bubble skirt for my little english rose

Tomorrow is an important match (apparently) for England in the World Cup, and Cyan’s preschool asked if all the kids could wear red and white tomorrow to show support! Well I have absolutely no interest in football myself, but hey – it’s a bit of fun for the kids to dress up and be patriotic!

I decided to make Cyan a red and white skirt; she has red leggings but it’s too hot at the moment, plus I really struggle to get her to wear any outfit that doesn’t involve a skirt or dress! She’s such a girl! When I saw The Ruffled Bubble Skirt over at A Lemon Squeezy Home I was immediately inspired to make Cyan a bubble skirt! There is now a tutorial for The Ruffled Bubble Skirt, however I decided to add a ruffle at the top of Cyan’s skirt, instead of at the bottom. I found this Bubble Skirt Tutorial at Sew Hip Mama which had the bubble skirt look I was after, and it was pretty easy to follow too. It really is a very simple skirt to make, I made Cyan’s in one evening! The only change I made was to add 3" to the interior fabric measurement – this made the ruffle at the top of Cyan’s skirt.



My little English rose ..







“Only one more photo mummy!”



I had a scrap piece of the red and white hearts fabric I used for the skirt, so I thought I’d make some fabric roses, I keep seeing fabric flowers everywhere, but I wanted to make roses for my little English rose! I sewed 3 pieces of different fabric together, then gathered them and wrapped them round into a rose shape .. they are then sewed onto some red polka dot ribbon I already had, the ribbons are tied onto some hair elastics then tied in a bow – the bow also looks like leaves I think!

The beauty of this is that if we want we can simply untie the ribbons and re-tie onto a pin – ready to pin on clothes, bag etc.. I did think we could leave one on a hair elastic for her ponytail and put the other on a pin to go on her top .. not so practical for preschool though, which is why they’re both going in her hair tomorrow!





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Mad Hatter’s Tea Party at Anthony House

Yesterday we had (to quote my kids) “the most fun we ever had!” We went to a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, part of the Alice in Wonderland Experience at Anthony House, the location where Tim Burton’s new Alice in Wonderland movie was filmed!

I visited Anthony years ago (when I was a child) and it is still a grand English house set in beautiful gardens .. with some new elements added, like the statue of the Caterpillar sitting on the mushroom as you go through the main gates, and a play area with colourful mushrooms and a rabbit-hole slide!

The Tea Party involved about 30 kids taking part in an hour of chasing characters from Alice in Wonderland around the gardens of Anthony House, finding the Cheshire Cat’s smiles, the Mad Hatter’s lost hats and the Queen of Heart’s lost crown, joining in on a dance to entertain the Red Queen, and culminating in a Tea Party in a marquee with tea (juice) and jam tarts, and more games on an Alice theme .. pass the teapot .. Flamingo (picture bingo) .. design a hat for the Queen of Hearts ..

The highlight moment of the day for me was at the Tea Party, Alice asked the Hatter “So how do you actually make a hat then?” The Hatter replied “Well I start by measuring their head”, Oliver, sat nearby, looked up and said quite seriously “Yes, that’s what I usually do.” The hatter then said “Oh yes, you’re a fellow hatter so you would know..” I had to try very hard not to laugh too loudly!



















There were photo ops galore with my two in all their finery in such a beautiful setting .. I've included some favourites here, and have added even more to my flickr set ..
View slideshow of all images ..

The kids (and us!) are very keen to do a return visit to Anthony over the summer (the kids both wanted to go back the very next day!) .. we still have more exploring to do .. I really want to find all the key locations from the movie ..

dinosaur party hats and alice in wonderland featured

I am so happy and proud – I got featured! Three times this week!
Big thank yous go to Melissa from those northern skies who featured the Mad Hatter and Alice in Wonderland costumes I made for my kids in her friday creative high party, and to Ela from life in my pjs who also featured them from her 1st wednesday pajama party! These are two new and fabulous link parties, I love their blogs too ..



I recently signed up to all the email newsletters from Etsy .. then this evening I was reading the latest Etsy Finds email which I got today, titled Etsy Finds: Craft Party .. so I’m scrolling down looking at all the fantastic crafty party goodies .. I literally leapt off the sofa in amazement when I saw my dinosaur party hats in there!!



I haven’t blogged about these hats yet .. I will soon .. I invented them for Oliver’s dinosaur themed 5th birthday party ..

You can find the dinosaur hats in my Etsy shop as PDF templates or as a crafty pre-cut kit with stickers and colouring sheets all included!

Here are Oliver and Cyan modeling two of the dinosaur hats:

the mad hatter and alice in wonderland

“Would you care for some tea?”



The right Alice?



Mad as a Hatter!



Curiouser and curiouser ..

View the slideshow on flickr with more photos ..

See how I made Cyan’s Alice pinny apron ..

See how I made Oliver’s Mad Hatter accessories ..

mad as a hatter? all the best people are!

Here are Oliver’s Mad Hatter accessories. So, have I gone completely mad? bonkers? off my head? Probably, but I’ll let you into a secret – all the best people are! Well – we are going to a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, at Anthony House, the location where Tim Burton’s new Alice in Wonderland movie was filmed!

1. the hat
I managed to get hold of the official Disney hat (not available in UK but I got it off ebay). It is adult size – massive on Oli but if you look at the original Tenniel illustrations his Hatter has a massive hat – so I don’t mind, and Oli finds the size amusing! It had a strange printed vinyl price tag and feather though so they had to go – replaced with a real peacock feather and a ‘proper’ hand-written (by me) price tag with the ‘proper’ legend: In this style 10/6 (Johnny Depp just has 10/6 in the film).



2. the cotton reel ammo belt and other trimmings
When we saw the new Alice in Wonderland movie I could not get over Johnny Depp’s Mad attire! Especially the ‘ammo belt’ made from cotton reels! When we decided Oli was going to be the Hatter I knew I'd have to replicate this. I bought some vintage wooden cotton reels off ebay, and strung them together with some black & white waxed cotton cord to make the ammo belt, I think it looks awesome! Johnny Depp also has this cascade of ribbons and trims in his jacket pocket, so I made one with a choice selection of ribbons and trims knotted on a nappy pin. A spotty silk scarf bow-tie completes Oli’s Mad Hatter accessories.






Notice Oli’s dalek badges which I bought from DAMEcreations on Etsy, they reference an episode in the new series of Doctor Who when a dalek actually says “Would you care for some tea?”! Oliver is obsessed with Doctor Who and daleks so I thought it would be cool to add his badges here which go nicely with the whole Mad Tea Party thing!

Just look at all these lovely ribbons and trims!



I will post photos of Cyan in her Alice dress and pinny and Oli as the Mad Hatter tomorrow – the kids will be getting dressed up for a friend’s Alice themed birthday party tomorrow. We will probably go to the Tea Party at Anthony House in a couple of weekend’s time.

Edit: see the photos here ..

My creative high continues ..

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