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Vintage Bazaar

2011-07-13T13:12:00.001-07:00

On Sunday afternoon we went to a vintage bazaar. Jo opened her beautiful home and garden to visitors and every available space was covered in vintage treasures to peruse and purchase.

..And an open garden to wander round, with spaces to sit and drink tea and eat cake

....perfect for Mummies

....Not always a 5 year olds idea of fun

..... So I gave her the camera and let her play

.....And I enjoyed the results when we got home
All photos by E. Age 5 and a half.

Raffle Winner Announced

2011-03-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

We printed out all the comments and put them in a large jar. My 5 year old was very excited about this. We had talked about why we were having a raffle and she had helped to put together the raffle prize, but now she was just excited about the drama of picking a winner.

She gave them a very good swish and a swirl, then with her eyes closed, she pulled out her winner:

Sweatereyes! You are our winner (not sure why the photo is sideways), Congratulations!

Thank you all so much for buying the raffle tickets.
Sweatereyes - I'll be dropping you an email!

Japan Quake Appeal - RAFFLE NOW CLOSED

2011-03-16T03:18:00.000-07:00

**Thankyou for your generosity. Raffle is now closed. Winner announced soon!**

Reclaimed crafty bits and spring treats!

I wanted to do something for the Japan Quake Appeal, in conjunction with Jo's Blog, but as I'm not sure anyone in blogland would actually WANT any of my crafts, I've decided to put together a selection of vintage/reclaimed crafty bits and a few treats. This package is put together with Spring in mind. New growth and renewal. Good Luck to Japan.

Here's a breakdown of what's included:

Vintage pillowcase in a flower design, yellow/mustard colour

Two pieces of 20cmx20cm felt

Assorted buttons

Spools of yellow and green thread

A spool of silver lurex thread, suitable for sewing, or knitting/crocheting in with yarn for extra twinkle.

Ribbons in mint green, white and gold

A vintage buckle with a pearly sheen

A vintage yellow plastic thimble

Package of tiny blue/green seed beads

Small test tube of yellow sequins in different shapes

Card of sewing needles, assorted sizes and uses.

Dylon "Golden Yellow" dye, instructions included

A few more sewing things:

Piece of linen or cotton (approx 60cmx40cm) with vintage embroidery transfer printed on half.

Two pretty pieces of fabric (approx 25cmx25cm) from a sample book (has two holes punched near the top from when it was in the book). These have a flower/leaf/branch design, one is green/brown colours, the other is mustard/grey

Piece of cream leather (approx 25cmx20cm) from a sample book (has two holes punched near the top from when it was in the book)

Two 4.5yard skeins of "Sheba" vintage rayon thread, one in light green, one in mid-spring green

One skein of DMC embroidery thread in cream

Two skeins of Clark's embroidery thread in light and mid green.

Small vintage booklet with embroidery stitches

Length of cream lace.

Small pincushion made by me from a tiny "Bless this House" cup.

Here's a closeup:

Some yarny bits:

Plastic flower loom

Small skeins of sample yarns to play with straightaway! Mustard, ochre, dark green, and green mix sock yarn

Small (tiny?) skein of pure silk, spun and plied by me on a drop spindle. I'm a learner! This is a little.... rustic :)

Vintage plastic knitting needles (Robinoid size 13 and Millwards size 11)

Some treats:

Three English breakfast and three Lady Grey teabags from Twinings (well, if it's good enough for Stephen Fry...)

Sunny yellow plastic bead necklace

Two Cadbury's creme eggs (I can substitute for other British sweeties if you live somewhere hot)

Sterling Silver Bird and Cloud Rings made by Tuareg nomads from Plumo. Unworn. They sent the wrong size, these are SMALL! (Review here)

Here's a close up of the rings. They're lovely. My chubby-hand loss is your gain :)

Here's a link to the full picture set on Flickr, incase the photos mess up here.

Here's how to enter:

Each raffle entry must be a donation of £5 ($8 ish).

