Tidy up, you messy slut!!!

After the nuttiness of the Xmas period It's been good to get back into the studio. I had plans to close for about a month and totally relax. Relaxing is sooooo overrated and I found myself wandering Burns St way on the 29th of December! Ive put some new stock into the Most Marvellous. The haberdashery lady from the market has gone so Im now selling a few sewing bits and bobs as well as my clothing range. Ive also had some commissions to do, which I've finally finished. I've got some planning for projects to do but in the meantime find myself having free time to make some new clothes. This was a sample I tried this afternoon on a piece of linen I had.




Im really pleased with how it turned out, the roses are all silk and Im planning to use this on a skirt with a bound edge and vintage scarf tie at the waist. Ive booked to do the Made It Market in Cambridge at Easter so have one eye on being well organised with some lovely new stock. We shall see.....

As I have no classes until Mid-Feb Ive had no pressure to keep things tidy which has resulted in a horrible chaotic mess visiting me when I wasn't looking. Sally "Bells and whistles" and I have been trying to screenprint Kirsty T-shirts. I haven't screenprinted for about 30 years but the sheer joy and pleasure was worth the wait- when we realised that it was perhaps a bit more difficult than it first appeared we left the stuff in the middle of the table while we got on with more pressing stuff (tea!) Then I visited the suppliers for a splurge, telling myself that I could sell purchases in the Most Marvellous- i did buy some funny things like rubber buttons and very old French ribbon with hikers and mountains on, so my visit was entirely justified. I've been spending all week sewing buttons onto cards. Now Im bored.

So then thought Id wrap ribbon around card, then got bored of that and decided to make some clothes. I blame the weather....it's too cold to think clearly.

Now it's home time and someone's made a mess on the table.

Small worlds.

The blogs that I enjoy the most are ones with lots of pictures and just the right amount of writing . So to this end I have some pictures with attached words. Sometimes, when Ive got jobs out of the way I just wander aimlessly around the studio doing a bit of tidying and a bit of re-arranging.

I enjoy enormously these small worlds I've somehow created and fiddling around with them brings me enormous pleasure. And Ill make no apologies for it either. So above we have some casualties from a sock monkey dads and lads class, some beautiful silk from my friends mother, a kind donation but just too good to cut up just yet. Finally my lovely papier mache dolls which I started to make at a Julie Arkell workshop years ago now in Leicester. The creature at the back with the pink face is Peregine Malcolm! he is a charity shop creature.

In this small world is an owl doorstop from one of our workshops in summer. A carved owl pencil holder and a very expensive pair of shoes which I brought from a bridal show and have never worn because they're not my size! I worked at the bridal show, I would NEVER visit one of those god awful places otherwise.

Here's Professer Bunsen amongst the cottons. I love collecting these threads and Im very, very reluctant to sew with any of them. Once I caught a student winding a bobbin with one of them! They have such lovely names as well like Cob Nut and Periwinkle. Another smaller owl. Very popular birds.

Winter Hideaway.

Its time for Nan's tea!





Each year I go away with a group of close friends to Wells next to the Sea on the East coast. We've been going back to Wells for years and it's a truly beautiful part of the country. We had a celebration on Friday alongside our Nans tea as It was Kate's birthday too. We drank Bendover Brendas and Malibu cocktails to celebrate.



We eat the same meals, watch the same programmes on the tele, visit the same pubs and slob around in our pyjamas. There are some lovely independent shops in Wells and it's heartening to see that new shops have opened.





Come Sunday, we're desperate for a long, long walk on the beach. The beach this year was exeptional; so bright and desolate, sunny and warm. We walked and talked for miles, sat on a sand dune and watched the horizon. When we got back to the house there was a massive Sunday dinner waiting. Could it be any more perfect?

Generousity Aplenty.

Feast your eyes on these beauties!




When I arrived back from my community sewing group yesterday a lady had been into the studio and left me some fabric.





Apparently, she is an interior designer and had been cleaning out her cupboards to to make some space.






