Champagne skirt

I feel really guilty at my major lack of bloggage recently, between exams, starting work, starting a research project, Andrew's gran dying and taking care of a friend's dog, blogging has fallen down my list of priorities.

It's been a hectic few weeks and it's my parents 50th birthday party this weekend, requiring another 8 hour drive down and then back again 2 days later. I'm really looking forward to seeing my folks but not looking forward to the drive at all!

Anyway, enough bitching, crafting life continues. I've been beavering away on a friend's wedding present (photos to follow), taking up trousers, making a hedgehog-handsfree kit (I'm going to leave you guessing on that one), finishing my late granny Dot's blanket and generally trying to get my life back in order after the craziness of late.

Here's a picture of the skirt I bought off Thriftstore using money made from my crafts *beams with pride*. It's so pretty, champagne coloured satin and it's a vintage handmade piece, it couldn't be more perfect!



I feel like I should take a moment to mention Tess, Andrew's granny. She was always really lovely to me, really interested in what was going on in my life and would always ask after me when Andrew saw her alone. She was one for crafting, she worked in the fabric section of a department store in Inverness for years and she gave me loads of wool and fabric, most of my stash came from her. She was so generous, she was definitely one of the main people who encouraged me to craft. She doted on Andrew and was obviously really proud of him. She'll be sorely missed ♥

Another bag

I'm loving making bags at the moment, they're so simple and come together so quickly, but can look so professional. I've got a long list of presents to make for people at the moment but once they're out of the way, I'm going to knock up a couple for my Etsy shop. I've got 28 items there now!

Anyway, I made this one for my friend Lydia. It's lined with dusty pink velvet and has another one of my 'Handcrafted by Amy' labels. I've just sold a couple of things on thriftstore so I'm planning on having some more labels made up with 'Second Fiddle Crafts' for my etsy shop. I just hope I don't have any resits, I've got a whole summer of crafting planned!

Lisa's birthday bag

So I should be revising Immunology but as we all know, sewing is a much more interesting procrastination tool!

It's my friend Lisa's birthday tomorrow, she's from Cape Town (though Britain originally) and her Mum owns an animal rescue centre. I'd love to go out and visit her one day, sometime in the next 50 years when I have enough money after paying off my student debt...

Anyway, I made her a bag, complete with 'Handcrafted by Amy' label. It's being modeled by the latest addition to the Taylor-Dyce household, Veronica, my Toile mannequin. Isn't she pretty? I opened her at Lindzie and Jess' flat this morning (2 more vet friends and their sparkly new flat) and we dressed her up instead of studying. Ahh, good times.





Veronica being introduced to clothes by Lindzie.

Plastic bag holder

A classic example of how crafts can enter every aspect of your life. I told Andrew I was making us a plastic bag holder and he looked at me with that, "oh my goodness, how did I end up with this one?" look he does from time to time. He pulls that look out when I declare things like, "I think I'd like to run a marathon" or "I thought 'cinco de mayo' meant 5 jars of mayonnaise".

Anyway, here it is, the plastic bag holder! And my oh my, how useful it is. I can't believe we ever managed without one. I might knock up a couple of these for Etsy.

Camera case

I'm totally in love with felt at the moment. I love the process of popping an old jumper in the washing machine and it coming out all felted and ready to sew! I'm planning on making myself a pair of slippers today, if I ever make it through the studying I'm supposed to be doing...

Earlier on in the week I knocked up this little thing. I'm thinking of listing it on my etsy but I'm not sure it's good enough really. I've been really struggling to get good photos this week as well, I've listed up another couple of vintage scarves but they've come out pretty dark so I think I'm going to have to redo them when the sun finally decides to shine. It's been definite April showers over here, even though it's May.

In good news though, I've passed 6 of the 7 exams I've sat in the past 2 weeks! I won't get the results for the last one back until the start of June so I've just got to concentrate on the 4 more to come.

Etsy and trading, it's been a good old week

Well, I'm officially in the middle of exams. 3 down, 7 more to go!

In other more exciting news, I now have 3 more items in my Etsy shop!.

I've been thinking for a long time about whether or not to sell these scarves. They were my Granny Dot's, she died about 18 months ago. Mum gave me a whole pile of them when we were clearing out some of her things and I've picked out the ones I really like to use myself.

The rest of them have been languishing in a drawer ever since. I love having them because they were Granny Dot's, but to be honest I have no specific memories attached to any of them, I don't remember her wearing them. I mean, I remember her wearing scarves, but I don't recognise any of them as being hers.

I sorted through them the other day and there's about 8 that I know I'll never wear myself. They're so pretty, it seems a shame for them to just sit there so I made the decision to sell them. Gran would have loved that I have a little pet project like Etsy, even though she probably wouldn't have had a clue what I was talking about!

These are the 3 that have made it up there, the rest will be following when the light is bright enough to get a decent photo.







In other more cheerful news, I just completed a lovely trade over on Thriftstore. I'm swapping handmade 2 cushion covers and some pyjamas for a lovely green necklace and a pair of blue vans...check out the photos...

The cushions:

Cushion cover

I just whipped this up for a girl over on Thriftstore, who was rather lovely and paid me for it, huzzah! I'm using the money to buy a vintage skirt off another girl on the aforementioned site (no, I don't have a problem) to wear to Owen and Carolyn's wedding this summer and Frances and Mark's wedding next Easter. Just got to find some shoes and a top to match...

I'm quite pleased with how this turned out though. It's larger than my normal cushions, being 50 x 50cm and I wasn't sure how the combination of fabrics would look (her choice) but I'm pleasantly surprised!

I might make a few more of these soon, see if I can't buy an entire wedding outfit using crafted money!