One Week One Pattern Day Six

Skirt: Wool/Silk soft woven blend made simply following pattern

Worn with:

• Hobbs Cotton Linen Sweater
• Black M&S pumps

One Week One Pattern Day Five

Made in: Red and beige shot cotton twill (vintage) from fabulous neighbour friend’s 1950s stash, trimmed with 1950s embroidered trim from eBay

Worn with:

• Linen tanktop made by me years ago…
• White vest (for modesty!) from Matalan
• Yellow SunSan Saltwater Sandals
• Yellow cotton sunhat purchased in a boutique in Washington DC

One Week One Pattern Day Four

My favourite skirt … And not a single decent picture all day…

Sanderson print linen union/cotton twill (?) purchased at a vintage shop in the form of a hemmed, round, worn and marked tablecloth for £1. Bias binding to waistband and hem and concealed zip to side.

Started off life this morning with:     

• Black vest: Matalan
• Green Wrap cardigan: Zara
• Black ballet pumps: M&S
• Chunky necklace: purchased while travelling in Per

Impromptu trip to Heartwood Forest required change of footwear to gold Clarks sneakers.

Impromptu trip to garden centre resulted in general anarchy and no decent pictures all day long…

But impromptu and exciting does mean fun and chaotic, if not in the form of informative or well-photographed blog posts…

One Week One Pattern: Day Three

Red & White floral skirt: yoke in stripe quilting cotton remnant with seam trimmed with vintage red velvet ribbon. Lower skirt tier gathered onto yoke in order to maximise ridiculously meagre length of ONE POUND PER METRE cotton I purchased while at Uni and a poor student (my only excuse for only getting a metre of red rose cotton fabric. Ridiculous)

Worn with:

• Jumper: Marks & Spencer
• Red & White flats: Topshop
• Trilby: St Albans market
• Vintage ‘pearls’

For emergency Hobbycraft trip for Easter Bonnet supplies, followed by modelling my outfit for 6year old photographers in my neighbour’s garden…

One Week One Pattern: Day Two

Cotton curtaining toile de joye purchased from London Fields market

Worn With:

• Nautical top: New Look
• Wool Aran shrug: Touristy fabulous shop in Ireland
• Brown Boots: Jones

Picnic with friends and braving the sandpit and associated muck in the park with Tils.

Summer Storecupboard Salads: Carrot & Lentil Salad

Last minute barbeque announcement to welcome in the first warm weekend of the year…

Googling for inspiration based on our cupboard’s contents…

Success from here – thank goodness for gluten intolerant vegans and their recipe requirements!

YUM!

One Week One Pattern: Day One

Cotton/Linen mix fabric purchased at a charity shop in Hull in the form of  an old children’s duvet cover for £2, lined in white polycotton, with red bias trim hem to lining.

Worn with:

• White vest: Matalan
• Cardigan: New Look
• Shoes: Clarks Originals
• Necklace: Vintage paste collar

Destination: friend’s daughter’s christening followed by park lounging! And clearly all this modelling lark is catching…

One Week One Pattern – My Way

Thanks to the lovely Tilly & The Buttons for inspiring this week’s flurry of upcoming activity… I have taken on her challenge and will be wearing outfits all week with one garment made from the same pattern. She was excited to see those patterns that you have used time and again with many different results, or the garment that you’re able to wear all week with a little restyling and remodelling to keep it fresh.

I have chosen my most favourite go-to skirt pattern: Burda 8677

Upon quick googlings, it would appear I’m not the first person to recognise the FABULOUSNESS of this pattern…

I love the swing in this skirt and have managed to eek it out of a range of fabric remnants I’ve saved (ahem hoarded) over the years..

As per my comment on Tilly’s original sign up post: I fear I've got about 11 incarnations in it so glad it's spring as they're all very bright and breezy!! It's got a fabulous amount of twirl and yet you can usually squeeze it out of a 1.5m of fabric - my favourite version is from a William Morris tablecloth I found for £1 in Past Caring in Islington!

So… as per my promise… I will be wearing one of my Twirl Skirts (as they shall now be known) every day this week… Pictures of each outfit and the various details to follow each day…

Wish me luck!

