Ardingly Antique Fair

An amazing hot day at Ardingly Antique Fair,
 Hundreds of stalls selling everything under the sun !
Well all most!
Tucked under a table I found this suitcase of
retro patterns, and bagged 14 for 10.00 big smiley face.

 Lots of sixties and seventies chairs, desks and lamps !

 A while back I was after one of these retro metal desks, however I gave up
my search and got a great retro wooden one, but I had a little pang when I
saw these beauties !

 Thirties vintage fabric only enough to make a cushion, approx. 20 inches
square and the stall holder want 10.00 ! My very terrible haggling got it
knocked down to 8.00. All in all a great day.

Yes ! Peas ! Bibs

I made these Yes ! Peas ! bibs from Pip Lincolne Book
Sew La Tea Do. This book follows Pip's hugely popular
first book Meet Me At Mikes. The bibs would have looked
much better if I had some fab retro fabric, however
I was able to use some "leftover" bit of fabric, and in
no time at all I had these little gifts made.

Perfect gift for a baby shower !

Bargin Buttons

On a recent Decoupage buying trip
I found these bargain buttons at
Hobby Craft, great value at £3.00
per pack.

Out and about in Hove

 Popped into Treacle and Co,and enjoyed an amazing slice
of treacle tart with cream and berries.

 Libby enjoyed the
chocolate cake with home made ice cream.
The fab vintage interior always puts a smile
on my face or is it the awesome cakes ?

 If I had not done enough overing
indulging, later in the week we
shared this home made Oreo at the
equaling amazing Flourtown, bakery.

  

Amberley Museum and Heritage centre.

 Enjoyed a fantastic day out at Amberley Museum on bank holiday monday.

 If you love retro and vintage this is great museum, housed in an old
quarry. A vintage bus with a conductor and retro tickets drops you

 off at the many different "sites" housing, the varied and interesting
collections, there is one site for the telephone - where you can see
"operators" putting through the calls, retro phone boxes, the whole history
of the phone from the first phone to today, the same with television, electricty,

trains, buses, the list goes on and on. we stent the day there but did not
have time to visit all of the exhibitions. We used the vintage bus and
the steam train to get around the quarry. The steam train stops at two
real vintage stations, complete with a station master !

 Retro electric fire.

 Retro phone box.

 love this fridge !

Vintage Patterns

A flying visit to Emmaus produced these
fab retro patterns I especially like the long
halter neck dress - roll on summer !

How to Applique - a simple guide

Equipment list.
Fabric/ pins/ sewing thread to match or contrast.
Sewing machine
Bond-a-web ( available from most fabric shop and haberdashers)
Images to cut around

 Choose the images you want to applique onto your fabric,
 these can be hand drawn or down loaded from the internet,
 cut them out to use as a template.
 Pin them onto the fabric and cut out.

Pin the cut out pieces of fabric onto the glue side of the bond-a-web.
If you run your fingers over it will feel "gritty".Cut out.

Move your work to the ironing board and with the shiny side of the
bond-a-web facing you, iron. The bond-a-web will stick to the fabric.
Peel the bond-a-web backing off the fabric, and place your motif
onto your fabric right side up. Iron over the motifs and they will be
glued into place.

 Move to the sewing machine and change the setting for applique.
On my machine a Singer I need to be in the middle of a button hole stitch
and the middle of zig zag. You will need to have a practice to check the stitch
is correct. Your machine may have an applique button or setting, your sewing
machine manual will guide you.

Now you are ready to start sewing. A little practice will help you see the best
position for stitching. I have the middle of the foot on the edge of the fabric so
the raw edge of the fabric is covered with the applique stitch.

If you want to appliqué  layers, (as shown below ) position all the layers first,
Applique around the under layer (s) first, leaving the main image until last,
insuring that your main shape has a unbroken line of applique.