Making pom pom wreaths has become a bit of an obsession recently. I'm spending far too much time turning balls of wool into little fluffy spheres and making them into one big soft circle!


They're so easy to do. I use pom pom makers. I ordered mine from Amazon but you can pick them up in other places too. If I didn't have these, I'd be using the old two pieces of cardboard method and I can guarantee that the obsession wouldn't have taken hold if I was doing it that way. It would take far too long.


I purchased some wire rings to use as a base. I started with 10" and have since used 14", 12" and 8" too. My very first wreath was made using a simple ring of cardboard. If I were to do that again I'd wrap the whole thing in wool, ribbon or fabric before tying on the pom poms, just to make it a little prettier.


I make a large selection of pom poms first and when I have what I think is enough, I begin tying them onto the ring. Generally I like to have an odd number of the largest size, so that it doesn't look too symmetrical, but this one didn't work out that way.


I don't like them to be too neat and precise so when I space them out I make the spacing random. I tie them on until all the space is filled, making more if I need to.


Then I step back and gaze at it a while. Sometimes I add another pom pom here or there, sometimes I remove one or two and make alternatives. This goes on until I'm happy with the end result.

And then I start all over again...

So I can look back at these after they're sold and in their new homes, here are all the wreaths I've made so far.

They all have names. My friend used to name each piece of furniture she restored and sold. When I started making these I knew that she'd love them so I named them all in her honour.


Rose


Holly


Merry

Dee


Robyn


Ivy


Berry

 Blythe

Candy

Belle

Dorothy

Luna

Hattie

Fizz

Buzz

Dasher

Violet

Dancer

Dolly

Rara. I spent a very enjoyable afternoon making this with my youngest nephew and two nieces. It's for their Grandma (aka Rara) to hang up for Christmas.

Lottie

Every once in a while I pick up a new hobby craft creative outlet addiction.

This one came about thanks to a bag of Bri Nylon wool. My Mum is often given odds and ends of yarn as she is known, amongst her friends, for knitting for charity. Anyway, Mum said she was going to donate this wool to a charity shop as it was horrible to knit with, and, in her opinion, not a very nice colour.

I hate to see anything go to waste, I took it saying perhaps I could knit some frogs or aliens... or something.

But when I felt the wool I understood my Mum's reticence to knit with it, it feels horrible. It's 100% Polyamide, and makes my hands feel odd after touching it. My thoughts of knitting with it went out the window, but I wasn't to be defeated, I was determined to do something with it.

An idle scroll through my Pinterest feed gave me the answer.

Pom pom wreaths!


I have pom pom makers and set about making some. I raided my wool stash for other colours and soon I had a pink and green wreath, of which I was delighted. It's mounted on a cardboard ring, but it was pretty flimsy (this one folds itself in half), so I knew I'd have to find a better way.


A bit of a scroll on Amazon and a one-click payment later, I had some 10 inch wire rings coming my way. Refusing to pay postage costs I had to wait patiently for them to arrive, all the while making pom poms of different sizes and colours.


The rings arrived on a Saturday morning and I immediately abandoned what I was doing to start my wreath production. A few hours passed without my noticing and it was only my rumbling tummy that brought me out of my woollen bubble. By this time I'd made three wreaths.


I'm going to sell them at a charity craft stall in September, and at another in November. My only problem is, and maybe you can help me out here, I don't know how much to sell them for, what do you think?

If you need me, you can find me under a pile of pom poms...

I've always wanted to learn to crochet. I tackled a few granny squares a while back but it fizzled out in favour of my patchwork quilt, I had every intention of returning to it and learning more.

I offered to make some mice for my niece's 4th birthday party and had intended to knit them. The idea was for each child to make a little bed or house for their mouse. But when I found the cutest crochet pattern on Pinterest and was adamant - ADAMANT - that I wanted to crochet these little critters.

Now, I can wrap my head around most things given enough time but time was in short supply. I find the easiest (and quickest!) way to learn is to sit next to someone and copy their actions. Queue an afternoon spent with Mother - ninja of all things wool - lots of tea, and plenty of me staring at her fingers asking her to slow down and do it again.

