Edwardian Womans Life magazine

This issue Number 781 was published on the 26th November 1910 and cost one penny.
I cant help thinking that the lady on the front cover looks rather deformed, what do you think? An advert in this magazine entitled "Reducing Corset" says it all.
"Instantly reduces the stoutest figure. The extra strong elastic belt conceals superflous flesh, and affords binding support".  No wonder these ladies often fainted!

Now these 2 Evening Coats look a lot more comfortable

This  delightful magazine gives you a glimpse into Edwardian fashion and life, below a child's hat and a lady's Toque (a Toque is a hat with narrow brim or no brim at all).

On the adverts page I spotted 2 adverts "old false teeth bought and old artificial teeth bought" I dont't know about you but i'm not keen on that idea!

To add this magazine to your collection click the link below

Woman's Life magazine 10927753866

I recently got lucky enough to come across a treasure trove of vintage fabrics.  Despite the fact that I don't sew, I couldn't resist aquiring them.  So, here is a selection of some of the fabrics currently available in my new craft store on ebid, Vintage Stitching.

Potfest In The Park 2012

My husband, Rob and I went to PotFest in the Park, held in the grounds of Hutton-in-the-Forest today.

The ceramics show hosts hundreds of makers from the UK, Europe and beyond. There is so much variety to see and we look forward to adding to our collection of usable pottery pieces.

We made a bee line for the tea room and had a cup of coffee before enjoying a walk around the walled garden, wildflower meadow and grounds before heading for the exhibition tents.

 

The competition for the exhibitors this year was "Journeys and Pilgrimages" and all of the pieces were laid out on the lawns for visitors to vote on. Rob chose the ship with the cat and owl as his #1 favourite; I went for the beautiful green, bud-like piece that was based on an ash leaf unfurling.

Here are some more pieces that caught my eye. (Click on the collages for a larger image):-

We went on to the Upfront Gallery nearby, for lunch.

Rob had the vegetable curry, rice, and nan bread with mango chutney, a slice of banana and chocolate chip bread with a pot of tea; I ate cheese ploughman's with gluten free bread, a piece of 'sticky jack' (date, sultana, chocolate and rice crispy tray bake) and an apple juice. The ladies who served us were very nice and helpful and the food was great. I think the bill was just over £20. Full marks for the numerous vegetarian and gluten free options available! Highly recommended.

Back at home we admired the four dinner plates we bought: two each from Armin Skirde; and Charlotte and Siegerd Bohmer. Coincidentally, both sellers were from the same town (Hohr-Grenzhausen) in Germany, which we had no idea about until we got home and looked at their leaflets.

 

Posted by Julia of Love Buttons HQ and Fire Horse Textiles on Etsy and on Folksy.

Introducing our new blogger Ragtime Bazaar

I love vintage, and in my shop I'll be selling anything gorgeous and old that catches my eye. I love going to antique fairs, auctions and markets and spotting items with potential. I sell vintage jewellery and buckles at Esty.

RagtimeBazaar

I'm looking forward to reading your blogs, welcome to our team :)

Recent Handmade Purchases: Pants and Earrings

Morning all!

I thought that I would share the latest two purchases of handmade items that I've made.

First are these beautiful millefiori glass star earrings from Lucy at LuniqueUK. This talented designer makes jewellery; night lights using recycled stamps; decoupaged chests of drawers; and cushions.

My second purchase was from Down To Earth Recycling. Elizabeth loves to recycle every scrap that she can lay her hands on and makes everything from quilts to gift baskets, cushions to dolls, knitted items and more. I can't think of a more eco-friendly place to shop. I bought some pants made from recycled t-shirts. It is a lucky dip as to colour and design, which makes it even more exciting to open your parcel. I received a pair of blue ones and a cream pair with a bright trio of parrots on the bottom! The pants are available in a two pair pack at just £2.50. They are available in sizes 8 - 10; 10 - 12; 14 - 16; and 18 - 20.

I always try to shop from independent sellers on sites like Folksy and Etsy. You get an unbelievable choice of items, many unique designs, made with care and attention to detail.

Posted by Julia of * Love Buttons HQ * Fire Horse Textiles on Etsy * Fire Horse Textiles on Folksy *

Job lots

Did you know a person who buys a job lot is known as a jobber.

Well jobber's i have several job lots for you at ebid, so come on a grab yourself some bargins such as chiffon scarves, press studs, hooks and eyes, sewing items, knitting items, crochet hooks and lace linens.

job lots  - press here  to view and buy

Belt Buckles for Scarves

I'm sure all of you will have seen vintage belt buckles used to fasten scarves before, so here is a selection i have for sale at ebid.  The tiny ones are fine for the thinner chiffon type scarves but the larger buckles will require a thicker scarf. Most of these buckles are fine as they are such as the deco plastic types, but the wooden buckles can be painted or dyed with polish and the metal buckles can be sprayed all manner of colours.

Vintage Buckles

Press above link to buy

Pebble Mill at One

Does anyone remember this programme?


A lunch time programe much like This Morning with various presenters including  Jan Leeming, Donny B. MacLeod, Fern Britton, Marian Foster, Debi Jones, Bob Langley, David Seymour, Magnus Magnusson, Alan Titchmarsh, Chris Baines, Josephine Buchan, Judi Spiers and Paul Coia.  I particularly remember Judi Spiers, Paul Coia and Alan Titchmarsh.


The programme ran from about 1976 to 1986 with such guest stars as  Sophia Loren, David Niven, James Mason, Peter Ustinov, Kenneth More, Francis Ford Coppola, Eric Morecambe, Charlie Drake, Roy Hudd, Billy Dainty, Jack Douglas, Les Dawson, Arthur Askey, Peter Cushing, David Cassidy, Joan Collins, Shirley Bassey, Boy George to name but a few.


