I'm teaching at the Handmade Fair! Squee

Hello all!

I've got something a little different to talk about with you today, though disclaimer there are no new makes so if you're only in it for the pretty dresses feel free to skip this one.

I have some very exciting news! I will be teaching a workshop at The Handmade Fair this year. This is a show a bit like the standard knitting and sewing shows, except the focus is on classes and learning new skills. I went last year with my Mum and Sis, and we had a blast learning all sorts of interesting skills like flower arranging, macrame, and we learnt all about the wonders of chalk paint that both my sister and I got very over-excited about and have started painting everything we own with the stuff. My Mum bought a hundred new hobbies as usual (sorry for telling on you Mum ;-) ), and we had Pimms and afternoon tea. I thoroughly recommend it for a day out.

So my session will be on these 3D flowers/ decorations, link here:

I have been making these decorations for years, they are a simple design that once you understand the concept can be applied in a massively wide variety of ways. I have made so many of these for a variety of crafts. We will be making them into brooches at the fair, but I wanted to show you just some of the ways that I have adapted this simple pattern into all sorts of different items.

There won't be many people (I'm assuming) who remember my craft fair days. This slightly creepy head was used to display these brooches in their alternate form as headbands. If you alter the dimensions of the template, and round off the corners you will end up with a more flower-like design that you can see here. Here I attached a grip on the back to attach to your hair, but I also sometimes used ribbon to attach this to your hair. 

We also used these flowers for a variety of things for my wedding. Above you can see the design used with scraps from the length of the bridesmaid dresses which we made into a flower each for the bridesmaid bouquets. This meant that they mixed in perfectly with the dresses, and they were a lovely keepsake using the fabric which probably would have been scrapped otherwise. 

A wide selection of beautiful fabrics will be provided on the day, just look at how different these can look in a variety of fabrics. Something different to do with those fabric scraps! 

I used a larger template, which included three petal sizes and layers of duchess satin and lace for my veil centrepiece:

And how about using them as decoration around your home? My Mum and I attached hundreds of them to chandeliers for my wedding features, and now lots of members of our family have them adorning their homes. It's lovely to go to someone's house and see something you made being used:

The potential uses for these flowers is seemingly endless. I'd love to make some up in rainbow colours and hang them as a mobile in the nursery, next project perhaps? 

I hope this gives you some inspiration on what you could make with these flowers after our workshop, you will hopefully learn a couple of new skills, and will have something pretty to wear on the day. Also, I can't wait to meet up with you and have a chat! If you've got any burning questions then once we get going sewing we can have a natter about all things sewing and crafting. Can't wait to see you there! 

Miss the link? http://www.thehandmadefair.com/skill-workshop/yarn-textiles/ 

Deborah

Accessories and Venue

The veil, I wanted to buy my veil by the time I had finished the dress, I was tired to be honest and a bit wiped out with all the other making we'd been doing. Unfortunately we couldn't find a nice one under about £100 so out came the sewing machine! I mean veiling is about £5 a metre for goodness sake.

To make the veil I picked up the 1 1/2 metres I had bought, clipped it to my head with a kirbi grib and marked on where I wanted it to end. I then led it out on the ground, cutting off any excess. I then folded it first in half lengthways and then downwards, and rounded off the edges. I looked up how to make one online but couldn't really grasp their instructions. But once I had the fabric laid out the material all became clear.

I had made the flower for my bouquet but as I had two it was making the bouquet unbalanced, so I used it on the veil! I used a variety of lace including that used in the wedding dress, and then attached a small veil comb underneath. To finish the edges I used 3metres of ivory lace trim, just sewing it flat onto the raw edge as veiling does not fray.

The bouquets were a joint effort between my mum and me, the two at the bottom were made using the excess off the bottom of the bridesmaid dresses so as to match my beautiful bridesmaids! The leaf you can see poking out of the top one is a felt cut-out of a leaf I picked up when Terence and I got engaged. I knew there was a reason I was so sentimental!

Here you can see a sample of the (over 100m!) of bunting that we made for the wedding. My sister and I cut out the majority of the triangles (with some help from Mother in Law), and my Mum sewed basically all of it together herself. Don't know how she managed to keep going, it was amazing! We used all sorts of colours and designs, trying to stick mostly with the blue and green but adding in the odd galaxy fabric to keep things interesting!

One of my favourite elements of the decoration were the centrepieces, they were made with hand-made flowers, spray painted candelabras, dinosaurs and animal toys and a whole mess of help from all of our amazing friends and family. Thank you to you all, I'll leave you with the pics as they tell the story of their construction better than I ever could.

You made it through the wedding posts! Well done! Just wanted to add a quick note to say thank you to everyone who helped us with this. It was the biggest thing we've ever done/ will probably ever do again. Thank you to all those who had a hand in our wedding, whether you made things, or just listened to us gripe for months on end about all sorts of nonsense. We love you guys! You made our day what it was.