Buttercross vintage market

I attended the Buttercross Vintage Market on Saturday. Once again I had my usual spot on the stage. There were workshops advertised, so I made sure to take lots of vintage fabric fat quarters in case the work shoppers wanted to stock up on fabric to make more corsages or pincushions.

I'm so lucky to have such a great fair just a few miles from my home and shop! It was so busy that I hardly left my stall.

I have lots of rolls of vintage wallpaper and this month decided to open them up and cut off metre lengths to take to fairs and sell. Buttercross was my 4th fair this April, and although the wallpaper got lots of attention at the Hello Bygones Retro Bash in Yeovil on the 1st of the month, and I sold a piece at Bridport Vintage Fair last week, it was the Buttercross crowd who really took to it.

Those knee high letters spelling hope were nearly sold once, but I didn't take the customers offer. I was left wondering why I didn't want to let them go until I sold them to a nice lady. After she paid she told me where they were going and I felt glad that I didn't sell them earlier.

Cupboard love

 

That little cupboard has sold. I have always wanted to recreate a little cupboard with mesh in the doors. This is what it started out as:

I didn't get outside for the whole of the fair, so it's been nice looking at other peoples pictures on blogs and facebook. I managed to take one picture of Bubs Bears

 I have a van to unload and a shop to restock now. It is great to update my blog after such a long time. I was inspired to do so by Isabelle of Suzy's Vintage Attic who was taking  photos for her blog. She has a lovely blog post about the Buttercross vintage fair.

Buttercross Vintage Market is held twice a year at the parish rooms in Somerton Somerset England.

Craft Fail

When something I cook goes wrong I usually just eat the evidence, but when something I craft goes wrong there are only three options 1)undo it and start again 2) change tack and make it into something else or 3)live with the horror of it. (My inability to throw anything away makes it impossible to include the most obvious option, so it isn't even on the list).

My absence from blogging is due to me spending time on other things. I'm sure we all have a long list. Mine includes a sub list of things to do to keep my rather old van on the road. It was while ticking one of the things off this list that I decided to buy a large container of engine oil. To offset the fact that my daughter and her staff discount card weren't with me I went for the own label Halfords with free 'professional' screwdriver set. Well the pro set was worth £19.99. I say 'was', because it is now on offer for half that price.

I am now living with the horror of my craft fail screwdriver case.

I decided to make it out of the most expensive Cath Kidston fabric in my stash. I decided not to make a pattern, but to make it up as I went along. Although I did a quick google picture search for similar objects, none of them were quite what I had in mind.

I don't even know what that very stiff grey fabric is. It's something I picked up at the scrap store. The blue stuff is a slippery waterproof ripstop also from the scrap store. I didn't change the thread in my sewing machine, but stuck with the white upper thread and grey bobbin thread.

I rifled through my carrier bag of zips, and first started with a pale green one, because it appeared to be the correct size. You may notice that the 'finished' article sports a pale blue zip. My first attempt at putting in the zip failed. It taught me that positioning is crucial, and that since the zip wasn't a correct fit I may as well use toning zip and design a solution to make up for the fact that it is too short.

Unpicking the first zip took its toll on the expensive linen CK fabric, so resewing a zip was tricky and left a fraying corner. At this point my other daughter (who has no job and no staff discount card) was nagging me for use of the sewing machine. I darned the corner and then decided to top stitch the whole thing.

Sewing lining to outer fabric and inserting the zip was done all at once and I had left a gap for turning the project right-side-out. Top stitching was my way of closing the gap. Because the outer fabric was pale blue and my bobbin thread grey I did the top stitching from the inside. Big mistake. The seam allowance of the stiff fabric and the slipperiness of the blue ripstop made sewing a straight line impossible.

I gave in to pester power and called it a day. I have been called back to the sewing machine to help my daughter change the thread (something I should have done for my project) and make it sew right (that always happens when she uses the machine) and fit the embroidery foot, so she can write the word 'BOURBON' on the garment (biscuit) she is making for a fancy dress party. I've just had to wind a bobbin for her, and I will have to fit the zipper foot and help her sew in a zip, because she has left that bit to last. She hasn't used a pattern, she's making it all up as she goes along, and has had to do some unpicking. Really some people don't know how to approach a sewing project!!!

Frome by night

I went to the Merlin Theatre on Tuesday to watch a series of documenteries made by young people. One of the docs was co-created by my daughter and this was to be the first showing with the official premier to be in April on a much smaller screen.

Look what greeted us in the 'foyer' on our arrival.!!!

Frome Stitch 'n' Bitch!

Mostly knitters, some sock knitting, one making a Scandi style ski jumper on a circlular kneedle. They had chocolate cake!!! They meet on a Tuesdays. Each crafter donates £3 to the Merlin Theatre. Both Sophie and I would have joined them if we had our knitting on us, but we went into the auditorium and watched the films.

 Generations Together

One of the films, by students at Frome Collage, and called 'Generations Together' was about young and old people. Amoung the people interviewed was a young graffitti artist Tom Sturgess who spent some time working with an older sculptor and fine artist Barry Cooper. The  painting they both worked on in the film was displayed in the theatre, so I got a shot of  Tom with the artwork.

Tom Sturgis Graffitti Artist

 People on the move

Sophie's film was shown after the break. I caught a glimpse of myself #1 son, and others in the background of some of the shots. This film is going to be archived in Somerset's record office, and is about people who moved to Somerset from other countries. A wide age group was interviewed from The landlady of the shop I rent (83) to children who moved here with their families or alone as refugees.

