At about this time every year my dad sends out a warning to my sisters and me not to get him a birthday present, not to waste our money on buying him something and just to make him a card. Of course we ignore him!
Although this year I thought I would make him something as part of his gift.
My dad is a green fingered type of chap. All his life he’s loved gardening. Before he retired he would work long, long shifts and come home and get stuck into the garden. He spent hours teaching me the names of various plants, flowers and trees and still one of my favourite smells in the world is tomato plants because I spent lots of time helping (actually probably just getting in the way) dad in the greenhouse.
So, what I’ve made him is a drawstring pouch to keep his plant markers and dibbers. Its just a silly prezzie, a bit of fun but I know he’ll like it. It’s the first thing I’ve made from the Meet Me at Mike’s book! Yay!
The natural talent for gardening hasn’t rubbed off onto me unfortunatley, I have to try a bit harder to make plants happy. But here are some snaps from our garden this afternoon in the lovely autumn sunshine…
My saturday retro cushion revival recipe….
Take a few sad, tired old cushions and peel off their grubby covers…
Add a generous measure of lovely colourful 70s fabric and a handful of zips…
Whip up into a batch of fresh new covers…
This fabric came from various places; 70′s M&S pillowcases from the car boot sale, pretty flower cotton from Barnardo’s charity shop and the funkiest second hand retro print (that I’ve been saving for ages) from a little village craft fair.
Lucky I sat the sewing machine class to brush up on my zip skills. Zips don’t have to be scary if you practise, practise, practise!
Also from my fabric stash came these cute little curtains…..
If you want to make your own cushions, check out:
‘How to Make a Cushion Cover‘ with a zip on Mooky Chick
Kirstie Allsop’s guide on ‘How to Make an Envelope Cushion Cover’
I love a good wedding and a couple of weekends ago we had a lovely time at my brother-in-law and now new sister-in-law’s wedding.
Occasions like this are so special, getting dressed up in posh frocks and suits and celebrating love and longevity.
We don’t get to do it every day and for that reason we like to make the extra effort with our outfits. But its always felt a bit strange to me to spend a lot of money on a brand new dress only to be worn once or twice.
I bought my own wedding dress from Oxfam (brides-to-be, if you haven’t discovered Oxfam Bridal yet, check it out) and so I have no qualms about getting an outfit from there for other weddings.
In fact I got my little blue empire line dress from Oxfam and the cute white shrug from The Children’s Society.
The shrug had a small printed motif that I wanted to cover and so Margaret, our Stitched Up crochet queen, made a white crochet flower brooch for me and it was just perfect.
My necklace and bracelet came from the gorgeous Bambi Vintage shop in Nottingham. On my feet I wore my trusty little gold strappy sandals – sourced from my wardrobe.
All in all my whole outfit cost less than £15. More importantly it was all pre-loved so no new materials or energy was used to create it!
Of course, saving money on the wedding outfit means more pennies for more charity shop bargains. Here are a few other recent goodies:
Funky 70′s curtains
Green polka dot dress and a pretty green and purple print shirt.
Back at the beginning of August I had a lovely weekend getting to know my sewing machine on the beginners sewing machine course at the Textile Workshop.
Although I’m not a complete beginner I thought this course would be useful to make sure I have the basics down before I move forward. Indeed it was useful.
It felt like I discovered things I never knew my machine could do! I even felt a little bit guilty for not having let my machine live out its full potential.
If you’re a self-taught sewing machine user like me I would definitely recommend a class like this. Its those extra pieces of knowledge you learn in a class that make all the difference.
Although I knew how to set up and thread my machine I wasn’t sure how to recognise if the tension wasn’t right and how to adjust it. Nor did I know what type of stitch to use for which type of fabric or job… Now I do.
Although my machine came with various attachments and feet, I didn’t know what they were and when to use them. Now I do.
I didn’t know what it was like to ditch the feed dogs and go freestyle, to applique curved shapes and use the machine to embroider in all directions on fabric and paper. Now I do.
At the end of the course we were given the opportunity to use our new skills and make something. Of course, I made a bunny, my first ever soft toy.
This beginners sewing machine course was lead by Claire from Pinky and Boo for the Textile Workshop. You can find dates for sewing and other craft courses on both websites:
www.pinkyandboo.co.uk
www.thetextileworkshop.co.uk
I’m smitten as a kitten by the fantastic Meet Me At Mike’s blog right now.
Blog owner Pip Lincolne also runs the Meet Me At Mike’s shop in Melbourne Australia and has a book of the same name. I finally managed to buy the book last week and have already started planning some of the craft projects in there. If I lived in Melbourne I’m sure I’d be at the shop all the time buying treats for myself.
Pop over to Meet Me At Mike’s and say “hi” to Pip. She’s had a bit of a tough time this week so could do with some happy vibes.
In the meantime here’s my top 5 reasons to love Meet Me At Mike’s:
- Pip loves granny squares just as much (if not more) than I do!
- The blog is teeming with gorgeous 70s style. Check out the brooches and purses in the shop too.
- There are always lots of list of ideas, projects and things to do.
- Beautiful pictures and videos abounds!
- Lots of energy in Pip’s writing that’s bound to get you inspired
For those of us not lucky enough to live in Melbourne we can still visit Meet Me At Mike’s online: www.meetmeatmikes.blogspot.com
Granny Square Update
Speaking of granny squares I must tell you that I fell off the wagon ages ago. Claire kindly donated a new stash of yarn for my addiction and since my ‘(Granny) Square Numbers‘ post in May I have been adding more and more squares to the growing blanket.
All I have to do now is sew them together!
This is a bit of a delayed update. In fact I’ve been neglecting this little blog due to being busy at work and the suchlike. But we’re not here to talk about work so here I am with a little flurry of posts this week. In between my chores I have managed to fit in a bit of sewing, shopping and crochet ;o)
First of all I was really pleased to see my patchwork square on the plinth on 12th August. Here is a screenshot from the video.
You can watch the whole hour of Hazel’s time on the plinth with the patchwork at the One and Other website. As well as a blanket there was a long piece of bunting made from the squares and mine was on the bunting. You can see it on the video at about 11 min 45 secs.
Hazel also read out my message “Our Actions Have an Effect” (at 20 mins 10 secs) and Claire’s (of Pinky and Boo) message straight afterwards. It was really exciting and moving to listen to all of the messages from women of the East Midlands. Watch it here: www.oneandother.co.uk/participants/Hazel_E