Twins & The Marrakesh Dress

Well I'm really playing catch up here.  I made this dress back in July after spending a session with Elspeth and another local dressmaking teacher learning to re-size vintage patterns.  

The pattern I chose was an old vintage simplicity shift but it would have been teeny tiny if I had used it as is.  We very simply sliced out the middle of the front piece and added quite a few inches and then re-sized the back too.  It's designed to have sleeves but we omitted those so the straps are quite wide but I like the fit.

Believe it or not this is an old curtain, but on trying the garment on I fell instantly in love. It fits well, is fun and colourful and I have worn it loads since I made it.

Elspeth and I made the dress together as a toile as we are the same size so when I fell in love with it, there was a slight problem.  Nothing the rest of the curtain wouldn't fix though, we simply made another one and now we both have one to wear!

I decided to have another go using something a little fancy that I have had in my stash for a few years.  This is vintage curtain fabric and is called Marrakesh.  It's a beautiful screen printed fabric and reminds me of a peacock.

This time I chose some lovely purple cotton and made a 1/2 full bodice lining for added wow factor.  You get just the tiniest sneek peek of lining under the arms as the holes are wide so it's nice to use a contrast or luxury matching fabric.

Although I wear this dress a lot and always gets lots of comments from people, I though it was just perfect for a 60's fancy dress party I had been invited too.  Of course it would just be rude not to make a mini version and matching headbands for Little Miss Mack to wear too!

 I love a good shift dress and this is definitely my go to pattern for a super comfy every day dress. What's your favourite shift dress pattern?

A little something for Little Miss Mack

I have had this project cut out and in the bottom of my sewing basket for a month or so now.  Feeling chilly and smelling Autumn in the air today made me realise that sumer was almost over and if I didn't get it sewn up soon then she would not get a chance to wear it.

Little Miss Mack has had this fabulous pair of Giraffe print Sinbad pants for a couple of years, they are fabulously fun and so comfy (I'm imagining) and perfect for knocking about in.

 I took a look at them and pulled them apart a bit and realised that they were basically a pair of wide leg trousers with a waist and leg cuffs which has been shirred after assembling.  Not too tricky said I, nothing I havn't done before so off I went.

I started by stretching out the waistband and leg cuffs and drawing roughly round the original pair folded in half so I got 1 leg.  I added 5/8" to each side and a bit of length so that they would be closer to age 3-4 than the age 2 of the original pair.

Then I worked out how long the waistband would be and cut a strip slightly longer by a couple of inches and 4" wide.  I did the same with the leg cuffs.

I assembled the trousers as per a simple wide leg pant pattern, added the cuffs and waistband as if they were biased binding and then added 3 rows of shirring directly onto the doubled up cuffs and hey presto one pair of fabulous floral Sinbad pants.

I'm going to have a go at a pair for me now following the same method.  If it's successful I think I will run a class so you can all have a go.  They would make amazing yoga pants don't you think?

You might have spotted the fabric is the left over bits from my Matilde blouse I made earlier in the year.  That's the annoying thing about dress making, those big hunks of fabric you cant do much with.......................unless of course you own your very own small person!

Fun in the Dome at King George's Playing Fields

Fun in the Dome

For the past couple of years, I have worked alongside  Chicken and Frog to run fun activities at Brentwood King Georges playing fields in the summer holidays as part of the councils summer fun days.

Our theme on the 25^th July was ‘Pirates and Princesses’ where the children got to make their very own princess loo roll or pirate plate… or both if they wanted! There was also some great storytelling happening at the same time by Tash (Chicken and Frog), which all the kids enjoyed and even the mums did too. 

Over a couple of weeks, we put a message out on social media for people to save their cardboard loo roll, as the base for the princesses were loo rolls. We received A LOT of loo rolls so thank you for everyone who saved them and to the people who dropped them off at Chicken and Frog too!

We were left with many spare loo rolls, so we will be using them in our next session at the ‘Dome’ to make sea creatures (next theme is ‘Under the Sea’) so don’t miss us if you’re at King Georges on the 8^th August.

