That's right, I'm blogging about bunting again...

Okay, this will probably be my last bunting post for a while...I think, he he he!  Surprising as it may seem, the bunting that I promised to sew for the two cheeky monkeys (see here) is finally finished.  I think I made the project much harder for myself by agreeing to adorn the bunting flags with various laces, ribbons and applique shapes but I am a bit of a sucker when it comes to my kids' crafty requests.  Deciding to use ribbon instead of bias tape for the bunting tape was also not a good call - live and learn!

 

The girls chose the fabric for the buntings themselves and I have to say that I'm quite surprised that they actually match quite well.  They were all for rummaging through my lace and ribbon supplies too, but I thought it was safer for me to just pull out the trims which matched their fabric choices.

My favourite part of the buntings is the vintage sari silk scraps I used to decorate several of the flags.  These strips of fabric are among my favourite trims to use in spite of the difficulties involved in using them (and by difficulties, I mean the need to iron and stop edges from fraying, LOL).  Anyway, the girls love their new bunting and I think they are planning to pull them out every time we have a birthday party!  And hopefully any bunting I sew in the near future will be doily creations for my homewares store.    :)

Friday Finds - Wardrobe Additions

I don't recall ever mentioning this on the blog, but my new year's resolution for this year was to make a serious committment to my weight loss and exercise regime to lose all the excess weight I put on when I was pregnant with the cheeky monkeys.  Well, I have had a few hiccups, but I'm still faintly pleased that I have lost some weight and am getting a lot better with my eating and exercising.  So...today's Friday finds are some gorgeous clothes I would love to own once I have achieved my goals!

Bordeaux Bolero

Linen Camisole

Kerry Skirt

Tunic Dress

Another Post About Headbands...

I have no idea why, but I seem to have spent the last several months honing my sewing skills rather than working on my usual beaded and cabochon jewellery or vintage dictionary art print projects.  I suspect that this is negatively impacting on my online stores, but it has been nice to focus on something else for a change.

So as you have probably worked out from the title, today's post is about headbands.  Actually, just one headband, because this one had been a WIP sitting on my craft desk for weeks before I finally got round to finishing it and I haven't had a chance to make any more...oops.  I made this headband for Miss 5 (which she is planning to wear to school as red is one of her school's colours) although I have reservations about her wearing such a large accessory to school, it might poke someone in the eye!

Miss 3 modelling the headband since Miss 5 had a sudden bout of camera shyness, LOL.

I got the idea for the fabric flower from an old issue of the Spotlight craft magazine, Get Creative, but I am sure someone must have a tutorial for it on their blog somewhere.  If you really can't find a tutorial, just let me know and I'll try and whip one up!

Doily Distractions

You might have already gathered from posts such as this, this and this that I am rather partial to doilies, especially vintage ones.  I'm not quite sure what the fascination is, especially since I don't actually use doilies for their intended purpose, but the fascination is there all the same.  So much so that I recently decided that I wanted to sew a vintage doily bunting and immediately proceeded to scour several of my local op shops for my supplies.

As you can see in this rather badly lit photo (my apologies, the Melbourne weather has not been accommodating for photography), I managed to find the required number of doilies for my creation, although technically, two of my "doilies" are actually the two halves of a beautiful crocheted placemat.  You'll also notice that I included some pretty, embroidered segments from salvaged vintage napkins.  It was a bit of a wrench to cut up the napkins, but I comforted myself with the knowledge that some of them were soiled beyond repair and therefore useless for anything other than scrap fabric.

I had a lot of fun putting together this impromptu bunting and am even considering making a few to sell in my soon-to-be-opened upcycled vintage homewares store, Domum Vindemia.  What do you think?

Cute Papercraft Tutorials

Many of you will know that I like to try my hand at an eclectic range of crafts.  I like to think it is because I'm adventurous, but it probably just highlights my inability to focus on anything for an extended period of time, he he he.  Anyway, today's post is a round up of several papercrafts which I like to work on every now and then - enjoy!

