Category: shopping

New hat, new options for a mannequin

Hand blocked wool felt baby pink cloche hat featuring a floral design with hand embroidery, felt flowers and vintage buttons

Here is today’s felt hat offering – now in the Etsy shop. I’m really pleased with how the flowers came out, although I learnt an important lesson about doing all the work in the right order. (Note to self: Yes, putting the flowers on first allowed you to check their placement. But it made for incredibly fiddly stitching of the stems!)

I had been vaguely planning to work on felt hats during my full days off work, and then do other kinds of sewing during my half days. Given how sore my fingers are from doing all of this hand sewing through machine-made felt, I think I might revise that plan. Ouch.

Excitingly, my previous hat (the bright pink one with the black guipure lace) sold out almost immediately, and was swiftly followed by an order for another one the same! So I’ve ordered some new felt hoods from Parkin Fabrics, and I’ll make a start on some more hats once they arrive. Perhaps without embroidery this time though.

Interestingly, after my earlier post contemplating the purchase of a new mannequin, I received a very helpful email from Equipashop.com, directing my attention to the existence of the lovely lady above. She’s perfect!

Okay, so she’s still out of my budget right now, but she’s much more affordable than the one I was looking at before, and she’ll be able to display hats, cowls, gloves and jackets. Brilliant! I’m now following Equipashop.com on Facebook, I’ve signed up to their mailing list, and I’ll be making a purchase as soon as funds allow. (And she’s SPARKLY. I mean really, how can I resist?)

Looking around the rest of the site (which turns out to be FULL of bargains!) I was also pleased to see that they offer a plus size mannequin, although she’s not in stock right now. Granted, at roughly a UK size 14/16 she’s at the smaller end of plus size, but that’s still several sizes bigger than most garment display options. Conveniently her measurements are almost exactly the same as mine (though she’s quite a bit taller), so she’d actually be perfect as a dressmaker’s dummy for my own sewing.

Hmmm.

Maybe it’s time to get on with having that pattern de-stash sale that I keep thinking about, to raise money for the newly instated Mannequin Fund…

Search for the perfect dress

McCalls M5924

 

Every now and then I get a bee in my bonnet about finding “the perfect dress”. Over the years it’s been vintage patterns that weren’t even remotely the same shape as my body, fiddly patterns that I hated to sew, or patterns that looked beautiful but turned out to be really uncomfortable to wear. I have dozens of these in my wardrobe, but it wasn’t until this morning that I realised the perfect dress is already amongst them.

McCalls 5924

This is McCalls 5924 (now out of print), and I’ve made two so far. The top one is a nice heavy cotton jersey, the one above is a lightweight drapey viscose knit, and the pattern works equally well in both. They’re empire line, which suits my shape, they have the all-important pockets, they layer well, and they’re really, really comfortable. I have enough fabric in the stash to make at least two more, and I don’t know what’s taken me so long!

While I was thinking about my wardrobe and the things I’d like to add to it, I added some more Gossypium yoga pants to my wish list. Then I realised that there’s almost certainly a yoga pants pattern out there somewhere, which is when I spotted New Look 6165. Not only yoga pants, but a skirt with the same fold-over waist! Ideal for wearing over leggings, and no elastic to dig in and give me a stomach ache. Perfect!

Of course, there’s always room for more than one “perfect dress” in any wardrobe. Which brings me to Vogue 8975. Another Marcy Tilton pattern (like the smocked silk dress), this time for knit fabrics and complete with a little jacket to wear over the top. Conveniently, my local fabric shop has a sale on both New Look and Vogue patterns at the moment, so I think a trip into town will be forthcoming early next week!

My next challenge will be to go through both my wardrobe and my pattern stash, and get rid of some things that I’m simply never going to wear or make. I’m the sort of person who will quite happily buy clothes in multiples if I find something that I like, so I have no problem at all with wearing the same few dresses over and over again. I’m trying not to think about how much money I must have spent over the years on patterns that didn’t suit me once they were made up, or fabric that turned out to be difficult to look after or uncomfortable to wear. All of that trial and error has brought me here – to the knowledge of which patterns I like to sew, and which clothes I like to wear. The photo above is an old one, but despite all the dressmaking I do, I basically live in a hoody, a stripy t-shirt, and a pair of ancient jeans that haven’t fit properly for a long time. Time for a bit of an overhaul, I think!

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.

A lovely parcel arrived from France!

Cozy Memories goodies

Look at all these lovely goodies! I recently entered a giveaway on Facebook, when Sonia of Cozy Memories reached 500 Likes. I was very surprised to find out that I’d actually won – and here’s my prize!

