Revamped Vintage Sewing Basket

Hello

A little while ago, I bought a lovely large sewing basket off Ebay as it was full of vintage goodies including wooden cotton reels and a Singer Needle Threader .  The basket was far too good to discard so I have given it a makeover.

I have lined the inside with pretty vintage fabric which was crying out to be hand quilted so I quilted the base piece, finished off the edges with contrasting vintage cotton bias binding and added wadding to the sides to give a lovely snugly feel to it.  I made a large (it needed to be bold so it didn't get lost in the basket) heart shaped pincushion with a matching needlecase with felt insert for needles and added some lovely vintage mother of pearl buttons mounted on card.  The luggage label attached to the outside says, "You're sew special" and has a handmade thread card embellishment on it.

I have added it to my Folksy shop, it would be a super present for a stitchery friend.

(PS - have you notice the quality of the photos - my super pal did them for me, isn't she good, thanks Julie)

Cheers
Sharon

Addition to my sewing room

Hello

Sorry for the gap in blogging.  The weather has finally improved so I have been busy with my gardening job, not that its warmed up too much, still in my thermals! (not a pretty sight but you have to keep warm).

I was quite poorly the back end of last year and lost loads of weight so am now down to a size 6/8 which is ridiculous at my age.  I have a wardrobe full of clothes that hang off me (one skirt actually falls down when I let go of it) sooo inspired by the BBC Sewing Bee programme last week, a tailors dummy was purchased.  It has a stretchy cover over a polystyrene base, I can pad out where necessary so that it will be the same shape as me. Then I can pin my clothes wrong side out and chop great chunks off them!  Well maybe not quite chunks, I will have to be a bit more refined than that.  I did sewing at school a hundred and six years ago (did I tell you that I exaggerate) so am trying to remember how to sew clothes together again, I am sure it will come back to me once I get the scissors out.  These clothes are no earthly good for me as they are so even if I make a mistake,  it won't be the end of the world.

So here she is - should I name her?

Cheers
Sharon