All about the tablecloth
Almost to the day, two years ago, I found a hand embroidered tablecloth in a local charity shop. The stitches were beautiful. Clusters of flowers, joined by ribbons and bows. I cannot imagine how long it took the stitcher to stitch the whole cloth. It looks like love has been poured into the piece. All those little, precise stitches sewn in colourful threads. It hadn’t faded either.
I could be over romanticizing it, of course. It has been known. The embroiderer might have hated it. Completing it under duress. Stabbing the linen with each stitch, but I don’t think so. Something made them finish it. The stitches are too good. I can’t believe they didn’t feel some joy while making it. That’s good enough for me. I’m going with the love. Just look at those flowers. I’d be proud to make it.
Needless to say, I wasn’t going to allow it to languish on the charity shop shelf any longer. It needed to be used and admired.
So I brought it home. Washed it. Used it once. Then put it away in the cupboard and there it stayed.
Sigh.
Part of the problem was that I wanted to use it outside. Now we tend to use a parasol for the tables outside, to provide extra shade. Any cloth we use would need a hole slap bang in the middle, which my rescued table cloth did not have.
A couple of days ago, inspiration struck. I’d make a hole. Not a big light bulb moment, admittedly, but maybe I needed the two years to realise I wasn’t going to use the table cloth for anything else, and it wasn’t going to be used unless a hole was cut.
Deep breath. Scissors out. Snip.
To tidy the cut edges and stop it fraying, I encased them in bias binding. I had just enough off-white coloured binding for the straight edges. I used a dark red to go round the hole. I hand stitched most of it, as I wanted to keep it true to its original making style.
Diving into my ribbon drawer, I found two pieces of red gingham ribbon. Different widths, but I decided the smaller one would look good at the table cloth edge without overpowering the surrounding flowers and the wider one would work in the centre.
They don’t distract from the embroidered flowers.
Final touch was to make a cream tea and serve it outside today. (Scones, with jam and cream, and tea.) I think it was a bit of a surprise for the children when they got in from school. Fine china and cream teas is not an every day occurrence. Never to miss out on a good thing, the children seemed to take the change of routine in their stride. Scones soon disappeared. Let’s hope they don’t expect this every day from now on.
I’m so glad I gave the table cloth a new lease of life. It should stay on more times out of ten, against the wind too. I don’t know the story behind the cloth and how it ended up in a charity shop, but I hope the person who made it would appreciate the care I’ve taken and the use it will now get.
Handknitted gloves – thrifty
Making the most of the merest of sprinkling of snow to take my photos today. Perfect backdrop for my latest finished knitting project. Grey against the white seems to show these gloves off at their best. Although, I bet the hot chocolate takes the focus. It certainly kept my hands even warmer, during the photo shoot, and the contents soon disappeared. Brr! It sure was chilly out there.
But back to the gloves. It’s been eons since I last knitted gloves. Mittens are fast and furious to knit, and easy for young children to wear. So knitting mittens have been a natural course in the last few years. I have created basketfuls of mittens since becoming a mother. Seriously. Basketfuls.
So why gloves now? Cold hands. Walking to school, last week, I had three choices: big, chunky gloves, fingerless gloves or nothing. None seemed to fit the bill exactly.
Back home, I dug out my Grandma’s glove pattern. I’ve used it before. Also, a couple of balls of wool picked up last year from a charity shop for 50p. ( I know, 50p!) The yarn is Sirdar Freya – short and brushed winter cotton grey. Not a yarn mixture I’d normally choose. That’s true for the colour too.
Grey is not kind to my complexion, or the increasing grey in my hair. I like grey. I even like the grey in my hair, but combining too much grey, saps all the other colour out of me.
Gloves are a perfect solution. Not near my face – well not often. I’m incredibly glad I bought this wool in the end. I was surprised at how exceedingly warm it turned out. It is described as brushed, which does seem to trap the warmth, as it should. Being a cotton blend, it has less give than wool, when you’re knitting it, but wonderfully luxurious when finished.
The glove pattern was printed in 1975. I like using it. Next time, I might down size the needles when knitting the cuff, as it could be a bit more snug.
Grandma has added her notes to the pattern. Judging by her numbers, she counted every other row and used it a few times. There is something comforting about using a pattern that she would have knitted on a similar cold, winter evening too.
Something new. I used a tip I picked up on Pinterest to prevent holes where the glove splits into fingers. I usually end up stitching closed resulting holes. For those of you that knit gloves and have the same issue, the answer is to cross over two stitches, as you split the glove. It fixes the problem very neatly.
