Dottys dresses, fashion for fairies

 Happy Christmas eve everyone, as my regular friends on my blog know I have started a woodland collection and promised I would share snippets on here, this week and last I have been working with some gorgeous shot silk, netting and pearls from old wedding dresses and have enjoyed myself so much, I love that I can sit by the fire whilst its all blowing a gale outside and hand sew to my hearts content whilst watching films on Netflix, its especially good this time of year to be home sewing with the twinkly christmas lights, tasty puddings and blankets on my kneew, the dog likes lying on my feet too and even though he gets pretty heavy he is very warm too - free hot water bottle!

So the top picture is a floral corsage necklace I did, I stayed up till 2.30 am making it because I wanted to finish it, I loved making it and am in love with it now, its such a soft pretty and girly piece. I am going to be teaching a workshop in January at our shop in Blackpool on how to make them.
The next pic is a close up of a dress I have just started to make, there are rows of tiny beads and I am going to sew the panel around the front of the bodice

Here is the basic shape of the dress so far, the shoulders are going to have these custom made epulets that have layer upon layer of tulle, satin and silk petals, I have made one and it took me about 8 hours, I have to make the other yet!, will share a picture soon.

I am loving the freedom and creativity I can have, I do enjoy making gorgeous things I choose to make rather than churning out the same thing over and over, although because my rabbits and owls are good sellers I do make a lot of these, each one is different though so I dont get board  

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas day whatever your doing, even though this can be a difficult time for some of us it can also be a wonderful time. If you have love, a home and food your very rich and blessed. It's only a day like all the other days, don't put any expectations on it, just go with the flow and enjoy having a day at home. I am very grateful I have love, a home and food, friends that care anything else is a bonus xxx

What a great start

Today I started to design a woodland collection of clothes I really want to make, I got myself a brand spanking new sketch book and collected images from magazines, had a lovely time in the library looking for inspiring books too, I have started on one page and not finished it yet, so photos will come tomorrow, its given me so much positivity actually choosing my own destiny and doing something I have wanted to do for the past year but never made it important enough to do, on reflection of my mums anniversary of her death I thought long and hard what is important to me right now, and I found I need to submerse myself into this, I need to stop doing all the little jobs and orders ( which I am grateful for) but take up so much of my time and really go for it. I did some seed heads on the sewing machine and am so pleased with how they have turned out, can't wait to get them onto clothes.

 

So I get accused of living in a dream world and having too many ideas, I like living in a dream world and everything ever made started off with an idea so I'm not worried! But sensibly this project is going to make me focus and have ideas just about the collection, I think as a creative your mind is all over the place every day and its hard to reign it in sometimes. I hope you will look forward to sharing my journey as much as I am looking forward to posting pictures and updating my poor neglected blog.

       A fairy inspired dress I made recently.

Claires highstreet shop rips off UK crafts woman

Check out Tatty Devines post Can you spot the difference? this is a blatent copying from highstreet chain Claires, they should be ashamed of themselves, please share this with all your friends and social network sites, this kind of thing needs to go viral, Claires has been deleting anyones posts about this on facebook and not issued a statement about it, as a small business and crafts person myself this disgusts me, and we should make others aware that this kinda thing goes on, how would you feel if this was your design?, I know I would be fuming, hurt and upset. So please share x

Please vote for me xxxx

hello all my lovely readers, I entered a competition at Supportive Business Mums to win £750 worth of design and print from Supportive Business Mums (Design sponsored by Biz Brand Buzz and Creatively Minded – Print sponsored by Dorset Digital Print).I  have been lucky enough to be shortlisted into the top 10!, Can you imagine my delight, I feel so wonderful knowing that out of all who entered Im in the top ten!, Well I need to ask you a favour, in order to win I need to get the most votes so if you have a minute could you please pop over to vote, you can also read my interview and read the other 9 lucky contestants interviews too if you like.

vote here please

I want to say a massive thank you to Ces Loftus who has organised all this and who has done a cracking job on all the interviews x