Vintage and Handmade Fair goodies

I know this isn’t recent news but a couple of weekends ago I went along to the Vintage and Handmade Fair in Chipping Sodbury Nr. Bristol. I found out the Viv from Hen’s Teeth was going to be there so had to pop by. I have been a regular follower of Viv’s blog http://www.hensteethart.blogspot.com/ and as I was going to Cardiff on the Saturday I thought it would be the perfect crafty detour. It really was worth the extra miles. The fair was a complete feast for the eyes with vintage sewing bits and pieces, fabric, buttons, lace and patters every thing you could think of as well as Vintage inspired handmade purses and pieces of art work from some very talented people.

I was quite well behaved as I allowed myself to spend a certain amount of money which I did very easily. I bought some French linen and lace, some retro looking fabric as well as a daisy maker. I have seen these on American website and have been dying to have a go but have not found any in the UK.
This was my main purchase of the day, one of Hen’s teeth’s stunning hand stitched postcards. I had a lovely chat to Viv about her work and the fair. As soon as I saw her stall I was drawn to this piece due to the colours. I love the hues in the piece and the use of the postcard. I also share Viv’s passion for old postcards and envelopes. I have now found a home for this piece on my desk to act as inspiration.

As I said I went to the fair on my way to Cardiff. On the Sunday the weather was stunning and I went for a picnic with a couple of friends to a lake near Penarth just outside of Cardiff. I had my camera on my and decided to take a few pictures of the wild flowers and strangely it looks quite like piece I bought from Hen’s Teeth.

Prezzy time again

Well it seems like a heavy birthday season has started again and I feel I’m quite organised at the moment. It was my friend Claire 25th birthday and I saw this spotty fabric and knew I had to make something for her. She always wears bright colours and this dotty fabric seems to have captured all her favourite hues. This is the first time I’ve made a purse using a purse frame (I bought the frame way back in January I think) and I’ve been putting it off as I thought it was quite technical. However I found a fab tutorial online and away I went. I was quite proud of myself when I had finished and she was so impressed she thought I had bought it. (It’s a good thing I used some scraps of fabric on her card as proof!)

I also made her a bright flowery brooch as well. I’ve been wanting to have a go at making one of these for ages and I had a bit of blue organza in my stash (again, one of Claire’s colours) and thought this will be perfect as a little something extra prezzy. This was very simple to make, I cut out lots of circles starting with a diameter of about 10cm and slowly went down in size. I cut two of each size and slightly burnt the edge of the fabric to stop it fraying. I layered all the circles on lop of each other and stitched them together with some light blue floss. I then ruched every other layer to add some volume and then sewed on a brooch back. My sister has already placed an order for one and I think I’m going to make one for my self as well.

Stenciled Doilies Trays

After

Before

I recently moved to a new house where I don’t have a dining table. I unfortunately have to do the student thing of balancing my plate and eating off my lap. This is no good if you have a hot meal so it was time to invest in some trays. I went shopping and found trays are quite expensive, I bought a really pretty one and my housemate dropped it! Rubbish! However on one of my car boot trips I found a couple of trays for 20p each. Bargain, but they weren’t that nice so I thought great, a DIY project. I also recently inherited a whole box of vintage doilies which were so intricate and pretty so then I was thinking, great a pre cut stencil. I used enamel spray paint and attached the doilies using spray mount. A couple of coats of paint later, job done. The best thing was when my house mate saw them (she felt so guilty and had offered to buy me a new tray) she said ‘wow, those new trays are really nice where did you buy them from?’ Result.

Scrap Birthday Card

This is a card I've made for a friends birthday which corresponds nicely to the presents I have made her. I used the left over fabric from a purse (the pokadot fabric) and the blue fabric off-cuts from a flower brooch I have made her. I had to chuck in a few colorful buttons for good measure. I hope she likes it.

My fist blog mention

I was very happy to find out one of my emphera collages had been featured on a blog called Pattern Pulp. I was quite excited as this because it just proves the power of the internet, that people all round the world can see your work. This was a little paper collage experiment which just developed and almost told me what to do as I worked on it. I’ve been meaning to try a few more of these as my collection of interesting paper had grown and needs to be explored. This might be the encouragement I need.

Grandma's Tablecloth

Here are a couple of close up pictures of the table cloth I used on Mothers day. It has been beautiful embroidered with a weaving floral patter all around the edge. The flowers have been stitched in a rainbow effect floss. I love the design, it's not too busy or dated.
I did have a slight accident on mothers day when some tea got spilt onto the table cloth. I was quite nervous about washing it as I wasn't sure how the floss would react. I put it into the washing machine on a cool hand wash cycle but that didn't get the stain out. I then tried a 40 degree was with some stain remover and luckily that worked. I don't know exactly how old the table cloth is but as it is a newly acquired family heirloom I didn't want to ruin it.
It's hard to know whether to store away all these precious embroidered pieces or take a risk and use them. Personally I think it's ashamed to hide away all that hard work. Every thing that has been handmade has been made to use or be displayed so I'm willing to take a risk. Even if accidents do happen.

Proper kntting

Last year I got into knitting again. I wouldn't say I was a accomplished knitter but I try, scarfs and simple fingerless gloves have been about my limit. Knitting patterns are still quite a mystery to me so I decided it was about time I should learn. 

After my mothers day cream tea, I was having a joke with my housemate about how I was missing a tea cozy so a tea cozy became my next project.  I thought this would be the perfect pattern to start with as it hopefully wouldn't take me too long and I wont get too frustrated if it all goes wrong. If you look at the top picture I have made quite a good start and I haven't even dropped one stitch, Yeh!

This is also the first time I have knitted in this ribbed design. I keep getting myself a little tangled using two different balls of wool but I really like the was it looks
Even on the reverse side. It looks so neat!