A little extra prettiness....

You know those internet tangents you sometimes go on? When you click to a link from a blog you love to read, and you find yourself learning something new that you wouldn't have even dreamed of normally only to find yourself on one of your newest, favourite blogs? Let me explain myself a little bit better....

I was reading on Bronwyns blog High Fashion Mountain (Bron is also the brains and beauty behind R.W Scissors — awesome blog, you should read it if you don't already) about her foray into the You Tube world of hairstyle tutorials. Well, I made the mistake of clicking to watch one.... 4 hours later that night, and I had come across two lovely ladies channels; LisaFreemontSt and ElegantlyAmused that do the most amazing tutorials on Pin Up hairstyles, 1940's techniques and the odd make up tutorial. I was hooked and of course had to try it for myself....

One of the lovely ladies, Casey, that I had come across also has her own blog, full of vintage goodies and general sweetness Casey's Elegant Musings. It's so good that I am slowly working my way back through her entire blog, just so that I don't miss anything! Here are a few of my favourite posts so far:
Wedding Wonderment (her wedding was featured on the Martha Stewart Weddings blog!)
How To Refashion a Cardigan she does the most amazing job at turning old things into new wonders
1920's Chemise Inspired Top gorgeous tutorial that I'm going to try sometime soon

And of course she has the most lovely photo's on Flickr of her outfits, inspiration and hairstyles....

Discovering all this stuff was just what I needed, I've been in a hair rut for ages. I've been growing out my fringe for the last year and I was so tempted to cut it back — but now I can save all that hard work and try out some more of these styles (and possibly frighten the boyfriend...). I of course had a go at Pin Curls, the curls themselves were great, I just couldn't get moulding them quite right — something I am sure will come with plenty of practice...

My first ever Pin Curl set, excuse the fuzz

Another lovely place I discovered through Casey's blog was Colette Patterns — she creates vintage inspired sewing patterns, I have bought for myself this lovely skirt pattern. I can see myself making plenty of them to wear all year round as it's a similar style to my favourite Summer skirt. I've bought a bunch of patterns lately so I'll do a proper post with all my lovely garments when they are made.

*sigh* back to work I go, I hope you enjoy this loveliness as much as I do...

Jess xx

Read more...

Got the stitch...

So I've been trying a few new things around Bam Bam HQ, not as in coming up with new products — more trying out new things to satisfy my crafty needs, enter Embroidery...

I was given recently by my Nana piles and PILES of embroidery thread (not to mention millions of buttons, zips and other vintage notions) it does make me a little sad when I get bags of these goodies as I know the only reason why I am getting them is because a lovely old dear at her retirement village can no longer use them. Still, looking at the glass half full, at least they aren't being binned and I can reuse them to make as many things as possible.

I had found a few old books that were my Mums when she was young that are full of what you need to be able to do to make a 'good' home — one of the chapters was embroidery, detailing plenty of stitches and diagrams of how to do them.

My first idea was to make a quilt for Grace, she had seen the previous one that I'd made for my shop and really wanted one for herself. I have cut all the squares and cut 12 of the squares from plain cloth that I have designed and embroidered for her. The quilt hasn't been sewn together yet but I'm planning on doing this soon.

Leo our cat being generally gorgeous and cuddly

My first square for Graces quilt finished!

Another event on the calendar was the BF's and my second anniversary and I decided to stitch this Day Of The Dead skull in lots of traditional and bright colours — it took me AGES and I'm really proud with how it came out!

Ray's gift finished, pats on the back for me!

So now I have invested in my own iron on transfer pencil and some bigger hoops so that I can have a bit of crafting that's just for me and not for sale, a great way to recharge the creativity!

Read more...

Pin Cushion Tutorial

It's a pretty drizzly Saturday outside and seeing as my sewing machine is getting a service, I made a couple of these gorgeous little pin cushion jars — no sewing needed! Just a glue gun and a (very) small amount of hand sewing.

Check out my Penny In My Purse blog for the complete tutorial.

Read more...

Christmas is here! (spolier alert...)

Well, a little bit of Christmas arrived in my letterbox yesterday! I signed up to do a Christmas Ornament Swap through the 20cent Mixture blog, you get assigned 5 other people in your group and you have to make a handmade Christmas decoration for each of them — and in turn you get 5 unique Christmas decorations back — sounded like fun to me!

We don't have our tree yet (mainly because I refuse to put anything Christmas related in my house until December, November is WAY too early) but when we do we will have a gorgeous decoration for it made by Emily and it is made from handmade merino and silk felt. I can't wait to see the rest of them!

My gorgeous decoration from Emily

Christmas Pudding Hoppity Hoppity Bunny decorations, genius!

