Month: July 2009

Good To Be Girl

Shortly after I posted about my Liberty knitting print skirt I received an email from Helen, asking whether I knew anywhere that the fabric was still available. Sadly it was already discontinued when it was given to me, and its well and truly out of print now.

It turned out that she only needed some very small pieces, so I’ve just sent a parcel containing the offcuts from my skirt. What Helen’s planning to make is a couple of adorable little knitting project bags. She and her daughter have an Etsy store called Good To Be Girl, selling cute little stitch markers, and these bags in a variety of sizes.

They’re specially designed for knitters on the move – they have a wrist strap, a little clip to attach to your belt or handbag, and a small yarn feed inside the bag, so you don’t get all tangled on your travels. I like the teeny tiny little notions bags – perfect for keeping all those little bits and pieces like your stitch markers, yarn needle and tape measure.

I can’t wait to see some project bags in the Liberty knitting print – how cool is that?!

World’s Smallest Carrot.

World's Smallest Carrot

I haven’t been enjoying a great deal of success with my vegetable growing lately. My peas were frazzled during the heatwave, slugs have reduced my beans to mere sticks, all my courgette flowers have died and my beetroot don’t look too healthy either.

I suddenly noticed that the carrots were all growing very close together, so I thought I’d better thin them out a bit. I could only bring myself to pull out one plant, but I was very excited to discover that there really was a tiny carrot growing at the other end of it!

It is supposed to that shape – I don’t know the exact variety (the seeds were a gift from skycarrots), but it’s a globe carrot, ideal for growing in pots. I’m looking forward to leaving the rest well alone, so they get nice and round.

I’m hoping that this is also going to be a good year for tomatoes. My plants (three different varieties) all have plenty flowers on them, lots of little green tomatoes, and there’s even a couple that are slowly turning red.

Next year I’d really like to get the garden sorted out, and put in some proper vegetable beds. I should probably also pay some attention to what I’m planting and how I’m looking after it – this year I just shoved all the seeds into pots and hoped for the best. Thankfully it seems to be turning out okay – for the tomatoes and carrots at least!

Butterflies and Bees.

Painted Lady

To make the most of the fact that I happened to be off sick on the one day in the last fortnight when it wasn’t chucking it down with rain the entire time, I went for a very short walk with the camera – just down to the edge of the lake and back.

Paul’s taken the 300mm lens with him to Germany, so instead of struggling with the 200mm, I decided to have a play with the macro (70mm) lens.

Sitting on the teasels was a slightly ragged Painted Lady butterfly. I sneaked up on it with the camera, and it wasn’t bothered in the slightest.

A bit further along there’s a big bank of thistles, and they were covered in bees! I saw at least four different types of bee, although I wasn’t able to get decent photos of all of them.

I’ve been lucky enough to have a very positive response to my photos since I’ve been using a digital SLR. I do have some up for sale in my Etsy store, but I thought I’d simplify the process even further and make a page right here when you can buy prints and canvases in a number of different sizes.

Up at the top of the page, there’s a shiny new tab marked “Photos“. Have a look, and let me know what you think!

Spectacular spats!

When I wrote about those gorgeous ruffly boots, Cathryn pointed out that I could achieve the same effect on any pair of boots by making myself a pair of spats. Brilliant!

I went straight to the internet for inspiration, and came across this amazing pair from Maide. Her motto is “good mood fashion”, and I’m definitely in a good mood now that I’ve seen these. Maide has a gorgeous Dawanda store which is filled with amazing creations.

I liked this pair particularly because they reminded me of this beautiful Mucha print bag, which I bought from Baba Studio last Christmas. If you become a fan of Baba Studio on Facebook, you can see sneak previews of Karen’s latest designs. The new printed chiffon wraps are especially lovely!

Hurry up, winter!

I never seem to have a great deal of luck with summer shoes. Every year I buy a pair that look as though they ought to be comfortable, and every year I end up with terrible blisters. I’ve pretty much given up hope of finding a pair of smart shoes that I can wear in summer.

Today I’m suffering from some kind of Dreaded Lurgy (no, not Swine Flu!), so I’m reading a pile of fashion magazines and doing a bit of window shopping on the computer.

