A new adventure: pattern cutting!

It's September: the first month in over a year that my husband and I have not been thinking about weddings...Or making things for weddings. I mean, what to do with all that newly freed-up time....?

Maybe I could attempt to actually BAKE something..? I mean, it would be nice to have a freshly made cake as a treat after work..

No, probably not a good idea since my last attempt at muffins saw them threatening  (and then succeeding) in overrunning the oven, thanks to an over-abundance of baking powder. Plus I have absolutely zero patience in the kitchen (obviously all the patience I could have spared has been directed at my sewing machine and two crazy cats...)

So rather than subject the world to an army of rampaging proto-muffins, I've taken the plunge and signed up for a course in pattern cutting at the Mary Ward Centre in London. It's the first proper term-length course I have taken since leaving uni six years ago - and the very first with any kind of practical, creative assessment! I'm nervous and excited at the same time, which in my book can only be a good thing.

And look - my supplies have arrived!

Cats and craft

I'm sure this scenario is familiar to most crafty cat owners. 

The postman has been and that long-anticipated ream of fabric has finally arrived. You have pressed it,  laid it out on the floor or on your sewing table. You have carefully cut out each pattern piece and pinned them to your fabric,  painstakingly matching up the fabric pattern as you go...

... and your cat who has (up until now) turned his nose up at you all day, decides there is no place in the world he would rather be than spread across your "best laid plans", interrupting his rest every so often to attack your scissors as you attempt to cut a particularly tricky corner or to skirmish after what could only be an imaginary mouse beneath that nice, rustly piece of pattern paper! 

My husband and I live with two cats: Mini Kittie aka Shatner aka Tyrannocat and Timmy aka Fat Tim akaTimmy the Nightmare Creature aka Craft Cat. 

Timmy likes nothing better than to thwart my crafting plans...

 Mini Kittie, on the other hand, is far above that kind of thing!

I should really ban him from my sewing room but he seems to love hanging around me as I work so much that I just don't have the heart to do it!

I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot more of him. Do any of you have pets that love to "help" you with your craft?

A wedding and DIY potpourri

Ah I have been silent for many, many months. It's not because I haven't wanted to write. No, not at all! In fact I got married just over two weeks ago and so every last drop of my attention was focussed on planning for it, crafting wedding favours and hunting down little random bits and bobs to give a personal touch to the venue on the day. Sadly this left me with very little time to write (or to do anything more than cast a longing glance around the doorframe of my sewing room! Poor neglected sewing machine...) 

So with the wedding theme in mind, what better way to make a return to the blog than with a short and sweet wedding-related craft project?

Our venue on the day was a 15th century merchant's hall and as it was a Grade 1 listed building, no confetti was allowed inside. Many of our guests had brought boxes upon boxes of the stuff and were most dismayed to discover that they would not be able to fling it at us as we left the hall. It seemed a shame to let it go to waste so I brought the boxes home with me and began to think of creative uses for it...

Potpourri seemed a good option. Half of the confetti was made from dried flower petals so this formed a natural base for the potpourri. I also decided to add a box of rice paper confetti to the flower petals, breaking up the colour a bit and adding a little "twist" to the mix!

It was really easy and quick to make - I just tipped all the confetti into a plastic freezer bag and added about eight drops of lavendar essential oils to the bag (time will tell whether this is too strong but hey - a little experimentation never hurt!), before tying the bag and giving the whole thing a good shake.

 I left everything in the bag for two or three hours so the petals could get well and truly covered in lavendar oil. The potpourri was then ready to go into a bowl I picked up from a local charity shop for the princely sum of £1! A total bargain.

The finished product

Some friends gave us a wedding card with charms inside - a wooden heart, butterfly and (randomly) a starfish so I put these on top for safe keeping ;)


Not only do we have a beautiful reminder of our wedding but our sitting room sure smells nice!*

*The potpourri has been out of its bag now for about an hour and contrary to previous fears, I can confirm that we have not been choked by lavendar fumes!