How To: Vintage Sheet Duvet Cover

It's Spring here in Australia, and whilst I was photographing the spray painted lamp project a couple of weeks ago, I realized it was time to brighten up the bedroom with a new duvet cover.
I have a king size bed which is great (yes, I'm very lucky), but it can be hard to find bed linen to fit which doesn't cost a fortune. Even if I had the budget to spend on my favorite designer linen, many don't go up to king size anyway.
So, as usual, I thought I'd make my own from some queen size flat sheets left from my old bed. It's not complicated to make a duvet cover, the difficulty comes in dealing with the masses of fabric involved.  I've outlined the basic way to make a duvet cover in any size and a handy link to help you out with your measurements.

Read more »

Six Baby Gifts to make with Fabric Scraps eBook

I'm so excited to launch my new eBook - Six Baby Gifts to make with Fabric Scraps.
It's a colourful collection of practical gifts for new arrivals, and teaches some handy skills along the way.
 
If you are like me and love to craft, you may find yourself accumulating a collection of fabric scraps. It can be tempting to just throw them away, especially when most sewing projects require larger fabric pieces, but please don’t. Sewing with scraps can be a wonderful experience that requires a little creativity and patience, but the results are truly satisfying.
Even though I have a big fabric stash, it pains me to waste any of it, and I keep all my scraps. Waste not, want not, I say!

Giving something handmade is not only very special, it can save you money too. Making just one project out of this book to give as a gift, will cover the cost of it's purchase.

I've created 6 original projects designed for sewers of all levels.
All of the projects are suitable for beginner sewers, with more challenging techniques clearly explained and illustrated.
Projects:
Scrappy Ball
Scrappy Bunny Rattle
Scrappy Chandelier Mobile
Fabric Covered Hangers
Scrappy Bib
Jigsaw Quilt
Printable templates included as well as tips on collecting, sorting and storing scraps.
Here is a sneak peek of some of the pages...

28 pages of clearly photographed, step by step instructions means every project is easy to follow even for the newest of sewers.
Learn techniques like sewing bias binding around curves, machine quilting, quilt binding and free style patchwork.

I have used a combination of vintage fabric scraps and vintage bed sheet scraps which would be most suitable for baby girl gifts, but all these projects can be adapted for boys by choosing different fabrics. 

I've laid the book out beautifully with lots of clear lovely photos to help you on your crafty way. It's in a PDF form that you can view on your iPad, computer or print out.

I hope you enjoy it.

Get your copy here

How To: Retro Placemat Bag

I come across so many beautiful vintage linens in my op-shopping (thrifting) adventures, but I rarely seem to use them for their original purpose. These linen placemats with their geometric retro design, I'm particularly taken by. I've had them for years, waiting for the perfect project, but could never bare to cut into them.
Whilst tidying up my sewing space I uncovered a set of vintage bamboo bag handles...then the perfect project came to mind.
This bag only took me a few minutes to construct. With no cutting and only three seams required, one can be whipped up at short notice to match any outfit.
Read on to see how to make this simple placemat bag...

Read more »

How To: Vintage Hankie Tissue Holder

It's officially Spring in Melbourne, which for me means hayfever! I suffer terribly and always have tissues handy at all times. Rather than having ugly boxes all over the house, I thought making a cute tissue holder from a vintage hankie would be a fun (and very meta) idea. Inspired by those cute pocket size tissue pouches, but much larger to fit full sized tissues.
I'd also recommend this tissue holder when traveling to avoid having to buy those ludicrously over priced travel tissue packs.

This has got to be one of the easiest sewing projects ever. If you don't have a sewing machine, it's easy enough to hand stitch.

Read more »

How To: Pixel Coasters

Ever since I used my Japanese cross stitch book to make some cute brooches with Hama beads last year, I've been looking at all cross stitch through totally different eyes.
Especially my small collection of pretty vintage cross stitched doileys and serviettes.
Small motifs translate brilliantly to Hama bead projects like these coasters. Have a look in your linen draw, there may be some wonderful designs waiting to be reinterpreted into pixelated masterpieces.

Read more »

How to: Give an Old Quilt New Life - with a lesson in Hand Quilting

 

Have you ever come across old quilt tops on e-bay, or maybe a quilt that just wasn't finished properly at the thrift store? Did you buy it or were you intimidated by the work involved in getting it 'right'? 

This is the story of a quilt that needed a little love and attention to be the best it could be. 

Found at a flea market languishing amongst a heap of fabrics, the colours just caught my eye. It was barely a quilt at all, but a pieced top backed with a tablecloth. No quilting, no batting. 

But the top was beautiful, with tiny hand stitched (1-1.5") triangles. All of the fabrics are pre 60's, every piece a little gem. I was in love. 

Unfortunately it had been backed and bound much later and very unsympathetically. The choice of backing fabric distracted from the design, and because it wasn't prewashed it had shrunk making the top bulge. 

 So here is how I fixed it, with a little lesson in hand quilting thrown in:  

Read more »

How To: Vintage Storybook Gift Soap

This pretty storybook soap is an easy and inexpensive gift idea or party favour. You can use this wrapping technique to make any small gift look extra special.


You will need:
-A lovely bar of soap, the handmade kind would be even better.
-A scanned and printed image out of a vintage story book. I've just used normal office paper to print on, some pretty gift wrap would work well too.
-Double sided tape
-Scissors
-2 x metal eyelets
-eyelet tool (usually comes in pack of eyelets) or eyelet pliers
How to:
-gather your supplies
-trim your paper to size so the edges overlap when wrapped around the soap, affix with a piece of double sided tape.
-with the ends (about 2 inches on each side), flatten them out and fold over twice as pictured.
-With your eyelet tool, insert eyelets as per instructions on packet. Try to keep them centered.

All done!
Now you have a pretty and unique gift that you'll want to keep for yourself.

You may also like to make a Vintage Storybook Coin Purse

Vintage Book Lovin' - The Grey Kitten

Our lovely neighbor in Argentina lent Emma a pile of old books to read whilst we were there, amongst them all was this little treasure about a grey kitten. I can't even tell you if the story was any good as I was immediately memorized by the collaged illustrations. The pictures are all created with images of textiles and objects, and in the days before digital collaging with photoshop, I'm assuming it was all literally cut and paste.
I'm hoping it will inspire you to get out some old magazines and fabrics scraps and make a collaged picture of your own, I'm sure the kids will love it.
If I can get Emma to sit still long enough, we may give it a go too.

Crafty Christmas fun...

I know November has only just begun, but if you intend on hand making some gifts or decor for your home this Christmas, now is the time to start.
So to make your life a little easier I'll be putting together a few crafty kits in the coming weeks.
Today whilst Emma was napping I had a brainwave - Vintage Christmas Stocking Kits. The stockings I made last year sold really well but unfortunately I really haven't got time to sit at the sewing machine for several hours any more, so this kit has all the materials and instructions for you to make your own.
You can choose from a selection or fabrics or let me surprise you if you are feeling adventurous.

I'll also be writing some fun tutorials for projects that would make great Christmas gifts, so stay tuned.
If you have any special tutorial or Craft Kit requests, just leave a comment with your suggestion and I'll give it a shot.

Do you plan on making any Christmas gifts this year?

Flea Market Finds - Shop Update

Took advantage of the sunshine yesterday to take some photos of a few Flea Market finds I've had laying about for a bit. Some have already sold (sorry, gotta get in quick), but I'll be tidying up around the place soon, so I'm sure there will be more good stuff listed soon.

Pop over to the shop and check out my Flea Market Finds HERE

I Can Fly...

What was meant to be a 'this is what I wore today' post has turned in to a 'Look, I can fly' post. It's obvious that I have a small crush on animated GIFs, especially when they let me levitate.

We had a very small window of spring sunshine here in Melbourne that was too good to waste on a boring 'look at me, I'm so stylish' pose, so here is a little bit of silliness.

Oh, so did you really want to know what I'm wearing?

Cardigan - Lowrys Farm (bought in Tokyo)
Skirt - Vintage Fletcher Jones from Hunter Gatherer
Sandals - Swedish Hasbeens

Postcards from Mar del Plata - Instagram love

If you follow me on twitter you would have caught some of my Instagram photos from the trip. I didn't have a data roaming service on my phone in Argentina, but most cafes had WiFi so I tweeted pics at every opportunity.

Some of the highlights:

Some vintage goodness:

FYI: My Instagram feed is set to private, apologies to those of you that have sent requests without a response, I'm a bit funny about photo privacy.

Merry-go-round...

In Mar del Plata nearly every little plaza has it's own Merry-go-round. They are all quite old and charming, and probably being held together by many coats of paint. Mum tells me I rode some of them when I was Emma's age, some have even been there since mum was little.

As soon as she saw her first one she was hooked. It takes an average of 3 rides before she loses interest although the other day she had to be forcefully removed before I went broke.
This one was particularly pretty...

Postcards from Mar del Plata: Flea Market Finds

Just around the corner, and one block away from mum's apartment, is a little plaza that on Friday, Saturday and Sunday attracts a few vendors of randomness and tat. I've had a little fun treasure hunting there but the pickings are slim as most of the wares are not what I'm after. It's mostly architectural fittings, old tools and tacky jewelry from the 90's. I did find this cute enameled lion brooch for me (I love him, his head moves), and some lovely woodland themed wooden knick knacks for the shop maybe? Emma has been eying the little fawns off with great interest...