You may know Elspeth from our previous blog posts, but if you don’t, look back and read some of them (she is featured in quite a few!). Elspeth was a fantastic help at King George’s, so we’d like to say a big thank you to her again. She got so stuck in, she ended up with extremely messy feet (yes, she took her socks off!) and managed to acquire glitter all the way up her legs… we didn't even have any glitter!

We also had a rain interval, meaning everyone rushed under the big dome!

As well as us, there are also lots of other activities going on around King George's for your child to participate in. It’s always great fun to be part of this event, and the kids love it too.

Our next event in the Dome is on Friday 8^th August 11-3pm, so if you missed out on our last one, jot the date in your diary to visit us and get crafty with your little ones. 

World Book Day - The perils of being a crafty mother

Don't get me wrong I love the idea of World Book Day.  Encouraging children to read and spend some time with their head stuck in the pages of a book instead of the influx of tecno gadgets they seem to play with all day long. But as a crafty Mum there is a certain level of expectation put on you by others.

Best friends at the World Book Day school assembly

I love getting creative, but when your child is fixated on being a certain character and you dare not head to the local fancy dress shop it's time to 'furiously' create and that's not quite so pleasurable.

finding the perfect article of clothing to customise or the right shade of felt/type of button/hat or accessory can be so stressful!
 

Mr Willy Wonka a.k.a Tom!

The crazy thing is I have known about World Book Day for a year already and Tom decided he wanted to be Willy Wonka this time last year, but I still left it to the lastminute!

The hardest part was finding a purple jacket, but thankfully just as I was about to get out the felt and start making one a lovely customer of mine saw my facebook appeal and found a ladies purple jacket in the charity shop she works in and we were saved!  A quick button change and a sleeve shorten and we were all good.

Raiding the button stash for some added embellishments

 The hat was simple, as you can see we were the Fat Controller last year so I simply chopped down the hat and covered it in felt. I whipped up the bowtie on my sewing machine and had hoped he could wear a waistcoat of Daddies but alas it swamped him!

Previous World Book Day efforts!

Back to the drawing board the day before and I chopped up some sample upholstery fabric I had in my stash and cobbled together a waistcoat on my overlocker.  The joy of his wonderful machine is that there is no need to worry about seams etc, after all it's only a fancy dress costume.

I added some wooden buttons and a piece of velcro to hold it together and we were all done.  Chuck in a mad afro wig stitched inside the rim of the hat to hold it all in place and ta da.............WILLY WONKA!

The best costume ever according to Tom!

I know I don't have to go to all that effort, I could buy a costume or simply send him in something a little simpler, but when crafts are your job there is definitely an expectation from our friends, family and other parents at school to come up with something fabulous.

I admit I quite like the challenge, as much as I moan about it every year, seeing him come home with a big smile on his face because he's won 1st prize in the costume competition fills me with pride.

We make a great team.

What did your little darlings dress as this year? Did you make their costumes or can you get away with shop bought?

A Party with a difference

If your looking for something a little bit special for your childs birthday then you are going to love this party shoot.

When local photographer Marie Donn approached me looking for a craft party with a difference for her daughter Sophie I could not resist getting involved.  Marie set up this wonderful Mad Hatters Tea Party for Sophie and 3 of her friends.  They enjoyed lovely cakes and biscuits all Alice Themed and made Decopatch teacup fascinators with our in house children's co-ordinator - Louise from Rabbit Crafts.  Of course Marie was on hand with her camera an shot hundreds of beautiful images.  I have agreed not to spoil all the fun as Marie wants to blog some herself, but here are a few to wet your appetite.

The photos speak for themselves, but remember if your looking for the perfect crafty party for adults or children I'm always happy to oblige, we can cater for small group and offer a totally bespoke service catering to your every crafty whim.  Prices from £15 per head.  Visit our Party Page for more details

Handmade Monday - Mothers Day Pots

Back during February Half Term I ran a workshop at Chicken & Frog Bookshop with 6 lovely little girls ken to make their Mums a Mothers Day present.

We took a humble tin can, covered it in Decopatch and filled it with cat litter and garden sticks!  Added to that were some lovely handmade paper Flowers with pictures of the children's loved ones and a wonderfully touching message on  a tag. 

Obviously I have not been able to share these with you until today for fear of the Mums having a spoilt surprise, but I do hope there as some happy Mummies this morning!

Happy Mothers Day

Parenting your small business

How do you do it?

