Vintage...sorry but I just don't get it

I own a Vintage Singer sewing machine, I know it is vintage because it's from the war time comes in it's original box with instructions and I can look up it's serial number to find when it was produced. You can see a picture of it above, it's so cute! (even if it does need the belt replacing). I'm going to take it with me for our craft fair at the weekend, as a prop to give the feel of a sewing room for our stall. If I can pull it off that is.

When my mother came to visit we went to have a look around Cardiff town centre at all the arcades and the architecture within. My mother really likes the "vintage" vibe, so we popped in several shops claiming to be vintage. To be honest, the majority of them I felt like I should have taken her to Oxfam or some other charity shop. With the exception of a few I felt like the shops had just completely missed the point of what vintage is all about.

When I think of vintage the first thing that springs to mind is wartime and rations. I class vintage as anything that's about 50 years old or more. Maybe I am wrong, but I like to think of these items being incredibly well made and bespoke items. Such things as handmade flapper dresses, crocheted cotton lace dresses with hand sewn linings, and beautiful brooches. However, what you seem to get in the shops these days are cheap imitations and trying to find the gold within these "junk" stores is more frustrating than trying to find a good fit of a t-shirt (that's another story).

What annoys me the most is when something is sold as "vintage" when in fact it is "vintage style". I once bought a scarf for my sister that claimed to be vintage, when it arrived it was packaged appallingly and I complained to the seller. Real vintage items should be treated with care and love, they're like little old ladies trying to cross a road they have lasted this long and we should endeavour to ensure they last a little while longer.

Although, the real bee in my bonnet is items that are classed as vintage, yet they were only in fashion 5-10 years ago. That's not vintage people, that's just tat. Oh well, sorry for the moan everyone I just really don't get what all the fuss is about.

Jar of goodies giveaway

Well we promised our Facebook followers that when we got to 500 likes we would host a giveaway, we're now at 600 likes and really should do this now.

So here's how it will work. We've just gone through our stock and picked out some lovely jubblies and popped them into a jar. We've created a rafflecopter for you to enter. There are little tasks with points, the more points the more entries you get. The winner will be announced on the 17th June.

The jar consists of the following:

1m pale blue 20mm cotton webbing

50g baby pink mix buttons

50g nursery mix buttons

30cm olive green leaf trim

1m pink 20mm cotton webbing

5m 9mm baby blue satin

10 15mm mother of pearl

1m 20mm cotton music notes

1.5m 16mm leopard print

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday Make....Pin Cushions

I absolutely love quilting, I have about 3 quilts that are "in progress" and one of them has been "in progress" for almost a year now. However, that is a queen size and I think I took on too big a project with that one, seeing as it was my first. Oh well, I will finish it at some point.

Anyway, I am forever trying to stuff pins in things, normally in my sleeve or scattered on the floor/desk/cats/etc. So I thought it was about time I made a really simple pin cushion. Given this one isn't finished as it requires a button in the middle and the side to be hand sewn, but you get the idea.

For all of those wanting to make on yourself here's how:

Materials:
2 contrasting cotton materials
1 piece of lace or curtain netting
rotary cutter or scissors
pins
sewing machine (obviously)
button
stuffing
ruler

 

1. Cut 4 squares each 2.5 inches width and height from both fabrics (8 squares in total)
2. Sew one square of one fabric to one square of another fabric along one side using a 1/4 inch seam. Do this until you have 4 rectangle pieces
3. Sew one rectangle piece to another rectangle piece, making sure the squares are contrasting when pieced together. You'll end up with a square.
4. Place the two squares right side together and sew all the way around the outside leaving a 2 inch gap (mine is always about 1 inch whoops) for turning and then stuffing.
5. Turn the squares the right side round and stuff with stuffing.
6. Sew up the open section with ladder stitch
7. Take your button and sew it onto the middle, you'll need to get your needle all the way through the stuffed square here to give it a nice puckered effect.
8. Poke pins in the top and voila you have a finished pin cushion.

