Hello hello!

I'm still alive, promise! 

I haven't disappeared, my heads just been full of Christmas crochet projects, clear-outs  trying to sort out my life, tailoring courses, oh and a whole career change and adjusting to a new job. Hectic indeed, but I'm glad to say I've come out the other side feeling slightly more organised and perhaps a little more on top of things again. Fingers crossed anyways!

I've got so many exciting things to share with you, and can't wait to get things properly going next year. I'm toying with the idea of setting up some sort of crochet-y project on the side to see if I could actually make a go of it and earn some extra pennies. Still in the planning stages, but it will be along the lines of vintage inspired crochet accessories and clothing....ooooh! But here's a little sneak peek at what I've been making these last weeks:

I've also successfully passed my Occupational Psychology course, woop! My first effort at distance learning.

I've also spotted myself in the November issue of Vintage Explorer, thanks to the lovely feature on local vintage Photographer Mat Keller. This photo was taken a few years ago, how I wish I could stay 22 forever, hah. Also spotted a lot of familiar faces I didn't realise were also part of the SouthernRetro.com project, wonder who of you will be next?

Due to the lack of posting, there are also a lack of pictures from recent outfits. I keep taking the camera along and then completely forgetting about it. I'll just have to get all dressed up again and take some pictures, what a shame, heheh.

Thank you for all your lovely comments while I've been away in lala-land, they mean so much to me and remind me of why I do this blog, and why I shouldn't let it slip. I've been asked for a few tutorials, so while I have some time off over Christmas I shall be posting a handful of hair styling how-to's as well as a few crafty ones. Keep your peepers peeled!

And the best news of all? I've hit the 100+ followers mark in my absence, how amazing!! Thank you to each and every one of you who has stuck by me throughout, and I look forward to a busy blogging future. To mark this grand occasion  I'm putting together a little thank you hamper which I will share with you for the next Give-away competition. 

Much Love from Brighton,

L.J.

xxx

A furrrry Sunday Best

Another sunny Sunday, another Sunday Best!

Winter has most certainly arrived, I opened the curtains this morning and had the very first frost of the season, so what better way to prepare for a day out walking than wrap up warm with layers of wool, petticoats and fur :)

We took a stroll into town along the seafront to blow off those cobwebs (quite fitting this weekend, nay?), and in-between rain showers and sunshine managed to take a few snaps.

This jacket is starting to make a lot of appearances on the blog now the weather has turned, and still has to be my favourite item of clothing. If I haven't mentioned before, this is a 1940's Cyril A. Castle Saville Row Suit jacket, and I have the matching skirt! Woop! Gloat much.....sorry! ;) This time however I've teamed it up with a 50's floral tea dress, padded out with 2 layers of petticoats for added warmth, white jumper and fleece tights (hallelujah Primark, finally something I actually needed!).  

A little on the controversial side perhaps, but I'm not ashamed to admit that yes, the fur that I am wearing is real. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I am completely against the 'production' of new fur, but don't see why that should mean that vintage fur should be left to be eaten by moths in a darkened cupboard. What's your opinion on the matter?

I also finally got around to dying my hair again this week, long overdue indeed but I am totally in love with being a fiery red head once again. If only this could be my natural colour, hah. Pinned up at the front in swirls and in a big birds nest at the back, one of my recent favourites.

And of course Charlie had to join in and wear his Sunday Best. This is a made-by-me coat I rustled up in time for last Christmas. There were two, one for Charlie and one for his brother Buster (RIP), they're fleece lined, with a waterproof inside layer, their 'family' tartan and finished off with green pipping and their initial embroidered on the fleece collar. Sure to keep old Charlie warm in the coming months, and sure to attract plenty of attention from passers by. I think Charlie got more comments than either the Mister or myself! The people of Brighton sure do love a beagle in a coat heh.

I see quite a few fellow bloggers have now joined me in the Sunday Best Campaign, and I'm loving seeing all the effort you've been going to to crack out your Sunday Best, no excuses needed! Please do remember to let me know when you've posted up a Sunday Best post so I can start creating a monthly round up of all your frilly frocks, looking forward to it!

