Bittersweet...

Hello, I'm back from my hols and will regale you with (brief) tales and photos soon but ...

... just today I hope you don't mind my wallowing in a little gloom.

One year ago today my beautiful Mum left us.

Greta Kerridge: born 13 June 1925, died 26 June 2012

She was a truly lovely person, inside and out.  One of those people about whom no-one has a bad word.  She lived for 87 years, most of them happy with my Dad but he left us seven years ago and some of her world went with him.  The last couple of years Mum had many health problems but was very brave about them all.  At the last she had to go into a home to be looked after.  She spent four weeks there, being cared for wonderfully well but she was ready to leave us and her spirit soared away into a beautiful sunrise early on a Tuesday morning with us by her side.

I hope many of you still have mums who you treasure and who treasure you.  Give them a hug for me.

A Frocky Sort of Update...

Just couldn't let this £4.99 charity shop duvet set slip through my fingers.

Ta-daaa!

Frocks!

It's Only Frock and Roll but I Like It!

The lovely Little Blue Mouse asked if I had made the patterns myself for my recent tea dress and little girls dress on a previous post.  Well...
... sort of.

Here are the dresses again

The yellow and blue tea dress is made from old curtains and the little dress from a pair of pillow cases.  The girl's pattern is taken from "Homemade" by Ros Badger and Elspeth Thompson.  The tea dress, however, has a shoulder fastening design from "Simple Modern Sewing" by Shufu To Seikatsu Sha but the rest of it is my pattern.
This is the simple fastening, which requires no zip or buttons...

The pointed shoulder edges overlap and are stitched together on the sleeve side.

The little girl dress has a mama dress to look after it now, and I'm currently making more.

You can't beat a bit of reloving!

Soothing Sachets

The Girl Genius, now four and a half, has always suffered from ezcema.  When I was given a bundle of out of date comfrey leaf packs from the local value-for-money shop I didn't know what to do with them.  I know the jury is out regarding internal use but, reading up in my herbal companion, I found that this herb is very good for wound healing and other conditions including ezcema.

Having turned The Girl Genius into The Girl Guinea Pig, we found that it IS quite soothing and helpful, so I made the sachets below.  She loves the golden-green colour that the water goes, and if she believes it helps then it just might...

Take a Seat...

Prowling round one of the local charity shops I found that elusive item ... the Real Bargain!

This director's chair was £3 with a label saying "In need of TLC".  It was in a very poor state but a check showed that the wood was in good condition underneath the shabbiness.

I stripped it down to the bare bones, washed and sanded then painted.  As lovely as paints such as Annie Sloane chalks are, I wanted to keep costs down to ... well, the £3 I paid, so I rummaged in the shed and undercoated in basic white emulsion then painted in Dulux satin white.  I replaced the old faded red canvas with a double thickness curtain remnant.

Ta-daaah!

Posh chair for those lovely (?) summer days.  We had a big family barbecue yesterday and you can guess where I sat!

I've also been experimenting with dress shapes in reloved old curtains and duvets. Here are the first two...

 Yes, this ladies' tea dress is in the same curtain fabric as the chair.  I could vanish for days wearing this and sitting in the chair - no-one would see me!

This child's dress was a pillowcase.  I'm making a tea dress in the same at the moment.

Have you discovered this fab new magazine yet?

I've been trying to find a good link for you, but hope this will do for the moment.

Enoy the sun, lovelies xxx

... and in the Blue Fleece ...

Mr C and I had a little fun this weekend (no, not that sort of fun - what minds you have!).

We were invited to audition for BBC's "Bargain Hunt"!  There's no guarantee that we will be on tv but they hold teams on standby or for later use, so it may happen.  

Anyhoo ... on Saturday we fired up the Fiesta and drove off to The Olde Barn Hotel near Grantham where the auditions were taking place.

There were around eight couples as well as us, all lovely people and up for the challenge.  Sadly no Tim or experts but we had a little video first with Tim giving us a few tips and pointers then we were sent off in our couples to look at a selection of photos of antiques.  We had to put them in order of value without looking at the prices on the back and chat about our reasons for the choices.  Luckily they didn't have to be accurate, the researchers just needed to know if you could talk, interact and make decisions.  You then had to pick out the three which you would take to auction.

 Mr C's shiny little head got in the way of this photo.  You can see the picture selections on the tables.  We were smugly pleased with ourselves that we chose the three most valuable items in our selection!

The famous fleeces!

Next the researchers unveiled a "bonus buy" which we had to discuss, ask questions and decide whether to accept or not.  These were just ordinary items which the researchers waffled about as though they were valuable.  Ours was a Caithness glass bottle - I quite liked it, Mr C didn't.  Par for the course, as usual!

Mr C looking confused and wondering why I had applied in the first place!

 Finally we all got a chance to wear the fleeces (we had blue) and be filmed while pretending to be interviewed by "Tim" (ie a researcher).  Those fleeces are reeeeaaallly thick, very useful when contestants are tramping around a freezing, rain-soaked showground!  Here are two of the teams having their interviews...

Such fun! - as Miranda's mother would say.

Just thought I'd add a photo of my latest makes.  One is a reversible little cotton jacket I made for Miss Peach Pudding...

... the other is a blue wool jacket in the same pattern, with a reworked man's shirt lining for The Girl Genius.

Love to you all xxx

  

Sunshine and Sewing - Super!

The spare bedroom vanished again!  This time under all the stuff I put together and labelled for my stall at the St Andrew's Hospice Vintage Fair yesterday.  Isn't it a job and a half doing all the packing, unpacking, labelling, setting up and such?  Forget the marathon, just do a fair if you want exercise!

This was my stall.  

I was in a corner but not out of general footfall so it was quite pleasant.  No-one had a huge sales day, perhaps due to the lovely sunshine and a couple of other fairs (wedding and record) in town. It was worth the day, however, and lovely to chat to the other stall holders.

Apart from this, what have I done? ...

I attended a Rowan workshop on fairisle and intarsia, which was fun and provided a couple of enlightening moments after all the years of tangling up yarns and knitting untidy reverses.  I am now inspired to make another cushion for my workroom in my duck egg/teal and raspberry colours:

Carrying it all on a tray was one of the enlightened moments, so that when the door bell goes or there's a burning smell from the oven you can leap up and not get totally lost...

Have you been inspired by BBC's Great British Sewing Bee?  And of course, the lovely Patrick?  How I covet that workroom and all its contents (plus the lovely Patrick)!

I've made a couple more clothing items and also created a new Fashionista Sister, twice the size of the previous girls, with a "wooden dutch doll" twist.  I'm thinking of doing another with striped fabric to give a Victorian swimsuit look.

 

Happy crafting, lovelies, and have a great week xxx