Monthly Archives: July 2013

22/07

Craft room ideas

We are about to start a renovation project on our house that will involve a small extension and a lot of refurbishment. The extension will house our kitchen which means that I will soon have my very own craft room – very exciting! I’ve been dreaming about and planning for this project for months and months now, and thought I would share some of these ideas here. So today, my plans for the craft room.

The house was built in the 1920s and our plan is effectively to ‘de-modernise’ it: to take it back more or less to the style that it would originally have been. I’ve been collecting inspiration images on pinterest – if you’re interested you can see them here. I love this miniature sewing shop, and this image, and this one – I think you get the idea!

I found this gorgeous sewing machine cabinet on ebay a few months ago. The manual for the machine dates back to 1902. A local cabinetmaker customised it to fit my own sewing machine. It lifts up and down via an incredibly strong hydraulic mechanism – it works fantastically despite being over 100 years old. Here it is in the up position:

Another ebay find that I’m very excited about is a 1920s oak habadashery cabinet. Finally somewhere to keep the stash that is both practical and pretty! I am looking forward to decorating this room and giving this furniture a proper home!

Audrey in Unst cardigan

The details:

Pattern: Audrey in Unst by Gudrun Johnston, published in Twist Collective
Yarn: Posh Yarn Elinor Sport
Buttons: ‘Brown buttons‘ from Loop

I finished this cardigan in March – it was a pleasingly quick knit and is the second version I’ve made of this delightful pattern. It’s had loads of use already – you can probably see how the wool has pilled slightly, but only a little.

I followed the pattern exactly as written, apart from adding gathers to the sleeve heads for a slightly more vintagey feel.

This is such a great pattern – it’s not at all surprising how hugely popular it is. If you browse through some of the finished projects on Ravelry it’s clear that it looks great on all sorts of shapes and sizes.

Oh, and, I can’t leave you without sharing a closer-up (albeit rather blurry) shot of my fabulous new yellow Fluevogs!

A change of plan

Well. The dress/shawl plan for the weddings I’ve got coming up didn’t quite work out: let’s just say that the consensus from all around me was that a flapper dress + hips = not the best look…

So, on to plan B. I found a rather lovely fifties-style dress. (Fifties style dresses + hips = fabulous, hooray!). The dress is dark teal blue with a pattern of oriental gold flowers.

The shawl I chose is the excitingly named Lace Shawl from Vogue (I have to say that I really, really dislike the photo on Vogue’s page!) I’m making it using some long-stashed Wollmeise lace-garn (the colour is My Old Blue Jeans) with dark green-gold beads.

Here’s a sample of the fabric (I’m still waiting for the actual dress). The shawl is more navy than teal but I like how they look together:

So far, so good. Here’s hoping I finish in time!