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!!

Another Tealight Holder!!

Hello to you all again!! 

We've had some really miserable weather this week in my part of the UK.  My city, Bristol has seen flooding in places where it's not been seen before.  Of course our flooding does not compare to floods that other parts of the world have experienced in the past and more recently the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy.  It does make you wonder what on earth is happening with the weather these days though.

Anyway onto jam jars - after seeing my little jam jar tealight holder, my sister decided she also wanted one so I made her one last night!!  I made hers slightly different as individuality is a good thing!!  Here it is

I used twine and buttons on her one and I quite like it!  I avoided using glue as if the jar gets hot, glue may go sticky and get messy!  Even if your sewing is not the best, it won't matter on these as none of your stitches will show!!  They get hidden under the lace flowers!

 

My 11 year old niece wants one as well but my mum is not keen on her having candles in her bedroom so looks like nanny's word will be final.  Maybe I can make her one to be used as a pen pot or something!!!

 



Vintage Style Tealight Holder

Good morning - it's very cold this morning.  I'm finding it very hard to get out of my warm bed each day now the cold weather is upon us.  I hate the cold and I used to spend the entire winter in India to avod it as it was lovely and sunny there.  I think my blood has thinned though over the years of doing that and I am no longer able to cope well in cold conditions.

Anyway - I've had my eye on an empty jar for a few weeks now and forgot to claim it so it went in the bin so yesterday I had to retrieve it before the bin men came and took it.  I wanted to make a tealight holder with it.  Initially I was going to use wire around the top and make a handle but that didn't work out as the wire was not flexible enough!!

Last night, whilst sat watching the Walking Dead, I came up with this vintage style holder. 

 

I think it's pretty and it looks lovely when it's lit up with a tealight inside of it.

 

 



Very simple to do, just get an empty jar and tightly pull some wide width lace around the jar.  I overstitched where the lace meets to hold it onto the jar. 

 

Next I made some simple ribbon flowers by just doing a running stitch along the edge of the ribbon and then pulled the thread to gather it and stitched the edges together. 

 

I then stitched the flowers onto the lace on the jar to cover the stitches I had made earlier.  I popped a ribbon around the neck of the jar and made a bow.  Voila, one pretty vintage style tealight holder!!