And now you're back, from outer space...

...however no sad faces being sported here!

I'm back again! I can't believe the last time I popped on here was in April, how time has flown! Hope you've all been well?

So you might have been wondering where I disappeared to after my previous promise of returning. Well, I've been spending a little time really thinking about what it is I want to do, what's important, makes me happy and gives me fulfillment in life. I've realised I've recently been moaning and groaning that I never had enough time to do the things that I'd enjoyed, such as crafting, spending time catching up with friends and family, and making plans for the future. A lot of my time had been wrapped up in work and studying for work, and the dark winter and frightfully chilly miserable spring just wasn't motivating me to do anything other than the essentials. I've finally got a summer break from evening classes, and I'm taking a slightly scary jump into a new job starting a week on Monday (wish me luck!). I finally have the time and freedom again to get creative, which includes a long overdue and missed return to blogging. 

The Mister and I have also just returned from a 3 day holiday along the coast on a little beach just down the road from Bexhill. We've had the most amazing time exploring Hastings and Rye for the first time, and met some lovely people as well as found some amazing beauty spots to take in the views. I feel totally refreshed and recharged, and today's sunshine back in Brighton has just put the cherry on the cake. I feel like a new person. A new person who's been a busy bee crocheting away at a new project. Can you see what it is yet?

For anyone who keeps an eye on my Facebook page, I posted a few pictures up of crochet bits and bobs I've been churning out, including some red roses which I fashioned into a makeshift hair-slide. I got some really lovely feedback off the back of it, and so I thought I'd try my hand at a more finished crochet piece. 

Featuring a green crochet base and two crochet roses in pinks, I added some snowdrops, a little robin (picked up in Hastings!) and a couple of vintage buttons from my stash, I'm rather pleased with this one! What do you think?

I've made a couple of these in different colours with different flowers and bits and bobs from my overflowing hoard of haberdashery. The Mister and I will be holding a stall at the July Johnny loves June Vintage fair in Shoreham on the 21st and I'm hoping to be able to test the water and see if anyone would like to take one home with them. Keeping my fingers crossed, it would be a dream to someday somehow make a living from a hobby! 

So on to today's happenings. The Mister and I decided that 3 rounds of Crazy Golf at the Hastings International Championship Mini Golf course on Thursday wasn't enough, and that we had a score to settle. If you didn't know already, we're a little Crazy Gold mad and play quite a lot! Today's arena: Brighton Adventure Golf on Madeira Drive. Here's me sporting my best golfer's pose:

For any fellow lovers of The Chap Magazine you might recognise the setting from one of their covers. Unfortunately for me, the Mister won this round after I royally ballsed up on the first 2 holes (the course was faster than I thought...my excuse and I'm sticking to it, hehe!), although I did managed to score at least 1 hole-in-one. Next time!!

Outfit:

Flower hair-slide - Made by Me!

Vintage bangle - Roedean Vintage & Collectors Fair

Vintage pale pink knitted top - Charity Shop, Haywards Heath

Vintage pink wool cardi - Lewes Flea Market

High waisted pedal pushers - Rye

Mexican blanket pumps - Primarni

Much love from sunny Brighton,

L.J.

XXX

Experiments in Crochet

 I've mentioned previously that I've been devoting a lot of my spare time on developing my crochet skills and working on more projects. I was taught by my babysitter when I was around 6 how to crochet, but after a few failed attempts at making bits and bobs in my teenage years, and not having the patience to stick to patterns, I forgot all about it and started sewing instead. Last year however I vowed to change that and get back into crochet, thanks to my very inspiring friend Miss Amy Phipps, who, together with She's called Claire own and run Super + Super HQ. Amy taught me how to Hairpin Lace Crochet in July and reminded me how much fun it is to work with wool, and also how easy it is to improvise once you've learnt your basics.

I've now passed on some of my knowledge and taught a few friends, two in particular (you know who you are!) who have picked it up stupendously quick and have made some amazing piecesalready, in under a years worth of time!

