Knights in shining armour

Yes really.
This is us at the Tower of London. We were the entertainment for an accountancy company corporate party! The crafts section got very little interest from the sea of suits, but as usual the jousting went down a treat. And the free champagne went down us quite well too. I'm the one in the orangey (badly-fitting and in need of taking-in) dress.

Finished off the apron I'm making for a book today. Here is a sneak preview, but better not show you the whole thing until it's been published! I think it's due out in October.





However, I have got some publications coming sooner than that. A short article in Selvedge due out in early July. If you love textiles and don't know selvedge, then you MUST have a look, it's fantastic, full of lovely pretty pictures. If you do decide to get a subscription, PLEASE tell me first as we can both get a good deal!
Second publication in July is in Popular Patchwork, which my friend Gillian is features editor for. This one is an article about where to go fabric shopping in Brighton. Looking forward to seeing both of these in print in the same month!

Goodness and badness

Didn't have a good day yesterday. I went to pick up my car to take it into the garage for repairs, and found all four tyres flat, presumably vandalised. I'm waiting to find out how much that will all cost, along with the repairs it was going to have anyway. Not the way to start the week! So at least there was something nice in the post when I got home... this fabric from Cherrymomma arrived! Happy happy me! I ordered it before I took the Refashion pledge, so it doesn't count!



This afternoon I am off to do medieval textile things for a corporate evening at the Tower of London. Before that I have to revise text for a museum website and make an apron. I love that freelance work is quite so varied! Sometimes I wish that I could just get on with one thing for a while, but I know that I need variety in my life, so I embrace the chaos and continue to practice the art of doing 8 projects at the same time!

Perfect pinnies

I restrained myself from buying a very pretty vintage apron today. I regret it now. I don't have space, having just acquired a pile last month. Here is my current favourite. It's old, stained and worn, but I love it!





I've had yet another weekend off, which makes me panic on a Sunday night, so I have been working on my press mailing list which is important but far from exciting. Tomorrow I have the excuse of going to the shops and buying loads of magazines to check the information. Then I will have to load them all up in the car to take on holiday next week. I am at last having a proper week off, the first since last July, and I am really looking forward to it. My holidays have an element of surprise about them, so i will also keep it secret here until I get back.

I've at last put some new images on Flickr, including some of the delights found in old sewing books that I bought last week, including this adorable elephant. He remind me so much of one I made in primary school and still have in a box somewhere. He was flat, made of two elephant-shaped pieces of felt, in pink (I haven't changed much!) with an orange blanket on his back. I'm still very fond of him. I must think about animals I can make in workshops with kids. It should be simple enough (so guaranteed not to be!). Maybe monsters, or creatures they can design themselves! I'm off on creative thoughts, I will report back on this plan!





And as for the fried egg pincushion.... well, I am almost lost for words. One of the curious results of getting involved in this blogging world, is that I have opened my eyes to all manner of strange old textile stuff that I would have avoided completely before. I'm not sure if this is a good thing, but it's entertaining at least!

Happy snapper

Oh wow! I have a new camera at last. It is wonderful. I have been taking photos of all sorts of random things, just for practice. I haven't read the instructions yet, so I am using about 2% of it's capabilities, but it's just so fun to play with.
I have been doing other things too. I continue to sort the stash. One of the little treasures that turned up in a box was this lovely beaded motif. I can't decide what should become of it. Ideally it should be placed on a fabulous garment in a Paul Poiret style, either on a coat or a dress. I can't find an image of the wonderful dress of his on disply in the V&A Fashion Gallery, but it's a very simple dress with a big beaded motif right in the centre of the stomach. All very well if you are a 1923 shape, but I am not. I think it's destined for a coat. (The coat in this link isn't by Poiret, but it's the style I am thinking of.)

While I was out camera shopping, I scoured the charity shops of Burgess Hill, which were pretty fruitful, and there will be more to come. One bargain was this orange tablecloth, posed here with my favourite cookbook, as the colours match so well. I think this fabric will become aprons.



Several more aprons have come out of the boxes, including this cute gingham one, which reminds me of the one I made at primary school and sewed to my skirt. A sewing natural, even at the ages of 6, clearly....
This one is rather nicer, the pocket detail is just fantastic.




I've also been good about my dress-urge and went through the pile of stuff for remaking, and finally repaired this lovely dress.
I bought this years and years ago from a hippy market stall. It's really fine silk which is starting to perish, but it's so lovely, even though it's badly made, because the fabric is so stunning. It's the nicest thing to wear when it's really hot too.



