Birthday bedding

A cushion and a pillowcase I made for my brother who moved to London in 2014. Not as colourful as my usual choices of material but he chose the material and who am I to argue!

Patchwork notebook

I love a bit of patchwork - and since my patchwork dress I haven't had a chance. But with a beautiful collection of fat quarters of fabric from Amsterdam for my birthday, I decided to have a go covering some books as presents. I cut out lots of tiny squares and machine patchworked them together.

Then I covered brown plain paper notebooks from Paperchase. For two of them, I then stitched a ribbon horizontally across the book at the spine so they could be tied shut. Unfortunately, the pictures I have are of the one I gave my dad - without a ribbon.

Another picture frame earring holder

I made an earring holder with a photo frame for myself a few years ago. Al's sister saw it when she came down and asked for one for Christmas. This one was a little different. The frame was from Llama's Pajamas - the Buddhist centre charity shop on Roman Road. The dark wood and frame style meant it made sense to keep the back to the frame. I replaced the twee oranges with some hemmed elephant material and then wired up the front of the frame.

Homemade cosmetics boxes

I don't know why I'd never thought of this as an idea for a present before. It's a box of goodies, but all with a homemade or personalised touch.

I started out by ordering some old, interesting looking, glass jars from ebay.  This sort of thing:

I also had some of my own jars and pots - and the Lush pots I decorated with Pebeo paints.

I filled these with potions and lotions - moisturiser, bath salts, bath milk and bubbles. I added material to the top and tied string around to keep it on. I added beads and twisted wire to the label ties.













I covered two small cardboard boxes (I think these ones used to be Lush too) with Christmassy material to make little baskets to store them all in. I also added little parcels with the jewellery I'd made.

Using Pebeo Prisme Fantasy Paints

Last year, Natasha Judd gave me some bits of kit to have a go with. They were all from the London Jewellery Supplies store that she (and more recently, I) have been doing some work for.

I've never used Pebeo Paints before. They're fascinating things. You add them to the surface with a pipette and, as they dry, they create fantastic patterns and swirls. Then you drop resin over the top to round the surface and keep it protected.

As you can see from the picture - I had a bracelet and earring moulds - but I was enjoying myself so much I added it to the top of old clean Lush pots as well (Lush pots are great for decorating - here I do it with buttons and beads). They've got a nice rim around the top of their lids which makes it perfect for this kind of paint. I mixed blue and turquoise paint in different ways to add to the effect (it was all a bit of an experiment!).

After these had dried for 48 hours, I added the resin to the top.

I tried adding glitter to one lid. It was too much. I went too far! 

I put moisturiser in the pots and used them as Christmas presents. I presented the bracelet on a piece of card.

I gave this to my sister in law along with some earrings, a pot of moisturiser and other goodies in a Christmas box.

Wire wrapped earrings made with a jig.

It's been a while since I updated Patchwork Pea. In my defence I have been busy leaving my old job, travelling to America, starting a college course, going freelance (my new website clarerosefoster.co.uk is here) and finding new part time work.

But I've still had time to make a few bits and bobs. For my 30th birthday I received London Jewellery Supplies vouchers from one friend and a whole starter jewellery making kit from another.

It was a good opportunity to make use of my box of old necklaces as well - I dismantled them and started collecting the beads and findings.

I bought a beginners jig and started trying to twist some wire.









Jigs are fantastic pieces of kit. You place the pegs wherever you want to make a pattern and then twist your wire around them.

Here are some of my first experiments:










The silver one with the pink beads has a wire wrapped bead on the end. I wanted to use this shape and technique to make some earrings as Christmas presents for a friend having a Christmas party. Here they are in process:
















And here are the finished earrings, in a little presentation box with some cotton wool:

Personalised pillowcase presents

Patterned, personalised pillowcases make great presents. They're useful, used everyday and everyone has a pillow to put them on. Plus they brighten up a bedroom. I've made a number now. I turned a patchwork dress into a pillowcase here and made some for Alex here.

I've made three recently. The first was for Pete's 30th;

The second and third were for Claire and Will who are off to Norway for six months. I chose some  material to remind them of London and England.

