Sauntering about in Sussex...

Yesterday, I had occasion to be down near the South Coast in the picturesque town of Lewes. I've visited 3 times in the last 6 months and I always enjoy looking around its little alleys and in its huge array of independent shops. It feels like a such a relaxed place and you get the impression that everyone knows each other.

For those of you who've never been there its famous for, among other things, its incredible and surreal bonfire night celebrations:

Red flares and pirates, what more could you want?

This picture was taken last bonfire night. I'd never been before but now I hope to make a tradition of it!

Anyhow, while I was wandering about looking for some lunch before I got on the train home, I came across The Needlemakers. I've just looked it up and, unsurprisingly, it used to be a needle factory (during WW1) and now its a group of little shops and a cafe. One of these shops was the sort of craft haven that could have been dangerous in terms of money spent if I was feeling particularly flush. It was called The Patchwork Dog and Basket (http://www.patchworkdogandbasket.co.uk/) and had an extraordinary array of cotton fabrics, buttons, ribbons and craft books (and a little dog welcoming you when you entered!)

The Patchwork Dog and Basket

The fabrics and such were arranged all over the small room making it seem like the shop itself was wrapped in a colourful quilt. I could have spent all day in there thinking about potential projects and dreaming about turning each fabric into a dress or accessory, but I tried to keep myself grounded in the reality of my bank balance and the fact that it took 3 hours to get home.

In the end I bought some buttons to turn into a necklace and earrings (or at least that's my intention!) and a fat 1/4 (strange term...must look it up) of daisy covered cotton to add to my 'fabric stash' as the craft books would call it.

(Fat Quarter apparently refers to a quarter of a square metre of fabric, usually used for quilting...so I guess its 'Fat' because its a square 1/4 metre rather than a long thin 1/4 metre. Still, lets not give it a complex, eh?)

Its always nice to find new crafty places to explore, you find inspiration and, usually, something different that you never thought existed (and immediately think of a million reasons why it has to become part of you craft-kit...). As useful as the internet is for finding things, it'll never take the place of spending an hour or two sifting through the wares of a beautiful little shop.

In any case, I enjoyed my time in there and was glad it took up so much time otherwise I might have caught more logical trains and then I would have missed out on the chance to visit this wonderful place:

Don't you agree?

Some places like to put up signs to associate their stations with local universities, some with historical significance but Redhill, fantastically, chooses to put up a sign about signs! Oh, I do enjoy a good pun...after all, a good pun is its own reword. 

Apparently, embarrassment breeds creativity...

On my way home today, I visited a local charity shop to check out its wares. Usually a good place for inspiration (and a cheap place to find materials). I quickly found a few of dresses to try on and headed into the small changing cubicle to the side of the till. The one I had been most drawn to was a white and green number with a full twirly skirt and, not one to be deterred completely by it being labelled a tad too small, I tried it on.

After several minutes of swearing and tugging, I managed to get it over my shoulders. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that although the top was far too small, that the skirt part fit perfectly, but nonetheless it was a whole dress not a skirt. I was about to disguard it and leave empty-handed when fate decided to meddle...

Getting the dress back over my head proved more difficult, even, than getting it on and, perhaps inevitably, I heard a tiny, but very definite, ripping sound. I stood completely still in the changing room wondering what to do and hoping against hope that the women behind the desk in the shop hadn't heard it. In that moment out of embarrassment was born inspiration: if I cut the skirt part off the top part and moved the zip from the top to the bottom, it could be a skirt and, more importantly, I wouldn't have to explain the rip to the volunteers. I had been in the changing room for a pretty long time by now so took a deep breath and pulled, no longer worried about ripping: I had a plan. When I had got it over my head, I bought the dress and hurried home to put the plan into action.

The dress (well the top of it...) scissors poised!

 

 

 

 

 

 

First I pinned the lining to the outer fabric and cut across the waistline of the dress. I then cut the zip out of the top half with a couple of centimetres of fabric either side of it (important later...).

Next I pinned the top edge of the skirt into a more finished hem-edge by rolling it over. On the side of the skirt, I undid one seam (on both the outer layer and the lining) so that I could put the zip in. Now, I've always been told that putting in zips is REALLY TRICKY (N.B Capitals to suggest gravitas and the sheer number of times I've been told this) but the way I've done it, it was incredibly easy. The spare bits of fabric either side of the zip itself helped immensely (see, told you they would be important!) because I could just pin the opened seam edges to the zip edges and machine-sew up the sides: what could be simpler? I'm fully willing to admit that it might be much harder on a garment that you've fully made yourself but I'm still going to bask in the glory of my fully-functioning and evenly spaced zip!

   
Once the zip was pinned in, I went around the hem of the top edge and crossed my fingers. At this point, I was still kind of expecting it not to work: it would fall down or be banana shaped and not skirt shaped anymore or just not fit and I'd have to go back to the drawing board and add a panel or something.

Happily, it has worked perfectly! Now an embarrassing incident has yielded a lovely summery skirt (and a blog post!) and it only took about an hour altogether. Now to think of something to do with the top half... 

Voila, the finished skirt!

                                                                                         

Got a name, now get typing...

I've been thinking about blogging for a long time, but just one thing stood in my way...thinking of a name. I went through some truly awful names (from the pretentious to the tenuous to the downright odd) and thought I'd hit a brick wall and the damn thing would never get off the virtual ground...

Today, though, I sat down at the computer and inspiration hit. I'm halfway through a craft project that was born out of seeing something beautiful and imagining what, with a bit of patience and know-how, I could turn it into. I added my imagination to it hence: Imagination Added. Not too complicated a story really, but its what I do. I see a nice button, add imagination and it becomes earrings; find a bit of fabric in the back of a cupboard, add imagination and it becomes a t-shirt, belt and brooch; have some creme-de-cassis that needs to be finished before moving house, add imagination (and pancake mixture) and create a delicious dessert; find a too-small dress in a charity shop (full story to follow...), add imagination and it becomes a skirt!

I've always been a day dreamer (as my doodle-covered notebooks will attest) but most of my ideas tend to get written down in the aforementioned doodle-books and forgotten about. Recently, though, I've done some mental knuckle-cracking and whenever an idea comes to me I've tried my best to follow it through. And I've discovered that, cliched as it might be, the only limit to the possibilities is my ability to imagine what they could be...

Lets see what happens...