When I've not been helping others along with their projects, I've been learning how to freeform and improvise to come up with new ideas. I'm so sad I forgot to take any pictures of the Christmas presents I made this year, so I've been making sure I document projects since then, including these two pillows:

I saw a pattern for a circular owl on Pinterest, and used it to come up with my own circular designed owl, and then a little fox too! Both pieces are worked in the round, changing colours as you work. That's definitely a new trick I've learnt this year, changing colours properly and neatly in the right stitch so you get crisp lines. Really really pleased with how these two turned out, and I've had lots of offers of adoption for these tow, who will be making their way to their new homes shortly :)

What do you think?

Much Love from Brighton,

L.J.

xxx

Oh I do love to be beside the Seaside!

I do love Brighton Beach, but sometimes it's nice to head along the coast to the less touristy parts of our beautiful Sussex Coast. 

Having worked in Worthing for 5 years up until a recent change in career, I forgot how much I love the more rustic and old-school seaside town it is. Lancing is just round the corner, and on a recent charity shop hunting trip, the Mister and I decided to finish the day with a stroll along the promenade, and a spot of posing with the fishing boats...as you do!

On a windy day like this, headscarves are called for!

You will very rarely spot me in jeans, these are the only pair I own, but am looking to invest in some new ones. If anyone has managed to find some perfect jeans, please do tell! I have spent years on the look out to no avail.

I've also been messing about and experimenting with hair-do's a little more after having picked up a few tips from the Vintage Hair Lounge. Would highly recommend you pay them a visit if you ever get the chance, they are a lovely duo and have so much knowledge to share, very inspirational! I shall be posting up a picture tutorial very shortly as requested :) thank you for all your lovely comments!

On a hint from a charity shop manager in Shoreham, we made our way to Green House in Lancing, the most humongous charity shop I have ever had the luck of coming across. Jaw dropping stuff, the place was an actual warehouse and was stuffed to bursting point with furniture, bric a brac, clothes and an amazing haberdashery section to boot. Not only that, but they were selling some 70's G-plan-esque furniture from £20!!!! If we only had room in our little den... 

Go bag yourself a bargain!

Much Love from Lancing,

L.J.

xxx

Pussycat Pussycat, Where have you been?!

...I've been up to London to visit the Queen.

Well....not really (but I do wish!)....haha! 

A very belated Happy New Year to all, and an even more so belated Merry Christmas! 

I decided to put down the keyboard over the festive period so I could crack on and get the mountain of presents finished, and then just enjoy and indulge myself. I'm happy to report this plan was a great success, however many a box of chocolates have had to offer themselves up and are no longer with us ;) well worth it!

Christmas was spent with my nearest and dearest, and I have to admit, I was itching for them all to open up their presents, this was after all my very first home made Christmas! Stupidly, I failed to take pictures of 99% of the presents I made, so cannot share them with my lovely readers :( sorry. Will do better next year.

I absolutely loved making everyone's presents, and have learnt a few lessons for next year:

Leave more time for completion

Vary the crafting techniques (not everything has to be crocheted!)

Plan further ahead and prep. I have leftover bits and bobs coming out my ears!

However, one present I can share with you is what I made for the little furry ones in my life. I realised none of them had their own stockings, so of course it was my duty to make them, and stuff them full of home baked dog biscuits. Of course the cat didn't miss out, she got catnip instead (very funny!). So here is one of them, made for Charlie Beagle:

I was so happy with how these turned out, and they loved them just as much, as Maisy can prove. I'm thinking of making a few of these for the local dogs trust.

Now normality has returned, I fully intend to make a come back to the blogosphere; it brings me so much joy writing this blog, and how I have missed it so.