1940's Suit Jacket - Martlets Charity Shop, Brighton

1950's Brown Floral Tea Dress - Upper Gardner Street Flea Market, Brighton

Fur Ear Muffs - Christmas present

Fur Headband - Pop Up Vintage, Hassocks

Fur Collar - Brighton Marina Car Boot

Vintage Glass Bead Necklace - Brighton Marina Car Boot

Yellow Fleece Tights - Primark

1950's Floral Umbrella - Seaford Flea Market

Much Love from Brighton,

L.J.

xxx

Vintage Caravaning

I have a secret dream of one day doing up the old 70's caravan that's been left neglected on the Mister's Mums drive and hook it up to Tilly the Triumph and spend a few weeks travelling around the British countryside....

 

And after spending an afternoon a few weekends ago in a middle of a field with lots of fellow classic car lovers, I found myself some inspiration. Check this baby out. It is the blue version of what I imagine will be our brown set, so it matches with our brown Triumph 2500.

 

I'm hoping for a dry winter so we can get started on it this year, and then start exploring in the spring. I am in love.

 

 

I asked the owners if I could pop my head in and take some pictures, but I don't think they were prepared for quite the amount of squeaking and squealing which ensued. I got rather excitable! heh!

 

The interior was AMAZING. They've collected bits and bobs over the years for the caravan to kit it out, and all they had to do was give it a bloody good clean as the interior was still spotless! I know ours will need a lot more work than just a quick clean. I'd love to have ours like this one one day :)

 

And just look at this tea set!! I want it I want it now! It's just too cute, matching caravan tea set..whatever next?!

 

Does anyone else have a hidden love for caravans? Got one hidden away in your backyard? After staying at Vintage Vacations last summer, I think next summer will be the christening of our very own caravan :) Let the travelling begin!

 

 

Much Love from a field in Sussex,

 

 

L.J.

xxx

Puzzling Away

Sticking to the theme of classic cars, I managed to pick up an old puzzle in one of the charity shops in Shoreham a few weeks ago. Finally finished it, but only to discover quite a few of the pieces were missing.....

 

Does anyone have any tips how I could maybe scan in the box lid and make up the missing pieces?! I'd love to stick it in a frame, but unfortunately the missing pieces are in rather obvious places! Grrr!

 

 

Much Love from Brighton,

 

 

L.J.

xxx

Experiments in Vintage Crochet - Part 5

Strictly speaking, not exactly vintage corchet, but crochet none the less!

I've started branching out from cardi's now...5 of them are enough for the time being, heh. and with Christmas a few months away, I'm trying to crack on with some present making. First up, and because the recipient of this is only a wee one and unable to read the blog, I've made a crochet unicorn pillow friend!

If you want to give it a try yourself, the free pattern can be found right here

I'd say this is a very good beginners project. It was a lot simpler than I thought, and only used double and triple crochet stitches with very easy to follow instructions for the increasing and decreasing. All pieces were made in the round which was an interesting and very fast way of making this up.

I've shown a few people these pictures and already being asked to make more for other people. think I'll be a bit busy for the next weeks!

The body was made in the round in stripes until you have a square, sew up one side, stuff or insert a pillow, and then sew up the other side, simples!

The head is then started with a straight line in the snout, which you then start working around in as circle again, increasing and decreasing as you work your way up.

Then it's ears in a petal shape, sewn onto the head with a cone for unicorn stuffed up first.

And a mane of dark green hair and tail to complete.

And all made up of leftover wool frm previous projects. A proper Stash Buster!

I'm so pleased with how this turned out. I've never actually made a toy out of crochet before, and it was so much fun! I think I might have to make one of these up for our sofa too :)

Much Love from Brighton,

L.J.

xxx

A Sunny Sunday Best

Not actually from this Sunday, but from a few weeks back when we were still enjoying some late summer sun at a friends wedding in the beautiful Sussex countryside.

 

I wore my 1960's royal blue dress from a Horsham charity shop as seen here with gold and orange accessories to brighten it up even more.

 

Hair all curled and pinned up in anticipation for an evening filled with throwing shapes on the dancefloor as the Mister spun some tunes. What a fantastic day it turned out to be!

