Tagged: Liberty Tana Lawn

Mar 24

Liberty bead workshop winner

 

I sneakily announced the winner yesterday, but so well hidden down in the comments that you probably didn’t see it. So, here’s the official gold envelope moment. [Cue drumroll] The upcycled bead was, in fact, … #4! Yes, the red one slap bang in the middle!

It was guessed correctly by the very first commenter, the keen-eyed Cat. Well done! If you can’t get to the workshop next Thursday, Cat, you can have a Liberty bead necklace kit instead. Just let me know which you’d prefer.

A big thank you to everyone else who took the time to guess, and commiserations to anyone who got the right answer but too late. Another time!

Liberty bead necklace

That particular piece of Liberty lawn, in a pattern named Matilda, came from a handmade blouse found in a local charity shop.  Here’s a glimpse of it.

Liberty Tana Lawn in Matilda

Blouse picked up at the charity shop

Maybe you wouldn’t have cut it up. I’m not sure I should have. But it was relatively cheap. And the making up wasn’t fabulous. It will certainly make an awful lot of beads. I also used a swatch of it when I made my everyday needlebook a while back. I tote it to workshops etc so gets hard wear. It’s the same one featured over here.

My scuzzy everyday needlebook

Matilda scrap on needlebook

If you’re interested in coming along to a Liberty bead necklace workshop, two are currently scheduled: Thursday 29th March (still spaces!) and one for Friday 18th May (each link take you straight to the bookings page). Both are morning sessions, 10.30am-1.30pm, here in Bath at Crockadoodledo, Larkhall’s lovely pottery-painting studio. Further details on my Classes page.

Tana lawn with wooden bead

One for the necklace

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Posted in Classes, Etui essentials, Giveaway, Scrap of the week, Thrift, Upcycling, Vintage fabrics

Mar 15

Liberty bead workshop giveaway!

 

It’s official: happiness is a stack of Liberty fabrics and a handful of wooden beads!

Beads

Wooden beads

Liberty Tana lawn - smooth as silk

Tana lawn with wooden bead

Liberty lawn with wooden bead

This one's relatively short but you can make yours with lots more beads.

Liberty lawn necklace

 

As an appreciative nod to Bath in Fashion I’ll be running a Liberty bead necklace workshop making these simple yet luxurious objects at Crockadoodledo, Larkhall, Bath on Thursday 29th March, 10.30am to 1.30pm.  The necklaces can include as many beads as you like, with every bead a statement of classic British textile design. This is really the perfect project to showcase your finer fabric scraps.

All materials are included in the workshop fee of £25. If you (or someone who loves you) is stuck for Mother’s Day, there’s also an alluring Mother’s Day offer of 20% off any booking made as a gift (reducing the fee to just £20!).  If you book as a gift, I can also issue you with an attractive pdf gift certificate in time for Mother’s Day this weekend. As places on these workshops are limited, booking is essential so please don’t delay. Further details can be found on the Classes & Workshops page.

And finally, I’m delighted to be able to offer a FREE place on this workshop (or a Liberty necklace kit if you prefer) to the first person who can correctly identify which of the covered beads shown above was created from an upcycled Liberty scrap .

Yes, only one bead was made from an existing garment, rather than from a new offcut of cloth.  Can you guess which?

I’ll take the first correct answer from the comments posted below (sorry, I can only take one answer per visitor). Just state the bead number (#1 is on the far left, #7 on far right), though if you can also give the name of the Liberty Tana Lawn pattern, all the better (that’s not essential, it just pleases my inner Liberty geek!). The only qualification to enter this giveaway is that you first mosey on over and like the Scrapiana Facebook page. This competition will close at midnight on Thursday 22nd March and I’ll announce the winner here on Friday 23rd.  Please remember to tell me if you’d prefer a workshop space or a kit, and do leave a way for me to contact you, even if that’s in a separate email. Good luck!

PS This is, by default, the Scrapiana Scrap of the Week. I’ll feature it properly once it no longer has to remain incognito.

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Posted in Bath places, Classes, Giveaway, Grand days out, Scrap of the week, Upcycling, Vintage fabrics

Mar 06

Scrap of the week #20

Liberty Tana lawn

Liberty Tana lawn

Liberty Tana Lawn

Three Liberty lawns

 

Liberty Tana lawn has got to be one of my favourite fabrics ever. I really can’t help being a Tana-phile; it’s so soft, floaty and fine, the designs so delicate and detailed (usually), the colours so vivid, and it’s such a joy to work. So I make no apology for coming back to it time and again as my Scrap of the Week. Here’s how strongly I feel about it: I’ve given up alcohol for Lent, but giving up lawn would be too great a test of character. Are you a Liberty lawn freak too? The confessional booth is empty so step right in and purge your soul via the comment box!