I tried on several charity shop dresses, including one from Laura Ashley's 50s style range they did a few years ago. It made me look like Grayson Perry's Claire. I didn't buy it...

Finished off these trousers for my mum, too, from stash fabric. They don't look too good hung up like this, but they are nice linen really.

Swag bag

I've finally had chance to go through my swag bags and start sorting things out. This has been helped by yesterday's new drawers which are now all tidy and organised! Those that know me will laugh at that. Me, organised?? My argument is that I can be organised if I have enough time and enough space. And we all know that both of those are in small supply round here. So anyway, I made some space to unpack (and indeed, work). Here are some of the goodies, from a mixture of sources.





Fabrics first - turquoise brocade scrap piece from some amazing 60s frock I would guess. When I was about 16 I had loads of fabulous 60s dresses including one in this kind of colour. I threw loads of clothes out when I went to university. And have continued to do so every time I have moved house since. Which is about 12 times now. Oh, that reminds me, I have lived in this flat for a year. This is remarkable. I may even make it to two years, which I have not done anywhere since I left home. This is not out of choice, it is the joys of renting. Anyway, back to the fabrics!
These two are so pretty. The top stripey one is in fact a large laundry bag, so will stay as that, and replace the one I made when I was 15 which is pink check and rather boring in comparison. The bottom piece is a large cotton print which would make a lovely dress, should I ever find the time to do such a thing....







There was only one pattern in the stash, but it's a nice one - I like the neckline, so will be adding that to the mountain of patterns. The rest are embroidery designs, mostly, from the late 50s. There are a couple of gems of late 40s fashion magazine pages and one Swiss German magazine. The woman these originally belonged to was Swiss and her son, my friend, has given me all these, along with loads of aprons - yay! and lots of hand-embroidered white cotton sheets. These turn out to be singles, so not sure what to do with them, apart from make them into completely new things.
So happy me with lots of new things to play with. I am in the middle of making a pair of trousers for my mum, out of black linen. It's so nice, I want a pair myself!

Skipping

Not the hopping and skipping kind of way, but the acquiring useful things from skips way. Well, not exactly. Skips these days don't tend to have anything exciting in them, though I usually get cross about the amount of recyclable stuff going into landfill. I consdidered heaving an extra large ironing board out of one recently, but it was too buried, and I was too self-conscious. It was midday, opposite a park and on a driveway. A bit too public for humiliating oneself trying to climb into a skip. Anyway, the skipping I did last night, on the way back from knitting group was much easier. Around here there are lots of giant communal bins for the flat-dwellers, and furniture and other random stuff is often left next to them to be taken away by some happy person. People do the same thing on the street outside their flats. I've done quite well like this, though I wish I hadn't left a chair on the street once by mistake... I picked up an ugly but useful set of plastic drawers, about 4' high. I've seen lots of pictures of craft rooms with these and thought how useful they would be. But I don't buy plastic if I can possibly help it, and I don't buy ugly furniture unless I can disguise it. But I can recycle. So ugly and plastic, but very very necessary, as the sewing table is drowning under boxes and piles of buttons and ribbon and sequins and millions of other things. All I have to do now is find space to get it in the door. Which I will be able to once I have unpacked the crates of fabric I was given a few weeks ago. These are slowly going through the wash and now are waiting to be ironed. It may be some time. But we make progress and progress makes me happy.

Other things that make me happy: finishing TWO funding applications in as many days. Hurrah. Well, today's was really an exhibition application. I'm loathe to say too much about it, in case I don't get it. But briefly, my cunning plan is to create a new body of work comprising wearable garments from hand-constructed fabrics. These will be created using my favourite traditional techniques with a modern twist (like pleating, applique and shadow-work), and doing some courses in new (old) things to incorporate - like needlelace, stumpwork, patchwork and quilting. And I will do my inspiration research in museum collections, looking particularly at folk art. I'm so excited about it. I will have to come up with some other way of doing it, if I don't get this one. The folk art thing includes the gravestones I mentioned the other day. And here are some railings too, along the same lines.





Hmm. Want to do this project NOW. But I can't, masses of other things to do first. Starting with my dinner. I have sweet potatoes roasting in the oven. I keep thinking about starting a food blog, as food is probably my main hobby since I started making things for a living! Alas, I wouldn't have time to eat if I tried to fit in any more things into my rather full life!

