Embroider You Own Napkin

If you've been watching the Great British Sewing Bee Special today, you'll have seen their beautifully embroidered Christmas napkins. I'd like to show you how easy it is to do your self.

You'll need :

Napkins

An Embriodery hoop
Embroidery floss
A needle with a large eye
Tailors chalk
Embroidery designs

Scissors
A Pencil
Carbon paper





1. Positioning the design. It is worth taking a little time to make sure the design is exactly where you want it. Fold the design in quarters to find the center point. With tailors chalk, mark a cross on the napkin, you can then line up the chalk marks with the cross folded in the design.

2. Place the carbon paper face down on the napkin and the design over the top. Use a pencil the trace ofver the design.
Remember, you can get different colours of carbon paper, and some may show up better than others.




3. Embroidery floss is a think weave of 6 strands of thread, for smaller designs it is usful to spilt the floss down to only 2 or 3 strands. 









4. Knot off the end of the threads. Use a Back Stitch to follow the lines of the design.
 

Take the next stitch forward of the first

Bring the stitch back to join the previous stitch

 

5. On the back, use the back of the stitches to secure the thread before cutting it.  











6. Continue with the same stitch in the next colour. For each pin I started a fresh line of thread, this will keep the back of the design neat.









7. For additional detail, change to a more decorative stitch. This is a Chain Stitch.

For the first stitch bring the the needle up to the front of the design, and back down again in the same place.

Bring the needle back up a little way along the line in the middle of the loop you just created.

Continue this along the line to create a continues line of interlocking loops. To finish the line bring the needle back down outside the final loop and secure at the back.

 

8. To finish the pin heads use French Knots. 

Wrap the thread around the needle several times.

Keeping the threads tight around the needle bring the needle back down in the same place.

Use several knots for each pin head.

I hope you enjoy making your own sewing themed napkins for Christmas. If you'd like, you can download our exclusive designs here, or from the Thrifty Stitcher. 

Happy Birthday to the National Theatre

When I'm not sending radiant brides down the aisle, I spend a lot of my time in dark cramped spaces in the bowls of theaters all over the west end. Recently you'd have found me residing in the National Theater as part of their wardrobe team.

And there couldn't be a better time to be working there, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the very first production by the National Theater Company in 1963 at the Old Vic Theater. On saturday they celebrated by bringing together the biggest and brightest from their 50 years on stage in a live show, and I was there!

Normally I get to tell you about all the fun I had working on exciting and individual dresses, but this time I wanted to share the other side of my work. I'm used to the hubbub and mayhem backstage and it's fair to say after so many years in the theater, though I still love my work, I consider myself a little jaded to the excitement of it all. But nothing could quite prepare me for the utterly surreal experience of watching the show from the holding area backstage with some of the greatest faces in acting. (Here's the name dropping portion of the evening), Dame Judi Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Sir Michael Gambon, Ralph Fiennes, Christopher Eccleston, Benedict Cumberbatch and so many others, all sat about with a glass of wine, chatting away about the performances they were watching. And me, sat on the side lines, trying not to watch them. But perhaps more importantly some amazing friends I've made over my many months at the National Theater. We even got our little moment in the spot light when the backstage team were invited on stage for a bow, cheered on by all those amazing actors I'd been in awe of all evening. The show is still on BBC iplayer for another few days, see if you can catch a glimpse of blue hair in the curtain call.

But it was a special night to me for a whole other reason. One of the pieces chosen to perform was a exert from "Arcadia" by Tom Stoppard. A play I have a special love for ever since I worked on it in 2009 in the west end. It was one of the happiest shows I have been a part of, I worked with a wonderful company and it was during that run that I worked on my very first wedding dresses. In the summer of 2009, when I found the unexpected joy of working with brides to be, I had the start of my dreams for night feather design. This week, I got to see a piece of "Arcadia" again, performed by some wonderful friends from the National Theater Company, a fantastic reminder of how much I love and cherish work, all aspects of it. All in all quite a spectacular night.

