Clematis Cake

My good friend and colleague is retiring tomorrow so I've tasked myself with making her a retirement cake. She is a keen gardener and her computer wallpaper is this beautiful clematis she grew in her garden (I sneakily took a photo of her computer screen when she wasn't looking - ha). Soooo, that's the theme of the cake...

 

I'll admit here to being well out of my sugarpaste comfort zone with this project, I usually only do very simple cake designs. Luckily, I found this great sugarpaste clematis tutorial online and bought all my supplies from Imaginative Icing in York.

 

In the end I made five flowers consisting of seven petals each and wired the individual petals together with florists tape. I also made some loose petals - they were handy for filling in any gaps and also for hiding some of the bodges in the icing on the sides of the cake.

 

 

To get the right colours I used a combo of three craft dusting powders - Foliage Green, Pink and Dusky Pink. I used a paint brush to dab on the colours - Green for the centres, Dusky Pink for the tips and Pink for the petal centres and edges. You can be quite rough at this stage as the next step is to brush on pearl lustre powder and that really seems to blend the colours and make the petals look more natural. The stamens were bought. -  I wired a few together to create the flower centres and coloured them green with the dusting powder.

 

 

Happy Retirement Yvonne, I hope you like the cake!



Sally

xxx

Dots

After abandoning Emma's dress last weekend, I was really inspired to make a little dress myself. I've chosen a fairly simple pattern, with a crossover bodice and cute ruffles on the neck and sleeves. For those interested the pattern is McCalls M6494, I'm doing dress 'A' but without the applique flowers. The pattern requires two fabrics, one for the majority of the dress and a contrasting fabric for the ruffle hem. I purchased both my fabrics from the Viking Loom in York. I'll be honest, I must have been in the shop for about an hour trying various fabrics and various combinations! I'm pleased with my final choices though - dots.

The multi-coloured polka dot is Sun-Kissed by Michelle D'Amore designs for Bernatex. I will use it for the bodice and skirt.

The contrasting fabric, for the hem ruffle, is a green and white polka dot. This one is Bold and Beautiful by Michelle D'Amore designs for Bernatex. I didn't actually realise they were by the same designer but I suppose that explains why the colour match is so good.

What do you think? Super cute, no?

Best. Souvenir. Ever

Ooh, what's this I spy, in that lovely wooden box?

Is it the largest souvenir any couple has ever tried to transport back from Japan (sorry Tim)?

Why yes, yes it is!

It's a gorgoeus Kiyomizuyaki  vase. Kiyomizuyaki is a traditional style of Kyoto pottery, this one features a gorgeous cherry tree in full bloom. 'Sakura' (cherry blossom) is a national obsession in Japan, so it was only right that we take this little piece of Japan home! So pretty.

 

 



My Guide to Fabric Shopping In Japan

I thought I'd write a little guide to my experiences of fabric shopping in Japan. It's actually very easy to find fabric as sewing and quilting seem to be very popular over there. You will just stumble across a number of stores without really having to plan ahead. If you are into quilting, most of the stores I describe have LOADS of pre-cut fat quarters available which is fab. This is also useful if you don't speak Japanese as it avoids the need to ask for specific fabric measurements. I visited a number of cities during my travels, so I will describe my fabric finds in each. All the fabrics I bought are 100% cotton and the designs are all 'low volume' as that's the style of quilt I want to make next.

Osaka
Wandering around Osaka I found a number of fabric stores, though I only ended up buying fabric from one -  the Hankyu Department Store in Umeda, Osaka. Hankyu Department Store is easy to find, as it's centrally located adjacent to both JR Osaka station and the Hankyu Umeda railway station. This shop is massive, covering 15 floors, but the crafting equipment can be found on the tenth floor. There was a large selection of fabrics, including a number of fat quarters at reasonable prices. I bought a couple of fat quarters for approx £2 each (263 yen), cheap compared to the UK.

Here are the two fabrics I bought for myself, both are Yuwa Live Life Collection. The first is from the 30's Collection by Atsuko Matsuyama. I'm unsure of the name of the second.