This one is for Heather

I have at last finished the braids for a bracelet Heather has commissioned from me. I kept starting them when I had company and making mistakes. Once you have made a mistake in one of these braids it is almost impossible to correct it. These are worked in gold thread, and it tangles and twists and tries to escape all the time, leading to a lot of shouting and swearing. And the metal thread cuts my fingers. So these 4 tiny braids have taken a LONG time. Heather is being very patient!



The braiding technique is called fingerloop, and is a medieval technique- this is what I was doing in Wales last weekend, if you recall. You can find out more about this, and other obessively time-consuming silkwork techniques here.


I just want to point out that this picture was taken on a white background. This is what my camera does now. It has really had it. Am scared to spend hundreds of pounds on a new one, but it really needs doing urgently. I have to make and photograph an apron next week for a new craft book I am contributing to (more details soon) and the blueness will really not do!

Otherwise I have been sat at my computer working on proposals and projects. But its knitting group this evening, so some creative time at last!

Vintage finds

I finally photographed the first lot of fabrics and things I have recently acquired. The top one I have already forgotten where that came from, it's been knocking around for ages waiting for a photo. The green one was part of a huge stack given to me by Gillian, which also contained lots of other lovely stuff, which is all being processed (washed, ironed, stacked, hoarded, gloated over, stroked etc). Clearly this one hasn't been ironed yet, in my eagerness to have something to show / say on the blog this weekend (missed, it's monday now).



I also wanted to show off this wonderful pincushion I bought at a car boot weeks ago. Well in fact my friend Rachel bought it for me, because I had run out of money entirely by then. It was a fabulous 20p! Thanks Rach. It was very dusty but has scrubbed up pretty well.I left the original pins and needles in it, as they are quite fun. But as soon as my sewing table is tidier, this will take pride of place, along with one I made myself with turnip fabric a while ago.

Buttons

I rushed away from the computer yesterday to go and get on with some wardrobe refashioning, but was thwarted. I hunted and hunted for the green shirt work-in-progress. It was not in the WIP pile, nor in any of the other likely heaps. Hmm. I wonder if I got fed up with it and ejected it from the fold. I am annoyed if I did. Still. I got on with another project instead, albeit a very very easy one. This linen top was from a charity shop but had a small stain on the front, so I have been meaning (since, oooh, February maybe?) to cover it up with something. I tried a corsage, as I make lots of them but a flower on the belly is not a good look. I then tried the contents of the vintage lace stash (I hoard but rarely use any of it....) but again it looked odd with a cream lace motif, and I don't have the patience to leave it til I am on a fabric dyeing spree (about once a year). So it was plain and simple buttons. I like buttons very much so am very pleased with this. Apologies for the rubbish photos. I forgot to take some when it was still properly light and with usual impatience I wanted to take it NOW! I must do some better ones, ancient camera permitting.





I am trying to distract myself from new dresses. I can never find ones in the shop I like that fit me (just as well) so I have plans to make lots. This happens every summer and I usually complete the first one at the end of September. I KNOW that I don't have time this summer and that I have loads of pretty skirts and not enough tops to go with them. So that is the priority, should I ever have time to make anything for myself. Tops to go with skirts so I actually have things that match, not just a wardrobe full of pretty things that don't go with anything else. This is why, for years, I have worn mostly pink and red, with black and white and a little purple for excitement. I can happily wear red all over but feel very self conscious wearing bright green. Odd. So I have a few skirts that don't really go with anything else, or only one top, which is rather limiting. So new summer tops it is. I am planning something a bit like this red one but with a higher boat-neckline, cap sleeves and bias-cut. And then some interesting embroidery or embellishment. In white to start off with and then we'll see where I get to. Expect this in 2007 at the earliest!

I also wanted to show you this workshop picture - boys! I very rarely get to work with boys, but this was a leather work session so not quite so girly. They made leather decorations and did a fine job.



I've been working on a funding application all day, amply distracted by the BBC's wonderful new webcast of tennis! Unlike the rest of the world, I am avoiding the football, but getting started on the grass court tennis season here in the UK. I don't own a TV which bothers me only at this time of year. So yay! to BBCi and their coverage. Even if the quality is so poor that I can't see where the ball is. I'm still happy to pretend to work while it is on. Summer is really here if there is tennis. And no, I am NOT a Tim Henman fan.

No sew...

Yet another day has slipped by without a needle and thread passing through my hands. It is deeply frustrating to have made so little for so long. Though at the weekend, while I was being a medieval silkwoman for the weekend I made some linen socks! It will talk far too long to explain this here, see this site for an idea of what I get up to. The one in the rust-coloured dress is me, some years ago!