As a mum to two children I am finding it increasingly hard trying to juggle the responsibilities of a business and parenthood.

I'm sure I'm not alone in being in a horrible catch 22 situation of juggling.  On the one hand I have the freedom and flexibility to be able to attend sports day, drop off and pick up my children at school and often nurse a sickly child back to health, but on the other hand I am left feeling totally deflated and often dealing with horrible tantrums and bad behaviour due to lack of structure and routine.

I try my best to keep to a regular working pattern of 3.5 days a week when I actually 'go' to work, but the admin and organising doesn't do itself so I can often be found on the computer late into the night, or grabbing iphone minutes in the playground of a morning or during swimming lessons after school.

I'm well aware this is not great parenting, the kids are often left to fend for themselves whilst 'mummy checks her messages' but what's the alternative?

I'd love to be a stay at home mum and enjoy my children all of the time, go to toddler groups with the littlest one and play in the park after school with the older one, but it's simply not possible.  I have to work to pay the mortgage and I am fortunate that my skills and abilities allow me to work part time and for myself.

The other option would be to 'get a proper job' as many of my friends and family have said, but how would that honestly improve the situation?  I could not do the school run and would rely on 100% childcare provision from someone else and I would be working simply to pay for childcare.

Surely it's better to be with my children, even if I'm not always able to give them 100% of my attention?

I would be really interested to find out how other mums with small businesses manage their days and childcare issues.  If any of you would like to do a guest blog post about a typical day 'parenting your business' I'd love to hear from you.

Busy Bee is me

Wow how time flies when you don't blog in a while!  I have an excuse, honest miss.

It's the SUMMER HOLIDAYS.............

I know, I know I am a working Mum, I should be able to adapt and juggle my workload.  Pah! Tell me how and I'll salute you, it's madness.

I have to admit I have a massive blog roll and most evenings I sit down to read at least 20-30 blogs that have been posted over the last 24 hours.  But I have noticed that in the past few weeks there's only been half a dozen or so to read each day.  Looks like I'm not the only one in the 'not finding time' gang.

So what have I been up too?

 

Thankfully I have been very lucky to secure some contracts over the holidays from the wonderful Brentwood Borough Council and our Schools Extended Services team to run a series of workshops for the kids this summer.

 

3 of these have (or are due to in the case of next weeks) taken place in an amazing venue which was hired for us by the council.  Check out this inflatable dome!!

 

Natasha and I have run 2 sessions in here so far with another to follow next Friday.  We made Olympic torches and headbands on our first session and then rubbish monsters for our second.

 Following those we had an amazing smaller session where we read stories, created characters and made puppets with 2 groups at Sawyers Hall school.  You can check out Natashas blog about that one right HERE.

 Last but not least I taught 12 teenagers how to decorate their own jute bags.  It was fluffy flowers and diamonds a go go with that one to the point the diamantés needed rationing before they all started customising their shoes!

So the holidays are nearly over now, only 2 more weeks to go and during that time I'm planning on a bit of website catch up, de-cluttering and back to school organising. I promise I'll try and blog as I go..................

Rubbish Monsters

You'll remember me asking you to save all your recyclables for me last week well this is why:

 

RUBBISH MONSTERS!!!!!

You can see from this picture that this is the base of a monster and is made using a drinks bottle, toilet tubes & a milk carton and I've simply added some concertina card for his legs.  

Once they are then covered with paper, fur, felt and all sorts of other lovely bits and bobs we picked up from the Pyramid Resource Centre last week you have yourself a friendly little beastie!

 

This one has a small egg box for his head and 2 microwave meal trays taped together to form a body with cardboard cones on his head for horns. The red furry one at the top was made from a cat food box and 3 yoghurt pots for legs.

These are the rubbish monsters we will be making with the children of Brentwood this Friday 3rd August in King Georges Playing Field between 11am - 3pm.  You'll find us in our giant inflatable dome so come along rain or shine.

The event is totally free and you and your children can transform everyday rubbish into cute or scary monsters just like these.  Once your done then you can enjoy a story or two with Natasha from Chicken & Frog Children's Bookshop and then go on to play on the free bouncy castles or get their face painted all thanks to Brentwood Borough Council events team.