Chiffon Shabby Flowers

Just a quick post to show you some gorgeous shabby flowers that I made using some polka dot chiffon fabric.  I have bought a few similar to this but smaller in yard strips but they are not particularily cheap and sometimes not very big.  I had a look at them and thought it would be easy to do my own in patterned chiffon.  I am really pleased with them and they are easy to make!!

I made a few more of them, they all came out alittle different as it depends on how much of the middle you make before doing the outer edges!

I've taken some photos of each step as I was making them and I plan on doing a photo tutorial soon for anyone that is interested!!

**UPDATE**
Shabby flower tutorial can be found here

A Summer Walk

Well - we had a lovely hot and sunny day here yesterday so I decided to go out for a walk.  I'm lucky enough to live in a sort of suburban area that is only a 5 minute walk away from open fields and woods so I decided to go for a nice walk armed with my camera!  I could have worn better shoes as the daps I chose have given me huge blisters but never mind!!!

Anyway, I thought I would share some lovely summery photos that I took on my walk.  It is so nice to see so much greenery and to see wild flowers lining the country paths and roads.  The woods were still abit wet under foot but still great to walk through!

There was this really pretty field full of buttercups....

Alongside the woods runs the River Frome

I love the roots on trees that come up out of the ground and wrap themselves around the trunks.  They make the tree look like it is 'enchanted'!!

 

and Dandelions always photograph so nicely!!

Have a great day wherever you are!!

A Lovely Day Out at the Vintage and Handmade Fair

Hi there everyone!

I thought I'd tell you about a lovely Vintage Fair that I go to in a little place called Chipping Sodbury.  The fair is on a few times a year and they also do a Vintage Textile Fair and a Vintage Jumble Sale - details can be found here.

Last Saturday I set off early on the bus and went along to the fair with a friend.  It's always very busy there so best to get there early.  I have been the first one at the door for the last few fairs and received a goody bag which the first 100 through the door get!  I usually pay my £1 entry, get my hand stamped, take my goodie bag and go for a wander outside until the fair is open!  There is another little vintage fair held over the road on the same day at St John's Church Hall so I go there as well.  Chipping Sodbury is a quaint place with some really great old buildings.  It has a very wide High Street so you can spend a nice few hours looking around. 

Anyway - the fair is always interesting to look at with some nice old things as well as lots of lovely shabby/vintage styled handcrafted items.  The prices vary alot but you can pick up some nice lace and other bits and bobs for quite a cheap price.  There are other things that are lovely but alot more expensive!!  It of course depends on the age and condition and whether it is a rarer item!  i don't think I have every come away empty handed!!!

There is a refreshments area that have the most fantastic array of homemade cakes and tea or coffee in vintage china cups with saucers!  I always manage to force down a piece of cake!!

Anyway - here is my little haul from last Saturday

This was a back copy of a Vintage Magazine that is so lovely, I thought I would show it to you!!

I picked up these 2 cute jam jars with pretty little fabric covers full of buttons for just £1 a jar. 

 

There were some interesting buttons in them including some of these - on the back it said 'Made in Deccan'.  I've spent alot of time living in India so I knew these were Indian just from the word Deccan and there was a factory name and registation number so I thought they were pretty old.  I did abit of research and found out that the Deccan area was well known for enamel buttons usually either solid silver or just silver coloured.  Gold coloured ones are rarer and these are a brassy gold colour!!  The wording on the back dates them as pre 1947!!  I was really thrilled to have these buttons in my collection!

I also picked up this in a bag for 50p

Well worth 50p!!

 Not quite sure what this it though - if you know please comment and tell me!!  One solid part and the other bit is a long springy piece of metal!

There was a box of lovely wooden cotton reels as well for 50p each, I think the reels were worth that alone!!  I picked up these 3 colours

Again - the fabric and the roll of brocade fabric were in a bargain box and were 50p and £1 respectively!!  I think I might use the brocade for making some flowers!

The lace in the pic was gorgeous and was 50p a metre - here's a close up pic of it!!

So I had a nice bagful of goodies and actually didn't spend that much to get them!!

Check out the link above for details of the next Vintage and Handmade Fair and if you are in the area, pop along!!

Shabby Chic Fabric Flower Necklace

Hi everyone, with the weather improving and summer finally looking like it's a possibility, I have been busy making fabric flowers and hair accessories.

There are so many different types of fabric flowers around and I have been experimenting with many of them!

I made this one from unbleached muslin fabric and made it by stitching the muslin to some tulle net fabric.  I frayed it to give it a shabby look and then I was looking on Pinterest and came across this tutorial and decided to have a go at it.  I've never used fabric flowers on jewellery before although I've seen many beautiful examples.

The tutorial is really easy to follow and very nicely explained.  Here is my finished necklace.

I am quite pleased with this first attempt and the colours are very neutral so will go with alot of clothes that I have.

Thanks for stopping by!

Flowers and Hairbands!

Good morning/afternoon or night depending on where you are in the world!!  It's another beautiful day here in sunny Bristol.  We've had some lovely sunny days recently, let's hope it continues!!!

As summer seems to be on it's way, I've been making some fabric flowers and bows and started putting them onto headbands.

I didn't realise just how much pretty fabric I had until I started making the flowers!! 

So then I attached some to headbands and was wondering how I could photograph them so that you could see the full effect as if I just lay them down and took a photo it looked like this

So I trawled Ebay and looked at mannequin heads and then my mum suggested borrowing my 5 yr old nieces play mannequin head - doh why didn't I think of that!!  So that's what I did!!  She is so pretty, here she is

Just added a blonde wig that I had to her and voila! ready to go!!!!


Here are some of the hairbands that I've made up

It's quite addictive though!!!  They are available to buy on my Facebook page here.

Hope you like them!

Cake International - London Excel

Hi Everyone

My post today is about my trip on Saturday to Cake International at the Excel in London.  I went with my sister who is the cakemaker, you can see some of her cakes on her Facebook page - The Sugar Plum Fairy.  We caught the coach up in the morning from Bristol and then took the underground and the Docklands Light Railway to get to the Excel.  Pretty straightforward and easy to get to!

The show was packed and there was a real variety of ages, both male and female.  I was quite surprised at the amount of men there and not all of them were there to just carry their partner's shopping either!!

Some stalls were 3 or 4 people deep and you either had to nudge your way in or come back to that one later!!

There was a good selection of cake making/decorating items available with some nice offers.  We caught a glimpse of Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood and did try later to go and watch their live demo but it was packed and unfortunately the sound quality on the mike was awful and the camera pointed onto them rather than on what they were doing so the TV screens were abit pointless!!  We watched the start of the demo then decided we were wasting our time!!

There were some fantastic cakes and sugar crafting on display there and the cakes that were entered into the competion were excellent.  I've taken lots of photos of the cakes in case you are interested to see them!  If you aren't, then don't scroll down any further haha!!!I tooko the photos with my phone so they are not the best quality but not too bad considering!!

Do you recognise who the one below is???

Well that's the last photo - there were many more cakes but these were the ones that caught my eye!!