Category: charity

Lovely Testimonials: Sophia

Jil Shipley illustration from Jackie magazine
Jil Shipley illustration from Jackie magazine

I was chatting to Sophia on Facebook recently, and she said that I’d inspired her to have a go at some clothing upcycling: 

“Having admired the Eternal Magpie website and especially your beautiful dresses, I was inspired to pursue some clothing upcycling ideas which I previously assumed would be beyond my ability. 

I am pleased to say, that today I am finishing my second upcycling project! 

Thank you for inspiring me to have a go ” 

Sophia

Isn’t that lovely? 

I’ve been having vague thoughts about putting together some easy upcycling tutorials, similar to these fantastic ones that I used to love in Jackie magazine in the 1980s. These pages have a lot to answer for, including my much-loved oversized men’s tail shirt with ladybird buttons, painted Doc Martens and baseball boots… not to mention wearing a bowler hat painted with glittery puffy paint circles for no good reason. (Well, it was the 80s, so wearing a hat to hide my permed mullet was probably a good idea.) 

Anyway, dodgy 1980s styling tips aside… would you like to see some upcycling and mending suggestions? I’m not sure I can illustrate them as fabulously as Jil Shipley did for Jackie, but I hope I can share a few interesting ideas!

Making Do and Mending

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Well, isn’t this irritating? One freshly-dyed white t-shirt (Dylon Rosewood Red, not as lurid as it appears in these photos!) complete with stain that, annoyingly, wasn’t visible when the t-shirt was white. Now that the t-shirt’s dyed I can’t use a stain-removal product or scrub at the fabric, as that will most likely take off the dye as well as the stain. My only option now is to cover it up with something.

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That’s better! A bit out of focus, but these are floral motifs carefully snipped from a small piece of Lancaster & Cornish organic cotton lace. I’m hoping there might be just enough loose dye still in the fabric that a little bit of it leaches out into the lace the next time it’s washed, just to soften the cream colour a little bit. But if that doesn’t happen, no worries, because the cream lace makes the white stitching on the t-shirt look as bit more as though it’s supposed to be white on purpose.

Knowing that the stitching wouldn’t take the dye was the main reason I chose the colours I did for dyeing my trousers – beige to dark brown, and pale blue to dark grey. With the contrast stitching they just look like smart, lightweight jeans. I also have plans for mending all of my funny-coloured trousers in the future. I’m on the look-out for small pieces of Liberty print fabrics that I can use for patching, and maybe for adding a hint-of-a-print on the turn-ups. Hopefully that will be a long way off yet though!

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While I was mending things, I made the decision to take two of my most beloved t-shirts out of my wardrobe. This Suzanne Vega t-shirt is from the very first gig I ever went to – at the Wulfrun Civic Hall in Wolverhampton, on April 8th 1993. (We were sitting three rows from the back, and Suzanne Vega had a cough.) Having been worn pretty often over the past 22 years, although recently relegated to hospital wear or pyjamas only, it’s safe to say that this t-shirt is very much past its best! But there was no way on earth I was going to throw it out, and it’s really not fit to give to a charity shop, so it was the work of about five minutes to turn it into a cushion. The tour dates are on the back.

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The same fate befell my other favourite t-shirt, also purchased in 1993, this time from Forbidden Plant in Hanley. I didn’t own any other green clothes, and it was far too big for me (being a men’s size XL), but I just had to have it. It saw me through art college and University, but again, it’s not even really fit to wear as pyjamas any more. But, because it was still in my wardrobe, it kept mysteriously finding its way out and onto my body. Drastic measures clearly had to be taken. So, cushion it is.

(No, I don’t iron my bedding. Sorry, Mum!)

Making these two cushions from my favourite t-shirts has made me wonder though – are there any items in my current wardrobe that I can imagine myself still wanting to keep in 22 years’ time?!

Satisfying Saturday

Look what I just found for the princely sum of TEN PENCE at my local church fair! It explains all the things I never quite understood about dart manipulation, plus I love the 1980s styling. Brilliant!

