A Grand Day Out

It was touch and go yesterday whether I would manage to get to the 'Vintage and Handmade Fair' at Chipping Sodbury, but, dear readers, I am very pleased to say that in the end I made it!  

First I had to get Miss U-t-B organised to get to and from her dancing (1.15-4.30 every Saturday, come hell or high water, as far as she is concerned!) on account of the fact that Mr U-t-B is still pretty much confined to quarters with his probably-prolapsed disc...

Once I'd got her organised to walk there (about a mile and a half) and to get a lift back with the friend we take to Tuesday's dance lesson, I just needed to put oil in the car (Eek!) and fill it with fuel (small mortgage required) before wending my way to the M4, then due west, towards Bristol.

It was a lovely day for a drive - good music playing, the sun shining and not too much traffic.  I arrived about one o'clock, so I may have missed some of the delights that had been available first thing, but not to worry, as everyone still had plenty of treasure on show. There was a lovely atmosphere, with vintage music playing and a happy chatter-y buzz.

Miss U-t-B was uppermost in my mind when I first went in as she'd just texted to say she'd arrived at dancing safely.  I found myself at the stall of 'Vintage Notebook', whose website I had been looking at the previous evening.  When I spotted this notebook...

 ... I knew it had to come home with me!  My daughter is anything but rebellious so far (Ssshhh!  Don't want her getting ideas!) but when she next comes home saying she rolled up her skirt or kept her blazer on when it should have been off (or vice-versa) I shall have to give her this!  It has parts of the story within,  a bookmark made from the spine, plus, of course, some plain pages for notes.  A brilliant idea!

Next I found Sal and Mr Snippets of 'Sal's Snippets' sitting behind a stall stacked full of the most lovely fabrics.  It was great to meet the face behind a blog that I love to read and whose online shop is always worth a visit!  I had a nice chat with both Sal and Mr Snippets, after choosing a couple of purchases - a bundle of bright and cheerful feedsack scraps and one larger piece.

I could easily have gone mad at this stall, but as I am trying desperately to get properly organised with all my sewing bits, I tried to be restrained...

Next stop for me was in front of the gorgeously pink and girly stall of Hen of HenHouse fame, writer of another blog I love to read.  I had my heart set on acquiring one of her sweet brooches. After another nice chat, I finally settled on this one...

I then had a good mooch about. There was so much to look at, so much temptation!  When I spotted these shoes trees, I was smitten...

I am pretty certain these were from Tracey of 'The Vintage Bothy'  (you guessed, another blog I love to read!) as I recognised the jockey's silk from her blog just close by to the shoe trees).  Sadly, Tracey was not there at the time but a nice gentleman took my money.  Ooh er, trust he wasn't just some chancer who spotted his moment!


Anyway...

Suffice to say I had a splendid time!

When's the next one? 

Finishing off and a bit of tidying

Phew!  Finished the dress, after a few more hiccups!  

The one-step buttonhole was not so simples - though I think this was down to the fine-ness of the fabric more than the machine.  Lucky I only needed to do two!  I tested it out on a piece of scrap fabric, but even so had to have three attempts at the second buttonhole, and I was on tenterhooks carefully unpicking the two that went wrong, wondering if the fabric would emerge from all that stitching unscathed!

Delicate though Tana Lawn maybe, it is a robust fabric and there is no lasting mark from the buttonholes that went wrong.

I then found some very sweet patterned mother-of-pearl buttons to finish off.

Earlier in the day I had set about our tiny back garden, which over the winter had become a bit of a glorified woodpile and workshop.  As you can't see the garden from the house (unless you clamber on the loo in our downstairs bathroom and open the top window to peer out of the narrow gap that affords!) it does tend to get neglected in the gloomy months of the year.

I put some bits in the car to go to the dump, tidied up the salvaged wood that Mr-U-t-B brought home for chopping into kindling, scrubbed the table, sorted the 'shed' (which is more of a lean-to shelter) and cut the lawn with my push-along mower. 

Parsley's looking healthy!

 I even clipped my boxy box!  

This one still needs a good trim though!

Looking forward to more sunny days getting the garden fit for summer!

In the meantime, I am hoping to go to the original 'Vintage and Handmade' in Chipping Sodbury today!  If I manage to get there, there's bound to be something to share tomorrow!

