Happy Birthday to You!

A friend of mine teaches Baby Sign Language and commissioned me to make a set of Happy Birthday bunting to use during her teaching.

I wanted to make a unisex string of bunting which could be used for any group of children, but which kept a home-made quality. After raiding my stash of randomly acquired fabrics and rummaging through the fabric offcuts in the local fabric shops, I had a pretty good selection of old and new fabric (including some amazing Cath Kidston star fabric, orange and yellow checks from an old vintage dress and the trusty recycled Ikea pillow cases rescued from Karl's old bed!)

I printed the required letters out (Arial font) and used these as templates to cut out the fabric. I decided to leave the edges raw as it would add to the old fashioned style of the bunting (and because I couldn't dream of creating seams which would allow you to still read the letter!).

Once these were cut out and paired with a contrasting background fabric, I hand sewed each letter onto the triangles which will make up the completed bunting. This was then sewn together on the machine and attached to the bunting cord ready for hanging. Two snazzy felt ends later and it was ready to go!

I was really pleased with how it turned out (and so was she!) but I was amazed at how long it was compared to my usual 9 flag bunting! I attempted to get an image of the whole thing, but it shows off more of the garden than the bunting!

Dont Tell the Bride!

Two sets of my wonderful friends is getting married in March this year and I'm Bridesmaid at both weddings!

The first to Tie the Knot are my friends Kirsty & Gareth, and to celebrate the Hen night we are going away to Centre Parks! I wanted to make something that could be kept as a reminder of the weekend and have been secretly crafting for the past 6 months.

So, inspired by some of the lacy and romantic wedding/party photos shoots in Mollie Makesmagazine, I designed rosettes for each of the wedding party!

Bride to Be

Mum of the Bride

Bridesmaids

The lace and fancy bits are a combination of vintage scraps I had lying around, bargain bin offcuts from Leeds markets and repeated trips to Samuel Taylors! The Bride to be is a big lover of all things pink, hence the colour scheme. I wanted to avoid the traditional Hen Night neon and make something a bit classier.

I also wanted the other hens to have something in the same theme as the wedding party, but as ever was rapidly running out of time (where does it go?!?). I decided to make a smaller, simpler rosette to make sure that they were done in time! Each one is slightly different, and has a unique sequinned or embroidered embellishment to the centre.

These were put into 'party bags' which were personalised by the fabulous folksy seller Shinta Shop and filled with sweeties.

Bananarama

Yet more baking!

In my office, there is a tradition of having a positive ending to our weekly staff meetings. Sometimes this takes the form of Pictionary but more often than not its rather cake-based. I was warned before I made my first cake to avoid bananas as our finance guy is allergic to them. So it was decided amongst the rest of the office that I should make a non-banana banana cake!

The cake itself is a chocolate tray bake from Beautiful Baking by Jane Asher. This was my first 'baking' cookery book and has some really good simple recipes for cakes, biscuits and random stuff like crumpets. Its pretty much my go-to book for easy but yummy cake.

I then chopped the corners and middle section off to make a basic banana shape (or wonky moon as by housemate described it!)

I then coloured some ready-made icing yellow (using trusty Dr Oetker) and covered the cake to make the 'inside' of the banana. I forgot to buy jam to stick the icing to the cake, so improvised with golden syrup!

I wasn't happy with the overall bananary-ness of it, so made some half peeled skin using a darker shade of yellow icing. I folded back the tops of the 'skin' pieces to make it look more realistic. Some scored lines down the banana and skin later and tah dah! One novelty cake!

This is my very first novelty cake and I am unbelievably proud of myself! Whether the finance guy will feel the same way is another matter!

Fluorescent Flowers

Continuing with the theme of old(er) projects, I'm going to show you my second attempt at a cross stitched cushion.

Following the Cowboy Cushion I made using the Cath Kidston pattern I decided to have a go at one of the more floral offerings in the book. The one downside to the book (at least for tomboys like me) is the majority of the patterns are floral (the cowboy, sail boat and dog patterns being the exception). I decided to start with the brightest and least traditionally 'girly' of the patterns, and the result is this 'electric flower' cushion!

I backed it using cream embossed velvet fabric salvaged from the mega stockroom clear out at my previous job.

I also had some 'so awful its amazing' fluorescent pink bobble trim which almost matched the pink of the cross stitch so decided to edge the cushion with that. This was a massive pain to attach and I ended up sewing this cushion completely by hand to avoid getting the trim tangled up in the machine. This is something I struggle with (also zips!) so is something I need to work on if I plan on making cushions on a more regular basis.

All in all I am really proud of how this turned out. It is very bright and kitsch and contrasts well against the very 'boysy' background of my house/sofa/living room.