These pieces (and many more) are about to be wrapped around wooden beads and balls and transformed into beautifully bold and tactile necklaces for my forthcoming Scrapiana Liberty Bead Necklace Workshop on Thursday 29th March at Crockadoodledo here in Larkhall, Bath.  Astonishingly, I still have spaces, so if you want to spend the morning absorbed in this sumptuous make, please join me. There’s even a 20% off Mother’s Day deal! Just shoot me an email at eirlys@scrapiana.com and I’ll add your name to my list.

This workshop falls during the Bath in Fashion 2012 event, and there’s an awful lot of exciting things happening. If you hoped to hear Manolo Blahnik speak, however, I hate to tell you but you’re already too late (sold out).

 

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Posted in Classes, Scrap of the week, Vintage fabrics

Sep 26

The Bath Brocante

On Saturday afternoon I wandered around the corner for a constitutional and happened upon a little corner of France here on the Eastern fringes of Bath.

Alice Park Brocante

Ooh la la! What a great poster!

The Bath Brocante is a new venture from antiques dealer Katherine Gilmore.

La Brocanteuse!

La Brocanteuse elle-même!

Katherine conceived this as a monthly outdoor event taking place during the relatively clement seasons of the British year. Brave Katherine! Happily, she brought rather a lot of jauntily buntinged canvas along with her too, though in the event the weather turned out to be surprisingly kind; it didn’t rain and was actually warm! So much so that Katherine hardly needed her beautifully embellished tweed jacket at all (which I had to take a close-up of because it was officially adorable and I am nothing if not fixated by such details, especially when they include Liberty fabric. Katherine is probably issuing a restraining order as I type…).

Revamped jacket detail

All the occasion needed was a little music – like this, perhaps (please be patient as it doesn’t play until 21 seconds in) — and maybe the relaxing clink or two from an adjacent boules game? I’m sure these could easily be arranged.

Brocante bunting

If you like what you see, The Bath Brocante series next year will run on the 2nd Saturday of the month (remember the formula, folks!) from May onwards. Do contact Katherine if you’re a French-inspired trader or maker interested in booking a 2012 stall. The brocante’s blog is over here, or you can email Katherine at this carefully disguised spam-defying email address: gilmorekatherine AT hotmail DOT com.

Bath Brocante cushions

Jaunty cushions made from vintage textiles

A bientôt, mes amis!

 

 

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Posted in Bath places, Grand days out, Vintage bedding, Vintage books, Vintage fabrics, Vintage haberdashery

Aug 04

In Elysian fields

Elysian pattern, Liberty

Elysian pattern display board, NT Collier Campbell exhibition

This is a little story about serendipity. Just before nipping home after the Vintage Festival on Saturday, a friend suggested I go see a free Collier Campbell exhibition currently on display at the NT. Timed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of two sisters’ design partnership (established in 1961 with commissions from Liberty of London), the exhibition contained beautiful pieces of original gouache artwork from the archives, plus examples of the final fabrics. What bliss!

I can’t go further without first confessing my ignorance. I’d heard of Collier Campbell, but didn’t realise the name referred to a pair of designing sisters, Susan Collier and Sarah Campbell. I knew that the name was behind one of my favourite Liberty patterns (log-cabin-ish Kasak, which used to grace the cafe tables at Liberty’s London store, and with which I  bonkersly covered the seats of my 2CV to celebrate passing my driving test). But I was truly delighted to discover at this expo that the pair were behind Elysian, one of my all-time favourite Tana Lawn designs.

Elysian

Elysian in some juicy colourways

Now, Elysian is the queen of florals, if you ask me, managing to be delicate but in yer face at the same time. But now I’m confused, because a quick google of ’Elysian’ ‘Liberty’ and ‘Collier Campbell’ didn’t dredge up anything meaningful. And Liberty’s own site claims that Elysian was designed in the ’20s. Elsewhere it’s described as ‘at least 100 years old’. Did the sisters design it from scratch or maybe rework it? If anyone happens to know more, please leave a comment or get in touch because I’m burning with curiosity.

The exhibition made it clear that the sisters have prided themselves on being jobbing designers, anonymously bending their talents to the needs of of the customer, whoever that might be (they’ve worked variously for Liberty, Yves Saint Laurent, Cacherel, Jaeger, Habitat, M&S, House of Fraser). Their delicious sense of colour and exuberance of line has taken much inspiration from folk art. Sadly, Susan Collier died in May, after the exhibition was instigated but before it opened. But Sarah continues the pair’s work, and you can buy Collier Campbell branded products over here and currently at House of Fraser and M&S.