Frockage to the Max

I’ve got two countryside weddings this summer, both of which promise cobbled stones, green grass and all-weather adventures, with champagne in hand, of course!… I have purchased these fabulous shoes to cope with the varied terrain and now need to decide on my ensemble from the ankles up to go with the gorgeousness…

Pretty dresses, far beyond my price-range, but gorgeous nonetheless…

First Row: Kain Silk Chiffon Dress £320, Issa Kimono Dress £545, Issa Printed Silk Kimono Dress £605

Second Row: Michael Kors Cotton Maxi Dress £195, Paul & Joe Panama Silk Dress £635, Alice by Temperley Ikat Maxi Dress £375

Third Row: Theyksens’ Theory Watercolour Maxi Dress £1,045, Amanda Wakeley Silk Georgette Belted Dress £1,220, Issa Silk Satin Dress £605

I’m either going to have to find a kidney going spare, or start raiding my fabric stash for anything akin to the above glorious prints… Ho hum. Approximations of deliriously stunning designer frockage… here I come.

Stashbusting ‘Fail’

What happens when you start using up your odds and ends to make a scrappy happy blanket …

 

What happens when you start on your ever increasing border edges and find yourself short of a bit more cream to finish what you started?

A slight ‘incident’ occurs in a wool shop involving ‘popping’ in to get a couple balls of cream to finish the job…

And coming out with ‘just a few more shades’ to even up the end of the job.

Needless to say, I got a ‘look’ from the Boy. Sadly, he walked into this photoshoot on his (unannounced) return home from work today, so my indiscretion was displayed with a rather scandalous level of flagrancy.

Ho hum… Guess I’ll just have to make a few more goodies then… And maybe that means I can keep this one for my very own then?? Rather falling in love with it, it has to be said…

The Craft Cafe: Bryony King of Oriana Fine Furniture

I’m going to start a series of interviews with some of my favourite artisans to discover the machinations and processes that form in their lovely lovely minds. Here’s the first, with Bryony King, founder and maker of Oriana Fine Furniture.

Why "Oriana"?

My great great uncle, Edward Wilson, was involved in two Antarctic expeditions with Robert Falcon Scott, or 'Scott of the Antarctic': the 'Discovery' expedition 1901-04, and the 'Terra Nova' expedition 1910-12.  He was one of the men in Scott's party that reached the south pole in 1912 (only to find it had been previously reached by the Norwegian explorer Amundsen), and later died with Scott as they attempted to journey back to their base.  He was survived by Oriana, his wife, my great great Aunt.  This Antarctic connection runs strong throughout my extended family: indeed, several of my family members are deeply involved in polar history and science today. 
It was important to me to choose a name for my business that had a personal connection to me, as I of course have a personal connection to all of my work.  So, when Oriana was suggested as a name for my business, it seemed perfect: a strong female figure from my personal history.

What is your favourite wood to work with?

It's hard to pick a favourite wood: it very much depends on the piece I’m creating.  Factors like the style of the piece overall, where in the piece the wood is to be used or where the piece will ultimately live... all these play a part in making the most appropriate selection.  And, of course, costs need to be taken into account! 

That said, one of my favourite things is to hand-plane some cedar of Lebanon with a freshly sharpened plane.  Although I have only used it in drawer bottoms and box linings so far, the scent from it is heavenly.

What inspires you?

I draw inspiration from everything that crosses my path... which turns out to be a lot.  Since starting down this road, I’ve made an effort to be more aware of the shape of things I come across: particularly furniture (the arms of the seats in the local civic centre are great, for example).  Of course, my general interests inevitably influence and inspire me.  My ongoing fascination with fibre and fabric has planted the seeds of some ideas that I’m looking forward to developing (I’m currently trying to work out if it’s possible to knit strips of wood together).  I’m also studying for a maths degree with the Open University: I think the world of maths is infinitely beautiful, and I am always on the lookout for ways of bringing aspects of what I’ve learned into what I’m making. 
On a daily basis, I find Jane (www.janebrenchley.co.uk), my workshop colleague, a huge inspiration.  Whether it’s in a passing comment, or discussing how to solve a particular construction issue, or just sharing ideas on what curve or angle works best in a particular sketch, she is a great source of ideas to me (and I hope I am to her).  I think her mind works in quite a different way from mine, so we can offer quite different perspectives on things. 

Daydreaming is very important to me.  I love doodling, and I’ve had several designs spring from a particular pattern or scribble in the corner of a page when I’ve been supposed to be working on something else.  I think this is also how I prefer to be inspired the beauty of the south Oxfordshire and west Berkshire countryside: staring out of the windows or noticing minor details like the changing colour of leaves on my drive to the workshop.  I do find the best way to “suddenly” have inspiration strike is to work hard at some design or series of designs, doing lots of sketching and doodling, and then spend a good while doing something completely unrelated.  A new idea or approach has occurred to me when doing something completely different: the washing up, playing a computer game, reading a book.

What would be your dream commission?