Much love from Brighton,

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

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 

Vintage Pattern Cutting at the V&A

Back in February, Mum and I attended a pattern cutting course up at the V&A. 3 days packed full of vintage fashion heaven! We got to take a tour around the exhibitons they were holding at the time to seek some inspiration, including the Queen's Coronation Dress. Amazing. Highly recommend it, even if it is a bit pricey. They run regular pattern cutting classes so go check out their website to see when the next one is being held. (Plus if you book it quite close to the date, like we did, you may be able to wangle a rather nice discount if they haven't filled the class yet....shhhhh!)

 

As I've been exceedingly lazy and gammy handed, I haven't posted up about it yet, and it's taken me 6 months to get around to it. Bad me indeed. But I shall make amends now by showing you some of the test pieces I worked on. Just a quick round up:

 

Here's number one. I cut the top on a fold over the bust, and was playing around with opening up darts in different places and making the bust fuller to gather it into the lower part. The V shape doesn't go all the way to the side, so that the top's front can be made out of just one piece. Might try and do a mirror version sans gathers for the back and see if I can work it so it's made from just the one piece of fabric. Loved having 3 days of just experimenting and playing around with fabric :)

 

The sleeve should have been cut on the bias but I forgot. Kind of like how it went a bit more rigid in the end and had more structure in it than the cowl effect I'd intended. 

 

For the back I decided to give the cowl another attempt. This time cut on the bias, but I think I was using the wrong material. Did make a second one of jersey-like fabric and it looked so much better. It's a learning process after all.

I'd never attempted to make up my own patterns properly by working everything out and using blocks. It was absolutely fascinating and has opened up a world of possibilities. I am so itching to put these to the test with crochet. Technically, if I work out the shape of the garment I want to make, I just have to make pieces into the same shape as the pattern pieces! That's what I'm hoping anyway ;)

 

Much Love from Brighton,

 

and don't forget to take part in my current Give-Away competition!

 

L.J.

xxx

The Sunday Best Campaign & Give-Away!

Due to the lovely comments I've been receiving on digging out my Sunday Best, the thought came to me, why don't we try to start our own little campaign to spread the love of Stylish Sundays?

I recently wrote about one of the problems I have with my wardrobe. I keep finding beautiful dresses in flea markets and boot sales, but cannot find an occasion to wear them. Too nice to wear for an everyday normal day, but not quite evening wear. So they started gathering dust at the back of my wardrobe, looking at me longingly, saying 'wear me! wear me!' but I can always think of a reason why they just wouldn't suit. Enough of the excuses I say, they deserve to be worn and seen, and why do I have to have a reason anyway? We all used to get dressed up in our Best for Sundays, every Sunday.



I know I'm not the only one out there. I've had this conversation with the girls many times. These beautiful dresses shouldn't be hidden away any longer. Lets go back to those days gone by when everyone would dust off their best and bust it out for all to see on Sundays.

 So without further ado, for all you lovelies out there who expressed a want to do this yourself, why not spread the love. To mark this grand occasion, I have put together a little campaign poster for you to take away and stick up on your own blog, facebook or whatever tickles your fancy, and see how far we can take this! Let me know if you post up pictures of any of your Sunday Best ventures, as I will be having a monthly round up of anyone who decides to participate.

To get you started, and to also celebrate a personal milestone of 90+ followers, I'm combining the launch with a home-made Give-Away prize!

For your consideration we have 2 prizes up for grabs. I have put together some fascinators which are looking for a new home. Home-crafted and featuring feathers, crochet edging, pom-pom's and flowers, I think these would make the perfect topping to any Sunday Best outfit!

One in Pink:

And one in Green:

And here's me pulling silly faces while showing one off in the patio:

On to the rules of the game. I shall try to keep it quite simple, not done this before! The condition of giving away two are: 0-10 entries = 1, which the winner may choose or 10+ = both, so 2 winners.

