What I'm Working On

More upcycled knickers for my custom order... 2 down 4 to go.

I invested in a beautiful padded coathanger to display my creations on. It's made my photographic life so much easier and I feel the photos do the knickers justice at last.

Toast and Champagne

It's my friend's birthday today. I'm taking her to Bob Bob Ricard for toast and champagne. I made her this upcycled plate to tell her about our trip...

In other news...

You can now Follow my blog with bloglovin

Upcycled Purse

As seen in the last post, here is the purse I made for my friend Olly from Wollies.

It's made from plastic bags and vintage pillowcases. A nice bit of eco-friendly craft.

I'll be making some more of these purses soon. If you are interested in owning one let me know!

I'm off to Ireland for a few days and I'm fairly sure I won't have internet access. So have a good week and I will finally show you those new knickers when I'm back!

Pink and Tartan

It's funny how everything is always extremes. Nothing to do or everything to do. At the moment I'm in everything to do mode. But this is good. I don't like being bored!
A lovely lady contacted me via Folksy to ask whether I could make some knickers for her to give to her flower girls as presents. The theme of the wedding is Pink and Tartan which she wanted me to incorporate into the designs.


It was fun finding materials for a brief. Normally I just go for anything that catches my eye or that has the right quality for a floaty pair of knickers. The restriction on colours and the necessity to include tartan actually made me feel more creative. It's a shame, but I think I thrive on boundaries!

These are the sketches and fabric samplings I sent to the bride-to-be to show her what I was planning. I'm a bit dissapointed with the scans of the fabric as I don't think they do the prints any favours, but it was nice to do a bit of drawing for a change.

I'm in France at the moment looking for some where to live, as I'm going to be moving here in August for a few months. We finally found a beautiful appartment and signed the extensive amounts of paperwork today. I'm already mentally decorating it. The 1900 architecture goes really well with my furniture and style. I'm back in England tomorrow and excited about getting sewing!

(also I'm very proud of myself, I actually made all my pictures the same size... sort of)

Custom Knicker Upcycling Service

Thanks to a lovely comment from Laura @ Glue & Glitter I was inspired to start my own

**Custom Knicker Upcycling Service**

Here's the idea...

If you have:

a favourite dress with a massive stain

a tshirt which doesn't fit anymore

a curtain which is missing it's pair

a charity shop bargain with an amazing print, but no idea what to do with it

or any other piece of much loved fabric lying aroung which no longer has a use... don't throw it away unnecessarily.

Send it to me and I'll give it a new life by transforming it into a custom-made pair of knickers!

Visit my folksy or etsy shops for more details!

Celia Birtwell Inspired Knickers

A friend of mine had a very sweet dress which was unfortunately very tight and falling apart. As I had been shamefully disorganised and forgotten her birthday I told her I'd make her a pair of knickers out of the dress as a belated present. Upcycling material which is no longer being used into something pretty at its best! When I showed my flatmate she said they reminded her of Celia Birtwell's style and now I can't look at them without thinking the same thing.

Home Sweet Home

I'm moving out of my lovely East London home at the end of the week so I'm in the process of packing everything up. As I was putting things in boxes I realised there are quite a few handmade things dotted around my room which I have never blogged about. It also occured to me that it would be a shame not to document my little home before it exists no more! I think I've mentioned before that I love interior design so here's a bit of mine...

A medicine cabinet I found in an antiques shop which was that horrible bathroom shade of pink. I sanded it down and gave it a distressed white finish. The little owls and their tree were made for me by a lovely Finnish lady.

A cake stand made from junk shop crockery. This is what it looked like after I had taken everything off it...

...and here's what it looks like normally.

I'm planning on making another cake stand soon, either for my new flat or to sell. Here are the pieces ready to be assembled on the left. On the right you can see my collection of broken china. I'm still a bit in denial that these beautiful plates and mugs are gone forever so I've kept the pieces in the hope of finding a project I can use them in. Any ideas?

You may have seen this is the edge of earlier pictures. I liked this french mackerel tin in an odd kind of way. As you can see from many of the photos I have a strange attraction to empty tins and bottles, they're really useful for putting flowers and candles in. I had a few rose candles I'd bought which were too pretty to burn, so I stuck the tin to the wall and used it as a little shelf!

At the bottom of my full cake stand you can see this collar. I crocheted it using this pattern. It's really useful for prettying up a boring top or dress.

