Wedding Shoes, Part 2

Thank you so much for the lovely comments you left, and so encouraging too. You made me take a fresh look at my little project and realise that the shoes, did look good, they just weren't the right shade.

So I've set about them again, well actually I've put that many layers of dye on, that I wouldn't be surprised if the glue disintegrated and the soles fell off!

I decided that they were too bright peacocky, blue and needed to be more sea green. Unfortunately I only have one blue, one green, two yellows and a black fabric dye, but I got to work mixing a little of this and a bit of that, gingerly adding some black to dull everything down.

They're not a perfect match, but they're a darn sight better than anything in the shops. Anyway I daren't put any more dye on so this is the colour they'll have to stay, that's providing that I can 'set' the colour. I asked Lesley over at Lesley's Creations how I should go about this, as ironing them will be a tad difficult. After a bit of a con flab, I decided that I'll start with a hair dryer, then if that hasn't worked try dabbing them with the iron, and as a last resort pop them in an old pillowcase and give them a blast in the tumble dryer!

This photo's not very clear, but you can see I have some sheer green ribbon, that I'm hoping to stitch on to the front of the shoes to tone down the lime green sections a little. Watch this space!

It seemed like a good idea at the time!*%~#

Yes, it seemed like a good idea at the time, buying this dress for a wedding in a couple of weeks. I even managed to get a dip dyed wrap to match. Lovely I hear you say. Ah but what about the shoes?

Yes the shoes!

Very kindly my mum offered to help search and search we did. All of the city centre for either navy or green shoes, to no avail! I don't mean there weren't any I liked or that fitted, no there were none at all! Plenty of black, wine, burgundy, red, you name it. Next wonderful man and I searched a local city centre, guess what? No navy or green shoes to be had there either. So undeterred I purchased a pair of cream satin shoes thinking I could maybe somehow colour them myself (stupid woman I hear you snort) and yes you would be right!

I did try to buy some shoe dye but the obvious places didn't have any for satin shoes. For leather - yes, suede - yes, canvass - oh yes, yes, yes! Satin - no, no, no!

Never mind it'll be okay. This was my mantra on the way home in the car. I stashed the shoes away until today.

And I have to say, it's not looking good!!!

This is the dress and matching wrap, the colour is more greeny at the bottom of the dress than it appears on here.

These are the shoes, a bargain I must admit, but they'll only be a bargain if I make them look good!

Then I did this to them... not good!!!

I also did THIS to them... even worse!

Now I'm waiting for them to dry before I abuse them any more. I'm thinking dark blue marker pen next, and when that fails I'll have to resort to this lot...

Ideas? Anyone? Pleeeease?

Wedding Bells

Hello bloggy friends, I have something special to show you today.

Don't tell anyone though, because it's a secret!

It's a wedding garter I been busy making as a gift for a friend who's getting married next month. The idea is from an old Classic Inspirations magazine.

I do hope she likes it!

I hope it fits!!!

I used cream silk dupion

and embroidered it with ribbon roses and bullion roses

detached chain and seed stitch

I had an awful job getting a nice gift box locally!

I found one that wasn't too bad in the end.

I'm really looking forward to the wedding. It's taking place in this castle in Scotland, and we're getting to stay the night there, yipee!!!

There is one little problem...I haven't been able to find any shoes to match my dress! So here looms another challenge. In desperation I bought a pair of cream satin shoes and now have to try and dye them and then maybe embroider or embellish them. Haven't been able to get any shoe dye either, but no problem, I'll improvise with some fabric dye and a marker pen! You can see why I'll probably have to embroider and decorate them now!

Well I'll keep you all posted. I'm sure you could do with a laugh!

Fi x

Challenge Number 3

Today is 'show and tell' day for the monthly textile challenge I take part in. I've mentioned it before here.

There are 3 of us in our little group, my lovely friend Lesley. Sarah, who is a friend of Lesley's, and then there is little old me! We are all quite far flung, so don't get to meet up and inspire each other. That's where the monthly textile challenge comes in. We all have quite different but busy lives, so there is never any pressure to take part if we've got too much on. I think the fact that there are only 3 of us compels me to make the effort and have a go, where as, if there were many more in the group, I would feel that no-one would notice if I sneakily missed a couple of challenges!

Anyway the challenge this month was to make two small or one large cushion cover, using a piece of fabric you had dyed yourself and to incorporate some ribbon. So this is my offering, (only one small cushion I'm afraid)

I've had the fabrics for a few months now and I knew I wanted to make a cushion cover for the little cushion I use on my sewing chair in the attic. So this particular challenge couldn't have been better!

Now I haven't done much dyeing in the past and consequently don't have much in the way of dye laying around the house. I do however have copious amounts of tea in the kitchen, so a brew was made and the centre panel was cut from a vintage linen pillowcase (cos the quality was fab!) A few minutes of dipping and stirring produced a lovely soft, creamy, beige colour.

A lot of rummaging later and I'd found a few bits of sheer ribbon to embroider into little flowers.