I did have some clothes-related fun though, and true to Wardrobe Refashion I went to Oxfam and bought a long linen smock-type top, though I am not sure how much refashioning I will do to it. I really must refashion something soon, or I will be thrown out! I see that the month's challenge is to refashion a men's shirt. This is good as I got half way through such a project many months ago, and now its the season at last to wear it. And its green!
I enjoyed going out in my turnip skirt today and causing a few funny looks. I try my best. But less blogging and more sewing, I'm off to the sewing machine now, stuff the washing up.

Woefully inadequate

It's over a week since I had chance to post, and yet, I feel I have nothing new to say. I tend to feel that this blog is for me to tell you about things I have made, bought, seen, done- in the textile and fashion line only. And truth be told, sometimes I just don't have time to do anything textiley interesting. Or at least if I do, I am not around in daylight in order to photograph it! But normal service will be resumed this week, following my two jaunts. I am recently back from 5 days in Wales. Well, 2 days driving to and from Wales and 3 days actually in Wales. It was hot and sunny! I know this is unfair, but it does mostly seem to rain in Wales. Scotland last week was pretty good too. Its marvellous! How very English to talk about the weather, but it is important! The heatwave has just ended and today has been very very grey. But back to Wales. It was wonderful to spend time in lush green hills and paddle in the River Dee. I wanted to swim, but was not equipped and there were a lot of sheep watching... I made two wonderful evening drives over Horseshoe pass through the mountains and got all wistful for countryside and real open space. The south-east is all very tame and London-centric and the rest of the UK is full of such amazing wild spaces, even if they are only relatively tiny (thinking of readers who live in seriously big countries!).
Despite all that physical space I spent 3 days solidly in the company of other people, which I really am not used to anymore, since I started working on my own and became seriously anti-social, so I had to go and walk in the woods on my own sometimes! But I did have a great time with the Robinson family on the adventure playground.

I spent today back in the real world of work, doing a day of corsage-making demonstrations and talks to 14-15 year old girls in a school in Portsmouth. The rest of the week I will try and catch up on orders and admin and many millions of other things.
I can't post without showing some pictures, so finally here are some shots of the best work made by the family learning project participants during our May workshops, organised by The Making.







And I finally got some pictures of the dress I made for myself to wear to my friend's wedding - eighteenth century style. The green dress is an overdress based on a 1790s pattern, with a few tweaks. There was supposed to be an underdress too, but I ran out of time and wore it with a plain black skirt. Though I did discover as the night wore on that it was just about long enough to wear on its own on the dancefloor! Well, I may be proved wrong by some other photos if anyone caught it on camera....
So the dress is high-waisted with a wrap-over front. The neckline shaping is made by little buttons with looped braids from the inside. The back waistline is slightly higher cut with the skirt pleated in the centre. Oh I do love pleats! Read back a few weeks if you really want to hear me talk endlessly about pleats. But back to the dress. The back is cut in the narrow seaming style used for Regency dresses and the sleeves are quite deeply set in. I love the diamond-shape effect this cut has on the back. And by the way, it is billowing in the breeze, I am not that shape really. But yes, it is actually me. Thanks Gill for the photos.

On my travels

I'm starting to wonder if I should invent some new type of speed-blogging in order to get something up here even when I have no time at all. The last week of silence has mostly been to do with being in Scotland for a few days, plus some of the usual overwork. But Scotland is more fun to talk about. It was wonderful to see my gorgeous godson at last. I forgot to ask his mum if she would mind me putting a pictures of him up here so none as yet. But instead a waterfall and some of the masses of bluebells that are still in flower all over this bit of Scotland. (can you see blueness in the picture? Hope so)

I love bluebells and didn't get to see as many as I wanted during the southern season in May. In the Scottish hills they cover huge swathes of hillside and fill the air with than wonderful smell. Very few things lift the spirits like bluebells. Though selling my work is a close second! A friend held a little party in her flat in Edinburgh and I sold plenty of bags and scarves and corsages, which made it an especially nice weekend. Lots of walks in the woods and lovely meals and wine and gossip, so a splendid weekend in all.
And back home I have to unpack the huge mountain of vintage fabric I was given over the weekend! And I still haven't looked in the crates I collected last week. I am quite overwhelmed with it all! But I did get time to open a teeny package from Canada this evening containing some nice buttons and a maple leaf pendant from Heather. Thank you!


The railings picture is just something I like the look of. I am nurturing an idea for a project to do with folk art and these railings may become part of that one day. I also took some pictures of gravestones but mabye that is too weird. I'll explain it all one day when it is officially a plan, rather than just crazy ideas!