Wednesday 12 May 2010

Strawberry Fields Forever

My recent crafting has accidently taken on a strawberry theme.  I've found my recent craft related purchases all involve strawberries in some way or another.  This was totally unplanned, but so far I've got strawberry print paper, fabric (for dressmaking) and a strawberry themed pin cushion (to use when dress making, but it also inspired a card).

More of the dressmaking later, but first a strawberry themed card:
Easel 50th Birthday Card
Ingredients: Paper - October Afternoon, felt from stash, Dovecraft brads, ribbon from stash, Fiskars punch, Nestabilities, Cuttlebug and Quickutz dies, pen stitching.

As I said, the card was inspired by my fab new pin cushion which I bought from NicolaLuke on Etsy:
It looks cute in the photo, but it is even better in real life.  The detail is amazing and  I feel guilty sticking pins in it.  (Nicola also has a blog with details of her fab creations - check it out here.)

As I said on my last post, I have acquired a sewing machine with the intention of making a dress.  I am happy to say there has been significant progress on this, and not just buying the aforementioned pin cushion. I have infact made a 'practise' dress!
I am going to the races this summer and decided I wanted to make my own dress.  With my very limited sewing and dress making experience I knew I would need a pattern so I picked this one from Vogue Easy Options:
I also decided it might be an idea to buy some cheap fabric to practise on, which just so happened to have a strawberry print.  I set to work with my 'practise' fabric and this is the [nearly] finished dress:
It looks a bit odd on the hanger, but I can say it looks very nice on.  In this photo it's not been hemmed and there is no zip in it, but I was very pleased to get this far without major incident.  I even managed to do the lining.   My vanity meant that I cut the pattern a size smaller than I should have done, but that's why I chose to do a practise dress before the real thing.
Finally, here's a shot of all my strawberry items together:
Thanks for looking,
Ruthie x

3 comments:

nicola said...

thankyou for the metion Ruthie xx, your card is absolutley beautiful :) yey strawberries!!

maddy hill said...

oh wow thats a fabulous card ruthie and i love the pin cushion - the strawberry must be in the air , i blogged a strawberry fairy then some strawberry earrings i made - your my kinda girl !
hope we dont turn into one !
hugs
maddyx

YvonneMcG said...

Your card is fab.. Really summery and colourful. Also that dress is beautiful. I had my cousin make me a dross from that same pattern, but she altered it for me to make it an empire line one. Loving all your cards and projects :o)