Colourful Elepahnt Baby Mobiles

 Elephant mobiles were my first ever mobile design - way back in 2012 ish! 

During this time, I've sewn them in all sorts of colour combinations. Some seem perpetually popular - yellow, white and grey, especially with some clouds too, whereas other combinations come and go. 

Recently I've had some requests for some brighter combinations, so here are some photos...

New Name Banner Designs

 I love sewing name banners, and often let customers look through previous example photos, and they'll spot the perfect one for them, but still regularly have requests for new designs, which I love, and they can be so much fun!

Here are some examples of ones I've sewn recently....

Koalas

Sheep

Llamas & Pompoms!

Fire Trucks

Hedgehogs & Owls

Frogs on Lily Pads!

Serpentine Swimming

 I've been a member of the Serpentine Swimming Club for a few years now, and there is something so special and magical about wild swimming in Central London - despite all the duck poo and pond weed, and occasionally being threatened by swans!

This year it has been particularly special, due to it being closed for so long, there was such a sense of excitement when it reopened. 

After 10 beautiful days - which unfortunately coincided with a heatwave, meaning every member turned up - it was closed again until it could be opened safely, which also coincided with a turn in the weather, which naturally made it less busy. 

It's open from 5.30-9.30am, and is a very pricey £20 for the year. Facilities are limited - change next to the pond, and avoid the duck poo - but it's such a friendly place, it's worth the slightly unusual conditions. 

I tend to go around 6.30am-7am, and it's very peaceful at this time. 

Reopening in May

So beautifully hot and sunny

Beautiful skies early in July

Just arriving for sunrise in September

Slightly misty in the pre sunrise moments in October

It's now dark when we arrive, but gets light pretty quickly. Although there are fewer swimmers now (the water is still 12 degrees so not too icy yet), we are kept company by the joggers and boot campers on the opposite shore. 

I would really recommend wild swimming - for the soul as much as for exercise, and as a fellow swimmer said this morning 'it's cold, but addictive'. So true!!

I Bought An Electric Car!! Nissan Leaf

For years I've been trying to improve my environmental awareness, and try to be as green as possible in the way I live.

I make all my own clothes, won't buy anything in single use plastic, try to buy my food as naked and locally as possible, and have switched to a renewable energy tariff at home. We've also stopped flying as much as we used to, preferring to take the Eurostar when we want to travel in Europe, as we live so near to Kings Cross!

So another big one on the list was my car. I'd had it for 15 years, so that was good in that it had lasted a long time!! However, it was becoming less fuel efficient in its old age, and so I have been thinking for a few years that Electric is the way forward.

We started browsing all the different models available, and looked at Hybrids too, at the start of the year, and then lockdown was the perfect opportunity to really seriously research them all, and decide what to go for.

I mostly just drive locally around London, maybe 30-40 miles each way for some longer trips, but mostly within 10 miles, so I knew an electric car would be perfect for this. My parents live 125miles away, and my boyfriends parents slightly further, but as they are all retired, they love to come and visit us more than we go and visit them!!

The main thing for me was boot space - for markets I shove a lot of stuff in my car, and some of the electric models are tiny!! At one showroom, I was looking in the boots of cars first, before looking inside, and the salesperson was very surprised when I rejected some instantly, without even looking inside!!

I also rejected hybrids pretty quickly, as they are not much better for the environment than some smaller engine petrol cars, and also there are 2 mechanisms to go wrong!

So the Nissan Leaf was perfect - great boot size, great reviews, and happily in budget!

The main thing to decide was which model to go for, as the range in the older ones goes from about 80-160 miles, with the price increasing with the higher mileage.

I've settled on a 66 reg one, which a range of around 110-130 miles. I've mostly been driving it around locally, and it is a dream to drive. In eco mode, when driving around London, it barely uses any charge, as every time you brake, it charges the battery! I was instantly in love!

I'd bought it from near Guildford, so had the experience of driving back on the M25 and M4 as a little taste of motorway, but hadn't fully tested it, or rapid charged it. However, I've just got back from a longer trip, which involved a rapid charge and it was great! Normally I hate driving on my own, as I get bored, but the Leaf is such a dream to drive, I was quite happy!