Now this is what I call a bargain. Paul and I popped into our local church’s fair on the way home from the Post Office, where I managed to pick up this excellent book for the princely sum of TEN PENCE. I had a quick flick through, and suddenly the mysteries of dart manipulation seem a lot clearer. Once the Vintage Night’s out of the way, I feel inspired to draft myself a new bodice sloper and do some experiments!

The start of a Miette cardigan - my first top-down seamless knit. Though I'm a bit worried I'm going to run out of this great sparkly yarn!

And this, the product of about a week’s knitting (on and off) is the yoke of a Miette cardigan in a lovely mottled pink yarn with a sparkly strand running through it. I’d thought that seeing everyone else’s photos from Me-Made May would make me want to rush out and buy lots of sewing patterns. Thankfully that’s not the case, but seeing lots of different versions of this cardigan did make me want to cast on immediately! It’s a cropped style, which is good for me as I’m very short-waisted, and also good as I don’t really have enough yarn for the pattern. It’s supposed to have three-quarter length sleeves, but I’m definitely going to end up with short ones. Once I’ve finished the body, I’ll knit the neck and front bands. Then I’ll know I can use all the remaining yarn on the sleeves – assuming there is some!

I don’t know whether I’ll get it finished in time to wear it as part of Me-Made May, but I’m going to give it a good try.

(Oh, and both of these photos are also on Instagram. If you’d like to follow me there, I’m “inexplicableemporium”.)

Doll Dresses & Dad’s Shirt

Doll dresses and Dad's shirt

A bit of nice easy sewing today – or so I thought! Well, okay, the doll dresses weren’t exactly difficult, but good grief they’re fiddly! I know I say this every time I make one, you’d think I’d be used to it by now. The first couple of doll dresses I made for Milly were fastened with velcro. These two fasten with poppers, which I’m hoping she should be able to get the hang of herself. I’d like to make future dresses with buttons, but that depends on whether I can convince myself to work hand-sewn buttonholes on doll’s clothes. (I’m not fighting my sewing machine for it, it’s not worth the swearing.)

The shirt, on the other hand, really was easy. My Dad picked it up in a charity shop, and it wasn’t until he got it home and tried it on that he discovered the sleeves were far too long! There’s no easy way to shorten shirt sleeves (you can do it, but involves taking the cuff off and re-working the placket, which is a pain in the proverbials), so the really easy thing to do is simply to chop the sleeves off at the elbow, hem them neatly, and call it a short sleeved shirt. Much better.

Even though it was only a small refashioning job, the quality of the fabric was very noticeable. The labels are very faded so this shirt’s obviously been washed a lot, and the cotton is densely woven and incredibly soft. It’s an Yves Saint Laurent shirt, so I guess it must have been quite expensive originally. Another reason why I often haunt charity shops – if you can get past all the Primark items being sold for more than they cost new, you can quite often find a piece that might be old, but is of a much higher quality than you might ordinarily be able to afford. Thanks to a very simple alteration, my Dad should get plenty of wear out of this – once the weather warms up enough for summer shirts, that is!

Christmas Fair & New Year Plans

Christmas Fair

This is Paul making himself comfortable behind the Eternal Magpie stall at the Berkshire Autistic Society Christmas Fair last Saturday. We were in a brand new school designed especially for kids of all ages who are on the autistic spectrum, which was a really lovely space. The floor was both squashy and heated, so he was actually much more comfortable than you might expect!

From a stall point of view the day was fairly quiet, but it was the first event of its kind in this venue, so I expect next year’s will be a lot busier. We were lucky enough to have some local friends pop in and do some Christmas shopping with us, and we chatted to some other lovely stallholders. We also met lots of families, some of whom I knew from working at the Museum, and some from my previous job with the Family Resource Centre. Two little boys had a great time sorting through all my button badges (they loved the maps), and another was extremely honest with us about the scented candles. Thankfully he was complimentary, his Mum was a bit worried he was going to say something rude! Everyone at BAS had clearly put a lot of effort into the event, and it definitely deserves to be a lot better attended in future.

However, as it turned out, we came home with just the right amount of money to tip my savings over into being enough to buy the set of hat blocks I’ve been coveting all year! So, an email has been sent to Guy Morse-Brown about a set of interchangeable crown and brim blocks for making felt cloche hats. There’s going to be a steep learning curve involved, but there will be (hopefully lovely) hats coming this way in the New Year!

