Empty pages

Long long long time without any postings I know.

My only excuse is that I had some pretty tough family stuff to deal with and didn't feel like connecting with the world much.

BUT, things are getting back to normal at home so hopefully things shall get back to normal on here soon too.

I have been busy during my time away too. I have 6 new superhero ties ready to be photographed and listed - all of the Avengers persuasion :)

Not a lot else to report, sorry for the long absence and short update, and I look forward ot getting back into the swing of things soon :)

See you in the future ♥

A project post of superhuman proportions

I promised last week to produce a new project post in honour of releasing some Avengers themed accessories soon so here it is! :D

First thing I do it iron the crap out of my fabric. If I remember one lesson from college when I'm old and senile it's this one. No matter what you do always but always start with thoroughly pressed fabric.

I then went on to draw out  the pattern onto my chose fabric. This example is using a batman tie so my fabric is black satin. My pattern calls for 3 pieces (2 of which are show here)

When making a tie you will always need more fabric than you expect as everything is cut on the bias. I can usually get 2 ties from 1 metre of fabric.

Once these are cut out its a rather simple process of assembling, in all this tie calls for 2 machine stitched seams and 1 hand stitched seam.

The most important thing to remember when assembling the tie is to trim your seams allowances. This cuts down on the bulk when turning out the finished piece.

My basic superhero ties consist of a plain coloured tie accented with a logo of a particular hero. As I said before this one is batman. I make the logo separately from soft cotton felt, hand stitching the detail for a clan line. I tend to use a computer print out as a template to give me the right shape and size. I then hand sew up the back of the tie (after ironing again to make sure all the raw edges are tucked away and trimmed) then attach the logo to the front.

I try to make the logo so that it fits across the widest section of the tie without overhanging the edge.

Et Voila! One tie ready to be pressed (again) then packed up and shipped off to the customer! I hope you've enjoyed this little peak into my studio work and this has sparked your interesting in making your own clothes in the future.

And as a little side note I have been working on the logos for the avengers ties. Just got to make up a batch of tie blanks to fit them on!

OK that's me for today, hope you've enjoyed this see you in the future! ♥

Great Mood Mondays!

Another week, another Monday!!

Ignoring the fact that I was in pain most of the weekend today has been a good start to the week. Went swimming for the first time in ages; Saw Avengers Assemble on Saturday (LOVED it ...more in a bit) and arrived home today to find an email from Jane Austen's Regency World Magazine offering me advertising space for my Austen Inspired cushions and the possibility of an editorial in the Christmas edition of the magazine!!! So excited, this would be great exposure and just awesome!

OK onto other things. The Avenger's movie was just AWESOME, having only seen Thor recently and regretting seeing the original Hulk reboot with Eric Bana I was mainly excited for the fact that Joss Whedon was directing it but then I sat down and really got into the movie as a whole. First I LOVE Thor. He is just hilarious and cute and it's just brilliant that I remember him way back when when he was playing Kim Hyde on Home and Away

I really liked the dynamics in this film too. Each character went on a journey of sorts, individually but also as an ensemble, and creating a story where you have that many central characters and still managing to create emotional depth and a sense of empathy from the audience is a hard task, so I applaud the whole team working on this film.

In related news, many of you will know that I sell a selection of DC inspired ties on etsy, and being an equal opportunities fangirl I've always loved Marvel as much as DC and have been meaning to make some Marvel inspired ties for a while now. Along comes the Avengers and everything seems to make sense. So tomorrow I will be posting a project post, showing the process I go through to make some of my new Marvel ties!

That's it from me today guys! See you in the future! ♥

Obligatory Kitty Post

Gah! Missed Monday again! I blame having a job interview. It threw me out of whack. :)

So today could I suppose be called Wonderfully Weird Wednesdays. In fact that will be the name :) I haven't felt up to blogging much the last few weeks as I somehow managed to pull a muscle in my back which left me feeling like someone had punched me in the chest repeatedly. Thankfully I've started to recover, but it has rather put a bit of a kibosh on my search for a good mood Mondays theme for this week.

