Weekend DIY, wardrobe conversion.

hi Internet Lovelies

Earlier last week I promised via Instagram to show how I chopped up an old wardrobe to make a swanky new work surface for my sewing room.

The old wardrobe wasn't doing anything useful really just kinda lurking around and getting in the way.

Just love a Bank Holiday x

Good Morning all you internet lovelies

and thank you for joining me once again for my thoughts on this lovely Tuesday morning. I have to say it is a lovely morning after a pretty heavy downpour last night the sky is now blue, with wispy clouds and the sun is shining. I hope it is the same wherever you are.

Yesterday was a bank holiday here in the UK, which meant another day with Dr J. at home and I love having Dr J. at home, although I am looking forward to the day when it doesn't mean we feel that we need to do something in restoring the house/garden.  Yesterday though we drew a line, still fairly done in from the week before (garden lowering) and decided we were having an afternoon off and I even resisted in the morning for a little gentle woodwork in the garage instead.

Two boxes made with leftover bits and pieces to be covered in the material I use for the stall tablecloth and to be sat on their sides as extra higher surface from the front and little hiding holes for bags and the like from the back.  This was a marvelous idea that I pinched from a lovely father and daughter act called Queenies Bazaar, who had a stall next to me on Saturday at Blakesley Hall. He had built these lovely boxes and had draws in some, I was very impressed, he had even sewn the box covers in the same material as their tablecloth, they looked very professional. Look them up on Facebook for all things vintage or their website, http://www.queenies-bazaar.co.uk,  for marvelous jewelry.

As usual I managed to draw blood, but not from the saws, just the screwdriver, go figure.

Just need to cover with material in time for the next stall, (a wedding fair in June, (more details later)) and they'll be done, bit by bit I am getting there. But back to yesterday morning...

 Dr J. got out his trust silicon gun and went round to fill up a load more gaps, why does plaster dry back so after a bit.  These gaps just keep appearing, gaps between the walls and skirting, the doors and walls, the ceiling and the walls, I am beginning to think that every place there is a change in surface will have a line of silicon in it soon. Perils of having to re plaster the whole house in one go I suppose (for new readers, we moved into a derelict house (empty for 4 years) and it has needed a lot of tender love and care, but my is it worth it now).

 The weekend also saw the fitting of our own stain glass window, made for us by a very old and dear friend John, who works at the Art of Glass (http://www.theartofglass.com). He is a very clever chap. We bought an old reclaimed door with a round stain glass window in it and he copied it and made a larger version for the window to the side of the door to fit over the double glazing. And then as if that wasn't enough he decided to re-do the glass in the door, (original was broken in several place) as an early wedding present. They look so good, we are real, real pleased. The house is really coming together now.

we got the circular mirror up too, hence the reflection

Then Bank Holiday Monday afternoon we took time for ourselves and cycled out along the canal path to a place called Earlswood, and I've just surprised myself by looking at a route planner and finding out it's 6.7 miles away, I'm fitter than I thought. We had a lovely time, bought an ice cream from a lovely shop in the craft center owned by a chap who it turned out lives just round the corner from us, small world. Walked around the lake and then cycled home. It was a really lovely way to spend the bank holiday, but now Dr J. has just gone to work and this week my thoughts are turning to wedding hats, so best get to it.  Chat more soon.


oh and just out of curiosity I seem to be having a really amazing amount of hits on an old post from last October called 'getting dizzy with all these circles' sometimes more than 30 a day over the last week, all from America. Can anyone tell me why? It wasn't that popular when I wrote it!

Hugs and Kisses

Ally

happy New Year and a little holiday DIY (well you gotta ain't ya)

Hello All and and very happy new year to everyone.

I hope this new year brings everyone peace and happiness. Here at the honey pot, we have all had a very nice holiday, but all good things must end and today it was back into work for Dr. J. and back to working on a very exciting new project for me, that I will share with you soon.  But first, since it is well over a week since my last blog I thought I best get on here and write a little.

