Project Seaside Stripes

Lovely project for today, new covers and matching cushions for a pair of vintage deckchairs rescued by the Boy from our local junk shop.

Gorgeous stripy deckchair fabric from these lovely people, who included stripy sweeties in the package. And my goodness me, choosing colourways was difficult ... 

One false start where I thought I could staple the fabric to the frame using the Boy's seriously scary upholstery staple gun, but the trusty sewing machine was what I really needed.

Now we just need some more of this fantastic sunshine, and it'll be just like the seaside.

Blackpool Promenade, 1898 

Image uploaded to Flickr by trialsanderrors

A weekend of making

It's been a hectic old summer, especially workwise, but this weekend I finally made some time for making.

I finished The Boy's bobble hat,

knocked up a very stylish (if I say so myself) knitting bag from an old skirt to prevent the cat from running around the house with my half-finished knitting in her mouth,

and baked this fantastic pistachio cake with cream cheese frosting, mmmmm:

Having swapped a creative marketing job for a responsible middle management job about two years ago, I really find these weekend things very satisfying.  I think it helps me bridge the gap between the "work me" and the "real me", which feel pretty separate these days. Now, to find a way to bring those two closer together ...

Seaside wedding

Last weekend saw us at Wedding No. 1 of the summer, the wedding of my cousin and his lovely bride.

It was glorious, a touching church ceremony with gorgeous sacred music, and a proper knees up. They looked so happy.

I got to wear The Dress, and my handmade homemade fascinator, constructed from a vintage brooch, ribbon and feathers.











And we got to ride on a carousel!

Upcycle

I am pretty pleased with this rather successful upcycle.

I couldn't find a denim skirt I liked in the shops - this season seems to be all super-short minis, buckles and similar interesting details - and I was about to "charity shop" some old jeans in my summer wardrobe purge.

So with two panel inserts and a bit of Liberty print bias binding, voilà, a whole new skirt for nought pence.

 

There also follows a gratuitous cat picture, because she's sweet and didn't mind the sewing machine one bit.

So it begins

So it begins…

The project is under way. Taking advantage of a visit by the Aged Parents to London Town, I grabbed a day of annual leave and work began.

The pattern, as anticipated, is somewhat fiendishly difficult. Thank heavens for Mother's dressmaking skills and experience, as I would have struggled on my own.

After one false start – it turns out 1950 size 16 is really not all that comparable to 2010 size 14 as I had optimistically hoped – and some tricksy work using greaseproof paper to adjust the pattern pieces to fit me (taking your own accurate vital statistics is an odd experience – on paper, the numbers look startling), we cut and basted and stitched, and then cut and basted and stitched some more.

So far, the pattern has required complicated darts (six darts of two different types) and rather sophisticated facing to get the boatneck perfectly flat and elegantly simple.  Next step is the skirt – all 2.5 metres of it – which is sitting gathered up tutu-style waiting to become one with the bodice.

All very complicated, but there's a really pleasure in being perfectionist and making a dress that will fit me – and only me – to a T. A very personal project.

Next step sees me going solo as Mum is back in Manchester and can only support remotely – fingers crossed!

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Industrious and creative

Given the glorious sunshine, I have been sitting here is my little sun-trap reading the papers all afternoon ... sitting in the doorway of my shed like an old man on an allotment!

This means, however, that what I have not been doing is turning this lovely fabric - thrifted in Farnham, Hampshire, the day before Little Sister's wedding to Warrior Sahib and, yes, they're rapidly approaching their first anniversary - into cushion covers. Who wants to stay in and sew on such an afternoon?!

So, in lieu, here is a bit of something about a far more industrious and creative person than me...

Sianuska has been adding lots of lovely stuff to her Etsy shop: I have always especially loved the collages created from airmail envelopes, dress patterns and old photos, with their sweet retro feel and incredible attention to detail, and now they're available as prints. Hurrah!

And there's brand new bunting, just in time for summer garden parties, made from the whimsical Old Lady Swearwords design: fiddlesticks, indeed!

While you're there, there's some nice finds on her vintage shop: I covet the driving gloves but they're too small for these Lancashire mill worker hands of mine!

I've been making bunting too - very zeitgeisty - from origami paper and pretty saved scraps. Check out my super-pimped shed:

Well, it makes doing laundry a little bit pleasanter, so why not?

Making a purse (out of a sow's ear?)

In search of creativity and inspiration beyond our everyday lives, Cuttings on a Blog and I went to the Zandra Rhodes Fashion and Textile Museum for a sewing workshop.

The FTM is a wonderful bright orange edifice in Bermondsey Street, standing out against the Georgian relics and Manhattan style loft apartments carved out of Dickensian warehouses - something like a cyber-adobe casa, cheerful and defiant against the blustery November skies.

Currently showing: 'Foale and Tuffin, Made in England', a celebration of the independent early sixties fashion house. From geometric zippered shift dresses to bumpkin-inspired smocks, the clothes are joyfully redolent of an era of freedom, Swinging London, Twiggy haircuts and leggy young women jumping in and out of Mini Coopers. 

The workshop was rather chaotic but fun: my frame purse was, as ever with these things, not as perfectly crafted as in my imagination but the whole exercise was very satisfying and nourishing.  The sense of being caught up in creative flow - oblivious to anything except the methodical, attention-demanding task in hand - is quite delicious after a hectic week of work.

Wikipedia paraphrases Csíkszentmihályi's positive psychology theory of flow as "focused motivation ... single-minded immersion ... [oneself] aligned with the task at hand" - very much the effect that knitting, gardening, reading and crafting have on me!