Forgotten Pleasures

Hello there,

Welcome back to Wedgie's Wonderful World.

Over the festive season I had rather a lot of time off work (lots of untaken leave that I had to use before the end of 2015) and that meant I could spend more time in my lovely craft room - woo hoo!

Last year I really started experimenting with dressmaking and machine sewing generally...it's something I have dabbled in for a number of years.....but I think I've finally got the hang of it. I'm by no means perfect.....but my wardrobe has increased with some rather lovely (even if I do say so myself) handmade clothes and I was able to give some hand sewn gifts for Christmas this year!

50s Style Handmade Dress
with circle skirt

Handmade zipper pouches made using Liberty print 

Then my mum asked whether I could help her stock a craft stall that she is thinking about taking over at her local church in 2016. This got me thinking about all the different small items I could make that might be popular......thats when I remembered my felt stash!

Ages ago I had a real thing for creating felties and other small felt items, so I thought I would give it a go again......and I am so pleased I did! I had forgotten how much I enjoy working with felt to create little items like these felt brooches....

Collection of handmade felt brooches

There is something rather wonderful and satisfying about designing and creating with felt. As long as you have the right stash at home you can make a new brooch relatively quickly....

Brooch making at the beginning

You can also add quite a bit of detail, using buttons and hand stitching to embellish your designs....

Finished felt flower brooches

I made the five brooches in the photo above in one afternoon (and that included faffing about in my craft room to find all the materials!)......so I will definitely be helping mum stock her craft stall this year!

Have you got a forgotten craft that you really enjoy doing? 

I'd love to hear about it.....

Thank you for popping by today,

Wedgie xxx

Afternoon tea and a fab award!

Hello everyone, hope you're all well and having a lovely weekend.

First I want to say a huge thank you to Lilsweetpea who I mentioned on my blog earlier this week as a fab new discovery of mine. I popped back yesterday to see what new gorgeous cards she has created to discover that she has given me the Liebster Blog Award, which is an award creaed to bring new blogs to light. I am truely touched to be passed this award from such a talented crafter. If you haven't already popped by her blog I'd recommend a peek!

The award is a great way to share blogs with others, and to put blogs under the spotlight. There are so many talented crafters out there, so its fab to be able to highlight some of the ones I've found recently and love. I'd like to pass the award onto the following blogs:

Suzie McFloozy's Musings

J and J's Yummy Creations

Farm Fresh Designs

Lbw22 Loopylou

Kurly Q

A Passion for Craft

Take a peek at all these blogs, there are gorgeous cards to be seen at all. You guys can take the award from my blog and pass the award on by creating your own list - have fun!

As well as getting this award, my weekend has been lots of fun already because today was Crafternoon Tea! Lorna hosted and made fab sandwiches, lemon meringue kisses and scones. Becca, Anika, Sheree and Rafina all joined in the fun...bringing with them yummy cakes, pink bubbles and cheese straws (yes I am still full now!).

After eating a huge amount of yummy food we got stuck into the crafting...this time we had biscuits to ice (which Anika was very good at), felties to make and clay to model with. A special mention to Sheree who choose a very detailed feltie and finished it beautifully despite saying she was rubbish on more than one occasion!

I want to say thank you to all the girlies for joining Lorna and I today, we hope you had as much fun as we did! I'm off to Make It at Farnborough tomorrow...really looking forward to some retail therapy!

Thanks for popping by today,

Wedgie xxx

Handmade Gift

Hello everyone, long time no see! It was such a busy week for me last week, and this week isn't much better! Thought I'd pop along for a quick post though....

The challenge over at Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge is a fab one....they want to see our handmade Christmas gifts. I love making things....give me some fabric or some beads and I'll while away a couple of hours no problem! I organised a big meeting for work in a London hotel on Friday, and I took my beading with me! I made some lovely stars to hang on the Christmas tree, my boss couldn't believe I was sat there beading in my hotel room!

The ladies at Secret Crafter have made some gorgeous gifts, check out their blog! I've decided to share with you some of my felt keyrings which are for my sister....

You may remember I've made cute felt items before....there was Dave the Alien who I posted about earlier this year! He was a fridge magnet...well now I've expanded into keyrings too! These cuties are made from felt and are hand-stitched.

Right, I'm off...it's Joe's Birthday today...I think we're off to the garage in a bit! I'll be back tomorrow with some new cards.

Thanks for stopping by today, Wedgie xxx

Christmas stocking!

Evening All! I hope you're all well and had a lovely weekend. Mine was lovely. Joe and I showed our ages this weekend - we went to B&Q on Saturday....Joe wanted a new rug for his lovely flat (which is looking so homely now!). We were wandering around and ended up in an aisle of doors....so guess what we did....well what we wanted to do...yep we acted like children and wanted to play hide and seek in all the doors! So much for us being grown ups!

This week's challenge over at Bah Humbug! has also made me feel like a child again...the theme is Christmas stockings and I'm not ashamed to admit that my mum still fills a stocking for me and my sister every year! Yes, we are grown adults, Lorna is even married (don't worry - the hubbie gets a stocking too!!), but age doesn't matter - we still love stockings from our mum! Right, anyway...the lovely Bah Hunbug ladies want to see projects featuring Christmas stockings...so here is mine......

I decided on this cute Christmas tree backing paper to give a bright green background, perfect for showing off my lovely red felt stocking! Yes, I got in the sewing mood and made my own tiny stocking out of my felt scraps! I've used a blanket stitch around the stocking and then a running stitch to attach the white top. This is actually something my mum used to make when we were little - we had loads of these lovely stockings hanging on the Christmas tree - if we were really lucky we'd find chocolate coins in them! As this stocking has an open top you could put a little surprise in there too - I like this idea a lot and might make more for my friends at Christmas...shhh! don't tell them!Sheree...Becca....Anika....Lorna....if you're reading this please forget what I've just written and be surprised by your cards at Christmas! Ha, ha! For more stockings take a peek at their blog.

I'll also enter this in the Cute Card Thursday Challnge this week....the theme is "get a head start" and they have called for Christmas cards! Take a peek at thier blog if you'd like some inspiration, the DT cards are all gorgeous.

Anyway, I've got a good book that I want to carry on reading, so I'll say goodnight!
Thanks for popping by today.
Wedgie xxx