Last of the Christmas presents

Here we are finally, the last of the Christmas presents.  This one was embarrassingly late because I ordered the second pair of needles (with plenty of time to spare, might I add)...then got them sent to Edinburgh instead of York.  Suffice to say, by the time the needles arrived in the correct city Christmas had passed and since it was going to be late anyway, I figured I might as well go whole hog and keep it until my next Edinburgh weekend (when I have access to my sewing machine and fabric hoard stash) and sew up a lining.  I'm getting really annoyed with this whole to-ing and fro-ing between Edinburgh and York, never having what I need where I need it.

The skirt in all its bad-winter-light-photo-hurry-up-and-take-a-picture-so-you-can-wrap-it-and-post-it glory



The back.  Very dull to knit but actually a nice relief from the 'WTF...I swear I've already done this row...wait a second...shit...if only I wasn't watching New Girl drinking wine whilst knitting this very complicated pattern' of the front panel

Partly this is why it's taken me 2 weeks to blog again, I'm now officially job hunting back up north.  Job applications take ages don't they?  Even when you're sending pretty much the same letter to everyone.  I've had one interview so far, which was a nice confidence boost, but in the wrong part of Scotland to be feasible with commuting so a no-go.

The lining was made from some red satin-stuff lurking in my stash.  Ideally I wanted a pretty printed cotton to please small-child-Amy but then sensible-adult-Amy decided to go for something slippery to make the skirt easier to wear with tights.  Because lets face it, if its cold enough for a wool skirt, its cold enough for tights, right?  Cotton sitcks and catches on tights, satin slips on and off easily.  Not that I'm implying that I designed this skirt to be easy to slip off...wait...hang on...I'm coming across all wrong....

I'm not much of a note-maker, but if you want to see my Ravelry post about this skirt, my username is Second Fiddle.

For some reason Flickr or Blogger has seen fit to alter the size of some of these photos, even though I altered them to be the correct size.  If anyone knows why this might be, please feel free to drop me a line!

Handmade cards

I haven't made cards for a while but since I'm on a money saving kick at the moment, I thought I'd make the most of my crafty skillz and hoard collection of pretty collected scrap papers. I bought the plain card backs and matching envelopes off Ebay years ago now, for about £3 for 12 I seem to remember.  Bargain!



Chicken from recycled wrapping paper for Mary Jane from Paper Blossom Stationary.  You should definitely check out her Etsy shop, she's got some super cute stationary over there!



First birthday card from recycled Where's Wally books for Heather's baby, Alma.  I sewed the balloon with wool from my stash.



New home card for Victoria from work.  Maybe it's a bit morbid using vintage Cluedo cards on a new home card? 



And as always, my crafting buddy.  Nothing gets done without his nose being involved.

Christmas presents - the penultimate chapter

I think this is the second-to-last installment of the Christmas presents posts, the last one will be Vicky's skirt but I can't do the big reveal until she's opened the parcel (it's winging it's way to you even as we speak love!). 

These were made for 3 of my friends' babies, I managed to catch these little guys on camera before they flew the coop to meet their new little buddies.  They were another stash make, which is always satisfying, though I think in the future using real felt, rather than felted jumpers, is the better option for the facial features.  Real felt gives a much cleaner edge, you can see the first monster's features are a bit more 'fluffy' round the edges.







See those fluffy edges?

You can tell the difference between photographs, I made the first guy back in September when the sun shone every so often!  Also the difference between taking time to make and photograph presents when you're organised and starting months beforehand vs. rushing to photograph and wrap before instantly giving away when you leave it to the last minute.



This little dude has a pocket, for all his monster possessions



This guy's face looks a bit Clockwork Orange, don't you think?

So far I've had good feedback, apparently the babies like to rub their faces on them, which was kind of my idea, I thought they might appreciate the soft, fluffy fake fur.  It made me want to rub my face on it to be honest!

Christmas presents part 5

This was an upcycling make, turning a friend's final year vet jacket into a coat for her dog.  Alison graduated and went back to the States, so was limited in what she could take back with her.  I fished this jacket out of the charity shop pile, thinking it would be too sentimental to give away but with no fixed plan of what to do with it.  After a month or two of pondering, I settled on a dog coat for Pickle.  I already had a template I knew would fit her since I traced one of her coats to make Badger's rain jacket.



I stupidly didn't take a 'before' picture, but the coat was almost identical to this one, with the logos and name tags across the chest.