This is open internationally, I will post anywhere. PayPal should convert your currency to £GBP for you.

To enter, go to Global Giving and make a £5 donation, when you have done it come back to this post and leave a comment with your receipt number and you must also leave a valid email address, you can write the address in the format of mymailname 'at' hotmail 'dot' com.

You may enter as many times as you like but each time you need a new receipt number. For help with the donation you can refer to this post on Jo's blog.

Raffle closes at 12.00noon GMT 26th March.

If you make a mistake or forget to add you email address please delete the first comment and re-write it.

The raffle held on this blog is in no way affiliated with Global Giving, that's just our chosen method of getting the funds safely to the affected area.

Hand spinning

2011-02-04T04:54:00.000-08:00

I've been dabbling in hand spinning on a drop spindle. So far I've only produced two vaguely usable things:

Minty green silk

This is a really small skein, possibly only enough for a brooch.

I can't remember where this roving came from. It's been on my drop spindle for ages, and I only just got around to finishing it.

Don't look to closely, I kept getting my clockwise and anti mixed up when spinning AND plying. It's all over the place. But I think it's knitable

And here's my next project....

Roving from Woolie Bullie via the Phat Fiber Chinese New Year sampler box. But first, I'm going to draw some helpful reminder arrows on my drop spindle....

KCWC Round Up, and what came after

2010-10-09T11:10:00.000-07:00

OK, so KCWC is gone.
I DID actually finish the two things I planned to during the week, but blogging about it too proved a step too far. So, here's what happened

V's Hat.
Is done. Definitely not my finest work: I need to practice sewing jersey, and it's too big, but it still looks cute. I'll take a photo when I can

Insa Skirt

Here it is without the elastic waistband sewn yet, I needed to check it against her waist.

I'm pretty pleased with this. It was really good fun to experiment with patterns and add whatever I wanted. I made some piping from string and ribbon to edge the front panel:

It was quite a bit of work, and you know what? E's not interested in it AT ALL. Sigh. That's how it goes sometimes I suppose.

In all, KCWC was a success for me. It made me find some time to sew, and when I did, I found it wasn't all that intimidating and I could actually get something finished.

And so, since then, I've made something else:

This is from Sew What: Skirts by Francesca DenHartog. It's the A-Line Skirt, Fitted Waistband version that you create the block/pattern for yourself.

And I'm pretty pleased with it. It fits! for one, and it's nicely Autumnal, and it was pretty easy to do if you took it step by step.

I used Ikea fabric (total cost £3.99) for the outside, and the fabric for the facing was from my stash of scraps, so also pretty cheap.

Now, what's next....

KCWC Day 3

2010-09-22T07:11:00.000-07:00

Finally have some fabric cut out.
Insa Skirt is cutout from some of my vintage pillowcase stash. I let E have free reign to choose the colour combo she wanted. As you can see, it's mostly pink. That is the world of my four year old girl!

The baby hat is cut from a t-shirt which i picked up from a jumble sale last weekend, with a tiny piece of purple cotton from my scrap basket

Day 2

2010-09-21T15:35:00.000-07:00

Somewhere between the school drop off, taking the baby for her second immunisations, having new broadband installed and talking to my brother in law about the work he's going to do in the garden for us this weekend, I squeezed in the tiniest bit of prep. And only them because my Mum and sister came up and picked E up from school.
The baby hat pattern is traced, and fabric has been located and washed.
The Insa skirt is traced and partially cut out. Fabric has yet to be found.
I have a lot of catching up to do.

And... fell at first hurdle

2010-09-20T14:34:00.000-07:00

Well, not a great start. Seriously, V has been up for HOURS tonight. Not crying, just awake. And looking about. And wanting to be cuddled.
So I've chosen cuddling my child over sewing for her.
She has now gone to bed though, so I've made a little start. Looked through my books, chosen a couple of patterns I'd like to do. Does that count?
Thinking about, for a gentle start, the baby hat from Making Children's Clothes
and maybe,hopefully, the Insa skirt from Sewing Clothes Kids Love.

