Channeling my inner Dany! (Daenerys)

I've been watching Game of Thrones season 3 and I am loving it! Daenerys is definitely a favourite of mine! I love her strength and determination in the series and books, but the series is making me come to love her style too! I have just purchased some fabric for a Dany inspired top, based on this dress:

But the main reason for this post is to show my quick attempt at one of her hairstyles, seen in the photo above also! I followed the instructions of silvousplaits on YouTube in THIS tutorial.

Ignore my pyjamas, this was at night and I was inspired after having just watched that tutorial!

Quick Project: Fairy Skirt

This really was a quick project, because it had to be!

My little sister announced last Saturday that she needed a fairy skirt for a drama performance at school, for Monday.

If I'm honest I knew I'd have it done in time as the style I chose is very simple to do, but nevertheless this may be helpful to others whose children/siblings announce they need a skirt with 2 days notice!

Her request was pretty vague, it had to be a 'fairy skirt' and green. So to keep things nice and hassle free (I wish! As you will soon see...) I chose to make her a skirt with 2 layers one being a nice organza for the 'fairy' look and have a zip fastening at the back.

I chose to make a circle skirt as these are very simple to mkae a pattern for and are super easy to sew!

So here's the instructions for making a pattern for a circle skirt if you would like to do so!

First of all, take a couple of measurements:

- Around where you want the skirt to sit, so for example if you want the skirt to sit on the waist, measure around the natural waistline.

- Measure from where the skirt will sit to where you want it to end. This is the skirt length.

Very bad, quick diagram!

Instructions

1. Work out the radius of your waist measurement. To do this, take the measurement of where you want your skirt to sit e.g. 68cm and divide your measurement by 6.28cm. So my radius would be 68 / 6.28 = 10.8cm
2. Mark point 'A' on a piece of paper and square out from this point.
3. A - B = the radius. A - C = the radius. Connect points B and C with a curve.
4. B - D = the skirt length. C - E = the skirt length.
5. Connect points D and E with a curve.
6. Add seam allowance (I add 1cm) to all seams. Add deeper seam allowance to the hem if required. If you want just 2 halves of the skirt, add seam allowance as before but leave it off one side and instead cut your pattern 'on the fold' of the fabric by folding it in half and lining this edge of your pattern without the seam allowance to the fold of the fabric.

Lovely newspaper patterns! Just sellotape a few pages together and you've got a nice big area!

The skirt isn't lined, so I decided to add a facing to the top edge so that no raw edges would be seen. To do this I simply drew on my pattern piece (above) marking 5cm down from points B and C and connecting these new points with a curve. You can make the facing as deep as required but 5cm was enough. When adding the seam allowance to the main pattern piece add seam allowance to the new curve created on the facing piece. Trace this off onto a new piece of paper and cut out! Again, if you want a skirt with no seams at the front, you need to cut the facing on the fold, and have NO seam allowance on the edge of the facing that you line up to the fabric fold.

Cutting your fabric

This is where I ran into trouble! As I was in a rush to get the skirt finished, I bought the fabric before making the pattern. I should really no not to do this so it is my own fault!! I bought 1.5m of fabric and although it was long enough the width (115cm) was NOT wide enough. So I ended up having to cut out the area that was missing and sew it onto the skirt piece adding more seams. This isn't *that* bad and my sister didn't see why I was stressing over it but I am a perfectionist and this really, really frustrated me.

So, make sure you measure the width of the skirt before buying fabric!

I cut out 3 pieces from the fabric to create the skirt:

- 1 piece, cut on the fold to create the front. No seam allowance on edge aligned with fabric fold.

- 2 pieces with seam allowance on ALL edges to create 2 back pieces. (I wanted 2 pieces so that there would be a centre back seam to put the zip in)

I also cute the facing in the same way:

- 1 piece, cut on the fold for the front. No seam allowance on edge aligned with fabric fold.

- 2 pieces with seam allowance on ALL edges to create 2 back pieces.

I then sewed all seams of the skirt in the 2 fabrics used (I created a double layer skirt), and then sewed the facing pieces together. Then, with right sides together, I sewed the facing to the skirt waist, folded the right way round and pressed. I then finished the lower edge of the facing by overlocking, but if you do not own one just do a zig zag stitch and trim the edge!

I then added the zip and finished by cutting V's into the hem for a floaty, fairy look!

Facing and Zip

Oh! And the best thing about circle skirts is that when you twirl, they swirl out around you in a circle! So have a twirl and enjoy a *princess moment*!!

StarsNocturnelle is 3!

StarsNocturnelle is 3 today!

I created this blog back in 2010, as my little creative space to keep track of my sewing work and for inspiration.

