My Top 10 craft books wishlist! And the challenge that comes with it..

I am a HUGE lover of craft books - baking, sewing, knitting, I'm really not fussy. There seems to be an absolute glut of craft books in shops at the moment; everywhere you look someone is telling you that knitting is cool again, or that baking the perfect lemon meringue pie will enhance your lifestlye tenfold. Delia, I'm looking at you.

So, after scouring the bookshops and Amazon, of course, I present to you.. my current most coveted craft books!

 1. The Liberty Book of Home Sewing

I can't believe that I didn't know of this book's existence until very recently. I'm very surprised there was not more publicity surrounding the release of this book, especially considering Liberty's place in British culture. I saw it in a Waterstones (minus the apostrophe) and completely fell in love with it. It is cloth bound, very Liberty, and is full of some of the most delightful ideas and patterns I have ever seen. There's the cutest little apron that will definitely be the first thing I make, if or when this book comes into my possession! The patterns used are absolutely beautiful and I can't help but feel this book will be not dissimilar to placing a vacuum in my bank account. Of course I have to make everything in the suggested Liberty fabric...

2. The Collette Sewing Handbook: 5 Fundamentals for a Great Sewing Experience

I only recently discovered Collette patterns, through a post on another blog about some free patterns they were offering! I downloaded the patterns, had a flick through and my imagination went wild. I could completely picture the garment, knew exactly that fabric I was using, everything. That said, I still haven't even cut the pattern out yet. Oops. You can find the patterns here on the gorgeous Collette blog. They instructions are so easy to follow - I often find that I look at a pattern, decide it's FAR too hard and never look at it again. I just didn't get this with the Collette patterns and if the book is anywhere near as easy to follow, it's perfect for both seasoned stitchers and beginners. Plus the clothes are completely beautiful. You can see quite a lot of them made up here.

3. Kirstie's Homemade Home

I remember watching this programme religiously when it was on. As far as I can remember, it's really the first programme in recent times to focus entirely on crafting. I know there are A LOT of criticisms aimed at Ms Allsopp for how she is presented in the show, Janet Street Porter I'm looking at you this time, but I genuinely think that's irrelevant. A woman can craft until the cows come home, but it doesn't make her detrimental to the feminist cause. It's not like she's chained to the sewing machine or anything. SO. I hope this book is full of some of the lovely projects that were on the show, if anyone has it, does it live up to expectations?

4. Kirstie Allsopp Craft

Much the same as the above really. I think this book is a lot more varied than the above; where Kirstie's Homemade Home concentrates on home interiors, this book touches on everything. Noteworthy bits are Elderflower Cordial and the perfect scone recipe. Which has long eluded me...

5. The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making

I think that even if this book had blank pages, I would still love it. It's one of those books that just looks good on the shelf. It's about quilts and it's practically wrapped in a quilt. Even if some of the patterns inside may be a little too complex for me, the colours and the general ideas are so inspiring. However, when I'm quilting, there is absolutely nothing gentle about me. So I think perhaps this is wishful thinking and I have a long way to go before I can partake in the gentle art of quilt-making...

6.Patch!

I put this book on the list somewhat cautiously. I received Make! as a christmas present this year, and while it is undeniably crammed full of Cath Kidston prints and products, it is ever so slightly repetitive. I expected the book to cover a wider range of crafts, when in reality all it offers is applique and embroidery onto varied sizes of fabric; a tablecloth, a napkin, a towel, it's all very samey. I'm hoping that Patch! will be different, in that it will offer some beautiful patchwork inspiration and some original ideas for where to use it. If anyone has this book, I'd love to know what it's like.

7. The Vintage Tea Party Book

My boyfriend showed me this book ages and ages ago on a day that I remember being in a particularly bad mood. I didn't pay proper attention and the book made little to no impact on me. I recently came across it again and sat in an armchair in Waterstones for about 30 minutes reading it. I used to feel bad about doing this in bookshops, until I saw an elderly couple perch down with their chosen books and pour themselves cups of tea from a Thermos flask.. This actually happened. The book is crammed full of cute little recipes for the perfect afternoon tea party and is interspersed with cute little vintage crafts - fascinators and such. Did anyone ever watch The Famous Five programmes? Because the girl who features throughout the book looks JUST like Georgina.

8. Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts

This book sounds right up my street. I really like a project to come together quickly, so the simple aspect of these patterns is really very appealing. I also think that a repeated, simple motif in bright colours and prints is far more effective than something super complex. Again, this is another book that can only add to the beauty of the bookshelf! I just need quilting and general craft inspiration at the moment and I think this is definitely the way to go.

