Retro Fruit Jewellery!

After posting about them here I decided to make more than shoe clips from my polymer clay fruits, so this week I made a necklace, bracelet and two brooches which can also be pinned to shoes. The post on my shoe-making adventures is coming soon! I also made another necklace for my friend Steff's birthday.


I formed the fruits from polymer clay in solid base colours, then hand painted and varnished them.


Here is a picture of my face, wearing the necklace and my Cramps t-shirt.

The red and black beads and the tiny yellow separator beads are glass, the little turquoise ones are plastic, and I added silver plated clasps.

Sewing Plans - 50s Blouse

A while back I got this printed cotton from the bargain bins at my usual fabric shop. It's a Robert Kaufman fabric, they make lots of retro inspired prints and I loved this atomic/tiki style. Unfortunately it was a one-off scrap which is only two metres long and has a one-way print, so not enough to make a dress from.


Instead I'm going to make a blouse - something lacking in my wardrobe and which I need to go with jeans and pencil skirts this Summer.


I love the winged collars and turn-back cuffs of these 1950s designs, and plan on making my design similar. Both of these pics are from Etsy, can't remember where.


If you fancy a cute retro blouse but don't want to make it yourself, Vivien of Holloway have a rather dashing design, as modelled here by the lovely Fleur De Guerre.


I shall be on the lookout for some cute (and cheap) vintage buttons too.

Free Atomic Fabric and Paper Samples!

After seeing a post over at Atomic Tea Party about The Sanderson Company's reissue of several amazing 1950s atomic patterns, I decided to take advantage of their sample service and order some swatches. You can order up to four at a time, the samples and postage are free, and you can of course also sneakily order another four in your boyfriend's name. Here they are!


I want every single one of the reissued fabrics and wallpapers, they're amazing. Unfortunately Sanderson don't sell direct, only through very expensive department stores, where the fabric costs around £36/metre ($50/yard).

However, the sample pieces of fabric are 7.5" square - stitch four together, add a cotton backing and some kitsch pompom trim, and amazing atomic cushions will be yours! They're certainly going to be mine once my second batch of samples arrives and I have finished making them.

Here are the company's example rooms with atomic furniture and wallcoverings. Aren't they fabulous? I wish this was my house! (pictures (c) Sanderson).





This one has a Cmielow coffee pot like mine in the picture!

My Perfect Summer Dress - Preparation!

For six months, I watched some fabric online, intending to buy it 'when I had the money' to make my perfect summer dress. It was lime green cotton sateen with huge orange and cream rose bouquets printed all over it - my favourite colour, very retro, and very over the top, ie. perfect. I went to purchase some last week, only to find it sold out and unavailable anywhere on the web. Gutted.

The next day, I went into my usual fabric supplier to pick up some millinery bits, and saw this in the window:



In reality the green is brighter, a beautiful shade of emerald. The print is marvellous, it was a bargain at £3.29 a metre, it's a lovely thin Summery cotton, and there were four metres left on the roll - exactly the amount I needed for my project! Aerospace Boyfriend said it looks like his mum's sofa fabric from the 80s, but he is clearly blind to its fabulousness and only reads this blog to ogle my outfit pictures anyway, so I'm not listening to him.

The pattern I am using is based on Butterick 6582, version C, except where it has only a flared skirt I'm making mine a full circle, and I'm dropping the neckline a bit as I find the high style of the standard pattern is unflattering on me.



There are lots of finished versions of this pattern to be seen here at the Sew Retro Blog. I have made the pencil style three times before; once in atomic barkcloth, once from sequin-covered fabric that killed my sewing machine and sliced my armpit to ribbons, and once with a modified wrap-over sarong front, so hopefully I'm practised enough at it for this dress to come out well!

I also plan to draft a pattern for a little bolero to go with it, and a matching hat too.

It needs a self-fabric belt, and I've bought this little buckle for it:



I'm not sure of the era, maybe 30s or 50s? I have some of the tiny vintage cabochons in my stash to replace the missing ones too.

I shall post a picture when it's done!

April's Purchases - Freddies of Pinewood and Vintage Homewares!

Usually I can afford to treat myself to a couple of things every few weeks, so as of this month I plan to do a regular post about the more interesting items I pick up.

Recently, I've been trying to refine my tastes. Peviously, I went for just about anything 1950s, whereas now I'm focussing more on more mid century modern and atomic styles in homewares and furniture. I'm also not allowing myself to buy things unless I need them or really, REALLY like them. Here is a little cruet set I picked up; I especially love the wirework and the little plastic spoon that comes with the mustard pot, it has a tiki bamboo style handle!



I found this coffee pot in a second hand shop in Manchester for £5. It is by Ćmielów, a Polish manufacturer based in a tiny town of the same name with just 3,222 occupants, whose factory dates back to 1790. After seemingly doing not much at all for forty years, the factory has recently begun production of elegant but rather expensive animal figurines from original 1950s moulds. I can find very little online about the factory or any of their products apart from the modern run of Henry Moore - inspired animal sculptures, so I don't know if what I have is a rarity? I love it anyway - the design is quintessentially 1950s and it fits perfectly in with the design and colour plan I have for my fantasy future kitchen!



In complete contradiction to what I just said, I also collect uranium glass , and bought this lovely ring bud vase this month. Uranium glass (also referred to as Vaseline or depression glass, though not entirely correctly) was produced commercially from the mid 19th century until the start of the cold war when uranium production was deferred to the arms industry. In the US, none was produced between WWII and 1958 due to the government's tight control of the substance. The heyday of uranium glass was the 1920s - 30s, and some wonderful art deco designs arose. My collection consists mainly of pieces from this era. It is oddly plentiful in certain charity shops! I think this piece might be early 1920s... it is the highest quality piece I own, being more of a yellowish hue and having cut rather than pressed decoration. Uranium glass glows an amazing bright green under UV lighting, you can see in the picture how it is fluorescing slightly in the sunlight.



I have around fifteen pieces, and that is the extent of my cheating on the 50s with other decades... then again, what could be more of a nod to the atomic age than radioactive housewares?

My last purchase in April was some jeans from Freddies of Pinewood who are having a huge sale at the moment - many of their fantastic retro styles are down to just £20! I got the 'Classics' in black. The design and quality of them is great and so flattering, but I think I do need to lose a little weight for them to fit correctly. I got their biggest size which is 38" waist, 48" hip. My measurements are 36/49, so they are a bit tight across the tummy. I am losing weight slowly on my diet of careful calorie control and occasional cupcake blowouts, so hopefully soon they'll fit just fine and I can simply adjust the waistband to take account of my large waist-to-hip difference. I would also love some of their pedal pushers!



Jeans - Freddies of Pinewood
Sweater - Vintage, eBay
Bandana - Vintage, Affleck's Palace
Cherry Pumps - Rockers England

Little Scamp dog is invading my picture!