Finished project - neck choker.

As I was working on the Sirona gown I toyed with the idea of making a neck choker or decorative neck piece to go with it.  This is what that idea turned into............

Using some of the left-over pale gold satin I cut a strip 11" by 1" and used a soldering iron to set the edges in a decorative scalloped effect.  I also cut out three randomly shaped triangles of the fabric, plus another four in organza and finished the edges in the same way.

Then all I had to do was pinch, twist and arrange them in place on the neck band, hand stitch them in place and voila!  It was satisfyingly quick to put together aswell - about an hour.  I'd like to develop this idea further, maybe play around with the design a bit or even make it oversized and competely over the top!

Finished Project - The Sirona Gown

This has been one of those projects where everything fell blissfully into place. There were no major difficulties to navigate, everything fit where it should and I didn't pull a single hair out!!!

The completed dress squeezed onto Claudia!

Dress from the front and a swooooosh of train.


With the lining all done and the hems all sorted, the best bit of all still remained - decoration.

I made loads of flowers (a biscuit tin full) from satin, organza and any other fabrics in shades of gold and cream I had in my stash.

I also payed a visted to Primark and bought a couple of pieces of jewellry which I cut up to utilise the beads.  This is a great way of buying beads on a budget.

 Pinning flowers in place.

More flowers arranged over the shoulder.

Flowers on the waistline.

Another shot of the front.

Space is a bit tight to get decent photographs of the entire dress so when the weather dries up a bit I'm planning to drag Claudia into the garden and get some better photos.

Panniers - finished

I finally got around to the finishing touches on these and now they are done.  Functionally speaking they are great - sturdy and supportive but aesthetically they are a bit of an ugly duckling.  I think they could be a lot prettier if I made them out of some nicer fabric and maybe even trimmed it with ruffles.

Panniers from the front.

Panniers from the back.

The hem is finished with bias binding and the waistband fastens with a hook and eye on the inside and ribbons for extra security on the outside.

Here you can see the inside tapes used for controlling the springyness of the panniers.  There a two sets positioned either side to sit against the body whilst they are worn thus creating tension against the wearers legs.  There is also another set in each of the domes to keep them stable.

A medley of finished tags!

I have been working away steadily at my christmas tags. It's taken longer than I thought it would to assemble them. Who knew cutting and sticking would be so exhausting? I've ended up with quite a lot of different designs and variations which makes me exceedingly happy. The more individual the better!



I have done a couple of close ups of some of my favourites.







I also made lots and lots of cute little 3D origami stars. I'm going to thread them together in groups of three and dangle them from presents as extra decoration.

My panniers are finished!!

Yippee! They are finally done. Goodness knows where I'm going to store them, they span well over a metre at hip level. I dragged Claudia outside to get better photos and the wind kept catching her and rotating her like a windmill!



There are supposed to be tapes attached to the inside and tied off to enable the adjustment and control of the 'springyness'. I have played around, pinning tapes to the insides to see how this might work but I have decided to wait and see how the panniers behave with a petticoat over them before I sew any tapes in.



Its boned with continuous spring steel, the boning channels are simply sewn down bias tape. I have made it collapsable, the vertical steel boning is held in by tied off ribbons at each of the four corners but this can be undone and the boning removed. That said, it's still pretty bulky when collapsed. The waist is draw-string and ties on either side for easier adjustment.