I'd already made accounts for Ecotricity (who run most of the chargers in UK service stations) and Zap Map (which shows where all charging points are, if they are in use, and if they are broken!) so was ready to go.

When entering the route into the Leaf satnav, it instantly told me that I probably wouldn't make my destination without a charge stop, so gave me a selection of possible stops, and asked me to select one to program in. Brilliant!

Ideally, if I had a passenger, I'd have got them to keep an eye on Zap map, to check if the charging points were being used, before I got there, but as I was on my own, I just went with my plan, but stopped with enough charge that I still could have reached the next service station, should these ones have been out of action.

I have to admit I was a little nervous. Various people had warned me against buying a fully electric car, insisting that I would regularly get stuck without charge, but it all went smoothly, I arrived to 2 working and empty chargers, connected to one, exactly as I should have, and 16 mins and £3.50 later, I was back up to 80% charge. Brilliant.

I also had a lovely chat with a couple who turned up to charge their car next to me while I was waiting, which according to them is entirely normal!

As is usual with review sites, most people only leave feedback when there is a problem, so it can seem daunting to look at Zap Map and see so many problems reported, so I made sure to leave feedback that everything had worked as expected!

I'm still very much a new owner, so will report back in a few months when I've explored more, but for now I am a very very happy customer!

Covid 19 Sewing - Scrubs & Masks

As a person with zero medical skills, it was easy to feel a little helpless at the start of this crisis - especially when so many of our friends are medical or work in hospitals.

I quickly realised that I could help using my sewing skills to make masks and scrubs. Initially I raided our airing cupboard, re-purposing my boyfriends old navy duvet cover (that we never use, because mine are all nicer!!), which had a lovely large amount of fabric for my first set!

I was inspired by embroidering friends to add some lovely details to the pockets....

Some great labels to add too!

I also started making masks to order, for friends at first, but then also to sell to the general public! Mine obviously had to be a matching one!!

I also made some in more sensible colours too!

But these two are my ultimate favourite!

More pieces ready to sew...

With some fabulous embroidered pockets, that I was given to attach on!

Chiswick Riverside

I love living by the Thames in London.

In my dreams I'd live somewhere else by the seaside, but it wouldn't work for either of us for work, and also I'd never actually get any work done as it would be too tempting to spend all day in the sea!!

So the Thames is a great alternative, and I've even swum in it a few times!!

Usually we'd go for a long river walk at least once a month in the winter and once a week in the summer, preferably combining it with a visit to one of the many riverside pubs (ahh how I miss pubs!!).

As the river path is always busy, and fairly narrow in places, I've been avoiding it since the start of lockdown, because it just didn't seem like a sensible place to go, but since the more relaxed rules came in last week, I was just itching to go and see my river.

My usual walk is over Hammersmith Bridge, along to Barnes Bridge, over that, and back to Hammersmith and it's just gorgeous! It usually takes about 1.5 hours, but depends on how many times I stop to smell flowers and take photos!

So I went on Thursday evening and it was just beautiful. A little chilly, but the sun was out, and so it felt just like we were on holiday at the seaside (you know, cos it's always a bit colder than you expected - haha!). It made me so happy!! I'm definitely going to have to go back again soon!!

Making Rainbows

I've admired all sorts of fibre art on social media for years, without ever having the time to have a go and make something of my own, so lockdown was the perfect time to have a go and make a rainbow. Especially as the rainbow image was being used in all the support NHS campaigns, it seemed double perfect.

Luckily, being a craft hoarder, I had plenty of wool, piping cord, and ribbon to get started, so quickly did.

I made this little one for me, and hung it in the window, which quickly attracted admiration from the neighbours (we live in a block of flats, and this was in the window facing our shared garden). 

I then made these ones, and posted a photo on social media, and quickly started to get some love!

By this point I'd run out of piping cord, but was sure I had some rope somewhere (no idea why?!?) and I quickly found a bag with lots of different thicknesses of rope! Winner! I wrapped and wrapped, and pom pom'd and glued, until I'd run out of my initial rope stash. 

