Bethany Éowyn Kelman

February Sewing Projects

Bethany — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:48:04 +0000

We’ve settled in to our new place now and mostly unpacked. This month I’ve been preparing for the launch of my new clothing line. I’m really excited and I can’t wait to share some photos! Until then, here are some sewing projects I’ve been working on this month.

My friend Rob commissioned me to make a dress for his daughter Chloe, from a 1990-1991 New Model Army tour T-shirt! Taking a pair of scissors to this precious shirt was quite nerve wracking!

Vintage heart-shaped buttons ❤

I think Chloe approves! ^_^

I did a bit of nautical upholstery! This little pouffe was given to us in a well loved state, having been re-covered numerous times. I covered it in French ticking & anchors!

I took inspiration for the stitching detail from this patchwork pouffe! ❤

Jutt turned 30 this month, & grew a beard to prove it!

I made him this Space Invader quilt. Pixel art makes awesome patchwork!

Serious birthday beer!

Snow Day

Bethany — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:04:07 +0000

We have deep snow here in the UK today which means only one thing… Dolly photo time! ♥ ♥ ♥

I got this beautiful Totoro sweater in a trade with Nan. It’s absolutely amazing, teeny tiny stitches, and it even has miniature real button holes at the back. I love it! I have been holding out for a snow day to take pics. You can see more of her work in her Etsy shop Dressing Blythe. Hitomi is also rocking some Moof boots and a vintage Skipper tutu. ^_^

I thought I’d post some of my favourite Dolly Snow Photos from previous years too…

Awesome skull sweater from Liz/WoollyRockers, vintage Skipper tutu & ice skates.

Elphaba in a super cute Bambina Carabina granny hat, Sugar Mag cape & Dolly Mixture dress.

EuroTrash Doll helmet & Poupée Mécanique dress.

Enjoy the snow! x

Moving House… Interior Inspiration

Bethany — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 02:13:44 +0000

Happy New Year! I hope everyone has enjoyed the festive season. I have had a pretty hectic start to the year, but I am looking forward to 2012 and the changes it will bring. In just a couple of weeks we will be leaving our tiny loft apartment and moving to our new house. We’ll have a garden, and I will have studio to fill with beautiful fabric and make dresses in. ♥ I feel very lucky. Tomorrow I will start packing (a daunting task for a hoarder & collector, I have *so* much stuff), so tonight I have been looking at some inspiring photos and formulating some ideas which will give me something to look forward to once the packing, sorting, moving and cleaning are done! I thought I’d share some of my favourites here.

A (former) Bookseller’s nightmare… but it’s so pretty. ♥ I have a bit of an obsession with arranging things in rainbow order.

Jenny B‘s epic sewing room. I especially love the dresser and the blue walls.

Love the jars of trim!

I picked up a battered wooden storage box with compartments like this a little while ago. I think I will paint it and fill it with tiny pretty things.

Such a great way to store fabric! I can’t imagine mine ever staying this neat and tidy though. More rainbow coloured organisation. ^_^

Leo‘s wonderful doll shelves

Toys & Teacups ♥

This reminds me of the Alice in Wonderland restaurant in Tokyo. ♥

Vintage phone love ♥

CandyPop‘s vintage glasses. I can’t wait to display mine. I have vintage Babycham glasses and shot glasses handed down from my grandmother and great-grandmother.

How awesome is this kettle?!

That’s it for now… I could go on forever! But I’d better get some packing done first.

Jezebelles Shop Update!

Bethany — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:29:27 +0000

I’ve updated the Jezebelles Boutique Shop with lots of new handmade items this week, just in time for Christmas!

Vintage Style Cherry Apron

Liberty Vintage Roses Apron

Wristband Pincushions made from Japanese silk & cotton

& lots of lovely new hair accessories!

