Magic Moments.....My kingdom for a hat....

We are lucky enough to have been invited to another wedding this weekend in London. My very dear old friend Berg is marrying his gorgeous girl. Berg & I have each other a very long time and he's always been someone that I trust and look up to, I value his opinion and he sees through all my rubbish. He does not like being woken up on holiday by Tallulah and I gleefully jumping on his bed. This I have learnt.

Travelling to a wedding throws up a whole host of logistical problems. Do we drive? Get the train? Drive part of the way then get the tube? Stay in a hotel? Ugh! So many things to think about! 

However we get there, I've decided what I'd like to wear. Obviously my first port of call is always Vivien of Holloway, my favourite dress shop in the world. I'm going to wear this dress:

Their beautiful 1940's dress in Valentine Rose. One of the wonderful things about it is that it doesn't crease, so however we travel, hopefully I won't look too squashed.

I love the hat that this model is wearing, and tried so hard to find something similar, but to no avail. I trawled Etsy but as I only had a small hat budget, it proved a little difficult. In the end I had a brainwave! Proper middle of the night flash of inspiration stuff....

I invested a whole £7 in a very plain hat from Etsy, complete with veil. It's very simple hence the low price.

Here's how it looked on...

Bit worried that if the dot falls in the wrong place I might look a little, erm, Hitler-y, but I'm just going to have to hope for the best on that front!

I used the hat as a base and armed with a glue gun I'd sneakily borrowed from my friend Bob I added some paper roses that I was given as a Christmas present ages ago. I've never really known what to do with them...

I spent ages deciding on the best position and arrangement, then glued them onto my hat and whacked in a few carefully placed leaves for good measure and....voila! 

The result!!! Complete and perfect match for my dress for a princely £7! 

What do you think? Bonkers or brill? 

I'm chuffed as a chuffed thing from Chuffingham! Now pray it doesn't rain......

I can't be the only person to have fashioned accessories from bits and bobs laying around....tell me your tales!! 

Love, love,

WI haul.....strange but true!

I am yet to write a "haul" post as they're called, although I do love seeing what other people have been out buying.  I think the main thing that prevents me is that I don't often spend money on myself.  Not buying anything interesting anyway!  I'm not sure you'd be terribly interested to see the new deodorant I bought last week now would you?

At the last village WI meeting something a little unusual was occurring. Before you get too excited, there was no photography involved and no one was trying to saucily obscure their nipples with iced buns. Perish the thought!  I first noticed a kerfuffle (love that word) around one of the back tables when I arrived at the Village Hall.  I thought maybe they were gathered around The Cooking Cannon who was speaking that night, that perhaps he had a gaggle of admirers akin to Beliebers or whatever the beep they're called.  In truth it transpired that the recently deceased Lady Poshington-Posh (not her real name) of this Parish had left her sewing bits and bobs and material stash to the ladies of the Women's Institute.  I just think that's such a lovely and thoughtful thing to do!  This very sweet and terribly well to do lady had left all the things from her, frankly enormous, collection to be taken by anyone who took a fancy to them.  I nearly wet myself with excitement and joined in!

I am hugely pleased with what I brought home with me.  Here's a picture:

1 - I think this used to be a belt, but it looks really nice as a neck scarf, something I wear quite often as they make a plain black tshirt or jumper look so much more interesting.

2- This is a really light silky fabric with a wonderful intricate pattern.  There's quite a lot of it so I'm hoping enough for a summer skirt perhaps

3 - A really stunning piece of blue and mustard patterned silk.  Again there's lots of it, but I thought it might possibly be too light to make a skirt from this so number 4 would come in very handy

4 - A heavier gauge woven fabric in beautiful navy blue, hangs beautiful and doesn't crease.  Would be perfect for lining a skirt

5 - My FAVOURITE piece of fabric, two pieces of beautiful Blackwatch tartan.  I seriously, seriously love blackwatch tartan and I've wanted a simple pencil skirt in this material for such a long time.  I nearly fainted when I saw this on the table, there's just enough to make a skirt from it, provided there are no cock ups along the way.  This probably means I will have to get someone else to do it for me as I can't risk ending up with no skirt - or worse a mini!