Luckily our local independent DIY shop was open, and had some sash cord in 2 thicknesses - perfect for wrapping!

I bought a 10m length and was very happy, but then got so many orders, I'd wrapped the entire 10m in one day! So popped back the next day to but another length. And again wrapped the whole 10m, so popped back a third day to buy another 10m!!

By this point, the lovely shop owner enquired as to what I was doing, and why i needed so much cord!! I assured him I was not some sort of murderer/bondage fan, and showed him some photos of my rainbows!

Since then, I've been steadily making rainbows in all sizes and colour combinations, and making good on one of my lockdown resolutions - to use up my entire wool stash!!

They are very therapeutic to make, and I might sneakily add one to every window in our flat (we have 5 - haha!)

Lockdown Life

I don't think any of us could have expected this would happen  - seeing as it hasn't really happened since the Spanish Flu pandemic. Anyway, the whole world is on lockdown, and I think here in the UK, we have it pretty relaxed. Speaking to friends in other countries, they are actually in lockdown, whereas because we can still go out to the supermarkets, to exercise, it has seemed much less like a lockdown here.

I've been using the opportunity (and extra time now I'm not going out socialising) to make make make! Thankfully I'm a craft hoarder, so have loads of materials to keep me going for weeks yet!! And have found the time has been going so so quickly!!

I've also been using the time to think of 3 things every day, that I'm grateful for. Sometimes it's as trivial as cheese, but I do find that starting the day on such a positive note, really does help with your general outlook.

I've been mainly grateful for all the incredible NHS workers - from the top doctors, to the cleaners, porters and canteen staff - they are all heroes!

I've been incredibly grateful for the postal workers! Our postman turns up every day with a smile on his face, and they have helped me to keep my business going whilst markets are cancelled, and give me some much needed income!!

I'm grateful for all the supermarket staff who are keeping us in tasty meals!! And all the small food businesses who have switched to deliveries to keep themselves in business!

I'm grateful for technology that means we can video call - I feel like I've seen more people that I maybe normally would have!! And when you see someone's face, it's much easier to feel like you've seen them!!

I'm grateful for the sunshine (and the week of rain as all the plants needed it), when you're outside and feel the warmth of the sun on your skin, it's definitely good for your happiness levels!!

I'm grateful for friends and neighbours looking out for eachother! We have a lovely community in our block of flats, and I have amazing friends who have done things like found yeast for me!! It's like gold dust!!

I'm grateful that I live in a lovely little flat, and actually like my boyfriend, so we are quite happy spending all this time together, and can live quite happily in such a small space.

I'm grateful for my balcony and hammock, so I can feel like I'm on holiday!

I'm grateful for all my gin birthday presents - keeping us well stocked with essentials!

I'm grateful for the break we are giving to the world. I know it's killing the economy, but it's great for nature!

There are many many more things too, but I think this is enough typing for now, and I must get back to sewing!!

Sun Hats

So last year, I finally got round to sewing some reversible fabric sun hats - having been asked for them many many times. It took me a few pattern tweaks, to find one I was happy with, and I sewed them in 2 sizes.

They were so popular, it was great! Unfortunately, I hadn't planned far enough in advance, so sold out pretty quickly!

Since then, a friend asked for matching hats for her new baby, and herself, so I graded my pattern to include baby and adult sizes.

So here they are - ready for launch tomorrow - take a look....

Four Sizes available - from Baby to Adult!

Quarantine Sewing

Wow - how much has the world changed, since my last post. I don't think any of us can have totally adjusted to lockdown yet - I still struggle to know what day it is - and keep wanting to check my diary, in case I miss something - even though my 2020 diary is currently pretty redundant.

However, my flat is full of craft supplies (I reckon I could keep going for a good six months, before I totally ran out of craft supplies!!

I started by updated my mobile stock. I was still quite sold out after a busy Christmas season, and hadn't quite caught up, so I now have pretty much caught up, as well as adding some new ideas, which I've had in my head for a while...

I've also had a few name banner orders - here are some photos of those....

These last few days, I've been busy working on another project....photos to follow....