Monday 15 February 2016

Found....in the loft

I don't know about you but sometimes I find things that get put in the loft seem to "vanish". Our loft is not too cluttered and over the years my Hb and I have tended to get stuff out and throw it away or freecycle it rather than put more up there. When my Hb was putting away the Christmas decs this year he made a discovery......
Yes my very old sewing machine, bought for me when I was 12 and making clothes at school in my needlework lessons. In those days I made lots of my own clothes, skirts, trousers....it was a way of being ahead in the fashion league when I had little money.

I made my own bridesmaids dresses for our wedding, I made the moses basket covers for my daughter (nearly 30 years ago), curtains...and so it went on...until life got far too busy. We  thought that we got rid of the machine many years ago, it is ridiculously heavy. However it had been put out of sight in the loft and I have now decided to hang on to it while it is working.

Last week whilst having lunch with my DD and Daisy my daughter mentioned that it is World Book Day soon at Daisy's nursery and the children have been invited to dress up as a book character. Daisy immediately wanted to be the Witch from Room on the Broom (thank goodness she didn't choose Stick Man...LOL). We had a look in the shops for witch outfits but as it is months away from Halloween witch outfits are thin on the ground. The fancy dress ones for children were huge. My daughter then thought that she could buy some black fabric and cut some holes to thread in some ribbon to make a cape. As we chose the ribbon and material I remembered the sewing machine and offered to make the cape for Daisy. Now my daughter is a girl who is pretty challenged when it comes to needlework ;0) My darling girl buys stick in name tapes and iron on letters rather than sew anything. Handicrafts are not quite her thing, I think it has skipped a generation to my Daisy.

Saturday was such a dismal day I decided that I would see what I could put together. It was tricky as I  had to roughly guess the size.
I was delighted to find that the machine still worked and even the light switched on.
I found some very old but unused needles in the bottom and put a new one it.
Also there was my trusty needle threader..no longer used for speed but for the fact my eyes can't see the hole any more!
The light was awful so please excuse the poor photos.
I remembered my very first lessons at secondary school when we made a skirt...so I gathered up an edge with 2 rows of stitches.

I also made a collar which I stitched on. I laughed to myself as I could hear our old needlework teacher, Miss Thompson  preaching to us "Pin, tack then stitch girls". I could never be bothered with tacking and whenever I was out of school just stitched over the pins. There is a lovely sound when you whizz along using a machine, and like riding a bike and playing the piano you never forget how to do it!
I spent a few hours fiddling around and came up with this...the black makes it very hard to photograph...the ribbon ties at the stand up collar.
I need to see how it fits on Daisy and I hope to be able to attach the cloak clasp too



I really hope it fits and she can use it...fingers crossed. My daughter is going to cover a piece of dowel with tape and add a star for a wand and try to find a little witch's hat on Ebay.

My card today was inspired by the black of the cape...but with some flowers like my sweet Daisy. I used my Camellia stamp from Rubber dance again.

It's quite CAS for me and the background was made with my Visible image Bronte verse stamp
 I coloured the stamp with distress inks and added some punched butterflies and a die cut sentiment

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Pixie's snippets playground  1/3  #216  I used a snippet of card for my butterflies and die cut
Noor UK  love
The Artistic stamper  love 
Deep Ocean  hearts
Stamping Sensations 3/3 anything goes
Creative Inspirations 3/3 hugs and kisses 
Crafting for all seasons  2/3 love is in the air
Penny Black and More 2/3 anything goes with a stamp and a die
Simon says stamp Wednesday One layer
Cute Card Thursday 1/3 sweet Valentine's
Ribbon Girl 1/3 any image card challenge
Where the HeArt is 1/3 love

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. Saturday was a wash out but Sunday was sunny if very chilly.We managed a lovely long walk before our M&S Valentine dine in for 2 meal which was yummy.

