Inspired by...

I am now at great risk of not completing required work needed to start 'proper' job tomorrow - I have been thoroughly distracted by Marcie (the Rustic Victorian on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/therusticvictorian/ ) and her lovely little mannequin on flickr.  I have just made a prototype of our own and I am now in grave danger of being distracted for the ENTIRE DAY.  I will not be decorating this properly with a little vintage embroidered apron (made out of a tiny scrap), or trying to fashion a little shrug (made from vintage Paisley fabric rescued from an old Tootal scarf!), or fishing round to find a collection of old Victorian lapel pins.  NEITHER will I be then making one for Bronte out of 70s fabric for her to hang her jewellery on....I MUST GET ON!!!  Last year I sold my lovely, adorable 1930s mannequin (gnashing of teeth - but she was rather large) - I do love the smaller version and followed an online pattern here: to make my own.  This is only the first one so lumpy, bumpy and lots of seam wobblege.  I will adapt the pattern as I would like more nip and tuck!

Have changed things a little this afternoon so these pictures are in reverse chronological order!

This is an old bracelet that I remember buying at a jumble when I was a teenager - 30p I think (a long time ago!)

The teeny weeny knife was given to me by my mother when I was about 12  - it opens up and is fully functioning

The candlestick I rescued from the charity bag that I keep by the front door - I feel guilty so may have to put it back in!

I will confess now that it is not finished - I cannot think what to complete the neck with (I am thinking of a mini tower of mother of pearl buttons - large to small size) and not stuck on to the base

I was actually looking for some Victorian lapel stick pins but remembered these little teeny, tiny Edwardian baby brooches.  Why?  I am not really sure..

Anyway a very, very easy pattern - it was my execution that was lacking

Just using up scraps of vintage embroidery and the fabric is from a huge roll of 50s cotton fabric that I bought at a car boot two years ago (£5 and there is lots and lots of it).

I must GET ON

Ego fully swollen....

Thank you always and 'all ways' for kind comments - much needed due to mid-life crisis (Reader:"What do you mean mid????" "Don't be cheeky" - Ed).  Further chuffedness came from being on the same blog page as Tif aka Dottie Angel last week - proof below if needed (shall we add in paranoia to the crisis?):

Extra special chuffedness came from Tif's  niceness in mentioning my blog on her Facebook page in glowing words  (blushes accordingly) - the wonders of t'internet strike again!!  Thank you to Wend from Ticking Stripes for informing me that these were indeed Ghost Lampshade - I had no idea

Mollie Makes have posted my makings before (perhaps I should say here there is no payment or free magazine involved!).  I have said many times that I like to share (and I also like to steer where the sharing takes place - cough, cough).

I shall now come out of the closet (like Mr Benn all over again) and mention that my sewing room was in Issue 6 of Mollie Makes (best to keep some things in the closet until after the settlement of dust) - here:

Wish that I had tidied up - I can see a tin of paint in one of the photos and that irritates me greatly. I really have to go now as we are getting the doorways widened on the morrow for some reason.....

My baskets brimeth over

I mentioned that I have one or two baskets - they are handy objects don't you think?  Dom thinks that they are pretty awful...

I like to line my baskets, sometimes with vintage embroideries or with vintage fabrics.  I am especially fond of little children's baskets and 'forced' my children to use them they were younger (poor souls).

I sold this little one last Easter - why did I do that?

These are some large and some small..Too many???

There are just perfect for Easter time aren't they - a multitude of uses!

See - useful for all sorts of bits and bobs, I used  nice barkcloth to line this one above

Anyway have you seen the price of these in a certain Emporium? Gulp! Well I have had a good look at the lined ones that are in that shop,  so for some time I have been lining mine in this way - I will demonstrate thus:
Take your basket and cut out rough shapes that will fit, use tape to keep in place around the exterior and  pin fabric around the outside (the pins will becomes your approximate stitch line).

Oh, I nearly forgot - after you have cut your rough shapes sew a hem around what will be the top of the lining - then stick and pin!

