Fascinator Refashion

In a few weekends time the girls and I are heading off to Ascot for a day at the races (for my non UK readers, Ascot is a posh little town in Berkshire that's very expensive for everything, google it, it's lovely), so it's posh dresses and hats/fascinators all round! So after spending quite a bit on my dress I was reluctant to spend a further £50 for a fascinator seeing as it's not something I will probably wear very often after Ascot I decided to do it the thrifty way... also means I don't have the same fascinator from Debenhams as everyone else there lol.
I started by raiding all the charity shops for a basic black fascinator and failed miserably.. mum even tried although she confused one poor old lady who thought mum was asking to be fascinated rather than asking if they had fascinators lol! My dress is black and white stripes.. will add more pictures come the weekend in june.. so a simple monochrome fascinator is all I need.
I ended up with a cheap cute black fascinator from Claires Accessories and took it to my local fabric shop to buy some goodies to dress it up a bit.. I bought white ribbon with glittery edges, fluffy white feathers and a black+white flower to replace the rubbish plastic gem in the centre.
Here's the before and after shots of the fascinator...

..and because I know there will always be someone who wants to see it on, here's a photo of me total underdressed wearing my fascinator :)

Zipper Make-Up Bag

Tuesday was my mum's birthday, so I thought today I'd share with you the zipper make-up I made her as her present. I found the tutorial for making this over at See Kate Sew. Mum was so impressed with ehrs that I'll be making more for her to give as gifts to her friends for their birthdays. Good thing I have a plethora of fabrics in many colours and patterns stashed away to amke some different ones in.
So this one is made from black lace, with a white silky layer behind it and then a silky thick, deep purple layer as the liner, which she can easily flip out to wipe out any mess without turning the whole bag inside out. quick, simple and mum loved it, what can I ask for?

1st 'proper' scrapbook page

This weeks challenge over at Crafty Creations is to make something with a flower on it, a bit of ribbon and some patterned paper.. so I think this scrapbook page fits in perfectly with this :)
My patterned paper is the page, there's plenty of flowers on it and 2 different types of ribbon too!
It's the first ever non-digi scrapbook page I've made and although it was fun to do I prefer my digi, it's quicker, easier and doesn't take as long to find all the right elements to make the page work.. plus digi doesn't need a careful home to keep it safe lol!

Jujub Jersey Bracelet

On my daily stalk of Ucreate on saturday I came across a fab tutorial on how to make a jersey rosette bracelet fraom the ladies over at JuJub, so as a break from doing my uni work I decided to make myself one... no doubt there will end up being more in many different colours too as they are great!

For mine I used an old thin knit scarf that I'm told by my boyfriend makes me look too studenty so I shouldn't be seen out with him wearing it... so it's being repurposed again into something that I can get away with wearing.. as if I'd throw one of my favourite scarves away permanently!

So here's my jersey rosette bracelet...

Clutch bag makeover (take 2)

Seeing as blogger rudely deleted my post from yesterday of my clutch bag and didn't return it to my blog as their maintenance page informed me it would I'm having to repost it again!

So a small dilemma happened when I last wanted a black bag for night out.. my little black clutch bag looked sad, worn and well, hideous to be honest... in the end I changed my whole outift as I didn't want to be seen with such an awful looking bag. The other day I had a brainwave and thought I could make it over as it's only the outer fabric that's shabby.

And after a little bit of thinking and throwing fabrics out of the drawer this is what I came up with....

If you want have a go at this too then you'll need:

• a clutch bag
• complementing colour fabric
• fabric flower
• 22 x 6mm beads
• glue gun
• scissors1. First I cut the lacy fabric off (this was the bit that was amking my bag look awful so it had to go). The fabric underneath is great and is the same as the fabric I used for the leaves to cover it.
  
  2. Take your fabric and cut it into little pieces, one for every leaf. Make a small pile of fabric, draw a leaf on the top piece and cut it out, repeat till you have enough to cover the bag. (I needed 36 to cover my bag)
  3. Start by glue gunning the first leaf at the bottom of the metal frame.
  
