It was time for one of my regular yearly outings with a trip to Glyndebourne Opera House. It’s always such a treat as I don’t get out a lot (boo hoo, poor me) and I always make the most of the opportunity to dress up. As all those who regularly read my posts on this subject know you can wear anything you like to Glyndebourne and I embrace that entirely, but I also recycle outfits quite a bit as it’s not practical for me to buy new things each year.
So, this time it was an old dress (I wore it last year too, as some of you will spot) but new shoes!
And what shoes they are. Quiet and understated they are not. They’re from Irregular Choice’s Aloha Hula range and I absolutely love them. Clearly, they are not for everyone….some of the ladies I attended Glyndebourne with were not very impressed, but I don’t mind, I don’t dress for other people I dress for myself so I don’t really care. I got lots of positive comments from other Opera goers, mainly elderly ladies some of whom stopped to take photos of my feet!
Here is the rest of the outfit with me attempting to smile (I don’t like taking my own photo). I put these photos up on Instagram and some eagle-eyed folk spotted I have my usual Paperself bird eyelashes on too. Sorry, no close-up photos of the eyes this year as I was too lazy to take one, I also didn’t vintage set my hair as it was simply too hot.
The opera was a delight. I must admit to finding the ‘story’ pace a bit slow in the first half but the music was beautiful and the choral sections were especially good.
The staging was magnificent! 
There was a moment in the second half where I thought we’d swapped to watching an episode of League of Gentlemen (anyone who has seen Glyndebourne’s version of Saul knows exactly what I’m talking about here…’bitty’ *shudder*) but it just added to the slightly bonkers feel of the whole thing.
I especially loved the raked ‘soil’ floor, the contrasts of colour against the black background and the mix of modern and period costume. Fabulous.
Anyhow, that’s my yearly outing done (small violin playing in the distance here); the shoes have been put away (actually they haven’t, they are in my newly decorated bathroom, on the shelf, where I can admire them for a bit longer) and it’s back to sewing, surviving the heat and refereeing the kids.
We’re ready, though. The enthusiasm has gone now for all the little necessities of primary school; I’ll be happy not to have to magic a costume out of thin air with no notice to be worn for just one day, and I dream of not doing the school run (although with two spectrum children that won’t be possible for a good while yet, in fact, it’ll get worse as I’ll have a double pick-up – they will be in two different schools – with daily motorway drive then a stressful drive directly through town, between the schools).
One thing we stopped doing ages ago was making teachers gifts. We started off well but then dropped into the habit of adding money to the class joint pot (actually, we used to do both). Looking through old photos whilst cleaning out my library I’m amazed at how much effort we went to, so here are a few (click on the titles to go to the relevant posts):
(when were my kids EVER this cute!!!)
I can’t find a post for these but I remember I embroidered messages on the back of them for each teacher.
The hold up was the inside. I had bought some shot orange linen to sew a lining (similar to the original) but it just never got done and the idea didn’t sit well with me either. The original fabric lining was quite stained and dirty and the neat side of my brain couldn’t cope with the same thing happening again, I wanted something more practical inside and that could be wiped and cleaned, if needed.
So on Friday, I bought a sheet of MDF and it got a permanent box lining instead. Today it’ll get varnished and then I’m attaching two brass chains on either side of the lid to stop it flopping back and toppling the whole thing over when opened.
There are a number of items on the long list and one of those is getting the website completed as I changed the layout and style a while ago but couldn’t settle on a logo and banner. I don’t have much of a clue about working in Photoshop so I do my best with the knowledge I do have and I think it works, but boy, does it take forever!
The cat idea is from ages ago but I had abandoned it as it didn’t feel right at the time. On a re-visit, I quite like it again, so I worked up the sketches and created a banner that feels good, for now.
The collar went as she looked like a vicar cat….but she might get a bow around her neck, at a later stage and annoyingly, the banner used in the Create templates can only be stupidly narrow so there is no room to use extra text.
Nibble, nibble, just keep nibbling away and it will all be OK in the end.