London town for Will

And English gardens for Claire

Here they are in their (almost all packed up) flat with their pillowcases.

And here they are in situ in a very plush looking Oslo apartment. Hope they're comfy!

A card box for the Bensons

Old friend Olly asked me to make a card box for his wedding. He gave me some pink and white material to use (which also topped the lovely little marmalade jar favours on the tables). I went for a postal theme with brown paper base and envelopes and cards hung from a ribbon with mini clothes pegs.

It's been a while since I've done much crafting so it was good to have a reason to get back into it.

Roses United - Best Kit challenge

Each year the Towersey Tournoi takes place in an Oxfordshire field. My brother and his mates are always involved. As far as I can tell, the whole thing is one massive in joke, with a LOT of Strongbow thrown in.  This year, Paul was determined to win 'Best Kit' for his team Roses United (formed from northern Leeds and Manchester uni friends). For this, he enlisted my sewing machine - and my help. Apparently last years winners had one shirt with the number on the front and the logo on the back - a last minute hungover ironing mishap. Stiff competition then. 

He bought a bunch of cheap shirts online. I told him to go for blue for the goalie, but he decided salmon would clash 'better' with the red stripe. We went down Brick Lane for 3 metres of slightly silky red fabric.



To fit the stripe into the seams, we had to cut open the shirts on one side, and cut into the seam on the other sleeve.

Paul made cardboard templates for the numbers while I was adding the stripes. He then cut them out of cloth and I appliqued them on to the backs.

Al got sent out for more red thread from SewAmazing on Roman Road  - sewing shops are almost worse than chippies for badly punned names.

While I was going through the final massive sewing slog (six shirts!), Paul and Al updated the logo on Photoshop and printed it onto transfer paper which Paul ironed on.

Roses United logo

Almost finished fronts

Numbered backs (looks better at this distance than close up!)

Paul bought some fake roses to pin on the front. And here's the team, ready for action;

Paul's haircut is also a tournament special..

Dream team

In action... shirts holding up...

No victory on the pitch, but the (much more coveted I'm sure) Best Kit award!

Accepting his dues..

Who needs ball skills when you can win this beauty with a sewing machine, some photoshop and an ironing board...

Towersey Best Kit trophy

Patchwork dress for a 'P' themed Party

A 'P' themed fancy dress party seemed like a good opportunity to experiment with a dress pattern without worrying too much if it went wrong.  It was also a good way to use up a lot of odds and ends of material I had left from projects this year.

I started by making a big sheet of patchwork.

Spot the old projects...

Going to need a slightly bigger piece of patchwork.

That's better.

Dress pattern came from The Village Haberdashery - it was the Peony pattern (although I made some adjustments). Here is is in progress - that's the top half and sleeves there. Putting the sleeves in proved the trickiest part.

Finished off with a patchwork flower...

... and a belt and a couple of bangles.

I initially put in a zip, but it made the back of the neck flop outwards and wasn't really needed - so I took it out and added a seam along the back. It was my first time adding darts too, and I was actually quite pleased with the fit and shape at the end. 

That black mark is mascara on the mirror ;)

Some of the projects you can see here are the fish pillow, the swirly skirt, the first pattern skirt, the pillowcase for Izzy, the Christmas cushion, the cushion for Jo and the patchwork quilt for baby Josh.

And here it is along with a Pilot.

Other 'P'costumes included a Punk, Pokemon, Portobello mushroom, 2 Penguins, a Pixie, Peter Pan, a Passport, a Parrot, some Pollen, lots of Pirates, Monty Panesar, a Peacock, the Phantom of the Opera, a Plastic bag, the Periodic table, a Peace sign, the Pope, a Porn star, a Pharmacist and a Parisian. Some excellent costume creativity.

A Penguin, Pixie, Parrot, Parisian and Pilot watch Panesar and Plastic bag at the coconut shy.

The Periodic table

A Portobello mushroom and Panesar again..

Passport

After the party I decided I probably wasn't going to wear the dress again so I made it into a pillowcase. I like how it is still sort of shaped like a dress.

Pillowcase still begins with P :)