Shush it around a bit to check that you have got  it  roughly the right size (tape is handy again here I find). If your basket has a flat bottom just draw around it to get the base pattern - an approximation is all that is needed.  I/we are not after perfection are we???

With the right sides together stitch all your pieces together - I then use a glue gun to glue to the top side only.  Don't worry about damaaage (always spoken with a French accent please) to the basket - I always find that this type of glue will peel away quite easily - this means that next week you can change it to something else!

Fill your lovely basket with pretty la la la's and fiddle de dee's and twirl and swirl around..

First Flickr Photo

This was not strictly my first Flickr photo but it is the first one that is there now.  I made this a few years ago to fit inside a Bonne Maman jam jar - I just used iron on interfacing to give these little scraps of vintage embroidery and fabric some support and glued them into the jar lid. You could make a whole series of these - I made this as a story jar to create stories with the children.  When in the jar it does not photograph too well but it does have little birds hanging from bits of thread down inside the jar.  A few years on it still sits nicely on the shelf and has not flopped!

Now for something completely different

As well as spending lots of time in the garden, nice walk along the seafront, sewing, having friends round for dinner, a little bit of 'proper' job, listening to flute practice, listening to violin practice, cooking and cleaning, on and on -  I also went to the local car boot.  Well, the sun was out and I am up at five (get by on less and less sleep as I get older)!  I have outlined before how I whizz round at great speed and rarely spend more than half an hour - sometimes I think that my scanning technique will fail me and that the 'sweeping of eyes, left to right' might miss something.  If so well never mind.  Today there was a embarrassment of riches but I am always supposed to be getting rid of things so some things I have to pretend that I did not see (many suitcases from the 1950s, two Lloyd Loom chairs (lovely), more Pyrex than is kept in a Pyrex warehouse and two lovely dolls houses - one I think was possibly 1950s or earlier, a very pretty painted garden on the front and all wooden).  Still we must keep our minds focussed on decluttering....

I may have bought a few things - this little shirt I thought was soooo lovely (handmade button holes).  I was getting a bit worried that I might not buy a tablecloth (I always buy at least one) but - phew - there it was waiting for me.  I got chatting with the stall holder and before you knew it she was saying that I could have all sorts of things for next to nothing - in her words: 'Because I know that you would love them'.  I was quite teary.  Then she asked her husband to come and look at my bags and my purse and he 'ooo'eed and ahhhd' (that doesn't happen too often in my experience).

I also bought another vintage basket - I will post another time about those - I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER ONE!  This one is lovely - the stall holder was using it to hold nails - the man said that I could have it, without the nails, for £2.  I did buy a Tala cake tin, some fantastic crochet, oh and a pair of curtains....the man selling those (a different man to the nail man) said his mother made them for him in the 60s and he had never put them up...they were a £1 so I was forced to buy them!  No hope.

PS: I am gnawing my knuckles that I did not buy a pair of late 60s/early 70s pale blue patent leather, chunky shoes - there were sooooo  lovely and only £2 (the stall holder had lots of others so maybe they will still be there next week...)
PPS: Those shoes would be for Bronte not for myself - what do you think I am like!!

Spring really, really, really is in the air

Ah the warmth of the sun - blissful is it not.  Been out in the garden lots and lots this weekend and already feel like 'getting more done' - amazing what that golden disc in the sky can result in.

I have been trying to sort through some fabrics and came across (in the way that you do...cough, cough) a large cake tin that was joyfully full of about fifty vintage embroidered bunting triangles that I must have cut out a year ago and then put away for some reason.  Well I have been able to whizz that up at long last and also found the 'fronts' for several bags and purses (again I must have cut them out and they  then went into the "Drawer of Not Yet"  (also said in an echoey voice - similar to the DoS but no shame attachment).  I have finished some (not all because the "Drawer of Not Yet" does not like to be completely empty at any one time!) this weekend.

Fished out one of my favourite Blackie books to team up with a finally finished bag thingy - tra la.

My love of Blackie books is worth a whole blog on its own I think! 

One of my sisters gave the fabric on the reverse to me - it is my current favourite and I think the colours are super!

