Best Room In The House

I've been waiting and waiting for a clear day in order to decorate the toilet!
It's such a small room that it really only takes half a day to throw up some paper - all the hard work like painting the woodwork and the ceiling was done by my other half. Bless him, he's a God send. I get to the do the fun bits..

I've gone for the boudoir look with birds. I love birds and would probably have a huge shabby chic white wire aviary affair in the garden if I lived in warmer climes..

The wall paper is suitably kitsch - silver and cerise.


We still have an old chain pull cistern - it's not beautifully Victorian or anything so needs a little dressing. I got this birdtastic fabric on etsy a while ago in readiness, whipped it up into a neat little frou frou number. Goes well with the chandelier.




My sister bought me this 'keepsake picture frame' for my birthday. I think I'd have one in every room - they're so versatile. I bought the 1930's cast metal birds on eBay and decided to trap them behind the glass. They're flying over some flowers and a landscape postcard that I bought when I was a student. I was drawn to the postcard at the time as the picture was so evocative - space and freedom - what every 19 yr old yearns for. Oh and a vintage car driven by a cool dude of course..



Now I can sit on the loo looking at the bird box and daydream.

I have had creative surge recently. The contents of my knitting bag ...


... completed this week. Watch this space for piccies of my Raspberry Circular Bolero!

Old Buttons For New

I bought a nice (cheap) high waisted skirt that I could hobble about in - with a view to customising it with some vintage buttons.


Now who has the best button collection in our house? Not me. It took a fair bit of negotiating to finally come up with this little number...


A vast improvement wouldn't you say.

I Made Another Corsage

I'm corsage mad at the moment - everybody should have at least one, preferably one for every day of the week.
My big sis graduated recently and I wanted to send her a gifty through the post.
First I found this on Etsy.


A sheet of retro unused wrapping paper 'For The Graduate'.
From the same seller, I also found this wonderful little book for my neice who has just bought a fab hand cranked Singer on eBay!



Then I made the corsage, using colours I know big sis would like.



I bundled up the corsage, book and wrapping paper with some yummy chocolate (of course) and sent it in the post!
I love getting stuff in the post, it's prompted me to look into joining some more swaps. Anyone got any good swaps on the go out there?

School Bag

The Summer ends and my girls are back to school. My youngest was determined to make a new school bag - in a retro stylee - and chose some fabric from the stash. I engineered the project and she did most of the sewing.








It's very roomy and very sturdy with a calico lining. And of course it looks darn coooool!

I Made A Corsage

I was determined to make something today.
My day job involves lots of writing / surfing / watching TV. I can feel my craftiness withering. I find it so easy to dive into Etsy or eBay or other people's blogs after a long week and simply let the beautiful things wash over me. I love looking at handmade things, vintage things, crafty things. I usually end up with a headache and a bad of ICMT (I Could Make That).
So - behold the evergreen corsage, made from stash scraps and a brooch I got in a goody bag of jewellery bits off eBay.
It took less than an hour to make. And boy I feel good again now!

I Made Some Soundproofing

The distance from my bedroom to the sitting room is not a great one. We live in a ground floor flat, with two daughters who like to listen to 'sounds' especially when I'm trying to lie in or blog from my bed a la Barbra Cartland. I had to dampen the sounds emanating from the sitting room somehow and came up with the palm curtain!
This is lovely fabric from John lewis - flocked onto a sort of jute and it compliments the wallpaper I threw up this time last year in the hall.






It was simply a case of hemming a length of fabric that fitted the (glass) door and attaching it via some dowel. Muffles the sounds and looks good too!

I posted pictures of my fabulous stained glass last year - one piece I didn't show you was our house number '87'. Peter who made the piece (to my design) had it on display with some of his other wonderful stained glass works at the time.
87 now sits proudly in our front window, I'm too cautious to actually hang it in the porch in case someone decides to take pot shots at it.

I Made A Yee Haa! Skirt

Yup - I dragged that ole pattern out of the packet and ran up yet another swishy skirt, this time in the ever popular wonderful Cowgirl Fabric.


I had a thang for TV Western heroes many years back, my Final Degree Show in Fine Art/Textiles was cowboy themed. I had made and screen printed a panelled calico skirt with cowboys, added conchos and a leather appliqued waistband that said 'Howdy'. Alas I doubt if any pictures of this exist in my dusty shoe boxes.. I may look.
In the meantime, here is a vintage picture of yours truly - taken 23 years ago - the vintage look, everlasting it seems - along with stylish knitwear.



