Thunder Egg: 2014

Monday 8 December 2014

Hair Bow Clip Tutorial - Made from Recycled fabric!

The Egg staff love to craft in their spare time and we regularly make clothing and accessories but we always end up with lots of fabric scraps at the end! :(
The 'ReThink Fashion' show we visited last week at MOSI inspired us to start getting creative with how we could use these left overs to make something new!

We gathered the off-cuts together and decided to make some big hair bows as we love hair accessories and they are so simple to make! We have put together a step-by-step guide to show you how to make a super simple stitch-free hair bow too :)

We are using old bits of fabric from our previous craft projects, but you could use fabric from pretty much anywhere. You could cut up some old clothes that no longer fit or are damaged; you may have some old curtains or soft home furnishings that you don't use, or maybe an old scarf has been left unworn for months!

You will need:

-Scissors (If you are using cotton we recommend pinking shears to stop the edges from fraying)

-A long rectangular piece of re-cycled fabric (The longer the strip, the bigger the bow!)

-A small strip of fabric for the centre

-Fabric Glue or a Glue Gun

-A hair grip

We are using this glittery netting to make our bow. Netting is particularly good to use for this project as the edges don't fray and it keeps its structure really well once in a bow shape.

1. Find the centre of the long strip of fabric and apply a thin line of glue down the middle.

Take the outside edge of one side and fold it over into the centre, sticking the edge to the line of glue.

Put another line of glue down the centre and fold the other outside edge into the middle and stick down.

2. Once the glue is dry, begin to fold or gather the fabric, adding glue dots in between folds to keep it together. We found the best result was from making 3 equal sized concertina folds to get that bow-like structure.

3. Once the folds have dried, take the smaller strip of fabric, put a dot of glue on the gathered section at the back and begin to wrap the strip around the centre to hide the glue underneath. Finish it off with another small dot of glue at the back to keep it in place

4. Hooray! The bow is complete :) All you need to do now is add the hair clip! Just add a dot of glue on the back and hold the grip in place. If you are using a grip like the one above, keep it open whilst drying to avoid it sticking together. Alternatively you could use an alligator or barette clip so you can gather bigger of sections hair with it, or you could attach a safety pin and wear it as a brooch!

Why not get crafty and make some handmade gifts for your family & friends using re-cycled fabric this Christmas? Save money, re-cycle something and give a gift that is special and unique! You could experiment using different fabrics such as cotton or velvet too!

Let us know if you follow our tutorial and make a bow! We would love to see pics. Either send it to our Facebook inbox, tweet @eggthunder or tag us on instagram with @thundereggmanchester <3

Thursday 4 December 2014

Thunder Egg Visit: ReThink Fashion Show at MOSI 27/11/14

We love all things fashion-related here at Thunder Egg, so when we saw that Recycle for Greater Manchester was holding a special fashion event at MOSI in Manchester, we decided to go along!

Every year more clothing and textile items are thrown away when they could be worn or used again. The Re-Think Fashion event was held to demonstrate how clothing could be swapped, donated, recycled or up cycled to avoid it ending up in landfill. It was full of fantastic ideas to inspire people to do their bit for the environment and make sure that unwanted textiles are not put to waste.

The Market Place

There was a market place set up in the entrance for local businesses to sell their re-worked and vintage items. It included some of our neighbours in the Northern Quarter, such as Pop Boutique and Doll Season.

Doll Season Pop Boutique Emmaus Mossley

We love Doll Season! The very talented Kate makes unique sweaters & denim jackets featuring My Little Pony, Hello Kitty and Barbie.The Egg staff are regulars at her brilliant shop on the second floor of Afflecks which also sells jewellery and prints. You can also browse the amazing creations here.

Pop Boutique was selling a range of re-worked and up-cycled vintage outfits featuring some must-have velvet co-ords (pictured). They also had some gorgeous colourful retro cushions made from old fabrics. They have a shop a few doors down from us on Oldham St in Manchester and are online too.

Emmaus Mossley is a secondhand superstore based near Mossley Railway Station in Tameside. Not only do they have a great pick of secondhand items, but they also offer a home and work to previously homeless and unemployed people. It is an excellent cause to support and they had some really quirky retro and vintage finds on their stall! It is well worth a visit to their shop if you are a thrifty vintage hunter.

