Guest Post Nifty Thrifty Things

And here's the post I shared on friday over at Nifty Thrifty Things

Hi my names Steph and I post over at Southern Fairy Designs. I'm an aircraft mechanic, glider pilot and crafter... polar opposites I know but it keeps me ahppy and that's what really counts. I make jewellery, bags, home decor, celebration items (flags and bunting), brooches and recently I've started making some clothes for myself.
One of my favourite pieces of clothing I've made is the top in the photo below. I made it to take away on holiday, if you want to see what happened the day I wore it to Gibraltar then click the photo below.

To see the details of the projects below then just click on the photos.
Another of my favourite makes recently is this lace flower necklace... yes I've lived in it, hence it being in 2 photos in this post and many more across my blog

This cupcake pouch is my new jewellery bag for when we go travelling... been making these as presents for friends and family... in the last few weeks I've been making these for customer orders, plenty of lovely fabrics sat in my drawer waiting to be turned into many more pouches.

Then there's what seems to be the most popular post I have ever put on my blog... My Anthro Power Of 3 necklace knockoff  tutorial... which well over 6 months after I posted it is still receiving 100's of hits every week.

Thanks for taking the time to have a read and I do hope you stop by and visiti my blog some time soon :) And thanks to Vanessa for letting me post on her blog!

 

Lace Tee Revamp

So now the weather is meant to be changing here in the UK (perhaps someone forgot to tell the weather today as it was 27C!) I thought I'd best start on my autumn/winter clothes making list. I started with a quick, simple one using Katy from Sweet Verbena's tutorial... the only thing I really changed was the neckline of the t-shirt I used, I'm not a huge fan of round necks I prefer my necklaces hanging above the neckline so it was a V neck for me.

 And here's a pic of me modelling my new refashioned t-shirt... that lace flower necklace of mine seems to be a constant feature in all my clothes posts recently, anyone starting to get the idea how much I love and wear that necklace? It's about the only one I wear apart from my silver heart necklace!

Over the weekend I'll share the cards and presents made for the September birthdays in my life... my man and his mum.

Last Of The Summer Wardrobe

So here's the last piece of clothing I had to make for the summer... didn't get finished till a few days before holiday so had to wait till I wore it on holiday to get a decent photo.

This top started off life as a length of jersey material and a strapless bra that was getting a little loose.. so with the help of Kirsten's tutorial it became the super top shown in the photos.

It even got worn out on our trip to Gibraltar... where I got climbed all over by the Barbary Apes!

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.

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

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?

Scarves to Summer Tops

Whilst trawling through H&M over the weekend with mum on our girly shopping trip in Reading I found some awesome print scarves for £1 each so I grabbed one of each colour. One in blue and one in hot pink.... oh and I forgot to mention they are leopard print too! Mum's face when I went over to her was priceless, 'So what do you plan on turning these into then?', guess she knows me too well and knows what I tend to do to scarves... especially when they are cheaper than the fabric would be from a fabric shop!

Having seen all the pins on Pinterest of this Anthropologie top and tutorials on how to make one similar, like over at Sweet Verbena, this is what I decided the scarves had to be refashioned into....


and so they did....

Here's the pink leopard print one, love the yellow and black bits really brings out the print and makes it a little in your face (it's my fave of the 2 prints).
Ok so you can't see the bow in the photos as the print kinda gets lost in itself but I assure you it's there, it's kinda large. Took a photo of me wearing it (not a fab pic was took from my Blackberry by the OH), but you can see it's quite fitted. I had a slight fit doing this one as I cut the material thought it was too small and threw it into a corner till I'd finished the 2nd print slightly larger cut top then realised it would be a good fit after all. another slight difference with this top is that I didn't cut the fabric into 2 rectangles, I made mine like a tube to save losing any precious fabric that I'd need to make the top fit me right.
Here's the 2nd print scarf, leopard print again but a slightly calmer, less in your face colourscheme of blue, lime and white. The bow is a lot easier to see on this one too!As you can tell from the photo it's a lot looser fit than the pink one, but I like it makes them different and means it'll be ideal for the hot days out on our holiday in September. This top was made following the tutorial method of cutting the fabric into 2 rectangles and sewing them together to form the body of the top. The only extra thing I had to do on both tops was sew an edge for the underarms to stop the fabric fraying away.

See crappy British summer weather I defy you, I will still make myself lovely summer tops even if they don't see the light of day till September and then again next summer!