Thanks for looking! x

The Made-It Market Christmas Special November 2011

Bethany — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:48:18 +0000

This weekend I took my big bag of Jezebelles Boutique goodies to The Made-it Market Christmas Special, and I exhibited alongside more than 60 fantastic artists, designers and makers. It was the biggest and best Made-It Market to date, filling two huge halls at the Cambridge Guildhall! There were also groups offering workshops for the first time. A great day was had by all!

My stall ^_^

Vintage Style Aprons

Wrist band pin cushions made from Japanese fabrics <3

Rockabilly head bands ^_^

Hair clips <3

Robot purse!

Purses

Hair flowers & brooches <3

I shared a table with the fabulous Laura/PinkAppleJam and Selina/Bento Smile. I loved both their stalls!

There was so much temptation at the market with so many wonderful stalls, but I managed to resist most things… couldn’t resist purchasing from these two though. ^_^ I got a Bento Smile bunny plushie & PinkAppleJam felt carrot brooch! <3

Bento Smile table!

Selina’s plushies & amigurumis are sooooo kawaiiiiii! <3 <3 They almost all sold, but I think she will be adding the ones she has left to the Bento Smile Etsy shop sometime soon!

Laura with her awesome PinkAppleJam stall! I made her dress from cute Pretty Cure fabric she bought back from Japan. ^_^

Laura was selling her fantastic comics & illustrations as well as kawaii handmade goodies!

I love her felt accessories! Laura will also be adding these to her PinkAppleJam Etsy shop soon!

The Cambridge Guildhall is a fantastic venue.

My loot from the day! Sad Bunneh & Angry Carrot! ^_^

Thanks so much to everyone who came to say hello, it was a great day! It’s always good to spend time with awesome creative friends. ^_^ I hope everyone likes the Christmas presents they get from people who shopped at my stall! For those of you who couldn’t make it, I’ll be adding some vintage style aprons, pin cushion wristbands & other accessories to my Jezebelles Boutique Etsy shop very very soon. ^_^ I think the three of us will be sharing a table again at the next Made-It Market in March too. <3

Last Gang in Town Halloween Party 2011

Bethany — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:17:00 +0000

I hope you all had a great Halloween weekend! Mine was exceptional! No one does Halloween quite like Last Gang in Town. We had circus sideshow performances, rockin’ DJs, drinks promotions, Halloween cupcakes, spooky décor, and a fiendish fancy dress competition. I love that everyone put so much effort in to their costumes. The headline band The Rocker Covers played Rockabilly versions of contemporary hits, from Lady Gaga to The Beastie Boys! They were awesome! Here are a few photos from the night.

My Zombie Geisha costume. It was fun doing the make up!

Jutt’s terrifying un-zipped face!

Cuddly bunny rabbit Snix!

Lovely Alexa & Corinne ♥

Double zip-face!

Kelly’s terrifying Chav outfit!! Love it!

Zombie Nurse Laura!

Gemma & Helena ♥

My Levellers inspired Pumpkin

Micro cupcakes by Kat, with tiny bat sprinkles!

Spooky cupcakes by Alexa!

What a lovely couple haha!

The Corpse Bride – she looked wonderful!

The Corpse Bride’s maggot!

Fiona as Lady Gaga!

Patty and Selma Bouvier

Who gave Beccy a hacksaw?!

The Rocker Covers were *amazing*!!

What an epic night! I feel lucky to know so many awesome creative people! Best Halloween party ever!! ♥ xx

BlytheCon UK 2011 London

Bethany — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:09:00 +0000

I had a great time at BlytheCon UK in London this weekend! It was such a great day. ♡♡♡

Setting up my Dolly Mixture stall! Photo by Tibiloo

My Dolly Mixture Table

Fellow Fifth Element fan Leeloominae/Chloé with my dolly Leeloo & her Tangerine!

Yummy macarons ♡

Leo’s wonderful Poupée Mécanique display ♡

Mary’s fabulous M for Monkey table & her well dressed Wataru!

My lovely friend Hen! It’s always so great to catch up! ♡

Polly’s punk rock table!

