The beginnings of my vintage life

When I was 14 I used to spend my Saturdays in Attica, a second-hand shop (this is pre-"vintage") in The Haymarket, Newcastle, lingering over the full-skirted 1950s dresses. The rails were bursting with them and they were £15 each. Why I never bought one, I cannot tell you. I spent so much of my time in there it's a wonder the owner never once said to me "Oi, you – buy something or get out!"

I remember a particular beauty with big orange roses all over it. Years and years later, I finally got a similar one, and I've just sold it on eBay. I never wear it, but it's such a difficult thing to finally let go of. Goodbye, lovely frock, I feel genuinely sad.

At the time I did buy: old leather hatboxes to use as bags, men's pyjama trousers which I wore as trousers with the flies sewn up and the hems rolled, men's pinstripe suit jackets with the back cinched in with a row of carefully-aligned kilt pins, defunct watches which I took apart and re-made as brooches (how very steampunk – I was ahead of my time!) and those kids' plimsoles (we always called them "sandshoes") with the elasticated inserts on the front.

Attica moved to the other end of the city and will be closing at the end of August.

Vintage specs

Great selection of vintage specs at the flea market this morning! I almost bought yet another pair, but stepped away...

 

 

Yours, Astonished of St Leonards on Sea

We took the train along the coast to St Leonards on Sea today for a long-overdue visit to my old friend Erica. 

We did the usual mooching about, stopping to be introduced to friends of hers in the street, drinking coffee etc. Then, as we headed towards the sea, she stopped, waved though a window and rang at the doorbell of an unassuming building. We were let inside on condition that the kids were "kept under control" and wow! The place was FULL of fairground illuminations. 

The owner wanted us to see the workshop where they rewired the lights, but I was more interested in the engraved glass "Gramophone Room" doors on the way in.

I wish I had not obeyed the signs saying not to take any photos – these are all from the site of their – lovely, but less jaw-dropping – shop on Norman Road, http://www.sideshowinteriors.co.uk

I now covet metre-high illuminated letters shouting "HELLO" over my front door. And a very big electricity bill to match.

More info on the quirky shops and cafés of the area can be found at http://verystleonards-on-sea.co.uk

It's getting there...

...slowly, but it is getting there. For the second summer, I have been working on the broken crockery mosaic in my garden. (Yes, we do break a lot of crockery; quite embarrassing really.)

Last year, central section started.

Anyway, the reason it's taking so long is the weather. I am tiling straight onto the unsightly, discoloured concrete breeze blocks that make up the raised beds, so I can only work in three day spells of dry weather – one dry day before and after I do the tiling and then I have to leave it until the following day until I can grout it.

This year I had to spend at least a day repairing weather damage to parts of last year's work. Hopefully, if it's all grouted this year, the frost won't get behind the tiles and that won't happen again.

This year, central section extended at both sides, ready for grouting.

I have done the end section, now I have the sides to finish, which are not as clearly visible due to the planting. One more final push and it will be done.

Then what will I do with all the cups we break?

The Browless Student

Wow! What a treasure today has brought me. 

I found a fabulous pair of vintage tortoiseshell specs in one of my regular haunts (it pays to look in ALL those cabinets). One the inside of one arms they are labelled "Welby's AL Browless Student."

 Of COURSE I'm going to wear them, how could you even ask?!

Before I send them off to have prescription lenses put in them, I contacted Dead Men's Spex to ask their help in dating the frames and the very helpful Darren replied with the following:

"A nice pair of reading frames.
I would say they date to the mid 1960's - early 1970's.
They are made of cellulose acetate.
It is a supra frame - the top is held in by a nylon cord in a groove in the lens - and this didn't come into manufacture until 1955 at the earliest.
Probably a European manufacturer as supra frames were not popular in the USA.
The joints are pinned not heat inserted and are multi barreled making them not later than the early 1970's.
The "AL" is the colour Autumn Leaf
Seeing the way the name is hand written in white on it I would suggest that it was probably a salesman's sample from a local prescription house, I have seen frames from sales boxes marked this way before (maybe based at Welby just outside Grantham or the proprietors were called Welby - there is no reference that I know of to a manufacturer of frames called Welby)."

Spot the theme!

Following on from last Saturday's post, you know that saying that we all keep on buying things we already have in our wardrobes? Err, well...

How many?

Pause the story of the chair restoration to consider just how many pairs of vintage snake-effect shoes a person needs.

Well three and counting is fair enough, I'd say.

Atomic!

Unlike most of my upcycled furniture, this one wasn't found in the street – I did have to pay actual money for it in an actual charity shop.

