Vintage Crinoline Lady Embroidery

                          I have recently discovered the wonderfully, pretty world of Vintage Crinoline Ladies. Hours of trawling through eBay showed me some wonderful examples of embroidered and tapestry stitched 'ladies' dating back to the 20's and 30's. Time for me to have a try I think!

 I can knit, cross-stitch, crochet, scrapbook and card make but I only ever tried embroidery at about 10 maybe 11 years old. I was trying a simple V monogram for my name (Veronica). Turns out I hadn't been shown how to embroider properly. In fact now I've done some research I think they made it all up!!! LOL. No wonder I couldn't get it to go right...

            SO, after a visit to my local craft shop  (cross-stitches mainly) - 'THE CRAFT CENTRE' in Paignton, I found this printed piece... Purely by chance as they are sadly now discontinued. 

Come on Anchor!!!

We want Crinoline Ladies!!!

Isn't she so pretty?

I took a photo of the un-worked fabric for you.

Lovely clear and narrow lines. Turned out they were pretty easy to cover and the grey print seems to disappear even under white thread.

I choose to sew her in DMC rather than the recommended  Anchor threads.

 

 (I have never worked with Anchor threads...Can you tell me how good they are and how they compare to DMC? ) Notice all the numbers and adjustments I made to the colour guide. I loved doing this piece. I even changed some of the suggested colours , that's real adventurous for me.

Marking off on the skirt as I went.

The early days.
 I'm zipping through it.
 I LOVE embroidery!

I also changed some of the recommended stitches...

And made these flowers into Poppies...

I love embroidering! I cannot believe how well I have taken to it.  And without 'blowing my own trumpet', I think iv'e done a pretty good job for my first time... 

What do you think?  Nice criticisms only please!

eBay was a fabulous place to look into some of the varied vintage transfers and worked and un-worked pieces. The variety was amazing

Different sewing techniques, use of colour, stitches, some women had added crochet or lace.

There are a myriad  of pillowcases (especially in USA, think it was a major thing over there.),

 tablecloths,

 dressing table sets

chair backs/antimacassars (that's a new word to me too)

cushion covers

nightdress cases

teapot cosies

needle pouches

hankerchief cases

sweet tins

biscuit tins

enamel tins 

enameled trinket boxes

and CHINA.

The tea-sets are divine! 

Sadly I have no-where to store them so I will have to wait til the children have left home. They probably be back around a second time by then!

Drum-roll please!!!!!

 Ta Da...

the finished piece.

My pretty Crinoline Lady

Turned into a 'Shabby Chic' cushion

Details...

More details...

And even more details...

A closer look!



I hope you enjoyed today's blog!
Hugs and  Kisses
VEE!

A little different today- My new family...

Our 9 mnth old Lop rabbit Merlieah suprised us Tuesday morning by having built a nest in the hutch, We moved her and the nest indoors away from dad. On Wed she destroyed the nest,pulling it apart and eating most of it. After reading that rabbits will only pull fur once, I became more than a little worried. Was she going to be a bad mum? How was she going to keep them warm? Panic! Panic!

Thursday at 10:30 I came home (after rushing out to get her some emergency soft bedding) to find her building a brand new nest. She spent 4 hours rushing back and forth, first with huge mouthfuls of straw and then equally huge mouthfuls of pulled and plucked fur. Phew!

Within 5 mins of finishing her new nest she had kindled (delivered) 4 kits (babies). Delivery time under 4 mins.

Not normally the friendliest lady, Merlieah was a perfect doll. She allowed me to film her from start to finish, sitting right next to the cage. (I'll put on the link to that once it's on Youtube)
Enjoy the photos of my new family.

 Merlieah starts building the replacement nest, she destroyed the first one.

 

 The beginings of the nest.

 

Collecting HUGE mouthfuls for straw.

 

 Rest!!!

 

Nearly there, need some fur next.

 

Tug, tug. Fur for my babies bed.

 

 Sittting in my nest. Making it all warm and cosy.

                                                                         3+1 = 4

 Katie my 8yr old DD says they look like burnt sausages. 

( Must be Daddie's cooking, not mine,Tee Hee)

  Time for a well earned snack on some Celery.

 Merlieah's  4babies (kits)

Babies born in under 4 minutes. Nest took nearly 4 hours.

Mum and babies are relaxed happy and doing very well.

I will add a link to Youtube with video footage v soon.

She let me record the whole time...

Another tribute to God's wonderful creation.

My Entry for THE SWEET STOP Card Challenge SSS83

Hello, It's been a LONG, LONG time since I blogged properly. It's been a busy year and other things have taken over. So here is my first card challenge in a good while.

  I recently stumbled across this lovely card/scrap challenge site. The Sweet Stop Y not go and have a look.You wont be disappointed!

This is the sketch for this week... Isn't it pretty? The twist? Decorate inside the card.

Here is my entry, my Baby Brother and SIL moved recently so it's for them. Love to U both!

 Inside my card. I will add a personal note too B4 I send it.

I used Magnolia stamps.Tilda stamp and the House stamp.

After colouring with my Promarkers, I cut the images out and the BLACKED the edges...I CANNOT stand seeing all that work and then white edges from the cut-out cardstock. Try it! See the difference it makes? A lovely clean finish. I used foam pads to layer the house, then two foam pads together to make Tilda higher again. The pic doesn't show it too wel but I'm really please how it turned out.

Supplies
Magnolia Stamps.( I stamp all my new stamps, then scan them to PC. This way you can print them out any size you want! GR8 for small or large cards... My Epson ink is fine w Promarker's.)
Promarkers
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo
Papers are K&Co Charlotte (I've had them yrs!)
Polka PP is 7Gypsies- Fernwood (reverse)
Ribbon and
Bassill CS.

Well I hope you enjoyed viewing my card. Please feel free to leave me a comment.

Scrappy Hugs and Kisses

SE-SATIO.co.uk Comp entry

Here is a pic taken with my SATIO phone on macro setting. I've entered it on the SE-SATIO website check out the other entries!

Battle of the Design Teams - Week 1 at The Freeting Farm.

What could be more fun ?

All the many fans of The Greeting Farm (stamps)

 dividing up into teams of 5 or so and competing against each.

Each team must make a card and enter it into the "Battle" in the hopes of being voted for. The teams with the most votes will get to stay in the heat and make a card again the following week. This continues until the final week and a team gets to win a fabulous NEW & UNRELEASED stamp set from TGF...

COOL !

I hope you will join in the fun and go and place some votes over at TGF Gallery  .

The challenge for week 1 is RETRO-ESQUE.

Make a Retro card using this body scrub jar as inspiration for colours etc...

This is my card. 

It was chosen as our teams WK 1 entry.

How fab is that?

Thank You THE STRIKERS !

This is actually Birthday Anya with some altering.

I gave her a New Hat and Rollerboots to give her that RETRO feeling.

I'm pleased at how it came out...

XXX

Now leave some love over at  TGF. 

Thanks People!

xxx