Sewing Bows

The drawers I keep my fabric stash in all very full. I'm almost at the point where I can't close them properly. But when my sister is getting rid of off-cuts from her latest costume project, or when someone donates a bag of fabric at work and I get to look through them first, I just can't say no.

So I need to start using some of this fabric that I've aquired. Which is why I've made all these bows!

Clip-on bows seem to be quite popular at the moment (I'm looking at you, Jo-Jo) so I bought a pack of these crocodile clips to attach to the back of the bows using UHU glue. I do prefer to sew clips to the bows, but since these clips don't have any holes in, the glue seems to be doing a good job.

I have a lot of Christmasy fabric which I was very excited to use for a few bows. I'm hoping these will be popular later in the year at Christmas craft fairs.

I also made a few bows with some of my quirkier fabric, like the Pikachu one! I've had it for years and it's so big I can make a lot with it. 

Something I started putting together last year for craft fairs is these surprise bags. They started as a way of shifting old stock but they were so popular I'm now having to make things especially for them.

I made a batch for a recent craft fair which contained a hair bow, a charm keyring and a pack of colour in stickers. They were very popular!

What would you love to find in a surprise bag?

This Week I...

 ...got my hair cut!
Since my last hair cut was three years ago this was kind of a big deal. During those 3 years I finally moved out of my parents house which meant I had to find somewhere to get my hair cut in my new town. I did thorough research and was happy with the place I decided on. A small, independent salon whose owner came with great reviews. She did a great job and discussed with me at the start which style would work best, although, word to all hairdressers; don't carry on the conversation whilst you're using the hair dryer. That can just be our quiet time, ok?

Like my last few hair cuts I will again be donating my hair to the Little Princess Trust. When I get around to posting it that is, for now it's just in a plastic bag on my kitchen table, creeping out my boyfriend.

Haircut

As I mentioned on Sunday, I got my hair cut last week. My last hair cut was exactly 3 years ago, and like last time I will be donating the hair to the Little Princess Trust.

If you weren't reading my blog three years ago then you won't know that I go through a cycle of growing my hair really long and then getting it cut really short every few years. My first major hair cut was when I was 16 and I've had three more since then. This time I decided to get my hair cut once I'd gotten my braces off, so I've gone through quite the transformation in the space of a week (though of course I'm not smiling with my teeth in any of the photos so you can't tell! Well done, self.)

Below are the before and afters for each of my haircuts. I hope you like seeing photos of my face. And yes, I like to wear the same shirt for my haircuts! The first two times were coincidental but now it's a tradition.

April 2014

April 2011

July 2008

August 2006

Does anyone else like to mix up their hair styles every so often?

Tiger Hair Clips

My sewing box is kind of a mess. In the bottom part there's lots of little things I made and haven't done anything with. Like this tiger face.

I made a few of them at the time - and even made one into a necklace - but the others got forgotten.

The tiger face is a circle of fabric sewn around a disc with a bit of stuffing.

I decided to buy some hair clips from Ebay to do something with it.

I made a simple bow from this black leathery fabric, which I've used here and here, and attached the tiger face to the front.

Then I glued the hair clip to the back of the bow and it was done.

As well as a tiger face I also had a couple of tiger print circles.

I attached one to another bow that I'd started to make but didn't finish because the fabric was too thick to be a proper bow, but it worked for this hair clip.

I love these simple project where I've done most of the hard work already.

This Week I...

...dyed the bottom of my hair pink!

I used this Schwarzkopf Live Colour XXL in Shocking Pink.

When I'd done a bit of research online a lot of people had used this and it happened to be only £4 in Wilkinsons.

I thought about getting a blonde dye to lighten my hair first as I wasn't sure any pink would show up without it, but I couldn't decide on one. It turned out I was fine without anyway.

The good thing about this dye is it comes pre-mixed in a tube so you don't waste any.

This photo was taken after my hair was dyed so you can see how little was used. This means I've got loads left over to do it again when the colour washes out.

 

I say I dyed my hair, but it was actually all the work of my glamorous assistant Lizzi.

She followed the instructions and painted the dye on with a brush and wrapped the sections of hair in foil.

Note the plastic poncho I'm wearing. I thought it'd be perfect for this. Much better than wrapping an old towel round me.

 

We left it for the advised 30 minutes then washed my hair in the shower.

This was an interesting experience which promoted me to keep singing, 'that's what friends are for!'

My shower isn't over a bath so I had to lie back on the floor with my hair in the shower tray and Lizzi stood in the shower with the shower head, trying not to get her jeans wet. She failed.

After blow drying my hair we found that the pink had worked, but we could probably afford to go a bit higher.

