Spoonflower Design Swap: Alida Makes

Several light years ago, Stacey from Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy emailed some very talented and design savvy bloggers (and me) to ask if we wanted to participate in a fabric swap.  The catch: you had to design the fabric for your partner.  Naturally I thought I'd be pretty good at designing fabric (spoiler: I'm not) and was delighted and a little scared to be partnered with the amazingly stylish and creative Alida from Alida Makes.  Who then, of course, knocked out this amazing fabric in no time whatsoever:

Those, my friends, are Momongas (Japanese dwarf flying squirrels) carrying umbrellas in the rain. Obviously it is nearly impossible to do this fabric justice, but by jove I tried.

None of your lacklustre boring ol' skaters here.  A Bimaa Skater!

Told you I was going to Bimaa All The Things.

Bimaa-ing your skater is really easy, I just matched them up on the shoulder line and then swapped out the skater neckline for the Bimaa neckline.  The result is a narrower but deeper neckline that fits the Bimaa cowl (and the hood! and the shawl!).

So exciting.

I only had a yard of Alida's fabric so I had to be a bit creative. The skater skirt at 7/8 length was too tall to fit the Spoonflower interlock while leaving enough left over for the bodice and sleeves so I had to shorten the skirt quite considerably.  Once it was shorter, I did slash and spread it for some extra fullness.

Great from twirling.  Omitting the hem and instead adding a band at the bottom gave some of the omitted length back, plus the weight of the band gives the bottom edge some heft.

Thanks so much to Stacey for the Design Swap idea, Alida for the awesome fabric that both Maia and I adore, and Sarah for the Bimaa!  Hop over to Alida's blog to see what she made with the fabric I designed.

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Today is the last full day that the Sew Fab bundle is available (which includes my reversible zippy hoodie in all sizes and Sarah's Bimaa too).  As a designer, I get a portion of the sales made through my site so I really appreciate your support! You can get your hands on it here with my affiliate link.  But if it's the Bimaa that swayed it for you, it'd be so nice if you pop over to Sarah's blog to show her some love.

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Alice in Wonderland swap: What I sent

My lovely swap partner, vInTaGeVioLeT, has received her package so I can blog about what I made!

When I did a search on Etsy for Alice in Wonderland fabric, this is the one that I fell in love with. It is a Japanese fabric in linen with scenes from the Mad Hatter's tea party on a charcoal grey background.

I made a rather large flat-bottomed bag with a zipper closure and lined with black and white polkadot corduroy so it stands up very well. The zipper ends are covered with black and white polkadot grosgrain ribbin to match the lining. It was filled with a gracious plenty of Thornton's chocolates.

With each of the swaps I've participated in, I've tried to do one new craft that I've never done before. So this is my first entirely handmade journal. I made a 'Eat me, drink me' motif on the computer in different fonts and sizes, printed it onto iron-on fabric transfer and sealed it onto pink and white polkadot fabric. The edges were serged, the front of the journal is padded (with my trusty Thinsulate) and I folded blank paper to make it 100 pages. It has an elastic loop to keep it closed with a big mushroom button.

I found a tutorial online for a Japanese bookbinding technique and bound the journal that way. Other than poking through a bunch of layers, it wasn't very hard at all!

This is probably the strangest item that has even been craft-swapped (unless they do swaps in asylums)... A Mad Hatter shower cap. This was a bit of a joke because when I asked if my sweater beret looked like a shower cap, Megan insinuated it did. So I made her one, with a teal polkadot exterior and lined with waterproof nylon. And of course the Mad Hatter authentic '10/6' label.

And finally, the supplies... I included a double sided fabric from Japan, with one side with cameo-esque Alice scenes and the other side pastel suits of cards. And a rather lovely printed twill tape from France with verses from the book.

So a big thank you to Megan for my goodies (and an apology for my lateness!) and to Meridian Ariel for organising. Check out the Flickr pool for everyone else's amazing crafts!

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I am the Queen of Sheba

No longer content with merely languishing in my bed with my lions, I've moved on to new levels of jamminess: opening presents in my bed. I know, huh? This tonsilitis is working out real well for me. I am, of course, talking about the Alice and Wonderland craft swap that I signed up for on Meridian Ariel's blog. My lovely swap partner, Megan from maximum RABBITdesigns, sent me the most amazing package:

I didn't open it right away because my illness has made me 450% more selfish than before the kids were around and it said FRAGILE . Plus, just look at the package. Megan had stamped buttons all over it and they were so pretty I almost couldn't open it.

And then when I did open it (carefully preserving the button stamps), more lovely packaging with little goodies wrapped in pattern paper.

Oooo, spots. I like spots! Hold on, let's turn it over... Just look at this embroidery. Go have a lie down. Meet me back here in 15.

So amazing, right? I can't even begin to imagine how hard this was to make (not to mention time consuming), but I'm probably going to bring it to a tattooist and have it immortalised on my body.

And more. This cute jar has an pincushion top that says Eat Me. And has loads of treats inside.

I got some Alice-themed buttons too.