I spotted the boots above in the current edition of UK Vogue, and I’ve fallen madly in love. They’re by Solea at Kurt Geiger, and as far as I can tell they’re not actually available to buy yet.

I have just two questions about these little boots:

Do they come in black, and can I afford them?

I suspect the answer to both of those questions is going to be “no”, but in the meantime I’m quite happy imaging how these pretty boots would look with just about everything in my wardrobe.

Summer brights

Karen's orange dress

A seam ripper is one of the most useful tools you can have as a dressmaker. Not just for those inevitable wobbles and wonky bits, but for tasks like this one.

My very petite friend had bought a dress that was too long for her, and she asked whether I could remove the ruffle from the hem. I don’t usually do alterations, but this was a nice simple one, so I brought my seam ripper to the rescue.

Rather than attack the dress with scissors, I used the seam ripper to nip out the stitching that was holding the ruffle in place. This allowed me to get a lovely neat edge, and expose the lace trim that was holding the two sections together.

It’s so tidy that I don’t even need to hem the new bottom of the dress. Marvellous!

Scents and Stones

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So, the exciting new thing that I’ve been working on? It’s arrived!

I’ve just started a second blog, which is (mostly) about aromatherapy.

All that’s there at the moment is a great long introduction and the beginnings of a Frequently Asked Questions page, but I have plans… oh, such plans!

The idea is that I will share what I’ve learned from my ten years’ experience of using aromatherapy in my everyday life, and teach people easy and safe ways to help themselves and liven up their homes. It’ll be a resource for students, and also for anyone who just wants to find out a bit more.

There are two long-term aims for the blog:

  1. to build up a comprehensive resource, and to chart my own progress and eventual training as a professional aromatherapist.
  2. to launch a range of aromatherapy-based beauty products which you can either buy directly from me, or make yourself from recipes and tutorials that I provide.

To begin with I’m looking for advertisers, so that I can get rid of the terribly irrelevant Google ads that are currently being served up! Advertising space will be free until the end of the year.

I have a dedicated Twitter account, which is @scentsandstones…

…and that should give you a clue as to the name of the new blog!

Scents & Stones

Vintage treasures.

Over the years I’ve collected and been given quite a few vintage clothing patterns – most of them from the 1950s. Unfortunately most of them were too small for me to actually sew and wear, and although I have an abiding love of 1950s clothing, I’m really not a 1950s shape.

It’s taken me a long time to psyche myself up for letting go of these, and it’s taken all afternoon to list them, but my vintage pattern collection is now on Ebay, looking for a good home.

I’ll be particularly sad to lose this one in particular. Quite apart from those amazing cuffs (which are detachable!), I think the picture looks like a perfect candidate for one of Erin’s pattern stories.

A new summer dress?

I can’t even begin to count how many patterns I’ve bought in search of the Perfect Dress. Some of them I’ve made and then hardly worn; others are in the process of being cleared out on Ebay, completely unused.

Having recently discovered that an empire line dress is apparently the most flattering style for me to wear, I’ve been looking at this pattern – Butterick 5317. I was thinking that it looked like a nice smart, grown-up dress that I could wear to work with a little jacket. Maybe I could make it in a fine linen, or a swingy crepe.

And then I looked at my fabric stash, and wondered how it would look with a pretty cupcake print, or a selection of sugar skulls. Not so smart and grown-up, but much more fun!

Still working on the smocks

MERL smocks

This is a sneaky peek at one of the object storage cases at the Museum of English Rural Life. Frances and I took out every single smock, photographed and measured it, and took lots and lots of notes.

Now the task is to type up all of those notes, which is one of the reasons I haven’t been blogging much lately. I haven’t been doing much sewing or knitting because I’ve been hanging out at the museum, typing. Apparently there is no limit to the number of times you can type the word “smock” in a single paragraph.

I’m about half way through now, so the end is (sort of) in sight, and there are plans afoot for possible new displays in the future.

I do have some close-up pictures of a couple of the really fine and delicate smocks that we looked at, so I’ll post those for you very soon.