Dr Who

I have three boys, the youngest of whom, Oliver, turned 11 today.  

Having been a bit of a tomboy as a child (not liking dolls, always wanting a train set and a Scalextric track), I am very happy to have boys.  Yes they can be messy and noisy (or grumpy and sullen now that they are in their teens) but they can also be very loving, great fun and have the ability to make you laugh more often than they make you cry!

One of the other brilliant thing about my boys is they love lots of the same things as me, especially when it comes to films and TV.  We all love Star Wars, Star Trek, Bond films and anything Marvel or DC. And they also love Dr Who.   Ever since it came back on the TV we've sat down together to watch the various Drs battle Sontarins, Weeping Angels and of course Daleks.  

So when it comes to birthday cakes there is often a request for something related to their latest favourite film or character.   

This year Oliver requested a Dalek but one that was better than his older brothers from a couple of years back.   That was a Dalek who hadn't realised that he couldn't go down stairs and had landed on his head.

I forgot to bake a rounded cake for the head so added madeleines which ended up being lumpy.  It was also my first attempt at fondant icing ...so all in all a bit of an experiment.

Since then I have made more fondant covered cakes, including a Tardis so I am getting better at it.

This Dalek was made up of 4 sponges... coloured red.

Blue fondant icing made from a recipe from My Cup Cake Addiction using melted marshmallow.  (Very easy, but very sticky!)

 http://mycupcakeaddiction.com







Unfortunately, I opened the oven door too quickly on the fourth cake and it sunk in the middle.   We (Oliver and I) decided to fill it with sweets.

The cakes are stuck together and covered with coffee flavoured butter cream.

So here is the finished Dalek.... we used licorice for all the black decorations and some blue sweets for the bobbly bits.  

It seems a bit of a shame to cut it up but I'm looking forward to tasting it later .... 

Flowers everywhere

I've been neglecting this blog lately.  It's not that I'm writing anything else it's just that I don't seem to find the time to sit down and write.   I'm always doing something else.  Even some of my sewing projects have taken a back seat as I have been doing more floral creations than fabric ones.

I friend of mine, who owns a restaurant in the village (where I waitress three days a week) and who was catering for a wedding, recommended me to the young Canadian couple to do the flowers.   My initial reaction was complete panic and then, having met them, I realised it was a fantastic opportunity.  The style of flowers they wanted (nice and natural) is just what I like plus their colour scheme was beautiful.  The bride's only real request was to have hydrangeas.

So, I arranged with a friend who sells plants at several local markets to go with him one morning to Toulouse in order to buy the cut flowers.  I didn't realise that this meant leaving at 3.30 am! But once I got over the shock of getting up at 2.30 am, it was a real experience and I came back with a great selection.

From these buckets fulls of flowers, I needed to make three bouquets, four or five button holes, all the table decorations as well as improvise something to make some iron stair railings more attractive.  So....

 

Bride's bouquet 

 

Bride and bridesmaid's bouquets (with colour coordinated buckets!)

 

Buttonholes 

 

Railings

Thankfully one of the guests took some great photos of the table decorations as by the time they were ready it was getting late and I needed to get home to change to come back out and waitress at the reception.   So here are some much more professional looking photos.

 

The Granville Shirt

I don't usually wear shirts but I fell in love with the Sewaholic Granville shirt.  

So I bought the pattern and some lovely blue cotton chambray from my favourite on-line fabric shop, Fabric Godmother (http://www.fabricgodmother.co.uk).

I haven't made a shirt like this for years so took my time and followed the sew-along instructions on the Sewaholic blog (Thank you Tasia for making it all so much easier).  

Here is the finished shirt.  It's a little larger than I thought but that is my fault for not believing I could possibly be smaller than a size 10 (I don't think I've ever been that small).  Also my husband thinks the sleeves are too long but I much prefer longer ones to being too short.  In any case, the boyfriend look is in!