Have a lovely week and thanks for visiting today.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x


20 comments:

  1. Wow! well done you...brilliant cape and fantastic card. I hope Daisy can wear your creation. You will have to post a picture! We had a lovely M&S meal too! Beats paying a fortune in a restaurant.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Jane,

    Is there anything you CANNOT do brilliantly?
    The little witch cape is adorable and your card is lovely!

    xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Do you know Jane, I think that was the make of my first sewing machine, I've had two since then!
    What a brilliant job you've done with the cape, as you say you never forget, I have to agree though tacking is such a waste of time!
    Love the contrast of the pink and black in your pretty card.
    Enjoy your week my friend,
    V x

    ReplyDelete
  4. How fun that you found your first sewing machine and that it works and all.. and then to make such a special thing for Daisy! You will be her hero! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Amazing that the machine still worked - even the light! I guess they made things to last back in the days. How great that you found it and were able to help Daisy out with that cool cape! Well done, grannie! :-D
    Lovely card. Thanks for using my antique Camellia stamp again - it looks really nice together with the stamp in old style hadwriting ♥

    ReplyDelete
  6. A really lovely card Jane, the pink roses are so striking against rhe black script.

    Many thanks for joining in our February themes at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More challenges.

    Also good to see you in the Playground this week, hope you find time to pop up to the treehouse as Viv and I are hosting a few glasses of fizz.

    B x

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi. Lovely creation! Thanks for joining us at Creative inspirations. Good luck!
    CraftyNatalie - DT
    craftynataliesblog.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. Terrific card and cape . . . I want to dress in it (although maybe it's a bit too small for me! Shucks!).

    Thanks for coming over to play in the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND.

    Hugs, Sarn xxx

    ReplyDelete
  9. what a beautiful blog, let me now pass often.
    Sunny greetings
    Antje

    ReplyDelete
  10. Beautiful card. Thanks for sharing with us at Crafting for all Seasons, hope to see you again. Barb

    ReplyDelete
  11. A really striking design, with the pink and black. Love the butterflies. Oh, and the cape! Thanks for joining us at Stamping Sensations this month.

    Lynne

    ReplyDelete
  12. How nice that hubby found your old machine in the loft and what good use you put it to, too! I'm sure Daisy will be delighted with her witches cape and that you'll find many more uses for your trusty old sewing machine! Although sewing is definitely not my forte (and like you I NEVER tack anything first), I do have a dabble every now and again and sometimes even surprise myself as to what I make!
    Love your CAS card - one of my favourite styles and clever over stamping to create a new design! Hugs, Lisa x

    ReplyDelete
  13. Beautiful - a very elegant design.

    Thanks for joining us at Cute Card Thursday.

    Helen x

    ReplyDelete
  14. I love your old sewing machine, my mums was similar with that wooden box built in! Love your witches cape, isn't it great to resurrect old sewing skills. I recently had to do that myself for my son's Halloween costume!
    Also, love your card, fabulous stamping, it is beautiful!
    Many thanks for joining us at Cute Card Thursday this week!
    Debxx

    ReplyDelete
  15. You are really gifted at a lot of techniques !
    Your card is so beautiful ! thank you so much for playing with us at The Artistic Stamper's monthly challenge
    wishing you good luck ! xxx

    ReplyDelete
  16. What a beautiful cape you made Jane. Certainly a woman of many talents. Your card is lovely. What a super stamp that is. Barbxx

    ReplyDelete
  17. Such a great cape...bet she loved it!

    You are smart to keep the older machine. My newer one is mostly plastic and too light. I think a heavier machine is more stable. I feel like mine vibrates with a slight movement if I stitch too fast...thereby making the seam sort of shift slightly.
    If I stitch slowly, then it is straighter...of course it could not be the operator!!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Oooo simply stunning, i'm loving the black and pink colour combination too and thanks for joining us at Penny Black & More this month, Luv Sam x

    ReplyDelete
  19. Nice cape!! Your daughter and Daisy must be thrilled!! The card is awesome!! Love the black and pink combination!! Thank you for sharing with us at the Where The HeART Is challenge. Hope to see you again.
    -Berina
    Moxie Craftie
    Where The HeART Is DT

    ReplyDelete
  20. Such a beautiful card <3 Love the color combo you've used. Thank you for joining us at Noor! Design UK challenges. Wish you luck for the drawing and hope to see you again next round.
    Hugs, Karina
    DT member Noor! Design UK

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for leaving a comment; I really enjoy reading every single one of them.

To comply with the new Data Protection legislation (GDPR) May 2018 I wish to state that any comments left here are with your consent that your name & comment are visible to anyone who visits my blog and that you accept that your personal information is being used for that specific purpose.

Jane x