Taking the Plunge

I have mentioned quite a few times the little independent shop Taking the Plunge in Whitstable where I sell my wares and help out in. I realised I had never shown any pictures of this lovely shop and all the special bits and pieces you find inside, so last time I was in I went armed with my camera to share with you this lovely little gem of a shop!

Bracelets galore!

Cards made from vintage cigarette/playing cards (I forget which! they are lovely anyway)

If I had a £1 for every time someone asks if the fabulous crown is for sale! It's not but is one of the many vintage props dotted in amongst everything for sale. Another item not for sale is the vintage tin with the ice-skaters on!

Crumpet & Skirt mugs with saucy fifties bombshells at the bottom.

Behind the counter where there is a 'boy crying' picture, original 70s wallpaper and a lovely lamp.

An old hoover, another shop prop and yes, sadly I am old enough to remember these being used!

Little Bird purses and glasses cases - she is local lady and so talented, I just love her stuff! She doesn't seem to have a blog or anything though.

A couple of my cushions, not much of my stock in there at the moment as I have been making for the fair that I am doing in a few weeks. There are a few mermaid dolls but I forgot to photograph them.

Fly-off-the-shelves bracelets by Stephanie Thornley - made from Spode china pieces and vintage buttons - beautiful.



And finally the lovely old till (that still makes the nice 'kerching' noise when you open it).

Hope you enjoyed a little glimpse of a great shop and next time you are in Whitstable do pop in or you can always have a look online at their shiny new website http://www.takingtheplungewhitstable.com/

Summer Market makes

It suddenly hit me over the last week that the Horsebridge Summer Market I signed up to do a few months back is now in less than 4 weeks time!  Eek! I have got lots of ideas for things I want to make but I hadn't made that much stock.  As I did really well at the Christmas Horsebridge Fair, I knew this was mainly due to have a huge amount of stock on my stall - the more there is the more you are likely to sell seems to work for me anyway!

So I have finally started making some bits and pieces ready for my stall and thought I would give you a few sneaky looks at what I will have on offer on the Simply h stall....

Hmmm it's all looking a bit blue at the moment and can you tell what my 'theme' seems to be!

Custom orders

Isn't life funny. Last week, just as I was starting to think that I really should pull my finger out and start making some bits and pieces for the Horsebridge Summer Fair on June 19th whilst I still had time to make lots and what should happen but I get lots of orders!

Within the space of a few hours I had  received 2 custom orders and sold a cushion from my Folksy shop, plus I was given an order for 2 personalised cushions for a friend for a Christening she is attending in June!

One of the Folksy orders was for a personalised felt envelope for a ladies little girl to put her pocket money in. She very kindly left me some nice feedback via Folksy so it seems Isabella was pleased with her felt pocket money purse!

The other Folksy order I have just finished, which was one of my baby quilts. Sue had found one via the sold items in my shop and wanted one with more of the aeroplane fabric and a square embroidered with her newborn nephews date of birth etc. The aeroplane quilt was born and fingers crossed she likes it! I really enjoyed making it.

I must, MUST get more baby quilts made. They are one of my best sellers and never normally make it to my Folksy shop because as soon as one is made it normally gets brought up by my family or friends as gifts for new babies! One day I will have a selection in my Folksy shop!

I'd best start cutting some squares out now!

A little bit more drawing on fabric..

It was a very good friends 40th birthday last week and I really wanted to get her a lovely, personal and special present - but I didn't have a clue what to get her. I searched high and low in every shop in Whitstable trying to find the perfect gift but I just couldn't find it.

I finally decided that the perfect gift would be a photo album so that she could capture all the best moments from her 40th year and to personalise it I decided to make a fabric cover (with a bit of help and inspiration from Poppy Treffrys' book). Whoo hoo, more drawing on fabric and more drawing with my ever favourite Flixion pens!

It took quite a few failed attempts I finally came up with the design that I thought would be ok and I scribbled it down.  The bird cage image I chose specifically as she used to have several of them hanging from her ceiling above her stairs (which looked gorgeous) - one of them which I remember bringing back as hand luggage from Thailand  for her many years ago! I then copied the design onto some white linen and went mad on the sewing machine with the free motion embroidery foot!

I ironed on a few bits of fabric with Bondaweb on the back and then more free motion embroidery over those. The coloured panel at the bottom was pinned on to within an inch of its life as being a lazy sort of sewer and being in full embroidery mode, I really couldn't be bothered to swap the sewing machine feet over to sew it on and then have to stick the embroidery foot back on again to finish off - so I decided to pin it on and and keep everything crossed that it worked!

Thankfully it did work and this is where I get to show you the finished article that I was quite pleased with but.........hmm, unfortunatley I can't as I don't have any pictures of it! My hubby had to take the camera to work the next day and I had to wrap it up and take it with me to London on the train for Sarah's party so this one will have to do...

 She still hasn't had the present yet but I am keeping everything crossed that she likes it and that I manage to get a proper finished photo of it eventually!

Right, I'm off to find another bit of fabric to start drawing on ................

Drawing on fabric

I love the blog Flossie Teacakes, the girl is a genius with a sewing machine and everything she makes always looks so immaculately made, including the beautiful clothes she makes for herself, so simple and yet so very stylish.

So when I read on her blog about some Frixion pens she was using, I took note! Florence I think uses them more for her dressmaking, but for me I thought they would be perfect for drawing illustrations on fabric and then free motion embroidering over them.

The reason they are so perfect for this is because they are rollerball pens, so very easy to draw with, but once you have sewn over them and want to lose the pen lines all you need to do is...iron and the lines will disappear right before your eyes!

They are just brilliant! I got mine on ebay and they were about £5 for 3 pens and well worth the money so make sure you order some quick smart.