Thimbleina

Yeah! I've finished it!

 

I have at last finished the Amy Butler dress. I took it slowly and there were lots of other things to do at the same time, but I am very pleased with how it looks and feels. The pattern was very detailed and it shows in the finish. It has a cotton muslin lining which when the fabric came in the post I was a little unsure about as it frayed so much, but it is just the right weight for the lining fabric for this dress and now that it has been sewn in it feels just right. The cutting of the pattern took me a while and to those experts in dress making it will not look perfect as although I took alot of time trying to line the pattern repeat up there are some errors, but ones that I can live with. I thought when buying the material that it was expensive, but I managed to cut the dress out of 2 metres (so I bought more than I needed) and the pattern is so good that for a dress the same quality and lined in the shops would have cost me at least a third again. Plus I think I may get quite a bit of wear out of it if we have a good summer and I would be tempted to make it again, possibly in a plain fabric next time, I think it may even look good as a smart winter dress or tunic in a slightly heavier weight fabric. So I would definately recommend the pattern and the fabric is lovely to work with, I am so pleased with the colour and there are so many other beautiful Amy Butler fabrics to choose from.

 

Yesterday I managed to get to look in a couple of charity shops and got some great things. Some new slippers and 4 brand new ladybird books (they were 25pence each) 3 of them have been spirited away to be looked at often by the two smallest members of the family and 15pence for the book to be kept for Christmas which is by Pat Hutchins who also wrote Rosie's walk which is one of Master T's favourite books, I love the illustrations in these books.

Hope you have a great weekend. I shall be doing a giveaway sometime next week as I have in the midst of things forgotten that this week was my blogiversary (one year, can't believe I have been rambling on for that long and that anyone reads).  

A peek back to 1984

 

 

 

A few pictures from inside the Twinkle annual of 1984 which I bought from a charity shop yesterday as requested by Jemma who is obviously younger than me as she remembers this actual annual from when she was small. I would have been too old for it in 1984. It is sooo girly I love it and so does Lady A - I was suprised she hadn't completely hidden it from me.

Have a great weekend - we are off to a bonfire party if the weather is okay so if I remember to take my camera I might be able to show you some pictures 

Ribbon and more

 

I was given a few hours off from being mummy today so went to do some of that shopping and browsing that I am unable to do when I have Mister T in tow as he is normally trying to wreck the shop and we have to leave very fast before we get evicted.

I found this gorgeous ribbon well it isn't silky texture it is a cotton texture, but will look great when wrapping some Christmas presents and for putting on the top of Christmas cookie bags.

Also had time to hunt around a few charity shops and found a water jug for the dinner table and a few lovely books for the kids:

 

All this for £2.30 - what a bargain.

Tea for two

A little trip to the charity shops that try to look around each week turned up these little treasures. A teapot for Mr Thimbleina as I managed to break the Denby one that went with the set of pots that we have. So I have given up trying to match it and when I saw this 1930's shaped teapot I thought this is the one to replace my clumsy accident. I don't drink tea, well not the PG Tips type of tea I cannot bear the perfume of it - I seem to have a very strong sense of smell since I had children, I also cannot bear to have Jasmine of lilies in the house or moisturiser with strong smells. 

I also found this Kathe Krusse soft toy which is as good as new and with the little baby parcels I am sending out I thought ideal so snapped it up before anyone else noticed - it was hidden behind a load of other plastic toys just waiting to be discovered so I felt I had to rescue it. It is such a lovely soft cotton and I wish I could keep it for myself but I shall pass it a lucky baby to snuggle.

I thought we would get snow last night as most of the rest of the country had snow even London but we missed out. To think I could have been posting photos today of snowman building. Well off to put the thermal vest on. 

Tweed woolly

I have two knitting projects on the go at the moment, this one is the most recent as the other one is a bit of a hard slog so I needed something to break the boredom. This is Rowan wool tweed and the pattern is Patons'Playdays' (which is meant to be in double knit but what the heck I love to live on the wild side and not know exactly how something is going to turn out, as I don't normally have the patience for a tension square).

Also I managed to do a bit of thrifting on Wednesday and found this for £1.25. It is a wooden four in a row toy (made by pintoys) and is in excellent condition and only has one of the wooden balls missing, so I was very pleased with this and Lady A is loving playing with it.

Learning about the laundry in the past

First of all, just to show you what I picked up in an unplanned visit to a charity shop yesterday. A pink linen gingham checked, three quarter length sleeved 'Boden' top for only £2.25. Also brand new pick up sticks for Lady A for 95pence, I was well impressed with myself and am wearing the blouse today, it feels really great, especially as it was such a bargain.

