Dragon Themed Birthday Party

Its taken me a little while to get round to blogging about this. My daughter celebrated her third birthday back in October, but with all the upheaval of moving house, this is the first chance I've had to share some awesome tutorials for Dragon Party ideas!
For some reason, and in most cases it's best not to try and fathom out the workings of a three year old's mind, my daughter became obsessed with Dragons last Summer. She insisted she wanted a dragon cake for her third birthday...I'm up for a challenge so I decided to create a Dragon themed party.

It wasn't until I had promised my daughter this particular theme that I found out dragons are not very popular with most party supplies shops. If you have a daughter and you want princesses, fairies, butterflies and Disney characters, then you can buy everything off the shelf. Dragons it seems aren't so popular. So I decided I would make some things by hand and started to trawl the internet for ideas, tutorials and templates.
We were about a month away from moving house, so my brain was in a whirl with all the arrangements for organising removal vans and talking to solicitors. If we hadn't been in the midst of doing all that boring conveyancing stuff, I would've made even more things for the party. There's such a wealth of ideas out there, but time was against me, so here are the projects I managed to complete for the party.

First up, the cake! There are literally 100s of images for dragon cakes on the web. I'm no professional cake maker so I decided to go with this one on the Instructables website. It's made from two sponge cakes and has very clear instructions on how to cut the cakes in order to make the head, legs, tail etc. Mine doesn't look exactly like the Instructables version, but I've only made about 3 or 4 cakes in my entire life, so I think I made a pretty good attempt at it. My daughter was delighted with it, so that's all that matters!

Next up was a game of 'find the dragon'. I made six paper dragons using this template and hid them around the house. Each child had to find one to win a prize. They were really simple to make and you could add more detail or use metallic paper if you wanted a different look. There are lots of other ideas on the ideas4kids.org website, so if you've got more time than I had, you could really go to town with decorating the house with handmade dragons.

Lastly, I made, with help from my Mum, a hooded dragon towel using this adorable tutorial. I wanted it to double up as a costume for the party and as a practical gift to use at bathtime. My daughter still absolutely loves the towel and it's great for getting them all wrapped up after a bath.



If you don't fancy making a dragon, there are tutorials for lots of other creatures such as owls, monkeys, teddy bears and there's even a Rudolph.
So there you have it, some ideas for making a Dragon themed party.

Fabric lovliness

I have been really spoilt recently. I've had not one, but two lovely parcels from crafty friends.
Sally's parcel contained a vintage pillowcase and duvet cover. I love the purple fabric, it's quite unusual to find vintage fabric in one colourway rather than a riot of colours.
The parcel from Laura Fallulah, was a complete surprise. I've always loved Laura's rose brooches, her hand sewing detail is just beautiful and so neat.



Inspired by the Great British Sewing Bee on BBC 2, I'm going to have a go at making a garment out of the purple fabric from Sally. I thought I would make a Summer dress for my daughter. I just need to track down a nice pattern and get started! I'll post some progress photos and the finished product on here.
Laura and Sally are fabric addicts just like me and it's lovely to pass different pieces of fabric and handmade items onto friends you know will appreciate it!

First signs of Spring

It has been cold here in the UK. In fact, it has been the coldest March since, well, I don't know, since a long, long time ago! I cannot personally remember a March this cold. But, having said that, I prefer cold and dry weather to mild and damp, which is the other default setting for weather here in the UK.

The past few days have been freezing but bright, clear and sunny. Despite all the plants shivering deep down into their roots, there are some signs of Spring emerging.

Ever the optimist, I ordered loads of seeds a couple of weeks ago. Whilst the sun was out I thought it was the perfect time to get planting. So today we've sown Basil, Green Beans, Beetroot, Nasturtiums, Rudbekia and Sunflowers. This is the first year my daughter has been old enough to help me plant the seeds. She loved dibbing the holes in the soil and carefully dropping the seeds in. Obviously tiny fingers are perfect for holding all those lovely little seeds! So, we just need to sit back, keep our fingers crossed for sunshine and let nature do all the hard work...

