The Acquisition and Alteration of an Antique Blouse

I can't help but feel I should have found a garment name starting with an "A" to finish that heading  ^-^ Ah well!

I recently found this beautiful little top on Etsy but knew from the measurements that when it arrived, the bottom band would be too tight to fit comfortably. But as you know, this never stops me from buying pretty clothes....

It is very old, the seller said 1910s, and as such had a few marks on it.

I didn't make any effort to remove the marks, I figured they would fade with time, plus it seems part of its history to me.

 The top is basically one piece that goes over the head, with buttons under the arm to hold it together and then on the band. Though it fits on the bust and everywhere else, the band is just too tight so I decided to alter it a bit.

I raided my antique lace stash and cut off two pieces that would fit from the underarm button to the band, hemmed them and stitched them to one side of the top.

I then added a popper to the side that wasn't fixed. So that I could still get it on and off easily.

So it looked like this. Under the button, on the inside is the popper fastening. It stays closed and the lace peaks out. Kinda perfect I think. 

Well almost.

I ended up adding some touches of red. The button is actually on the back. I am quite tempted to embroider some daisies on the front band in pale blue. But it hasn't happened yet....

For now it is finished.

Back

Front

Side detail.

I am looking forward to hot summer days and picnics in the park for this one.

Learning to Crochet: The Haphazard Metro Scarf

Just a quickie... Lots to share with you guys and very little time.

So my laptop kind broke.... Rather phenomenally. So after a huge bust up with Amazon, I waiting for my lovely, talented pawed special person to fix it for me. Meanwhile I have been finding other ways to entertain myself. Including learning to crochet.....

I did most of it on the metro using left over balls and so had to utilize this cute fox peg to keep it all in place when it was shoved in my bag. It kinda too me a while to get the hang of it too. As you can see from the dodgy end...!

(The flowers are the handiwork of my mother, less of a novice than I)

A lot of technology deprivation later.... It is now a scarf. I want to learn how to do other things, like a jumper, but honestly I am not sure I have the skills yet... Been trying to read some patterns and its like reading Alien speak. *sigh*

I have so many more pretty pics to share with you soon......

Have a look at more pretty pics here.

The New Year and Some Pretty Embroidery

Ahh it has been soooo long. To cut a long story short I got caught up in a new job- I am now teaching English as a foreign language at uni. I did not stop being creative, but I did stop blogging about it. I posted a bit on instagram and FB but really got quite irritated that I did not write here. For 2016 I am going to try to be better. I have set myself some creative objectives and I am going to try to stick to them...!

Someone I have recently discovered is Dottie Angel, I know I am mega behind...! I remember spotting a feature on her in Mollie Makes a few years back but I was very distracted by uni and it zapped all my creative spirit. Having then rediscovered her, I was hugely inspired by her "woolley tattoos" and just had to have a go. 

Dottie Angel Mittens

I was so smittened with Dottie's smittened mittens that I decided I must too embroider prettiness upon knitted things. But when I did mine I had not read this blog post (linked above) just stared at various instagram pics and sorta just made it up.

Both are found on her instagram.

So I just had to have a go. And I did. I just made it up.

First I needed a junper, two days after I decided this I walked into a street market and found an unwanted French Connection, vaguely fair isle cardi. I had three euros in my pocket so I offered the French old lady my 3e in exchange for the rather to big cardi (so she thought) and took him home.

From my instagram

Now, I have a confession. I can't knit, and at the time of starting this I could not crochet either (I can kinda crochet now, albeit totally askew). So I shared my woolley plans avec ma mere and persuaded her perfect knitting paws to knit me two pockets for me to then attempt to flower. 

I had no practice, no plan, no technique. I just went for it. Look what happened....!

In a rather daft and scatty manner, I stitched the pockets to the cardi before prettying them up, but as I wore it in between attacks with wool, it worked out for the best. 

Dungarees and a good comfy knit.

S

Pocket close up

Then one morning on my way to work I grabbed a perfectly fitting dark grey woolly cardi off my housemate's reject pile, it wasn't until a few hours later I realized it was riddled with nibbles. *Sniff* So over xmas I resolved to give him a new lease of life. It is an on-going WIP as I keep finding more holes. The battle against the winged ones is still on... But he is looking good so far I think.

Very nibbled arrm. 

Two flowers and two buds and a lone bee.

Itty bitty bee

So far I have only stitched where there are holes, and I have not yet covered them all up, but I am slowly winning this woolly war. I might have to do some evening out too??? Not sure....

