Sunday 28 October 2018

Simple Candy Tutorial

It's been ages since I last posted on here. I'm mostly active on Instagram now, but I thought that for a tutorial, the good ole blogging format is best. Since it's very nearly Halloween, I'm going to share a very simple candy tutorial here.


Materials: All you need is some paper punches, shrink plastic and some sharpies/permanent markers.

I used 1 cm paper punches for the gummy bears in the picture. You can use larger punches; they'll just make larger sweets. As for the shrink plastic, you can buy sheets of shrink plastic, or you can look around in your recycling for some clear plastic packaging. All you need to do is make sure that you can see this symbol on it: 

The other types of plastic don't shrink. Once you have your materials, just punch out some shapes. If it gets too hard, punch some aluminium foil to sharpen your paper punches. 



Colour in both sides with your permanent marker.



And bake in the oven for about 3 or so minutes. I use a little toaster oven. I recommend keeping a close eye on the plastic as you are baking it and taking it out as soon as it stops warping and shrinking. Also, bake on a piece of baking paper. And ta-dah! You've now got some teensy tiny candy pieces, perfect to fill up your miniature trick or treat bags with.


Tuesday 6 February 2018

Ribbon Dress Tutorial

I spent my holidays working on some sewing. I am a complete novice with regards to any type of sewing, and in the past I've just glued dresses together, lol. Since getting into Cu-Poche, I've wanted more clothes for them. The official clothes are expensive, so I've been working on making some simple dresses for them. It's a bit of a 'cheat' since the dresses were made by sewing bits of frilly elastic ribbon together. I've also used this method (but with completely different measurements) to make some Sylvanian dresses before. This tutorial will be focused on Cu-Poche measurements. Forgive me if I'm not very clear. I'm still very much a sewing newbie. :P


Cut some ribbon with the following measurements. Depending on exactly what kind of lace you get and whether you end up sewing the lace lower or higher on your ribbon, you might need it a bit longer.



Sew the three longer layers overlapping each other. The 6.5 cm one should be in front, followed by the 7cm one behind that and the lace right on the bottom. I tend to sew the elastic parts really closely to each other.



Take the smallest piece of ribbon, and fold down the sides and sew them. This part of the ribbon will be the top. You should have a piece that measures about 1.5cm at the elastic base.



Then fold down the top and sew that down with a basic gathering stitch. You'll have to measure your ribbon against your doll to make sure you've folded down enough. When you reach the end, pull on the thread to make the fabric scrunch up until it's about the same length as the bottom elastic area. Tie it off.



Attach the small elastic top to the skirt. Then I fold the dress in half and sew the skirt together. Make sure to measure the skirt against your Cu-Poche's waist before deciding where to sew it together.



Sew on a ribbon for the neck. I didn't take measurements for the ribbon, I just measured it against the body until it looked right.



Tada! Now you have the base dress! The elastic is nice and stretchy so the Cu-Poche body should be able to slip easily into it. For Sylvanians, instead of sewing the back together I sewed on a metal stud instead.


Add any decorations and embellishments you like. :)