Magpie Monday #1 There be Pirates!

Poor old blog. It was all going so well, and then I got chickens. Chickens take up a lot of time, especially when they are doted upon and not just egg producers. Still, they go to bed at four in the winter, so I have no excuse for abandoning the blog during the colder months.

In a bid to rectify this, here is my first post in nine months! Inspired by tweeter @missielizzieb I am joining in on her Magpie Monday project. She's encouraging us all in a virtual show-and-tell of all our thrift shop, boot sale, ebay finds, basically anything that you've bought that will find a new and re-invigorated life in your possession.

So, without further ado, here is my first submission to Magpie Monday!

The thrifty pirate's hoard

1. I have long planned to hold a pirate party and this year I am finally going to do it! I spied this spotty corset on ebay and thought it would be the perfect starting point for my costume. I plan on adorning it further with embroidery and tattered lace, but it's a great backdrop for piratey creativity and only set me back £5 including postage. Watch this space to see how it ends up.

2. Beaten pewter tankard - for above event. If I can find enough, everyone will swig ale from a tankard at the pirate party, but if not, I really can't have enough piratey props, and this one cost £1 on of my lunchtime forays at the charity shop.

3. Another charity shop find - a very piratey red and white stripy headscarf for a bargainous 50p! This will either be worn as a scarf, or tied in a casual fashion from the corner of the buffet table. I am hoping a lot of suitable headscarfs and oddments of fabric turn up before September, as I will also need a lot of pirate bunting. :)

New Year and the Bjork swan dress

I've always wanted to have at go at making this dress, and so, as soon as I got an invitation to a pop star themed New Year's party, it was clear who I should go as!

When Bjork wore her infamous swan dress at the Oscar ceremony back in 2001, the critics fell into two camps, either loving it or hating it. Either way it caused a stir and was a unique and iconic fashion statement. 

I didn't have that long to make the dress because I knew I was going to busy with Christmas, so I admit I cheated a little by buying a pre-made tutu from Ebay. I found one that had a drop waist, the ruffles starting from hips rather than the waist and therefore a little more flattering. I did make some modifications however, taking the whole thing off it's elastic waist and adding some darts to make it fit better also opening up the back seam to make it into a kind of wrap skirt which ties at the back with ribbons. 

Making the swan neck was the fun part. It was basically a shaped tube made from white jersey fabric, rounded at one end for the head, and wider at the other where it was going to be joined to the skirt. I stuffed it, then added lots of tulle ruffles, some fluffy marabou feathers on the inner neck, and made a beak from orange felt and a black fabric scrap. A couple of black buttons made beady swan eyes, and then it was ready to be sewn to the skirt. A few more tulle ruffles masked the join, and it was finished!

Caution: Swans like champagne - I'm sure that glass was full...

I dream of Narnia

Is the name of this wintery head adornment I made this evening. Ever since I was told the dress code ('festive headwear') for a party this Friday, I've had this creation stuck in my head. It's a little winter woodland scene - in fascinator form! The birds were purchased and are in two positions, flight and perched. They have shimmery aqua in their feathers so I used a pale green vintage damask remnant over a wire and padded frame work to make a headband, wiring in a frostily painted twig before stitching it in place. A bundle of tulle (which forms a veil), a sprig of pine, some silvery sprayed dried grasses and faded green hydrangea blossoms gave the flying bird a soft landing spot. The perched bird shares her arbour with some miniature vintage baubles and a jingly silver sleigh bell. 

Fun and games and terrifying taters

I've always been of the opinion that there should be something to actually 'do' at parties. This is partly why I like fancy dress and themed parties so much. Firstly everyone gets to have a good old laugh at everyone else's get-up (ok, you can do that at normal parties too, but you have to do it quietly in the corner). This in itself bonds a possibly otherwise unfamiliar group of people. Throw a couple of optional activities into the proceedings and even the quietest guest instantly has something to talk about.

At my Mad Hatter's tea party in the summer I devised a couple of little games, which took neither skill, dexterity or talent. The first - 'Lewis Carroll limericks'  is quite self explanatory - write a five line nonsense rhyme in limerick format. To help, I made little cards and wrote the first lines of the limericks - for instance "There was a young man named Hatter". There were about 8 different limerick beginnings to choose from, all using characters from Alice in Wonderland. I was amazed at how quickly the little stack of cards went down as people that didn't even know they could write poetry began to pen all sorts of ludicrous verses. The winning entry won a large cucumber, but I must admit, my judging was rather biased as the entrant had written a limerick which included my cat. The second game at the tea party was the 'Draw a Jabberwocky' contest. Again, I made playing card sized cards, with a space inside a gothic frame for people to draw their interpretation of a Jabberwocky. I stuck them all onto a board, on which I had printed a heading inscribed 'Jabberwocky Gallery'. The portraits made fascinating viewing, and the winner won a tin of potted lobster.

At the Halloween party I adapted similar games for the season. The first, simply a caption contest featuring images from horror films, vintage and modern. The second game was more creative. In an ideal world I would have had everyone carve a pumpkin, but space, time and a fridge already overflowing with pumpkin flesh (more about that later) meant this was not feasible. Inspired by something I read recently about the yearly Humboldt Decorated Potato Competition, and also a dash of the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, I set about to construct a 'Terrifying Tater Gallery'. The idea was to make the most gruesomely featured potato head, insert a toothpick into the base and then insert this into a polystyrene display gallery, that I had constructed and hot glued together, then painted black. The addition of a tattered fabric backdrop, and a scroll-shaped sign, completed the stage for the hideous heads.

I was amazed and delighted when I returned to the little gallery some way into the party to discover the creations that had gathered! My intentions were for the potatoes to have their ghoulish features drawn on using a pot of magic markers I had left for the purpose. But an inadvertently discarded pumpkin carving tool had found it's way into use, and some of the potatoes had chiselled features, while none at all had drawn on faces! The cocktail sticks, intended to simply be used to stand the creations up, had been employed in freakishly creative ways.

It's a monster mash! The Terrifying Tater Gallery. First prize (bottom left) fittingly won a packet of potato crisps. Ingenious but sharp little limbs were assembled from toothpicks, hats from spent tealight holders, and one sticky offering I am presuming had been doused with toffee sauce from the buffet table.