One of our favourite stalls of the evening was by Sausage Dog. It had a bizarre and wonderful collection of soft toys, puppets and cute gifts, all made from recycled fabrics! Our favourite item was the crazy but cute Poo pins that came in a little matchbox, they even had little googly eyes!! The etsy shop can be found here.

SausageDog

The Fashion Show

Next up in the evening was the fashion show. The catwalk showcased work from Designers, Shops & Students who all incorporated recycling into their collection. We were so impressed with the outfits! The thing we really loved most about the show was the diverse range of styles which demonstrated just how versatile recycling your textiles could be. There was everything from beautiful corsets and gorgeous evening gowns to super-cool jackets and incredible couture.

One of our favourite collections of the evening was Doll Season teamed with Stakkabridge. The bold and brilliant jackets from Doll Season, featuring Barbie, My Little Pony and cute fur trims, looked so on-trend with the Stakkabridge dresses. Stakkabridge is an independent clothing company, specializing in items made from re-cycled fabrics such as old bed covers, children's textiles and more! They incorporate fun and retro prints, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, into their flattering and fashionable cuts. We are new-found fans of their clothing :) Their website can be found here.

One of the most outstanding collections of the evening was the work of Adnan Bayyat. His avant-garde creations included outfits made from paper and cling film and what we loved most were the fun and bright colours! The designs and detail was so creative and we fell in love with every outfit that came out along that catwalk. Find out more about his work here.

We really enjoyed our evening at MOSI, looking at all of these beautiful and environmentally friendly creations! It has inspired us to experiment with some of our old clothing and unused textiles to create something exciting and new. We will be posting updates and tutorials of our re-cycling adventures over the next few weeks :)

All information about recycling in Greater Manchester can be found here. They have some great tips and ideas for recycling, up-cycling or donating your unwanted items.

Thursday 13 November 2014

Sequins & Sparkle - Our Top Partywear Picks

Sequins and sparkle are an every day essential here at Thunder Egg, but for all you glitter-phobes now is the perfect time to bite the bullet and add some glitz to your Winter wardrobe!

Here are our top partywear picks:

Dazzle on the dance floor with this gorgeous Peach Iridescent Sequin Dress by Glamorous (£39.95). Wear with tights and your favourite party heels.

We love this metallic jacquard floral twin set from Style London (Top £26.95, Skirt £23.95). Wear together for an on trend look, or wear as separates - it's up to you! We think the skirt would look great with a cute fluffy jumper for a cosy date night.

Another fab festive twin set for the party season is this green metallic jacquard geo print by Neon Rose (Top £24.95, Skirt £24.95). Wear with your favourite heels, or dress down with wooly tights, winter boots, and some faux fur for a day out at the Christmas markets!

Last but not least, who can resist a shiny handbag! We have a huge range of LYDC iridescent bags in stock in store and online. The White Aldford Clutch (left) £22.50, and the Argill Shoulder Bag (right) £29.00 are our faves but there's loads to choose from, and we've even got purses to match.

We also have some amazing sequinned items available in our Oldham Street and Afflecks stores. These are currently unavailable to purchase on our website so come on down for a look - glitz lovers won't be disappointed ♥

Monday 10 November 2014

Thunder Egg does Manchester Christmas Markets!

The renowned Manchester Christmas Markets are opening on the 14th November and Thunder Egg have two stalls: one on Market Street just facing Miss Selfridge, and one in the town hall as part of Pop-Up Afflecks this year!!

We're extremely excited to be a part of this event and to get giddy for Christmas doing so!

If you've never been to the markets, you absolutely must; the atmosphere is fantastic, there's an abundance of amazing gifts, lots of international food and drink and sparkling lights everywhere - and if you have been before you'll know how special it is!

We'll be selling all sorts of exciting trinkets, gifts & accessories - along with our incredible vintage Christmas jumpers! Think along the lines of LYDC holographic bags, cat covered gifts, sparkling jewellery, quirky mugs, Disaster Designs purses, crazy cushions and much more... here's a sneak peek at our Manchester Christmas Market stall ideas before it opens on FRIDAY!

Sunday 2 November 2014

COSMIC: our pick of the trend!