  4. Continuing glue gunning the leaves along the bottom of the bag.
  5. Continue by sticking leaves in layers that just about cover the top of the leaves on the layer beneath.
  7. Glue the top layer as close to the metal frame as possible. Don't worry if there's a little glue overspill as the beads will cover this.
  8. Start glueing the beads along the lower edge of the metal frame, removing excess glue before it dries.
  9. Continue glueing beads on till there's enough along the frame to mirror the starting point on the opposite end. 10. Add the fabric flower as an embellishment and then the bag is finished!
  Looks 100 times better than it did when I started and now I'm more than happy to take it out with me :) If the fabric flower isn't your taste then skip the last step as it still looks good without it, or perhaps add a different embellishment to suit the outfit you want it to go with.

Clutch Bag Makeover

Just in case anyone missed it here's my bag makeover tutorial that was featured on Making The World Cuter at the end of April...

So a small dilemma happened when I last wanted a black bag for night out.. my little black clutch bag looked sad, worn and well, hideous to be honest... in the end I changed my whole outift as I didn't want to be seen with such an awful looking bag. The other day I had a brainwave and thought I could make it over as it's only the outer fabric that's shabby.

And after a little bit of thinking and throwing fabrics out of the drawer this is what I came up with....

If you want have a go at this too then you'll need:

• a clutch bag
• complementing colour fabric
• fabric flower
• 22 x 6mm beads
• glue gun
• scissors1. First I cut the lacy fabric off (this was the bit that was amking my bag look awful so it had to go). The fabric underneath is great and is the same as the fabric I used for the leaves to cover it.2. Take your fabric and cut it into little pieces, one for every leaf. Make a small pile of fabric, draw a leaf on the top piece and cut it out, repeat till you have enough to cover the bag. (I needed 36 to cover my bag)3. Start by glue gunning the first leaf at the bottom of the metal frame.

4. Continuing glue gunning the leaves along the bottom of the bag.5. Continue by sticking leaves in layers that just about cover the top of the leaves on the layer beneath.7. Glue the top layer as close to the metal frame as possible. Don't worry if there's a little glue overspill as the beads will cover this.
8. Start glueing the beads along the lower edge of the metal frame, removing excess glue before it dries.
9. Continue glueing beads on till there's enough along the frame to mirror the starting point on the opposite end. 10. Add the fabric flower as an embellishment and then the bag is finished!
Looks 100 times better than it did when I started and now I'm more than happy to take it out with me :) If the fabric flower isn't your taste then skip the last step as it still looks good without it, or perhaps add a different embellishment to suit the outfit you want it to go with.

Lollystick bracelets

Working through my pinterest board of ideas and again.... todays project was lollystick bracelets made using Suzy's tutorial over at Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom...

I didn't paint mine though, I chose mod podge and tissue paper to decoupage them instead :)

So here's my take on Suzy's tutorial...

Long Sleeve To Bow Cap Sleeve Top

Here's another of my top refashions from the clothing spree I seem to be on at the moment... this one's made using a tutorial from Emma over at Ruby Murray..

Found myself a long sleeve stripy top in the New Look sale for £4 qhen I was shopping for some simple summer tops and knew I had to get it so I could try this refashion, it's been sitting on my Pinterest board staring at me for a while now...

Didn't quite follow the tutorial exactly, I left the stage of sewing the scrap from the cuff round the neckline as my top already had a pretty good collar anyway.
Even got a photo of me wearing the top as well...

Linking up to the parties on the party page and Gluesticks

Featured Over At My Girlish Whims

Ok so I think we can definately call my Anthro One More Time Tank Tutorial a success now... today Rebecca has featured it over at My Girlish Whims!

Featured over at I'm Topsy Turvy

Today Ashlee over at I'm Topsy Turvy has featured my Anthro One More Time Tank as well, what a success this lil top is turning out to be!

Featured Over At Dittle Dattle & Simply Cadence

Another windy morning here in the UK, and another 2 comments telling me that my Anthro tank will be featured from last weeks linky party, how exciting?! Guess Anthro knockoffs are still going strong out in blogland, can't wait to get started on my next one!

Carrie from Dittle Dattle featured me as one of her favourites from last week...
..and Jaclyn from Simply Cadence featured me as her favourite from last week too :)