I put a couple of little Velcro straps on the top,

and HEY PRESTO! A cushion that hangs in just the right spot on the back of my chair!

You can check out Lesley's gorgeous cushions at her new blog, http://www.lesleyscreations.blogspot.com/ you won't be disappointed, we both have very different styles!

It's my turn to set the next challenge, so I best get my thinking cap on.

Fi x

Summertime! Only Joking!!!

Don't you just love the summer time?

Sitting in the back garden, lazing around in the sunshine, reading your favourite magazine, taking in the view, watching those flat bottom clouds drifting in the blue, blue sky!

Watching your crisp white cotton bed linen blowing in the warm breezy blueness!

Fresh, clean bedlinen.

Crisp and white.

Old fashioned prettiness.

Oh! Sorry! I laid down on the bed for a moment, I must have bobbed off for a minute there!

Yep!

Just as I thought. It was all a dream.

It hasn't stopped raining all day!

Patchwork Pieces.

Sorry it's been a while, but things around here have been rather busy this last week. I've been working almost full time (not good) we have had four different lots of visitors (very good), and then finished the week with a funeral (not good, but a lovely funeral, if you can have a lovely funeral. You know what I mean).

Anyway today we're talking patchwork. Lovely, lovely, floral, homely, patchwork.

Oh, I doooo love patchwork! Especially patchwork quilts. Nothing fancy you understand, my favourites are straightforward squares, all snuggly and soft and cosy. They just say home to me. I'm about to start a quilt for my daughter, ready for autumn, to keep her cosy in bed on those nights when you need an extra layer. So far I've had a rummage through my fabric stash and chosen all the ones I think suitable. I've photographed them and then arranged them using the computer to give me a good idea of how it will look.(flash eh!)

It was while I was searching through my fabrics that I came across this piece of hand stitched patchwork I started yeeeeears ago. As you can see it's very unfinished.

It's made up of lots of little hexagons, stitched together.

It's made from the left over pieces of Brambley Hedge fabric I used, to make a quilt for the little spare bed at my mums house. That quilt was made on the sewing machine and was constructed of squares. It didn't leave a lot of fabric though, and one of the reasons this one is unfinished is because I was unable to find new fabrics that looked right. I even had to resort to embroidering the little centre hexagons myself as I couldn't find any fabric with small enough motifs.

Now its had a nice airing and few photographs taken of it, I can pack it back away in its box for another few years!

This is the picture from the computer of what the new quilt should look like. If I ever get it started. Other projects keep getting in the way!

The pictures not great, but I had to photograph the A4 piece of paper with the print out on it. It looks quite good, if only it was this easy to make the quilt!

Cupboard Love x

I'm so excited!

What do you think of my new cupboard?

Now I know it's not pretty, but it will be! I'm thinking cream with soft pink doors and maybe some pretty floral fabric behind the glass.

We spotted it on our way home from a very strange garden, which I will show you another time. But back to my lovely cupboard.

Getting back into the car to drive home, I ask wonderful man if we could take a detour through a small village we usually bypass. And being the scrummy man he is, he said yes. So there we were trundling along when I spotted it. Laying on its side in the rain with an old freezer and kitchen cupboard for company, outside one of the cottages.

'OO! Look! Did you see that old cupboard!' I gasped 'Do you think they're throwing it out? or maybe they're decorating and have just put it outside, out of the way? No, they wouldn't have left it on its side, they would have stood it up. What do you think? Shall we go and ask? I don't think I dare, it would be so cheeky wouldn't it? Lets just drive back past and take another look!' I gabbled to wonderful man

We turned the car around and drove back. 'Shall I go and ask? What do you think?Nothing ventured, nothing gained, eh?'

I jumped out of the car, imagining the whole village twitching net curtains. I knocked on the first door...No answer. I knocked on the door around the other side of the cottage...No answer. Back to the car to scribble a note. No paper! Hah! I'll use the back of an old receipt found crumple in the bottom of my bag. Good idea but its raining, it'll be paper mache before anyone finds it! I dived back into my bag, emptied the tissues out of the little pocket pack and slipped my little note in. Dashed out, back across the road and securely tucked the tissue packet under the string holding the cupboard doors shut. There! Done it!

And it paid off! Later that evening I got a phone call from a lovely lady, saying that the cupboard was waiting to be collected by the council to be disposed of, but if I really wanted it, it was mine. YIPEE!

So the next morning we set off to collect it. It was raining. The village was further away than I remembered it. The cupboard was bigger than I thought it was and it was way heavier than I imagined it would be! Gosh, it was heavy!

But what a lovely couple! What a lovely cottage! They made us coffee, we had a chat. It turns out, the cupboard belonged to Aunt Mary, who's in her 70's and before that it belonged to Aunt Mary's mum, who got it as a wedding present! So it's pretty darned old, and boy, is it heavy!

Any how, it's now residing in our back porch, waiting for its makeover! Let's hope it looks ok in our kitchen when it's done!

p.s. The black rectangle on the side is a built in mirror.