Leather Key Ring - Tandy Leather

Okay so I know its not sewing or knitting but I just had to show you! I made this at the CHSI stitches show that I went to in February. Basically they had a stall completely dedicated to leather craft byt Tandy Leather and the first time I went to it I had a good peruse but the man was busy talking to someone else *insert sad face* Anyway the next time I walked past he mentioned he'd seen me hovering around and offered to let me give it a go!

Guys I made a key ring!!!! 

Well me and the man made it together, he held the stamper thing and I held the hammer! It was his idea to put the owl on after reading my blog name on my press pass. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. You basically get a piece of leather [this was already a key ring shape] then he sprayed it and then we used a metal stamp to hammer an indentation onto it. The whole thing couldn't have taken longer than five minutes. And that's including me making him promise not to sue me if I accidentally hit his hand with the hammer. Then the man put the rivet and the hoop on!

It was really nice to try something new and the guys were so lovely. They even showed me some more leather techniques and let me have a good look at all the examples they had brought with them! They were some of the nicest people I met that day and they definitely got me thinking about leather crafting! Might have to put a starter set on my Christmas List! [FYI if you do want to start leather crafting they have a whole load of support videos on their you tube channel! its a great resource for those wanting to learn!]

Anyway now I'm going to go and pop this back onto my keys where it takes pride of place next to the Mcdonalds Furby Lil man gave me! 

Much Love

Frankie

x

Disclaimer - Whilst I did make this for free I did not say I would review it or my experience and I am in no way affiliated with them. I just thought you guys might be interested!

Swirls and Leather Dress

This dress is one of those hit and miss type items. On one hand there's thing I like and on the other there's things I know for a fact are an issue.

Lets start with the fabric, the green is an upholstery weight fabric that was given to me by a friend, in fact she was kind enough to give me a roll of it. Whilst I like the pattern of the fabric I wasn't entirely sold on the colour as I don't wear much green. The leather that I used for the waistband and the side panels was from a leather jacket that my sister gave me. I had intended to refashion the leather jacket however it was absolutely plastered with seams so my ideas just didn't work.

I didn't really pattern match on this, the pattern is so large that its impossible so I just tried to make things as symmetrical as possible, you can't really tell on the pictures but the fabric has swirls and pillars and elephants on it. Its sort of an Indian vibe.

Here you can see the leather sections more easily, I definitely think they update the dress quite a lot.

Here's my big issue though, because I made the darts in the front of the skirt too deep [stupid drawing them in error] I had to unpick the back darts and just add a small pleat on either side. Yes I could have redone the darts but at this point I was already out of love with the idea of the dress so it seemed pointless. Luckily you can't really tell from the back but it still bothers me that I messed up.

I am pleased with my hack of the pattern at the back though. I altered the back piece to have a lowered V back. WHICH I LOVE! I think it looks kind of sexy in a subtle way, I do have to be super careful which bra I wear with it though! In fact between you and me.... here the tatas are......free ......GOSH!!!!

The bodice is fully lined usually I just face the neck and armholes of my dresses but because of the leather a fully lined bodice seemed like a better option. [especially seen as you have you go bra less because of the back. No one wants chafing in that region]  

Its such a weird dress for me sometimes I look and I'm like yeah its cool, and sometimes I'm like eurgh what is this filth that I created? My mum loves it funnily enough. I think mainly the green is putting me off, I don't wear green because it washes me out. But on the other hand maybe this looks okay? If I actually bother to put lippy on that is.

I think the influence came from reading the pink suit I had this idea in my head that I was going to become some sort of quirky Jackie Kennedy. In fact I've got a matching jacket cut out that's languishing at the bottom of my sewing pile, I should really start that huh?

In fact I might do, I have another skirt project ready to roll in this fabric and having a jacket too might make a mini capsule wardrobe of sorts.

hmmmmmm?

Much Love

Frankie

xxx