Fresh batch

Vintage fabric cushion covers in turquoise and cobalt blue are now back in stock in both my Etsy and Folksy stores. This colour has proved to be a best seller and I've been out of stock for little a while. I'm currently offering free shipping to the United Kingdom for all my vintage fabric cushion covers. Take a look at my full range here.

Day Trippers

I'm currently working on a feature for UK Handmade, it's due to be published in the Summer Issue, so I'll post a link to it here when the new issue is up and running.

Part of the feature involved a photo shoot in St Werburghs in Bristol. All photos featured here are taken by Jessica, you can see more of her work on Flickr. Her photos will also accompany my feature in the UK Handmade magazine.

St Werburghs is a unique part of Bristol. Just a stones throw from Gloucester Road, which boasts the largest number of independent traders on any one road in the UK.

I love this part of Bristol and there are so many interesting community projects, shops, places to to visit and sights to see...including a pony teathered to a garden gate on a residential street. A few moments later, two girls and their mum casually came out of the house, unteathered the pony and trotted off down the street. Proof that you don't need acres of land and a porsche on the driveway to allow you children to enjoy horse riding.

Once we had finished our photoshoot we popped into The Better Food Company for a cup of tea and a selection of yummy cakes. What better way to round off a day in Bristol?

**Spring Blog Giveaway**
The winner chosen at random for my Spring Giveaway is Jo. She wins over 9 yards of vintage trim and an exclusive 20% discount code to use in my online store. A huge thanks to everyone who took part in the giveaway, it was one of the most popular ones yet...you obviously all love those vintage trims!

The big fabric sort-out!

I have been an avid collector of vintage fabric for about eight years now. I wouldn't say my collection was out of control, but I have got enough fabric to keep me going for about three or four lifetimes!

For the past three years most of my vintage fabric has been in boxes in the loft. I felt really disconnected from it and since having my daughter my fabric collection has been neglected. When we moved to our new house, I vowed that I would organise it better, I really wanted access to it, so that I could create things with it. It's pointless having loads of yummy fabric if you can't get your hands on it!

My mum was updating her wardrobes and she said I could have her old one. My husband grabbed his drill and some spare pieces of wood and added two shelves to convert the wardrobe into a large cupboard. We then got all the boxes out of the loft and I started the process of sorting through it all. Some I wanted to keep, some to sell and some to pass onto my lovely crafty friends.

As each box came out of the loft, it was such a revelation each time I started sorting through the fabric. There are so many pieces I'd forgotten about. I have amassed some lovely examples of vintage Moygashel, Sanderson, Liberty and Heals fabric. I have one particular piece of vintage Sanderson 'Cobweb' fabric that is just beautiful.

I now have a lovely area in my home where I can house my fabric and look at it whenever I want to. Who knows, maybe I might actually get the time to use it all!

Spring giveaway: vintage trim bundle and 20% discount code

**This giveaway is now closed**

Signs of Spring are starting to emerge in my garden, so I thought I would run a giveaway featuring these lovely vintage floral trims. Plus, you will also win an exclusive discount code for 20% off anything in my Etsy store. I will email the lucky winner their discount code once the giveaway has ended.

Up for grabs is a bundle of vintage trims worth over £10 in total. The prize bundle contains:
3 yards of vintage tiny flower trim in crimson and orange
3 yards of vintage tiny flower trim in lipstick red and navy blue
3 yards of vintage tiny flower trim in royal blue and pale yellow

How to enter:

mandatory - Please visit my Etsy store and leave a comment below telling me which is your favourite item.

three additional ways to enter:
1. Become a follower of my blog. Leave a comment and let me know that you're new.
2. Tweet this giveaway:
@pouchbags Spring blog giveaway: http://pouchbags.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/spring-giveaway-vintage-trim-bundle-and.html
3. Like my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pouchdesigns

**If you enter this giveaway, please state clearly your email address, OR your Facebook/Twitter/Etsy username, so I can contact you in case you win**

The giveaway is open to everyone in the world. The giveaway runs from Friday March 1st through to midnight (GMT) Friday 8th March. This competition is open to worldwide entries. I will pick a winner at random, and announce the winner on Monday 11th March.

Also, I am currently having a big stock clearance sale! Up to 50% off original prices. Check out my sale section for more details.