Lovely Gaia with her Bambina Carabina table ♡

The winner of the fashion contest, a wonderful Salvador Dali inspired design by Cocomichi. The 1st prize included a Tokyo Textiles fat quarter set!

My Dolly Mixture Circus display. Photo by Leonidas

I shared a table with the lovely Freya/Naughty Pixie, and we had matching braids!

Just a few of the many many raffle prizes, including my donation. The raffle raised over £1000 for The Little Princess Trust!

Holly’s fabulous Hey Cavey booth!

Momolita’s beautiful beautiful dresses *sigh* ♡♡

Momo & Leo at lunchtime!

Absolutely stunning miniature tailoring by Leo/Misato.

It was a wonderful day but I was exhausted by the end of it! It was great to sit outside in the sun with some good friends and have a cold beer before we headed to the after party. I also got to admire Hen’s lovely Middie!

I had a great time, it was so good to see old friends and meet new friends from all over the world. Dolly people really are the best! I’m honoured to have so many wonderful creative friends! Thanks so much to every one who visited my stall, I’d love to see photos of your girls in their Dolly Mixture outfits and I want to see what everyone makes with their Tokyo Textiles fabric!

Lots more photos in my Flickr album. ^_^ Roll on Manchester 2012!!

Dolly Mixture BlytheConUK Collection 2011

Bethany — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 15:47:31 +0000

I’ve been stitching away for the past few weeks getting ready for BlytheConUK! We had an awesome time! Full event report & photos coming soon! First I thought I’d share some photos of the miniature dresses I made for the event. ♥

Carousel dress with red & gold circus star fabric, teal pom pom trim, and printed carousel horse fabric.

Circus dress with teeny tiny vintage teal ric rac and red & gold circus star ruffle.

Card Soldiers dress with Japanese lace & trim, and a miniature key.

The Queen’s Maid Dress made from black silk dupion, with Japanese scalloped lace & embroidered crowns trim. Card suit apron trimmed with Japanese lace.

Purple Neko Dress with cute Japanese black cat fabric, purple stripes & pom pom trim! I donated one of these to the BCUK raffle for The Little Princess Trust. The raffle raised over £1000!

Strawberries & Cream Dress made from pink polka dot fabric with the cutest little strawberry button, ruffles, pin tucks, bow & plenty of creamy Japanese lace.

Ahoi Sailor Dress made from Japanese anchor fabric with a sailor collar, bow, ruffles & pearls.

The White Rabbit Dress made from cute Japanese bunny fabric with a miniature pocket watch, pink pom pom trim and striped neck ruffle.

Running With Scissors Dress made from beautiful Japanese fabric featuring a vintage scissors print, Japanese lace, tiny pin tucks, buttons and a miniature pair of scissors.

Nautical Dreams dress made from tiny anchor print fabric, silver buttons & pearls straight from the ocean.

I made 21 little dresses for BCUK! 20 for my stall and 1 for the raffle. Thank you so much to everyone who visited my stall, most of the dresses have now gone to good homes! ^_^ A few were left over & I have added them to the Dolly Mixture Etsy Shop.

Tokyo July 2011 Day 14 & 15: Tokyo Sky View & Farewell Koenji

Bethany — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 12:41:39 +0000

Day 14 in Tokyo, Tuesday 26th July.

We were getting towards the end of our trip and one thing on our itinerary that we hadn’t had a chance to do yet was see the Tokyo sky view. We would have liked to see the view from the Mori Museum, but we were low on funds by this point. Thanks to this website and the free wi-fi at our guest house we found out that there is an observatory on the 45th floor of Tokyo Tochosha, The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, which is open free of charge to the public. The building is just a short distance from Shinjuku station. At 243 meters, it is the 2nd tallest building within the city. We got to enjoy a viewing of the city from 202 meters above ground.

It really was breathtaking.

Best smoking area in Tokyo: It has a view of Mount Fuji!