Wedding Flowers

My Mum had been taught flower arranging by Constance Spry.  She could cut a few flowers and greenery from her garden, put them in a vase and it always looked great.    After Mum died I thought I'd like to study floristry at evening classes so I enrolled at Southwark College for an HND.   I ended up going for three years and my husband got used to having a funeral wreath or a pew end on the kitchen table.

But I have not really done anything much since then (a friend's wedding 12 years ago and a couple of hand-tied bouquets and some table decorations for home at Christmas).

So when some friends asked me to do the flowers for their wedding Easter weekend,  I was a bit nervous.   Luckily they only wanted four baskets of flowers for the table decorations and the brides bouquet.  

 

Flowers ready for arranging.

 

Baskets with greenery.

 

Flower baskets

 

The bride's bouquet 

Finished table decorations in place at the reception....

Considering it's been so long since I last attempted anything, I'm quite happy with the final result.  I hope the happy couple were too.

Finished curtains...

Finally managed to finish the curtains and hang them.  They are a little long but as there will eventually be a new pole which will be a little higher... they will fit perfectly.

The photos aren't great as the weather was rather changeable on the day I took them.  

Curtains

I haven't had time for much dressmaking lately, although I still have hundreds of projects running around in my head.  

I have still been doing a little bit of sewing though... 

I'm making curtains for a friend.  The fabric is beautiful - very velvety but very heavy.   The finished curtains are almost 3m long and for a window that almost fills one wall of her dinning room.  

 I had to cut the fabric out on my sitting room floor as it is the only area big enough.

 

Although not obvious at first glance, the pattern was quite tricky to match and the seams took ages as the lozenges need to go together carefully so as not to be distorted.

Luckily my trusty Bernina copes with anything. (I love this machine... it cost more than my car when I first bought about 20 years ago but it has repaid me so many times over the years in the money I've saved making my own clothes).

I used my overlocker on the top edge as the fabric frayed terribly and I didn't want any bulk under the tape heading I'm going to use.   

The curtains aren't finished yet.. but only headings to go so hopefully I'll be able to post a picture of the finished, hanging curtains very soon. 

Uptown / Downtown

Back at the end of last summer, I bought some lovely Isabella wool mix jersey in navy and black from Fabric Godmother (http://www.fabricgodmother.co.uk).  The idea was to make a dress similar to this one from Hot Patterns - but as usual I wanted to make a few alterations just to make my sewing life easier!   I hesitated for ages before cutting out as I was worried the fabric would be too clingy so I made a couple of t shirts first to see how it would wash and wear.

 

I've already made the Uptown / Downtown dress in sweatshirting.  It's a really warm, comfy dress but didn't turn out anything like the images above.  There is virtually no gathering around the elastic waist as the fabric is too thick and I really hated how the band sat around the bottom so ended up removing it completely.    Despite checking the sleeve length first, they were too short (not that I have monkey arms) and the cuffs didn't cover my wrists.  The only option at that stage was to double the length of the cuff band, which actually looks quite nice but...

It's an easy pattern for beginners especially if you watch the YouTube videos first to see how to make the neck and wrist bands.   The "quartering" technique of dividing the neck and band into quarters (or even 8th or 16ths) made it much easier to attach and I've used this method on other knits since.

Anyway for the latest effort, I decided to remove the elastic and the seam at the waist and flare out the skirt to more of a skater style. 

Having cut the pattern pieces out during the Christmas holidays, I finally got round to finishing the dress a few days ago and I'm quite pleased with the result.   I'm a bit of a novice jersey sewer but it's not as difficult as it first seems as long as you use the right needles.   I overlocked all the seams as I went along (I like my sewing to look good on the inside too) and used a twin needle to sew around the neck band and the hem.   This is a  really nice neck line and sits well once ironed.  

(I know the photos aren't very good.  I'm going to have to butter up my husband to take future ones as my 14 year old son wasn't very enthusiastic about being my official blog photographer!)

In the end I think this dress will be a bit of a warmer, Spring weather one as the fabric is not that thick but I do like how it looks with opaque tights.  It will also be one to wear on "thin" days as it clings to every lump and bump!