Rags to riches

In between lots of chat and laughter with our visitors, cooking supper for ten and a bit of maths and French teaching, I managed to squeeze in a bit of sewing.  

If you've been reading, you'll know that my old Singer turned up its toes just as I finished the bodice for the little baby dress I was making out of an old skirt of mine.  I was a wee bit upset at this hiccup as I was really enjoying the project!

But then I was given a fabulous Husqvarna machine by a very kind family friend!  

I finally plucked up the courage to get to grips with it yesterday morning whilst everyone else was asleep.

First to do was the scalloped hem.  I found the 'steering' for this a bit tricky compared to my old machine, but I'm sure I will get better with practice. 

Next the bodice needed attaching to the skirt.  As the front bodice was already 'finished' with the piped edge, this wasn't done in the usual way but required tacking in place then top-stitching.  I was very pleased with this, as the stitching is much neater than it would have been on my old machine.

Then came the sleeve ruffles.  

And that's it, just about finished!  

I just need to raid my mother-of-pearl buttons and learn to use the 

one-step buttonhole 

(I think this will be just like my old machine - simples!)

So there it is!  

A Liberty baby dress from a vintage pattern and a quarter century old skirt!

Wordless Wednesday

Photo by Mr U-t-B

A Spot of Baking

Monday morning saw a flurry of activity in the kitchen.  I was helping a work colleague put on a 'Cake Time' event to raise money for 'Shelter' at school.

Every piece of electrical equipment was pressed into service - the worktop was littered with ingredients, utensils and had a light dusting of icing sugar!

In the end, I managed to make one enormous 'Yummy Scrummy Carrot Cake', a banana cake with orange and cream cheese frosting and a 'Sunday Best Chocolate Fudge Cake'.

Good thing they were heading straight out of the house!

The 'Cake Time' went quite well (we'd have liked more customers than we had, but not all the invitations had been taken home by the children).   At least it will be something towards all the valuable work the charity do.

Mr U-t-B is still mostly resting, with occasional 'potterings' to stop it all from seizing up. We are expecting his sister and brother-in-law for a short visit tonight (to try out the new sofa-bed) so that will give him a change of company and a laugh, no doubt. He's not a good patient as he is easily bored...Bet that sounds familiar!

Angels to the rescue - a day of ups and downs

First of all, thanks to all of you who sent helpful comments my way regarding my naughty sewing machine.  I haven't managed to sort it out myself and have pretty much reached the end of sort-it-yourself possibilities, so on Saturday, as I waited for customers at The Maltings, I pondered what to do next.  

The dilemma was whether to try to get the machine fixed (but where? The local sewing machine shop closed down a few years back when the owner died, and there isn't one another anywhere nearby that I know of) or to save and buy a new one.

One of the things I love about my Saturdays at The Maltings is that I get to chat to lots of nice (and often crafty) people.  And one lovely lady I got talking to the day before yesterday said she knew someone in Alton (about 10 miles away, I suppose) who services and fixes sewing machines.  She kindly offered to find the number and ring me with it!  

Yay!  Decision made! 

Anyway, after The Maltings, Miss U-t-B and I made plans and preparations for Mothering Sunday, shopping for food for a nice lunch and making one of the puddings. We then headed to bed early in order to be able to rise with the lark to go to a good Car Boot Sale just outside Guildford together.   This was just what I fancied doing!

We had no need for an alarm to wake us up early as unfortunately 

Mr U-t-B's back problem decided to choose the early part of Mothering Sunday (about 5ish) to take a definite, and excruciatingly painful, turn for the worse...I now truly know the meaning of the phrase 'climbing the walls with pain'.  He even managed to give himself friction burns on his forehead,  kneading it in a vain attempt to relieve the agony!  It was clear that nothing I could do was making any difference, so in the end I called 999...  Within ten minutes or so, the paramedics (the first two angels of the day) had arrived and they quickly administered Entonox (gas and air) to Mr U-t-B, who was lying on the landing by this time, with one leg propped up on an armchair!  They then organised a prescription for strong painkillers and anti-inflamatory/muscle-relaxant medication, and kept him on the Entonox long enough to gradually get him moved to somewhere a bit more suitable (we were going to trip over him where he was!)  They were fantastic.

So, we didn't go to the Car Boot in the end (there's always another one, another weekend!) but instead I headed off to pick up the prescription from the out-of-hours surgery and then to the supermarket, when it finally opened, to pick up the medication.

