A Vintage Kite, Some Flags and Another Elephant Mobile

This week has been busy busy! Work has been manic and every evening I've been coming home and sewing a variety of things (including the not so important fixing of my boyfriends jeans).

As promised, here is a picture of my Vintage Kite, although I'm sure I will get some much better images when the shoot is back.

I made a diamond pattern out of my trusty greaseproof paper for this, and then stitched some tubes onto the inside of one of the pieces, to thread my cross pieces of very thin bamboo into to make the structure of the kite. I then turned it inside out, stitched up the gaps and added the ribbon to hold and for the tail. Pretty!

I've also made some flags for another shoot which I'm heading off to in Norfolk this weekend, although again I'm sure there will be some much better photos when the shoot comes back. 

And finally, I had another order for an elephant mobile, this time in a range of blues, coral and yellow, a bit different from the previous colour themes but still looking very pretty. 

This one's all parcelled up now in a sturdy box ready to be shipped off to it's new owner in America tomorrow morning, before I head off to Norfolk. 

Some finished elephants and other pretty things

So despite being distracted by all of the good, and no so good weather, and being out all weekends, I have managed to squeeze in some time to make two very beautiful elephant mobiles. Here are some pictures...

Now I'm off to make a vintage looking kite from some lovely linen/cotton blend fabric I got from my faithful fabric shop on Willesden Green High road, I'll add some photos when it's finished. 

A Day for Elephants

I'm not sure what my favourite animal would be, if I had to pick one, as there are so many contenders, but elephants are definitely one of my top animals to sew, as they just look so comic and cute. Amongst my many props that I made for our Winter baby shoot earlier this year, I made a beautiful felted elephant baby mobile, which is currently featuring on the website:

I was very excited to receive a message from one of our social media guys asking where this mobile was bought from as lots of people had been posting on facebook about how much they wanted one, and wanted to know where it was from!

So I messaged them all back, bought some new supplies and am now commencing with some elephant making!

When We Camped in a Lake....

So as usual for the August Bank Holiday weekend, we headed off to Greenbelt, one of my favourite times of year!! Now going on the horrific weather we've had this Summer (??) I wasn't expecting too much, and had my new wellies and rain coat packed. However, I did not expect it to be quite as horrific as it was!

On Saturday we had so much rain in a few hours in the afternoon that when we got back to our tent, which we'd happily pitched on an area that seemed on much higher ground than the areas around us, we found that instead of nice tufty grass, our tents were now....in a lake!!

One of the most distressing things was that all of our nice clean washing up which we'd done that morning had now all started to float away in the muddy, grimy looking water (the doctors staying with us told me we'd probably get Cholera!).

We survived the weekend, the waters went down slightly, but we did get VERY soggy and many less hardcore festivallers went home early as it just all got too much!

New Book!

As it's the summer holidays, I always go to my aunties house for a week (or as long as I can get off work) and hang out with my mum and sister and niece, so as it's crazily somehow August already, I've just spent a few days with the family.

My auntie has recently written a book called RE Active Church which is a series of workshops and activities designed to help primary school aged children to learn about Christianity. It is a very interesting and fabulously written book and has some beautiful drawings and illustrations at the back drawn by.......me! Ok, so the publishers have stylised them slightly but the original drawings I drew last summer and it's amazing to see them in print!

This fabulous book is available to buy on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/RE-Active-Church-Connecting-Christian/dp/028106766X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344848824&sr=8-1

Some More Prop Making

So as usual, I've been busy sewing again, this time making some props in time for the last shoot of the season. As we're shooting Winter 2012 at the moment, it was time for a Christmas shoot so I've been getting very festive and making some Christmassy themed props, amongst other things.

A new hat for a chicken door stop - looks pretty cool!

A pretty robin and snowflake patchwork blanket!

Some felted Christmas Tree decorations...

Every cuddly toy needs a scarf for the Winter

And of course, another knitted stool cover. 

More photos of these to follow when the catalogues come out later in the year, I'm quite excited to see them in the real!

I've also been doing a bit of sewing for the Joey Essex surf campaign, organised by my housemate, so I was shortening some shorts and sewing on some Surf logo's ready for the shoot!

http://www.weblogdaily.co.uk/showbiz/joey-essex-launches-his-first-reem-fragrance/

A Weekend of Sewing & Buttons

So for a change, this weekend has involved a lot of sewing and some buttons. Ok well maybe not for a change but I've been so busy with work recently that I actually haven't been sewing all that much (shocking - I know!)

On Saturday I went to the Roxeth School fete which was a fun day, although we were outside in the playground and as it started to pour about half an hour before we were due to finish, it was a hasty pack up! So I've been busy making and finishing lots of little bits for that, and also finishing my African batik print mattress covers. I've now finished them all and they look amazing! I can't wait to see them in place, on all the mattresses!

Then on my Saturday night adventures to the South Bank, involving cocktails, a comedy night with some very annoying people in the front row who ended up basically being thrown out by the comedian, more cocktails, and a party on the beach (the tide of the Thames was waaaaay out) in the rain. So a pretty standard night out in central London. In the middle of these adventures, I found this picture in a shop next to the National Theatre. It's amazing! I want one please....