A Lovely Day Out at the Vintage and Handmade Fair

Hi there everyone!

I thought I'd tell you about a lovely Vintage Fair that I go to in a little place called Chipping Sodbury.  The fair is on a few times a year and they also do a Vintage Textile Fair and a Vintage Jumble Sale - details can be found here.

Last Saturday I set off early on the bus and went along to the fair with a friend.  It's always very busy there so best to get there early.  I have been the first one at the door for the last few fairs and received a goody bag which the first 100 through the door get!  I usually pay my £1 entry, get my hand stamped, take my goodie bag and go for a wander outside until the fair is open!  There is another little vintage fair held over the road on the same day at St John's Church Hall so I go there as well.  Chipping Sodbury is a quaint place with some really great old buildings.  It has a very wide High Street so you can spend a nice few hours looking around. 

Anyway - the fair is always interesting to look at with some nice old things as well as lots of lovely shabby/vintage styled handcrafted items.  The prices vary alot but you can pick up some nice lace and other bits and bobs for quite a cheap price.  There are other things that are lovely but alot more expensive!!  It of course depends on the age and condition and whether it is a rarer item!  i don't think I have every come away empty handed!!!

There is a refreshments area that have the most fantastic array of homemade cakes and tea or coffee in vintage china cups with saucers!  I always manage to force down a piece of cake!!

Anyway - here is my little haul from last Saturday

This was a back copy of a Vintage Magazine that is so lovely, I thought I would show it to you!!

I picked up these 2 cute jam jars with pretty little fabric covers full of buttons for just £1 a jar. 

 

There were some interesting buttons in them including some of these - on the back it said 'Made in Deccan'.  I've spent alot of time living in India so I knew these were Indian just from the word Deccan and there was a factory name and registation number so I thought they were pretty old.  I did abit of research and found out that the Deccan area was well known for enamel buttons usually either solid silver or just silver coloured.  Gold coloured ones are rarer and these are a brassy gold colour!!  The wording on the back dates them as pre 1947!!  I was really thrilled to have these buttons in my collection!

I also picked up this in a bag for 50p

Well worth 50p!!

 Not quite sure what this it though - if you know please comment and tell me!!  One solid part and the other bit is a long springy piece of metal!

There was a box of lovely wooden cotton reels as well for 50p each, I think the reels were worth that alone!!  I picked up these 3 colours

Again - the fabric and the roll of brocade fabric were in a bargain box and were 50p and £1 respectively!!  I think I might use the brocade for making some flowers!

The lace in the pic was gorgeous and was 50p a metre - here's a close up pic of it!!

So I had a nice bagful of goodies and actually didn't spend that much to get them!!

Check out the link above for details of the next Vintage and Handmade Fair and if you are in the area, pop along!!

Shabby Chic Fabric Flower Necklace

Hi everyone, with the weather improving and summer finally looking like it's a possibility, I have been busy making fabric flowers and hair accessories.

There are so many different types of fabric flowers around and I have been experimenting with many of them!

I made this one from unbleached muslin fabric and made it by stitching the muslin to some tulle net fabric.  I frayed it to give it a shabby look and then I was looking on Pinterest and came across this tutorial and decided to have a go at it.  I've never used fabric flowers on jewellery before although I've seen many beautiful examples.

The tutorial is really easy to follow and very nicely explained.  Here is my finished necklace.

I am quite pleased with this first attempt and the colours are very neutral so will go with alot of clothes that I have.

Thanks for stopping by!

Flowers and Hairbands!

Good morning/afternoon or night depending on where you are in the world!!  It's another beautiful day here in sunny Bristol.  We've had some lovely sunny days recently, let's hope it continues!!!

As summer seems to be on it's way, I've been making some fabric flowers and bows and started putting them onto headbands.

I didn't realise just how much pretty fabric I had until I started making the flowers!! 

So then I attached some to headbands and was wondering how I could photograph them so that you could see the full effect as if I just lay them down and took a photo it looked like this

So I trawled Ebay and looked at mannequin heads and then my mum suggested borrowing my 5 yr old nieces play mannequin head - doh why didn't I think of that!!  So that's what I did!!  She is so pretty, here she is

Just added a blonde wig that I had to her and voila! ready to go!!!!


Here are some of the hairbands that I've made up

It's quite addictive though!!!  They are available to buy on my Facebook page here.

Hope you like them!