9. A Diary of The Lady: My First Year as Editor

So technically this isn't a craft book. Actually, it just isn't a craft book, full stop. But I got to Number 8 and thought that if I put two more craft books, they'll be books that I don't really want, but rather am just vaguely interested in. And that just won't do. This book is one I completely want. I walked past The Lady HQ so many times over the past three years, without even so much as a second thought and now I find out that all this was going on inside?! My grandmother has read this book and said it was absolutely fantastic. It may seem odd that I go by the recommendations of an eighty year old, but my Granny and I share a lot of the same tastes. Rachel Johnson (Boris' sister no less!) documents her battle with the elder generation of The Lady readers and her first year as editor at the magazine, where she is continuously accused of being obsessed with the.. er, male anatomy! How can anyone not want to read this?

10. The Thread

There are two writers whose books I will always buy as close to the release date as possible and always in hardback; Kate Morton and Victoria Hislop. Not because I like hardbacks, but it's too long to wait for paperback! I will admit, these books do border on chick lit, but not so far so that I'm embarrassed to get the book out in public. They do have more than an ounce of credibility. (I was reading a Sophie Kinsella book on the beach last summer, when my boyfriend pointed out that it looked like I was reading a childrens book. I checked the cover and he was completely right, it looked like a picture book. Back in the bag it went.) The Thread is Victoria Hislop's third book following in roughly the same vein. The two predecessors have been set in Greece and Spain consecutively and I believe we head back to Greece for The Thread. I can't think of anything better than reading about warmer climes in this cold, wet weather. Amen to that. I'm downloading this to my Kindle as soon as I've saved enough money to not feel bad about buying it. Does anyone else think that it's FAR too easy to spend money on the Kindle?

So, now for the challenge. Here is the crafty section of my bookshelf at present..

Here's the challenge. I am not allowed to buy any of the wish list books until I have completed at least one project/recipe from all of the books currently on the shelf. I haven't even touched some of these books since they got put there, so I really can't justify buying any more until I can use the ones I already have! That's not too much of a tall order I don't think. Achievable I'd say. I'm not setting myself a time limit on this one, it would feel too much like hard work if I did. If I really do want any of the wish list books that should be motivation enough to complete the challenge! 

So with each book will come a blog post, proving to you and myself that these books are completely necessary and each one of them was money well spent. Wish me luck!

Funky Vintage!

I feel like everyone needs to know about Funky Vintage; everything about this little company is completely gorgeous. For anyone even remotely fond of the humble floral print, read on. 

Founded by, strangely enough, an art teacher at my old school, Funky Vintage uses both new and vintage fabrics to create the most charming of characters. Sourcing fabrics from anywhere and everywhere, with animals encompassing elephants, owls, hippos, snakes and mice, no two characters will ever be the same. Unless, of course, requested. 

Some Funky Vintage offerings!

Possibly the cutest thing about the company is it's custom order option. Customers can select their character, and provide their own fabric, turning a cherished garment into something even more meaningful. Whether it's a baby grow, a child's first school uniform or a wedding dress, nothing seems too much. 

 

Some school uniform characters!

For someone supposed to be ardently saving money, it is with a heavy heart (actually, not really at all), that I admit to giving into this sheer loveliness. The new elephantine addition to my bookshelf couldn't look more at home if it tried. If you hadn't already noticed the running theme throughout my posts of late, I may be developing a penchant for red flannel tarten, see below. I'm hoping this will cool off towards the summer months, I can only imagine it wouldn't be a good look come mid-July.

The stuffed elephant that has stolen my heart.

I am 99.9% sure that an almost 23 year old shouldn't be getting excited about, more to the point, buying, a stuffed animal. But I don't care, I just don't care. Names on a postcard please!

To check out Funky Vintage in it's glorious, beautifully-made entirety, you can either go to their website, or visit them on Facebook! Go on, off you pop.

All photos lovingly borrowed from Funky Vintage's Facebook page. Show their page some love!

A weekend away..

My boyfriend and I have just returned from the most beautiful week staying with my grandparents in Cornwall. They live as remotely as it is possible to get, close to Land's End. While this means we spent a small fortune on petrol, we saw some incredible sights. My grandma, my main craft inspiration, is a keen gardener and florist and was telling us about some of the gardens in Cornwall, of which I had no idea were so plentiful. In between Truro and Falmouth on one stretch of coastline, are dotted the most luscious gardens I have ever seen.