Sewing satin ribbon

This weekend I've been busy getting bits and pieces ready for the craft fair my sister and I are doing on the 12th. The majority of the items I make are small, and I really wanted some pieces that were going to attract the eye and cause some interest. So I drove over to our local fabric shop and bought some lovely spotty fabrics to go with the linen look cottons I had already purchased.

I had my own reel of white satin ribbon I'd bought long before I started to stock ribbon, and I cut 25cm pieces. I then drew a heart on some card and drew directly onto the fabric with a fabric pen. I did quickly learn the easiest way to sew a heart is to cut the fabric loosely, mostly in a square, then sew along the outline of the heart.

One thing I didn't think about though was that the satin ribbon would fray and when pulled would tear, whoops! I learned this the hard way and now have extra lavender hearts, oh well.

So...how do you stop a satin ribbon tie from fraying whilst still looking pretty?
 Many sewing machines have different settings on them. A zigzag stitch, when the heart is stuffed, will show the stitching through the edges. So I chose an elastic overlock stitch instead. This gave me the zigzag I needed to stop the ribbon from fraying, but also gave the straight stitch edge to stop the stitching showing when the heart was stuffed.

You can see the results in the picture above, cute huh?

Craft Fair Enquiries

The business has been running for almost two months now, wow that went quickly! However, I still know very few handcraft businesses in the area. So I've decided to leave the house, shock, shock, horror, horror!

We're going to be taking part in a couple of craft fairs over the summer. So get your pens and diaries ready for where you can find us up close and personal. We'll be taking along with us a collection of our ribbons, fabrics, buttons & felts. As well as handcrafted homeware & purses as examples of lovely things you can do with our supplies.

We'll be giving our discount codes for our online shop on the day as well, so even more incentive if not just to come and touch 'n' feel the lovely items.

12th May 2013 - Wimborne Bake & Craft Fair
My sister Lindsey signed us up for this one as it's local to her and my parents. Our stall is going to have a lovely cottage feel to it, I've got a selection of new ribbons to take with me, and I'll have been sewing for the past fortnight to have lots of lovely bits and pieces on the stall including frame purses, some quilted linen cushions, and Lindsey is making some gorgeous crocheted items too.

26th May 2013 - Barry Leisure Centre Family Fun Day - 10am - 3pm
I've just signed us up for this lovely little vegan craft fair. It's likely only to be myself, not Lindsey going along so she'll be in charge of the online side of things that day. I've been told there's an Alice in Wonderland Theme, so I will have to get my thinking cap on as to how we can setup our stall within the theme. Hopefully it'll also involve some fancy dress too, what fun! If you're a reader of mine from Wales, please come along and say hello.

3rd - 4th August 2013 - Red Dragon Centre, Cardiff
Just across the way from where I live we'll be in the Red Dragon Centre for the weekend. There's ample parking and lots of places to eat. Even better it's around the corner from Cardiff Bay's beautiful harbour and the Doctor Who experience. So pop down to say hello if you're in the neighbourhood. We'll be there until 7pm and it's the perfect time to stock up on supplies whilst you start to think about what you'll be making for Christmas.

Feedly review

I promised I would come back to you with how I have been getting on with Feedly. Since the demise of Google Reader was announced I've been testing Feedly for reading RSS feed blogs. To be honest with your dear readers, I'm absolutely loving it.

I love that I can group the blogs I read into categories.
I love that I can read the latest ones first.
I love how everything is just there on a screen.

Do you feel the love?

The only thing I don't like, is to comment I have to click the blog and then scroll to the bottom of the post away from Feedly. If there was an option to do this all in one, then I would be super, super happy!

However, Feedly gets a 4.5/5 fantastic product.

Oh for the love of SEO, Google is King

I'm a lover of sharing information, particularly information that helps fellow crafters who are trying to survive in a world dominated by corporations. This post is no different, I want to tell you the latest thing I've discovered about SEO (search engine optimization).

