Pele-Mele

What's a holiday without a visit to at least one ramshackle second-hand bookshop, eh? Pele-Mele is a small-ish Belgian chain (there are two other branches in Brussels) that buys and sells books, magazines, records, and some toys. It's also a brilliant way to escape from a grey, rainy Brussels day. 

For the hardcore tram aficionado

The majority of books and records are Belgian or French, although there's a small selection of English-language books toward the back of the store. (See this photo above? It's here, as well as on the wall in front of it.) You might have to do some pretty thorough excavations to find an interesting book (be prepared to wade through lots of airport-books/Paulo Coelho/non-Harry-Potter J.K Rowling/perhaps even a Dan Brown or two!, you get my drift), as most of the tomes on offer seem to have been offloaded by backpackers passing through the capital. Still, isn't that part of the fun of second-hand shopping? The thrill of looking for treasure, the possibility of finding something special! 

Or you could simply pick up a few copies of Tram 2000 for the special tram-spotter in your life.

Beautiful wallpaper - I need this

Pele-Mele

Boulevard Maurice Lemonnier 55

1000 Brussels

Belgium

Stall Stuff

Change is afoot at the Tea Rooms stall...Former stall partner Rory is now off to greener (and much better paying pastures), and I have partnered up with a fishy little purveyor of Toot. Come and check out the new layout (in the same old space) if you're in town. 

Old ladies, horses with broken legs and naked men with half an arm -we've got them all!

A naughty alphabet - avert your eyes, children!

We also have an occasional inhouse tarot reader, who comes with a set of cards she designed herself. What clever people!

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?

Marche aux Puces de Bruxelles

I was not joking when I said in an earlier post that we managed to cram a lot into a mere day and a half in Brussels. Not only did we squeeze in visits to the Atomium and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, we also managed to have some mussels at Chez Leon, and perhaps most importantly, visit the Marche aux Puces not once, but twice! 

Having arrived in Brussels too early to check in to our hotel, we decided to make our way to the Marolles district to visit the flea market. If you're the sort of person whose heart beats faster at the thought of a new market or boot sale to explore, and who daydreams about trawling through boxes to uncover that one perfect item, then welcome to your dream. 

She came home with me!

Look at that - boxes and boxes of stuff, from travel kettles to antique dolls, vintage dresses to dead birds.  Neon pink ballroom dancing dresses. Antique French laces. Rainbow sets of Victorinox kitchen knives (plenty of those there - everyone in Brussels must get given a set as a wedding present). Absolute heaven. I had to rein in my desire to purchase huge framed wedding portraits and antique chandeliers. Some stalls were fairly nicely organised, with items displayed on rails and tables, and neat little aisles carved between  rows of boxes. Other stallholders resisted the temptation to make their stalls look presentable, and simply laid their goods on the ground. I find that I tend to gravitate towards the messier looking stalls - more chance of finding a treasure among that mess, perhaps? 

Treasure-hunting made us very hungry, so we headed across the road to Charlotte, lured by the wonderous smell of cooked onions and burnt meat, and shared a very massive hotdog. 

Easy Skirt Refashion

A quickie sewing project to ease oneself into a new year of sewing (the previous peachy dress had been finished just before 2011 rang out). The skirt itself was purchased at an op-shop on New Year's Eve. I loved the fabric, but - as evident from the photo below - the original elasticated waistband was way too big, even for my post-Christmas feast waistline. 

The refashion itself took hardly any time. In fact, I think I spent longer unpicking the elastic than doing any actual sewing! All I had to do was to cut off the top 3 inches of the skirt, iron it out and then cut it into the required length for a new waistband. I gathered the top of the remaining skirt, put in a lapped zipper and then sewed it into the new band, with a vintage button to close it. New-old skirt is ready!

T-shirt - op-shop, Coat - vintage (from MVE), skirt - refashioned, tights - Sainsburys, shoes - H&M

Burdastyle Feature and Poncho-Cape Thing

Can you believe it's nearly 2012 already? I hope everyone had a great Christmas/holiday period - pictures of my epic Christmas feast will be posted soon. I received some lovely presents, and a pretty awesome one from Burdastyle. The sewing website made me its featured member this week. You can see it here, - the article includes some pictures of my past projects as well as a short interview about my sewing habits.  

I thought I'd try to tie that in with these photos of a poncho/kaftan/cape thing I made recently. I've actually made four of them, they were commissioned by the lady who runs a neighbouring stall at the Tea Rooms. If you're interested in them and in or around the London area, you can purchase them from the Tea Rooms or her Thursday stall at Spitalfields. 

These are extremely simple to make. In fact, they're great beginner projects for those wanting to dip a toe into the sewing ocean. You'll need two long scarves of the same size - they don't even have to have the same design on both if mismatched is what you're into. All you have to do is to sew one edge of the scarf together and leave a hole at the top large enough for your arm to go through. Do the same to the other scarf, then sew both scarves together about halfway up to join them together. 

I've just realised that what I wrote probably makes no sense to anyone else whatsoever...Is anyone interested in a step-by-step tutorial with photos?

In case I don't get around to writing up another post tomorrow - Happy New Year everyone!

Wednesday

For Halloween. 

Field Of Flowers - Highwaisted Shorts

You may have caught a glimpse of these shorts a couple of weeks ago in my post about inserting a fly front zipper. Well, they're finally ready, and I think they turned out alright, if a bit crumpled. 

Inexpensive pillowcases and sheets from the op-shops are perfect for testing out new techniques, especially if it's one you think you may muck up. The fly front zipper adds a slightly more professional look to handmade shorts. 

The self-drafted pattern was inspired by a couple of other shorts and a pair of jeans I like wearing. I wanted something slightly highwaisted so others would be spared the sight of my bum when I bent over, and it had to be comfortable without being baggy. Darts were added to give some shaping, and I finished the waist with a facing for a sleeker look. 

I'm actually pretty pleased with the end result - it's got a bit of a bit of a 1950s rock'n'roll vibe to it. Who's ready to dance-fight me? They are immensely comfortable and I can spend all day in them, but they look structured enough that others don't think I'm wearing my PJs in public. In fact, I was so excited with how they turned out that I ended up making another pair, in the same fabric but with a waistband instead of facing, that I will put into the Etsy shop soon. 

Silk blouse - op-shop, shorts - selfmade, necklace - op-shop, tights - supermarket, shoes - Broadway Shopping Centre

Mrs Beeton's Brioches

I felt like I needed something to keep my baking spirit aloft my after producing those rather 'interesting' looking macar-nots last week. Thankfully, help was at hand, in the form of Mrs. Beeton herself. I'd chanced upon a slim volume called Breakfast with Mrs Beeton - Hearty Fare the week before, when popping in to a local op-shop. The title was slightly misleading, as only a few of the recipes it in were hers, with the other recipes being more modern versions of what might have been found on Victorian breakfast table. But, it was only 50p, and you can never have too many books, right? So it came home with me.

This recipe came from one of the 'modern' recipes in that book. How do I know it's not one of Mrs Beeton's own? Because I'm fairly sure they didn't have polythene bags back in 1850. You're supposed to let the dough rise in a lightly oiled poly-bag, but lacking one, I simply stuck it into a lightly oiled glass bowl and popped a moist towel over it. 

The brioche turned out much better than my the chocolate macs, although slightly too dry for my liking. My bad, I should have taken it out of the oven sooner. 

They also make great bases for French toast, as I discovered a day later. Soak them in some eggs and milk, mix in some ground cinnamon and nutmeg, and fry them in lots of butter. Then, dollops of golden syrup over them, and brunch is served!