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’

Tags: curtains, cushions, Sewing, zips

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.

Tags: charity shops

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. Continue Reading »

Tags: courses

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: Continue Reading »

Tags: granny squares

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. Continue Reading »

Tags: art, patchwork

“Our actions have an effect”

In my last post I talked about the patchwork quilt project for the Fourth Plinth living monument. Well, here’s my patchwork square and a little explanation for my message from the plinth… Continue Reading »

Tags: art

If you’re interested in art, or even if you’re not, you’ve probably heard about Antony Gormley’s Fourth Plinth project ‘One & Other‘. If you haven’t heard about it the commission involves a different member of the public standing on the empty Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square every hour, 24 hours a day, for 100 days, to make a living monument. Each individual may use their hour on the plinth as they wish.

I’m really excited to be, in a very small way, part of of this amazing piece of art history by creating one patchwork square (of many) for a quilt which will be displayed on the plinth to celebrate women in the East Midlands. Continue Reading »

Tags: art, patchwork, Sewing

When I started this blog I decided that one of the things I’d write about is my charity shopping. I haven’t done that in much detail yet so I thought I’d start by sharing a few goodies I’ve bought recently and to dispell a few charity shopping myths.

I won’t list all of the things I’ve bought because some of them need alterations and will come up in later posts but here are a few particularly nice finds.

A trilby to keep the summer sun from burning… Continue Reading »

Tags: charity shops

Today is my birthday and I love how this plant, called ‘Many Happy Returns’ always flowers at the end of June. Isn’t it pretty?

I just wanted to share with you some lovely, crafty things I’ve had for my birthday. Even at my age (I’m not telling what that is) I’m spoiled rotten with thoughtful gifts. Continue Reading »

Tags: books, buttons, ribbon, yarn

“Two over three, two over one and four over three, two over three….” After last Wednesday night I was sure I’d be repeating this mantra forever. Now I’m just using a slight more confident “la le la, la le la, la le la…” which translates perfectly, obviously.

Why on earth have I been reciting these seemingly random numbers? Well, Sue, one of our lovely Stitched Up ladies, has been teaching a few of us bobbin lace making. I’ve learned whole stitch, twisted whole stitch and half-stitch, which you can see (in that order) in my very first go above. Continue Reading »

Tags: lace making, Stitched Up