The exhibition was scheduled to end on 10th July so I’m not sure why it was still up last week. If you’re hoping to see it, it might be best to call the National Theatre first to check if it’s still there. I’m beginning to wonder if it was just a figment of my imagination: a Southbank mirage on a hot July day.

2011 Aug Minolta 006

As beautiful as it is mysterious

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Posted in Grand days out, Textile history, Vintage fabrics

Jul 11

Scrap of the week #17

Liberty strawberry fabric

Liberty Tana lawn scrap with strawberry motif

This jaunty scrap came in a job-lot of Liberty offcuts. I’ll probably applique it onto a needlebook cover, or possibly turn it into a part of a lavender bag. I don’t know the name of the pattern, nor the artist, but wish I did. Don’t those strawberries look like they have lots of sleepy eyes?

 

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Posted in Patchwork, Scrap of the week

Jun 07

Declaration of bias

Liberty bias binding

Liberty bias binding

If you’ve arrived here after seeing my name in the June copy of Mollie Makes, welcome!

Relax, take your shoes off, read a few posts, and maybe mosey over to my Etsy store which I’ve been restocking with goodies. It’s probably more Open All Hours than chic craft boutique, but nevermind. Here’s some Liberty Tana Lawn bias binding (a 3-metre length) which is quite delicious in its fresh ditsy-floral-ness and perfect for finishing off all sorts of little craft projects. You can’t beat a nice bit of Liberty lawn.

I’m currently taking names for strawberry-making workshops (where you can learn to make the little needle-cushions as featured in Mollie Makes) so drop me an email if you’d like details. My email address is on the contact page.

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Posted in Vintage haberdashery

Mar 21

Scrap of the week #13

This week’s scrap started out as a skirt. I found it in a local charity shop where the gorgeous Liberty Tana Lawn Glenjade fabric jumped out at me from twenty paces.

What made it unpromising to wear (dowdy A-line cut) makes it a great candidate for upcycling (that flare means lots of fabric). Most importantly, the fabric still had a huge amount of life in it, with colour that was still very fresh and strong. The chief flaw was a prominent black ink stain,  presumably the reason for it winding up in the charity shop in the first place. This fabric costs upwards of £12 a metre new, by the way (£19.95 if you buy from Liberty) so I snapped this baby up. It’s also an unusual colourway: a slightly salmony pink (brighter than the photo) which I haven’t seen elsewhere.

Indelible stain

Innocent skirt, minding its own business

In case you think it a little unseemly to take apart perfectly good clothing willy-nilly, I feel I should add that I did try to get the stain out first. Dismantling with my trusty seam-ripper only began when the mark wouldn’t budge. Actually, I probably would have taken it apart anyway as I do love Liberty lawn; it’s a silky-soft finely woven cotton printed in tender little patterns (mostly) which is probably my favourite fabric of all time. I have stockpiled several second-hand shirts made from it (like this and this) by Comfy-Cotswold-style clothing retailers. I plan to dissect them without any qualms at all. Just so you know.

As with so many of the Liberty lawn designs, this leaf pattern works really well in small quantities – a little goes a long way – so I’m making various small-scale items with it. To date I’ve made fabric-covered buttons and bias binding (I’ll have some of these for sale at the It’s Darling! Spring Fair on Saturday) and I’ve also made a mystery item. I’m bursting to tell you more about it, but am not allowed. Yet. Do watch this space!

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Posted in Rag, Scrap of the week, Thrift, Vintage fabrics

Jun 28

Scrap of the Week #3

Here’s a sneaky peek at a little line of needle books I’m making for the It’s Darling fair on 17th July. The fabric on the front is from Liberty’s Tana Lawn range, one of my favourite fabrics of all time. I don’t know the name of this particular design (oh, how informative I’ve been lately!) though it is typical of the cherishable fine cotton florals created by Liberty over the years. My needle books will vary, depending on the scraps available in my supply.

Needle book

Liberty lawn-fronted felt needle book

As an aside, I gave this very needle book to an American Twitter buddy I met in Bath last month. She happened to be passing through so we hooked up – such is the curious power of social media – and I’m so glad we did!

Needle book - open

Open needle-book

I wasn’t happy with my choice of white stitching on the front here but didn’t have time to change it; how we sewists stitch in haste and repent at leisure. The ones at the fair will, of course, be delectably perfect.

Making a felt needle book

My trusty Singer 221k and needle book

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Posted in Scrap of the week, Vintage haberdashery

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This work by Scrapiana is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.