 

Sheer royal blue pleated dress - Horsham Martlets Charity shop

Vintage Necklace - Brighton Marina Boot sale

Earring - New Look

Sunglasses - Primark

Shoes - L.K. Bennet



 

Much Love from Brighton,

 

L.J.

xxx

Lady Jardin on VintageBrighton.com

 

 Bit delayed, but I recently had the honour of being featured on VintageBrighton.com, our local hub for all things Vintage related and one of my most visited sites when looking up forthcoming events and shop reviews.

 

Please follow the link below if you fancy having a read :)

 

VintageBrighton.com

 

 

Thank you to the lovely Jo-Ann Fortune for letting me be a part of VintageBrighton.com, and a huge thank you to all me loyal followers and fellow bloggers for sticking with me and following me along my journey into all things Vintage, Crafty and Creative!

 

Much Love from Brighton,

 

L.J.

xxx



Birthday Booting

As mentioned, I spent my Saturday afternoon rummaging through Brighton Racecourse's Boot Sale. Although we turned up quite late, I managed to spot a couple of little trinkets to bring home. Nothing big this time, but in a way that's a good thing, as we're fast running out of space and need a ruddy good clear out!

 

For 50p, I couldn't leave these cheeky cute 50's wooden coasters behind, how saucey!! My favourite has got to be the middle top; 'please remain seated wwhile the room is in motion' hehe.

 

Fine yarns for Ladies. Perfect for mending the more delicate items in my wardrobe.



So close to my own name...add an extra M in there...was meant to be!

£2 for all this wool, and 40p for the crochet hooks....never again will I be buying wool off the highstreet again. But now I have to make something in green again, what a shame ;) 

And lastly, an unpicker that matches my 1970's Elna machine, and a 'Stop that Run!' stocking and pantyhose repair kit. Amazing.

Now to get started using up all that wool!

 

 

Much Love from Brighton,

 

 

L.J.

xxx

Happy Birthday to Me! Sunday Best

If you hadn't guest already, it's my Birthday today! Woop! And naturally, as it happens to fall on a Sunday this year, I get the chance to wear my Sunday Best :)

 

Celebrations were held last night, so today is just a nice relaxing, car booting and film watching recovery day. Due to car-booting activities, it was a necessity to also be warm and practical with outfit choices. So I dug out my most smart country wear; tweed jacket, riding skirt, boots and fur. I also got to wear my birthday present from the Mister. This beautiful feather earring from a local stall. I absolutely love it :) I've been very spoilt this year, but more on that in another post! 

 

 

I wore my big mess of morning after curly hair in a pinned up birds nest. And this is what it looked like after an afternoon of rummaging at the Brighton Racecourse Car Boot. It held amazingly considering the gale it was blowing up there, hah!

Tweed Jacket -  Part of a 1940's Cyrril A. Castle Suit

(the chap behind Roger Moore's James Bond suits! Lucky charity shop find!!)

1950's Riding Skirt - To Be Worn Again, Brighton

Fur scarf - from our trip to Berlin

Earring - Present from the Mister

 

 

Thank you to everyone who made it out last night! Now I shall start putting my feet up, tucking in to some popcorn and stuff my face with pizza for a night of films films films :)

 

 

Much Love from Brighton,

 

 

L.J.

xxx



New Job, New Outfit Post!

I'm starting to settle in to working at the Dome now, and I have to say I am absolutely loving it! It sort of feels a bit like I'm on school work experience or something and that next week I'll have to go back to reality... but then I remember that I do actually work there!

 

It's also proven to be a bit of an excuse to play around with my wardrobe a bit again, it's a lots less formal than working for a bank like I did previously, so now I feel a little over dressed if I were a suit to work. So now my suits can start being my out of work wear, and some of my more casual bits can start making more of an appearance in the office.

 

Today I decided to wear my new to me wrap-around circle skirt in bright pastel colours, teamed with a little crop mesh top and home made cardi.

 

Another bonus; I now have a new backdrop to office outfit posts. Fountain or wall? I pick fountain!

 

 

In love with the print on this skirt. I saw it hanging on the wall in my new favourite out-of-town flea market. I might have to keep a lid on its location for a little while until I get to go back with a camera and have another rummage ;) for £12.50 I think this was a steal!

 

Skirt - Vintage M&S

Mesh Crop Top - Beyond Retro, Brighton

Cardi - Made by Me!