I think maybe I would have had more success reading about what Dottie did first but then maybe I would not have had so much fun. Mine was zero stress, lets see what happens, oh dear it looks a bit weird, lets add some leaves instead. I think the secret it layering, and just add another colour or layer to the flower.... Or sit back and go make a cup of tea then look at it again. Or ask another human bean, "does this look totally nuts and weird or ok" to which hopefully you will get the answer "it looks like something you would wear". Maybe a bit nuts then.

Making the Most of Late Summer Rays...

Here is a picture post for you... Some of the pretty things I have been getting my mitts on...

Revamping corset potential...

To do list at the moment (it is still growing...)

Embroidering/darning this stunning fabric I salvaged from an old chair. 

Enjoying the last of the sun on my epically tiny balcony in Paris. Aren't I lucky??

Stitching an antique lace collar on this mustard sweater. Goes perfectly with my DM Mary Janes and vintage bag I found in Le Marais.

I took this a couple of weeks ago... I find the colours very inspiring. I shall be updating my other blog soon so take a peek if you are interested. 

Mouse Making: Muscgot Pelouse and Ava Marie

One rather dull afternoon I was perusing the internet, I stumbled across Mister Finch's truly stunning creatures and fell in love. Specifically with the mice... Anyone who knows me, knows that I share certain infinities with mices (yes I mean mices not mice!) and thought heck, I can make a mouse too! So I decided to have a go and make my own ragdoll mice, only mine would be vintage circus mice. Eventually I will make a little tutu and waistcoat to clothe them but I have not had the time yet.....

(Above: Mister Finch's truly gorgeous mice, see his blog and work here)

And here are my mice, obviously very different, they have the OrchidsHeart touch, but I am very happy with how they turned out as I had zero experience in creature construction when I started this process. It was not as hard as I expected but a great deal of trial and error was involved...

 First of all I drew some little sketches of how I envisioned them. Long limbed and a little bit creepy but also with a delicate vintage feel. I also started going through my collection of antique and vintage fabrics putting things aside for the project, but as I had no idea how to construct them I acquired a huge piece of thick fabric to practice on (turns out the thickness of the fabric was problematic).

I sketched out what I thought the shapes would look like and cut them out of the fabric, trying to keep the stripes in mind.

After I had all my pieces (except for the tails which I would make from dusty pink velvet), I cut them out and laid them out.

I decided the head was way too small and made another.

The problem with this fabric was turning the limbs out once I had sewn them up, it was a nightmare in places. I was carrying all these limbs around in my bag with a chopstick and spent too many a commute trying to get them the right way out. So I figured I needed a fabric with more give for sure....

After a lot of fiddling I ended up with this fellow, due to the lack of tail I made him a rabbit and added a little waistcoat and gave him to a very special little boy I know. But I was not that happy with it so I made some alterations.

First off a three panel head rather than two.

I gave this one mouse ears to work out the ear proportions as I was much more pleased with its head shape.

She ended up looking like this. I named her Molly Mouse and gave her to my niece.

As Molly Mouse looked much better I decided to start on the real mice! So I dyed an old pillow case in some rose black tea (purely because it was the only old black tea I had hanging around).

My lace and fabrics drying after their dye.

And set about cutting out the pieces for two circus mice.

The faux velvet was from a truly ugly top I found in a flea market, some kind of 90s lingerie I think. I stitched up all the limbs, cutting into all the curves to turn them out better and leaving a small gap in each for stuffing.

Next came the joints, I did not bother jointing the others but I wanted these to be pose-able so bought some off ebay. I put them in so that the plastic screw faced into the body. You have to slot the washer on first then the cap.

Et voila, a body with two arms. A bit creepy I know.

This shows a close up of a tail, I put some pipe cleaners into it to make it bendy and pad it out a bit.

A whole pile of mouse pieces.... Frankenstein's lab comes to mind...

The legs were all made separately. These are the legs for Ava. I painted the stripes on so that they would follow the curves of the legs (unlike if I had cut them out from stripey fabric). Muscgot's legs were to be made from embroidered fabric as he would not be wearing a dress so they were not painted.

Once I had the body shells I started stuffing and stitching up, starting with the body, then legs, then arms. This was so that other parts did not get in the way.

Also I made the ears and sewed a channel around the edge to push more pipe cleaners through to make them stand up. 

Most of the hand sewing, stuffing etc I did on the go in various metro stations and trains. I made a portable sewing kit and just whipped it out whenever I had the chance. This is me working off my knees on a platform in Chatillion. 

Woop, the bodies and legs and A tail! And my handknitted (by my grandmother) socked feet.

I finished the heads and I was done.

Ava Marie

The lace on her head is inspired by the 1920s.

Muscgot Pelouse

He has one painted eye to look like face paint, you can't see easily in the picture but the eye is embroidered in like the others.

I am quite pleased. Though they are not perfect, as I had no clue what I was doing I think it was a success. Next time I will make a fox...!