This is going to be a very photo heavy post and slightly for my own records really, so, sorry.
When we moved here the house was pretty much an empty shell, one of the bigger jobs was to convert the loft space and create a master bedroom, with en-suite bathroom.
It was very exciting at the time (nearly 14 years ago, I guess).
All the plaster in the house was sprayed white at the very beginning and that’s pretty much where it ended in the bedroom. Even the blind was one I’d removed from the old house and adjusted to fit. The room didn’t even get skirting boards.
Come 4 years ago and it was very much on my hit list to be done. I’ve become quite handy with basic woodwork so I put on all the skirting, sanded and oiled the remaining flooring (most had been done but there were a few patches still to do) and then moved onto the painting.
One of the joys of being single is I get to do whatever I like to the house. I love that. After 10 years of all white, I was getting a bit bored and was in the mood for some colour. I took a lead from this fabulous vintage barkcloth fabric which I had in my stash (and hoped to use for the blind) and a notion that I really wanted to introduce some green to the room.
After lots of tester tins, I went with Farrow & Ball Green Blue. It was only ever for the end wall and the alcoves, the other walls I intended to keep neutral.
The floating bookshelves are Umbra Concealed Floating Bookshelves (you can buy them on Amazon) and the watercolour is a vintage one by Yorkshire artist Angus Rands. I liked the colours in the painting (it’s one I inherited from Mum) and it’s propped there so I can use the colours as inspiration. I often do that, base a rooms colours on some fabric, or a painting.
The problem was, I struggled with the new paint colour. It felt slightly cold (this was back in March 2017, I think, – oh yes, that’s how long it can take me to finish and blog a project!) and when I’d been searching for fabric for blinds, I’d fallen in love with this amazing original barkcloth on Etsy. It nearly killed me to buy a second tin of paint and re-paint the wall, partly due to the cost of Farrow & Ball paint, but I changed it to Breakfast Room Green and ordered the new fabric and then took that as my colour lead for the rest of the room. I am dying to use Arsenic somewhere in the house, but it didn’t go with the new fabric, sadly.
The other walls were painted in Slipper Satin, which I love and use a lot.
I had the added complication of needing to make a blind for the internal window that overlooks the studio (this was me creating the paper pattern). There wasn’t enough of the lovely floral fabric to use it on its own
so I paired it with some dark green linen and some amazing Robert Kaufman Essex Yarn dyed linen/cotton which has a gold metallic thread running through it in Dusty Rose.
The blind is attached with gold hoops stitched on with gold thread and hooked over gold capped mirror screws. It’s hard to explain but it folds back on itself and then gets hooked up onto the wall to ‘open’ the blind. If I’m honest, I rarely open it as the room gets quite good light from the windows and velux and I’m too lazy, even though it only takes a moment.
The gold thread in the top pink fabric makes it hard to photograph as it reflects the camera flash and yes, that is some of my extensive Chie Mihara shoe collection. I refer to it as my ‘shoe shop’ corner, complete with a seat ready for trying on – ha ha.
I’ve owned the chest of drawers for years – it’s from Habitat, as is the light.
The dressing table is also quite old now and originally came from Made (along with the stool). The silk bedspread is one of my favourite things and was bought for a fantastic clearance price from Soak and Sleep.
The little vintage vanity case is another of my favourite things and I keep my makeup in it as well as the ‘B’ case which came from Anthropologie.
I especially like having some sentimental pieces around and this one was Mum’s – she gave it to me when I was a teenager and I’ve had it ever since, I believe it’s from the 1960s.
You can’t see it (as I forgot to photograph it!) but there are a number of hatches in this room allowing access to the small eaves spaces. I took all the fussy architraving off these and painted them in Elephant’s Breath (also by F&B) which is a kind of pink/grey colour. I just wanted the room to have clean lines and blocks of colour and I think it works really well, I’m very happy with it.
There is a part 2 to this post but I’ll keep it separate as it also contains a lot of photos 🙂
I have certain things that I always intend to make (but never get around to) and for years I hunted for a pattern for vintage ‘gym’ style shorts until I found the one above. The size is actually a little big (I usually buy a pattern vintage 18, which is around a modern 14 but with a smaller waist) but I was willing to adapt it, I just couldn’t decide on the fabric.
And then – hurrah! – I didn’t have to because 
They aren’t cheap but personally, I spend very little money on clothes and the ones I do buy last me for many years. I prefer quality over quantity. I wanted to mention this as they have just re-stocked and introduced some new colours and I bought a new pair in red with some Birthday I was given.
I own this skirt that I have had for years and years and years. Anyone who has seen me on my daily school runs will know that I wear it so often it’s almost like a uniform. It came from Cath Kidston. I don’t really buy her things often as they can be a little bit too floral for me (in a Cath Kidston kind of way) but I loved this barkcloth fabric so much that I bought the skirt in beige, black and a dress version too! 
