Derrick the Dragon

I have had a bit of an obsession with dragons since I was little. And I love the squishy toy ones you can buy but not having kids I don't really have an excuse for purchasing one. So I decided to make one instead!

I found this sewing pattern on etsy and then printed it off as a pdf. The original size was half this one, I enlarged it on the photocopier. To be honest I found this size really fiddly to make, so I really don't know how I would have coped with the original size. But I do love the finished dragon!

Glass Fusing

Back in October I did a taster course in glass fusing at Silversides Glass Art in Bath. I found the course on Living Social, and at £18 it was a bargain!

We went through the basics of how glass is structured and how to cut and shape it. We had a practise with some cutting and realised how difficult it was to be exact! hen we had free rein to create whatever we wanted during the remainder of our time. I made a window hanger with a seaside theme which will probably end up living in my sewing room. I then made two glass pendants for Christmas presents.

It was a really fun way to spend an afternoon, and glass fusing is definitely addictive - I'd love to do a full course now! If you're looking for a new craft to get into, or just fancy doing something relaxing and a bit different have a look at the courses they run on the link below. They also have a lovely shop on the premises, with gorgeous jewellery, buttons and scarves for sale along with the glass pieces.

www.silversidesglass.com

Fox & Raccoon

These cute critters were Christmas presents for two special children, William & Josie. The pattern was Simplicity 1549, which I got free with Sew magazine, but is available for sale separately. 

They were so much fun to make, I highly recommend the pattern. It's simple to follow and I think the results are really great - the toys are big enough to be like cuddly pillows (especially the Raccoon) and the kids really loved them. Good result!

Rag Doll

This weekend I tried out a new rag doll sewing pattern that I purchased nearly a year ago but never got around to making.


She's about 50cm tall when standing, so a lot bigger than the other toys I've made.


She has removable bloomers, petticoat and dress as well as black felt shoes. Very cute!

Quilted Advent Calender

It might seem way too early to be even thinking about Christmas yet, but as sewing projects can take a while I wanted to start this one early! My Mum has a lovely quilted advent calendar that I have long coveted. I borrowed it from her over the summer so that I could copy the design and work out how to make one myself.

I copied the basic tree design pretty much exactly. On Mum's calendar she has cross stitched ornaments for the 25 days. I'm not much of a cross stitcher myself, so I decided to make felt sewn hearts to hang instead.

I'm very happy with the finished result, and have already made one for a friend as a gift. I'm taking orders for these now, for sale through Vintage Bee.

Embroidered Pictures

I've been making new stock ready to sell at Christmas markets - yes, I know, it's too early to think about Christmas!

I got some lovely chunky white frames from Ikea and have been free motion embroidering pictures for them. The fabrics used are mainly vintage.

These are for sale from Vintage Bee.

The Handmade Fair

 

The location for the Fair was the grounds of beautiful Hampton Court Palace

At the weekend Mum and I traveled to London for Kirsty Allsop's Handmade Fair at Hampton Court Palace. We drove up on the Friday evening and stayed overnight to make a weekend of it.

As you'd expect from anything Kirsty puts her name to, the Handmade Fair was wonderfully well organised. It was laid out in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace, and from the moment we entered and saw the strings of pom poms wrapped around the trees, it was clear that this day was definitely going to be all about the handmade!

There were two huge shopping tents, housing stalls from all sorts of traders, fabric sellers, crafts people and retailers. There were also plenty of food stalls, a pop up vintage cake stall and a Mollie Makes cafe.

As part of the ticket price we got to sign up for one lecture theater talk, one workshop and one 'grand make'. Brilliant value for money, and as we booked a time too we could plan our day well without queuing for everything. For our theater talk we went to a Mollie Makes 'mash up'. Two crafts experts were given identical white t shirts and given 45 minutes to transform them live on stage. Inspiring stuff!

For our workshop we did cake decorating. Although I may have eaten more icing than I used to make dainty pink roses!

Our 'grand make' was a pom pom lesson. We quickly became hooked, and both Mum and I ended up buying the gadgets we'd used in the class. We quickly put these to use at home, making Bronwyn a pom pom collar!

If the Handmade Fair runs again next year, I urge you all to go along if you can!