DIY

Tutorial: Decoupage Comic-Book Table

18:13:00 theskyisstarless 0 Comments

We've recently been refurbishing our basement and found this old school-style table. My mum had watched a video where a girl had decoupaged the top of the table and recruited me, as I'm in a post-alevel and pre-uni limbo with nothing to do, to paint and cover the table.


I dragged the table outside and noticed that the layer of varnished wood on the top was able to peel off. I pulled this off and was left with the perfect surface to decoupage, even and slightly rough.


I then used a surface primer to prime the legs and side of the table. The primer is extremely important, especially if painting on top of existing paint work or onto metal. I used a spray-able primer. 

I then left this to dry for 24 hours before painting the table. I chose a bright red, again in a spray-able form. I covered the legs and sides with paint and again left to dry.

While the table was drying I began cutting up some of my brother's old comics. You could use newspaper, wrapping paper, specialist decoupage paper etc. I used a variety of different colours and cut them into different sizes. 

Once the table had dried, I brought it back inside and taped around the sides with masking-tape to make it neater. I then began sticking the paper to the table using mod-podge. I used a wallpaper roller to get rid of air bubbles.

Once I had completely covered the table I used a sealant to protect the table and to keep everything glued down. 


Here is the completed table. It was so easy to do- waiting for a sunny day to do the painting was the hardest part!!

It is such a unique and interesting piece of furniture which I hope you will enjoy making.

Love Rhiannon x

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Cooking

Adventures in Vegan Cooking

16:59:00 theskyisstarless 0 Comments

I have been a vegetarian my whole life but I have recently been toying with the idea of becoming vegan. I'm interested in living a cleaner and healthier lifestyle- I don't think I'm ready to convert to a full plant-based, gluten free diet but I am trying to make small changes and experiment with vegan substitutions. Using a mixture of recipes from well-known bloggers such as Deliciously Ella, Madeleine Shaw, and My New Roots- I created a three course vegan meal for my family.

I made a fresh and summery lentil, courgette and mint salad using a recipe from Deliciously Ella's Book. The full recipe can be found here. I found the colours of the ingredients looked so beautiful together that I instagrammed this picture and Ella herself liked it.


It is such a light and flavoursome salad. The lime juice and fresh mint, picked from my garden, worked so well together. Avacado in anything catches my interest and with the thinly sliced courgette it tasted heavenly.


Alongside this salad we had sweet potato cakes (Deliciously Ella again) with a fresh rocket salad. Sweet potatoes are a staple in our family, we seem to have them with every meal. 



These were super simple to make. You essentially make sweet potato mash, add spices, shape and bake.


There were so soft and tasted brilliant with both the rocket and courgette salad. We needed the courgette salad to take away some of the spice, I think I added too many chilli flakes.

For my main course I made Deliciously Ella's Mushroom and Chickpea Stew. It is such a simple stew but this allows for a deeper flavour in the sauce. It is such a versatile stew, you could add anything to it. 


There is so much stew left over that we will be eating it for days. I'm thinking crusty bread or perhaps some herb dumplings.


To accompany the stew I found a recipe for cardamom spiced cauliflower rice on Madeleine Shaw's blog. When you're a vegetarian most meals consist of some carbohydrate such as rice or pasta with curry or chilli or some kind of sauce. It was therefore refreshing to have an entire main course consisting of just vegetables and pulses. 


I simply blitzed a whole cauliflower in the food processor, melted some coconut oil with some cardamom pods in a frying pan, and fried the 'rice' for around 3 minutes, adding some more spices mixed with a small amount of water.


It is so much quicker to make than normal rice and tasted great. A brilliant way to get more vegetables into my diet.

My favourite part of any meal: dessert. I wanted to make a refined sugar-free and vegan dessert but was slightly worried that it would end up tasting like cardboard. Most vegan desserts I've found use really expensive ingredients but I found this recipe for Banoffee Pie from New Roots which mostly included ingredients which we already had. The base is made by blitzing all the ingredients in a food processor, pressing the mixture into a tin and baking for around 10 minutes.



For the toffee I started off by making my own almond butter by roasting almonds for 10 minutes and then blitzing them in a food processor with a pinch of salt until it reaches a smooth 'gloopy' consistency.


The toffee was then made by softening the dates by pouring hot water over them and then blitzing until smooth. When I usually make toffee using sugar I normally end up burning it but this was so straightforward. It also tasted amazing, I couldn't stop myself from having a little taste.


The cream substitute is simply whipped coconut milk. Although the smell resembles cat-food it gives a tropical taste to the tart.


After assembling the tart I topped it with more banana and dusted some vegan chocolate over the top.


The whole family loved it, there were so many 'best ever' s. It wasn't as sickly sweet as most Banoffee pies are and I couldn't quite believe that it was sugar-free and vegan. 

I will definitely be making cauliflower rice and vegan Banoffee Pie again in the future and I look forward to introducing new vegan alternatives to my diet and potentially becoming vegan in the future.

