I'm sat here feeling pretty pleased with life. It's been a gorgeous sunny day, and I walked into town for groceries and came back via a bramble lined track. Which meant lots of chances to gather free fruit in the shape of shiny juicy blackberries. My fingertips are still stained purple, despite a good scrub when I got home. As it's Wednesday I'll get round to my craft book review in a moment, but first things first, here are my recent charity shop bargains.
These two dresses cost a few pennies short of a tenner for the pair. The red dress is a simple shift, complete with pockets and ideal to wear with leggings. But the stylish olive green and white dress is much classier. Originally from Monsoon, my favourite label, it's 100% silk and feels luxurious. I hope to goodness it fits!
Having loved Maggie O'Farrell's 'Hamnet', I bought this paperback, yet another to add to my To-Be-Read pile which never seems to get any smaller. I also picked up this children's board book. Now, that might seem like an odd choice for someone who's childfree, and whose reading has progressed a wee bit beyond 'Little Rabbit waits for the moon'. But there's a method in my madness. The board book's going to be upcycled, but more of that on another day...
Okay, let's move on to my Wednesday book review. Eithne Farry's 'Lovely things to make for girls of slender means'. It was originally published in 2010, so easy to pick up secondhand if you want to. I've had a copy for ages, and it's a familiar favourite. There's something very endearing about Farry's enthusiastic approach to sewing, and her make do and mend, give it a try attitude. You don't need bags of cash to make many of the clothes or accessories featured in 'Lovely things'. Just a sense of fun and a basic sewing kit.
'Lovely Things' is divided into five main sections. The first is the nuts and bolts stuff. What you'll need in terms of scissors, pins, thread etc. How to sew by hand - backstitch, running stitch, tacking and blanket stitch. How to use your sewing machine, plus things like sewing hems, making darts and inserting zips. She assumes you know nothing much, so this part of the book's handy for the absolute sewing novice.
Next up are sections marked Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. 'Makes' are divided up to more or less fit in with these themes. So autumn, for example, includes a tote bag embellished with a spider's web, and a red vinyl web complete with a spooky plastic skeleton, while winter has mittens, ear muffs, ponchos and a pom pom scarf.
There are dozens of 'makes' in the book, though some of them are, I have to admit, not things you're likely to make. I won't be knocking up a hat that'll make me look like an American bellboy, and the dirndl skirts aren't exactly flattering to most women's figures.
But there are some fun little purses, headbands, detachable collars. Plus, billowy kaftans for beach cover-ups, pretty bows and upcycled quirky earrings and brooches.
I reckon the book's real strength is that it reminds the reader of what clothes really are, and that's nothing to do with commercial fashion or cold-hearted money making ventures. Instead, clothes are about telling stories.
About presenting a version of ourselves to the world. Maybe we're a Talitha Getty style boho hippy, or an austere Gothic lady draped in black. Maybe we want to make ourselves an oversized faux fur hat and imagine we look like we belong in a Soviet spy drama or Dr. Zhivago. 'Lovely things' is a book to leaf through when you're seeking inspiration, when you want to lift your mood and remind yourself of the playfulness of clothing, the whimsical or quirky, the romantic. It's for when you hanker after making a necklace from forage shards of china or a belt buckle made of Lego, earrings from Christmas baubles or a frothy tulle wrap complete with velvet bows.
Well, I hope that's given you an inkling of what Eithne Farry's book is about. I'm about to make myself a cuppa, then I want to play with the new stencils that arrived in today's post.
These - brickwork, stars and circles - will add texture and interest to my gelli prints, and came from Hobbycraft. I also snaffled four stencils from eBay for a little over £6.00 the lot. Three of the packets haven't even been opened, while the fourth is open but obviously never been used. I love the abstract shapes, and I can see myself using these a lot.
Righty-ho, that's the blog post done and dusted for another day. I'm off to have fun stencilling.
P.S. If you're wondering where the title 'Lovely things to make for girls ...' etc came from, it's to do with writer Muriel Spark and her novel 'The Girls of Slender Means'.
'He said, 'I don't think I've ever seen such a gorgeous dress.' 'Schiaparelli,' she said. He said, 'Is that the one you swap amongst yourselves?' 'Who told you that?' 'You look beautiful,' he replied. She picked up the rustling skirts and floated away up the staircase. Oh, girls of slender means!'
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