Craftgawker and Summer Dresses

Oh wow! I have just discovered my new favourite internet website ever! It's called Craftgawker and if you are at all artsy-craftsy and have a love of beautiful, inspirational things then you really really need to get yourself over there RIGHT NOW! I think I'm in love...

Essentially it's a bit like Pinterest in that it a list of links to other beautiful things but the slight twist is that it's just jam-packed with fabulous tutorials to try at home. How great is that? So guess what I've been doing?

Well, having found myself over there and having spent the past few days wondering at my lack of cute summer dresses that fit me (the problem with losing a stone is that none of your clothes fit anymore and some of them I'm just not up to altering myself - I'm not that experienced at tailoring) I found myself totally drawn to this tutorial...

Click on the picture to go directly to the tutorial on Trinket in Bloom's site

And I discovered another gem of a website! I'm in love with Trinkets in Bloom's fashion D.I.Y tutorials and I suspect you'll be seeing some more bits and pieces appearing over the next few months. But for this week I thought I'd stick to just one thing... a new t-shirt dress.

I pretty much ran out the flat to go and find some t-shirts to get stuck into this. I was super excited about it... And then my excitement turned to despair. I couldn't find any nice t-shirts! You see, I had envisaged a really cute loose stripy navy and white dress and my local shop didn't have anything like that on offer. After some sad minutes looking through all the very unsuitable t-shirts I did however get a glimmer of hope: a t-shirt in a sort of minted-green/aquamarine colour. And even better - there was one a few sizes bigger too! It wasn't as long a t-shirt as I'd hoped and I was very worried about having such a bold colour as a dress - I'm usually all for the demure, cutesy things instead of the statements. But I bought them and got stuck in right away...

And here is the result! A really cute dress, super simple and easy to make. I'm not a dressmaker but I had this done and dusted within an hour of starting it and that included coming back into the other room to check instructions every 5 minutes. What a fabulous tutorial - easy to follow, quick to make, and the possibilities of variations are pretty great too: why not up-cycle some old t-shirts and make a more eclectic / varied dress with different colours and patterns?

My initial concerns about the colour being a little too much were, it turned out, well-founded. I am just not the person to be wandering around in such a bold statement colour with nothing to break it up. So I did a little re-vamping and had a look at what I could find...

... and now I am much happier with the result! What do you think? I definitely have plans to make another one of these. So if anyone sees any super cute stripy t-shirts in navy and white, or even better navy with white polka dots,  give me a shout. And if you are at all arts-&-craftsy then I suggest you go and look at Trinkets In Bloom's website now! Who knows what little gem you will be making this evening?

It's Christmas Time...

We're trying to teach the kids at school the Band Aid song. So far it's hilarious...

Anyway, getting into the Christmas spirit I finally made an advent calendar. I'm not actually very happy with it as I think it's a wee bit too red, but hey, it's the first advent calendar I've made so I shall be learning from my mistakes, right? I do actually like all the material on this one, but I shouldn't have had red gingham as the backdrop colour - it's made it a little too busy and red. I think the next one will be a night time scene with a gingerbread house as the focal point. Watch this space for updates... (you never know, by next year I may have made hundreds of these...!)

My new advent calendar is now loaded up with chocolates and sweeties for my flatmate and I to open each day. There are different presents in different pouches so it won't always be the same. I like the idea of having an advent calendar that you can get out every year and have as part of your Christmas decorations. And I'm sure it's better for the environment instead of those shop-bought cardboard, plastic and chocolate ones! Anyway, I've been enjoying my chocolate treats every morning but am wondering when I'll get my first Lindt truffle? (I KNOW there are some in there!!)

Product Review: Funky Diva iPhone Case

Exciting news! The lovely Anna from FunkyDivaDesigns asked me to sample one of her new products for her. In case you haven't come across FunkyDivaDesigns, you really should check out some of her bags because they are gorgeous and I would love to have one. As well as her site, she sells on Folksy  and is on Twitter too. Anyway, Anna asked me to try making one of her iPhone Kits and let her know what it was like. So here you are: my first product review!

A few weeks ago Anna sent me a sample kit which looked like this: 

Looking good hey? I was quite excited to get this and thought the material was quite cute too. Once I opened the packet I realised that all the pieces I needed had been pre-cut to size, including interfacing, pockets and the tag for the keychain. There were also some very comprehensive instructions which included pictures making it much easier to follow. There are 15 steps in all, but they show you how to pin, where exactly to sew and are broken down into very small pieces of information.

On the first page there was a list of everything I should have in the packet so that I could check and then it was merely a matter of following the instructions. Which was easy! Because Anna has broken the steps down into small pieces of information even someone who isn't good at following instructions (like myself) can follow! It was super easy to make!

My sewing machine decided to play up today - for some reason it was like a petulant child and wouldn't get the tension right whatever I did - but even so it still took only about an hour to finish my new iPhone case because FunkyDivaDesigns has put together such an easy to follow set of instructions that it took no time to assemble.

I would definitely recommend these for beginner sewers who want to make something fun and funky but don't have the experience to make their own patterns. They would make good gift ideas and, while they are aimed at adults, I think grumpy teenagers could be inspired to make themselves a cute homemade phone case too. It was also nice to take a break from the quilt project which had been going on forever and do something quickly and actually finish it! So thank you FunkyDivaDesigns for asking me to give it a go - now everyone else you need to go over to FunkyDivaDesigns and get yourselves a cute DIY phone case kit!

Silent Sunday