Curls and Creations

This post is massively overdue and for that I apologise. Booktober did not go as well as I had hoped. I only managed to get through two of the four books that I had planned to read as I was filling my time with all sorts of random things rather than sitting down with a good book.

So it is officially Booktober! I am going to join the lovely Miss Carrie Hope Fletcher in reading one book each week for the duration of October.

This post is rather late as I have been having laptop troubles and was hoping to write it when that was sorted, but I am no closer to that than I was a fefew weeks ago and I didn't want to leave this any longer. I finished my Captain America USO Girl costume for Sheffield Film and Comic Con at the end of August! I got lots of compliments on my costume throughout the day and I really enjoyed wearing it. Halter neck is still not a favourite of mine as I do end up with a sore neck by the end of the day, but the dress itself was comfortable and easy to wear. The cosplay masquerade was a lot of fun and it was great to see so many fantastic costumes on display. I have already started planning my next cosplay (probably Kaylee from Firefly) and I have a long list of other possibilities for future cosplays. Can't wait to get started on the next one!

With Sheffield Film and Comic Con being one week away, I thought now would be a good time for a costume update.   I have procrastinated like crazy with this costume which is why I still have a fair bit to do over the next 7 days.

I have made one hat for my costume! This means that I have finally made a bit more progress with this costume!

So, I finally finished and wore my playsuit from the Vintage Playsuit Sew Along! I took the skirt on holiday with me, but never wore it because the waistband is too small to fasten. The shorts are very comfortable and I wore them quite a lot while on holiday. The only problem is that the waistband is a little too big (what is it with me and waistbands?), but not enough to stop me form wearing them! I intend to take the waistband in at some point soon and I would love to make a couple more pairs of shorts from the same pattern as they are comfortable and easy to wear. The pockets are also a huge plus for me. The blouse was also comfortable to wear, but I will definitely make it longer if I make another version of it in the future, as it only just tucked under the waistband of the shorts. Playsuits are definitely something that I will sew again!

Here is the final piece of my Vintage Playsuit for the sewalong! The dirndl skirt!  This is similar in design to the shorts. I decided to make the skirt and shorts navy with white accents as I knew that I would be able to wear both with various different tops on holiday due to the simple colours and design.

The second part of my vintage style playsuit is a pair of high waisted shorts. I have kept the red, white and blue colour scheme which I originally decided on . The shorts are navy blue with white piping and buttons.

Yesterday me and my boyfriend went for a trip to Eden Camp for my birthday. We had been talking about going for quite some time and decided that yesterday was as good a time as any. We were lucky to have chosen a day with such lovely weather. We arrived at Eden Camp in the morning and it was not very busy, which meant that we were able to just amble around the huts at our own pace and not have to worry about being in the way of other people. It also meant that I was able to take some photographs as we walked around some of the huts (some were too dark and I did not want to use my flash, as it is a museum and it would also ruin the atmosphere of the huts for us and other people). Eden Camp is a modern history museum within the grounds of a World War II prisoner of war camp in North Yorkshire. Each of the huts has a different theme, such as The Home Front, The Blitz, Women at War and even World War I. There is plenty of parking and a lovely cafe as well as mess halls in which y

As promised I am going to tell you all about my first experience with Mrs Depew's French pattern drafting. I bought pattern  6158  for a 50s blouse and capri pants and have made the blouse from this pattern. The capri pants are still on my to do list.

Today I decided to organise my fabric using a technique that I saw whilst browsing on Pinterest a while ago. The idea is that you cut rectangles of cardboard and fold your fabric around them, giving a neat and tidy look to your stash.

Stephanie over at  The Girl With the Star Spangled Heart  is hosting a Vintage Playsuit Sew Along which will take place throughout June. I have decided to take part in this sew along as I have wanted to make a vintage playsuit for quite a while and this is the perfect excuse.

And so it begins... Over the weekend I made the first piece of my costume for the con in August. I decided to make the underskirt first because I still haven't settled on any appropriate fabric for the dress. I am hoping to have a trip to Manchester to visit a few shops there which I loved whilst I was at uni. The fabric for my petticoat was just a cheap poly-organza, which I have finished off with red satin bias tape and some white bias tape for the waistband in order to stop any fraying at the top of the petticoat and make the waistband secure.

On Sunday, I went to a fascinator workshop held by the lovely Sophie from Imogen's Imagination . The workshop was a tester (or guinea pig workshop) for a few others that she has in the pipeline for the future. Four of us went over to Imogen Towers to take part in a very fun and informative workshop. We were faced with a table full of goodies including straw fascinator bases, feathers, veiling, buttons, ribbons, combs, clips and headbands. 

As soon as I found out that Sheffield was having a film and comic convention later this year I knew I wanted to enter the Masquerade. I have been trying to come up with cosplay ideas and the one that I keep coming back to is a Captain America USO dancing girl. ( Source )

As I have mentioned previously, I have subscribed to Something Sweet magazine. Today I finally got around to making something using a recipe in one of the magazines. I decided to make some Viennese biscuits from issue 9 for a tea party that I am going to tomorrow.

