York Dragon Boat race 2013 – a steampunkish pirate in action!

There aren’t too many photos of me knocking about but here I am, looking a bit short, about to prove that you CAN row a boat wearing a bustle and corset.

There were 17 of us rowing the boat, plus a few reserves so there were plenty of pirates on the day!

Every team rows three races and then your best times are used to determine who races in the final. We didn’t make the final – our best time was 1.21 and the winners’ best time was 1.04 – but boy did we have fun!

It’s hard work, splashy and tiring but the whole thing raises thousands for charity and has the feel of a festival.

The College Crew are in lane 2!

I don’t know who filmed this or where it came from but it turned up in my inbox. It’s a video of our second race, which was memorable because we were winning right up until the point when the boat nearly capsized! Near the end you can hear us scream – the water was pouring in, it was quite scary!

We spent most of the afternoon soaked through to the skin but raring to race! We haven’t had the final total for our team yet but we reckon we raised around £1500 for Help For Heroes and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

Right, I’m off to bed. I’ve got to drive to Wales in the morning!

Beccy

Making a bustle pad, a little tutorial…

If you’ve ever made a cushion, making a bustle pad is easy! I need one for my steampunkish pirate costume so making one was the way to go. I made it from calico, ribbon and some thick wadding I had in my stash so it was cheap and only took about half an hour.

First measure around the back part of you hips and transfer this measurement to your chosen fabric. Then draw out your bustle shape, notice the slight curve on the side that will touch the body. Cut out two of these.

Then cut out your wadding. I used four layers of thick polyester quilt wadding in the end but you might want a bigger or smaller bustle so you can experiment when you come to stuff it. These must be about an inch smaller than your calico all round.

Next take a length of ribbon that is long enough to tie around your waist but with long ends for adjustment. Pin this along the straight edge of one of the pieces of calico. The ribbon will be on the inside when the bustle pad is finished.

Sew the ribbon on and then pin the long ends of the ribbon to the other side of the piece of calico. It is important to pin the ribbon well away from the edges so that they don’t get caught when you stitch the two pieces together.

Now pin the other piece of calico face down. You must make sure that the ribbon ends are on the inside of the sandwich but that the ribbon sewn along the edge is on the outside at this stage.

Now sew all around the edge, leaving a couple of inches open so you can insert your wadding.

Turn the whole thing inside-out and check your ribbon hasn’t got caught in any stitching. Press flat and insert your wadding. Before you sew up the hole it’s a good idea to try it on to see if you have enough or too much stuffing!

I sewed an extra row one inch from the flat side to help it sit better.

And you’re all done! I’ve seen some with an extra, smaller pad above the larger one. I’ve also seen some so elaborate you’d be happy to wear them outside your clothes (well, almost)

Mine is not beautiful, but it will do the job!

Beccy

Steampunkish pirate…

In July I’ll be doing the York Rotary Club dragon boat race with my work colleagues! (sponsor me here!) We’re going as the ‘college crew’ and since everyone goes in fancy dress, we’ll be going as pirates. Maybe not the most original idea, but definitely one both the girls and the boys could get behind!

We’ve all been given a hat that looks like this:

Hat available from Ebay here.

But I wanted to make mine a bit more special. It was a bit boring, and waaaaaay too big. I thought I might be able to make it smaller and steampunk it up a bit while I was at it!

I browsed steampunk piratey hats on the internet and found a winner on Dragonfly Designs by Alisa, a wonderful blog full of intricate and beautiful steampunk clothing Alisa makes herself.

She had a bowler hat which she had made smaller as part of an airship pirate costume so I decided to copy her design and adapt it to fit this hat.

First I cut off the crown to leave just the brim. I then cut through the brim at the front and wrapped it around my head until it was snug. After marking how much I needed to remove, I did some measuring and cut an equal amount from each side at the front.

Alisa had used eyelets to fasten the brim back together. The ones I had were shiny shiny brass – too shiny. To get an aged look, mum suggested I chuck them in some bleach and do you know what? It worked!

Then I hammered like a demon to attach the eyelets to the brim. The next bit is important…

I didn’t take a photo, but I laced the brim up as tight as it would go and then glued the crown back on. If you don’t lace up the brim, the crown won’t be in the right place.

When it was dry, I removed the poppers from the sides with pliers – because I had shortened the brim they no longer met to hold the sides up. In their place I cut two slits about half an inch apart right through the brim and crown and used ribbon to tie them together.

With a few feathers and a votes for women rosette (also made by me from ribbon and a badge – don’t you think female pirates would have been Suffragettes? I mean if there had been female pirates in 1913? I do!), I think it looks the part!

Stay tuned for the rest of my costume!

Beccy

Christmas collar…

I mentioned I had some last-minute sewing to do and here are the results!

Pinning on ricrac.

Sewing it on by hand.

Adding pretty things from my stash.

And the finished collar. I made it for my friend Elle for Christmas, I hope she likes it. It looks a bit dark in these photos but I used navy linen and pale blue satin for the lining. The daisies are vintage from my stash and the buttons are part of my extensive random collection.

The template for the collar is available as a free download from Mollie Makes here.

I might have to make one for me!

Beccy

Christmas alpaca earflaps

Heeheehee the pattern name makes me chuckle. I’m childish.

I’m knitting this hat for my uncle for Christmas, I’m also planning on knitting a hat with a different pattern but with the same colourway for my aunt. They’re dog owners, they need hats.