And as if I wasn't spoiled enough already, not only did I get these sweet little puppets / bookmarks but it came with a kit to make a dozen more.

You should definitely go over to Megan's blog to appreciate her talent. And also to the Alice and Wonderland swap Flickr group to see her pictures, seeing as they were not taken in a sick den they are much, much better than mine. Thank you so much Megan, yours will be in the post on Monday. I pinky swear.

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80's Fantasy Movie swap: What I received

I was so excited on Saturday when I received a giant package from my swap partner Apryl, chock full of such loveliness that I could barely cope with it:

Drawing of Sarah on tea-stained dictionary page

Gorgeous fragrant peach.

Needlebook (I've wanted one, forever)

Pretty little bracelets

Truly awesome fabric

What should I do with the truly awesome fabric? Other than frame it, mount it on the wall, build an altar, and worship it.

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80's Fantasy Movie Swap- the things I sent

Now that Apryl has received the swap package I sent, I can share what I made! Here was the brief:

Did you dream of flying on the back of the Luck Dragon? Finding One Eyed Willie’s pirate treasure to save your family home? Did you want David Bowie to give you shiny bobbles and tainted peaches? Sing dragons to sleep? Fight Rodents of Unusual Size? We may not live in the movies (quite as much now as we did, and we may possibly torture our offspring by making them watch the Labyrinth again and again...er where was I? ) but we can still craft them. So why not join my 80’s Fantasy Movie Craft Swap? You know you want to make a blue haired worm, or a Conan book cover!

Apryl's favourite fantasy movie is Labyrinth, so I made this tote:


It was my first attempt at freezer paper stenciling and I'm really pleased how it came out. If you can't tell what the stencil is, I used this as the basis:


The tote is lined with polkadot fabric:


And I also made this bookmark:


If you're not au fait with The Dark Crystal, you won't appreciate how many levels this is funny on. It's at least four, if not five.


We had to include some supplies as well, so I made these unicorn buttons in homage to The Last Unicorn. And some starry fabric too!

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Calling all geeks!

One of my favourite things about my bloggy / cyber life is meeting kindred spirits. One lady that I've found I share a lot in common with is Apryl from Meridian Ariel. We're both American ex-pats living in the UK and missing American family, shopping and sweeties. We're both crafty (as in craft-making, not sneaky). She's been very helpful in my quest to find an inappropriate love interest. We share the same sense of humour and a love of all things geeky (TV shows, books and people). I highly recommend following her on Twitter, she's hilarious and a fount of knowledge of all the funniest sites on the internet. And now another reason to love her: she's organising a swap based on my favourite movies!

I can't even tell you how many times I watched Labyrinth, The Neverending Story, Willow and The Princess Bride. When I was younger, my friend Alex and I could recite all dialogue from The Dark Crystal. So cool. Today's the last day to join the swap over on her blog. I've signed on the dotted line and invite you all to join too!

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Time for Tea Swap- goodies unveiled!

I received my swap package from the lovely Hannah yesterday and what a package it is! The kids were just as excited as I was, Jamie kept saying 'Happy Birthday, Mummy' with each little parcel. Same level of appropriateness as the 'Merry Christmas' wishes I get at bedtime every night, but hey-ho... It was jam- packed full of crafty goodies (and biscuits and tea!). I'm a very lucky lady indeed.

Robot mug

Tea cup bookmark

Four crocheted rainbow coasters

Two circular and two square- so pretty!

Lovely biscuits (note demented 'Open now!' face)

Oh, and lots of bubble wrap :)

She also sent Chai tea (which I love), five blue pearlescent buttons and a vial of adorable tiny pastels beads. Unfortunately, my camera completely refused to photograph the buttons or beads because of their shiny nature. I could post blurry pictures, but that would be silly.

And what did I send Hannah?

Pre-wrapping...


No pictures of the fruit tea and hand cream but I had to include this little tea house strainer just for being adorable

Draw-string project bag made with tea cup fabric

Tea cup buttons

Tea cup appliqued bookmark

Crochet hook roll made from funky cup fabric

I really enjoyed my first swap and hopefully I'll do some more in future. Thanks very much to Vonnie for organising!

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Sorry, it's classified

I wish I could show you pictures of what I've been working on, but it's a secret. 'Oh no, here we go again,' I hear you say, 'not more of her melodrama...' But it's true, I've been doing not one, but two, secretive things. Well, three if you count eating the icing my mother in law kindly gave me but I think my cover was blown days ago.

Firstly, I've been invited to do a guest feature on a big crafty website. It's on an Easter theme and I submitted it last night. From what I gather, I'm meant to be secretive about these things lest I spoil the surprise. I'm hoping that once it goes live though, I'll be able to post a link.

Secondly, my Time for Tea Swap organised by Blottedcopybook is due to be posted tomorrow and I've been making a number of tea themed items for my swap partner Hannah. It's my first swap, so I'm suitably nervous... Once we've received our goodies, I'll be able to post pics. Unless it turns out that the things I've made are completely sub-par, in which case I won't post pics and I'll never mention it again.

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