Please do let me know if, at any time, my bottom is beginning to irritate!!

I could just add a dash of salt (maybe a pinch of pepper) and eat this fabric up!!

Finally my Blackie book gets a solo opportunity

Bronte's Blythe comes for vintage tea

The joy of having a reasonable 'back catalogue' of photos on Flickr is that I can now peruse my photos to make my blog-a-thon. Chose these ones today.  A while ago Bronte and I had a lovely time creating scenes with Blythe (sorry I have now forgotten the name Bronte gave her).  She is dressed in some old Sindy clothes and an old knitted cardi.

The cakes were a little on the crunchy side and to be honest the tea was not the best.  The wooden bead brooch my sister gave to me when I was about 10!

 

This dress is another jumble sale job lot.  The brooch bottom right my sister gave to me when I was about 11!! All scraps of embroidery are pressed into action.

The 'truth' behind the scenery!  See - I said old suitcases come in handy!

Friends coming round for dinner later so need to start cooking - custard again perhaps!!

Let's start a campaign to bring back jug cover thingys

Yesterday I made apple crumble as usual and of course matching custard.  Bronte chose the green jug (I do hope that I am not passing on my hoarding, obsessive behaviour,  penchant for a nice jug to my children).  As there was a short interlude whilst the custards developed a nice thick skin (Bronte and I fight for the skin) I covered the jug with my favourite (oh dear is that very sad to admit that I have a favourite) jug cover (I know there is a proper word for these but it escapes me at the moment).  Having washed the jug today I then remembered the other jug cover thingys...I stopped short of getting more jugs out...what do you think I am  !!

I love how these are made and the jingly jangly beads on them - I have some very large ones, would they be for bowls perhaps?

Whilst out and about on my bike yesterday I dropped a bag of donations to the charity shop.  I may have gone inside the shop and I may have bought the two items below - they kindly rounded the price up to 50p for the two items.  The embroidery is  tray cloth and has the same motif on both ends - interesting that it has the same colours as the egg cup. Oh dear I am sounding tooo sad - off to bed I must go.  Do join me again at 03.30 when I usually tune into the BBC World Service...

Vintage embroidered purses that I have known and loved

I don't wish to give the impression, in any way shape or form, that I am obsessed...
I had a spell of making lots of these purses (apart from THOSE ONES for YOU KNOW WHO!).  My obsessions tend not to last too long thank goodness.  Here are some favourites of mine that I have made in the past.

Well, since we are confessing things this evening,  I am a bit obsessed by Crinoline Ladies - please join my little group on Flickr if you have not already done so, always happy to see your Ladies too!

The one below was the one I sent to you know who - I was sad to to it go

As Spring is just around that corner these are appropriate today I think

Perhaps not so much bottom admiration needed here

Does the one above look familiar?

Seasonal variation below as always.  You mean you only have one purse that lasts ALL year through!  Yikes

A few more posts to cram in...computer overheating I think

More bloomin' pursey things and a vintage cottage montage!!

You will recall I am sure my recent unexpected trip to a place I never go to (what the heck does that mean!) - you remember, the day I came back laden with 'stuff' (the blue fabric that I then busied covering the suitcase with...that day, yes that one).  Well I also bought this painting of this cottage - it was only £2.99 and as usual I had the wrong glasses so asked the girl in the 'local shop' (now we do all know what I mean here!) if she could tell me if it was embroidered (my eyes are that bad nowadays!).  She kindly got a huge magnifying glass (thank goodness the children were not with me - oh the eye rolling that would have incurred) so that I could see that it was painted.  It looks almost like a painting by numbers picture but it is painted nevertheless - it was in a horrible frame so I have taken it out of that to admire.  Either way, fiddle de de, I like it real or not.  I then made a 'matching', sort of, pursey thing.  Then rummaged round the tablecloths...wish that I had fished out one of the one with cottages on.

I do like the sateen fabric on the reverse. Please admire my bottom below...

A full reverse shot!!!

I do like mother of pearl buttons also

Ending with a cottage full frontal!