I guess a dream commission would be to produce a few coordinating pieces with a free rein to experiment with interesting and innovative shapes, textures and functions.  I would love the opportunity to step closer to the line between sculptural furniture and art, although I'm firmly committed to staying on the furniture side of that line.  I’m hoping to incorporate some other materials in my furniture, in the future.  I think mixed media work can be amazing.

Whose work do you admire and why?

It's hard to pick out particular makers at this stage in my career: there are so many incredibly talented people out there and I’m discovering more and more of them by the day.  However, I am a huge fan of Marc Fish.  I think the pieces produced by Waywood Furniture are incredibly beautiful.  And I was inspired by the John Makepeace exhibition that toured recently: it was amazing to see some of his work up close, and he’s certainly an iconic figure. 

You have many creative outlets including various needlework, knitting and crocheting pursuits as well as computer design, painting, drawing and writing... What made you choose wood as your material to specialise in?

That's a tough question!  When it comes to fibre or fabric (be that needlework, knitting or whatever), I think to some extent I wanted to protect those as beloved hobbies.  There's an argument that goes: do what you love.  That's fine, but I need to have something to do when I'm not at work, something I can do when my focus is just on "me" time.  And, much like computer programming, I knew that I wouldn't want to do it at home if I spent all day doing it at work!  And on the flipside of that argument is the way I felt drawn to wood.  I feel comfortable with the medium, and astonished on a regular basis by what can be achieved with it.  I became fixated on this material which is all about nature and history, and yet can still be all about the future.  And once I'd set foot in a proper workshop, I felt like I'd come home.  It just feels like the right place for me to be.

What's on your workbench right now?

In short: a mess!  At any stage, there’ll usually be a small scattering of hand tools (say, several chisels and a block plane), waiting for me to put them back on their shelves.  I invariably have a few small wood offcuts which I’m hoping to find a use for (but will probably end up being too small for anything really useful).  I’ve also got a few sketches and notes which I’m pretending are organised, but are really just shuffled into a pile.
As a side-project, I’m making a small dovetailed box from some maple I had leftover from my workbench: the four sides of that are on my bench whilst I fit the dovetails together. 
There's also a very big cup of coffee, which is keeping me working during the cold mornings in the workshop: I have this huge mug that a friend painted for me for my 30th birthday.  Ideally, there'd be a couple of chocolate hob-nobs or a slice of cake, but I think we’ve eaten them all.
The main piece I’m working on at the moment is a television cabinet, and currently the back panel is on my bench whilst I work on its oak veneer.  Towards the end of this week, I'll put it in a "tent" for fuming - essentially sealing it in with some ammonia, which changes its colour from the honey brown we're familiar with to a deeper chocolate colour.  It's like magic in action, I love playing with this kind of thing. 

What do you listen to in the workshop?

Jane and I are lucky in that we’re both pretty easy going when it comes to what we have on.  Quite often I tune into BBC Radio 2 for the mornings: I’m addicted to the “Pop Master” quiz.  Once we hit midday, though, we usually switch to Radio 4, 4 Extra or to one of our iPods.  I am generally happy with anything I can sing along to, and my music tastes are very broad!  I probably drive Jane absolutely mad. 

Are you a 'Pretty Organised' or 'Creatively Chaotic' artist?

To be honest, I'm still coming to terms with the idea of calling myself an artist at all.  But, as might be evidenced from the state of my workbench, I am "creatively chaotic" all the way when it comes to making. 
I like to have a clear-up between major projects, clear my bench and surroundings completely: it’s a nice mental calm before the next storm!  But whilst I’m in the middle of a project, I tend to ricochet from thought to thought, task to task and mess to mess.  I try and keep it a little more constrained in the workshop (compared to home), as Jane is much tidier than me!  But I definitely prefer to have as much going on as possible.

What are your plans/hopes/dreams for 2012?

I am still struggling to believe that it’s 2012 at all.  Surely 2012 is the distant future? 

However!  Plans-wise, I have my next commission lined up and a tentative idea for one or two after that.  I’m planning to do one or two exhibition pieces, which I’d love to submit to a show (perhaps the Celebration of Craftsmanship and Design in Cheltenham) if I am happy enough with them (and have time to complete them before the due date...).  And I am planning to apply to join the Oxfordshire Craft Guild.

My hope is to continue surviving and continue enjoying what I’m doing.  And my dreams?  Well, a dream would be to get a commission from someone I’m not directly connected to!  At the moment, as expected, I am operating in “friends and family” territory: it’s very fulfilling, because I dearly love these people and I’m delighted that they’re able to support me, but it would be a terrific further boost of confidence to hear from someone else.