When I got home, Miss U-t-B had laid out a little surprise on the breakfast bar - some lovely flowers, a baked-by-her lemon drizzle cake, a sweet card with a beautiful message and an interestingly squidgy package!  And inside the squidgy package was a very jolly patchwork half-apron, made entirely with her own fair hands!  

She bought all the fabrics on ebay - chip off the old block!

My third angel of the day!

Miss U-t-B helped me prepare lunch as my Mum and brother were coming over (my Dad and my sister were both busy with work commitments).  We made Coq au Vin and served it with creamy mashed potato, green beans and carrots, then followed it with Meringues and berries or Limoncello Panna Cotta with a berry sauce.  All of which was rather nice, if I do say so myself!

After lunch my Mum said she had to fetch something from the car.  Something for me, from our family friend Sheila.  Something heavy, so I needed to go and help.  Miss U-t-B and my brother were smiling in a rather knowing way and I'm surprised nobody tapped their nose and that the words 'nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more' weren't uttered. I was most perplexed.  

So off we ambled down the road, and my Mum opened the boot and there inside was...

...a sewing machine!  Not just for borrows, but for keeps!  And not just any old sewing machine, but a very good and clever one - a Husqvarna Viking Emerald 122, that does all sorts of amazing things!  I cannot tell you how happy and grateful I am! Thank you, Sheila, angel number four!

So, by the end of the day, I was able to reflect on a very strange but ultimately lovely day.  Mr U-t-B was feeling much more comfortable (if a little spaced-out on all that medication), my sewing machine worries were over and I had been able to spoil my Mum (who is a an angel to so very many) just a little bit.  

Hope your day was as happy as mine, but without the ambulance bit!

Frustration

No,  I haven't found a vintage example of the game - you know, the one that passed as 

hi-tech in the 1970s, with its perspex popping hemisphere containing the dice and its trendy oil-drum shaped counters...

Photo courtesy of sircollectalot.co.uk
Visit this site for a fab selection of vintage toys and games!

I can't actually recall what was so frustrating about this game, but we did love playing it!    Life was full of simple pleasures back then...

The only other 'hi-tech' entertainment available to us was Kerplunk, Operation and the black and white television.  No Nintendos, no Wiis, no computers, no mobile apps...

And none of the frustration of technology gone wrong!

You see, late-ish last night I could contain my excitement at the arrival of my dressmaking patterns no longer, and having failed to make any decisions about fabric purchases (actually I was waiting till pay-day!) I set about rootling through my Victorian trunk full of larger pieces of fabric.  I have a goodish selection of old skirts in there, the ones I've never been able to part with.  Mostly from my student days and early twenties  - only a few years ago then!   ; )   - Liberty lawns, Viyellas, Varuna wools and Rose and Hubble floral prints.  

The skirt I had in mind for what I wanted to make (one of the vintage baby dresses) had already been plundered - the waistband taken off to allow it to be ironed flat and two large-ish rectangles cut out to line a drawstring bag, leaving two L-shaped pieces.  I doubted it would be possible to get a baby dress out of what was left but I was determined to try, as it is such a pretty print, in such a lovely colour-way.  

I think it is called Claire-Aude, from Liberty.  

You can still get it, but in different colour-ways.

Amazingly though, with a bit of jiggery-pokery, I managed to squeeze all the pieces on!

There was even some left!

(Just as well - I later realised I had only cut out half the bodice pieces, having forgotten about the facings.  I managed to get the back facings out of the Claire-Aude, but the front facing has had to be cut from a co-ordinating plain fabric.  It won't really be seen though...)

So this morning I set about the sewing.  I reckoned I could get the bodice done before going to work, then I could probably get the rest done later in the afternoon.  Before work, things went swimmingly, but this afternoon the machine decided to play up.  Skipping stitches, shredding thread, puckering the fabric, breaking a needle...

And none of the usual things I do to sort out such problems worked.  

I cleaned the very crevices of the machine with my little watercolour brush, 

I unthreaded and re-threaded the needle (several times), 

re-wound the bobbin, 

replaced the needle (three times), 

put on a new reel of thread.   

But nothing has worked...

So now I have a pretty little bodice and no prospect of finishing the rest for ages!

If anyone out there has any other ideas of things to try to coax my machine back to full health, do leave me a comment!  I'd be ever so grateful!