Friday 30 August 2013

Scan of the week

How good does this look scanned?! It's a little fuzzy cushion I got for 50p at a charity shop this week
Mesh and beaded dress which will be going in my etsy shop very soon.
Playing around with embroidery and fabrics one day when I got bored of patching my bag together!

I've just set up a facebook page for my new etsy shop too, so you can follow me on there too!

Friday 23 August 2013

Scan of the Week

Scans of new shop stock, which you'll be able to purchase here in the not too distant future, you lucky lucky things!
Vintage silk/silky fabric
90s see-through mesh handbag
90s pink and red striped suedette handbag

Thursday 22 August 2013

Shop up and running!

My etsy shop has lain redundant for at least a year whilst I was busy at university doing stuff, but now its back up and running and I'm gradually gradually increasing its stock! Here are some pictures I took for the shop with my pa, where I played dress up and wore lots of glitter...


I'll eventually sell all of this in my etsy shop which you can see here apart from the trousers, those are my favourite Summer pedal pushers (isn't that just the best name for them?!). I really sad about selling the black lace bed jacket, it's so easy and fun to wear and layer over things, but alas I shall have to! (It's okay though because I'll make a pattern from it and make one for myself sometime in the future along with all those other elaborate projects I'm planning!)


Tuesday 13 August 2013

Tight stripe

One of my favourite things in the whole world is antique hosiery. So so exciting, you can become a character in an instant by just donning a pair of coloured thigh-high stockings. I just came across this picture:
http://iconophages.tumblr.com/post/58139861004/e-j-bellocq-untitled-1912
Absolutely amazing beautiful thing!
I search a lot on etsy.com for antique embroidered stockings. I just want to admire them because they are usually extortionately priced, so I drool over them and dream about spending hours embroidering stockings myself. Here are some wonderful ones I've found:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/122414347/1920s-stockings-black-white-cotton-pink?ref=col_view   - from LaMeow Vintage on etsy.com

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/pair-of-women-s-stockings-116980
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/66528640/antique-edwardian-embroidered-stockings?ref=col_view  IvyCottage2U on etsy.com
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/114112703/1920s-stockings-ivory-silk-painted-art?ref=col_view 
These stockings were sold, oh my heart aches! LaMeow Vintage on etsy seems to have just the most beautiful stock, how do they do it and don't feel tempted to hold on to everything?!

I own one pair of really lovely old stockings, and I'm thinking of doing some kind of elaborate embroidery on them, a combination of all of the above designs perhaps?!

Here they are in their current red and pure state:


What design do you think I should go for - cheeky faces or classic flowers/arrows?

Also watch 'L'Apollonide' ('House of Tolerance') for some serious inspirational viewing. All I want to wear is those clothes/undergarments day and night.

Sunday 11 August 2013

Scan of the week





Bits found at a local boot fair. New weekly post featuring my favourite textures/textiles scans!

Friday 9 August 2013

Velvet goldfish

This top is the velvet goldfish top. My lovely auntie got it for me so I can wear full velvet outfits come winter time, which yes yes I will be doing and I can't wait either. It's definitely got some age to it, can't quite place it yet but maybe 60s/70s and it is soo soft mm. It's really nice worn with a shirt underneath too or velvet leggings or a shift skirt or a dress or trousers or nothing or anything, oh goodness its so nice. Brightens up my day no end! Clothes do have magic powers I think. I can be in bed thinking 'do I have to get up now?' and then remember if I get up I can wear this top with red lipstick and socks and stuff and it makes me more motivated to get up, truly magical.


Some nice 'dad's taking awkward photo's of me but can't be bothered to be serious' stuff

And some cute/slightly less awkward flower pics later on...



Wednesday 7 August 2013

Postal Art

I've just started a collaborative art project with my friend Rosie Thomas where we play a kind of game of postal Chinese Whispers. I send her something I've sewn into and then she'll send it back with her additions. Here's what I've sent her to start off with:



When I began sewing I saw the initials that were already there were R and S intertwined. Aw!

It's a fun and easy little project to start, all you need is a friend who lives a little too far away to see everyday, a scrap piece of fabric, needles and thread, or any other materials you want to use and an envelope and stamp!

Tuesday 6 August 2013

Green jungle

Sometimes I wear more than one outfit in a day... okay...fine... most days I end up wearing more than one outfit, but that's fine right?! Okay maybe its not fine, but working from home creates the temptation to play around and sometimes I might wear an outfit out and then realise its not that comfy for the whole day and change when I get back from whatever I've been doing. So here are two outfits I've worn today, one shot by me (no prizes for guessing which one eh) and one by my pa.
Charity shop blouse, vintage shorts (selling on ebay), vintage dior tights, sparkly juju jelly shoes and old silver brooches.


I like this outfit a lot, those green tights are super cute, but the outfit got a little hot and so I wore this instead...

Vintage 1950s chrysanthemums print dress (I think of it as my jungle dress), with a blue leather belt from a charity shop, jelly shoes and socks from john lewis



This dress cost something ridiculous like £4.50 from a charity shop because it has a rip in the bottom on the skirt, but you can't see it and I never notice it so it was a great find!

In other news... my bag has being growing nicely:


And in the background is fabric from another project I'm working on:

I love scans but this looks horrible, demonstration purposes only!

I made a toile of the crop top below which you can see me wearing here and I'm sure in many photos to come: http://www.secondhandreduction.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/hi-hi-hi-hi-hi.html
I need to make a few alterations to it but the original idea was to make it out of the peach chiffon fabric at the bottom, but I think it'll be a little see-through even with the addition of lots of ruffles so I might make the chiffon fabric into a babydoll crop top instead taking from the shape of this one:
http://www.secondhandreduction.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/peachy-keen-babydoll.html



Anyway these are projects to keep playing around with!
I'm off to wear my 5th outfit of the day, goodbye!