The blue dress was an original taffeta effort bought in a 2nd hand store - it was like wearing rolls of wallpaper. This dress used to get quite 'whiffy' after I'd been dancing about in it. And as a student, I naturally didn't have a dry cleaning budget.
You had to drag that cardy off me to wash it - I loved it so much - another charity shop find and in the early 80's these kind of vintage items cost mere pennies.

I now find myself in a strange parallel universe where my daughter is shopping in thrift stores for genuine vintage 80's items... nostalgia will eat itself...

I Made A Sundae Curtain

Having mentioned in the previous post that my kitchen is a good place to be, I had to do a little maintenance recently.
There is a hidey hole where the potatoes and soft drinks are chucked after the weekly shop. I felt it needed something a little more Chi Chi.


Comme ca...



Neat eh? Michael Miller 'Ice Cream Shoppe' fabric bought from here.
Compliments the chili lights and Coke border nicely.

I Made A Kitsch Pinny

I'm always keeping my eye out for kitchen inspired retro fabric. My kitchen is one of my fave places to be .. even more so now I've invested in a Magimix and a Nigella. It's a good place to dance too - small it maybe, but I have been known to practice a stroll whilst the Apple Kuchen is baking.

My sisters up North posted me a little bundle of goodies a while back - picnic fabric, Bar-B-Q fabric a few meters of red pom pom trimming, which I've saved for another project. The fat Ric Rac came in a swap bundle.
This is what I made.


Unfortunately it disturbs my daughter who doesn't like to see ants crawling up my front whilst I'm baking.



Behold the Apple Kuchen made whilst strolling to 'Long Tall Girl' by the Carnations.


Yum!

I Made A Patchwork Holdall

Now I do have a 'thing' for bags. I have never found the perfect bag - this is due in part to the well known fact that there is indeed a bag out there for every occasion. I have yet to find a 'one bag fits all' bag.
My one problem with hand crafted bags is making them strong enough. This bag has an interfaced gusset which adds stability and makes the bag nice and roomy.
I downloaded the pattern from the Burda fashion site having secretly fallen in love with many Amy Butler bags - this pattern was a freebie, Amy Butler costs.
The fabric is from the stash. Naturally.
Handles from here.

I Made A Woolly Neckerchief

Behold the last of my Winter crafting before Spring springs.
This is my fab little Western Neckerchief. I bought the pattern from Loop - very easy to follow and knitted up in red cotton, it didn't take long at all.
The brooch was an old eBay win - I had been looking for stylized Sheriff badge but this fitted the bill.
The little scarf if great with a thin knit cardy and jeans, fits snuggly under any coat, not bulky at all. Y'all.

I Made A Frock For Xmas

I was determined to make something from the wonderful stash Roman and Eva gave me (see previous). My sister and I ploughed through all the patterns, she borrowed a couple but I couldn't decide which would be an relativley painless make, my sewing skills not quite Vintage Vogue. Sis suggested this little number. I agreed.



The pattern was quite easy although I did have to go to town on my dress form - the sizes on the pattern sleeve, although almost matching my own, somehow got lost in the translation. I pinned the dress to the form and cut away a lot of excess - I probably could have gone even more 'svelte' but I did want room for turkey and xmas pud.


The pattern tells me that the bottom frill is made from cutting 3 pieces. I did this and it wouldn't fit around the hem, however 4 pieces fit perfectly - I wondered if this was a mistake. The vintage pattern was a lot less directive than contemporary patterns I've used, as if certain skills were assumed and you could sort of' get the gist'.


I don't have a huge pointy bust, which I think would be an asset with this little number, so I dug out my most Madonna-like underwear - still the front gaped a little. Then I came across the instructions for sewing in two lengths of elastic under the armholes that reach round the back and fasten like a bra - strap. What the?
I did as instructed and lo! the gaping vanished and the neckline lay flat. The only disadvantage being you need another pair of hands to get you into the dress and fasten the elastic..


I was still handsewing bits and pieces on Xmas morning but the dress was so comfy I really wanted step out in it. We had our Xmas meal at a Hotel overlooking London Bridge - Judy Garland and Bing Crosby were singing Xmas songs as we sat down to dine, the food was divine and I felt a million dollars.. !