Creema

 

I recently found out a Japanese handmade selling site called Creema and was smitten by the creative force behind it. 
So another inspiration tab gets to open while I have my morning coffee. 

Here's something for you to enjoy too.  
 

 

Children's headbands

 

Last weekend I spent the night cutting out organza and singeing it to form into petals and flowers and that is not a very enjoyable process; yet what kept me going through the ordeal were the images of the flowers I already had pictured in my head. 

I made headbands for both adults (teenagers) and younger children. 

Pity I couldn't take a photo with a baby wearing these lovelies - so here you can see still life photos, although Eva lent a hand with the other set.

Well... until the next batch... Be well!

My Mini Doilies in the Simply Crochet Magazine

 

Back in October I was contacted by Tanya Kalyan - the lovely editor of Simply Crochet - with a request to feature my doily necklaces pattern in the magazine.

You can imagine my excitement! I sent pictures of all the pieces in the collection and also proposed making a new one, which was readily accepted and I created a necklace in a color scheme I haven't used before. 

And several months later it appeared in the magazine :)
I was and still am over the moon!

Bib Necklace Pattern 2

 

There is a new pattern in the shop. Inspired by this necklace.

A peek into gorgeousness

 

We've been preparing our web store for quite a while now and I can't say how excited I am as days pass by and we near the day when we can finally open it. The whole process of taking pictures, editing and writing descriptions has really been exhausting and I hope it will be rewarding in the end. 

The photos don't even scrape of what we have prepared, so this is a tiny portion of the things that'll be in the shop.

Vintage Collar Necklace Pattern

 

This project was inspired by vintage collars used to adorn simplistic clothes. The photo-tutorial contains two variations of the collar and the varieties you can make this the next favourite thing to wear  are innumerous. 

Pattern in the shop

 

Refashion it with style: Lace skirts

 

I am not a brand girl when it comes to clothes. I mean, of course I have brands I love, and there are many that fall into my aesthetics with their lines, but I am not obsessed to have the latest pieces and certainly do not follow fashion blindly. Oh, and the most important thing - I am not keen on spending lavishly on clothes. 

Having seamstresses in the house meant a lot of handmade clothes - and I much more preferred having something made according to my design, something original than buy something that comes in batches.   

So when talking handmade, the next best thing I love as much as sewing clothes is refashioning them. 

Having done a lot of refashioning and not always documenting it anywhere, I've decided to have a refashioning series here on my blog where I will share things I refashion myself and inspiration for doing so. 

So for today I chose lace skirts. Skirts are so easy to refashion. Especially if you have some old lace and ribbons, maybe a couple of buttons and some trims and voila! You have a new skirt!

The first image shows an absolutely amazing skirt made of three layers of different lace in both design and color.

 

This one shows center lace flounces added to a silk skirt.

 

 A simple cotton skirt can be transformed into this by adding zig-zagging lace ribbons ...

or make it quite unique by adding a lace border.

Lace crochet and fabric flowers

 

Here again I matched my two loves. 

Crochet and fabric flowers. While creating it I was driven by the image of a secret garden hidden inside tall, brick walls with green plants, colorful flowers and stone benches- where one could sit and enjoy the soft whisper of butterflies and the seducing song of birds.

The Valentine girl turned 13 today. She had a premature birthday party yesterday and was so excited I thought she was going to pass out! So, as of today, she's officially a teenager! 
{God help us all!}

Floral Headbands and some small talk

It was about 18°C / 64.4°F today! Can you believe it?
This winter we didn't see a single "w" out of it... unlike half of the world... And I still have some winter scarves to show you... maybe it gets pity on us and get a little cold.. I mean just a bit...

I am not crazy about cold weather but I certainly mind the changes -  I mean 18°C in February!! Come on!

As for my projects - I have springlike tablescapes all around the place. No, I was not inspired by the weather - I simply had a ton of organza flowers scattered around and I decided to tackle some lace and organza headbands. As I got pretty serious tackling them, I plan to bore you to death with them in the future posts :) 

Just kidding!

Forget Me Not Headband - free tutorial

 

For this lovely headband I used a variation of my flower pattern which you will find below. 

Pattern requirements
Skill: Beginner / Easy
Hook and yarn: for this project I used a 1.9mm (B1-E4) hook. Gassed, mercerized light yarn. However, if you use other sizes of yarn for this project, you should consult the label of your yarn/thread because it always gives information about recommended hook sizes. Please bear in mind that the size of yarn and hook influence the size of the finished project.

Gauge: not important for this project.

Used terms: chain (ch), single crochet (sc), treble /triple crochet (tr), slip stitch (sl st.).

Forget me not variation

Chain 5 and join with 1st chain to make ring.

Round 1: sc 5 in ring.

Round 2: *chain 4 and (in the same chain space) tr 2, chain 3 and make a sl st.

Make another sl st into the next chain (space) and repeat the pattern from * to *. 

Make 5 petals.    

After you make the flower, chain 10.

  

And then chain 5 more for the next flower.

 

To make the ring for the next flower, sl st in the 5th chain from hook. 

                     Make 5 sc in the ring.

Don't mind the chain. Just let it dangle while you make your sc. 

Here are all 5 sc made. We have the foundation ready so now you can start the rounds.    

Chain 4 and do the pattern given above. 

 

And the second flower is done. Now, crochet on until you get the desired length. 

This is what it looks like from behind.

Now, if you make a headband or a ribbon, you can leave the ends as they are. 

However, if you want to make a necklace (closed loop), just chain 10 and join with the very first flower by a sl st (shown in pic above).
  

Enjoy it!
If you want to have this tutorial downloaded on your computer for more immediate reference, you can download it from here. If you want to buy the headband, you can do that here.