Loving the vintage vibe!

Here's where I'll share my obsession with vintage fabric! It's taking over my house!

I'll sharing with you my favorite fabrics, my 'adventures" in dressmaking using vintage patterns, some home furnishing ideas and no doubt I'll be telling you about any exciting finds! Love to hear about your vintage adventures too!

My first Shop was AudreysCat ( online shop May 2010) , but my new logo / name - WittyDawn , arrived Jan 2014.

I hope you'll have time to browse my shops too !

Friday 28 March 2014

Well I think there's nothing wrong with a homemade pressie !

So a dear friend had one of those 'milestone' birthdays coming up and had also admired a bold green and white dress I had made and worn on New Years Eve.


Aha! I thought ... now there's an idea... and then I found the perfect vintage fabric... SO her colours.



A few hours sewing  and this was the result! it was a good job she was considerably slimmer than me otherwise I'm not so sure she would even have received it.

A couple of friends - armed with a sample of the fabric - also bought the most devine and perfectly matched jewellery from 'Made' in Cirencester, so we were able to give her a fully co-ordinated outfit

Now this gift didn't cost many £££'s but there's not many ( any ?) out there like it :)


Thursday 27 March 2014

Tidy ( ish...) at last , the fabric sort out is done ( for now...)

Blimey if I'd've known how long this was going to take I'm not sure I would have started!

However 6 bags of vintage fabric are now stored in the loft and the rest is reasonably tidy.

I've gone through all my scrappy bits and processed them into ...

Cute Animals - some are stuffed and  awaiting eyes, ears, wings etc and a whole lot more mice/rabbits/hearts/birds are ready to sew and next to my machine - I must have about 50 more to make up but this is the sort of thing that is very popular and with a few fairs coming up I won't have to worry about stock!












Patchwok - I've hundreds of patchwork pieces s squares, rectangles and hexis ready to us and lots of strips that I could either sew together as patchwork or
turn into binding/edge trim. It'll be great to have all these ready to use !



I've also given one bag of scraps to a local collage artist, I've another bag for a the very artistic daughter of one of my friends and yet another bag to take to my local primary school


Phew... time for a cuppa!



Monday 24 March 2014

Hoppity hop ... into my shop... for a Happy Hoppy Easter

Now I LOVE my big bunnies but ... they don't seem to sell ? although they get LOTS of likes/pinning/treasuried etc . Too big? ( 25cm tall, 21cm wide)  , too expensive? Well on the latter point a fair bit of work goes into them ! with their hand embroidered faces and hand knitted woolly tails-  I don't think £22 is too much :) http://folksy.com/items/5580761-Retro-Rabbit



BUT ... I wanted to spread the cuteness and have been working on a smaller version ( 17cm by 10cm) which at only £7 has proved popular already ... so maybe size IS important phnar phnar .... ! http://folksy.com/items/5810671--Retro-Rabbit-Easter-Bunny



Happy Hoppy Easter everyone!


Tuesday 18 March 2014

And so it begins.... Growing Veg .. .March 2014


So it's time to get the allotment going ! 

I've been allotment gardening for about 12 years now both here in the Cotswolds and also when we lived in London. I currently have a half plot ,  plus two veg patches in my back garden and a small greenhouse so from July to Oct I supply about 75% of our veg/fruit needs :)

 OH has done most of the digging whilst I'm in charge of planting , this last weekend I set out about 100 red and white ( Sturon ) onions, holding off for another couple of weeks before I plant potatos.


My first 'crop' each year are daffodils for my home as I grow a small selection of cut flowers too . We are still picking and eating leeks, beetroot, parnips and chard from last season as well.This is the first vase of daffs !


Thursday 13 March 2014

If in doubt SORT it out....

So it's been a bit hard to get my crafty mojo on recently ... and I decided part of the problem was that I had grown to dislike being in my workroom ! a combination of 2 things really ...

1. SO much fabric in there that the chaos was getting me down
2. Mentally I have been in a " it'll be so much better when I get my own workshop"

now the latter IS true but that could be months away!

What do I do ... sell some fabric?  ... errr NO!

BUT I could have a sort thu' - I have adopted a policy where I have only having one piece of fabric in my workroom/ working stock. As I generally buy vintage curtains that tends to mean I have another piece that is 'surplus' for now so these pieces are going up in the loft.

Sorting has taken some time!There has been piles of fabric everywhere!

 But as you can see some order is emerging:)

I've also gone through all the little odd sized bits that one tends to collect and I am cutting them into mice/birds/hearts to be sewn later on and also into patchwork hexies, see below, patchwork squares and strips for edge binding and cushion piping.


Although nothing is moving forward fast it does feel like I'm making progress! I now have 6 bags of fabric to go into the loft - and I am recording everything I store with a labeled photo in an "in the loft' photo on my PC .

... not much housework is being done though.... ha ha !