Below is a 1986 childs uncut sewing pattern for sale from that programme.

pebble-mill-at-one-sewing-pattern-childs-outfit

We have a winner

The winner of these lovely buttons is AgeofAquarius

Congratulations

Gorgeous Handmade Soap Recommendation

Morning all! I wanted to share a recommendation for handmade soap from a company called Wild Olive. The soaps are made with natural, animal free ingredients, ethically sourced, and the company uses minimal energy input in the production.

My husband bought me this set of small, guest size soaps a few years back and I was enchanted by the beautiful scents of the soaps, and the quality. Click here to see their latest sets.

 

Recently, I bought a huge bag of ten full-sized bars of their soap for £30 and some loose bars in my favourite fragrance: lavender and patchouli. The single bars are £3.99 each for 100g or £2.25 for 50g.

 

The bars come in a pretty box, so would make a great present, if you can bear to give them away once you've smelt them! I've tried dozens of makes of handmade soap over the years, and these are, in my opinion, the best.

 

Nice soap would definitely be my 'desert island' luxury item. What would yours be?

Posted by Julia of Love Buttons HQ and Fire Horse Textiles on Etsy and now on Folksy

What is Feedsack

Pukka-Flour-American-Hard-Wheat-feed-sack

Farmers have been using cloth bags for grain, seed and feed ever since cloth was available. In the early days, homespun linen was hand sewn into bags for the grain that was kept for use in the home, and for next year's planting. The sacks were considered valuable personal property, and were usually stitched or stencilled with names or initials to identify the owner.

Sometime in the 1920's, an enterprising manufacturer of cloth bags hit upon an interesting idea - maybe he could sell more sacks if they were decorated to be more desirable for the farmer's wife. And the era of the printed feedsack began. No longer just beige muslin, with advertising for the feed company, now sacks began to appear in a wide variety of popular colors and prints.  

vintage-old-collectible-cloth-feed-bag-sack

V and M Giveaway

I am giving away these lovely vintage  pale salmon pink plastic buttons to the first person who emails me with their name and address.

Is anyone interested in this giveaway?

There are 12 buttons on the card.

So dont delay email me today at vinmodunite@btinternet.com

Needlewoman & needlecraft what can i make

I have a selection of 1950's Needlewoman & Needlecraft magazines for sale each featuring some lovely items you can knit, sew or crochet.  Below are a selection of Ladies jumpers to knit.

Needlewoman & Needlecraft magazines_

Wool Rug from vintage magazine

Hope  you all enjoyed the " How to make your own wool rug" by our author Firehorse3, I did.
Below is another rug with instructions in a 1950's Needlewoman & Needlecraft magazine

needlewoman-needlecraft-magazine-no-no-transfer-69315452

Making A Rag Rug

This is the first rag rug that I made, back in 2006.

After a quick sketch on paper, I transferred the design to some hessian with a large felt pen.

I bought four woollen blankets from charity shops and dyed them with various acid all in one dyes from Omega Dyes.

I dyed them in a large saucepan (used only for that purpose) and didn't agitate the fabric too much, so that I ended up with a blotchy effect on the fabric, with some darker and some lighter areas.

The hessian was fixed into a frame, and I used a shuttle hook from Debbie Siniska to do the hooking. I later learnt that you should pull out one thread from each edge of the hessian to check that you have a perfectly straight edge to work from. My rug started becoming quite twisted because I hadn't done this and I had to go back and pull bits out of one edge and re-hook the other edge straight.

I rested the frame on a couple of trestles to do the work, although I see that most people work standing up, with the frame propped against the wall, when using this tool. The hooking is carried out from the reverse, so there is a lot of turning the frame to trim fabric ends and check that the design is going as planned. I tried to do no more than an hour at a time to make sure that I didn't strain my back or hands.

The strips of blanket were too thick for the shuttle hook to begin with: the thicker blanket needed to be just over 1/4", the thinner blanket strips nearer to 1/2" for them to run smoothly, otherwise the strip rucks up and gets caught under the point of the tool, and it is hard going on your hands and wrists. One tip is to try a few strips with your tool before you cut hundreds the wrong width... I used a rotary cutter and A1 sized cutting board, but would dearly love to get my hands on one of the fabric cutters sold in the US!

As I neared the end, I could see that I was going to run out of the background fabric so I cut the design short by about a foot in length. Note to self - make sure you have plenty of fabric dyed ready beforehand - any extra could be used in another project or for repairs.

When I was finished, I cut out the rug with a two inch border of hessian. I folded over a one inch hem then folded the whole to the back and stitched in place by hand using a curved needle and strong button thread. I had checked with two professional rug makers about whether to add a backing or not, and whether to use latex to back the rug. Their advice was 'no' to both: apparently latex may damage the fabrics over the long term and a backing fabric can trap grit which then acts like sandpaper rubbing away at the fabric strips and causing damage over time.

After a few days of use and watching the dog surfing about on the rug over the wooden floor boards, I decided to add some rug grip tape from Lakeland. I tried hoovering the rug with the upright vacuum cleaner, but this pulled up a few stray ends, so I've decided to stick to the hand tool in future, and I've got my eye on a proper carpet beater listed on Ebay.

The rug is still in front of our fireplace six years later, although it looks a bit faded now and there are a few loose ends that need trimming or re-prodding, it has stood up to plenty of wear.

http://uk.ebid.net/for-sale/vintage-latch-hook-rug-making-tool-readicut-wool-co-ltd-ossett-yorks-used-68488166.htm

Posted by Julia of Fire Horse Textiles and Love Buttons HQ.