I do love a twinkly light and these gorgeous lanterns where such a surprise when I happened upon them at our local Chatsworth Gardens. So pretty, I found myself smiling from ear to ear. 

Now I've finished all the DIY jobs in the house and I'm furloughed for another couple of weeks, I've had time to make a few little things. I made some lavender bags, a few for us to stop the pesky moth babies from eating our clothes, plus a few for friends as little extra stocking presents. I had bought a big bag of lavender from a visit to Burghley House last year and happily have now made use of it.

The fabric was purchased in a little bundle of mixed fabrics, half price in January and the blue velvet ribbon was in my stash.

I also planted up these fancy Welsh Gaudy Ware teacups with dainty house leeks. The cups themselves were a chazza shop purchase £3.00 each, but they are early 19th century and the house leeks I picked up from Freecycle. I'm keeping one and gifting the other two. I think they look smashing.

I'll be back soon to show you my latest project which I collected this morning and the dearest little bobble hat make.

The last time I wrote about the notions and sewing skills of Miss. G. A. Haslam was in 2011. If you missed it you can still read it here. It has been so popular I can't quite believe it. So I thought three years has gone by, it must be time for some more Haslam. Who said I was slow on the uptake?



Lots of folk are giving hand made and upcycling a bash now, and that pleases me no end. Creativity is always a good thing in my book, regardless of what you do or how well you do it. Having said that I wouldn't want to wear a garment I'd sown.

But if you are one of those clever people like Lazy Daisy Jones, then you could probably glean enough info from this post to cut out a vintage pattern and make something really special. I hope so.


Miss. Haslam's tip for making this coat is, "Trace the pattern for the flared hip pieces and cut on each line. The two lower portions should be cut one and a half inches above the top of the pattern, to allow each to overlap. Allow one inch turnings at the lower edge, fold under and tack, machine. Fix each piece in position and machine to the coat".

Hopefully that means something to someone.


This costume coat design is from her Teenager and Junior Miss book of draftings. When I look at images like this I sometimes wish that Jeans had not been adopted so readily as stylish everyday wear. Even though I have to admit they are my own default choice of clothing most days.



Hello and welcome to John who is my latest Google Friend Connect Follower, you can find his delightful musings here.

This is the last stitch of the scary sewing project, hand sewing the hems. The whole project has taken me about five days in all, and although the curtains are certainly not 'perfect' from a professional curtain making point of view, I'm very pleased with them. 

(Sighs of relief all round and a huge saving of £500 made).

The pencil pleat uniformity is a bit iffy and wouldn't stand up to scrutiny, but hey the ribbon is sooo pretty it kinda makes up for it. I was hoping the ribbon would lift the plain curtains from bog standard to bespoke, and I think it has.


I would say if you're thinking of giving this sort of thing a go, but like me have never done it before, give it a try. Look on the Internet for tutorials, ask friends for their tips, take your time and it will work :)



We have spent some money on this room, but we have stuck to a budget, and we now have a lovely room that we will use, instead of an ugly one that we didn't want to go in. 

Most of the larger items we have recently purchased, art deco cabinet, sofa and fire surround have all been found on ebay. The rug was Ardingly.

Pure wool. Only £50.00.


This 1930s fire surround was an unbelievable £4.99.

So now I'm going to let you know how we found such incredible bargains on ebay. Otherwise known as my best money saving tip.

By using The Money Saving Expert's local ebay deals mapper. 

This handy little gizmo can tell you all the items that are listed as 'collection only'. By entering your post code and the amount of miles you're willing to travel to collect, you will be able to scroll through a veritable cornucopia of delights, and grab some bargains.

You may even be lucky and find some sellers who are willing to deliver for a small fee.

I've had a sewing machine at my disposal as it were for 4 years. Yes four. Mr.S&P bought it for me at my request from Country Living magazine. Subscribers offer, so not to be missed.

Finally I'm making good use of it, and of course it has turned out to be an asset on the thrifty front, always a good thing, because I'm using it to make curtains for our revamped drawing room. SAVING MONEY :) And this is only it's first outing.

I did get a quote from a local curtain maker to make the curtains but it was going to be about £500.00. Ouch!

You will know I do always like to use local services when I can, (I really like the idea of keeping money circulating within my own community) and I'm sure she does an excellent job and of course she has to make a living for herself, but I can't bring myself to spend that amount on curtains. Even if I had it to spend, which I don't.

So I thought to myself if I can manage wallpapering I must be able to sew some curtains, right? How hard could it be? 


Well quite hard actually. I took the machine out of it's little nest, took one look at all the numbers, colour codes and dials and thought crikey this looks complicated. I read the instruction manual and had the same thought.
So what to do? Call a friend who sews and get her round to mine sharpish!

Within minutes the machine was 'loaded' and ready to fire.

But first we had to cut up the 24 metres of fabric into manageable lengths, said friend also brought round sharp scissors. Did I say she is a good friend?  Thankfully I have some floor space in my kitchen.


These are the two windows I need to cover.


And as you know dear reader my recently wallpapered 'feature' wall is rather flamboyant, so I opted for plain cream linen/cotton fabric, no pattern match, jolly good. 

But I wanted to make them look a bit more bespoke and not totally boring, so I've chosen some ribbons to run across the integral valance. Oh yes an integral valance.


Did I hear someone say "overly ambitious", moi?

I'll let you see for yourselves very soon.

If my curtain making optimism hasn't made you laugh enough already, or even if it has, pop over to this lovely blog.

                                                                
                                                                  

         

































Book three looking the most sophisticated, with full colour images. I would so love to make some of these patterns up. Perhaps a project for the future ?