We LOVE the huge cosmic trend this Autumn/Winter. Amazing prints, sparkly accessories & darker skies seem like the perfect combination to us! Here's our pick of some of the best cosmic outfits... We'll be wearing them to winter parties and layering them with sequins & snuggly coats for the daytime! Click pics to shop the look!

Neon Rose cosmic print outfits

NPW Nail Art holographic nail wraps

Sugarhill Boutique cosmic print dress

LYDC holographic handbags

Neon Rose cosmic print outfits

Neon Rose space print dress

Monday 27 October 2014

Eggs Do Halloween!

The Thunder Egg staff celebrated Halloween a whole 6 days early at the awesome Pop Bubble Shock by Pop Bubble Rock! PBR is an amazing club night in Manchester, playing pop punk, party hip hop and showering people in confetti. Perfect for a Halloween special!

HERE is a little tutorial of how we did our (super sparkly) sugar skull faces for the night!

Here's the blank face before you begin:

STEP 1:

Remove those eyebrows! We used foundation or concealer and powder to make our eyebrows as neutral as possible. We then added a base layer of white face paint, leaving some skin showing on the cheekbones and around the eye sockets.

STEP 2:

Blend a line of dark eye shadow or powder along just under the cheekbones (where your gaps in white are) and around the top of the head. We just used our fingers to blend.

STEP 3:

Draw a circle round the eye socket using coloured kohl pencil. Follow the eyebrow around the top and then continue this line round the socket. It doesn't have to be super neat because we're going to cover it up with GEMS! Fill this in with an eye shadow of your choosing - maybe one to match your outfit? If you like, now is a good time to add liquid eyeliner to your lids and glitter around the eyes. But do make sure the whole circle is coloured in!

STEP 4:

GEMS! Use eyelash glue (the clear stuff in a little bottle is best) to stick gems on the kohl pencil line - all sizes, shapes and colours are good! We even decorated other parts of our face, such as our foreheads, with them. Just make sure the kohl pencil circle is covered. Don't forget to stick some false eyelashes on after the gems if you like!

STEP 5:

Draw a shape similar to an upside down loveheart on your nose, covering the bottom part (where your nostrils are). We used kohl pencil or liquid eyeliner for this - liquid eyeliner is probably darkest.

STEP 6:

The final step! Lips. There are a couple of options here - you could paint white over your lips and smudge some lipstick into it and paint the black lines over that OR you could do normal lipstick and have the black lines just coming out of the sides.

And you're done! We accessorized with flowers, bows and sparkles. Here's a pic of our finished outfits!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Will you be trying the sugar skulls costume? Tag us in a snap if you do- and remember to tag us on Facebook or Instagram if you also wear any Thunder Egg purchases this Halloween!

Sunday 19 October 2014

HALLOWEEN COMPETITION!

Here's your chance to win one of these amazing Sass & Belle sugar skull cushions - just in time for Halloween!

All you have to do is sign up to our newsletter and you'll be automatically entered into the draw. You can do this in store or on our website. And don't worry if you're already a part of our mailing list, you won't be left out - you'll be entered into the draw as well, but if you know anyone that'd love to win then direct them to the sign up at the bottom of our website! Good luck!

Wednesday 15 October 2014

Halloween's Coming!

It's that time of the year again where we have a great excuse to dress up and party!

You don't need to go all out with fake blood, cobwebs and vampire teeth for Halloween with our new Autumn/Winter collection. Bring out your inner witch with these Top Cat pieces from Sugarhill Boutique, both available in a gorgeous rich mulberry and deep green.

The new Lazy Oaf collection has also arrived and this oversized Poison Shirt would look great for a Halloween party over some fishnets and chunky platforms!

Or team this cute Kitty pinafore with some cat ears and painted on whiskers and you're good to go!

Complete your outfit with one of our Day of The Dead bags or purses from Loungefly.

Shop our entire Halloween Collection online HERE.

What outfits are you planning?

We'd love to see!

Friday 3 October 2014

Autumn Winter 2014 Look Book

To celebrate the launch of our new Autumn Winter 2014 Look Book we have a little treat for you... get 10% off our entire Look Book Collection this weekend only!

Simply head to www.thunderegg.co.uk and find the collection in the drop down menu under New In - the 10% discount will be applied when you check your basket. Offer ends Monday 6th October 2014.