I was expecting to receive the festive Mug Rug, shown at the bottom – a lovely organic cotton coaster with room for a biscuit on the side. I was also expecting the scarf, which I chose with a voucher that was part of the prize. I wasn’t expecting the matching square coaster, the lovely handwritten card, and the delicious tea bag! The scarf came in a lovely hand-dyed drawstring bag too, which looks to be just the right size for storing my tarot cards.

Cozy Memories Scarf

Best of all – everything is made by hand, with natural materials. The linen scarf is dyed with Sicilian Sumac, sourced locally to Sonia, and the colour is a gorgeous grey-toned purple. I had a really hard time choosing which item I wanted from her shop, as everything is so lovely! I was very taken with this zipped pouch, dyed to the same colour and decorated with a ginkgo leaf.

Cozy Memories scarf

In the end I decided to choose something that I could wear often, and that would fit in with my wardrobe. I have a lot of clothes in variations of black, grey and purple, so this scarf will go with all of them! I especially like the variations in the dye that you can see in the photo above. They add a lovely depth to the fabric, and a reminder of the natural dyeing process.

In the spirit of paying things forward, I’ll be having a giveaway on The Eternal Magpie Facebook page, when I reach 100 Likes. Now I just need to choose something that I think people would actually like to win!

Shopping Spree: Skulls, Skeins and a Spindle

Handmade polymer & gemstone earrings from Honey & Ollie

Look what arrived today – my lovely new earrings from Honey and Ollie! They arrived super quick, all the way from California. So quick that I wasn’t expecting them for about another week! As a recovering goth, I’m still irresistibly drawn to Things With Skulls, and these were so pretty that I couldn’t resist.

Handmade polymer & gemstone earrings from Honey & Ollie

The skulls and flowers are made from polymer clay, with sparkly little gemstones dangling at the top. The findings (all hand made) are copper, which complements the stones beautifully. The hooks are a really lovely shape too, and they stay in place very securely. Despite being quite big, they’re really light to wear, and I’m definitely going to be adding more Honey and Ollie pieces to my wish list.

Handspun and hand dyed yarn from The Outside, with hand carved drop spindle

This is my little haul from the Museum of English Rural Life‘s Traditional Craft Fair.

All from The Outside, on top is a hand-carved drop spindle. It’s made from yew, and it’s a bottom-whorl style. Excuse the red acrylic leader, I was so keen to try it out that I grabbed the first thing I could find! Once I’d figured out how to do a half-hitch to hold the yarn in place, I grabbed some fluff and started to spin straight away. It’s a lovely spindle, and I’m really happy to have one of my own instead of having to borrow from work. Now I can practice at home, and make as much wobbly, lumpy yarn as I like!

Handspun and hand dyed yarn from The Outside

Speaking of yarn… this is neither wobbly, nor lumpy. It’s handspun from blue faced leicester wool, and it’s lovely and soft. The vibrant colours are all from natural dyes, and this should be just enough to make a pair of rainbow-striped mittens.

The colours, from left to right, are:
1) Weld & madder
2) Weld
3) Weld & woad
4) Weld & woad dipped in madder
5) Woad & weld
6) Woad
7) Cochineal (orange oxidised to blue)

I had a lovely chat with Romilly about dyeing, including planting up a dye garden and not being afraid of mordants. There is definitely going to be some experimentation with colour and fluff in my future! For now though, I need to practice my spinning, and think about the perfect pattern for my new rainbow-coloured mittens.

Speakeasy

I can’t tell you how excited I am to see these fabrics! I’ve been waiting literally years for these types of prints to be available in the UK, on sustainable fabrics. Once again, the Organic Textile Company have outdone themselves!

The prints and colourways are closely based on designs from a book of 1920s textile patterns, and they’re printed onto a handwoven organic cotton and bamboo blend. I absolutely love their other cotton/bamboo fabrics, so I can’t wait to get my hands on some of these!

The hardest part is going to be deciding which of the prints and colourways to choose. I think the centre print, “Roaring Twenties” in purple, is my absolute favourite, and I think it will go very nicely with some plain purple that I have in the Shed already.

Now all I need is for everyone to head over to the Inexplicable Emporium and buy a few things, so I can afford to buy enough of this gorgeous fabric to make some dresses, which I can then put back into the Emporium!

(Don’t forget coupon code “LIFEBEGINS”, for your 40% discount  throughout September…)

Birthday Sale in the Emporium!

Candles in glass jars

BIRTHDAY SALE!
From now until my birthday (September 15th), you can get 40% DISCOUNT in the Inexplicable Emporium on Etsy.