So, you have your product, and your lovely photos and your lovely website, but sales are minimal if even any at all. So you start to look into ways to get yourself noticed. There are many different ways including paying for advertising. But, give that we're small businesses we can rarely afford to pay £100's for advertising. So, where to start?

I'm going to let you in on the research I've done this week. Google is one of, if not THE biggest search engine going. More organic searches come from Google than any other search engine, I know I for one use it for 100% of my searches it's even built into my browser.

There are a number of different things that you can do to increase your Page Rank (what Google uses to determine where you come in the search results).

1. Create a Google+ account - this is easy and if you have gmail you're already part-way there.
2. Create a Google+ page for your website - make sure you create as a local page, as Google will give you more weighting for local searches.
3. Link your website to Google+ - medium difficulty, you need to have admin details for webmaster tools (NB. if you use create.net then you can indeed access this)
4. Add the Google+ badge to your site so people can directly add you to their circles.
5. Build meaningful circles - invite your friends, people in the same industry, all those lovely crafters you've met. However, don't just add people for the sake of it. Social engineering is all about meaningful relationships, one person that interacts with your 10 times a week is better than 10 who interact with you once a month.
6. Connect your blogger to Google+ - this helps you engage more of your readers.
7. Interact - Google+ has communities that should be relevant with your industry, join in with the discussions and look for local communities also.
8. Get your website verified by Google - you can only do this once you've built a meaningful circle, but it's meant to vastly improve your search rating

This is just a drop in the ocean for how to improve your SEO, but if you start here then you're onto a winner already. Then you can look at things like Google Keyword Tool for writing descriptions and meta information. Oh and don't forget commenting on  blogs and the many other things we're supposed to do too.

Knowing Your Rights

When buying goods it's essential to know your rights and where you stand should something go wrong. There are a number of different consumer laws available to protect you.

If buying goods from the internet then you are covered under Distance Selling Regulations, and you have the right to reject an item you change your mind about. The buyer has to refund you the cost of the item, and you pay your own return postage. This gives you the same rights as if you were to go to a shop. Some buyers will also refund you the cost of the postage paid.

If however an item is faulty, or not as described, then you are covered by the Sale of Goods Act 1979. This law entitles the buyer to be returned to the same state they were in before they purchased the item, this includes return postage. You are within your rights to request the seller make their own arrangements for collection of the item, or ask them to refund you the cost of the delivery. In this case the buyer should be returned all monies paid.

Any seller refusing you your statutory rights can be taken to court.

At Fabridashery, unless the item is custom i.e. cut ribbon/non pre-cut fabric, we will issue a full refund once the items are returned to us for "change of mind" goods. If however the items are faulty, rest assured we will issue a full refund including outgoing and return postage.

Great British Sewing Bee

Over the past few weeks I've been eagerly watching The Great British Sewing Bee. I've never watched the Great British Bake Off so I can't give my opinion on the comparison of the two. But what I did love was how they made sewing seem fun and easy. I can just imagine the people of Britain watching the television thinking "ooh I could do that!"

This has also inspired me to make a dress for an upcoming wedding. I've used SewDirect and signed up for their magazine at just £7.50 every third month. For your money you get the magazine, two free Vogue patterns and half price patterns, bargain! especially given that a pattern can cost anything up to £14ish.

What I loved most about the GBSB was the fact they had people from all walks of life. This programme wasn't just about sewing, it was about getting people back doing things of creativity, making things from scratch and enjoying the things they made.

So, what did you think of the GBSB? Did you enjoy it? Do you think the right person won? I'm not going to put who won here in case those of you reading haven't seen the programme yet. But my favourite person, I loved them from the moment we first saw them, was the one to win. Hurray!

New Arrivals - May Arts Ribbon

May Arts ribbon is an exquisite craft & dressmaking ribbon produced by American manufacturers May Arts.

We're currently awaiting stock of a fantastic range of their ribbons, from leopard print satin to gold leaf, from fun polka dots to gorgeous ginghams.

We're super excited about this range, and hope you will be too. Look out for them arriving in our shop over the weekend.