Something I originally hated about it was the elasticated waist, which then turned out to be the thing that I love! As long as I wear it with fitted t-shirts and little 50’s style cropped cardigans (which I own a lot of) you can’t see the elastic but gosh, is it comfy.
So when my poor skirts began to fade and die, I thought the answer was to make some of my own (as CK don’t make them anymore).
The fabric is all Outback Wife by Elaine Gold, which I first saw on 
I added some rather jazzy gold elastic and pockets (which the original skirt also has).
Mistakes? Yes. I put more fabric in than the original and that was a mistake, it’s almost a bit too full and hints at 5-year-old going to a kids party when I wear it but then I’ve never cared much about how I appear so I wear it anyway. Also, with so much fabric it bulks up a bit too much on the elastic waist and so the elastic is a bit stretched and might need to be re-done in the long run.
New buckles for a beloved coat my Sister gave me – how lucky to find EXACTLY the same ones on the internet! What did we do before online shopping?
And another great internet find, imperial size cover buttons so I could repair my vintage jacket (it’s only been in the repair pile for about 4 years or so now!).
The winner was comment 12, (Jan, I’ve emailed you directly for your address). Thanks, everyone that took time to say ‘hello’ and for all your lovely comments.
As I’m doing DIY during school hours, I have to hand sew in the afternoon and evenings (when I’m multi-tasking with Mum duties) and I was trying to get a new batch of double red rose brooches finished in time for Valentine’s Day.
I’d normally be photo editing and updating social media at this time, hence the slip on blog writing etc.
Then I remembered that I rarely sell to men/partners anyway….as in pretty much never….so I don’t think worrying about Valentine’s is really the right focus, I should be making more Linen Rabbit Egg Cosies as they have all gone!
The plan is to keep going on the bathroom this week, then I’ll flip back to sewing during the day next week and get my evenings back for internet stuff. Maybe I’ll actually get on with the new tweed rose bags I started over 6 years ago…..maybe 🙂
Like half of the World, I am currently drinking only water, eating lettuce (in an attempt to undo the festive excesses) and dreaming of Spring.
It’s the same with my sewing work, I’m all for flowers and bright, sunny colours, I’m done with Winter tones.
Despite being away, I squeezed in some sewing over the holidays. The floral cushion was a little something for me, it took such a short time and I’ve had both the cushion pad and the tapestry hanging around for months and months waiting. I do find it difficult to carve out any time for sewing for myself.
I also managed to run up a batch of new Linen Rabbit Egg Cosies, because…
ta-da! I made Country Living again. Can’t lie, chuffed to bits.
I did make more of the ones featured, with the woodland print ears, but I still had the Liberty Tana Lawn out from my Fox and Badger making laying on my worktop and I couldn’t resist making some with ‘Mirabelle’ ears too.
I also remembered that I have one of the very original rabbits left from years ago, with the first ears (I ‘improved’ the design with the second batch as it bugged me that it was so difficult to make the ears neat and symmetrical) so he’s here for giving away to anyone that comments on this post. I guess I’ll randomly pick a name on the 26th January.
I’m not sure if I’ll make more, even with the newer ears they are a bu*%er to stitch evenly and the linen I use is also a nightmare to iron, but I can imagine lots more Liberty Tana versions in my head and once I get a plan I find it difficult to ignore. We’ll see.
I guess it’s just an extension of how my general taste has changed. This house was all white with wooden floors (a definite and intended Scandi feel) and although I’ve always liked bright accents of colour, colour is now creeping onto the walls too with bold colours in the kids’ bedrooms and green walls in mine.
Some of the old favourites are back, though, including baubles on ‘the dog’.
and a knitted Santa that my Gran made and that was always in my room at Christmas when I was a kid.
The Pelham puppets are up again in the kitchen…the star lights never actually came down!
And some of my really old decorations have gone on a tinsel tree in the kitchen this year.
When I think of Christmas I think of the colours of a box of Quality Street, all foil and bright with purples, greens, blues and golds. I guess it’s a childhood nostalgia thing. I recently bought a box of Quality Street to use as props for photos (of the Christmas Stockings) and it sadly reminded me that although I like the wrapper colours I don’t actually like the chocolates inside!
So instead, I’m going to think of this bowl of Lindt chocolates bought for me as a gift last weekend….there is an entire Lindt shop in Bluewater – who knew! I just LOVE the colours (and the chocolate) and I have some plans for Shop makes for next season that will definitely be inspired by these.
