this in mind.

Step two… cut up the legs of your jeans. Now, this actually involves a little bit of thinking, because you want to turn the legs of your jeans into one long strip of fabric. PLEASE NOTE: If the legs of your jeans are super damaged beyond repair, then you could skip this step, and use a different fabric. Anyway, back onto using the jeans… cut the seams out, yes, you can unpick them, but unpicking denim is NO FUN, and if you cut really close to the seam, you get enough fabric.

Ok, don't look at the burn marks
on my ironing board

This will leave you with four strips of fabric, of roughly equal length (two from each leg, the front and the back). Now, depending on the type of jeans you are using, you may need to even up the strips – my jeans are bootleg cut, which means the front of the jeans are narrower than the back, and just above the knee is the narrowest point of the jeans. So, the quick and easy way to even these up, is to eyeball where the narrowest part of the narrowest strip is – measure how wide that is, and then cut each of the strips down to match it – using the grainline to ensure you are cutting nice straight lines – also if you don’t cut along the grain, it will look slightly odd.

This is just four strips of fabric...
#mostboringpictureever

Ok, at this point you should have: 4 equal rectangles of fabric, 1 top of jeans.

Please excuse the blurry photo
overlocker light does nothing
for pictures

The next step is to stitch the 4 rectangles together to make one long strip of fabric. Then sew the last two short edges together to make a circle. Overlock it. You may find it helpful to overlock one or both of the long edges at this point – it just makes it easier to work with. You could also hem one edge at this point, or if you are adding cutsie trim like I did with the last one, this is your moment to do that.

Ok, bad news: here is the mathsy bit. Good news: I’ll walk you through it.

1.      Measure how long your circle is all the way around

2.      Measure how deep your denim strips are

3.      Measure how long your jeans top is all the way around

4.      Measure how deep your jeans top is

5.      Work out how long you want your skirt to be

Now, you need to cut out a strip of your contrasting fabric (or several strips together like you did for the denim circle) – the height is the easy bit, it’s just however high it needs to be to make up the rest of the skirt length: skirt length – (height of denim strip + height of jeans top) + SA

The length of the strip is quite tricky, essentially you want it to be halfway between the skirt top, and the denim circle. So if your skirt top measured 1 metre all the way around, and your denim circle measured 3 metres, you’d want the middle layer to be 2 metres long.

There’s an easy way you can work this out: (round jeans top + round denim circle)/2

Again, rubbish
blurry photo of
doom #sorry

Ok, now you have another strip of fabric, sew this into a circle and overlock it. The first think you want to do is to join the denim circle to this circle – you’ll need to gather the denim circle to do this (quick gathering – sew two lines of really long stitches along the edge you want to gather, and then pull on those threads). Stitch the gathered denim circle to the fabric circle, and overlock.

The finished product

Now do the same thing to join the fabric circle to the top of your jeans, and then you’re done! You have a brand new skirt (unless you didn’t hem it earlier, if that’s the case, you need to hem it now!)

And here! The finished skirt. I'm not too happy with how this one turned out compared to the other one - the top section is too long for it to be flattering on me - lesson learnt for next time.

I hope that wasn’t too complex – I’ve never really done a tutorial before, so feedback would be SUPER APPRECIATED.

Bonus skirt: pop on over to my friend Luthaisea's blog where she's made a GORGEOUS gold version, with the cutest trim around the bottom - it's delicious!