Yoyogi Koen really stands out in the middle of the cityscape.

There is a bar and a gift shop in the observatory too. What better to do when you’re 202 meters above ground than buy Hello Kitty junk?!

We stayed to watch the sunset. ^_^

In the evening we headed back to Koenji and I stumbled upon this little Sylvanian Families hair dresser in the street. I saw it on my first night in Tokyo and thought I might have imagined it!

We headed to one of our favourite Koenji bars, Godzilla-ya! It’s a tiny bar run by a cute lady who loves 1960s toys! She’s displayed her amazing collection of toys all around the bar.

In Godzilla-Ya we met an elderly Japanese ojiisan. He spoke little English, we spoke little Japanese, but we managed to communicate through the universal language of Nihonshu. He bought us many drinks and got us really drunk! It was a memorable evening.

Day 15, Wednesday 27th July, our final night in Tokyo!

Our final day in Tokyo was spent gift shopping & packing, with huge hangovers thanks to all the nihonshu the night before! In the evening we went out for sushi and beers in Koenji to say thank you & goodbye to our fantastic guides, hosts & translators, Aleister & Maya.

The next morning we flew home! I had one last ice coffee drink at Narita Airport. Oh man, I really miss those Japanese drink vending machines!

Well, that’s it for my July Tokyo trip blog posts! I had the time of my life, I hope to visit Tokyo again soon.

Tokyo July 2011 Day 12: Yoyogi Koen on a Sunday

Bethany — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 23:09:38 +0000

Day 12 in Tokyo, Sunday 24th July. I finally got the chance to hang out in Yoyogi Koen on a Sunday. Yoyogi Koen is one of the largest parks in Tokyo, located next to Harajuku station. On a Sunday it’s a popular hangout where people gather to play music, practice martial arts, dance & enjoy other hobbies. The bridge across the train tracks leading to Yoyogi Koen is also where teenagers dressed in extreme subcultural fashions come to hang out, pose and be photographed for fashion mags and blogs. I had the impression that this was more popular a few years ago and that the trend had died out a little as it had turned in to such a tourist attraction, but on the day I was there lots of kids were hanging out on the bridge posing for the cameras. A new generation of FRUiTS perhaps? It was great to see!

Note the really dinky lolita on the left! She must have been no more than 13 and was accompanied by her dad. So cute!

By the entrance to the park, groups of rockabillies show off their dance moves. This subculture has been around for twenty years now and these guys & girls are really impressive dancers, I watched them for ages.

Refreshing Watermelon Lollies ^_^

Giant torii gate leading to Meiji Jingū

Barrels of nihonshu are stored in the park while they age. The designs on the barrels are amazing.

Barrels of wine are also displayed here. Amazingly they are never tampered with or stolen. I can’t imagine the same things working here in the UK somehow. ^_~

Meiji Jingū, built in 1920.

After walking around the shrine we headed back to the entrance and got to see some more dancing, this time from the ‘Lebels’ – a greaser gang!

This tiny rockabilly was getting his hair done by the gang’s hairdresser.

Japan’s youngest rockabilly?

Cute spectators

The park is such a nice tranquil place to hang out.

Words of wisdom at Harajuku station

As we headed to Shimokirazawa for dinner, I took this shot of Shibuya scramble crossing in action.

We had dinner at a Shabu-shabu restaurant. On the table is a hob with a pot of boiling stock. You order raw meat and vegtables and cook them yourself by swishing them around in the pot (the name Shabu-shabu is derived from the “swish swish” sound of cooking the meat in the pot). It’s delicious & so healthy! We were wondering why it hadn’t made it’s way over to the UK, but we noticed when we got home that a Japanese restaurant in Cambridge is now serving Shabu-shabu so perhaps it will get popular here too. Oishii!

After dinner I had a bubble tea in this cute crepe cafe which was tacked on to the side of a huge arcade.

Perfect Tokyo Sunday!