To crochet or not to crochet !

Hello, I have not forgotten all you lovely people in blog land but routine maintenance at the long thin house has somewhat taken over any spare time I seem to have! On top of the usual routine of feeding Dogs, Cats, Chickens, Fish, and the cleaning up the menagerie demands, the human inhabitants of the long thin house have also had to contend with renovating the Bathroom,fixing a leaking ceiling, and stopping the long thin garden from becoming an horrendous overgrown jungle instead of a slightly overgrown jungle, as well as cleaning,washing,baking, Meanwhile Dolly sewing has really ground to a halt, after a few unsuccessful attempts, of which I am too ashamed to document, I am still at the beginning stage.



We are also starting to get Sunny our 1976 VW camper ready for our summer festival excursion, We are trying to decide how much of a facelift she will be getting, it might just be a cat's lick and a promise or...and this is my preferred option.... the whole nine yards ! including a new coat of paint!! I shall keep you posted and hopefully have some pics of her crochety goodness granny chic/ retro interior !



I have however managed to fit in some crochet, there is always time for crochet! and have finished a granny square cushion, and have now started on a sunburst granny square cushion, so I haven't been entirely bereft of crafty goodness !





Ho hum, off to feed the Chickens, take care, speak soon.

frustrating!

Hello,
I have just spent the past hour or so at the long thin house trying to add a Pinterest button, Find me on folksy button, and an Instagram button to the sidebar of my blog, I have been having lots of fun photographing and commenting on things, and although I think you can look at them via my Twitter updates I just thought it would be spiffy to have the little buttons at the side! but, alas my blind spot for all things computory has kicked in! I have been reading about 'plugins' and I'm beginning to think my you can't use them on the free wordpress themes, I have tried all ways, widget menus, links etc but no it is not to be, I think Husband will need to be called upon! if any of you would care to share my musings with pics my instagram and pinterest are under the name madebymim too, if any of you use pinterest let me know, I love to look at other peoples pictures,
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Speak soon.

Yay for Miss Jean !

Well, what an amazing machine! As I mentioned in my last musings, I took delivery of a vintage 411g singer sewing machine, she is a doozy! delivered by the seller as it turned out she did not live too far away , Miss Jean turned out to be her Aunts machine , and she had had her for 22 years, since her Aunt had passed away. Miss Jean came with the record card of the lessons the Aunt had taken to learn how to use the machine, and lots of other bits and bobs, and it was so nice to hear how the Aunt who was a seamstress made clothes for the lady and her children and lots of other things too , it gave a real sense of history, I like the thought of all the things Miss Jean has made before, hopefully I will be able to do her justice, although from what the lady said my offerings won't be anywhere near as professional! I love her, all newly serviced she is a dream....off now, Miss Jean and I have things to do,

speak soon.

Dog days !

Well it's certainly raining Cats and Dogs, everything in the long thin house seems kind of at a go slow ! Things are going on but it all seems to be on the un hurried side, not in a bad way, just in a it'll get done eventually way.
I love days like this torrential rain is a good excuse to take stock, curl up with a book or favourite magazine, sit and crochet or sew, all seems cocooned by the appalling weather outside, the girls ( the chickens), Minerva, Pomona and Rowena , who are usually singing at the tops of their voices are quietly dust bathing in the farthest corner of their run, sheltering from raindrops, the Kittens ( they are actually fully grown Tom cats,but to us they are forever Kittens !), are curled up snugly on our bed, although they would say it's their bed! And even Floyd the Weimaraner, who is very rarely still, who jumps up and flomps around getting under your feet trying to be as near to you as possible, who's bark sounds as deep and menacing as the hound of the baskervilles, who terrifies Mr postman but is the biggest soppiest Weimaraner ever, is asleep in his basket, with his pal Ralph, who at the grand old age of 17 can usually be found sleeping, somewhere.





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I can understand why they say animals are good for the soul, perhaps they are not so good for the soft furnishings, but I think a few hairs is a small price to pay for something that makes you smile.

By special request!

Hello again, this is much sooner than I expected, but I have had a very nice request to see more photos of the room I have been sprucing up, and due to my scant knowledge of all things blog,this is the only way I could do what I wanted to do. So here they are with a few of the other rooms in the long thin house that fit under the heading of shabby - navian !