Necklace - Upper Gardener Street Market, Brighton

Sunglasses - Primark

Flower - some classic car show years ago

 

Much Love from Brighton,

 

 

L.J.

xxx



My fever first Sewing Machine!

 

Dad sent over some very old photos from the family archives and I just had to share a few with you. So funny!

 

As you may have gathered from my posts about being a Sewing Machine Junkie here and again here, I love my sewing machines. And I had nearly forgotten what started it all off; my very first, battery powered sewing machine. And here I am, having my very first go! Mum's sewing machine was always far too scary and fast, this one provided me with endless hours of fun making clothes for my Barbies and bears.

 

 

Oh the memories..... :)

 

Here's one of me trying to be the cool kid hanging out after my first pottery lesson. Not that I continued it for long, hah. I wasn't very good. I've you look closeley enough, that blue 'vase' on the window ledge was made by me! Or rather painted by me ;) My parents still have this in the living room...cringe!

 



 

And now some evidence of the early blogger in me. POSER!!!

 

These were taken for my Mum's children's clothes catalogue when we were living in Germany. Posing from an early age, and kinda in Vintage-style outfits....The Mister recons I look like a Medieval child in the one with the umbrella...I'm sticking with Edwardian themed flavours!

 

 

All brings back many happy memories, and is making me want to go see my parents and trawl through the folders upon folders of photographs...I may be a while!

 

Much love from Brighton,

 

L.J.

xxx

 

Give-Away Winner Announcement!

Evenin' All!

 

 

Thank you all for your messages and to those who will be joining me with the Sunday Best campaign. I think this will be a great, and hopefully we'll get some more fellow bloggers involved in the future.

 

Don't forget, let me know when you put any posts up and I'll have a monthly round up! I have to admit, doing it every Sunday isn't as practical as I was hoping, but I did get all dressed up yesterday, so I'll share with you shortly :)

 

 

Without further Ado, using one of those online random generator thingys, the two winners of the fascinators are.....

 

Georgia at The Life and Times of a Vintage Ecentric- Green

 

 

Wendy at the Butterfly Balcony - Pink

 

 

Please could the two lovely winners get in touch with me via email at emma.c.collier@gmail.com so I can pop them in the post for you asap!

 

Thank you again everyone and I look forward to the next round!

 

Much Love from Brighton,

 

L.J.

xxx



Pin Pin Pin that Thing!

Taking a little detour from the world of crochet. Hello pinning things to the manequin!

 

It's about time I tried out some of the new techniques I learnt at the V& A pattern cutting course. I am lazy. But for some reason, when I do finally get myself going, I get a little over excited and over ambitious. This is one of those examples.

 

I cobbled together the halter neck top from a vintage pattern I had and adjusted it to my size. That turned out nice and simple. Did I stay with nice and simple? Obviously not. With my new found confidence in making up patterns, I thought I could manage this:

 

I just picked up a scrap of fabric I had been using to make the fluted skirt (disaster) and started pinning that thing onto the manequin. And got a bit OCD about it. But the question is, am I ever going to be able to translate this into a pattern and actually make it properly? That is going to take some serious motivation and patience. Anyone want to volunteer??

I wanted to get a bit of a 'ray of sunshine' effect on the back with all the darts, and was going to do a mirror image on the other side, and then realised that where the darts ended, it just so happened to 'puff up' a bit and look like a cap sleeve.....so I had to re adjust all the darts at the front to match:

 



After which this happened. I really really really like it, and think this would look so cute as a little capelet to wear with the top next summer (or that indian summer I keep praying we might get). I am rather determined to make this a complete outfit, and might have to do something similar with the skirt 2.0 as the last one didn't turn out well AT ALL.

 



Once I'd taken the pictures I took all the pins back out. Thank goodness the pins just so happened to leave ruddy great big black marks where I had placed them because idiotic me forgot the most important part of pattern cutting....actually drawing the lines onto the fabric of where the darts had to go. Very big d'oh indeed.

I'm going to put this project on the back burner for the moment. I think this is going to have to wait until some time off work and house sitting duties so that I can get some time to work this one out properly.

However, should anyone fancy doing that task for me......haha...if only! Tips however would be very much appreciated!

Much love from Brighton,

L.J.
xxx