I have finally got around to putting my photographs from Grease on my laptop, so here are the pictures of the costumes that I wore. Act 1 Glasses - Primark - £3 £1 on sale Shirt - Peacocks - £9 (I think) Skirt - Made by me Socks - Primark - £1.50 Shoes - Primark - £3 High School Hop Hair Flower - Claire's - Don't remember price Dress - Vivien of Holloway - £89 Corsage - Provided by company Shoes - eBay - £8 Act 2 Blouse - Made by me Belt - Don't remember Skirt - Made by me Along with my costume pieces, I also wore a Jessica Simpson hairdo 15" wavy clip in extension which I purchased on eBay last year in order to make my hair appear shorter. I pin curled the bottom of my hair up under the hair piece and then pulled the top of my hair around to the back and created a few pin curls to disguise the length and hide the top of the extension.

As soon as I knew that we were doing Grease, I knew that I wanted to make my own costume. My original idea was to make a burgundy felt circle skirt to wear with a pale pink blouse, but when I found out that I would be playing a geek, I changed my mind a little and went for slightly darker colours. The pattern that I used was Simplicity 3847 , which is a pattern for a blouse, circle skirt, apron, hat and petticoat. Each ensemble member needed two costumes (one each for Act 1 and 2) and one High School Hop costume. I had a dress which I knew that I wanted to wear for the High School Hop, which meant that I just needed to make costumes for Act 1 and 2.

I have never attempted a pin curl set before, and I was a little unsure of how it would work on my already curly hair, but I decided to give it a go. I bought some setting lotion and a boar bristle brush on eBay and they arrived in time for me to try it out for my cousins birthday party on Saturday. On Friday night I washed my hair and towel dried it, before brushing some setting lotion through it. I then sectioned my hair off and started to pin curl it. My pin curl clips seem to have vanished, so I just used a lot of hair grips to hold the curls in place. My set was pin curled in opposite directions on each row as I wanted to achieve a 40s wave style. I slept on it and gave it a quick blow dry in the morning to get rid of the few damp bits that were in some of the slightly thicker curls. My spiral curls when I took my hair down. I then finger combed my hair to separate the curls, and my hair more or less double in volume. It took a lot of brushing t

For my Grease costume, I needed a pair of shoes to wear, but wasn't keen on any of the green ones I could find in shops because they were a little bright. I didn't want white shoes either because they would stand out a bit too much against my dark tartan skirt in Act 1 and dark green dress in Act 2. With this in mind, I decided to dye a pair of white pumps to match my costumes. The supplies I started with: White Pumps - £3 - Primark Dark Green Dye - £2.99 - Wilkinsons Rubber Gloves and Mop Bucket - Poundland I had never used this kind of dye before, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I also wasn't entirely sure how well the shoes would take the dye, but I was reassured as I saw them darkening in the bucket. The shoe laces unfortunately didn't pick up much dye, they are an extremely pale mint green, but that isn't too much of a problem as they look fine alongside the white grommets and soles of the shoes. Ta-da! Green shoes! The

A few days ago, I went to the post office to collect my box containing issues 2 and 3 of Something Sweet magazine. Issue 3 came with a free folder in which to keep all of the magazines. The inside of the folder has lots of handy conversion guides and temperature guides for both chocolate and sugar. Issue 2 contained a Sugar Mouse Mould (with tails), Gold Cupcake Cases and a Pink Truffle Box.  Issue 3 came with a Hydrangea Cutter and Embosser. The first subscription gift was a Sugar Thermometer and a Chocolate Thermometer. Both of these will be useful for trying out some of the variety of projects detailed within each magazine. I look forward to trying a few new recipes and putting the gifts that come with each magazine to good use. I will hopefully be able to make lots of wonderful sweet treats in the near future, just need to buy the supplies first!

I really cannot help myself when it come to shopping. Here are a few more purchases I have made recently. Two cute Paris Themed Pairs of Knickers - Primark - 50p each Two Pairs of Frilly White Socks for my Grease costume - Primark - £1.50 each Brown Satchel for Grease - Primark - £9 Frilly Fold Up Umbrella - Primark - £4 Smart White Shirt - Primark - £6 Burgundy Rose Print Dress - Primark - £13 reduced to £5 Corkscrew Hair Grips - Poundland These hair grips are brilliant for wearing your hair in a bun or other updo, as you just screw them in and they hold your hair up really securely. A great alternative to using loads of normal hair grips. These sell for about £5 for a pair in some other shops, so head to Poundland! 40s Style Fascinator/Hat - Claire's Accessories - £1 (in the sale) I was just browsing in Claire's when I saw this little hat and decided that I really wanted it. It had no tag so I wasn't completely sure whether