I was so chuffed to see my first little mouse (pictured right) start to take shape. Look at those little ears!


I had only a few days to make 20 of them, and interrupted my DIY to make sure I had them done in time.


By the end of the afternoon we'd made five mice, inbetween gossiping, tea drinking and unravelling my efforts because I'd gone horribly wrong, again. Mum offered to take some wool home to make some more and I set about making my first mouse unaccompanied!

They kept growing in number...

And in a few days we had 20 little mice for my little niece. Now, what to make next...?


The pattern is by Lucy Ravenscar and can be found here.

I found a skirt at a clothes swap back in February and although the fit and elastic waist weren't really to my taste, the material was right up my street, and it had pockets!

I brought it home and hatched a plan to alter it in time for my spring capsule wardrobe (better late than never).

I wanted to add a zip and waistband, and make it more fitted around the waist. I needed to mend my paisley dress too, so I borrowed my Mum's sewing machine and set about both projects.

Altering the skirt was trickier than I first anticipated. My sewing skills are a little rusty. I found gathering the skirt really awkward, and the waistband could be much tidier, as could the buttonhole, but I used a nifty tutorial I found via Pinterest (where else?) that helped me sew the neatest zip ever sewn (or rather the neatest zip I've ever sewn).


The skirt was rather unflattering before (above) .....

But now I love it! I finished it, photographed it, and wore it out to dinner. I think I'm going to enjoy styling this in different ways.


I see the skirt as being free because I picked it up at a clothes swap but I spent £6.58 on the waistband material, interfacing, thread and a zip, I used a button from my stash. Which is not a bad price for a skirt and will undoubtedly be worn countless times over the spring and summer.

Do you alter clothes, or do you do what I normally do and let them sit in a mend pile for several months before giving them to charity?

I've always been intrigued by wardrobe challenges and I've always enjoyed challenges I've set myself.

I often think about the one that made me think about what I wear more than any other - the Little Brown Dress.

Back in 2005/2006 that a lady called Alex Martin decided to wear one little brown dress for a year.

One dress. For an entire year.

She documented the whole thing on her blog. The blog still exists but it now belongs to someone else and all that remains of Alex's blog is this, an archived post that the new owner thought people interested in the Little Brown Dress might like to read.

I think it's a real shame the blog has been lost, I still think about the project ten years on.

I mentioned this project in my very first blog post as inspiration for my interest in style experiments. This is one experiment I don't think I could do, but I found it fascinating.

I first read about The Little Brown Dress in a magazine and marvelled at the images showing the different ways Alex wore it. Very few of the images remain now that her online journal has been deleted.

I could only find a handful, sadly these don't show her more imaginative outfits.



Pictured left, from Alex Martin's web diary, July 7, 2005: On the very first day of the project, my birthday, I was so, so, so tempted to put on a pin or something for my birthday party! But I resisted, wanting to keep things simple as long as I can.

Pictured right, from Alex Martin's web diary, June 2006: All I can tell you is that I have quite a bit of pride in the way this item continues to take a licking and pull through in style.

I like how in the picture on the left the dress looks pristine and new, and on the right it looks worn and softened with constant wear.

Alex held an 'un-dressing' party at the end of the project, which was also her 30th birthday, and someone stole the dress. I don't know if she ever got it back but she did receive images of it in different locations for a while after.

I'd love to know what happened to it.

I wanted to record the project, if only so I can look back on it.

Last year I was gutted to find a dress I'd worn only once had frayed at the waist seam in the wash. I wasn't able to return or exchange it, so I pondered how to fix it.

Eventually I settled on patching it up with a navy band.

I was able to make it smaller than I had planned (by luck rather than good judgement), so it's very subtle, and the fact that the colour match was damn near perfect means it doesn't really look like a patch up job at all.


I reinfored the frayed material on a sewing machine by attaching some interfacing to the back and sewing over with a zig-zag stitch to stop it from fraying further, before stitching the band into place.

I already had interfacing and thread in my sewing box, so I'm calling this a free repair - a dress saved from the rag bin. It's not perfect or technically brilliant but I'm really pleased with how it's turned out.

It's in my spring capsule wardrobe and now I just need a warm day to wear it.