You can follow Bryony’s adventures on her blog here and also at the Oriana website here.

Forays into fairisle

This is my first attempt at Fair Isle, or stranded colourwork as it is officially known… Gotta love free patterns and this is no exception.

Thanks to DROPS, this pattern was a doddle to do, though it would have helped if I’d had rather more of the main colour to start with… Let’s play the ‘Guess where I ran out of yarn and found the original dyelot was nowhere to be found and the only available dyelot was a different shade altogether so we’re not going to panic’ game…

It’s all acrylic stash – Robin and Stylecraft, and it was made in an age 5/6 as I had no faith in my ability to do it/finish it/like it and thought I’d give myself a fighting chance to not waste expensive yarn, and also give me time to put it into hibernation if needed. To the Boy’s horror, though, it turned into an utterly addictive project and the fair isle yoke was done in less than a week. The only pause was required to try (and fail) to source more Robin (oh the shame) and then give up and finish off the hem and cuffs in Stylecraft.

Gotta love the trend in girls’ clothes to go from dress to tunic to jumper/top which means that the ladies get to wear such things for so much longer than boys. Hoorah for pounds per wear, definitely! Though I’m sure Matilda will blame me in future for forcing her into far-too-big/small/long/short clothes before she could have a say in her wardrobe. Ho hum.

On an aside, this lovely number is made from handpainted yarn from Tangled Creations and knit in the round with the gorgeous Violet Dress pattern to be found for free here.* The hem was misbehaving slightly when it was first made and my boredom at the endless stocking stitch revealed itself in a too-short skirt, so I resumed the rounds with crochet with great success.

*(more coming from Tangled Creations shortly… watch this space…)

Lessons in Speech Development…

 

  

The Boy to Tilly: Can you say Bike?
Tilly: KIKE
The Boy: ...
Tilly: vroom vroom!
The Boy: Listen carefully... buh---IKE
Tilly: BUH – KIKE

Thrifty Stitching

I fell in love with the Shima top, but have neither £75 nor the will to pay that much for a cotton top…

I remembered a heavy cotton stripe fabric inherited from a friend’s-mother’s-stash which may or may not have been used for garden furniture fabric in years gone by…

I remembered an out-of-print Vogue pattern in my library (borrowed from Mum!) for an oversized elegant t-shirt style that, if nothing else, may just stretch slightly beyond a rectangular unflattering box and edge slightly into quirky and appealing…

I got squeezing, cutting, stitching and wearing…

 

Despite the Boy’s comments that he prefers a rather more fitted silhouette, I’m now in production and have one more on the sewing machine and another three pieces of fabric being eyed up in the stash… Comfortable, on trend, washable, elegant and versatile… If I do say so myself…

Hoorah! Gotta love a speedy stitch… which costs £75 less than the originating inspiration.

Adventures in Root Vegetables

A friend’s veggie box surplus

A quick internet recipe hunt

A winter salad of such loveliness that even Tilly and the Boy were convinced (albeit temporarily – we had sausages and mash the following evening…)

Chronic Case of the Wanties…

Reiss is totally floating my boat this spring…

Laurent Colour Block Jumper in Oatmeal

Chloe Cotton Pointelle Jumper in Rose

Parker Rib Pocket Jumper in Cream 

Talula Sheer Top in Dusky Rose

Eleanor Top in French Navy (the front is completely plain – but I’m a sucker for not-very-functional full length buttons…)

Oh hell….

Mixing it up: Baking with Little Ones

As we all know, I have been waiting for this moment since before I can remember…  The scrawny-newborn-stage rather bemused me for most of the first 12 months… I’ve been biding my time until Matilda can stand on a small stool, follow instructions, grab a paintbrush and glittery pompom or a pinny and wooden spoon… Crafting and baking in the kitchen with my daughter is my idea of parenthood.

She has just turned two years old. My time has come. Heaven.

Kinda.

Baking with little ones requires a bit more preparation than I had previously considered. With crafting, I’m in my comfort zone, and ultimately, I’m not really fussed about what she does with the glitter, paper, gluestick and goggly eyes. She can make any amount of mess and ‘creative learning’ and the resulting masterpiece gets immediately pinned to the fridge or posted to an unassuming godparent.

On the other hand, baking 'requires’ an end result. Or rather, I do. If we’re going to trash the kitchen and make a rather long and painful charade of mixing ingredients, I feel I really ought to have something edible to show for it. And thus I’m not prepared to skimp on ingredients, recipes or quality of process.

