Rejuvenate Old Clothes

A top tip for breathing life in to old clothes. I recently bought a faded vintage Laura Ashley dress, in a colour I wasn't so keen on but loved the style. Laura Ashley can be pricey second hand so I jumped at the chance to get my hands on this dress and won it for £12.50. It barely got through the letterbox before I started its transformation

From light blue... to black. Actually, it's more like navy. Who knew there are various shades of black to chose from?! I love it and will wear it tons in the months to come, feeling VERY smug that I'm wearing a real one off piece.

You can buy Dylon fabric dye from most hardware shops.

A good tip before dying is to check the fabric content. 100% cotton will dye well, but things made from manmade fibres tend not to take the colour so well. Things like stitches and zips may stay their original colour as a result. Make sure you wash dyed pieces on their own for the first couple of washes too.

Neasden Temple, 2017

Groups of women preparing delicious food

Litter picking in style

Shoes off to enter the temple

A few years ago:  Neasden Temple and the Diwali celebrations. It was an amazing feast for the eyes - the elaborate, beautiful shrines with hundreds of silent pilgrims and the loud, celebratory groups of people enjoying food and music everywhere. 

Lockdown 2

Not the end to a difficult year that any of us wanted... but it's back to trying to take joy in small things - which for me was found on Saturday evening, while anxiously awaiting the final result of the US election to be called... My local corner shop serving cheer via these crisp boxes (and a bottle of cold beer).

Embroidery Design

 I've been working on my embroidery skills and recently had a lesson from RSN tutor, Sara. Sara encouraged me to work on my own design, see below. Looking forward to translating it in to stitches...

Jam Jar

Pre Lockdown 2: Dinner outside at Ciao Bella. The 3 of us hadn't seen each other for a while - and Min bought these homegrown flowers from Hertfordshire, complete with jam jar, as a belated birthday present for a friend. 

Toy Time

Market traders refusing to be put off by the rain on the Roman Road

 

Fabric

 More fabric and sewing related endeavours... spent a few days in Shepherd's Bush recently, getting the step count up incredibly high pacing up and down the market. My favourite place! 

Fabric Samples For Quilts

An afternoon spent sorting out fabric samples, after collecting several bags full from a friend who was throwing them out of her studio recently. So excited to get sewing my next quilt!

Road Trip

Last week: a solo road trip to the South West, visiting various family members across Devon and Cornwall. I loved listening to a Driving playlist carefully curated recently while commuting to work - and also an audio version of Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo. I still have quite a lot to listen to - will need to plan my next road trip ASAP.

Mum in Penzance - we swum shortly after this! The only flaw to that plan was timing - low tide meant icy legs before being submerged, but it was worth it.

Socially distanced outdoor gin and tonics

Dahlias

Cornish Dahlias grown by Grandpa and cut last week while on a long over due visit, bursting with colour on a drizzly day.

Cushioned

I spent a day learning how to make a piped cushion at The Goodlife Centre in Southwark a few weeks ago. I managed to bring two extremely difficult fabrics to work with... one far too thin to use, and the other a vintage fabric from a charity shop in Cornwall. It was a success though - and I felt very proud on my way home with new cushion! I've since been on the hunt for fabrics for a quilt I'm working on.

Looking with fabrics with Kate...

And practicing the skills I learnt once back home

Anemone fabric from Shepherd's Bush market, and striped piping used from scrap fabric from an old cushion cover that was being thrown out. 

Art Angel Audio

 

I spent a warm afternoon walking around Whitechapel and Spitalfields a few weeks ago, guided by Janet Cardiff via an audio piece commissioned by Art Angel in 1999. 'Part urban guide, part detective story, part film noir, this audio walk transports individual listeners on foot through the streets and alley ways of Spitalfields, a historic part of London next to the City.'  The audio piece is great - disorientating and distracting in a good way! And I loved walking around the back streets of Spitalfields, something I don't do very often despite living so close. Very uplifted by all the colour of prayer matts, printed wax fabric, market stall dresses...

Click here for more information on the Art Angel piece.

On Set Details

Love the colour and print combination from a shoot I styled last year 

Lucky Rat

Walking home from central London last weekend, weaving through China Town and suddenly very tempted by a 'lucky rat'. Feel like we could all do with as much luck as we can get at the moment

Landscape with Clouds

I love the way every inch of the paper is used in this oil painting - a huge landscape squeezed on to an a5 sketchbook page

Paisaje con nubes

Victor Julio González, 2016

Gold and Gingham

Vintage gold - a neck full of talismans

Green Molly Goddard gingham

 And scruffy trainers made for walking in and out of town for lunch with friends

Shepherd's Bush

A trip to Shepherd's Bush market last week, where I have spent many happy hours.

New fabric for a potential cushion

 

Amazing embellished offerings

Gold vine

 And discovered a new Ethiopian cafe in the railway arches which was full of amazing furnishings

Luxury and Excess

Details from a visit to the National Gallery last week - was great to be back.

Top to bottom:

Detail from Equestrian portrait of Charles I, 1637-8, Anthony van Dyke

Detail from Lord Stuart and his brother, Lord Bernard Stuart, c.1638, Anthony van Dyke

Detail from Still Life with Drinking-Horn, c.1653, Willem Kalf

Detail from Still Life with Lemons in a Wicker Basket, 1643-9, Juan de Zurbarán