I love my new gloves. They are lovely to wear. Warm without being too chunky. Not itchy, in the least. For the ladies’s size, it uses 60g of yarn. Three balls of 20g each, according to the instructions. I like the idea that you could walk into your local wool shop and buy a 20g ball with no problem or compromise. It makes sense. Multiples of 20. Less yarn left over, as you can buy nearer to the required quantity.
For these gloves, I started with 100g of yarn, I still have about 40g left of it. It might make a smaller pair. I know my boy hopes they do. He’d like a pair too. For the school run, of course. Can you imagine? If I manage it, I’ll have made two pairs of warm, luxurious gloves for 50p. Just goes to show that sometimes those odd balls of yarn in charity shops may be a better bargain than you thought.
If that’s not a good reason to learn to knit, then I really don’t know a better.
And I made a cushion too
There is something truly satisfying when a modest charity find turns into more than originally imagined. When you spot something you like, take it home, and find the perfect place for it. Doesn’t always work, but over the years, I have had a few notable wins.
Take the half finished curtain I found a few years ago. As soon as I spotted the blue fish, I fell in love with the fabric. So I paid the princely price of £2 (I know, unbelievable – and it was lined) and brought it home.
It was too long for the bathroom window, so I cut the bottom off and hemmed it. It really worked well in the bathroom. I discovered, printed on the selvedge “Ralph Lauren – Home”. Hmm. I have expensive taste. Somehow it seemed even more of a bargain for my £2 investment.
The curtain is still in use in the bathroom. It has survived the dirty hands, and been washed many times. This is good quality fabric. It’s showing no signs of needing to be replaced.
This left the cut off fabric. It has been sitting in my fabric cupboard, all this time. Making me smile every time I see the fish. They are so beautiful. I needed to make something from the fabric. This week, I finally took the plunge. (pun intended)
After all, I have a good reason. For the first time, I’ve got a dedicated sewing room. Happy times! No longer do I need to clear my current project away, every time we sit down, as a family, to eat. I even can grab the odd 10 minutes to sew. Oh bliss!
I wanted to make something special for my new work space. There was enough fabric to make a cushion. Even allowing for a bit of fussy cutting, to position a whole fish on the front. Using my rotary cutter, I sliced the fabric into three pieces, to make an envelope style cushion.
Hmm. What do I spy? It seems my new area has attracted a helper. Just the right height for him to stand and play assist.
The fabric is lovely. I love the fish, but I wanted to make it mine. Like a fairy godmother, I added a splash of mini pom-poms and a sprinkle of sequins. Maybe not quite so many sequins as my assistant suggested, but one in each of the fish eyes would do. (I wonder if he would have suggested so many if it was left to him to sew them on………..)
We had a bit of a debate about which way up this particular fish was meant to be. Fortunately, an “up” symbol was printed on the fabric (first time I’ve seen this symbol – very useful), which proves that this is the way the fish is swimming. Swim, fishy, swim.
On the back, I managed to position two more fish. Ideally, I might have avoided some of the extra blue, but there really wasn’t much fabric left to play with.
Now my new sewing room has a cushion. Before I show you where I put the cushion, do you fancy a quick tour of my new area? So glad you do. Come this way. It’s alright, we haven’t got time for me to show you everything, just the layout.
I have a sewing table, where my machine is permanently set up. Remember the pots I made and turned one into a pincushion. It’s looking quite at home by my faithful machine. And very useful it is too.
Next to the table is my bureau, which used to belong to my Grandma, and before her, my Great Grandfather. I’m using it as my work desk. I can swivel around on my chair from the desk to the sewing table and around again to the ironing board. Even my fabric cupboards are in easy reach. I couldn’t have designed it more perfectly.
Everything is white (at the moment), apart from the bureau and the floor. This is the one room in the house that I cannot reach the ceilings. Really, I mean it. Most of the rooms I can reach without resorting to standing on tippy toes. Old cottages have low ceilings. This room used to be the old wash house. Tacked on the side of the cottage. When we renovated it, we raised the roof just that little bit more and added velux windows. I’m hoping to maximize the light.
So there you are. End of tour. The cushion is to live on my chair. And very comfortable it is too. Avert your eyes from the dangling cables. I’m still setting every thing up. Although the sockets could not be better positioned. Instead, take a sneaky look at the work-in-progress, hanging up to the right, that is next on my list.
My thrifty find, four years ago, really did work out well. I now have a beautiful bathroom curtain plus a fun cushion. And the fabric cost me not a penny more than £2. Just goes to show, it’s worth popping into a charity shop, on the off chance of a bargain. You never know what you will find.
Linking up with Thrifty Thursday.
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