And as ever, I have a few caveats… All children LOVE the idea of licking the bowl, and though that was the central to the baking memories of my childhood, hubbie is nervous of dodgy eggs. One too many bad cases of salmonella on his ward, and thus we have an outright ban on little lady eating raw eggs in this house. Recipes that require beating margerine into sugar or rubbing flour into butter, are likely to be a little beyond under-3s for now, at least to ensure a good mix, and most cakes and pastry recipes require a light touch and not too much over-mixing. Not ideal with enthusiastic toddlers poised with wooden spoon at the ready.

I have discovered a gorgeous recipe that fits the bill. Call them flapjack cookies, call them homemade hobnobs: their official title is Anzac Biscuits. Though I agree that with the industrial quantities of sugar and golden syrup, it’s not the healthiest cookie recipe in the land, the porridge oats add a certain degree of ‘fake’ healthy thoughts, and you can add whatever dried fruits, nuts, spices or chocolate chips you have to hand to ring the changes too.

Similarly, for older children, you can give a little dose of history too… This recipe was used by the families of soldiers from Australia and New Zealand during WW1 to make postable biscuits that travelled and kept well on naval ships and were tasty despite the lack of eggs in the wartime conditions.

Anzac Biscuits

8oz self raising flour
8oz sugar
8oz porridge oats
8oz margarine
1tbsp golden syrup
1tbsp hot water
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda

When I bake with Matilda, I start by melting the margarine, syrup and water on the hob before summoning her into the kitchen while it cools. Wash hands, and then, with her, we weigh out the dry ingredients into the largest bowl we can find, I pour in the melted mix, and she can then stir to her heart’s content. The large bowl prevents too much spillage and the mixture will not suffer from over-mixing, from stirring in the wrong direction or from a little bit of under-mixing, either. Your biscuits are in safe, albeit small, hands.

We then mix well and make into smallish balls which you then put on a greased tray and flatten slightly. Our technique is for me to hand her lumps of mix of about walnut size with the instruction to ‘SQUEEZE (the ball) and PRESS (onto the tray)’…Put in the oven at 180 degrees C for 12-15 mins... and cool on the tray. The aim is to get them golden in the oven not brown and still sweet, sticky and soft in the middle…

This recipe yields industrial quantities of biscuits, but as we know they keep well, this isn’t too much of a hardship. They can also be posted to unassuming godparents, to make a change from dodgy collages, if you’re feeling generous.

Now that she’s caught the baking bug, I’ve rather backed myself into a corner… Should I go within 100 paces of the kitchen, Matilda is hauling a chair across the room and demanding to HELP. So as not to be driven completely mad, I have come up with a few tactics to continue the fun…

Other ways to include little ones in the kitchen:

• Dinner times: keep toddlers occupied for AEONS with the complex and delicate task of ‘getting mummy some frozen peas’… Decanting them with a teaspoon into a plastic receptacle for Mummy to then add to a pan as needed. Peace at last.
• At the sink: As a last resort, after I have washed up the breakables and sharp objects and the water has cooled a bit, Matilda does her session. Basically messy water play with a purpose. She gets soaking wet, the plastic beakers and the odd teaspoon get thoroughly washed, and she will need a complete change. At least the worktops get a bit of a wash too!!
• Hugh Fearnley Wittingstall’s Cheesey Peasy Pies are a great supper recipe too: get the kids to roll out their own square of shop bought Puff Pastry. Spoon grated cheese, frozen peas and any other fillings you fancy (ham? pasta sauce maybe?) into the middle and then bring the edges together and pinch to seal. Brush with beaten egg or milk then put in the oven for twenty minutes at 200degreesC. Bar the putting in the oven bit, the kids can pretty much do the rest all by themselves – what a sense of achievement!
• mydaddycooks.com is a videoblog by Watford dad Nick and his son Archie (great chat from Archie throughout) of their adventures in home cooking. Great recipe ideas, great safety tips and great inspirations. If they can do it in their teeny tiny kitchen (and get a book deal out of it too!) then you can definitely manage it!

It’s taken an awful lot for me to loosen my reins on the cooking in the house and look at recipes in a different light. Matilda is actually able to lend a ‘helping’ hand to more cooking sessions than I would have thought, and keeping her occupied in the hungry minutes before mealtimes is a good whine-prevention too. Introducing kids to the concepts of where their food comes from, engaging them in cooking, shopping and choosing meals and maybe even starting a dialogue about budgeting, choosing products and health, are all good steps to a healthy future for your little ones.

Pompousness aside, any excuse to get these biscuits in my house is always a good thing. Mix it up! Get cooking.

Full disclosure: pictures at the top of the page are of Nigella’s butter cookies and not the Anzac biscuits which I really should take picture of for you. Sorry.