 

Here's a temp image of Sophie (left) and the crew.

Sophie and I had to leave early, so missed the last films. The friendly Stitchers were still there when we left. They stitch from 7pm to 9pm.

Sherbourne Vintage Textiles and Retro Fair

I could feel the flood water washing the underside of my well loaded van as I drove to Sherbourne for the Vintage Textiles and Retro Fair. The warning lights on the dashboard eventually faded as I arrived at the hall.

As usual I didn't have a preconceived layout for my stall, so I did lots of unpacking and rearranging. It all seem to work out ok, and I managed to cut fabric without proper sheers. I discovered that you can't rip rayon, and now have a bruise from using the only scissors in my toolbox.

 Oh I  didn't try those bent scissors! They might have been better than the ones I struggled with. Can someone please tell me why they are bent?


The fair was arranged in two rooms, with one stall outside. I had a bit of a wander and took some photo's in the second room.

There was a man with furniture.

..and a makeup artist and stylist working together to do makeovers. As well as the other stalls in the second room I think this was were the cups of tea that Mc kept supplying me with came from.

I'm booked in for next month, and will be in the same place - in front of the stage. That's 12th Feb 2011. I may hint at a Valentines day theme, because of the date.

Tea and doughnut packaging waiting to be made into tags

Cup of tea and a doughnut.
This is how I'm preparing for this weekend's fair at Sherbourne in Dorset. There's going to be a Vintage fabric, textiles and retro fair at Digby Hall from 10 until 4. It's £1 to get in. The new year is starting with this new fair, and it's going to be a regular monthly event.




After eating and drinking I can get started on making price tags out of the packaging. Pricing items beforehand has become essential to me, because I like to nip into town to snoop, while leaving my assistants in charge! It also helps to think prices out before hand, so I'm not put on the spot by enthusiastic customers.



I always favour Krispy Kremes boxes, because of the spots, but the Christmas packaging is extra nice. The red with white spots have much more impact than the regular white with green.



Tea boxes are just the right thickness for my hole punches. Anything thicker would kill them. When I have a pile of tags I find string to finish them off.

This is just one of the jobs to be done. I've got loads of fabric to select, measure and price. I'm still thinking out the layout of my stall. I like a bit of height, and usually use shelves and various stands.

It's been years since I've done a fair at Digby Church Hall in Sherbourne. I used to make and sell baby clothes at craft fairs there when the girls were tiny, so that's almost 20 years ago! I'm off to find it this morning to make sure I can remember where it is and haven't got the wrong Digby Hall! I think there's two.

I'll make sure I take my camera and report back after the event.

Long awaited update

Finally an update to this blog! About time! This is some of what I've been up to in no particular order...... Visited Falmouth to check out the university, and stumbled upon a monthly vintage fair. I bought socks from this lady. The green large flowered curtains behind her looked the same as others at the fair,because they belonged to the hall and were permanent fixtures. I wonder if they have been there since new in the 70's.

If I remember correctly this stall was run by Hannah and her friend.

I have been to Flamouth before. Last time I arrived by ferry. The first shop we visited this time was a wool shop and by the time we returned to the car it was empty of stock and closing for the winter. mmm what a good idea.

Rook Lane Retro Fair Frome.

I had the same spot as last time - just inside the door. I bought the same team with me as well. The customers were very well dressed in their fine vintage clothes, hair and makeup. Dressing in vintage and getting in free is a great idea. Even kids wear vintage to Rook Lane Retro.

Keep calm and talk about the weather.

When I first started blogging it snowed. It was something to remark on, because we didn't get a decent amount of snow every year. Now it seems to be a twice or thrice annual event, and hardly worth taking photo's of. We've had a lot of white weather recently. Fog, frost and snow vie to get our attention. Sometimes the fog hangs around all day. It's like an advent calendar. Every morning you open the front door in December you don't know what scene will greet you.

I wonder what next year will bring? This year isn't over yet, so we'll have to wait and see.

How bizarre

Ashburton, Devon

I haven't slept through the summer, but I haven't updated this blog either. I've stayed in and done some sewing and gone out and left my camera at home. One time I picked up single use camera on the way to Liz's sale. The pictures are still in the camera, and have to be extracted the old fashioned way. If they come out I'll publish them some other time.

We have just returned from Ashburton, and I took my camera with me this time. This place had lots of the things we like......

A great 2nd hand book shop.

"Sew Enchanting". A very well stocked sewing and knitting shop. I bought some super chunky racrac from here.

And lots of antique and vintage shops. There was only one charity shop! Fortunately it was a Brainwave shop, as they are among my favourites.

These pictures were taken in The Snug in North Street

Habberdashery counter, "The Snug"

The main attraction was the Bizarre Bazaar in the town hall. I spotted a link about it on facebook. We had never been to Ashburton before and had one child free day of summer left, so instead of attending our usuall fortnightly auction we decided to visit Devon instead.

We found the town hall easily, because of the decorations and buskers. There were some nice people inside.Kate of Ruby Ruby - aprons cushions, tea & egg cosies + bunting

Andrea- Wilde purple frogs, garments with Jan Quercus jewellery

Grace & favour home

Amanda - Shabby chick

We had a wide choice of venues for our morning and afternoon tea as well as our lunch. Of course we went home with a few purchaces.

Fishing floats


Metal letters from the snug- I've always liked this type face and it's very popular at the moment.



My pile of books (Mc's was much bigger!)

We would definately visit Ashburton again. Just think all those times I've visited Trago Mills and not know about this town,- so close....