A Year for Great Britain

I was feeling particularly British this summer and was inspired by the Brother's cider advert, in particular a dress made from a Union Jack:

After looking up the prices of a high-quality flag that wouldn't disintergrate in the wash I decided I would have to make mine from scratch.

It ended up quite different to my original plan but I love it!

I kept the union jack design subtle to avoid any ginger-spice-itis.

I celebrated the Jubilee with champagne, a warm beef winter-warmer, and a Jubilee cheesecake!

I felt very pretty in my dress - plenty of swooshing around.

Fancy That!

So I have been non-stop busy since I started university almost two years ago, but not too busy to sew...
My favourite hobby at uni was to go to fancy dress nights out in homemade costumes, so here is a little collection of them:

First I put together this fox hood and tail costume for the cheerleaders and american footballers foxhunt social. I had to wear my safety goggles to stop the fur getting in my eyes!

I didn't have my sewing machine but I whipped up some Hogwarts-style robes (complete with hood and sleeves) in one evening for less than £2 for the Wingardium Levio-soc social. I got sorted into Ravenclaw with some nifty cauldrons of varying pH and litmus paper.

Next was the cheerleader's Winter Wonderlounge so I made this velvet Santa Claus dress, which I later converted into a more wearable velvet and black lace trim dress.

With the fur from the christmas dress and an old toga-sheet I made this Bjork-style swan dress for the cheerleader Valentine's Noah's Lounge social.

And to finish off I made these Cadbury's easter egg wrapper dresses and a Lindt bunny costume (though I didn't make the golden unitard - that's from ASOS).

I also put together loads of other outfits but with much less sewing involved including - Mulan robes, Minnie Mouse dress, and a 1920's outfit centred around my great-grandmother's dress.