Forever ago (running theme here!) I was a bit obsessed with traditional vintage style Sailor Jerry tattoos, at the time I was researching tattoo swallows for aprons (still to come, when I finally photograph them) but the style, in general, is one I really like. If you don’t know who Sailor Jerry was just google him and you’ll recognise his work straight away.
I figured an oversized rose, outlined in black would look really good on a purse. The block colouring style of tattoos translates really well to applique and this vision was my starting point. I spent forever coming up with my own design, which is really difficult as there are so many copies (Sailor Jerry is iconic and therefore frequently imitated, especially the roses and swallows). I used a real rose photo and based the shaping on that, repeatedly simplified it down and then blocked the colours in. I often work on tracing paper then I use a printer to enlarge and decrease the size until I’m happy with it.
Most of the fabrics are simply what I had in stock and the main body of the purse is a deep claret cotton velvet. It’s quite difficult to capture on camera, especially as I often have to lighten photos but the above image is quite accurate.
For the lining I used some stunning fuchsia shot silk, it adds a real pop to the purses and complements the wine velvet really well.
Gluing the frames on nearly sucked all the life out of me, as it always does, but the plus is I’m getting really good at it without getting sticky fingers. I was a good girl and just got on with it and then rewarded myself with cake (which on less than 1000 steps in half a day I should NOT be doing!).
And they are done. And 
And would make a wonderful Valentines gift, I think; certainly, I’d be thrilled to get something similar!
One of the first things I did was to buy some fabric. Again, I had VERY specific plans and knew I wanted something gold and patterned, with a vintage vibe. What I didn’t know I wanted was THE most expensive silk damask available, unfortunately, I fell in love with it so nothing else would do. Joel and Son supply the Queen…apparently….I’m not surprised as I doubt anyone else could afford to shop there, beautiful though their fabric is.
After getting over the shock of the fabric price (my own fault entirely, I could have gone with manmade damask but it just wouldn’t have been the same as sumptuous silk), I got to work planning the placement of the dove I’d already designed. I scanned some of the fabric so I could understand how it would actually look and help see the edge stitching more accurately. I can get a bit disappointed with my head image and reality when doing applique pieces, as I tend to forget how the edge stitching will change the look of the finished item.
Back to doves. I remember I’d planned to take photos of the dove at each stage of the making process, in the same position, and I clearly started out well.
Before I then forgot.
Still, I’m quite surprised that I took so many photos as I often get too involved in the sewing to remember. 
It might not appear impressive, but all that neat zigzagging on the edges and wings took FOREVER and there are multiple scallop lines on the wings with various gold threads…again difficult to see in photos.
I spent some time deciding on the bias binding colour. I was originally thinking gold but it looked a bit drab in real life and in the end I went with a dark, wine red. I also considered the second piece of mistletoe but abandoned that, too.
At this point, I decided they needed more bling so extra sequins and beads were sewn onto the wings.
Back shot!
And finished dove, with mistletoe as that’s what I liked the most (I tried holly and an olive branch).
The truth is that I completed these in December, last year, but I just didn’t get them photographed in time. Red is always hard to capture, but especially so in winter light and I am not the best photographer around.
Even then, I completely forgot to take images this summer and I have just spent a frantic day doing my best in really crappy, grey light. But, as above, it’s always amazing what you can do in Photoshop to edit the colours. Sadly, the blue/grey background above was beyond saving so I had to add a new one and a terrible fake shadow.
And here is another example of an entire day of using the Photoshop eraser and altering the colours. One of this Summer’s stunning, cunning plans was to set up specific places for taking photographs and to that end, I bought some beautiful, brass dragonfly hooks, only there isn’t enough room by the door (the only spare bit of wall!) to get a square image without the door frame being in – Doh!
So more Photoshop with dodgy shadows. I need to cover or remove the black plastic parts of the hanger too….gold glitter and a glue gun??
MORE cutouts. I had finger fatigue by the end of the day.
But they get the images across and I could easily spend hours and hours trying to edit and photograph products; as it was this took me an entire day (including listing them in 