A change of heart....

Well summer holidays are upon us, mums , dads and grandparents too are crazily planning activities and outings to keep the young ones entertained. As one blogger I have just read quite rightly stated, it would be very difficult to limit the amount of time  the children  sit at computers and play on other gadgets if we don't do the same so I am using my evenings to catch up on blogging and sewing etc so that I can enjoy this glorious weather with them out and about.
It's funny how limiting your time seems to inspire you to greater activity, at least it does me, and I have done more sewing and crafting in the past week than I have for ages.
 Do you remember my attempt at the Collette Sorbetto top. I wasn't very impressed at first. The amount of alterations I had to make to the pattern somehow spoiled the feel of the finished top. However not one to give up and believing that it did have some redeeming features like the bias bound neck and absence of any fastenings, I decided to have another go. Since I stopped making my slippers to sell, I have boxes of lightweight cottons which would have been used for linings, going to waste. Some of these are very pretty and crying out to be made into something wearable. In the end I chose this chocolate spot fabric as I had quite a bit, so it wouldn't matter too much if I messed up. Luckily I was easily able I recreate the pattern in my own proper size, and even had enough fabric to make a simple skirt. For the skirt I used a New Look pattern 6051 which has a super collarless zip up jacket and trousers too.

 Though it must be a bit ancient, as I cant seem to trace this version at all on the internet! Must make sure I hang onto this one.

I love the contrast fabric  used as bias binding and continued the theme by making the waist binding and ties for the skirt from the same fabric.
Not bad out of 1.5 metres of main fabric and .5 metre of contrast for the binding. So all in all I think the top pattern will get well used after all, and of course it was free!

I've also made a few more pieces of recycled collage jewellery. This is a new venture for me and I'm still finding my feet and though it will never replace sewing, it is something I would like to continue with and develop. I' m also pretty proud of the necklace stands I've made out of cardboard and fabric scraps . I found the tutorial at 'Cut out and Keep' but cant seem to find it now. There is another one here though and it makes photographing and displaying them so much easier.

Next I repainted a Lloyd loom style chair in duck egg blue and recovered the seat in a pretty patchwork of duck egg blue and bright pink. I'm quite pleased with the result especially the colour combination.Shame the squares didn't quite line up, but it is supposed to be rustic looking !

My final project this week is a cushion cover made from 1950s curtain fabric finished off with a cute mini Pom Pom braid which will be up for sale in our pop up shop.

So a busy week crafting and sewing as well as looking after our gorgeous grandsons!
Sometimes a girl can have altogether too much fun!

Hope yours is half as good

TTFN

Jenny xx

COMING SOON A Date for your Diary....

WHOOPEE!!!!      A POP UP SHOP......

We have at last organised it. OLIVE and EDNA's VINTAGE EMPORIUM is having a pop up shop at

Liberty Rose Tea Room
22-23 Market Place
Grantham
Lincs
NG31 6LP

DATE  9 August 2014

TIME 10am to 4pm

Make a note in your diary if you are in the Lincs, Notts, Leicester area as we would love to see you.
The building is one of the most beautiful old shops here in Grantham and includes the really pretty tea rooms where you can pause for beverages and delectable cakes ( including chocolate and beetroot which I highly recommend) and also browse around one or two other permanent vintage and vintage style shops on the first floor.
We will be right at the top offering everything from chairs to ladders, suitcases and crockery, kitsch ornaments and vintage jewellery. There will also be a few OOAK collage necklaces made from preloved, rescued brooches, earrings etc.

 

 
We would love it if you would give us a shout on either Facebook or Twitter too, the more successful we are on the day, the more likely we are to be back again.
Hope to see you there

TTFN

Jenny and Heidi

Xxxx

Holy Mackerel.........

Feeling a bit down?...........

Child of the fifties...or just wished you were.............

Loved 'Call the Midwife'.......

Well may I just recommend this tonic......bought it today... for my Kindle...........99P no less, and since dinner I have not been able to put it down!!

HOLY MACKEREL...............Babs Horton

Image from Amazon

The  'Product Description ' had me hooked even before I had read a word....................

Life is looking up for the inhabitants of a small Welsh town. Wales have won the Grand slam, sausage rationing has ended, pear drops are on sale again in Mrs Yandle’s Candy Emporium and a birth control clinic has opened in Cardiff. Then, the news arrives that the Pope has dispatched a band of zealous Irish priests on a mission to eradicate filth and depravity, which is a crying shame because people are just getting to like it. A frisson of fear sweeps through the Catholic congregation and one newly married woman, already in terror of eternal damnation for marrying a protestant heathen, hurries home from confession at the Church of Immaculate Conception and burns her contraceptive device.
Hence, the hero of this story arrives in the world, feet first on a Sunday morning, weighing in at eight pounds thirteen ounces of goose-pimpled flesh, smaller than the Christmas turkey but twice as slippery.
Her mother’s hopes of a sweet, compliant daughter, a golden haired angel in disguise are swiftly dashed by the antics of this dervish of a child with a face like a scalded monkey, the legs of a prop forward and the lungs of Paul Robeson. All that’s missing are the three 666’s on the nape of the neck.
Aided in her unladylike escapades by her cousin Joyce Titley, the oracle of all dubious knowledge, who came last in the Bonny Baby competition of 1946, they set out to unravel the mysteries of life, death, sex, nakedness and the mysteries of menopausal mothers.
Until, an episode with an Ouija board summons the voice of Auntie Mary Muttonchop from beyond the grave, bringing startling news that will change both their lives forever.

Words courtesy of Amazon

OK so I was a child of the era, and so much of the book rings so true, but most of all I have laughed....and laughed and am still laughing!

Irreverent, rude and thoroughly entertaining.
 I have recommended her Dandelion Soup several times on this blog as a really good read, a brilliant tale of mystery and the mystic, and this 'Holy Mackerel' is about as far as you could get from that book, but in its own way is a gem. I thought it was just going to be another tale, but it is more like a diary of growing up in the 50s.

If you are game for a laugh, give it a go, I'm sure you will still be smiling days after you finish it, which I haven't yet so do excuse me I am off to a corner to giggle some more...................

TTFN

Jenny xx