A super simple envelope tutorial

Beautiful iris folding

Fun paper lanterns - simple enough for the kiddies

My Creative Space: Bunting

You may remember my recent sewing attempts this past summer when I tackled several new projects (see this post).  Well, the two cheeky monkeys were greatly enamoured of the bunting which I made for my friend's daughter and have been "putting in orders" for their very own bunting.  Admittedly, what should have been a relatively simple project has, for one reason or another, taken me quite a while to complete.  So I thought I would show off my progress to date in an attempt to spur me on!

Actually, thanks to the few hours I have free on the mornings when monkey #1 is at school and monkey #2 is at kindergarten, I have finally managed to adorn and sew up all of the flags for both buntings.  All I need now is for the ribbon I ordered to arrive so that I can turn my collection of flags into "bunting"!

You can find more creative spaces here.

Wordless Wednesday - Father

Daddy's Little One Tie Clip

Father Eco Print

 

Father Kanji Art

Father Keychain

A New Design of Hair Clips

I hope you have all had great weekends - this past one for me has been pretty busy!  But in between shopping, going for a run, cooking for my sister-in-law's birthday party, attending said party, practising piano for church and playing piano at church (phew!), I managed to put together a new style of hair clip which will hopefully be hitting my Etsy and Madeit stores in the coming weeks.

 

This set of clips comprises a mix of vintage and contemporary cabochons attached to antiqued brass alligator-style hair clips.  I love the way the brown of the brass is complemented by the darker colours of these sweet cabs!  I haven't decided on a name for these clips yet but am toying with Oceania, Peacock and Meadow.  What do you think?

This eclectic set of clips was designed for the two cheeky monkeys and myself!  I have been wanting some new hair accessories for myself and ended up creating a set that would match a range of my outfits as well as the monkeys' outfits, he he.  As you can see, the clips are also available in a shiny black and shiny silver colour.  For anyone interested in ordering a custom set of my new range of alligator clips, I am more than happy to discuss colour schemes and requirements via email (see my "Contact" page).

What's New - Fabric Cuffs

Hello my dear readers and welcome to March!  I know, I know, it's been a long time between posts for me at the moment.  Life has become exceedingly busy this year as the cheeky monkeys' schedules fill up, not helped by my mild obsession with the Twilight series of books, ha ha ha.  I am trying to ease myself back into the swing of blogging, so today I thought I would show off some of my newest creations.

I am still very enamoured of my new line of fabric cuffs and have been slowly working on new designs when I'm not busy being a mum, wife, daughter and obsessed book worm.  This week I have managed to add two new designs to my Madeit store and I hope to add more designs over the coming weeks.

Mocha Royale Cuff

The Mocha Royale cuff above was inspired by my love of hand dyed vintage doilies as well as the elegantly regal Michael Miller cotton fabric I just had to purchase while I was shopping for linen.  I have to admit that when I first purchased the vintage doilies and doily remnants from a talented Aussie artisan, I had no idea what I was going to do with them, especially the remnants.  But, there's just something a little irresistable about ruffled cuffs (to me at least) so I guess there are no surprises that at least one of the remnant pieces got used in this way.

Maharajah Watch Cuff

This second cuff, the Maharajah, has been a design idea floating around in my head for at least a month.  I am absolutely in love with my stash of vintage sari scraps and have been feverishly trying to come up with different ways of using them in my creations.  The piece used in this cuff is a gorgeous violet purple shot through with strands of red so that the colour of the fabric changes depending on how the sun hits it...sigh of pleasure!  And to add more functionality to this cuff, the sweet heart-shaped watch face is attached via two clasps, making it easy to remove when the batteries need changing.

This final cuff has been an idea in my head for even longer than the Maharajah cuff has been in my head!  I haven't been able to quite get the design right, though, so I'm still playing with ideas to fully turn the vision in my head into reality.  I will also soon be playing with darker coloured fabrics and trims to create cuffs more suited to those who prefer to wear darker shades as well as working on more feminine and ruffled designs to add to the range - I can't wait and hope you can't either!

To celebrate the release of my fabric cuff range in my Madeit store, I am offering free regular shipping on any fabric cuffs purchased with another item in either my Etsy or Madeit stores.  For example, if you purchase a pair of earrings AND a fabric cuff, you only pay shipping for the earrings!  You don't need to use any special codes, I will refund you the difference.  This offer lasts until March 8, 2011.