Folded Frippery

A few posts ago I posted about making Origami from fabric. Since then I've been working really hard on the idea, and today, I've opened a shop to sell all of my new items!

Folded Frippery is now Open For Business!

Please, take a look around, and tell me what you think - I'd love to hear your feedback. There's only 3 products listed so far, but more will be listed as soon I get home from work today, and with the first item I sell I'll be giving away a free gift!

Along with the item my first customer buys I'll be sending them this:



A Fish Brooch made from some really cute heart printed fabric!

So spread the word, and please keep checking the shop, and the blog here, as many more products and updates will be appearing soon!

Oh, and one final thing - this is my 99th post! For post number 100 I think I'll be doing a giveaway...so keep yout eyes peeled!

Apryl's Bookish Craft Swap

I'm a little late in blogging this, but better late than never I suppose!

Here are things I was sent by the lovely Emma as part of Apryl's Bookish Craft Swap:

Firstly the book:



I've started reading it in the last few days, and while it's certainly not something I would choose to read myself, so far I'm enjoying it.

The whole package arrived wrapped in this gorgeous little tote bag:




Stamped on the back is one of my favourite Oscar Wilde quotes.

There was also this pretty friendship bracelet:




And some cool Origami paper:



Some of which I have already folded into cranes:




There were also some liquorice catherine wheels with the package, but they were gone by the time I got to photographing all the other gorgeous things I recieved...

Fabric Origami

When I get bored at work I inevitably end up folding bits of paper into interesting and fun shapes. As I've mentioned before of this blog, I really like doing Origami, even I'm not the best person in the world at it.

My new favourite thing to make are these flowers:




And on Friday, when I was really quite bored at work, I had the notion that I could make these out of fabric. And so, that's what I spent my weekend doing! (Apologies for the rubbish phone pics!)




This was my first attempt, and although I liked the way it came out, I really wasn't happy with the raw edges, or the way I'd sewn it together.

A quick trip to Hobbycraft later for invisible thread and elastic, and this was my second attempt:



It's hemmed with invisible thread, and I liked it much better.

But then I had another idea - what about multicoloured flowers?!




I turned these two into hairbands - as you can see, one is on my head! As well as sewing the two fabric colours together, these two also have interfacing in the middle - I wondered if it would help them keep their shape, but I actually think it makes them too bulky and I don't think they fold right.

I've made one more of these too - a plain black one for my hair, which the boyfriend tells me is pretty, but I'm undecided about. If we get decent enough light today I'll take some pictures!

I'm not sure they can be technically called origami as they're sewn together to help them keep their shape, but they do stay up and together without the sewing! And now I know it works I'm thinking of trying to make things using all the other Origami patterns I know!

I've looked at Etsy this morning, and it seems like no one else is selling flowers like these, which is exciting for me, as I think this is the first original thing I've ever come up with. I want to open a shop to sell them in, different to Dria's Sock Shop, but I need a name - if someone can help me think of one, I'll send them an origami flower - either on elastic or on a brooch back!

EDITED TO ADD: I'm keeping this open until 9pm on Saturday (the 21st August). I'd really like a new shop name by then! So please keep coming up with ideas!

Quick Post

Just a quick post, before I go to work today, to say that along with the two sock creatures I've sold this week, I've got a commission from someone at work for another one! It needs to be baby pink though, and I cannot find socks the right shade anywhere! If anyone knows where I can get baby pink socks, either striped, or just with different coloured heels and toes I'd be really grateful for the information!

Not much else to say - expect pictures when I eventually find socks!

What I've Done This Weekend

I haven't done an awful lot to be fair, it's mostly been a terribly lazy weekend. I've watched Season 3 of Arrested Development, and Season 3 of The Guild and done very little else.

What I have done though, is make a sock bunny. Matt, of "Rayguns, Chainsaws, Swords and Dice" who I know from the SFX Forum and Twitter sent me an @reply saying that he'd wanted me to make him a Sock Bunny for ages. And so I did!

This is a WIP shot I took about halfway through making it:


And here are two shots of the finished Bunny:




I'm going to send it off to it's new home tomorrow, where I hope it will be well loved! And I've had interest in a Monkey I made, Bernard, which has made me happy. For good measure's sake, here's a picure of him:

Facebook Shop!

Oh yes, I have opened a Facebook Shop. I'm not sure if it'll mean I'll get any more sales, or if it'll be another platform where I get grumpy no one wants my things, but it's a chance I'm willing to take for now! So go take a look, and then tell me what you think!

I'm still on a bit of a crafting low, but I did sew a pincushion for my new sewing box, and then another pincushion thing, which was meant to be a strawberry but ended up looking like a chilli. It's so mishapen I'm not even going to bother taking pictures and showing the world.

I'm sort of in the mood to start sewing something bigger though, so I might start another creature. I'm still not sure. I'm still in a slump where I know we have too many sock animals already cluttering up the bedroom / house, and I really am loathe to add to them when I know they're just going to sit here with the others. I might have to start looking for little sewing projects I can do just to entertain me. My mum wants a sock Elephant, so I suppose I should start on making that.

I'm not sure if I posted this picture before (and I'm too lazy to go back and check!), but this was the first Elephant I made from socks - yes, it has two heads - it was meant as a gift for Amanda Palmer in reference to the song Elephant Elephant by Evelyn Evelyn (a concept too complicated to explain...please, look it up and enjoy!).

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I'm not sure if my mum wants a two headed or a single headed elephant, but I might make a two headed one just for the fun of it!

So...

It has been nearly a month since I blogged. I really am bad at this blogging lark. Maybe I should write and schedule posts ahead of time, when they occur to me, because I can never find the time to actually blog once I get home from work. I'm not too bad when it comes to blogging in the morning I guess!

I haven't blogged because I really haven't had anything to say. Everything minor I just post on twitter, and in the end, all of my minor things end up as the major things I would normally blog about!

Craft wise I'm not doing anything at the moment. I still have French Knitting waiting to be finished in preparation to be knit into something else. I have a pile of socks waiting to be turned into fabulous creatures, and zero inspiration or inclination to do it. Our bedroom is already so full of creatures that it seems pointless to make any more that will sit here waiting for homes, and in all honesty it's been too hot to knit!

I'm also having a weird time of things at home at the moment - our Landlord / Housemate seems to have a new girlfriend, and she's been here pretty much every day for the last 2 weeks cleaning our house. I know it's entirely irrational of me to be cross about this, as someone else cleaning is always a good thing, but it's the fact that she's been doing it so relentlessly, and it seems to me (again, probably entirely irrationally), that me and P are being blamed for half the mess in this house, despite the fact we pretty much live in one room. I dunno, it's complicated, even in my head. I'm just ranting about here.

In some better and more cheery news, I got a birthday present yesterday from P's sister. It's a Cath Kidston sewing box, and it looks like a house! It's so gorgeous I'm almost inspired to sew again!

Here are some pictures, of the outside, and the inside, now I've filled it with lovely things! The button box is actually filled with tiny reels of thread - they all fit perfectly in there: