Happy Fathers Day

I was surprisingly organised for Fathers Day this year. A few weeks ago an email plopped into my inbox offering some Giant Fuchsias - so I ordered some for me and some for my Dad.  They turned up fairly quickly as tiny plug plants.  I re-potted them into flower pots carefully labelling them with their correct variety names and watered and nurtured them for the next few weeks.

I had grand Ideas of packaging and making them look nice for Fathers day, however, having looked for a nice gardening box or trug type container and not finding anything, I looked in TK Maxx and found a simple basket, and bit of ribbon and a home made tag.....  Less is more don't you think!

Happy Fathers Day!

Sarah xx

Lavender Hearts Revisited

A while ago I made some Lavender Hearts. Which have proved quite successful on my Craft Stall and as small gifts. I blogged about them here.

When I visited the MK Handmade and Vintage Fayre and brought some beige Broderie Anglaise with the intention of making some more Lavender Hearts.

I used some unbleached cotton calico as the main fabric, some pale peach ribbon and shell heart buttons (also purchased at the Fayre). I think these have a vintage feel about them.

Just for good measure, I have also made a couple in White too with Lavender coloured Buttons!

Sarah xx

My Diamond Jubilee Post

Well that was the Diamond Jubilee Week over and done with... Well not quite, I have decided to reserve the right to have a Barbecue in aid of the Diamond Jubilee when the sun is shinning. I' m sure the queen won't mind...  I think she was a real trooper to stand in all that rain on the river Thames for 4 hours plus, putting a very brave face on the worst British weather we could have possibly had! Who's idea was it to change the Bank Holiday Weekend.  If they had kept to the original May Bank Holiday and just added the extra day on to that, the weather would have been splendid.  Typical!

I decided to make my own souvenir and as I had downloaded a trial copy of Coral Paint Shop Pro...  I merged two pics together to make the flag above....  I will add a few appropriate words and make it into a needle case or something else that takes my fancy! Watch this space... (I have taken 2 days off at the end of next week to do some crafting.  Shhhhh... Don't tell anyone, as I don't want people to allocate any jobs to me or ask me to do anything if they know I am off work).

I hope you all enjoyed the Diamond Jubilee...  We won't see another one in our life time.

Sarah xx

A little bit of dressmaking

I recently decided to do some dressmaking.  Something I used to do a lot of when I was a lot younger.  In fact the last thing I made for myself was my wedding dress and that was 17 years ago!

I had some material which I had bought for crafting, however the piece was 5 meters long and there is plenty for crafting as well as making a top for myself.  I was going to down load a pattern from the internet, however I decided to check out the new haberdashery department at John Lewis and found myself perusing the dress making patterns.  £5.95 later and I had my pattern.  I chose a fairly easy one.  I wanted to ease back into dress making.

It didn't take too long to cut out the fabric,and it didn't take too long to sew everything together.  I completed the project over several days, but I'm sure it would have taken an afternoon from start to finish.

I decided to do French seams as it hides all the raw edges. 

A close up on the button detail and front gathering.

I enjoyed my revisit to dress making so much, I might just do some more.... when I have time that it!

Sarah xx