WOYWW - hearts galore!

Sorry folks my room looks even worse than last week! So, just a quick peek at some of my car boot bargains on my table.

I tidied some of the bags etc and then started all over again - this time helping daughter M with some of her "heart" cushions.

She sold all the beautiful, grey, velour cushions that she made before Christmas and decided she would re-stock with creams and beiges this time.

They are gorgeous little cushions - the small ones are about 10" square and the larger ones are 14" square.  I think she is hoping to sell the large ones of £17.50 and the small ones for £14.50. They all have a little zip across the back and are filled with polyester filling. Each one has a little Tilly Tea Dance label. I guess she will load them up to her Etsy shop - Tilly Tea Dance - if they don't sell before then!!!

As you will see from my post below - I had a happy time clearing some of our dress fabric by cutting out 25 more little frocks ready to sew.

BUT - this week I am making a little smocked dress for my twin great niece baby L. I love smocking and did loads when I was much younger. I find it quite theraputic.

Pretty isn't it....

Short and sweet again this week - I really do need to tidy that room don't I?

Have a great week and enjoy your blog hop - I will see lots of your desks later!

Now to hop to Aunty Julia's desk and see what she has been up to this week.

Have fun.

x Jo

Where did August go?

Apologies to anyone who follows my blog!
I just don't know where August went - I certainly didn't spend it sunbathing!!!
We had a few fine days but I certainly felt sorry for all parents trying to keep chidren entertained through their school holidays.
Blogging friend http://pipany-poltiskofarm.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_ had a lovely idea of putting activities on cards in a jar and picking out a different one each day - clever!!

So what did I do....
My daughter is home with us at the moment so she has inspired us to get out and walk more.
We have combined it with picking blackberries and better still, billberries, which have been plentiful on the Stiperstones -along with wonderful views across Shropshire and the Welsh border country. Now I have a well stocked freezer and jars of blackberry jam. I haven't made jam for years so it was quite an experiment but the result is delicious!! The billberries blackened our teeth, tongues and mouths and now I know why you don't often see them on restaurant menus!!
My latest sewing project has been a little smocked pinafore dress for a friend's daughter. She has yet to receive her parcel so I will save the photo until she has seen the real thing. I think its really pretty - I just hope it fits.
We have also been absorbed in tracing my husbands family tree and have found it quite addictive. I may blog more on this later as the everyday history of the times fascinated me. We still have a few unsolved problems to crack.
My sister always said she didn't have time to blog - I think you will see from http://wipso-astitchintime.blogspot.com/2009/07/lets-make-start.html that she does have time and is making a very good job of both blogging and her little sewing business!!
She set me a task of listing -"Things I have but don't need" and "Things I need but don't have"
Interesting thought, so I will be blogging about that later too.

Reviving a lost art?

I am so glad to see that smocked dresses are back in fashion for babies and little girls. (I have also noticed it as a feature on other fashion items too). By smocking, I mean the old fashioned hand embroidered variety not the modern equivalent, worked by machine and combining shirring elastic.

I have always loved the way the delicate threads and stitches trap the tiny folds, so that they fall in beautiful, little gathers across the yolk of a dress. I made my first smocked dress for my "O" Level needlework exam and my own daughter wore it about sixteen years later. (That's her, aged about two, modelling it - twenty seven years ago!)

Throughout her childhood, I smocked summer frocks, winter frocks and party frocks until, aged about eight, she rebelled and refused to wear them in favour leggings, ra-ra skirts and jeans!

Before I returned to full time work, I even smocked for a firm in Belfast. They sent parcels containing the threads and pastel fabric pieces for smocking. I returned to them a neatly smocked panel for the princely sum of about 80p per panel. Not a lot of money even twenty five years ago. I just loved the satisfaction of producing these little works of art.

Now I have had a request from my niece to make smocked dresses for her baby daughter. So, out came the Anchor embroidery threads in soft, pastel shades and off we went to find suitable fabric. Not so easy these days as fabric shops are few and far between, but trusty Watson & Thorntons came up with three lengths of dainty, floral prints in pale blues and creams and a tiny blue and white stripe.

Of course my skills were a bit rusty but like riding a bike - you never forget how, once you have mastered the art.

I put my neat, hand stitched rows of gathers on the wrong side of the fabric, pulled them up so that straight, parallel pleats show on the right side and I was ready to smock. I have a pretty sample of smocking stitches which I made as part of my Textile course at college and, with this to refer to, I recaptured the technique and completed my first attempt.

Now I am hooked! The second one looked even better and met with great approval from all. The third one is in progress and the fourth one is waiting in the bag. Two friends have baby girls, so I guess they too will be happy recipients of my handiwork. I don't think there is a living to be made from it but I can recommend it as a stress therapy!!