Anyway also today Lady A and I did some work on something she did at school this week and I thought it might interest some of you with kids, especially those of you that homeschool. She had a museum group come and visit her school and they showed the kids all about how the laundry was done in Victorian times and what tools were used. They also brought along maids costumes for the kids to dress in and the routine and life of a maid in those times was discussed. Lady A thoroughly enjoyed this, so we looked to see what else we could find and we found this website the interactive web museum for schools some of the website I think needs to be logged into, but the page I have linked to shows you the tools used for Victorian Laundry and if you click on various bits of the picture it gives you more details on the tools and if you click on the soap it shows you a soapbox used at the time and if you hit print you can stick it onto an old cereal packet and make your own real life victorian soap packet which Lady A is going to take to school. I think this could be a good talking point and a good toy to play with for doing a little reenactment of a big house with servants in Victorian times or playing shops in the victorian era. There are lots of other things to look at on this site, there is a packet to print out of a war time suet pudding for shop role play, 360 degree view of a Roman parade helmet some of it does need subscription but some of it that you can view is useful. If anyone has any other links to sites with information about victorians on then I would be grateful if you would leave the link in the comments

Now I can have tea parties

I have been looking for these for a while now and I happened across a market stall selling secondhand items earlier this week which had four in different sizes. This one was the biggest and apparently is crystal as opposed to pressed glass which the others were and I only paid £4.50 for it - wow!! I can now have tea parties with little cakes on or put the family's birthday cakes on (not sure they realise that they will now only be able to have cakes that fit on this) We might be having lots of cake in the very near future to make full use of this. I feel a celebration coming on this weekend (not sure what for yet) just so that I can make a cake and put it on the stand.

Just look at the dappled effect the reflection from the light bouncing off it makes - so beautiful. Can you tell I am pleased with my purchase?

A tiny bit of thrifting and not much crafting

A little bit of thrifting yesterday and I got this cup which as I type I am drinking a lovely cup of cafetiere coffee out of. What a bonus it was made in England which is pretty rare these days so as it was only 20pence I thought it would fit in just nicely with all the other blue mugs I seem to acquire. I must have a thing for blue mugs (not sure what that says about me).

As I have no craft things to show today I shall just show you one of my favourite corners. This is a corner in the dining room so the kids can draw when they feel like it while I am cooking which does seem to be most of the time.  There is a space which did have pots of Lady A's pens in, but since I have set up a kind of desk in her bedroom they appear to have moved up there and a lot of creating goes on up there, there is normally paper scattered all over the floor, which thinking back was like my bedroom used to be when I was younger. She must be a chip off the old block.

Thrifty nightwear

I found these treasures in a charity shop yesterday an 'old nursery rhyme' book covered in pink fabric and a vintage embroidered pillowcase. I immediately knew what I wanted to do with the 50p pillowcase - a nightie for Lady A.

Apart from the gingham bias binding it was all from the one pillowcase  and because of the scalloping on the bottom I had no hem to do. It fits well and Lady A appears to love it she went to bed in it last night. It is so soft as well as it is vintage, it is like it was destined to be a little girl's nightie.

I got this book from the library yesterday as well, it was on my montessori journey's blog. It really seems like a great book showing you ways that you can help children to help themselves and encourage them which in turn gives them confidence. So after looking through the book briefly Mister T had a go at helping to make his own lunch, buttering a crumpet which he asked me to buy from the local store:

Charity Finds

I found all these in a charity shop all in excellent condition in between 'I need the toilet' 'I'm really desperate for the toilet'. I got that in both charity shops I went in and each time we had to leave to find a toilet so really didn't get long to browse.  So I think we did really well finding all these books. Lady A has taken the space book out with her to show her great uncle today, she is fascinated by the disections of the planets and the fact they have little balls inside made of different things. We also read one chapter of the Faraway tree stories last night and she wanted more.

Also yesterday Lady A and Mister T painted things for Father's day which I forgot to photograph as I was too busy trying to stop Mister T emptying all the paint out onto the thing he was doing. We fortunately managed to limit his to one colour but I think it may mainly look just one colour 0nce it has been fired. I shall show you them after they have been given to daddy on father's day. (I think this is 17th June).

Also a little bit of leaf rubbings were done from leaves picked when walking our ever malting dog (please stop malting then I can stop hoovering so often - the sofa is slowly turning the same colour as the dog when I don't hoover for more than 6 hours, she keeps wiping herself along the edge I'm sure she is doing it on purpose I think she is trying to get me back for something she thinks I have done to her, probably the last time she had to have her dew claw cut).

Lady A is also sad as her ladybird transfer has now worn off the back of her hand.

Right must go and do some sewing while I am without the children for a few hours.