Spring Forward & A Sponsored Cycle

So apparently spring is on it's way and to be honest it can't come quick enough, I'm completely fed up of reading everyones status updates about the weather. I have windows, I normally look out of them at least once a day, so why I need to be told what I'm already seeing I have no idea. This winter seems to have been especially bad for it, the tiniest bit of snow and people are moaning. Well, I managed to buy two cats from various snow engulfed places in The Valleys during the worst of it, and I drive a little Seat Ibiza so it can't have been that bad (nb. I might have almost got stuck up a very snowy hill!!! But I did manage to get up it in the end).

I really do hope that the weather does get a little warmer by Wednesday though, as I am doing a sponsored cycle ride from Thames Valley Park in Reading, to Stonehenge in Salisbury. It's over 59 miles and the furthest I've been in the past 10 years is 15 miles to Castell Coch and back (that was on Saturday). We're raising money for Sustrans - Sustainable Transport, who over the past 30 years have been working on making safe routes for cyclists and pedestrians alike.

If you would like to sponsor me then I have a JustGiving page and if you would like to find out more about Sustrans then you can check out their website.

This weeks Craftyfolk featured shop is Lynwoodcrafts, and here's my treasury with one of their items - dedicated to spring.

'Spring Forward' by kerrirobberts

Purple flower earrings,... jinjajewellery £10.00	Botanical Flower Waterc... michelewebber £44.00	Rabbit Brooch, Flower F... LaurasJeweller... £6.00	Lilac and Pink Flower B... PatsParapherna... £10.00
Lace Flowers Hair Piece... nurichant $9.90	Heather Necklace, Real ... JustKJewellery £12.50	Embroidered Pendant - L... Lynwoodcrafts £13.00	Personalised Pendant Ar... Careish £9.00
Violet Blossoms bobby p... themagpiesdaug... $11	Pressed flowers pendant... AmazoniaAccess... $19	Sunflower Flower Coaste... TheYarnOwlsNes... £6.00	Wild Flower Card, Blank CShellCards £3.00
Purple with Green Cente... harmony5 $7	Green Flower Buttons Ha... averilpam £4.20	flower pendant necklace... jcudesigns £9.00	Foam flower embellishme... Christinescraf... £1.25

Spelt shortbread biscuits

We have an abundance of spelt flour in our house at the moment, this is thanks to my bulk buying addiction. We were making our own bread in the bread maker, but because I can't really stomach wheat we were having to use spelt flour. Unfortunately, due to the low gluten content the spelt bread wasn't coming out very well. So we've given up on that idea and chosen packet mixes instead. We now have artisan bread for about 45p a loaf, which compared to The Evil Giant Supermarkets isn't a bad price.

So what is a girl to do with over 8kg of white and 8kg of brown spelt flour. Well I decided to try my hand at making some shortbread biscuits. I should give the disclaimer that in our household my other half is the chef, I always, always burn things!

A quick search on google showed me a really simple recipe on the bbc website for shortbread biscuits. The ingredients are very simple:
125g/4oz butter
55g/2oz caster sugar
180g/6oz plain spelt flour (white or brown it doesn't matter)

I whizzed the butter and sugar in the Magimix until I couldn't hear anymore clunking noises (told you about my cooking skills). Then I threw in all the flour and set it whizzing again, after about 30 seconds I took a spatula and scraped the sides, then I whizzed for another 30 seconds. The recipes never tell you about spatulas and bits stuck to edges.

I threw down some flour on the work surface and rolled out the dough. Unfortunately it was at this point that I forgot I needed to read the recipe and I rolled it out too thin. You definitely need to make sure it's at least 1cm thick or the biscuits will be too thin.

Throw the biscuits haphazardly onto a baking tray, prick with a fork over and over about 5 forks to each biscuit. Ooh I forgot you should have cut the biscuits into fingers by now. Dust with some caster sugar and bake for around 10-15 minutes. Do not let them go brown, if they go brown then they are burnt, as I found out.