The covering on the plywood top was badly-adhered and wrinkled Fablon, so off that came. But what to replace it with? Still thinking about what to use – I kid you not – a large piece of printed oilcloth actually blew along the ground towards me at the Sunday fleamarket. 'Twas meant to be, obviously.

And on that subject, we all work better to music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tko1G6XRiQ

Hello stranger!

So, it's been a long time since I posted but, you know me – I'm always busy.

Where to start. Well, upcycling furniture, sewing but mainly printing, printing and more printing.

I have lots more to show you so I will be posting more over the next few days.

It's been a long time...

Week in week out, I still never miss the Sunday morning flea market at Brighton Marina. Today, being a sunny day squeezed in between rainy ones, was very busy and what treasures were to be had in that last frantic sell-off before the end of summer!

Wow! What's this – "I went for dinner at Mr Chow before heading for Studio 54"? Just look at those shoulders! Black and gold silk brocade jacket with decorative topstitching, pristine condition.

Next up, had to trust my marketing companion on this one as there was no mirror on this seller's stall nor on any round about, but when I got this 1950s grey and white skirt suit home I could see she was right. It's perfect fit, made in some mysterious place where the bottom half is two sizes bigger than the top half and somehow they had my measurements thirty years before I was born.

To top it all (not literally), a free fez!

I think I need to go for a lie down now, after all that excitement.

Upcycled offfice desk, part two

After all that sanding (still can't remember who I lent the sander to), priming, glossing, steel wool-ing, cutting, glueing and pressing, the upcycled office desk is finally finished.

The first photo shows the layer of heavy books pressing down the new blotter sheet after it had been glued into place with contact adhesive. The very strong smell of glue was still all over the house two days later, despite the windows being open (in the freezing December night).

Now I'm gearing up for the not inconsiderable task of dismantling my computer and all its peripherals, not to mention sorting out the huge stash of fabric, portfolios, wires and other stuff under my old desk and moving it all into place.

Festical of Britain exhibiton, South Bank, London

New work for the weekend

Glad tidings! Due to helathy sales, I have been able to hang some new fabric collages (and more unframed ones in the browser) in time for the last two days of the Open House at weekend.

http://www.ninebynine.org.uk/

Tea's ready!

It's finished!

It's big picture and stretching that thin background fabric over the backing was very tricky. Now comes the even tricker part – getting it into the frame.

Here goes...

Cakes on the way

People so far seem unconvinced of The Good Idea that is making pictures of cakes out of fabric. Teapots worked, folks, why not cakes?

Undeterred, I'm three-quarters of the way through my third cake collage. This one's a large-scale teatime scene and I hope to be finished it tomorrow – it needs to be framed and on the wall in the Open House by Saturday morning!

(Close-up of George's Famous Lemon Tart. Those splodges are the still-wet glue.)

Why walk when you could run?

I think it's fair to say that the phrase "running before you can walk" was invented for me. After re-upholstering two vintage stools (requiring only common sense and a staple gun in the way of technical expertise) I decided to re-upholster a chair I found in the street.

Having stripped the grotty specimen of its previous covering using only a pair of tile nibblers (any upholsterers reading may have to go for a lie down in a dark room at this point), I discovered not foam underneath wool, horsehair, burlap and springs.

Ah, so we have jumped froward from novice to advanced in one go here, but I am a tenacious sort and it takes more than that to put me off.

Three excellent YouTube videos and a roll of wadding later, I was well on the way to a new chair. (And, so enthused with the project that I never even found the time to change from my vintage 1960s green paisley dress and glass necklaces into more "suitable" clothes.)

I used a single 1950s curtain I'd been saving for something special for a long time to cover the chair, I adore this fabric and I've never seen any print quite like it.

I'm thinking of getting a tattoo of the word "Crafts" over a pair of scissors and a staple gun rampant. Home brew or macramé next, do you think?

One for craft fanatics. Otherwise, nothing for you here – look away now.

Last week at one of my regular markets, I unearthed this trashed 1950s blue satin dress.

I've no idea what on earth has happened to it, but the damage is akin to a cat sliding down a pair of curtains with its claws out. The front is ripped to shreds and the zip has been taken out of the back, leaving very little holding it together, but there were two glorious, sequin-encrusted, large patch pockets which I was able to get off in the nearest café using my Swiss Army knife keyring!

I'd originally thought about making a bag by sewing the two pockets together, but then decided a bit of garment customising was the order of the day. I found this heavy cotton sweatshirt dress in a sale, and not only is the sportswear-glam mix a tried and tested one, but the grey of the dress picks up the silver of the sequins and is much easier than trying to match that tricky blue.

Printed ephemera