First Aid

If you find yourself with a cut, a scrape, a bruise, or a wound of any sort...please do not seek me out. My stall at the Tea Rooms may have a rather impressive collection of First Aid kits, bandages, and various lotions and potions, but they're all rather, erm, old. Strictly for display, or to frighten off some squeamish friends. 

Stranger In My Camera

I found a Diana F+ at a car boot sale several months ago. I'm usually not too keen on cameras from Lomography, but the lady selling it enticed me with the offer of a free, unused roll of 120 film. There was already a roll in the camera, so I took it with me to Belgium to test it out. The shots above were taken by the lady's daughter (I assume), and the only ones of her photos that turned out. 

The Garden Party Dress

The warm, golden sunlight in these pictures will probably alert you to the fact that these pictures were taken months ago. Oh well, best get blogging about this dress before winter finally gets here!

The impetus for this dress came about when an acquaintance handed me the invite to her wedding. Dress code - 'formal'...which always brings to my mind some sort of Disney princess dress (like this) - you know, floofy skirt, lots of sequins and tulle, the works. The type of dress that I would wear to a Manowar show, but felt a bit uncomfortable wearing to a mid-summer, outdoor wedding reception. Thus began the hunt for a 'grown-up' dress pattern. 

A quick online search lead me to Butterick B5281, a reissue of a 1946 pattern. Those illustrated babes looked so elegant and sassy, so a few clicks later and I was on my way to replicating that sassy elegance. Unfortunately, elegance is a foreign country to me, as evidenced by the above photo of me hanging on to 2 wine glasses. Oh well, I'll go for sassy then.

On to the technical bits. For the bodice, I decided to trace a size 10 at the bust, graduating up to a size 12 at the waist seam and skirt. The other change I made to it was to hack about 5 inches off the skirt, because I have short stumpy legs. Since it was rather more complicated than my usual patterns, I decided to make a toile first, in the same fabric that would later be used for the lining (a pink polycotton sheet for the bodice, and a navy blue acetate for the skirt, both from the opshop). The dress fabric was two metres of slightly sheer ikat-looking fabric that I purchased last year at the Wimbledon car boot sale. It's most likely a wool/polyester mix - it has no label, but I have a skirt that feels exactly the same, and is about 70% wool/30% polyester.

Constructing the dress was suprisingly easy, although the shoulder-flap bit on the left threw me a little.The trickiest part was probably inserting the side zipper - my first! I took my time and yelled a few unnecessary words, but managed to fit it in without too many wrinkles. It's a lapped zipper, which I thought fitted the whole vintage pattern thing a lot better than an invisible zipper.

Although it wasn't too difficult to sew up, it did take a lot of time though...so much so that I was sat at my machine at 10.30pm the night before the wedding, trying to finish fit the lining in. I cheated in the end, and set in the sleeve lining with big rough basting stitches. The skirt was roughly turned up and sewed with big machine basting stitches. No-one else could see it, and I've since managed to clean it all up. 

Dress - selfmade, necklace - vintage, brooch - vintage, tights - Sainsburys, shoes - from Hong Kong

Old Cats

Some fine felines on glass negatives that I bought at Battersea boot about six months ago. They date from around the turn of the (last) century to the 1930s. Irrefutable proof that photography and cat pictures go hand-in-hand, even back then. My favourite one at the moment is that lovely almost all-black fellow in the last shot, with that triangle of white on his chest. Which one's your favourite?

Brighton

It was my second wedding anniversary recently (bloody hell, two years!), so Manbacon and I went to Brighton for a long weekend break. We walked around and went to a car boot sale and spent lots of pennies on the pier and ate lots of seafood. 

Hip To Be Square

Apologies for the rather embarrassing title. I've been in a cushion-making mood recently. They don't take much time to sew, and they always help me feel like I've done a whole lot of work when in fact all I've done is to join up a bunch of straight lines. 

These two crazy patterned ones above were a housewarming gift for a friend. If you were thinking 'Wow, she's joined those fabrics really well!' I'm sorry, but I didn't . The fabric came with this pattern - or rather, 4 strips of insane patterns, running side by side down the whole length of the fabric. Because whoever designed it felt that having just one wasn't enough. 

This rather Christmassy creation was the result of a hideous acrylic poncho that a friend insisted on giving to me. So I cut it up and used the material for cushions! I made two of these - one is available on Etsy (along with a slightly different design, and the other is available at the stall. Send me a message if you want both of them.

The cushions in these last two photos are also currently available at the Tea Rooms stall. The fabrics for these came from a  some op-shops in Poland, and were originally a child's tunic and a massive kaftan, respectively. In the bottom photo, you can see both the front (left) and back (right) of the kaftan cushions. the fronts were cut from the kaftan, while the envelope backs make use of some fabric from my mother-in-law. 

Making cushions always help me feel very accomplished and efficient, so don't be surprised to see more of these here in the near future!

Dog In Boot

Yep. 

Little Old Lady

Hello dearie, look who I met at the boot fair on Wednesday!

My two most favourite parts - her raised finger and braided bun. 

Granny Armitage (from the little label sewn onto her petticoat) was made with such care and attention. Her clothes were made with the most perfect little hand stitches, and her little plaster face has been painted with so much expression. Could she be a close relative of Granny Weatherwax?

The Haul

I've been spending a bit too much this fortnight, but I've g a bunch of treasures to show off! As well as haunting the usual op-shops, I've also been checking out Bermondsey Antiques Market. The market can be a bit hit-and-miss, and prices are certainly higher than at a car boot sale, but there are still some lovely items to be found, such as...

3 bags of assorted watch parts, including some lovely enamelled watch faces

and some faceless bracelet watches, which I'll be wearing stacked on my arm, kind of like those jelly bracelets I used to wear as a teenager. 

I also picked up a little round photoframe, a heartshaped spoon, a mid-19th century candle snuffer as well as this Coronet box camera loaded with film (below) from the markets.

These were found hiding in dark corners of various op-shops -

a lovely pale green and gold teacup and saucer, sitting in a box under a table. The cup has a faint crack, but I still love it anyway.

An 1820s Crown Derby plate! Possibly the oldest things I have at home at the moment!

And...a 'Lochs of Scotland' from Wedgwood, with 6 soup plates, 6 plates and a lidded veggie bowl! It weighed a ton, which is why I have a Manbacon around to carry stuff for me!

Wedding Day

Who Wears Short Shorts

I seem to get stuck in little obsessive phases sometimes, when I'm constantly making the same things, or variations on similar patterns. Recently, I've been churning out heaps of short shorts, mostly bloomer-style ones, but also a couple of sexy PE-style shorts. I think the bloomers are great for wearing under dresses, so they cover up your magic bits while you're frolicking around or doing a couple of rolly-pollys in the park. They also make a great (and much less sweaty) alternative to bike shorts - it's a shame my BMX isn't in rideable condition these days. 

Anyway, they'll be coming with me to the Little London Fields Festival tomorrow, and then to the Vibe Bar in Brick Lane on Sunday. Do come along if you're in the area - I'll be sharing a stall on both days with sweet Miwa.