Love Rhiannon x 



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Sewing

Three Metres, Three Ways

15:09:00 theskyisstarless 0 Comments

I'm a big believer in that if something is cheap, bulk-buy it. I recently bought 3 metres of green French linen from my local fabric barn in order to make a dress for my mum and something with the left over fabric. I ended up having enough material to make a dress, a skirt and a top-with enough to make a small purse with the left-over scraps.

I used the majority of the fabric to make this simple dress using the Camber Set Pattern (mentioned in a previous blog post). It is the perfect fabric for a dress like this. It doesn't fray when you are trying to make the neckline and is light enough that it fits nicely around the body.

I also made this top using a pattern from the Great British Sewing Bee Book. However, when I tried it on I found that it was slightly too tight across my shoulders. I do have naturally broad shoulders but I think the main problem was that I had used the wrong kind of material. It was a pattern designed for a soft silk or chiffon but my material was just not stretchy enough. I decided to cut a small triangle in the front and face it, binding the neckline as specified in the instructions. I then attached some ribbon to give it a vintage feel. 
For my third project I wanted to make a skirt. I've made a pleated skirt, a circle skirt, and an elasticated skirt but I wanted to try something a bit different. I stumbled across this great tutorial on making wrap skirts and gave it a go. It is super easy and quick and, in this fabric, makes a very smart and elegant skirt. I'm looking forward to making this in a lighter material and creating more volume by using a longer length of fabric. 
 I couldn't quite believe that I managed to create 3 items of clothing out of 3 metres of fabric. I am always ending up with half a metre of fabric after a project and wishing that I had an extra half so that I could make something more interesting than a tote bag or purse.

I hope you've been inspired to make the most of your fabric.

Love Rhiannon x

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Sewing

Pattern Review: Merchant and Mills- The Camber Set

17:00:00 theskyisstarless 3 Comments


This was one of the first patterns I bought, a year ago, from a cute little craft barn in my town. It marked the beginning of my obsession with dress-making. The pattern is getting a little ragged around the edges, I've made so many dresses and tops using it. It is an extremely adaptable pattern, featuring both patterns for a top and a dress in the same a-line shape. I've made it into a colour-block dress, made a top with a button neckline and next time I use it I plan to make contrasting front-pockets. 

The pattern is quite pricey but it does come with easy-to-follow instructions and can be made in a variety of sizes. I made it in a 10 so that I could make dresses for my mum as well as for myself. The first dress I made was in a blue tartan cotton which was a good choice because it hid some of my mistakes and gave me some good practice at pattern-matching. I didn't read the instructions properly so ended up making the neck-hole too small and then had to un-pick all my stitching. On re-reading it made complete sense though. Top tip for all sewing projects: read the instructions The most difficult bits are definitely the neckline and the yoke and it takes time to master them. I made the dress quite short and I always wear it with a belt because I like to have a defined waist-line. I wear this dress all the time, all year long. In summer I wear this with my brogues and in winter with a dark blue long sleeved top underneath and ankle boots with tights. 

I had some of the blue tartan material left from making the dress but not quite enough to make a full t-shirt so I cut up an old green linen top which was sun-cream stained and used it to create a colour-block top. I folded the pattern just above the bust darts and added a seam allowance when I was cutting out my fabric. I made the top half of the top and the yoke in the green fabric but used the tartan for the bottom of the top, the back and the sleeves. It was quite hard to sew because the materials were so different but it looks great with rolled up jeans and some boots.

I loved the colour-block top so much that I decided to make a colour-block dress with some floral fabric I picked up at a market and some matching beige fabric. I think the neckline is the best thing about this pattern. It is so elegant and simple and is low enough to sit just below the collar bones. When I was making a top from the left-over material I found that I had made the neck-hole too small to fit over my head so I cut a small triangle, bias-bound the edge and added a button and loop to close it. I think this actually made the top better than it would have been if the neck-hole had been big enough.

My most recent project was a dress I made for my mum. She chose some material and chose the length (apparently my dresses are too short for her) and I made this dress for her. I had to borrow it to take this photo and now I wish it was mine. It is for her to wear at work so it is very simple- no button necklines or colour-blocking here. Having now used this pattern 5 times I think I'm suitably qualified to give some tips. Firstly, read the instructions carefully. They are brief but include all the information you will need. Secondly, be very careful when cutting out the sleeves because you need them to be mirror-images of each other and have the notches in the right place to match the main-body of the dress/top. I have sewn in the wrong sleeve on multiple occasion. Thirdly, try it on after each step. You don't want to finish the top/dress and then realise you can't fit your head through. Finally, I would advise finishing the edges of the back and front before sewing them together because it looks neater on the finished project and also I have on many occasions ended up getting material caught up and then having to unpick my zig-zag stitching. In all my projects I've used quite thick material which still allows for structure and shape. If you were to use a thicker material I would suggest shaping it more around the waist just so it doesn't look bulky and with lighter material you would have to be very careful when cutting out and sewing so that it hangs evenly on the body

This is a great pattern if you are a beginner or just want to invest in a pattern you will use time and time again. If you love this pattern as much as I do or if you want some help with your project comment down below. Happy sewing!!

Love Rhiannon x                                                                                                    








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