vintage town: Patchwork mania!

Here are some pictures of the patchwork items I've been making lately. I decided that patchwork was an excellent vehicle for showcasing small scraps of all the lovely vintage fabrics I have hanging around in my work room...you can purchase them at either of my online shops
http//vintagetown.folksy.com and http//vintagetown.etsy.com

Fancy a cuppa?

Here's the first item from my new range of homes accessories, a patchwork tea cosy made in vintage and retro fabrics. It fits a two-cup pot and you can find it for sale in my Folksy shop here:
www.folksy.com/shops/vintagetown

One of my favourite books!

I really loved this book when I was small, although the details of the story are a bit hazy now...

I seem to remember that the heroine, Harriet, is about 8 years old, and helps her aunt run a cafe called the Cherry Pie. She also becomes an actress somehow along the way.

I've been looking for it for ages in all my usual charity shops and car boot fairs, but no luck yet. If you've got one for sale at a reasonable price, please get in touch!

There's an interesting mention of it on one of my favourite blogs http://www.middlebrowmagazine.co.uk but other than that none of my friends remembers it. If you should happen to stumble across it, snap it up and read it to all the 8+ children you know, it's a great story.

The eagle has landed...

...and here it is, my new book! Its officially published on 24 June.

Sign up to follow me and I'll pick someone at random to receive a free copy of the book.

You can buy it online at davidandcharles.co.uk and all the usual outlets. Hope all you upcycling fans like it, let me know!

Why not post pics of projects you've made? I'll see if I can add them to my blog so we can recycle the love...

vintagetown's photostream

vintagetown's photostream on Flickr.

Here's a selection of my work from flickr. I actually meant to add a nice little slideshow, with moving pics, but can't work out how to do it. I keep uploading photos of someone's trip to China instead. Oh well, this will have to do.

Must make more bags!!

Here are some more rescue pinnies waiting to be transformed into bags. Sadly neither has such an interesting label as my lovely pink original, but I won't let that stop me, dear readers.

Our cat, in the middle of our street

Here's our cat, Honey. Not the full shilling, I'm afraid. He invaded my photo shoot this morning because he is a terrible attention seeker.

Mama's got a Brand New Bag

Back on the bags again after time off writing a book and lots of teaching... I fancied a bit of sewing, so thought I'd get back into the swing again by transforming my favourite flea market pinny into a bag. 


Here it is, hanging on the back of our front gates. It's a beautiful piece of fabric, with delightful folk art illustrations in lovely soft colours.

As well as my usual Vintage Town label, I've attached the original label from the back of the pinny. I've done a bit of research into the company, Hawkins of Preston, and it seems they produced cotton homewares at their mill in Preston from the 19th century onwards. One of their sales methods was to send mobile shops around rural areas. You can see a great sales brochure on flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbarney/5559904062

Not quite sure where I'm going with this...

...but thought I'd post it anyway. It's the front of a new cafetiere cosy, but I've just run out of thread so had to stop. I do love machine embroidery, just not very good at it yet! Anyway, its a cold old afternoon, and I've got two biscuits and a cup of tea, so I ain't complaining. Am currently listening to Ray Conniff's version of Volare on Spotify - fab!

stitching frenzy

Here are some of new cafetiere cosies, inspired my recent forays into the secret life of the sewing machine. Mush more fun than sewing carefully around neat borders!

Well, hello there

It's been a damn long time since I posted anything new, but here I am, back in full attack, with a picture of the jacket of my new book (to aid easy identification, should you stray into the crafts section of a bookshop or website anytime soon...)

The book is a helpful guide to exploiting the obscure functions contained in most sewing machines that we (and I mean me, here) never get around to using.

Something smelly...

Thought you might like to see our spotty pots in action! 

They're very simple to make, just stick some paper dots onto a terracotta plant pot, then add two coats of matt emulsion paint in a  nice colour.

Leave to dry, then peel off the dots. Seal with two coats of acrylic-based, clear varnish. Pop in some lovely herbs, and voila!

And here's another...

Well, I seem to be deep in pouch mode at the moment - so much quicker to make then cosies or bags! Here's a little birdy pouch I've just finished, with handy split ring for keys etc.

I'm going to give it a whirl on Etsy and Folksy

http://vintagetown.etsy.com and http://vintagetown.folksy.com

Now, must dash off to make another, so toodle-oo!

Here we go again...

Well way-hay, I'm BACK after two weeks school hols very pleasantly spent whizzing round the country doing stuff. 

Not feeling very inspired today, but am trying to create a delightful new range of something other than tea cosies, so I present to you a small purse for make-up etc made from scraps of fabric lying all over my work room floor. I will post further gorgeous items if I ever produce any.

Happy Easter Everyone!

With Easter Sunday in mind, here's the Easter Tree me and my gal made (plus some steps for good measure) Happy Easter!