We each had the option to buy them in final year, it's sort of a badge of honour as only final years get them, but I'll be honest, I didn't like mine at all.  It's that horrid blousy design that makes me look short and fat, it basically only looked good on tall slim guys so most of us looked ridiculous in them.  I'm keeping mine because I'm silly and sentimental but it's definitely going to be a 'throw on to take the compost out' type jacket, I won't be wearing it outside of the house any time soon.



The dog helped by licking his wanger on top of the jacket while I was trying to cut it out





I'm pleased with how this turned out, the waterproof material was a complete bitch to sew, it kept slipping around all over the place but at the same time, kept sticking to the needle and machine so it wouldn't go through smoothly.  There are a few slightly bodged areas but nothing too horrendous and since it's for a dog, I'm sure Pickle won't notice!

Christmas presents part 4

These are some terrible photos, so apologies, but I finished this one and had to instantly wrap it for Christmas.  It's based on Adventures in Dressmaking's faux fur snood tutorial, it's super simple to make and I'm pleased with the results!



I made this one smaller than the original, with the thought that it could be worn as a snood or headband.  I'm a bit worried it might be a bit small for the intended recepient, it was a bit snug on me but I think I have a reasonably chunky head.  All those brains or something...



I'd like to make one for myself, it would be great for walking the dog in style.  Especially since I got fancy Hunters for Christmas!



I like that you could make this in a range of colours, I really liked Suzannah's original in leopard print!

We got engaged!

Just a quick announcement as it's Andrew's last day in York for a little while...we got engaged!  He proposed on New Year's Eve at midnight and I burst into tears and said yes before he even got the chance to get the words out.  It was a lovely start to 2013.

Source: secondfiddlecrafts.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

Just so it's not a completely picture-less post (let's face it, none of you are here for the quality journalism), here are a few inspiration pictures I've been hoarding as potential wedding dresses.  I'm hoping to buy something vintage so I'll be keeping my eyes peeled over the next 18 months or so, we're hoping to get married in autumn of 2014.

Source: jeweledelegance.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

I'm so delighted!  Although it's a strange thought to think I'll be Mrs Amy Dyce, 'Mrs Dyce' is his mum's name...

Looking backwards and forwards

It's the end of the year, the traditional time to reflect on the year past and look forward to the year ahead.  When I read over last year's end of year post I realise how much I've achieved this year.  Apologies for blowing my own trumpet for a second but vet school was a real slog to the bitter end and I'm so grateful it's over, I'm so much happier now than I was this time last year!

The only resolution I made last year was to craft more for me.  I love crafting for friends and family so don't get me wrong, I don't resent it at all.  Just sometimes I take on too much and end up having to put my own projects on hold for months at a time.

Let's see how I managed shall we?

Projects for friends and family - 35

 

Projects for me - 4 (well 3, one is for the dog.  Well, 2.5 as one was just changing the buttons on a cardigan...)



I think we could say that this resolution was an abject fail!  I've loved the projects I've done this year, with personal favourites being mini Maciver's lamb cardigan, Karen's mushroom cushions and Frances' bow cushion.  On the other hand though, I had lots of projects for myself that never materialised (remember 5 tops in 10 days?  My plans for Sorbetto tops?  I even created a tag 'Inspiration' to try and get the creative juices flowing!).  Somehow it's always easier to justify spending the time if I'm crafting for other people and it's money saving if I'm using stash materials for presents - money has been tight this year after 8 years of university.

New year, new start and all that.  Last year I only made one resolution, since with final year I didn't want to commit to more than one and fail (although I epically failed at just one so ho, hum!).  This year I've got a few things I want to improve upon so I plan to make 2013 the best year yet!

1. Craft more for me!  - this time I intend to make it happen!  I'm going to enter
Karen's 'Put your money where your mouth is' post to make sure I stick to this one.

2.  Start giving regularly to charity - I've got a wage now so no excuse of being a poverty stricken student anymore.  I donate regularly to charity in the form of giving to and buying from charity shops but I want to start donating a portion of my income.  I've yet to decide which charity but I'm thinking at the moment something linked to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, something involving health, education for women and vaccinations/contraceptives.

3. Start doing exercise.  I come from a rather large (in kilos), rather unhealthy (in disease terms) family and would like to avoid this trend if possible.  To this end I'm signing up for the Edinburgh half marathon.  I'm doing it with my friend Karen as a means to motivate myself to exercise.  We'll see how I go when it's 5 degrees and sleeting in February...