We had planned to visit Glendurgan, but on our arrival we came face to face with a closed sign. However, to my utter disbelief, another garden we had planned to visit was situated a mere 100 metres down the road! So our Glendurgan day out turned into a Trebah adventure. Glendurgan is a National Trust site, so I had expected the worst; high admission fees and a tearoom that would bankrupt the most flush of visitors. Trebah, however, is run solely through volunteering and government grants, which I think was evident. There was such a lovely feel to the garden; it was intimate, friendly and only cost £4 per adult.

The garden runs down the hillside, eventually reaching a private beach. The beach left a little to be desired on our visit, the howling wind put paid to any conversation and induced chronic earache. Our wintry visit was a real treat. The lady at the front desk had told us how colourful and beautiful the garden was at the moment, yet on closer inspection we found there to be little to no colour. I think she was making excuses for what she believed to be a dull and uninspiring day. In reality, the garden was lovelier in the crisp winter than it might have been on a hot, busy summers day. The addition of a couple of hundred wasps would have inevitably ruined my day.

Trebah Gardens

The next day brought a visit to The Lost Gardens of Heligan. Heligan is a huge estate that was once home to the Victorian Tremayne family. The gardens were technically 'lost' until some semblance of a garden was discovered twenty years ago and it was cut back and returned to it's former glory.

I didn't realise until I got home and looked on the website that Heligan was actually brought to life by Tim Smit, creator of the Eden Project. Crazier still, the Eden Project came after Heligan and was heavily influenced by Smit's experience with Heligan. Having now visited both, I can completely see this. The vastly different environments you pass through in Heligan can be seen in both the humid and Mediterranean biomes at Eden. The jungle at Heligan must be seen to be believed, it really was like being in another country. If you ignored the biting cold.

Moving out of the jungle was the highlight for me. The Northern Gardens were literally like stepping into Downton. I could quite happily have pretended to be Lady Mary for the entire day. And I won't lie, for a large proportion of it, I did. It reminded me so much of the film The Secret Garden that I spent the remainder of the day entirely nostalgic about childhood days, when running around the gardens creating stories and characters might not have been so socially unacceptable. At the age of twenty two and three quarters, I believe that sort of behaviour is frowned upon.

Heligan

The Jungle at Heligan

The story of the gardens just absolutely fascinated me; just imagining that huge space that used to be a working estate being completely forgotten, then rediscovered so many years later, completely stumps me. If you're completely gripped by the story of Heligan too, you will LOVE The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. I won't lie, it is an easy read - about a woman visiting Cornwall, staying in the gatehouse of an old estate, who discovers a forgotten garden. It's so hideously idealistic, I completely loved it.

The length of this post is another quite hideous thing, if you've made it to the end, having read solely about gardens, then you are a stronger person than you thought you were.

Yet more door-related crafts!

I recently acquired a lovely, shiny new pair of cotton winceyette pajama bottoms, replacing an old pair of lesser quality and.. fluffy-ness? Brushed-ness? They were less warm, anyway. So with a severe lack of storage space and too many pajamas and woolly jumpers, what does one do? Cut them up of course. Pardon my lack of imagination, but I saw the hacked off legs and the first thing to come to mind was a draught excluder! Now this is not a complete waste of two good legs, as there is the necessity for such a thing in our house. So here is the finished article!

Shiny new pajama bottoms pictured above!

 

 

Credit must go to one of my sisters, who helped with the rather complex mathematics involved in making one of these bad boys. All to do with the radius, diameter and whatever you like of the circle on either end. Everytime I cut a circle, it was massively too big. I couldn't tell you how it was done, something to do with Pi.

I'm so disappointed with my blogging of late, I did SO many, too many, Christmas crafts, but got so swept up in the festive season that not only did I not blog about them, I didn't even take any pictures of them. And now everything is back in the loft for another eleven months. Next year it is then!

My New Year's Resolution is to be a generally more motivated person, so expect more crafts, more posts and more positivity in relation to said crafts! And hopefully a fulfilling career somewhere along the way..

Happy New Year!

My greatest conquest yet!

A zip! I think the last time I installed a zip in a garment or item was probably my A-level Textiles final project; I think there's enough distance between then and now to admit that I had a fair amount of help from my dressmaking mother on that one. Because of everyone's anxiety surrounding the humble zip, I got it into my head that putting one in is SUPER hard. So I was a little reluctant to do this, but I was so surprised at how simple it was!