When cooked, leave to cool on a wire rack and eat with coffee or tea. Delicious!

The death of Google Reader...what next?

I normally read blog posts via email, but as you can imagine this is now starting to take up quite a lot of email real-estate, not only that but they're not very easy to search.

I've never tried Google Reader, but from what I have read it was the be all and end all of readers. It read through the RSS feeds from the blogs you wanted to follow and produced them in a lovely little format for you to read.

So with it dying in x amount of days, I'm off on a ponder of the interwebs in search of a replacement. Not only are blogs excellent sources of knowledge, but they're fantastic for those little things we like to call backlinks ;) I always forget which blogs I've posted on, so having an aggregated list in one place is just what I need.

So, for the next few days I am going to trying out Feedly. So far it looks like I can add the sites I want to read which is a plus and search for articles, which makes finding new sites simple.

I shall report back.

April New Stock

We've been open for almost a month now and had a flurry of sales, which is all very exciting. So I thought it was about time we showed you some of our latest products that we have available.

I'm always looking for new stock to purchase for lovely people like you to use with your crafts. Most of this months inspiration came from fellow crafters asking on our Facebook Page

We now offer double-faced satin ribbon in various widths starting at just 15p per metre.

Our satin ribbon is of exceptional quality and would be perfect for hair bows, ribbon flowers, trims for papercraft, and much, much more.

We stock Bertie's Bows ribbon currently, but can also stock Berisfords.

After speaking to a lady that required feathers for her granddaughters squaw costume, we raced over to our supplier in Bristol and now stock 4 inch marabou feathers.

We offer them for just 20p per feather, or you can buy packs of 10 for £1.70 or 20 for £2.30.

Available in 12 different colours.

 This month we ordered these fabulous button mixes. We keep our in kilner jars.

They are available in 50g mixed bags in the following colours: pinks, blues, nursery mix, pastel mix

We're hoping to order some more colours later in the month

Fabulous Friday - Wild Game

I recently started feeding our siamese and our bengal cat a raw meat diet. The first thing I tried them on was raw chicken wing tips. After a short persuasion both of them were chowing down, although to be honest the sound of crunching bones is quite repulsive and I don't want to feed them those too often. Or at least if I do I won't be in the room.The next thing to try them on was some Natures Instinct pre-made complete food. I purchased it from their website and it arrived the next day. There were four flavours to choose from: chicken & beef, chicken & lamb, wild rabbit, game bird. From reading reviews other people had found the game bird to be one of the best to try them on. At first they were a little hesitant, but last night they couldn't get enough of it. I imagine if they could catch pheasant and wild pigeon themselves they would be very chuffed and this is the closest they will get as house cats.

So all in all the switch has been successful. I almost wanted to try game bird burgers myself, but being a veggie household that's never going to happen.Anyway, here is my wild game inspired treasury. Please click on the photos to be taken to the relevant Etsy shop/item.

'Wild game' by kerrirobberts

A treasury inspired by the brown & red team theme, and also featuring todays Red Hot 100 item

Book Cover Bag BABUSHKA... WhimsyWooDesig... £19.00	Robin Bird Necklace Pen... Larryware £5.50	Nautical Rope Manila an... TheLandlockedS... £40.50	Cocktail hat, Mocha Flo... talulahblue £35.00
autumn photography- lan... sandraarduinip... £16.88	Fabric iPhone sleeve, i... Enchantingcraf... $8.5	Flower Hair Clips, Brow... nurichant $9.9	Couture dog collar with... Poochville $48
Wood Deer Stag Carved W... mish73 $6.5	Red Grouse greetings ca... thecurioustree... £1.50	Keepsake Box with Cherr... dottiedesignsx... £9.95	Ridgways Shelton Staffo... mish73 £3.85
Wire Wrap Ring Amber Gl... gimmethatthing £9.75	Miss Scarlet. Red Cockt... talulahblue £32.00	Crochet flower hair cli... Christinescraf... £4.00	Button Large Flower Bri... averilpam £2.00