Final stop, Munich.

1. Neuschwanstein

2 and 3. Waterfall's Bridge

4. catwalk following the river

5. Rathaus-Glockenspiel

Next stop, Ljubljana.

1. Prešeren Square from Ljubljana Castle

2. Lake Bled

3. train journey from Budapest to Ljubljana

4. Ljubljana rooftops from Ljubljana Castle

5. secession style of building

Next stop, Budapest.

1. Museum of Fine Arts

2. Chain Bridge and Parliament Building

3. Labyrinth

4. Budapest Castle

Next stop, Vienna.

1. ferris wheel

2. Schönbrunn Palace

3. Sachertorte

4. Hundertwasser House

5. house of hammocks just outside the Museum Quarter

I made a Pinterest account a while ago and would love to find new people to follow. The red box below is linked to my account of Pinterest.

So I didn't get the chance to write up some posts before I left for my trip. But now I can share some photos with you. First stop, Prague.

1. Prague's rooftops

2. Cathedral of St. Vitus, Prague Castle

3. streets of Prague

I've been gone for a month but now I'm back! I had important exams in June, finished school forever and tomorrow, I go on holiday for 2 weeks. Hopefully, I'll have some scheduled posts ready by the time I leave to get me back in to the habit of blogging more frequently.

So to begin with, here's my Handmade Bucket List No. 5: a white shirt.

These shirts definitely aren't the normal white shirt. I seem to be more attracted to loose fitting shirts with unusual collars. At least I can buy the pattern for the last shirt!

Images from 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Here is my finished prom dress:

The dress was completed a good 24 hours before rather than last minute like the last prom I went to and throughout the night there were no issues with it falling down. I wore the dress with black heels (which I managed to wear all night), vintage black stud earrings and a black clutch bag.

I really enjoyed the whole thing and normally I only like the getting ready part. The marquee was beautifully decorated with tea lights in jam jars and cream balloons. Nice and simple. Music was generally good apart from the awful DJ playing the macarena but by that point, everyone had drunk a little too much to care. Including the teachers.

I feel a little sad looking back on the photographs because there won't be another event where all my friends will be together before everyone goes their separate ways in September.

Just a sneak peek of my Leaver's Ball dress. Need to get it finished by Tuesday. Very excited about getting ready more than the actual event, but thats how I always feel!

The reason I haven't posted anything in the last week or so is due to a looming deadline. The project is for Textiles and the theme is Culture and Tradition. I still need to work on the sketchbook, but this week was the "exam" where we had 15 hours to make our final outcome.

I chose to make a skirt which I drafted the pattern for myself and I've actually quite pleased with it. I did make a toile which does fit me but I have no idea if the actual skirt does. I'm not really bothered if it does or not since that's just another stress I chose to ignore. And bear in mind that this skirt is not something that I would wear outside of school and there was only enough time to take poor quality photographs with my iPod.

I've been trying to not spend money recently and I'm desperate to go shopping so I thought making a few  bracelets might help solve this problem. I've seen variations of these bracelets around so I thought why not make myself some.

I used bits and pieces I already had, so yay for free stuff! The watering can and the floral star were from my mum's broken jewellery collection and the blue stone was from a market in France somewhere. Avignon perhaps? The cream chain was leftover from the beads used to make my last project. I don't expect them to last long since the original necklace was so cheap.

This week I received my first award! How nice of Sarah of The Forty Acre Wood to nominate me. The purpose of this award is to nominate your favourite small blogs. However, I don't know many small blogs and so I don't re-nominate people, I thought I'd share something instead to make up for this. So here is my list of tutorials that I've had bookmarked for ages and now have somewhere to share them.

 
 

1. Paperbag Waist Skirt

2. Crochet heart garland

3. DIY Burberry Skirt

4. Earring Necklace

5.. Sailor Knot Bracelet

6. Handstitched Notebook

7. Resizing a cardigan

8. Teacup Pincushion

9. Tank Top Tote

This was a necklace I made for my Mum's birthday and I followed this tutorial by Tilly of Tilly & The Buttons.

For this necklace I used scraps of fabric that I had leftover from previous things: a printed silk for the body of the necklace and a plain navy cotton for the straps to add length to the necklace and because I thought the silk would be too slippery to knot it for the fastening. I used beads from an old necklace and to prevent the pattern from the beads showing through the printed silk fabric, I added an extra layer of white polyester lining fabric.

Hopefully, Mum will like it. I picked fabric in colours she wears alot. Towards the end of finishing the necklace, I did start to rush it as I knew she'd be back soon hence the messy topstitching at the end of the straps. I should have used a matching navy thread...

P.S. I have no idea what is going on with my ear in the 3rd photo. Weird...