I've made yet another doorstop, this time as a gift for my boyfriend's family. They have a huge, beautiful German Shepherd and are very much a dog family. So when I saw this fabric I had to get some. But with the dog running around, occasionally vomiting, I could see this doorstop getting hideously grubby in a matter of days, so it needed to be washable. I absolutely exhausted all avenues, until I came full circle back to the zip - it is literally the only way! So the stuffing can be taken out and the cover washed. Instead of just throwing the stuffing in, I made two cubes from a very lightweight cotton and filled one with the toy stuffing and the other with LOTS of rice. The extra work was really worth it; the doorstop has a better structure than the previous attempts, due to the stuffing not stretching and distorting the casing, but rather the lining.

And here is the zip..

I think the zip makes it look ten times better and it's also now ten times more practical! If you can't tell from the pictures, it's on the bottom. It was so easy to alter the pattern - all you need to do is cut the bottom panel in half, put in the zip, and then trim it down so that each edge still measures 6". Simple! Removing the 1/2" seam allowances, the panel is a 5" square, so a 5" zip is made for this.

I think next, I'm going to try a zip down the front because it will be far easier to remove the stuffing that way.

Until next time! xx



In which I make a peg bag..

I had finished making a doorstop the other day and my sewing hunger had just not been sated, when I glanced up at the rattiest, oldest, most threadbare peg bag you have ever seen. Inspiration had struck. I knocked up a new peg bag which now hangs on the door and looks very at home in our kitchen. 

I used the remains of the oilcloth that I used for my doorstops. Now this fabric is fast becoming my least favourite ever. I love how it looks when it's finished, but it's hideously difficult to work with you. I sewed the strap inside out, which in theory makes the most sense, but this fabric sticks to itself like billy-o. This resulted in me, wait for it, pouring olive oil through the top to coat the whole handle to make it easier to turn it the right way round. This was messy. I don't know if it notices in the picture, but the strap is a very slightly different colour than the rest of the bag; olive oil stains. Who knew? So next time, I'm going to concoct some way of sewing the handle the right way round. 

I'm usually too impatient to handsew, but I handstitched the lining to the top of the bag (the visible bit) and I am SO happy with how it turned out, it looks very neat. Neater than I thought I was capable of. 

Making this was the most impromptu and fun piece of sewing, it really reminded me why I love making things. 

My mum said I should make one for my Grandma for Christmas... Does anyone else think that a peg bag is a bit of an insulting gift? I think maybe it could be just a little extra..

A bits and bobs sort of post...

This post is LONG overdue. Around this time last year, my beautiful housemate taught me how to knit. And then ensued the longest battle ever to not enter into a knitting coma for the duration of my degree. I exercised huge amounts of self control. Shortly after my inaugural knit, I took on the task of knitting a jumper. Which took me approximately nine months to complete. I lost interest in it round about February, when everything at uni just went mental and I only managed to finish it this summer! It really is rustic. There are holes ALL over it, and the seams are all on the wrong sides, it's actually awful. But I LOVE it, it's so warm and cosy and a lovely festive dark red. 

Usually I'm at least a little bit proud of anything I post on this blog, but the jumper? Not so much. But, if I didn't post it then I would be presenting a false image! That's the whole point of this blog, to catalogue my crafting explorations, whether the result be relatively pleasing or truly awful. I think my jumpy is somewhere in between. I'm not sure if this is something that we have invented or not, but my boyfriend and I call very woolly jumpers 'jumpys'. I have no idea why. So this my jumpy. 

 Please excuse my messy bedroom...

In conclusion, RE the jumper - I love it. But I will probably never ever ever knit a jumper again. Secondly, just a quick photo of my Twit-Knit club Project #1. It was supposed to be a blanket, but I ran out of the wool I was using and really didn't want to add any other colours. And I had no clue what wool I was using. So I turned it into a cushion and popped it onto my sister's bed, ready for her return from university! It's crazy how well it matches without my even intending it to!

For the back of the cushion I 'upcycled' an old, rather grotty, cushion cover I had knocking about. It felt nice to turn it into something that would be used more. 

Speaking of upcycling, my Mum brought Refab's card home for me from Greenwich Market. I LOVE the doorstops. If you love upcycling and all things home-y, definitely check Refab out - I absolutely love little companies like this. DO IT! Hope it inspires you all.. If you have cats, then I'm pretty sure it will...