Even if we had had water I don't think I could have used it.

most of the ceilings looked like this

I thought I would share with you our DIY project of the holiday. As a bit of an update Dr. J. and I bought this house a year and a bit ago and it was a mess, it had been empty for 4 years and not really looked after before that, so we had a real job on our hands.  We were very lucky not to have to move in straight away and were able to do a lot of the work before we did. We still had no water (or even a sink) in the kitchen when we did moved in, and no drain out of the utility for awhile after, I would wash up in a bowl and then carry the water outside and chuck it on the garden. I say garden, but that is not really true, and still a project waiting for a start date (hopefully spring).  But anyway much progress has been made since then and we are getting closer to finishing the inside of the house now.  This holiday, we decided to work on the snug. This is the area between the landing and our attic dormer (bedroom).  It was a bathroom, but was way too small for a family, so we decided to use it to house the stairs for the attic and make an office/ironing room/useful space out of it, as well as try to keep it as a nice place to sit and get away from it all.  For some reason the house had had one of the bedrooms converted into a bathroom in the 70s, so we still had one, although it too got completely ripped out and started again, becoming a bathroom and a sewing room (it was way too big for a bathroom).  Check out the sunken avocado bath with carpeted steps, too creepy. I hope I don't have to say this was before not after.

looking down from the attic

There is not much space really so it needed careful thought out, and a trip to Ikea (myself and daughter and a great afternoon out).  We had a fair bit of MDF left over from another project so whilst still in the shop we got it cut into shelves and enough for a bench seat. Worrying about boughing with all the files on the shelves, Dr. J. cleverly attached a front piece to them, and used a lot of brackets for support.  We have a lot of paperwork for various reasons,  and still have more to go up so another shelf is planned for above the bench seat.

Ikea supplied a very neat table that got fixed to the wall and takes up no space when down, so paperwork can be complete and the iron almost fits behind it and the curtain. I have a little of the curtain material left, which will be just enough to hang under the bench seat and hide all the things stored there. And once I have made it to the markets I shall have some foam to make the seat cushion, to be covered in the gold, a bit of donated material which will be perfect.

and Dr. J. old teddy on the window, so sweet. 

 So all in all a well spent holiday, no stress just nice progress. I'll post up a photo of it when we get it finished, but for now I best get the Etsy shop re-opened and go make a hat.

Back to regular posting next week.
promise
hugs and kisses
ally.

saving a vintage dress

hi folks,

ok so is it saving a vintage dress or is it sacrilege? let me know what you think at the end.

I always get a pang of doubt, along with a large dollop of guilt when I take a pair of scissors to a vintage frock. Some precious item that has managed to survive over 50 years, what right do I have to do anything but admire?
Ok there are certain items that just need straight forward mending; replacing a broken zip, re-stitching a seam that has come apart.  All these things are fine, along with taking in and letting out when this doesn't involve doing something that is un-do-able, like cutting up your fabric! This is where I start to wonder 'should I? shouldn't I?'

Ok so enough scene setting, at a vintage fair last summer I spotted this little beauty, and when I say little I mean it, a mere 24 waist.  Well at the end of the fair it was still there and with price of £15, I was tempted to go closer and take a proper look.  The guy manning the store said a couple of girls had tried it on, but no-one fitted into it. He had had it awhile and although stunningly embroidered and made of silk and velvet, no-one wanted it. I looked closer, the seam thread was rotting away, the frog fastening were falling apart, and there was some strange staining on the pink silk. But for £15, I decided the embroidery was worth it alone and I was going to think of it as compassion, not sacrilege and save the dress.

Had I been a little slimmer I might have thought about adding panels down the sides to increase the width, but with the state of the seams, it seemed that a complete new pink dress was in order and then getting the velvet panel back on the front. Simple eh...

After taking it apart, quite scary how easily the seams fell apart, I really wouldn't have wanted to wear this out as it was, the first stage was to make up a muslin of a simple shift dress.  I wanted to keep the shoulder line, and old readers may remember my narrow shoulders, remember narrow shoulders not wide waist!! very important that. Anyhow this dress fitted me around my shoulder, so I copied that straight onto the muslin.

I found an old pattern I had of a similar shaped dress and added that to the muslin as well, cut out tried on and changed the darts a little to fit, but on the whole that stage was quite doable. 

 Next was the velvet panel, it had lovely scallop detailing top and bottom that I didn't want to lose. 

The top was easy enough as already finished as part of the closures on the original dress, but the bottom needed to be sorted, originally it had a raw edge and the pink covered it with a neat finish.  This I couldn't do as the new dress had the velvet on top not beneath the pink.  So I sewed a piece of black lining on to the velvet, right sides together, following the original scallop line.

Cut the excess off, clipped the curves etc and turned inside out

 The original fasteners were too badly worn to use again, so I made some more and I will let you know all about that in another blog as that is a session all on it's own.

 But here is the finished frock, so what do you think? I'm glad I did it and when I wore it out I got loads of compliments so I'm pleased with that. Oh and don't fret that silk has not gone to waste, but into the re-use box, where it will grace some future project.

 and of course it needs a hat.
Well till next time.
Happy christmas or non-demonial greetings if you prefer.
hugs Ally x