 

 

Also in Osaka, and ideally placed for those people travelling to Japan via Kansai International Airport, is a decent fabric shop in Rinku Pleasure Town Seacle shopping centre. If you are travelling on the Airport Express train between JR Osaka Station and the airport, get off at Rinku Town Station (it's the final stop before the airport). Rinku Pleasure Town Seacle contains a number of shops, but also an onsen and a large ferris wheel with lovely night views. The fabric shop's name (minus the Japanese I can't read - ha!) is ???? senta dorimu (???? Centre Dream), located on the second floor. The prices were good, but none of the material really fulfilled my low volume criteria so I didn't end up buying anything.

 

Finally in Osaka, I spotted another fabric shop wandering in the Shinsaibashi shopping arcade, but unfortunately didn't have the opportunity for a proper investigation. Boo! You'll spot it though if you find yourself wandering this lovely old 'shotengai' so I thought it was worth a mention.

 

Kyoto

I stumbled across a couple of fabric shops whilst wandering around Kyoto, both are branches of Nomura Tailor. The first, and larger of the two, is located on Shijo dori, between Kawaramachi Station and Karasuma Station. As you can see from this photo, it stocks a wide range of fabrics, including some gorgeous traditional Japanese style cottons. There are two floors!

 

 

The second branch is really close by in the nearby shopping arcade of Teramachi. It is much smaller but does have a good selection of fat quarters.

 

 

During my Kyoto visit the two main department stores of Takashimaya located next to Kawaramachi Station and Daimaru located next to Karasuma Station weren't selling fabric, but they both stock plenty of other crafting products and are well worth a browse anyway.

 

Takatsuki shi

Located between the cities of Osaka and Kyoto on the JR and Hankyu railway lines, is the smaller city of Takatsuki shi. I really enjoyed buying fabric here in the Yuzawaya department store and spent ages mooching. Yuzawaya is located just outside JR Takatsuki Station and the fabric (and crafts) department is on the top floor. They stock a wide variety of fabric, including a large selection of 100% cotton fat quarters. I bought a number of fabrics here (and actually on closer inspection they're the equivalent of two fat quarters - yay!) for about £4 (580 yen) each. Let's have a look at them shall we? The first is by Belleboo featuring a mix of fruits, flowers and bees. Too sweet.

 

 

The next is a really twee (in a good way) Japanese print by Cosmo Textile Company, it's got little pink rabbits and hearts.

 



The next is another Japanese print by Sevenberry, featuring small floral in blues, greens and yellows on a cream background.

I can never resist a spotty fabric and this shopping excursion was no different. I'm not sure who this fabric is by, but it has small blue, pink, brown and yellow polka dots.

This final fabric is my favourite. I also don't know who this is by though it does say 'Made in Japan'. It features little deer (shika chan!), flowers and toadstools. Love it.

 

Well, that's it. I wish I could have bought more Japanese fabrics but I was trying not to go too mad. I hope you found this guide useful and if you are heading to Japan I'd love to hear your fabric shopping experiences.

 

さようなら

サリー

 

 

 



Sewing with my Sister

I've been home from my wonderful Japan holiday for a week, but the post-holiday blues have meant I haven't done much crafting since my return! My lovely twin sister soon changed that this weekend when she suggested I help her make a dress for her daughter Emma (who else!). As Vicky was a bit busy on Saturday and I was already doing a spot of shopping she asked that I pick a pattern and some fabric. Oh the hardship!

I went to John Lewis in Sheffield as they have a good haberdashery section. With some excellent advice from the sales assistant (neither myself or Vicky have done any pattern reading since we did Textiles GCSE age 16), I chose a Simplicity pattern. We are doing the second dress (on the right in the picture below), it has a scalloped trim detail on the yolk and pretty ties at the back.

 

Next was the fabric. I had been looking for a floral design but I just couldn't find the perfect one. Then this print caught my eye - little birds! This lovely fabric is called Flock of Birds by David Walker for Westminster/Free Spirit. How cute?

 

 

Once home we soon got to work and two hours (and a glass of wine!) later we had cut out all the pieces. Here is Vicky hard at work, we're using Emma's play mat as the perfect workstation.

 

 

Unfortunately, we had to leave it there as I'd forgotten to buy some piping for the scalloped trim - oops. Unfortunately, that means Vicky is now going it alone as I'm back in York. Good luck Vicky, the dress is going to be wonderful.