Firstly the newly spruced sitting room. The vintage flower paintings are left over from a previous decorating scheme, and the I made the heart picture above the sofa from vintage French love letters and pages from an already broken French book from 1880 something,href="http://madebymim.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/20120424-165428jpg">;;
The next photos are of the piano room,which doubles as a computer room,I love using mirrors as decoration,and as this room can be dark they make good use of light from the window
The rest of the photos show the room at the back where we spend a lot of time, it has a wood burner and is home to my 'fledgling' collection of vintage birdcages, mostly French, also my collection of Emma Bridgewater ceramics, my homemade grainsack cushions and embroidered Jan Constantine cushions, so it is a very eclectic mix, but definitely erring towards shabby!
This last photo is of our front porch door and should be in with the first photos, but as I said scant knowledge and all that, the photos on the wall are actually my Dad when he was a nipper, I love them. />;;

I hope you enjoyed the photos, things tend to change quite regularly here, but the shabbiness is constant, I think it's in my blood, speak soon

Material world!

Well, it seems so long since we caught up! I have been out and about trying to add to my fabric stash,when we last spoke I was off to buy some fabric to make the vintage style aprons I had just designed. No luck, I don't know about you but local area is thin on interesting fabric shops, we have a huge warehouse place full of quite nice but uninteresting curtain / upholstery fabric and a hobby craft, which is on the expensive side and again very limited in it's choice. So I have resorted to the Internet so things have slowed a little until my goodies arrive,I have all sorts of vintage, off cuts, and bits and pieces, but you know what it is like when you have something specific in mind,so I just had to add to the stash. I have also added iPhone cosies to 'made' list, but have yet to start on the iPhone 4 covers, and have decided to use mainly red, white and blue fabrics- well it is Jubilee year!
I'm also planning some headscarfs, very 50's retro, to add to the 'Blighty' collection, so I do apologise for lack of apron photos but hopefully they will appear soon. Off to the dentist now, passing hobby craft on the way, I might just have to call in to see if they have anything new, or something I missed last time I was there, or just to soak up a bit of 'crafty' atmosphere.


There isn't enough room to swing a cat in my sewing room...so Teddy thought he'd have a lay down instead!

Oops I did it again!

Sorry no blog yesterday,away visiting family,by the time we got home I couldn't think straight let alone blog.There has been a small development with my sewing projects.As you may well of guessed by now I have trouble focusing on one thing at a time,and my multi tasking sometimes leads to more tea less making! But being really determined to get on with things I have made enquirys into booking a pitch at a Bicycle Bazaar! Basically you load as many things as you can make or want to sell into the baskets on the back and front of your bicycle and sell them, it's a cross between a craft fair and vintage fair all in one,the only things that are new are things that are handmade! It looks like a lot of fun,this one will be for the Diamond Jubilee, so it should be a real occasion, and having a firm booking will give me something else to work too, I shall keep you posted on how it's progressing,look out for more photos, including my Dutchie bicycle which I will be loading with my wares! Before we set off yesterday Mr postman visited again with more goodies from Mr Ebay . If you remember a while ago I posted a photo of my vintage toy sewing machines... Well I did it again! I couldn't resist, it turns out the little blue 50's Vulcan machine had a baby sister and two big sisters! I just happened to find them whilst not really looking for them on eBay !


Meet the girls, Minor, Junior, Senior and the Countess, I think there might be others but I am not looking anymore!
While not looking ,I spotted a very cute little,Little Betty,


Already having the 60's / 70's version it seemed a shame to ignore her shabby little self ,so she is now another member of the family.
Then when it seemed that I just couldn't find another reason to buy anymore toy machines I found these,


Essex Girls! I just couldn't leave them could I! A miniature Essex machine which was actually made for the adult market, which became very popular for children because of it's size. The company made thousands of the mk1 until modern looking imports from America meant that they had to change the look to keep up , these little machines were extremely expensive to buy, but when the Japanese imports started after the war they couldn't compete and stopped making them.they really are all so very cute, I like to think of all the little things that were made with them, and they look so cool in my sewing room.
But I really really have stopped looking , I have enough vintage toy machines, I should be using my adult sewing machine, to make more things for Folksy and the Bazaar, so I am off now to be busy,I mean it, no tea and definitely no more toys!

Huff and puff !