I should say now that I’m rubbish at colourwork, always have been, but so far I’ve managed to keep it loose so it’s stretchy-ish but without a mass of tangled loops on the back. I’m dead chuffed!

The pattern is ‘Alpaca earflaps’ by Ozyarn and is surprisingly easy (if like me you’re rubbish at colourwork). I’m using stylecraft special aran in aspen, parchment and dark brown because it washes well, comes in lovely colours and I’m poor.

I’ll have finished my cardi soon too, just waiting for the buttons to arrive. Hee! Exciting. My stripy blanket is a lot less finished with only about half of it done, mostly because I don’t have the time but partly because it’s boring counting to four over and over again. It’ll be nice to actually finish something for a change!

Beccy

I really should use an iron a little more….

I decided to take my friend charity shopping in Thirsk and Northallerton a couple of weeks ago. She’s one for sales but doesn’t seem to trust charity shops for some reason. Maybe she hasn’t had that miracle experience where you are rewarded for your endless trawling with the Perfect Thing, often found hiding on a rail of size 8 Rubbish Things.

This is what I came home with, (and didn’t have time to iron during the brief break in the rain I used to take photos)

I’ve worn this, can you tell? I love it so much – it’s only H+M and isn’t the most thick and durable of fabrics but boy is it cute. I love their prints!

I think I have a secret thing for blue and nautical. This top is a little low, perhaps made for an *ahem* bustier lady than I am. I’ll adjust the front when I have time.

A few things to put away for summer. I really like charity shops that don’t stash all the summer stuff away as soon as they see a cloud! While I’m on the subject, I hate charity shops that group clothes by colour. If I want a pair of trousers I might not know what colour I’m after, but I certainly don’t want to trawl the whole shop on the off-chance of finding a pair that fits me.

Right, rant over :)

More things for summer – I really should be looking for winter-wear but my bottom drawer is a foot deep with cardigans.

And a cute little hoodie for work. Only George from Asda but I don’t want the good stuff getting covered in clay!

So there are the things that I bought and they came to less than a crisp £20 – and what did my friend buy? Two work shirts. Ho hum, she’s not a convert yet. I should have known when I spent half an hour waiting outside Principles for her. I don’t even go in ‘real’ clothes shops anymore. The same item in different sizes and lack of elderly women has begun to scare me.

Beccy

Legwarmers?

Ok, throughout the 80’s I was 0-9 years old, and I’m sure I must have owned a pair of legwarmers but really my enduring memory is of Lizzie Webb on GMTV prancing around in a leotard definitely legwarmered-up and generally looking a bit daft.

Well despite all that I just decided to knit some, and not just any, I chose Manresa – a pair of amazing stranded legwarmers from the (free) 2006 Summer Knitty magazine.

I’ve never done any stranded knitting before so it was a bit daunting and stupidly hard at first but when I got into the swing of things it went very quickly. Here is the first one, just knitted, and it snugly fits. A couple of months only wearing trousers means I forgot I have Henry VIII’s calves.

I love the pattern so I’ve ordered some larger dpns and I’m going to start again. I won’t frog this though since it’s my first proper stranded knitting. Yep there is a mistake, and yes the strands are showing through but I’m so proud I might frame it!

The cream yarn is a wool-mix dk something from a charity shop jumper I frogged ages ago. The teal is a bit lighter than in the pictures and is left over from Alpine (AKA a new shapeless knitted thing) I finished a few weeks ago.

Will I wear them when they’re finished? I think so, because I’ll be insanely proud (my legwarmers? Oh, well, I knitted them myself…) I have an idea they might look cute with skirts, tights and trainers. I might be wrong, let’s wait and see.

Beccy

A little embroidery….

can transform a boring skirt into something a bit special.

Take one 70’s stretchy skirt…

…add an old embroidery transfer…

…and play around with stitches you got from an old embroidery book.

It looks better on me than on the mannequin, but I never take photos of me if I can possibly help it! The stretchy synthetic fabric was the devil to embroider neatly and I should have used some stabilizing fabric to stop it puckering, but overall I think it’s pretty cute.

It is the same skirt as this one, just in a different colour….

…wait a minute! Unless my tagging system is rubbish (and to be honest it is a bit) I haven’t blogged the other skirt.

I just got an idea for another post :)

Beccy

Shiny new (thrifted) things…

I haven’t had much time for thrifting lately, even less for photographing the things I’ve found. Also, I’ve reached a stage where I don’t need anything. Anyone else get like that? I have a mountain of clothes which I really need to go through again and donate back. I also have so many Interesting Things I’m having to put up new shelves to house them all!

Anyway, here are a few bits I couldn’t pass up over the summer.

I found the three at the front for less that £5 in a charity shop. The big yellow plate at the back is an old charity find. The gravy boat and pudding bowl are a part of this set that I already have two pieces from:

It’s awesome! I also have a thing for jugs, so I got these three from charity shops too.

The one above on the right was 30p and has been handpainted by someone at home. It’s so cute.

I also got this dress. Now, I know there has been a craze for owls (search owl on etsy and you’ll see) so I have been avoiding them like the plague. I couldn’t not buy this dress though, I mean look at it – pintucks! wooly! What’s not to love, gotta forgive those cute owls. Great for autumn and winter with a long sleeved tee and jeans underneath.

Awww…

Beccy