Super Jamie and his cape

A few months ago Jamie asked me if I could make him a cape out of some old youth event t-shirts for him to use at the latest youth event.

I said yes but I would need some time, so only a week before the event I get handed a bundle of t-shirts.

I couldn't get my head around what to do, so I called Rachel for help. 

Between us we measured, did maths and drew up a plan, so we measured again, cut out squares then sewed them together.

Rachel was a veritable sewing machine!

Once we reached the point of sewing the patch work on to the backing we realised that all of our measuring and planning was at some point thrown out of the window and we had completely gone off piste....

Thankfully all we had to do was add a border to the backing to make it work.

We didn't manage to finish the whole cape in one evening so the next day I finished off and attached it to the top of a t-shirt, I was so much heavy fabric might be a bit much to tie around someones neck, attaching it to the top of a t-shirt worked really well! 

Introducing...

Super youth worker!

I think Jamie is happy with his cape...

To smash or not to smash

You may, like me, be unfamiliar with the world of scrap booking, but you may be interested in a huge phenomenon that is sweeping the scrap booking world - Smash books. I may be underwhelmed by scrap booking but I do like journalling and collecting receipts, tickets and other things from my travels. which makes me think that the smash book could be for me, or more specifically for our trip to Cambodia.

What do you think?

New Hats

I got my wish for a new hat... or two

 I found some lovely wool in hobbycraft (it is unusual for me to visit hobby craft, I find the staff aren't very helpful and it is generally over priced) and I made this hat. 
 

 I am quite proud of myself and I'm really happy to have a new hat to wear that fits my tiny head!

My second hat is for Cambodia, and not exactly suitable for the winter weather.

It will hopefully keep my head cool in the heat of the sun (my freezing hands are so happy to type that!) and shade my face.

Practising Cupcakes

My friends James and Hannah are getting married on the 23rd June and they have asked me to make 100 cupcakes. It will be the first time I will have to make a large number of cupcakes under pressure. 

I really like baking and I think I am sometimes quite good at it, I am nowhere near as good as my friend Abbie, check out her amazing blog http://danngoodcake.blogspot.co.uk/ you may thing her cakes look good, trust me they taste even better!

So because my baking isn't completely up to scratch I decided I should practice.

They are just vanilla sponge cupcakes with vanilla icing, the icing will (if James and Hannah approve) be blue to go with their colour theme. They are a tiny bit over cooked but I am generally pleased with them.

Things I learnt from this practice, 1. Don't get distracted when the cakes are in the oven/ set a timer. 2. put the silver balls on as soon as i have iced. I did it too late this time and they ended up bouncing all over my kitchen.

DIY Green Jeans

Sorry its been a while since my last post. Things have been pretty busy here.

Anyway... I was bored with my really old grey jeans,

( I got them second hand from my friend Amy in the first place.)

They are stained and show every bit of dirt so I decided to dye them a darker and more exciting colour.

What you need... Dylon or some other clothing dye, Salt, marigolds, an old washing up bowl, a jug for measuring and newspaper. This isn't the first time I have dyed clothes, the first time I got little specks of dye on the work top. not very noticeable but they are there so newspaper is essential!

Mid dye, it looks very dark. 

Don't panic,  I do like that colour, but it is not what I was going for.

It is OK though Dye looks a lot darker than it comes out.

A couple of hours soaking, a rinse in the washing machine and a day drying =

An awkward and cold pose wearing GREEN JEANS!!! They are a little brighter than this in real life but you get the idea. the stains are now hidden and they add some extra colour to my wardrobe.