Sewing Kit

Bearing in mind that I’m moving house and don’t know when I’ll be able to re-stock, if you’d been thinking about buying any of my goodies for Christmas presents, now’s probably as good a time as any!

Harris Tweed Cufflinks Packaging

The code you need is “LIFEBEGINS”…

Shiny New Conkers!

Conker Boots

I don’t think I told you, back in January, about my glorious pink Conker boots? Here they are, having been worn for the past six months, and they really are the most comfortable pair of boots I’ve ever owned!

I ordered them in November, having seen a photo of a pair of magenta ripley (a very soft leather) boots on Conker’s Facebook page. Being in love with my Conker brogue shoes, I asked whether I could have brogue toecaps added to a pair of boots. The answer turned out to be yes… but not in the ripley leather, as it’s too thick. So the lovely team at Conker sent me three little circles of pink leather in the post, so I could choose which one I wanted for the toe cap. I went for a slightly waxy leather, but one that I’d be able to polish when they inevitably got a bit scuffed. Although I have to say that, six months in, they’re looking pretty good!

I knew I wanted a plain black pair pretty much the same as the pink ones, it was just a question of saving up enough pennies to pay for them. Just as I was beginning to wonder about the wisdom of spending such a lot of money on a pair of plain black boots, and half contemplating a return to Doc Martens, I spotted a gorgeous pair of black shoes with white stitching (again on Conker’s Facebook page) which gave me an idea.

Conker Boots

Dear lovely people at Conker, please don’t cry when you see this picture!

You see, I didn’t really want white stitching at all. I wanted pink. So the moment my boots arrived, even before I’d tried them on, I set about colouring in the white stitching with a pink Sharpie. As you do.

Conker Boots

I know that the stitching will eventually get dirty, and as I polish the boots it will eventually turn black. But for now, while they’re new, I have the simple pleasure of knowing that nobody else has a pair of boots exactly like these.

Perfect!

I’m also really pleased that all of my shoes (with the exception of trainers and waterproofs) are now made by hand, in the UK. So much better than all those mass-produced uncomfortable shoes I used to collect!

Charity Shopping

IMGP1161

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.

Vintage Underwear

Vintage Underwear

On Saturday morning I went to a local antique shop, looking for a wooden hand that I could use to display gloves. (As you do.) I didn’t find one, but I did find four lovely pieces of vintage underwear that I snapped up with great glee!

Vintage Underwear

First out of the basket was this petticoat. It’s in perfect condition, just a few rust spots here and there, and it actually fits me! I’ll just need to shorten the straps, and unpick the tape that’s been used to create gathers under the arms. Then I can wear it underneath the dresses I’m planning to make from my new pattern.

Vintage Underwear

Next up was not one, but two pairs of great big drawers! They’re decorated with drawn threadwork on the legs, each in a different style. Both pairs are a bit damaged. One has a lot of yellowing and a hole in the crotch. The plan for these, I think, is to cut away the worst of the damaged fabric and put in a whole new panel. I’ll also need to replace the elastic and drawstring at the back.

Vintage Underwear

The threadwork is gorgeous though, so fine! I genuinely can’t tell whether the spots in the middle of the squares are made by hand or machine. They’re so even!

Vintage Underwear

The other pair has a simpler design, but no less lovely. These have been repaired quite a lot, and will need a fair bit of work doing if they’re going to be rescued and returned to a wearable state. There’s a small tear at the front waist, and the drawstring channels have come apart on both sides. The crotch is intact in this pair, and in fact looks to have been replaced. The stitching is so tiny that the seams are virtually indistinguishable from the surrounding fabric. There’s also quite a large tear in the back of one leg, that’s been mended in a similarly delicate way.

Vintage Underwear

Both pairs are monogrammed with the initials “MR” just to the left of the centre front.

Vintage Underwear

And last but not least, there’s this pretty little camisole. More modern than the other pieces, it’s overlocked on the inside, and made from lawn rather than densely woven cotton. I can’t tell yet whether the straps will need replacing, or whether they’ll be fine after a good hot iron.

Vintage Underwear

The ribbon that’s threaded through the channel at the front definitely needs replacing though, and there’s a tear that will need to be mended. There’s also a double row of stitching around the waist, that must presumably have once contained elastic. This one’s not as carefully made as the others, which makes me feel less bad about altering it rather than trying to preserve it. In fact, I’m thinking that I might turn it upside down, and make it into a pretty little petticoat or summer nightdress for my niece.

Not bad, for a completely unexpected find!