Room Tour - Cherry's Nursery

The thing I love most about blogging is sharing ideas, stories and inspiration, that's why today, I feel privileged to share a peek inside Cherry's beautiful room. These gorgeous images were taken by Elle, a creative and beautiful new mama, who has just started writing a blog of her own called Cherry and Me. Elle is a graphic designer with a background in the arts industry, so as you can imagine, she has a great eye for colour and design. Cherry is one lucky baby girl. I'm sure you will all agree that this room was just too pretty not to share.I asked Elle a few questions about the space:

Cherry's room is filled with a lovely collection or vintage pieces, where did you acquire them from?

Most of my vintage things have been collected overtime from childhood and from my grandparents house after they passed away. I was very, very close to them. My grandfathers name was Jerry and that's where the name Cherry comes from. My blog is dedicated to Nana Nina and I've featured the photography by Papa Jerry as my first ever blog post. Back in the day they ran a business where papa would shoot portraits for families and nana would hand colour the black and white developed prints. My twitter image is the most gorgeous photo of nana eating a cherry wearing a straw sunhat. I love it!

What's your favourite piece in Cherry's room?

My favourite piece in Cherry's room is an oil painting by my mum Natalia, above Cherry's feeding chair. It's a pretty babushka doll on a candy pink background, coated in high gloss enamel. She is an incredible artist, trained in Russia, with a passion for nudes and nature. I'm an art lover and collector, so this is the first piece in my daughter's art collection.
What does Cherry enjoy most about her room?

Cherry's favourite piece in her room is the hand made butterfly mobile (Made by Mosey), a gift from 'aunty' Lauren. She gets totally mesmerized by the spinning black and white butterflies! Every night, just before bed, we talk to the the butterflies and tell them all about our day. we also ask them for nice dreams, blow them a kiss and wish them good night. It's our little secret ritual.

You can see the full room tour here on Cherry and Me.

Thank you Elle and Cherry for letting us take a peek into your beautiful home.

Flea Market Finds ♥ Camberwell market ♥

'Twas a beautifully sunny today, perfect for a bit of flea market fun. Camberwell market was our destination of choice, along with the rest of Melbourne it seemed.
Ran into my pals Nat and Estelle who had stalls selling some pretty nice vintage wares, Emma just wanted doughnuts and Mr Man was in charge of toddler wrangling.

I wasn't looking for anything in particular, although I couldn't resist these Dutch clogs at $5 a pair. They will be added to my accidental clog collection
And probably my most favourite find for a long long time is this mosaic plate. It was just $5 too. I think I may start a plate wall soon, although a single plate may look a bit lonely.
The lady that sold it to me told me that she had quite a few at home and they were really well made. She knew this because when she smashed them up to get the tiles out, it was almost impossible to pry them out!
I was speechless. So I've rescued this vintage find from a possible tragic end, my good deed for the day is done.

I'm joining in with Her Library Adventures today...lots more flea market finds over there...

It's Dancey Dance Time!

What better way to show off my new Vintage Vest than by flailing my arms around wildly?
I love everything about it. It's quiltiness, the wooden toggles and especially the yellow binding.
Its the perfect weight for spring, and leaves my arms free for interpretative dance.
As Emma would say "I love it, I love it, I really really love it"

We had lots of fun taking these photos of my disappearing arms with a long exposure time on the camera. I made this animated gif as my first ever project in photoshop, it almost drove me insane, but I'm trying to learn to use it, so I have to start somewhere.

If you want to make your own animated gif you can do it the easy way using my tutorial here, no photoshop required.

I hope I haven't made you too dizzy...

Vintage Stylin'

I was sorting through Emma's wardrobe the other day and rediscovered this beautiful vintage dress that I picked up whilst Op-shopping this past summer. It is hand made from a lovely warm wool with corduroy details. Oh and did I mention it had smocking and was fully lined? Made by a very talented grandmother I imagine... I thought I'd try it on her to check the sizing and it fits beautifully. I've had her grow out of so much clothes because I was saving it for and occasion, so today the occasion was a photoshoot, and hopefully it will still fit for her cousin's Christening in the next month or so. It's funny, when Emma was born everyone said that I was lucky because she would be the perfect in-house model for all my clothes etc...but ironically the opposite is true. Emma is a terrible model. She will not stay still and much prefers to fiddle with my camera controls than be in front of it. Hopefully she will stop bouncing of the walls as she gets older or I will have to invest in a super fast camera do-dad...

Dress: Vintage
Leggings: Heavenly Creatures
Pram: Vintage
Backdrop: Floor rug bought on a trip in Turkey and begrudgingly lugged half way around the world by Mr Man