Have traced the pattern for the hat and chosen the fabric from my thrifted tees stash. I still need to find a contrasting fabric for the ears.
And that'll have to do for tonight

Early Start

2010-09-17T20:10:00.000-07:00

I wanted to get a bit of a jump on KCWC, and I wanted to finally use the new serger I bought as a present for myself just before I had V.
I planned to use the 90 Minute Shirt tutorial from MADE. (find it here). I cut out my pieces last night, using an old shirt of mine and an old shirt of E's which I rescued from the charity shop pile.

Today is my birthday. To celebrate, V slept for a whole 24 minutes when she got in and let me make a start on this

And throughout the day, though it took longer than 90 Minutes, I got it done.
It's not great, but it gave me good serger practice, and the tutorial was great. I'd definitely try making this again. I think it needs a bit more in the length next time though. And I think I'll make the neckband thinner.

Kids Clothes Week Challenge

2010-09-14T11:19:00.000-07:00

I really want to do this.
My plan for my maternity leave was to spend my free time trying to learn to sew. Practice practice practice, I thought, I'm bound to improve some. I forgot about the fact that maternity leave is essentially to look after your new child, and free time is not in abundance.
It remains to be seen whether my new baby is like my first (no more than 30mins for a nap before she's up again and ready to rumble) but at the moment things are pretty busy around here. Baby No.2 and I continue to try to find a routine that works, while Baby No.1 (actually 4 and a half) settles into her new school. It's a merry-go-round of early mornings, lunchboxes and gym kits, note slips and after school snacks. The will-she-or-won't-she-settle evenings. Topped off with through the night, 3-hourly feeds.
It's either the worst time to attempt this, or maybe the best. The thought of giving myself permission to squirrel myself away for an hour each evening for a week seems indulgent.
I'm going to give it a go.

A couple of things I made over the last few weeks...

2010-07-22T03:14:00.000-07:00

Have been very very busy, but have just found time to start a couple of makes...

Firstly, these socks. From the Fyberspates monthly sock club kits that I seem to have had around for, oooh, ever. I started the Moss socks

The pattern is simple enough to work without thinking, and it's knitting up quickly.

For something a little more challenging, I also started some crochet! The Sweet Summer Cardi from the latest Crochet Today magazine.
I'm making it from 9 balls of aran weight cotton I found in a charity shop for the total sum of £4.50.

Hopefully there'll be enough to finish it

The yarn is a bit thick, hopefully I'm not crocheting pink armour here.

And here's another thing I made, that's keeping me busy... Violet!

Grumpasaurus. And more Saartje's....

2010-06-19T11:15:00.000-07:00

Tidying up a couple more projects while I'm waiting. This is Grumpasaurus, Ravelry link is here. This was a cute, fun knit, I just used up some scrap yarn from my odds and ends basket.

And another pair!

This is I think my third pair, these are for my sister's baby. I used Sirdar Luxury Cotton DK, and a 3.75mm needle so these are larger than the newborn sizes shown in Saartje's pattern (Ravelry link here). I'm thinking of casting on yet another pair, in thinner yarn, so she gets to have a tiny pair too.
It's not like I've not got the time.....

Waiting

2010-06-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

I have been preoccupied this year working on something that should hopefully be here very very soon.

Me time

2010-01-31T05:50:00.000-08:00

Carving out a bit of time for myself this weekend

Catching up on unfinished projects:

Treating myself to vintage trinkets:

Eating chocolate, and winter stew

and enjoying the vintage decor on Columbo

New Year's Day

2010-01-01T09:47:00.000-08:00

For the third year running we spent New Year's Day on a steam train. For the second year running we spent it at Midland Railway Centre.

We got our takeaway teas and coffees and boarded the train for the Butterley - Swanwick round trip

Looked out at the frost and steam and discussed our plans for the year

And before we knew it, it was time to go. New Year's Day is so short