Make Do and Mend - Project #1

This weekend I made a start on one of my projects that I have had for a little while. 

I bought this lace t-shirt a couple of years ago, and when I got it out of the washing machine a couple of months ago, I noticed that the lace on one of the sleeves had perished, leaving a few holes.

Using some broderie anglaise trim that I had in my ribbon jar, I measured out what I needed and then pinned it in place, making sure that I followed the line of the lace, neatened the ends in the under arm seam and covered the section with the holes.

I was originally going to hand sew the trim to the top, but in the end decided to use the sewing machine. It made it lots easier to darn around the holes in the lace to reinforce them, and to tackle the tricky multi-layered parts of the fabric. I finished off the ends and neatened with a needle to make sure everything was tidy.

I'm really pleased with my refurbished top. I think the white trim looks very sweet against the navy, and I will look forward to wearing it again now the weather has turned so lovely and sunny!

A day out at Bletchley Park

This weekend we took a trip to Bletchley park in Buckinghamshire for my boyfriend's birthday. I had never visited before, but had heard good things about it. After the success of The Imitation Game film starring Benedict Cumberbatch and the fact that slowly details are emerging about the remarkable achievement of the men and women that worked there and who are credited with shortening World War Two by up to two years, it was a place I was looking forward to exploring. 

Over the years, the park developed from sheltered mansion house to a site sprawling with different blocks, which housed the vital first computers that were used to crack encrypted enemy information that was used by the British to win the war. Over 8000 people worked at Bletchley Park during the war, and when peace was declared, they burnt their papers, dismantled the machines and left to live normal lives without being able to tell their story of the monumental part they had played in the war.

The information displayed was fascinating, and it was brilliant to see where the work took place in various bunkers and blocks, and to see what was achieved with, on one hand, a pen and pencil, and on the other the revolutionary first computer, Colossus. 

One of my favourite parts of the park were all of the different posters that were produced to help keep the public and the information they had discovered safe during the war. Phrases such as 'Loose lips sink ships' and 'Keep mum she's not so dumb' were circulated by the British Government to stop idle civilian gossip falling into the hands of German spies. The simple typography and hand drawn cartoons seem innocent to us now, but at the time were essential to inform the public of the dangers of a seemingly harmless conversation. 

I love the simple typography and clean layout, and the simple sketchy styles of others, that nonetheless hold an equally important message.

To the tune of 'If you're happy and you know it'

My nan had told me that her sister had worked at Bletchley Park, but nobody was particularly aware of what she had been doing. There are several stations around the park where you can search the Roll of Honour for relatives, and I was very happy to find my great aunt's name sat there proudly. She was in the WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force) and worked as a teleprinter operator.

A Weekend of Baking...Chocoholic and lemon jelly!

My latest cake commission was for two birthday cakes for a party, one was for a certified chocoholic, and the other was for a lover of jelly sweets. I drew out two a couple of designs for each style to give a choice and the customer chose lemon drizzle with a jelly sweet core, and a chocolate fudge cake with a chocolate finger and chocolate decoration.

I have used my lemon drizzle recipe for a few cakes, and have always been pleased with it, however it usually is quite a dense cake, which makes it feel more like a madeira than a sponge cake. This time I decided to make it in the food processor, and was amazed at the rise! I managed to easily slice it into three layers, whilst retaining the lovely rich crumb.

Once cut into three I cut out the centres of two of the layers, sandwiched them together with lemon curd buttercream and filled the centre with a variety of jelly sweets. I then added a top layer and covered the whole cake with lemon curd buttercream.

There's a fantastic sweet shop in Milton Keynes shopping centre called Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe filled with a fantastic variety of sweets, and I bought the decorations for the cake here. I used two long jelly snakes to wrap around the bottom, and a selection of jelly sweets and lollipops on the top.

I also made a mini cake from the cut out centre of the cake, filled and covered it with the lemon curd buttercream and covered it with the jelly sweets. 

I use my chocolate cake recipe every year to make my extra gooey Easter cake, so it was the perfect choice for a chocolate celebration cake. It always sinks slightly when cooling and has a lovely crisp top, but it sliced perfectly in half and was then filled with chocolate ganache buttercream (one of my favourite things to use on a cake!) and then the outside was covered with the rest. 

I used Cadbury's chocolate fingers around the outside of the cake, and then divided the top into quarters. I filled each quarter with a different sweet, such as Rolos, Chocolate buttons, peanut M&M's and Malteasers. It was very hard to box this up and send it on it's way, and I think I may have to make this one again and let it stay!

The First Craft Fair!