My Mum's comment at this point was, 'it looks like you've dipped the end of your hair in paint.'

Yes Mum.

 So we repeated the process which made the colour a bit deeper.

Lizzi applied the colour kind of randomly because I didn't want a straight across dip-dye.

I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's kind of a raspberry colour that looks different in different lights.

The box says it'll last 6-8 washes so we'll see how that goes.

How was your week guys?

What crazy colours has your hair been?

Shell Hair-slides

I got the idea for these shell hair slides from Quiet Lion Creations.

Make sure to check out the original tutorial, especially since she went for really cool designs on her shells.

I went for a more natural look.

To make the shells into hair slides you fill them with Fimo/Sculpey. It's a chance to use up any odd bits you have because the clay won't be seen so it doesn't matter what colour it ends up as.

Then you press the hair slide into the Fimo, remove the slide, bake the clay still in the shell, then glue the slide back into the clay.

I painted my shells with nail varnish. One pair is silvery/pinky/redish.

And the other pair gradients from white to light blue. 

I think the shells look really cute slotted into a messy up-do.

Denim Bow

Just when you think I can't make any more bows; boom. Here's one made out of denim.

Which is a tricky fabric since it's so thick.

But I got it to do what I want.

Usually I attach big elastic hair bands to the bows I make but I didn't have one the right colour so I left it for a long time.

And then I had a lightbulb moment.

I put a regular small hair band through the bow and now I can wear it with a ponytail.

Or with a messy bow.

Voila.

And I can also slip the bow onto an existing metal hairband and wear it that way if I feel so inclinded.

All these possibilities just opening up to me. Whoah.

More hairbands

Things I need more of :

Words on my dissertation.

Things I don't need more of :

Hair bands.

So guess what I did this weekend...

Made more hair bands!

Yay!

Well, assembled more hair bands, rather than 'made'.

I just took some of the butterflies my Mum crocheted and attached them to some new elastic hair bands that I bought.

I've used these butterflies to make necklaces before, some of which you can find in my Etsy shop.

*cough* shameless promotion *cough*

Here and here.

Is ombre hair still on trend?

I hope so, because I'm never on trend but as my dyed hair (that I dyed well over a year ago and was supposed to be semi-permanent!) grows out it's kinda looking that way. Aces!

And welcome to new followers!

And of course hello to y'all who have been with me for longer.

Thanks for being here.

I wish blogger had a better way to reply to comments to we could actually have a proper, like, conversation.

Or as we say in the art school world 'start a dialogue'.

Simple hairbands

I used these discarded ties from a dressing gown and a dress to make some simple headbands. I think they were my sister's, she doesn't know I used them. She will now.

The style is based on some similar ones my Mum made when she was younger.

I could easily go crazy embellishing them, just give me time.

I could definitely see this one with some added bling.

Since the fabric was already in a tube all I had to do was cut a suitable length, fold the ends in and sew the elastic on.

They're a simple way to dress up my short hair.

Hair

In the months leading up to my hair cut I wanted to make the most of my long hair so I tried out some different styles which I thought I would share.

I tried a fishtail plait which is kinda time consuming but looks pretty cool.

There's a tutorial for how to do it here.

I love this super big bun created around a sock. Check out the tutorial here, it's so easy.

And finally a hair bow, made of hair! If you follow srslyliz then you would have seen her rocking this look. I think it's so fun! See her tutorial here.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Ok people, I have some news:

I got a haircut.

Now you may not think that this is blog-worthy, and certainly not a whole post, but for me this is an event. A major event. I hadn't had my hair cut in 2 years and 9 months. Not even a trim. 

So let's get straight to it. Here's the before and after.

April 2011

 Pretty drastic right? Well this is something of a theme for me; grow my hair really long for a few years and then cut it all off. 

See:

July 2008

August 2006

(And yes, I've gotten into the habit of wearing the same t-shirt for all my haircuts!)

This time was different as I had decided to donate my hair.

So after I told the hairdresser what style I wanted, I added '...and I want to keep the hair.'

Cos that's not weird at all! 

I was pretty aware of Locks of Love, thanks to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and found a UK based charity which basically does the the same thing, the Little Princess Trust.

They make real hair wigs for children suffering from hair loss due to cancer treatments and alopecia.

Holding your own ponytail when it isn't attached to your head is very odd indeed!



So now I've got to get used to being a short-haired gal again.

Here's an interesting read on the topic. 

Another new hairband

I've been making hairbands again. This one is just pretty things sewn onto felt which was then sewn around a hairband

The brooch was from this box of jewellery and the gems were from this bag of beads. 

In other news, my number of followers now exceeds my age! Wahoo!

Welcome new followers, and holla at my old ones, thanks for being here.