I sold out of all ‘Woodland Animals’ after the Badgers were in Country Living so it seemed right to make more. It was originally an experiment in how long it takes to make them (let’s just put it this way, I am earning waaaaayyyyy below minimum wage) but I just kept going with new colour versions, as they were selling as quickly I could list them.
First, there were some pink ‘Betsy’ boys. I’m not sure why I’ve never made pink fox suits before, it seems like a winner and they flew straight out of the shop.
Then, after 
I haven’t made girls for ages and it was quite good fun. They have red ric-rac sandwiched between the hem and I used some crochet flowers I already had rather than making new ones with my Hana flower maker. One flew straight off to the Netherlands!
Next, came a batch of bright blue boys. 
All the linen is offcuts from apron making and it felt really good to finally use it up. I have a habit of keeping all of my trimmings (in this case, quite big bits of trimmings, so well worth keeping!) but I can go a bit overboard with my reluctance to throw things away. The tweed wool for the bodies was also the final length and I (forced myself to) throw the scrap bag of leftovers from this once I’d finished my last fox. They really were little bits that were too small for even fox ears so it felt quite good to finally say goodbye to the bag which has sat in my scrap drawer for years now.
There was a little badger interlude here as I’d had quite a few emails asking if I’d make more so I did one last batch of those.
One of the reasons I made new foxes over badgers or wolves is so I didn’t have to make the brooches. It isn’t that I don’t like them, in fact, I think they finish the animals’ suits off in style, it’s simply that they take a really long time to make (they take the same time as a full-sized flower brooch) and I don’t really charge much extra, so it really is a labour of love.
There was one exception. A lovely lady has bought a lot of the Woodland Animals asked if I could make a red fox in mustard. I pretty much never make to order as my life can get a little stressed and I hate the idea of letting anyone down so I decided years ago to always say no, but as I was making badgers in mustard anyway I figured I would make an exception (and I was happy to do so, I should add!)
Mr Mustard Fox got a special Liberty Betsy cravat in a colourway I imported from Japan. I only have a short length of it but it was perfect with the yellow linen. I then made a matching green auricula brooch. I have to say, I was really pleased with him….it’s a bit of a shame the weather was so crappy and dark so I couldn’t get a decent photo but he’s gone off to his new home.
It started as an idea a couple of years ago. I had bought some vintage (I’m going to use the word with abandon now) napkins when I was buying old Christmas stuff on Ebay and I couldn’t help but think they’d make great cuffs for Christmas stockings.
The plan was to combine them with some stash busting, specifically reducing my tweeds and a few Christmas cottons that I have. The problem is, as always, I tend to imagine the finished thing in my head and I then struggle to compromise on that vision.
The red tweed looked too ‘dull’ so I considered some linen, also from my stash, but that felt too similar in texture to the linen cuff. I like contrasts of texture 🙂
I ended up buying some bouclé wool in a crimson red. I also abandoned using the Christmas printed cotton for lining as the wool is a little stretchy and I wanted a matching stretchy lining so I opted for some nice, cosy, green brushed cotton.
I’m not sure if it show in the photos, but I added a little shaping to the top cuff to make it kick out slightly (I like to think it’s these details that make my work my own).
Then I embarrassed myself by buying the newly arrived Christmas stuff from the local supermarket as photo props – coins, Quality Street, a Lindt Santa and some walnuts and oranges.
But I liked the photos taken with some of my vintage decorations best.
The photos look really dark on here…it’s one of the problems when photographing red and at this time of year.
I’m very lucky that I’ve been in the magazine before (a few times, actually) but not for some time. In fact, I think it’s a lot harder to get into magazines in general these days, there is so much competition in the handmade market that it’s difficult to stand out and it’s increasingly important to keep up any marketing which is an area I really struggle to find the passion to maintain.
So, welcome, Mr Fox (in a Green Dandy Suit!).
These started with some amazing Liberty Tana Lawn that I bought and imported from Japan. Why are all the nicest Tana Lawns only available abroad? I’ve never figured this out, it seems wrong, especially as it’s such an iconic British brand. Anyway, at much expense my single meter arrived (back in 2010!!!) and it was yelling animal cravats at me, so that’s what I made.
With the addition of real leather buttons (I bought the entire remaining stock from Cath Kidston a few years ago when they went into the sale at a silly low price – one of my best buys as before that a lot of the leather buttons I used were vintage and they were getting hard to source at a sensible price).
There isn’t a lot else to add. Of all the foxes I’ve made, these are my favourite combination (but they don’t beat the wolves!), I really do adore the cravat fabric and bright green is very much my colour. They seem like a summer animal to me.
It’s likely that the remaining ‘
I’ve been making them in some form or another since 2010, but they take an enormous amount of time to make and the fabric alone is quite expensive so there is little profit.
They really are a labour of love.
There are still a few to be found in 
Christmas things are coming next!
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