So instead I am bringing you pictures of my kitty because she always makes me feel better :)

A rare moment of Josie looking stupid with her tongue out.

Being a winter kitten Josephine often likes to help me decorate the tree.

As I said she likes to "help"

She also likes to watch from the stairs. We call this the "Josephine Head" (clever name right?)

I hope you like this glimpse into my life as a crazy cat lady, who happens to own some crazy cats. 

See you in the future! ♥

Good Mood = Sad Ending

I finally actually started a week blogging on the right day with something to blog about. Yay for progress! :D

This past week has been good, The Superhero Gods have been kind and people are ordering ties :D I've completed 2 superman ties and have a batman tie waiting to be made. I guess, what with the Avengers movie coming out soon I should get some Marvel ties in the shop to go with the DC ones :)

 Also, I went to see The Cabin In The Woods last night and without giving any spoilers I really liked it, I wasn't totally sure what to expect but went because it's a Joss Whedon film and I was pleasantly surprised. Really thought provoking but not in a brooding drama sort of way. Plus GORE!

OK here comes the Good Mood portion of the post! (yay)

Last week, I was on LJ when I came across a gorgeous fanvid posted on a HP community. It took a few days before I watched it cause I can be pretty slow when it comes to watching videos but I'm so glad I did. It's utterly gorgeous and brings back all my feelings while watching the final film. *sob* you can find the maker here and I urge you to go watch the vids and subscribe :D But I'm getting distracted. Here is the video that I wanted you to see!

OK that's it from me today. See you in the future!  ♥

Costumes, costumes and more costumes

I think it is now safe to say that I completely suck at blogging on a regular basis and while the motivation and inspiration is there, the memory and organisation required is, however somewhat lacking. 

But, I am here today, blogging away trying to sound interesting :) 

Not much news to report from Wednesday's Child HQ. I'm waiting to hear from my adviser concerning when I'll be put in front of a funding panel with the Prince's Trust and until then the orders from etsy are slowly but surely coming through.

As well as Etsy, I decided to apply for a Ladies Cutter vacancy with Opera North in Leeds.  I figured that while I may not have much experience within a theatre environment I might as well apply :) It did however occur to me that it has been 5 years since I last applied to something even remotely linked to working in a wardrobe situation. True, 3 years of that was university but I feel like I maybe need to get my brain into gear and perhaps throw a few C.V's around the place to see if anyone is still interested and to basically keep my hand in.

I also decided to bite the bullet and put some of my costumes up for sale on etsy. While I won't be selling the actual originals I will be offering custom made versions of said costumes. Hopefully it will garner interest for when I finally get some brand new costumes listed.

For your enjoyment I give you a few examples of the costumes waiting to be listed:

My infamous romantic tutu which I love to pieces











 
My painstaking rococo ballgown with a stupid amount of hand beading and ribbon work :)

One of my favourite foundation pieces: a pregnancy suit which will be available for all stages of pregnancy.

I guess that's it for me today. See you in the future! ♥

An additional good mood cake post

So I decide, since the cake I made for my mum's birthday was so yummy I needed to share the end result with you guys...also I left it on monday on a bit of a cliff hanger as to how the whole this turned out.

Basically it was a roaring success. It wasn't the neatest thing in the world but it was yummy and my mum was happy with it :D

So this was all that was left of the cake by Wednesday morning when I came to take photos. Clearly people liked it :)

Before I then devoured the rest, I did get some close ups of the inside and icing. Which tasted much better the second day as the apricot jam had had a chance to soak in.

Yummy :D

The topping, which was whipping cream, melted butter and about 200g of chocolate was yummy but quite difficult to spread evenly.

- Hence the untidiness of the edge.

I really urge all of you to try this cake for yourself because even though ti takes a bit of work it's well worth it :D

here's the link again in case you missed it on Monday, Sacher Torte Goodness