Rules:

1. Comment below that you want to take part, and please mention which one you'd prefer!
2. Join me on Facebook HERE

and an optional:

3. If you do join the campaign for Stylish Sundays, please do put the poster up on you blog, and if you do, let me know and you get a 2nd entry to up your chances :)
 

So join me fellow bloggers! Whatever motivates you, lets bring back the wearing of our Sunday Best, and let's see how far we can spread this!

Much Love from Brighton,

L.J.

xxx

August so far...

Firstly, I want to say a big thank you and welcome to my lovely new followers! Now that I have reached the rather exciting number of 90+, I'm currently busy crocheting away at a home-crafted Give-Away prize, so keep your eyes peeled for that, together with the launch of the Sunday Best Campaign in response to recent comments on here. Let's see how many fellow bloggers we can get involved in this and spread the fun of stylish Sundays!

In the meantime, however, I thought I would update any of you who may have wondered where I disappeared off to (just indulge me!)

 

August has been a super busy, and rather exciting month so far! Big changes are afoot... I went for an interview with somewhere I have always dreamed of beign a part of, and actually got it!!! You cannot imagine just how excited I am to be working for.....the Brighton Dome!! As of September, I'll finally be based in Brighton again, and starting on a whole new career. Bit daunting after spending 5 years working for a bank, to switching to something completely different, but at the same time I cannot wait. I've been studying Occupational Psychology on the side, and now I get to put all that into practice and start a career in HR, woop woop!! I've been waiting for this for quite a while :)

 

I've also been shimmy-ing my thing at home, practicing and putting together a new routine, and creating a whole new costume to match. Busy times, but oh so much fun! Cannot wait to show and tell!

 

The crochet side of things has also been seen to. I finally completed the granny square blanket, yet another cardi, experimented some more with Hair-pin Lace Crochet, and starting to put together a 'to-make' list for Christmas presents. Yes, I know it's only August, but this is going to be my very first home made Christmas, and I am determined to make everyones presents, so I'm starting early to make sure I actually get them done. That list is getting rather long......

 

Both of my parents also recently turned 50. I don't know about you, but presents for parents are starting to get rather tricky. There's nothing they want that they haven't already got and I'm running out ideas, so I've had to be rather creative this year to mark this special occassion. So...I thought I'd share with you the presents I put together for their 50th Birthdays:

My dad has always been a bit of a space and all-things-techie lover. I have many childhood memories of Sciene Museums and Space exhibitions, and yes, we did spend many a family evening at home, glued to the box engrossed in the latest episode of Star Trek :) So earlier in the year, when I stumbled across an early 1970's cigarette card and booklet collection entitled 'The Race into Space', I knew exactly what to do with it, and who would appreciate it the most; my Dad.

 

Here they are all framed up and mounted. I'm so pleased with how this turned out. And Dad loved it. Actually turns out he collected this exact series when he was a kid, and probably still had it in a box in the attic...unless it got lost in the move from Germany along with his Thunderbirds comic collection.....don't worry dad, I'm sure I will find a new set for you one day!

 

The rest of the cards I put in an envelope and attached to the back of the frame, should he want to swap any out in the future!

 

Now onto Mum. Mum is a very hard person to buy for. And my Mum's opinion in all things crafty really mean a lot to me. She herself has always been an avid crafter, having created her own line of kids clothes and having a shop when we lived in Germany. Still sewing away today, attending pattern cutting classes and learning new techniques, she has also been learning how to crochet, and coming along to the hair-pin lace lessons too. Not only that, but she can paint and draw, although she would never ever admit it and is her own worst critic...so no pressure there then, hah!

 

For Mum and Dad's 40th Birthdays I painted them a picture of our childhood dog Heinz (RIP) and our cat Febe (still very much with us). Since Heinz passed away, we had a new addition to the family early last year, and what better way to combine this and welcome Maisy to the family but to add her to the family gallery:

 

 

 

 

 

Personally, not my favourite, and I think I may have to do one again...but it shall suffice for now :)

 

 

Now on to get that Give-Away prize finished!!

 

Much Love from Brighton,

 

L.J.

xxx