Still busily sewing away to build up stock for my Folksy shop, my Royal Bunny Rabbit is looking a bit forlorn without her party outfit !


Patterns are made and fabric chosen for her outfit but that's as far as I have got ! While searching through my fabric stash to see what would be suitable for a Royal Bunny I came across the last few circles of fabric I had cut out to make a Suffolk puff cushion for my bed. So any excuse to deviate from what I should be doing I thought I' d share it with you all.


Suffolk puffs are a traditional patchwork technique, and are very simple to make, here I have used them to cover a cushion , but they could also be used to make a brooch or to decorate hats, scarves, lampshades, blankets,etc, I have made this one into a brooch, but it could be pinned to lots of things,they can also be sewn together to make necklaces.



Using different weights of fabric they can be used for lots of different occasions, Chiffony types of material make very romantic looking puffs, while using vintage fabric and buttons would give a funkier feel, the best way is just to experiment,why not use leftover fabrics from your sewing projects to make matching brooches or headbands!




Draw a circle onto some card slightly larger than you want the puff to be , it can be any size you want, use this template to draw around onto your chosen fabric, I use 3 graduating circles, to give 3 layers of fabric , but you can use more or less, one little puff and a button centre is cute !




Sew a row of running stitches slightly in from the edge all the way round.






Pull both ends of the thread until the circle is completely gathered, like a little shower cap ! Then secure the thread with a double knot or a little stitch to keep it from ungathering. Et voila ! A Suffolk puff , make 2 smaller puffs and sew together using a vintage button, you don' t have to use a button you can just leave it gathered. So hope you have fun making puffs , they really don't need a lot of huff !

Presents in the post !

As I write the beautiful sunny morning has just turned very grey! I think more rain is on the way,but the Postman has just delivered a batch of goodies from Mr Ebay ! So I am very happy, I couldn't resist these when I saw them, I had no intentions of buying childrens' clothes patterns ,but they just looked so cool! I especially like the pictures on the French patterns, even French children look sophisticated, so now I am beginning to think perhaps a few funky retro little girls dresses for my Folksy shop, I do not know any little girls that these patterns would fit, ( my little girls are 12 years, 24 years and 27 years ! ) and it now seems a shame not to use them, although I think the French patterns are a little too difficult to follow, but will make awesome pictures for my sewing room .

Who said string is evil !

Sorry I haven't blogged, Easter got the better of me , along with too much chocolate and a Star Wars film fest ! ( introducing Pumpkin to the delights of watching all the films in one day ! ). My time hasn't been spent entirely frivolously watching films and munching chocolate, I also managed to finished the bath mat I have been crocheting . I have used Nutscene sisal string in natural and blue colours? I have crocheted with other brands of sisal string but I find Nutscene to be the most consistent in thickness and without too many rough bits, they also make their string in funky colours, which are great for contrasting edging or stripes. I have become a bit addicted to crochet, I only learnt a couple of months ago, but I find it quite therapeutic, I use a 5mm crochet hook with the string which I think gives it a nice close weave, I' m really pleased how the baskets I have also crocheted using string have turned out, so much cheaper to make than buying similar from the shops, I use them for all sorts of things,


This cotton string basket I use for sewing bits.


This sisal basket I use for my string!


The smaller red edged basket we use for keys.


Finally the bath mat ! Not in situ, as the bath it will eventually reside in front of is still in our downstairs study, in front of the piano,waiting for Husband to lay the new floorboards in the bathroom!


I also used a slightly darker sisal for a contrasting stripe.
By the way for those of you that are wondering who did say string is evil it was the Goodies! ( a 1970's English comedy act, a bit like Monty Python, but not as good ! Easily findable on YouTube )

Eggs is eggs !

Sorry no blog yesterday,but most of the day was spent swimming with Pumpkin and friends,then mundane house chores. Trying frantically to finish crochet bath mat as I have decided not to start anything else until I have finished it, hopefully I will be able to share it with you soon! This morning has so far been spent laying out Pumpkins' Easter egg hunt,which, although she is a mature young lady of twelve years, she emphatically denies being too old for !


The hunt begins,bunny mask is essential for a good hunt!


I spy something lurking in the wood shed!


Surely these eggs won't be chocolate?!


A quick detour down the garden,not all the clues are easy.


I think I've got it!


Hurrah , I found them !


Happy Easter .