Wearing The Sailor Collar Top

Couldn't be waiting for my bloke to be home to take the photos, it's days before he's off work and the weather isn't keeping the evenings light here so taking photos isn't exactly easy...

So bear with me and my attempts to take 'good' photos of me wearing latest creation in our gorgeous vintage bedroom mirror.

Wow how many attempts do you think it took to get a decent pic of the back? Well about 7... my hair got in the way or I just totally misaimed the camera and took lovely photos of the wall lol.

Blog Makeover

The blog has finally been treated to a super makeover... thanks to Lindsay at Southern Lovely for picking me as the winner of the competition... and an even bigger thanks to Cindy of Blessed Graphic Design for creating the awesome design and putting up with my picky little demands on what I really wanted...

Don't you just love the new signature too:)

Sailor Collar Top

Seeing as the bad weather seems to already be settling in I'm making a start on a couple of autumn tops to make along side the last of my summer wardrobe for my holiday, my orders and now the stock I need to get made up for my first ever craft market stall (EXCITE! but more news to come on that at a later date)..

Here's what used to be a plain white t-shirt till I read the latest issue of Cloth magazine.. they had this beautiful tutorial on how to make a sailor collar to just wear over dresses or whatever you fancied... I didn't quite like that idea so I thought I'd make it a permanent fixture on an otherwise boring top..

I kept the long ribbon bow from the original design as otherwise the collar would have fallen short of the centre of the neckline and left a void... and i love ribbons and bows so why not add the extra omph to the top!

If anyone wants the template and tutorial for this project then it's here but do check out the other projects while you are there coz there's some stunners in amongst them!

I haven't got a picture of me wearing it yet as there's no one else home to a photo of the back, so give me a day or so and I'll make sure I put another post up with the photos

Great Pinterest Challenge August 2011

Morning ladies and gents... so here we go again Round 2 of the Great Pinterest Challenge voting has begun and once again I need help, please please plase come vote for me!

Here's my piece for the challenge...

To help me out here's what you gotta do...

1. Go to Honeybear Lanes facebook page and 'like' it
2. Go to my photo in the Great Pinterest Challenge album and 'like' it. Either click here, click the photo above or have a browse throught the album yourself till you find me.

There's some gorgeous projects in that album there really are, think the sewing category of the challenge will be a hard round to do well in.. so please everyone come help me.. much appreciated if you do :)

With A Little Bit Of Lace...

British summer may be coming to an end (it's pouring with rain here and has been all day) but I'm still making myself summery clothes in the hope we have a few more good days/weeks.. and then of course there's the good weather and sun I hope for on our holiday (less than a month to go!) so I still think it's a good idea to plough on with the clothes projects...

This time I fancied myself a denim skirt, but not just the boring kind you find in the shops... nor was I keen on the denim ones with denim waistbands and scarf fabric for the remainder of the skirt...
So I hit ebay and found myself this New Look denim skirt with the little worn patches and tears...
A little bit.. well 3/4 of a metre of lace, pins, my sewing machine, scissors, needle and thread later this is what my skirt looked like. My sewing machine could be used for the majority of the lace but the trim round the pockets and flowers on the rear had to be hand sewn on as I couldn't get them to feed through the machine without stitching it together. The flowers and trim pieces came from a scrap of the lace used for the thick trim around the bottom of the skirt. I left it overhanging the denim at the bottom as it just looked a bit more girly and made the most of the scalloped edging of the lace.

It's not so short really.. and it looks great on..

The I thought it deserved a full outfit photo as well to show how ace it looks on... notice the lace flower necklace and nautical bow shoes... yup both things I've made
To see th

Featured over at... Wiccan Make Some Too

Found another comment last night syaing my T-shirt stripy skirt was going to be featured as a highlight from last weeks party.. this time it was from Beth over at Wiccan Make Some Too She has recently started up a weekly linky party so drop by and join in!

Thanks for featuring my skirt Beth :)

and today (15/8) over at Dittle Dattle too

Featured over at... J and M's Eye Candy

So I received a comment from Brit at J and M's Eye Candy telling me my stripy t-shirt skirt was going to be featured today in the favourites roundup from last weeks linky party.. Super chuffed with that... the skirt seems to have gone down pretty well and it seems I may have inspired a few more people to give the tutorial a try..

See I have the button to prove I was featured too :) Thanks ladies!

Lace flower necklace

I seem to be leaving the sewing machine alone a little at the moment, so guess what I have gone back to doing... yup more jewellery.. can never have enough necklaces so I have made yet another...
I pinned the tutorial Ashley (Little Miss Momma) did over at Tatertos & Jello (it's here if you want it too) the other week and decided it had to be made, so with a spare few minutes the other morning I whipped one up with some stash from a recent fabric shop trip.

Look I even tried to copy the bathroom mirror pose too.. this is now my facebook display picture.. yes I'm somewhat of a poser but it never occurred to me to pose in my crafty pics, no idea why... so prepare for more posed pics in the future!

A close up just so you can see the large pearls hidden amongst the lace.

(for the sake of linking up to some parties, needing backlinks: http://makingtheworldcuter.com/)

Featured over at... Stay At Home Nation

Found a comment on my blog this morning from Iffy (Cameron) from Stay At Home Nation telling me that she had featured my Scrabble Wordplay Decor for this weeks Spotlight.

Thanks very much Iffy!

T-shirt Stripy Skirt

Let me start by saying how over the moon I am with this skirt! So glad it all worked out right in the end after all the confusion trying to figure how to pin all the strips together so it all flipped out the right way... very very happy with the result!

So here's my stripy skirt made from strips cut from t-shirts...

LOVE IT! So I took the tutorial from Cutton And Curls here to make my skirt... yes it's another idea from my Pinterest board I know I'm on fire working my way through my boards projects but there's still so many left to try!

Can anyone else tell I'm totally in love with this skirt yet? Only thing I'm thinking is that if I make another one I may take a t-shirt of a smaller size to make the waist band to save taking it in... or making little belt loops for some ribbon to hold it up better and look pretty too?

Should mention that my man loves this... not only is it a nice skirt to him but it's black and white stripes just his football team's kit.... Newcastle United lol oh dear!

Voting required please!

Hi there lovely readers of my blog... I'm hoping you can help me.. see I've once again entered myself into a competition that needs you lovelies to vote for my piece in order for me to win. Sorry can't help my competitive streak, seems to be about quite a bit recently lol.

So... Amie over at Kitty Cats and Airplanes ran a competition called 3...2...1... Craft! where the challenge was to finish off or even start and finish a summer sewing project. She then picked her top 5 entries to be entered into the final stage of the competition... Guess what my scarves to summer tops were included in this top 5! (To see them again click here)

To vote for me all you have to do is click on the picture to get to Amie's blog, scroll to the end of the post and vote for my 'scarf to tank upcycle'. Pretty pretty please?