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There will be a number of other changes too. I’ve just discovered that four out of five of the Airship Fresheners fragrances have been discontinued, so I’ll be choosing some new candle oils in the New Year. Lure of the Kraken will continue to be available, and Hot Tea & Crumpets (currently sold out) I can hopefully buy another batch of before it disappears – but Sweet English Rose, The Arabian Nights and Cherry Bakewell will be gone completely once these last few candles have been snapped up. Still, it’s a good excuse to look for some interesting new fragrances, and there are a few I have my eye on already. Sloe Gin, anyone?

I’ve also decided to discontinue the large candles in the glass jars, and only make tea light candles in the future. The jars make the candles heavy and fragile, which makes them difficult to ship. I think sticking to tea lights and offering some kind of “pick-and-mix” option with the different fragrances is going to be a better way forward. I’ve also had requests for wax tarts rather than candles, so I’m going to be investigating the possibilities for those too.

I have kept back one large candle in each fragrance though, so that the winner of the Facebook Giveaway (almost there!) can have their pick.

Anyway, the next couple of weeks will be free from Emporium work as I take a break to spend time with Paul and our families, and also to do a little bit of sewing for myself and my niece. It’s Christmas Dress time again, and I’ve got some really sweet fabric waiting for me. I hope she likes it!

Facebook giveaway and temporary Etsy closure…

Raffle prize!

I’ve just realised that I completely forgot to mention my Facebook giveaway!

I’m hovering around the edges of 100 “Likes”, which is quite exciting, so I thought I’d do a giveaway when I reach that nice round number. All you have to do is share the giveaway photo from the Eternal Magpie Facebook page. It would be nice if you felt like “Liking” the page too, assuming you don’t already.

I’m hoping the details should be conveniently pinned to the top of the page when you get there – if not, you’re looking for a photo like the one above, but with the giveaway information listed next to it.

I don’t know how long it might take to reach the magic hundred. The numbers keep going up and down, and are currently on 93 – so close! But once we’re there, I’ll put all the people who shared the photo into a hat (not literally, I don’t have a really big hat), and draw out a winner at random. The prize is a set of tealights, and a voucher for one large candle in the fragrance of your choice – stock permitting.

Speaking of stock, I’ll be closing the Etsy shop tomorrow, just for the day, while I take my wares to a local Christmas fair. We’re rapidly nearing the deadlines for Christmas postage, so please feel free to snap things up sooner rather than later! The Etsy shop will go back online as soon as I’ve adjusted the stock to reflect anything I sell out of on Saturday. Hopefully it’ll be a good day!

For anybody local, it’s the Berkshire Autistic Society Christmas Fair. Hopefully I’ll see some of you there!

A stash-busting exercise gone awry

Zipped pouches - in progress

It started off as an exercise in using up my stash of 7″ skirt zips. These are the ingredients for 20 lined pouches, cut from remnants left from clothes I’ve made over the years.

While I was cutting up my pile of larger scraps, I thought I might as well carry on. So I kept on snipping until I’d been though every piece of quilting cotton I could find.

Zipped pouches - in progress

This then, is another forty-four sets of fabric and lining. Which means that whilst I have indeed used up my entire stash of 7″ skirt zips… I now need to go and buy quite a lot more. Oops…

I don’t know how many of these I’ll manage to complete in time for the Berkshire Autistic Society Christmas Fair next Saturday, as my only day off work next week is earmarked for Christmas shopping. But I’ve got a couple of afternoons and a week’s worth of evenings, so hopefully there should be quite a few for sale!

Memories are (apparently not) made of this

Gottschlich brooches

This afternoon I was very excited to spot these two little brooches at my local church’s Autumn Fair. (It was a Christmas Fair, but I suspect they didn’t want to call it a Christmas Fair when advent doesn’t start until tomorrow.) They cost a grand total of 30p each, and although they’re rather yellowed, I was really pleased with them.

