A month in pictures Part 2: Truck Festival

Last weekend I had a stall at Truck festival, and for the first time, I sold knickers. Definitely a crowd pleaser, although frequent cries of "nice pants" kept me checking that my own underwear was well tucked away!

The weather was perfect and the atmosphere was very jolly indeed. After a truly hectic run-up it couldn't get much better than relaxing in the sun, chatting about vintage fabric, underwear and bags with lots of lovely people. My stall was next to Darn it and Stitch so inbetween chatting to customers I got to hang out with my buddies - even more perfect! Other highlights included Johnny Flynn, Gruff Rhys, lentil dahl from the Rotary club (that's food, not another band name) and the "Truck All Stars" finale performance of the Fleetwood Mac Rumours album.

There's some great photos on the Truck Festival website including this photo of your's truly, well and truly caught in an act of last minute preparation. Here are some of the shots I took.

The bow-tie hair clip came into it's own on "sports casual" dress up day...

Pretty things on the Darn it and Stitch stall...

I love this necklace from fellow etsians Delilah and Wild, just one of my lovely purchases (of which, more posts are to come!)...

Vintage Haul: The final installment... for now!

I've been cheating a bit by spreading out last weekend's vintage shopping over a few posts. This is the last one - honest!

I love the pattern of this shift dress. It's way too big, but I'm planning to take it in and add a peter pan collar in time for a wedding next weekend (I'll let you know how it goes!)

I've been wanting a cosy shawl and a long brown belt for ages. And the scarf? Well, you can never have too many, I say!

Vintage Haul: Part 1

This dress was hidden at the back of a stall at Latitude. I really wasn't supposed to be shopping at the time, but buying dresses is much more fun than standing in a queue for the ladies! It has the kind of unusual and slightly flappy top section that makes boys like my OH feel confused and uncomfortable - but that's all to the good in my book (tee hee!).

A month in pictures (and some words too) Part 1

This month has passed by in a blur of chicken pox, festival, sewing then more festival. Its been a great month, despite medieval pox, mud, knicker elastic induced wrist ache and unwashed hair. I have to admit, returning to normal living has been a bit of a come down. You can't beat the taste of tea in the fresh air - but on the plus side, clean hair is good. So here are a few snaps of what I've been up too...

Deploying emergency butterfly-cake distraction techniques on a pox-poorly little monkey (it didn’t work really).

A fab weekend of mud, kids, music and mud!

A cosy snooze

(It's apple juice - honest!)

What do you think?

Right at the very very top of my guilt list, in big bold red letters and with lots of underlining is Updating my Etsy and Folksy Shops. Somehow, something else always comes up which is pretty rubbish as how am I going to sell stuff if it's just sitting at home in my stock cupboard - right?

I'm travelling a lot this week, so no time for listing (again!) but at least I managed to make a start on the photos at the weekend. I've stuck with the usual white back-drop shots, but have also tried something a bit different with some outdoor shots involving a real-life human (well, me!). What do you think - does our shed and concrete yard add anything?!

Bikini!

Here's the second of the samples I've been working on for workshops. This time - a cotton bikini. I'm not sure cotton works for swimming, but it definitely does the job for posing!

The bottoms are based on my knicker pattern but with a draw string waist. The tops are based on McCalls M5400 but needed some adaptation for a nonstretch fabric. It took a while, but after a bit of growling and lots of unpicking, I think I cracked it.

Sorry about the rubbish photo - I was so relieved it had finally worked that I couldn't wait to tidy up all the loose threads!

UK Handmade Craft Profile: Soapmaking

This week I've been engaged in the very wholesome world of soapmaking for my latest craft profile on UKHandmade. Am very tempted to give it a go, although need to get over my Fight-Club induced fear of caustic soda first!

Featured: soapychica | BarSoap | Saffron Barr