Up-cycled Skirt

In my last post about my Uncle's Army Buttons, you saw a rare photo of me.  In this photo I am wearing a linen suit and a silk top.  Would you believe the top used to be a skirt?

A beautiful silk skirt

The skirt was a great find at my local market.  On the market is a woman who sells second hand clothes, but always great things.  I believe I bought the skirt for £4.50 and it is 100% silk, with pin tuck and insert detail.  The colour is unusual, a dusky pink, dusky burgundy mix.  Over the years I have tried to wear it, with cream, taupe and dusky pink tops, but the colour match and tone were never right.  

Then on Facebook this summer there was a lot of chatter about the Collette Blouse pattern and that it was free.  Duly downloaded and adjusted I realised that the skirt was big enough to use as the material.  All the detail on the skirt would be incorporated and give a great accent.

When I wore the skirt no one ever commented, but people love the top.  Also I find it goes better with  linen as a blouse than as a skirt with a linen coloured top.

An even better blouse

Army Buttons

Whilst tidying my work room, (as you all know I am sorting my work room to make it better organised) I came across a set of battered army buttons.

From the back, they look like they have just not been looked after, but the fronts (especially the top left one) intrigued me.  On closer inspection, they were buttons from the uniform of someone in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (bomb disposal), and the marks looked like something shrapnel would have done.

They were the buttons from the army uniform of Great Uncle James Donald Bradley - Donald to his family.

This is Donald wearing his uniform with the buttons.  I am missing 3 small ones and two large ones.  At the time of his death Donald wasn't wearing the uniform, but a bomb did kill him.

On the 26th April 1939, Donald joined the RAOC, signing on for 4 years.  On the 20th March 1940 he was posted overseas with the Scottish 58th Light Anti Aircraft Regiment.  He was then plucked out of the water at Dunkirk on 2nd June 1940 and sent with the rest of his remaining comrades to Penhale Camp, Perranporth, Cornwall.

Donald had two passions, swimming and poker.  His strong swimming ability saved his life at Dunkirk, rumours are that he was in the water for a day and helped save the lives of many of his comrades.  Penhale Camp was (it has now been redeveloped) on the north shore of Cornwall with an enviable beach and surfing waters.

On 7th July 1940, the day he died, he was on his way to the beach when he stopped to watch a high stake poker game.  At the same time, a German bomber was on his way back to Germany and had some bombs still on board.  He dropped them over Penhale Camp, one of them near to the poker game.  Donald, unlike some of his comrades, didn't die straight away.  He later died of his wounds at Newquay and District Hospital.

As he was on his way to the beach, he would not have been wearing the uniform.  But was it in his locker?  Were the buttons given to his family and have been kept all this time?  I will never know. But they are buttons, they have a family history connection, I love buttons and I love family history, what a great way of connecting people to their long lost family?

This is me at Donald's Grave side

This is the field at Penhale Camp, where the bomb dropped.

Sewing Kits

The last couple of days I have been working towards getting kits designed, written up, or made up.  With a goal to selling them on the Internet.

I have set up an eBay and a PayPal account.  The first kit that hopefully should be available is the Miniature Teddy Bear.

Tonight I have been working on a Miniature Christmas Stocking design.  It is a great little design that will only need scraps of material, and who hasn't got scraps?  The top is machine embroidered and for hand sewing phobes, there isn't any!  The inside is lined with a synthetic satin, (but you could use any fabric for the lining) and the addition of a ribbon hanger completes the look.

Miniature Christmas Stocking

Not doing as I should

Well today I should have been concentrating on doing a few UFO's.  But made a tutorial for my Miniature Teddy's instead.

Take a look at the side of this blog under Techniques and see what you think?

Soon the pattern with be available on eBay to buy as a kit.  

I will let you know when it is available.

Hopefully, the teddy I made today was the last Teddy I will make for a long time.

Tidying my Work Room part 2

Well sorting out my work room has been going on at a pace.  I've even got my hubby to join in and help.

Funny how little things start an avalanche.  I happened to mention to my husband that I wanted to sort out my work room and, that I have taken out my lace making equipment and was going to sort it out and put it away.  The conversation continued until eventually it lead to us going to ikea and hubby constructing a new desk.

First of all, I showed hubby a picture of the Horn Cut Easy MK2

This is to replace my current cutting out table.  Which is an old dining table that now only has two legs and has seen too much action to survive this round of reorganising.  So we went into my work room (which is only 3m x 3m) and we set about designing the new layout. He said I should buy the cutting out table and then went and found a desk on ikea's website to replace my existing work bench.  This is going to be recycled and used as a work bench over some cupboards and shelves.  Instead of paying for expensive fitted wardrobes, we are going to move the existing cupboards, but before we do that we are (or rather I am) going to decorate.  Hubby is going to fit a new floor, put in some extra electrics and, source a new ceiling light, because he says the existing one is too dull.

So all in all I am one lucky lady, I have a work room, I have a clever and talented hubby who is going to build and construct things for me, also I will soon have a beautiful new work room freshly decorated and with a new workable layout.  

I say soon, we are putting it on the back boiler until after our ski trip.

Now where did I put that list of UFO's . . . . . . 

Tidying My Work Room

The other day I had an hour to spare (lucky you I can hear you shout), so set about reorganising my workroom and clean (sorry I had to swear) it.

Taking up a lot of space in my workroom is my lace making equipment.  So I set about getting to it, this itself was not easy as it was hidden under mountains of other things.  Once found, I took them out and placed them in the hallway, for a decision as to what to do with it all later.

Then I hoovered, dusted and moved things around, quite merrily for the next half hour or so. When I had finished, there was no more space in my workroom than before! How could this be?

Well the two main culprits (after the lace making equipment) are: firstly my stash of material; and secondly my burgeoning pile of unfinished objects (UFOs).  I also have a dressmakers' dummy and a mannequin, but they don't count.

Firstly my material stash is split into categories and then stored accordingly.  I have nine drawers of scraps, each draw holding a colour theme.  I then have a box of cut cotton for scrap quilting.  I also have a picnic basket of material, this is mainly cotton for quilting.  Three large boxes contain dressmaking material of various types; from silk and satin to denim and leather.  Stood on their ends in a corner are rolls of interfacing, material and wadding.

As for my UFOs.  They are everywhere.  Mainly in bags either sat on the floor or hung on hooks.  Mostly, these are projects that should be frogged, but I don't give up that easy, and I will finish them.

I have a list of things to make/finish off.  This list was started in August and I haven't done anything other than what is on the list.  This is working so far.

Once this list has been finished I will make another list and I think I will have two columns.  One for items to make from my stash, and the second one of UFOs.  I know I will stick to this, I may even buy a book to write it in!

This has worked for me before, and I know it will work again.  Now, how to stop buying more material . . . . . . . .

Halloween is coming

Today I have made one of my favourite quick makes, a Halloween Ghost.

It's simple and cheap and check out my instructions on the right hand side of this blog