Last week I was really busy prepping for the craft fair that we did at The Olney Centre. I thought that I needed a few more pictures for the stall, so during the week I managed to sew two more pictures. 

On the day of the fair we packed everything up and headed off. It's always surprising how long it takes to set up a stall, even if you have planned it out first. I used a metal clothes rail to hang the bunting over the stand, and some basic calico for the tablecloth, especially handy as I can re-use it for my other crafts!

I was really happy with the stall, we had a great spot just opposite the entrance, I thought all of the products looked great together, the sun was shining, it all looked fab...but we didn't sell anything! Unfortunately we didn't get the number of people though the door that we were expecting and I don't think that the public were particularly in a buying mood. We were a little disappointed but not downhearted! We are going to do a couple more this year and try some different locations to see what happens.

On the plus side, I managed to finish another picture and start another, and it did feel quite inspiring sitting in a room filled with likeminded people. 

This 'glamour puss' will be framed in pink sparkly glitter 

I think this cerise pink thread will go nicely with a yellow polka dot or a nice sea green and white stripe. Hopefully some more bright colours and a bigger variety will appeal to more people, so I look forward to seeing what out next craft fair will hold. 

100 Years of vogue on a sunny Saturday

On Saturday I went to the National Portrait Gallery to see Vogue 100: A Century of Style. It was a fantastic exhibition containing 280 prints from the publishers archives, and tracing the history of the style bible from its conception in 1916 in the midst of a country gripped by war to the present day.

It was a fantastic exhibition with brilliantly curated images, many that told the social context of the time, but not the images that you would have expected. From some of the original gouache and pencil sketches for the early illustrated covers, to the dramatic theatricality of Tim Walker's images and his collaborations with set designer Shona Heath, they were all fantastic. Some blown up to a huge scale, they came to life from the pages of the magazine.

I would thoroughly recommend a visit if you are remotely interested in fashion, photography, magazines or even just gorgeous imagery, but make sure that you get your tickets quickly as it only has a few more weeks left to run!

For more information, here's the website: http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/vogue/exhibition.php

Also it was a gorgeous sunny day day to go, and here are a few snaps of a quick wander around Trafalgar Square.

Writing with Thread - A traditionally modern business card

When we first started talking about doing our craft fair, I wanted to do something different to a business card to stand out, and decided that it would be a good idea to try and and combine my embroidery, viewed as a fairly antiquated craft, with modern social networking information. Whenever I collect business cards, unless I really love the design or the company, they do tend to end up in the bin, and I wanted something a little more permanent. 

I drew out the details onto the calico with pencil, and also drew out the icons for each of the platforms. I decided to use my rainbow thread for the letters, and then would use the correct colours for the logos. 

The rainbow thread was a dream to sew with as it was so silky, but this also made it difficult to 

re-thread the needle as the individual fibres were so fine they became very fluffy.

I was really pleased with the appearance of the icons, and decided I would leave them as simply an outline so they were simple and easy to see. I think the Instagram one came out particularly well!

Unfortunately once ironed the edges of some of the words were hidden under the edges of the frame, but luckily not enough to mean they couldn't be understood. 

I love the finished image and hopefully it will add a point of difference to my stall that people can take a photograph of to capture the information needed. 

A Weekend of baking...Golden wedding anniversary cake

My most recent commission was for a Golden 50th Wedding Anniversary cake. After designing a couple of ideas, a design with a 50 on the top with a gold disc and pearl daisies was chosen to make it easy to transport. I was very excited as it meant I get to have a play with edible gold lustre spray!

I have seen this used on programs like the Great British Bake Off, and I've always fancied giving it a go as the effects and finishes that can be produced look brilliant. I shaped the pieces that I needed and left them to dry overnight, then put them onto a piece of greaseproof paper and got spraying!

The disc came out in a lovely deep shimmery gold, but unfortunately I didn't think the 50 came out as well. However, in the pictures it looks pretty good, so I don't think I'll mention that...! I wondered if it may have been the added Tylose powder for setting the shape, but I may need a few more experiments to work out if this is the case. 

I was also a little worried about the coverage of the spray as it was going onto a champagne coloured icing, but I was really impressed with the colour it achieved. I would like to see what it looks like on darker colours as a highlight, so I will look forward to a bit more experimentation.

I bought golden ribbon to edge the cake and the cake board and it complimented the colour of the spray brilliantly, I do love a happy accident. 

I added pearls and sugar daisies around the edge of the gold disc which worked really well and neatly finished off the edges. I think they worked well being placed at an angle as it gave the decoration a few more levels and a bit of height. 

I hope the cake added to the great achievement that is a 50th wedding anniversary celebration and it tasted delicious as well!