She gave me these beautiful fabrics, this is something I dream about so thank you anonymous lady wherever you are. I do think that there's no point in clinging onto fabric you'll never use (sometimes it's easier said than done) if you send it out into the universe you'll always get something back. The mustard print barkcloth reminds me of a Lucienne Day print. I feel very excited by the colour combinations, they make me feel so very happy.
There is enough to make a lovely skirt or pinafore dress with, I can't wait to get cutting I have some massive yellow vintage buttons which will go really well.

A Most Marvellous Move.

Fans of my clothing can now find selected pieces at "The Most Marvellous Place to Shop" which is on the Kettering Road opposite the Jaguar garage here in Sunny Northampton. If you haven't visited yet, get yourselves down there. The place is packed to the rafters with lovely retro clothing, vintage crockery and collectables and most of all a fantastic cafe called Nannas Kitchen where Kaw and Emma serve great food.

After attending the Renegade Handmade market a few weeks back and getting such a good reception on my clothing, I didn't hesitate when asked if I wanted a space in the Most Marvellous. I also sell vintage trims, buttons and vintage fabric. I get some vintage fabric which just isn't big enough to make clothing, so I decided to cut it into decent size pieces and sell it in packs. Subsequently you can get a pack of at least 8 various sized vintage fabrics- a word of caution here Vintage is 25 years or more (my fabric is exactly that) you can get lots of projects from this fabric for just £15!
Every single item of clothing is unique and I only buy fabric in limited amounts mostly due to the fact that it's vintage and in short supply. Everything is hand finished by myself and usually features some type of hand stitching or embellishments on it.





This is only a sneaky peek at a couple of the pieces as we did a photoshoot last week. I was lucky enough to be selected for a bursary to help small businesses from UCN with which Im expanding the website. It will contain lots more classes, information on education packages for schools, photos of my clothing and collaborative work. All of which is very exciting.

New Knitting Masterclass!

We have a lovely group of ladies who meet up at the studio on the 3rd Sat of each month from 10-12. I enjoy having people use the space and these ladies are very accomplished knitters.



If anyone else would like to come along to knit please feel free. The next meet is on November 19th, and it only costs £1. The lovely Anna Thorpe will be in the studio that morning as Im taking a little jaunt to the east Coast.

Renegade Craft Fair

Having finally caught up on sleep, and with a few outstanding jobs out of the way, It's time to report on the Renegade Craft fair.

My beautiful helper-Lady Hermione and i travelled down very early a few weekends back to do the Fair in Brick lane.I had a major sweat on because I had to leave 2 chairs behind and had worked myself up into a frenzy of furballed anxiety. As it was I really should've just enjoyed it more (maybe it's encroaching old age?)



We were allocated a massive space in a really good setting almost opposite the main doors. Miss Hubbard's pencil moustaches quickly found favour with the London masses and I sold an incredible 15 in one day!!! lady Hermione was quick to model the Noel Gallagher/Terry Thomas combo.


The other sellers were an incredibly talented bunch, such beautiful work. Here's the ceramic work of melodyrose- she takes vintage ceramics and applies transfers and then re-fires again. We met each morning under the harsh glare of the mirror in the ladies loo. She has been selling at Portabello market for a few years now, her work is truly beautiful,original and delightful and recieved a lot of attention. Deservedly so.


Each morning I did a quick scoot round while it was still quiet to take some pics.I just absolutely loved the way these girls from Art=Happy dressed their space making it look so welcoming and inspiring. Those Henry Holland-esque granny blanket dresses in the background were awesome!!! and a very good price too. Get over to their website and buy one .

It was also a good chance to catch up on London friends I hadn't seen in a while. Here, the Virgo ladies like to put the buttons in neat piles and have a tidy up!

On the Sunday we had some success with our workshops (lowering the prices helped!) It was just great to have people sitting around the table handsewing all day. It helped draw more people to the stall and made it look like we knew what we were doing.



A view from the hill. This was about a fifth of the size-there were 86 stalls in all. Sunday was busier , but then the whole of Brick lane was rammed. I did pop over to Spitafields market and was saddened by the amount of tat and dross. There are so many stalls all alike flogging cheap dresses and crap from China. I remember a time when Spitafields (and Camden) were all about originality and promoting small designer maker businesses. Now their just full of boring mass produced rubbish. Why does it take a small group of visiting Americans to show us how it should be done?