I was absolutely convinced they they were a) Holly Hobbie, and b) the same as a mug and plate my sister and I each had when we were kids. Turns out I was wrong on both counts.

They’re definitely not Holly Hobbie. The little girl above is Holly Hobbie, and these little girls aren’t even her friends. (How mean.)

Gottschlich brooches and Purbeck plate

They’re also not the same as the plate and mug I had as a kid! I was absolutely 100% convinced that the little girl with the yellow cap and pink apron was on this plate. Wrong again!

However, the two little brooches are by the same artist as the plate – Gisela Gottlschlich, a German illustrator. The plate and mug are by Purbeck of Swanage, but Gottschlich’s designs must have been licensed very widely, as there are ceramics by all sorts of different companies listed on Ebay.

I’m now wondering whether the little dark haired girl is the one from my sister’s plate and mug – I know I’ve seen her before. Usually I had things with pictures of dark haired girls and my sister with blonde, to match our own hair.  (Let’s not talk about the brunette Girl’s World head that you couldn’t dye the hair of, when my sister had fancy streaking pens for her blonde one. Apparently I made up for that by messing with my own hair in later life!), But if our names happened to be on the plates with the opposite-coloured illustrations, then maybe my sister does have the dark haired girl on her plate and mug. I’ll have to ask.

Either way, I’ll be keeping one of these little brooches, and hoping my sister would like to have the other.

Charity Swap

Fenn Wright & Manson dress

Look! We have a garden now! An almost-completed deck, and an almost-completed lawn! By the end of the weekend it should all be done. We just need to remember to keep watering the lawn every day, especially if it’s going to stay sunny. We should probably buy a lawn mower at some point too…

So, we took two more boxes of stuff down to one of our local charity shops, and I managed to come home with this lovely summer dress. It’s a little bit too big, but that’s nothing a sewing machine can’t fix! It’s a bit lower at the neck than I’d normally wear, but I’ll give it a try with a t-shirt underneath before I set about putting in a modesty panel of some description.

Fenn Wright & Manson dress

The dress is by Fenn Wright Manson, a brand that’s usually well outside of my budget, so I was very pleased to bring this home for the bargain price of twelve quid! It’s a cotton and silk blend, with an acetate lining. The label says “dry clean only”, but it smells as though it’s been through a washing machine recently and doesn’t seem any the worse for that. I think it’ll survive a cool wash well enough.

I am tempted to grab a bunch of fabric paints to colour it in, but I do think those aqua splashes are lovely!

Charity Shopping

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I’ve lived in Reading for twenty years, and been driven past this shop countless times. Today was the first time I remembered to make a little detour and have a look inside. I think it should probably win some kind of award for Most Bonkers Place I’ve Ever Shopped, even by charity shop standards! Every surface is simply crammed full of STUFF. I wandered up a corner to look at some glassware, and when I came to wander out again, a lady had barricaded me in with a pile of briefcases that I had to clamber over. Bonkers.

I came out with a lovely selection of mis-matched decorated shot glasses that I plan to turn into little candles. I also found a set of 6 iridescent amber glasses that I think I might keep, just because they’re so pretty.

I do love a good charity shop, and I think this has to qualify as one of the best. Whilst I don’t mind the brand-name ones that have “vintage & retro” sections, with items priced accordingly, I do love the places that are more like a jumble sale, or an explosion in a grandmother’s attic. If I’d been able to concentrate enough to really look, I’m sure I could have found even more amazing treasures in the AUTISTIC SHOP. (Plus, proceeds go directly to the Berkshire Autistic Society, who do excellent work in the area.)

Glasses

These are just a few of the treasures that I’ve picked up in local charity shops over the past few weeks. All in need of a good wash, but beautiful nonetheless!

I think what I need to look for now is a really good jumble sale. Once I’m no longer working every weekend, I know of a couple of local church halls that I can frequent. If I can convince Paul that he wants to drive me there, a trip to the monthly Sue Ryder sale at Nettlebed might be in order too. Although their donations list does say that they don’t accept odd glasses and cups… which are the things that I most want! It seems criminal to break up a lovely set that could still be used, for the sake of turning them into candles. Much nicer to pick up oddments and give them a new function, I think.