Something Blue....

I recently had the great pleasure of watching one of my brides and, more importantly, two very good friends tie the knot.

Lia wanted a blue themes for her day. She'd bought a wedding dress and, though she loved the shape and style, she wanted to add some colour to it and make it a little more quirky. We bounced a few ides about of how to adapt the dress and decided embellishing the beading and , to my great joy, adding a blue petticoat.

 We went for a quick and easy transformation, and a huge amount of fun, watch it here...

By the time I was done with the dress, it had a few blue surprises.

I also made her veil and the bridal party's flowers, so her day felt truly her own...

 After months of work and my workroom covered in blue, it was wonderful to see it all come together on the day....especially with the odd blue flash from under the dress.

It was a beautiful and personal day and it was a honor to be involved. So, here's wishing Lia and Deb and wonderful life together and loads of love from night feather design.

All photos provided by the wonderfully talented Helen Maybanks and video provided by Kriss Buddle, thank you to both.

Night Feathers Wedding!!

In April 2013 I had the very odd experience of being on the other side of the whole marriage thing. after spending years helping bride get ready for their own big day I had my own.

The euphoric blur of the day is a little hard to believe considering the utter stress induced gibbering wreck I was just days before the wedding. DIY weddings maybe personal but they aren't easy.

It all started with shoes....

AS I'm sure many woman will agree with me, the world should revolve around shoes and as it turns out my wedding was no different. I bought these before i had even decided on my dress and they influenced everything else about the day. Our whole steampunk theme and colour sheam sprang up because of these shoes (made by Metropolis Hades)

We wanted an steampunk styled day and I had a great deal of fun making that happen, but after months of hunting the internet for the perfect fabrics, and finding the quirky components to make the center pieces and even finding the best ribbons to make he bridal bouquets and button holes.

(above) My bridesmaids and maid of honor in their night feather dresses, designed from the same pattern but  each cut with different neck lines and detailing the personalise them.

(above) My husband with his best man....? Best women....? Groomsmaids....? We never could decide on the best name for them. Their dresses echoed the bridesmaids so they looked like a set but again were personalised. 

(above and below) These were a true first for me, the first time of using my ribbon work in this way. All the bouquets and button holes were ribbon flowers to compliment our DIY approach to the day.

It may have been stressful to make it all in time but from the cloths to the decorations, our personalities were stamped on the entire day.
 

We ran out of champagne half way through the toasts, I went the whole day with the labels on my shoes, I had on of my fake lashes pulled off in someone's hair during a very enthusiastic hug, we almost didn't have any music, by the end of the day my hair looked like a birds nest due to all the head banging and my dress had soaked up several pints worth of beer from the dance floor but it was, with out a doubt, the best day of my life.

Hand and Lock Prize 2013

With the most fantastic brief of 18th century Palace of Versaille mixed with 1906's moon landing and the start of sci-fi for this years Hand and Lock Prize, I created this...

A scfi-fi wedding dress with a Rocco inspired embroidered front...

And just to make sure its completely over the top, added EL wire detail...

If Barbarella was getting married, she'd have worn this!

With special thanks to my photographer, Kat Forsyth www.katforsyth.com, and the beautiful Rokhsaneh Ghawam-Shahidi

What a Cake!!

I admit I'm not getting any better at [posting regularly, but at least when I do I bring you things like this!

From the genius of Slattery's in Manchester, a life sized wedding dress cake!

A display in their shop window, mannequin and dress entity edible and decorated with icing. If you find yourself in Whitefield, make a stop in to see this, it's incredible.

Philippa's Dress

OK, so off my wedding a looking once again at other peoples. Philippa Devon's medieval wonder. Of all the commissions I took on in 2012 this was by far my favorite, a wonderful, colourful dress which is truly a refection of the brides personality.






We had so much fun designing this dress together, creating the perfect balance for her between her themes and colours as well as making sure she was comfortable and at ease in the dress by making it colourful and extravagant.