As a fashion student, I like to keep track of everything I've made and projects I have completed and a blog seemed a good place for that. As most students know though, University takes up so much time, and I didn't post nearly as many projects as I'd have liked as I just didn't have the time! My blog started to take a more beauty related route as I am a big fan of makeup and discovering indie, cruelty free brands (upcoming post to come on Concrete Minerals!) and expressing my personality through makeup as well as fashion. I will still post makeup posts as I have received a few lovely messages from readers who enjoy the cruelty-free makeup posts, but I think it's safe to say, there are many, many tlented makeup bloggers who do a far better job than I do! Some of my favourites are:

• GlitterGirlC
• KlairdeLys
• Biohazardous Beauty
• Rose Shock

It feels like my blog has come full circle, as now that I have finished my course, I have time to post projects and tutorials and this blog is now finally taking the direction I want it to yay! :)

Just because I have done a degree in fashion does not make me an expert, I thoroughly believe experience is invaluable and most of the sewers I admire and have been taught by (outside of uni) have had many years experience. But, seeing as I studied it, and it is my passion, I feel I want to write about my interest in sewing and as I have some projects planned, I'd like to document those to maybe help inspire other sewers or give help to those who may be struggling with a certain aspect (insertion of zips, anyone?!).

Anyway, enough rambling from me! I'd like to thank all my readers and followers for sticking with me and supporting my blog! I hope that it has been entertaining and helpful and would like to think my future posts will be interesting to you too!

In regards to sewing tutorials, if anyone would like to see a specific aspect covered, please contact me - either in the comments on the 'Sewing Tutorial' page, or email me at laurajeangriffiths@gmail.com

Thank you all again :)

Sewing Supplies - Dunelm Mill

I live in Cumbria, and in terms of sewing shops there is very little and there prices are ridiculous for general sewing box essentials. So I was pretty happy to find a lot of the same items a lot cheaper in Dunelm mill so decided to stock up on some things I needed!

- Bobbin Box

- 3 Pack Bobbins

- Magnetic Seam Guide (So useful!)

- Machine Oil

- Dressmakers Pins

- Assorted Machine Needles

- Stretch Machine Needles

- Ball Point Machine Needles

They also stock some beautiful fabrics and offer a curtain making service. Compared to my local fabric shops their prices are much better and so I will be using Dunelm Mill a lot more for seiwng supplies and fabrics! I believe they're all over the UK and I'd recommend a visit!

EOTD Using Concrete Minerals!

Quick post to show off a couple of my Concrete Minerals colours!

Inner Corner: Concrete Minerals Daydream

Lid Colour: Concrete Minerals Lolita

Outer V Colour:  Concrete Minerals Temptress

Eyeliner (Waterline) Collection 2000 Black Liner

Eyeliner (Lashline) Collection 2000 Extreme 24 Hour Felt Tip Liner

Mascara: Collection 2000 Pump Up The Volume Mascara

Good Deeds.

Just a quick post to ask anyone who cares for animals to please help a worthy charity out.

Animal SOS Sri Lanka are a charity working desperately hard to help animals in Sri Lanka. Their images on Facebook have had me in tears to see just how poorly these animals are treated and regarded so little, it is only down to the existence of this charity and the support of animal-friendly Sri Lankans who are helping make a difference. The images are hard to look at, but there are some wonderful happy endings and 'success stories' too! A lot of the fatal illnesses the animals have started out as something simple (e.g. ticks) but escalated to become life threatening diseases.

The charity work hard, face appalling realities on a daily basis, but give back to the animals through their care and nurture. The problem they face, like most charities, is funding.

BUT - we can help simply by voting for them to win a £5000 donation from a Pet Insurance company!

It takes 10 seconds, seriously!

1. Go over to the Animal SOS Sri Lanka Facebook page if you'd like, to see the wonderful work the charity does! (Optional!)
2.  To vote you must 'Like' the Feel Good Park by Animal Friends Insurance page on Facebook. 
3. Go to the 'Vote for A Charity' button. Authorize the app and then vote for 'Animal SOS Sri Lanka'.

There is one vote per person and must be done using a PC or Laptop.

I'd like to think people will take the time and vote, its so quick and if you don't want to have the page 'Liked' then 'Like' it just to be able to vote and then wait until the beginning of June to 'Unlike' it. The competition ends at the end of MAY so please keep it liked as long as you can :) Thank you!

By the way I am not affiliated with this charity in anyway and have not been asked to post. I just feel it is right to spread the word for a highly deserving, and wonderful group of people who offer so much.

Concrete Minerals Review and Swatches.

My Concrete Minerals Goodies!

Yay! My Concrete Minerals parcel finally arrived in the UK! :) I ordered at the end of April and the parcel arrived on 11th May.

I was really looking forward to this as its been a long time since I've been excited over makeup products. I found out about CM via a UK website called cutECOsmetics, a website retailing cruelty-free brands that are hard to find in the UK. I was going to use the website to order some CM, but decided to use the US website as I wanted to make use of the blogger discount in order to try the brand and get a feel for it, plus I wanted the cute little Sugar Skull sticker ^_^

Also, the "little touches" that CM includes really made the whole experience so worth it!

I'd just like to start by saying I am glad I ordered from the US site (as you will see), but from now on will most likely use CutECOsmetics to restock my colours (although as of the time I'm writing they don't stock all the colours?) as I did have to pay duties. The VAT was £7.08 but the real shocker was the fact that Royal Fail Mail charge a set handling fee of £8 on top of that!! So altogether I had to pay £15.08 :( My local post office couldn't answer my questions regarding the threshold of when packages are charged but from reading some forums it seems it is packages with a value over £15 that are liable for customs charges.

LOTS of photos to follow!