My bed. I bought this bedspread at a market the other day for £4! I love the colours and mixture of prints. I also made the two floral cushions from ikea fabric. Next to them you can see nounou my boyfriend's bear (now everyone knows he's a little boy at heart! sorry Pierre if you're reading this). Also that is my signed Nouvelle Vague poster, a prized possession.

My blue themed bedside table. That alarm clock gives me a heart attack every morning!

Here's a close up of the little alcove shelves. The observant amongst you will have noticed that I had already started tidying this when I took the picture of my bed.

This has been the most useful and space-saving piece of furniture ever. Coat rack, shelving, cubby holes, jewellery holder... It's got it all! On the left is my Rob Ryan papercut. I've been following his work for years and when my boyfriend bought me this I was so happy.




On my grey blazer here you can just about see the little Russian doll brooch I bought from my friend Olly. Check out her Wollies here, they are beautiful labours of love.




My most recent find. A beautiful lamp for £2 from Deptford Market. Took a while to clean and I'm trying to decide on a lampshade, but I love it!

Well there we go, bye bye little home. It's been lovely living in such a vibrant area. I'm going to miss having so many amazing creative designers and vintage shops on my doorstop. Here are a few of my favourite neighbours should you ever be in Bethnal Green:

Shelf for work from inspiring designers : http://www.helpyourshelf.co.uk/

Beyond Retro for the best selection of vintage clothes: http://www.beyondretro.com/

Traditional and useful homewares, walking past this shop everyday makes me smile: http://www.labourandwait.co.uk/

Beautiful displayed jewellery from Comfort Station: http://www.comfortstation.co.uk/

Pan-teas

Sorry more puns! I couldn't resist, tea seems to lend itself quite nicely to cheesy wordplay. So the mystery is solved after my tea-ser the other day. I have made a teapot adorned pair of knickers!



I couldn't resist this print. It used to be a table cloth and now this beautiful vintage fabric has found a new home as a divine pair of pouffy panties. I am not normally one for full-on pink so I added this Tartan bow to add to the Britishness of teapots!

This is a one off design, but I think I will be experimenting more with this fabric. I love it!

You can buy this pair at my shops which can be found on the right of the screen (choose your currency). Or click here for a direct link to my favourite site.

Insert 'Time' Related Pun Here

Oh dear this blog is started to get as cluttered as my life... too many unfinished projects. I keep promising to show photos of something finished and then I get distracted and the next post is completely unrelated....

I'm afraid I haven't changed just yet and so here is another disorganised post. I am hoping my life and consequently my blogging will get itself in order soon.

I have just finished a nice little project which I have been mentally working on for a while. A while ago I found a lot of old French fashion magazines hiding in the back of a funny little antiques shop. They are absolutely fascinating and so inspiring. Some are in a beautiful condition and I just look at them in a caring, aren't I lucky to have such lovely things to look at kind of a way. However I'm not one to have much time to look at things properly so I have used some of the less pristine magazines to decorate items of furniture so that the images can be appreciated daily.

I covered a mirror and some shelves and was really pleased with the effect. As the paper is quite thin it decoupages really well. Here's that mirror...

This time round I worked on another antique shop purchase, a clock. This time I decided to go about things properly and plan everything before, finish off everything neatly etc... I am very pleased with the result. I have rather relunctantly decided to sell it as I think other people should be able to have a bit of twenties french chicness in their homes, but I do keep imagining it in my new dream kitchen... However I think I should focus on finding the new dream appartment first!

So here are the pictures....

An in progress shot (sorry no before pictures, that would have been far too organised... although look I put down floor protection like a sensible adult)

And here is the finished article...

Some of the magazine pages are so funny, I particularly enjoy the adverts... creams for a saggy chest (complete with pictures) and remedies for hairy lips. Nice to know that the lady of 1924 had the same beauty concerns as we do today. Here on the back of the mirror you can see an advert for a flatter stomach and clearer skin...

I'm actually really pleased with the back, I finished it off properly and it makes me feel a bit proud when I look at it. I think it's these little details that I want to work on with PrettyGreen, recycled (or upcycled sounds a bit nicer) doesn't have to look like a design compromise.

Well there we go a very rambly post, but more pictures than usual, so if you're anything like me you'll just have looked at them! Maybe next time I'll show you where I've got with my embroidery projects, but I'll have to finish them first...