Read more...

Teaching Grace to Sew...

Today is was rather fickle weather with it pouring one minute, then sunshine the next. Grace and I decided after a trip to the supermarket that there wasn't much point heading to the park (as we had planned) and instead sat down for a Mother-Daughter sewing session.

Grace really likes to watch me sew — she likes to help me choose the fabric (from the multitudes that I have as you can imagine), play with the buttons and zippers but most of all, she marvels at how something just a short time ago was a flat piece of fabric and is now a purse/skirt/bag/hat/top/shorts etc. "that's very clever Mummy" she states rather matter-of-factly as she checks herself out in the mirror usually.

Well, today I was feeling particularly patient and I thought it might be fun to show her how to make stuff too. I had been chatting to Heleen from Ruby in the Dust at the last Devonport Craft Market, about how she had been teaching her son to sew, and I just thought that was so awesome!

I had a whole pile of felt (waiting to be made into little Christmas decorations for our tree this year) so I cut a length with a pointed edge so that Grace could make a little purse. I pinned it in the middle to hold it in place, and drew dots along the edge so that she could see where to put the needle. I had thought about teaching her to go in from one side, then through the underside with a running stitch, but being her first attempt I wanted to keep it easy and we just did a diagonal stitch around the edges.

She was concentrating so hard! It was so sweet when she was finished, the pride was just beaming from her face as you can see. I sewed on a button for her and cut a button hole. Her new purse is now full of her Barbie shoes "to keep them safe Mum" she tells me.

Go Grace!!

Grace getting the hang of sewing her little purse...

Ta Daa!! That's one happy little lady

Read more...

I gots me another blog!

as if I didn't have enough to do already... but it appears I can squeeze in one more thing! I have been for a while now attempting to save money on my daily existence and make more things for myself to use (bread, gardening, sewing our clothes etc.)

I thought that it would be an excellent idea to pop it all in a blog so that other people can benefit from the things that work, and have a bit of a giggle at me for the things that just don't make the cut. I'll be posting all sorts of goodies like links to tutorials, my own tutorials, gardening stuff, sewing things, recipes for yummy goodies, money stuff, budgeting tricks and general bits and pieces.

Take a look-see if you can, it would be great to have you follow my journey!

P.s. I love the header for my new blog, might be time for a Bam Bam Creative overhaul methinks....

Read more...

Dusting off the Sewing Machine...

Literally, I had to dust off my sewing machine over the last few days. It has been sitting in the corner of my room looking rather sorry for itself, not being used and gathering so much dust — well not anymore! I decided last week as part of my money saving strategy (new blog in regards to this being created as we speak....) that I would be making most of Grace's and my clothes for the Summer and as it's such a lovely Spring already, Summer can only be better. I chose Summer as a bit of a cheat really because it's mainly just skirts and dresses... nevertheless, it requires some effort and perseverance from me and that is a feat on it's own.

To get back into the swing of things (and to have a little practice) I decided to make a pencil case for Uni. I love my vintage tin, but it rattles every time I walk and it was starting to get on my nerves. I found the PERFECT pencil case tutorial here on this awesome blog Annie Get Your Glue Gun (aside from the awesome name, it's also full of cool stuff), I say perfect because I have a stationery obsession, and my pencil case comes into that and I really wanted a square one that would sit just right...... anyways, I used a little bit of the Bam Bam fabric supply, which I did feel terrible about but it came out so well that I'll learn to forgive myself.

pencil case of loveliness

Next up I stumbled across the Burda Style website — a candy shop of patterns! Most of which are free or only a few dollars. If you have access to a printer it's amazing — you just print them out, tile them, tape them together, chop it out and start sewing. I made this bag as a practice run, I thought it came out rather well so will have to make some more, you can find the pattern here. From this amazing holy grail of patterns, I have also printed off a couple of super nice high-waited skirts and the Mens Pete t-shirt which I will be making into a more feminine version for Summer frolics... watch this space and go check out the website!

Estelle bag

With all this new stuff for me, Grace was feeling a little left out. I wanted to make her some pretty-as-a-picture skirts that she could spin around in, dance, play and still look delicious in. I found the best tutorial to make a Twirly Skirt on the House on Hill Road blog. So easy with step by step pictures, and the results as you can see came out so well! I didn't make the little tie for the waist, only because it would probably just get lost with Grace so I saved myself the bother. It was basically just sewing in a straight line, nothing fancy, just good, honest sewing. I'll also be making her some smocked dresses, so will post those as soon as they are actually made.

The lovely Grace in her new skirt (excuse the grubby singlet...)

I am on holidays from Uni next week, so will no doubt have my days filled with sewing and getting ready for Summer.

Read more...