Cape revamped

I made this cape last year - you can find the blog here link .  I wore it a lot, but I was never very happy with the hood or the belt.  Then earlier this year I lost one of the buttons and didn't have a replacement. 

I found some fur fabric and cream cotton to make a new collar and lining, and some rather nice buttons left over from a suit that I made.

I wanted to make the belt neater.  The fabric is very thick and the tie belt didn't sit well.  I couldn't find a proper buckle the right size but I found these two large gold rings that I bought for bag making, together they were just right.

and here it is.  

I just need to knit the slouchy beret and the long fingerless gloves from the yarn I bought on Sunday.

More fashion flowers

Here are more flowers.

 

 This outfit teams a flowery skirt with a plain black top so it's not the most exciting.  The skirt was originally part of a sixties inspired shift dress which made years ago and shortened to a skirt a couple of years ago.  The black wrap top was bought in a charity shop many years ago.  It's very versatile and has been worn with many different outfits over the years

    As the flowery skirt outfit isn't very exciting, I'm showing a second outfit based around 3/4 length peg top trousers and a jacket.  It fits in this section as the trousers also have flowers on them. 

The trousers were made seven years ago from some embroidered denim material.  They have a inegrated belt front fastening which I made using a bickle from an old broken belt.  The jacket I bought a few years ago because I loved the colour.  Originally the trousers were full length and flared, but after a while I didn't really like the flares the material wasn't thick enough and they flapped around.  I put the trousers away until I decided what to do with them and so here they are reinvented as three quarter length trousers with cuffed bottoms.

 I even added button's to the cuffs as I had seen in some pictures - unfortunately only three on each side not loads.  I didn't have enough matching buttons in my stash for more than three each side.

Cards Galore

I have so many birthday's coming up in the next month or two that I really had to sit down and have a good card making session.  For quite a few years now I have been making all the cards that I send.  I buy the card blanks and have quite a good stash of stamps and brads.  I also like to keep cards that people have given me and my family and reuse them, along with bits of ribbon and lace from my stash to create some stunning cards.

Here are four cards for my friends, and two cards for aunts

A card for my daughter's friend

and one for my little nephew who will soon be two

and one for my own dear daughter, who is incredibly hard to find cards for as she doesn't like the 'girly' cards that are usual for her age group.

 Finally a valentine for hubby, witha red velvet heart, shiny letter's and gold heart brads.

It's now so hot I needed another sun dress. I remembered an old skirt I had made with some remnants about six years ago. I loved the skirt and had kept it although the top tiers which were made of lilac linen had faded terribly. I found two old white school shirts that my son had grown out of and a pretty hanky and some ribbon that matched. I have taken the top two teirs off the skirt and cut out the white shirts for the top of the sun dress. I'm hoping to sew it up later and wear it tomorrow.

I've also made good progress on the special outfit for my daughter, the top is finished. It just needs a good press and the culottes are nearly done. They just need hemming and a waist band. Daughter's away this week so I will hopefully have it finished for when she returns, in case of last minute adjustments. She needs the outfit for a football presentation evening on 5 June, and both children are visiting Granny the week before the presentation so next weekend will be the only time for adjustments (what will I do without the children for a whole week!!!!).

Sorry about the pictures being sideways, they show alright when I view them in my picture gallery but somehow when I upload them they revert to being sideways!!

From old to new

A few weeks ago I went into a charity shop one lunchtime. I don't usually do this because the ones near my work aren't the best and I'm usually too busy. There at the front was a lovely chunky sweater. Or rather the yarn was a lovely variagated mix of pink, purple and grey, the rest of the jumper was out of shape and in some places a bit worn looking. However I had to have it, I just knew I could reinvent it.


I couldn't wait to get it home and start unraveling it, so much so that I forgot to take a picture until it was nearly all rolled into balls. I did quickly manage to take this one before it was completely unraveled. It does show how matted it was in places from not being looked after properly.

I have a fab patern for a bolero that I got from Ravelry some time ago and have knitted in several different forms. Its basically a pair of bell shaped sleeves that extend across the back and are joined together with ribbon. It knits up quickly with chunky wool and size 12 needles and so is good when a quick craft fix is needed.



and here's the finished item. I salvaged the pink ribbon from a top I made a few years ago (the ribbon was used to tie the waist), but the top never suited me. I tried adapting it by putting elastic in the waist but it still didn't work, my body seemed too long for it!!! So I gave the top to a friend, by that time minus the ribbon which I kept and it was ideal for this. I love this pattern its lovely and thick and extends down over my hands, which are always cold, but it doesn't add bulk round my stomach which is often the case with chunky knits. And as the weather is refusing to get much warmer it's just right for putting over my summer tops so that I don't have to half freeze to death.