North Norfolk Railway 1940s weekend

The North Norfolk Railway 1940s weekend is one of the highlights of my year. I love riding the steam trains, the picnic we have at Holt and the relaxing stroll around the stalls. This was my 5th year going dressed 1940s. I'm not great with the 40s look (I'm more of a 50s style girl), basically because I'm rubbish at doing my hair, so this event is the only time I really make an effort. These are my outfits from previous years (in order). 

I have to say, this years outfit was my favourite yet. I'm wearing a Heyday! twizzle dress and I actually found the time to make myself a hat to go with it! The hat is the same size as my "Elspeth" straw hat, but has a shallow crown. I've decided to call her "Abigail". I can make her in black straw or natural straw, and I can trim her with anything you fancy. Drop me a line if you would like one. She'll be £75.

Thanks to Elspeth, Sam and Betty for another lovely adventure on the steam trains. Roll on next year! xx

"Fashion through the Era's" for John Lewis

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Laura from the Norwich branch of John Lewis to see if I would like to take part in a "Fashion through the Era's" Fashion show. The show was to be part of the John Lewis 150th anniversary celebrations. Obviously I said yes!!

At first I had plans to make a hat or headpiece to go with with each outfit. However after a meeting with Laura and two lovely ladies from the local Costume & Textiles Association it turned out only three headpieces would be needed. Out of the three required, I only needed to make one piece. The other headpieces could be sourced from other businesses. I asked No Dice Sugar if I could borrow a stunning 1920's headpiece and Rosie Alia Designs if I could borrow a black velvet turban.

Unfortunately Sugar couldn't get the headpiece to me in time (not her fault) so I ended up making something the night before the show. It was no where near as nice as Sugar's one, but I was happy with it.

Rosie's turban was teamed with a beautiful 1930's red dress and jacket (these rubbish phone pictures in no way do Rosie's turban justice!).

Finally, I made an "Elspeth" straw sun hat to go with an original 1950's dress. Amanda looked lovely (as always).

Hopefully I'll get the official pictures from the event soon. I'm sure they will be a million times better than these dodgy phone pictures!!

Is this octopus too big?

This weeks big question has been "Is this octopus to big?". 

My sister asked me to make her an epic hat to go with her costume for  Shambala Festival.  I remembered I had an wooden boat kicking around for a while and I thought a kraken taking a ship down would be fun to do. She said it sounded perfect, so off I went to figure out how to make it!

The tricorn for the ship was nice and easy as I've made several tricorns. I scaled the basic hat up a little as the ship was bigger than ones I'd used in the past. The tricky bit was the octopus............ I didn't really know where to start. I ended up finding a pattern on the internet and tweaked the design to make it work for the hat.

As I was making the octopus, I kept thinking "it's massive. This is going to be way too big". Even when I added it to the hat I wasn't sure. I'm a bit shy, so the thought of wearing something so big made me feel a bit uncomfortable. I asked the lovely people of Instagram and Facebook for their opinions.

The general consensus was that he was massive, but in a good way. The kraken is meant to huge, he's got to drag a whole ship under water! 

In the end, I was actually really pleased with the design. A hat this big won't be to everyone's taste, but my sister loved it and it's really helped me get over my fear of making over the top hats. 

p.s. I forgot to mention that the octopus can be taken off and worn separately. I forgot to get a picture before I sent it of to my sister!