6 - A little scrap of Liberty print material with little birds on, it's just beautiful, I couldn't leave it behind even though it was only the tiniest piece.  I thought I might attempt a Great British Sewing Bee style patch pocket or perhaps a false neckline on a top.

7 - Another little scrap of bright mustard almost velvetty fabric.  I felt the same was as I did about the Liberty print, it just shone out at me and I couldn't risk it ending it's days in a recycling bin.  I'm sure I'll find something nice to do with it.

8 - A wonderful long strip of tweed.  The fabulous thing about this lady is that she obviously had her clothes made for her and really invested in material.  This seems to be an off cut from a very large piece of tweed, I'd love to see what the original outfit looked like.  This will probably be used as a trim of some sort.  It's gorgeous.

9 - A little collection of elastic.  Anyone with a small child will know they pull their clothes about to the point where only adding extra elastic around necklines and cuffs can save them.  This will come in very handy!

All for the princely sum of £0.  That's right, no English pence.  I am thrilled.  I will try very hard to make something out of everything that I brought home and I will always think of the kind lady who left them to the WI.

Does anyone else have any little pearls in their fabric stash they'd like to share?  Or have you ever been given a marvellous freebie that has really made your day?

Love, love,

She's a crafty one...

Every so often I get the urge to do something creative, if you've read my blog blurb you'll know that I'm a big fan of crochet.  In truth I don't have much talent, but I do enjoy it and I find it relaxing, so when the mood takes me I like to try my hand.  The main problem that I have is that I'm useless at following a pattern, it all comes down to thinking that if whatever I'm making isn't exactly the way the pattern says it should be, I decide it's gone wrong, lose interest and move on to something else.  If I "go rouge" and do things my own way I can't go wrong, only take a different course.  I find I finish more projects if I stay away from patterns...

So, I thought I'd show you what the crafty bug has had me doing lately:

This blanket is pretty much my nemesis.  It's been hanging around for a long old time now!  In actual fact this picture isn't exactly up to date either, I have since completed a third row, but I haven't sewn them together yet.  That Baby asked me to make her a bright colourful blanket to go over her bed, and this is the result.  It's my go to project when I have nothing else on, which is probably why it seems to be taking ages to finish, it's already huge!  I love the fact that I don't need to have specific wool for it and that I can just use up whatever is left over from a real project.

I recently finished my hot water bottle cover, another project that seems to have been hanging around for a while.  This was my first foray into bobbly crochet and I rather like the effect.  I'm pretty happy to have finally finished this, albeit just as the weather seems to be taking a turn for the better...

Ahhh, the bee and the chick.  I made the bee because That Baby asked for one, we used to dress her up in a bee outfit when she was little and I've always associated little fuzzy bumble bees with her.  This particular specimen also looks a little fuzzy because This Baby took a liking to it and she's given it a pretty good chewing.

The chick on the right hand side was a trial run of a toy that I wanted to make for my friend's baby when he or she arrives in June.  I like to have go at a rough copy first if I'm making a gift so I can get my head around what I'm doing, usually I cock it up somewhere along the line.  This particular chick has one massive wing and one tiny one, a bit like Nemo.  Still This Baby doesn't seem to care and she's given it a lot of love.

I was asked to make a pink strawberry the other day and this is what I managed.  Terrible picture quality for which I apologise. I can't say I love it and I'm not particularly proud of it, but I knocked it up in about an hour and my little madam was pleased as punch.  

Finally this is the chick toy I have made for my friend's baby.  I decided to switch materials to a bamboo/silk/wool blend as I wanted it to have a smoother finish and I'm pretty pleased with the result.  It has a rattle inside which was a pain in the 'arris to get in!

The problem that I have is that I tend to think everything I've made is crap and I find fault with it, so obviously I'm not JUST going to give her a home made crocheted chick as a baby gift, I'll make sure she has some proper presents to go with it.

What do you think?  Any favourites?  Is the chick an ok present, or should I just keep it for one of my own little ones?   Some feedback would be much appreciated!

Love, love,