Topping up the bags

Thank you for all your positive comments about the bags I made last week and also your support of independent high street shops.

I wasn't expecting them to be snapped up so quickly but as Mother's Day is only a week or so away I used my days off at the start of the week to top up.

 Three more in all my favourite fabrics and colours. I'm not much good at making anything I don't like which results in me wanting to keep everything!

Apologies for the rubbishy photos but by the time I get home from work it's dark!

I love the shapes and colours in this 1950s cotton.

 I shall be hard pushed to part with the final petals bag. It was the first to sell last week and I've not got enough fabric left to make any more now.

 This one in painterly squares barkcloth woukld match most of my greeny bluey clothes....

 ...is there a limit on how many bags you can have?

Thank you lovely readers who purchased the last batch. They are on their way!

These three have just gone in my etsy shop for the time being but should probably go to Custard Hall on Saturday ready for Mother's Day shoppers.



Bag lady

I promised you a peep at this weeks making.

Remember the freshly laundered barkcloth fabrics all over my sofa?

 They're being reloved as bags. After my new spring bag I had a bit of a bag frenzy and made this little lot

This one below is probably my favourite and has already been spotted and sold to my friend and neighbour - I'm just discovering the joys of Facebook. Please do drop by and give me a like and spread the word.

The rest will be heading off to Custard Hall tomorrow and also to my Etsy shop.

I'm really trying hard now to sell enough stuff to stay at Custard Hall a little longer. High Street rent is huge and way beyond little old me but it has taken Jelly Jam to a new audience. The response has been fantastic and given me a renewed confidence that people like what I'm making and are (even better) prepared to pay for it!

So is it time to treat your mum? Two weeks til Mother's Day I think.

Which one is your favourite?

Elsewhere Eldest Jammer turned my wrapping paper into mini bunting for the bulbs. It even inspired me to clean the grotty old kitchen shelf. Whilst we're on the shelf, do you like my green Peas tin? It came in a box of old tins I bought at auction. I love the graphics and it looks great planted up with mini daffs.

You'll have to see what I did with the wallpaper next time. No photos yet and my 'to do before tomorrow' list is as long as a very long thing.



Apron to bag... and lots more making

Remember the apron I bought from Liz in Honiton a couple of weeks ago?

Well it's no longer an apron. I had my eye on it for a bag! This one's a keeper, all mine and my favourite colours. I have loved using my alpine bag every day since I made it back at the beginning of November but felt the need for something less wintery.
So here it is my spring bag.

There's been loads of making going on here this week. Despite selling a couple more cushions on Etsy I've restrained myself and not made a single one this week (yet).

 Here are some sneaky peaks of what my little jammers and I have been up to...

It's involved

wrapping paper

fabrics 

and wallpaper.

I'll pop back tomorrow with the finished articles.



Cushion making, it's Monkey Business

My best sellers at Custard Hall have been cushions. I just popped in today and found another two have gone off to new homes.

This month I've been topping up with a few more in vintage children's fabrics. I adore this barkcloth with blue koalas and monkeys playing on a bamboo type plant. It's really unusual and I've not seen it before. One of these has already sold in my etsy shop and is off to New Zealand.

Do you like my monkeys? I have a huge soft spot for old toys and these two I've had ages and wont be parting with. There's a boxful under my bed. I'll show you some more another day.

I only had a small piece of this animal fabric and with spring on the way thought it was time to use it.

 I've backed it in green wool.

 This pink toy fabric has been sat in my stash for ages and the need for cushion replenishment meant it's finally got to the top of the pile!

 Backed in pink wool.

Just some of the cushions I've made this year!

If there's anything you fancy pop over to my etsy shop.

 I've stocked up on fabrics today and got some more projects planned for half term, but looking at this lot possibly not cushions!

Have a lovely week.

x



Honiton

Last Tuesday I took a little journey westwards. Through every kind of weather - rain, sleet, hailstones, sun, wind and snow when I arrived in Honiton. See if you can guess where I went...

 Yes the Honiton Textile, Costume and Decorative Items Fair. This little chair caught my eye. I love anything nursery sized or to do with childhood nostalgia.

 I was pleased to see Liz The Washerwoman and picked up some bits and bobs from her. Tatty old Ladybird books for 50p each that will find themselves getting the suitcase treatment at some point as well as a great apron I've got plans for.

Both the above pictures are of Liz's lovely stock and she also has a doubly useful blog - good to read but also the biggest calendar of vintage and textile fairs you could wish for.

 I was intrigued by the necklaces from Barmy Buttons and after trying them on settled for a double sided one - turquoises on one side and then flip it over for a new blue look on the other.

Whilst I was ambling I was approached by Alice from the Homes & Antiques stall. Alice promotes the magazine through attending vintage events and writing them up on the H&A website. She asked to take my picture (yikes!) with my purchases.

 It is no longer an apron but not quite anything else yet!



Swapping again

After enjoying LaaLaa's Advent Swap so much I thought to myself I could get into this sending gifts to strangers lark. Luckily for me Ada at Vintage Sheet Addict was organising a swap between makers. The second bit of luckiness was heading my way in the form of Penelope from L is for Love. Penelope was my partner and offered to crochet me a pair of fingerless gloves in my favourite colour. Hmmm wonder what that might be...

In return I'd offered to make Penelope a cushion and she immediately spied this one in my Etsy shop. I must admit I was a tad relieved when she replied with her choice so quickly. I'd have felt rather embarassed had she not liked anything I had on offer!

As the cushion was a bit of a doddle having already been made I also made Penelope this lavender heart to match.

Last week I was very ridiculously over the top excited to hear the gloves were ready.

Time to package up the goodies and they each headed East and Westward along the coast to their new owners.

This evening I came home to a lovely surprise. A carefully wrapped bluey green kind of surprise with a mermaid badge.

 I opened the little extra first, one of my favourite brooches from Acorn & Will.

 Then on to the biggy... I am thrilled to bits. My gloves are such a stunning colour and made from lovely cotton feeling yarn.

 I wanted to wear them all evening but did have to take them off to cook. I thought frying onions was probably not the way to treat them!

Now I can't wait to put them on in the morning. I'm on a training course and today there was no heating which will be the perfect excuse to wear them all day tomorrow. I've even got the perfect dress to accessorize them...

Penelope, I couldn't have asked for anything nicer. I love them, thank you so much .

xxx

Hearts for Vintage Lovers

 Any spare moments in the last couple of weeks have been spent stitching hearts.

I've been using off cuts to get stocked up for Valentine's Day.

All are stuffed entirely with lavender so nice and solid with no padding!

 I ordered some lovely mini bobble trim that finishes them off nicely.

All are finished with a button and ribbon

 and hand stamped tag 

I delivered a dozen to Custard Hall last week and they've been selling well.

 Funnily enough I thought the pinks would be the most popular with Valentine's but I was pleasantly surprised. No...

 First to sell was my favourite - the painterly squares in bluey greens (about 7 o'clock on the picture above)

 So I've tried to top up with some less pink fabrics!

Friends to stay tonight and I'm hoping they wont mind if I do a little bit of handstitching whilst we talk and drink. I've got a pile of pompom trim just waiting to be tacked...

Have a lovely weekend.

x