Linen and lace scarf and the old bed cover

Last week, I was at one of my favorite second hand stores. In the bin of damaged vintage linens was a hand made white cotton filet lace bed cover. Once well loved and used, now relegated to the damaged bin at the second hand store. I love this type of find. Damaged means free license to cut up and repurpose.

For this repurpose, I went to Pinterest and in my "I could make this" folder was this scarf:

The scarf is from a French blog called Petites Choses. Here is the original blog from 2012. I love the look, but pulling off this type of scarf takes the right type of fringe and  vintage lace.

 

Also in the same Pinterest folder is this scarf:

It is from a blog called stylewip, click here to see the original blog post from 2009. Again, the same idea, this time a solid cashmere knit for the scarf with lace used at both ends. This one is beautiful as well and is more do-able from a lace prospectus. At the same time less texturally interesting from the lace point of view than the first one. 

Armed with ideas, it was time to wait for the right lace to fall into my stash. The right type of lace could be those vintage covers they used to put on the back and arms of chairs to keep the dirt off the chair's fabric. Easy to find in US antique shops. the problem is I am not in the United States and evidentially the French made the type to protect where the head hits the chair, but I have never found the part that covers the arms. At the second hand store I found something that would work in the vintage linen damaged bin

 

Now to my scarf... Here was my starting point: On the bottom is the bed cover:

Folded on top of that is a meter of loosely woven linen, I picked up in Paris, in a nice antique light brown color and on top of the linen is a box of threads and yarns I might be able to use.

 

The loosely woven linen would normally be used in curtains but, if washed turns soft and very useable for a scarf. The threads and yards have been bought at various yard sales and flea markets. All different weights of threads in linen, cotton and silk,

 

Now for the construction of the scarf. The width of the scarf is 27 cm (10.5 inches). The width was determined by the repeat size of the pattern of the fringed portion of the bed cover. The length of the filet piece without the fringe is 33cm (13inches) and the linen is one meter long (40 inches). The seam joining the linen and filet is flat felled so that the seam is finished from both sides. The sides were finished with a serger and then turned 1/2 cm (1/4 inch) and top stitched.

Love that #10 foot Edge Foot...but I digress... Talk about easy!

Did I mention the pattern on the edges of the bed cover are butterflies? I love butterflies in lace.

It would be done, except, the original fringe on the scarf edges looked shabby.

I know, I know, shabby chic is in, but this was just too shabby for my taste. It was knotted badly due to many washing and was just plain, well shabby.

I wanted something a little more elegant. Enter in all of those threads in the box. I picked out a variety in colors from white to brown that would blend together.

I even used the warp off of the loose woven linen fabric since it had a nice kinky thread effect.

Blending threads give such texture to any project. Proof of my texture statement is below once the shabby knotted portion was removed and replaced the multiple thread knotted fringe. The shortest fringe is around 8cm (3 inches), the longest is about 11cm (almost 4 inches)

 

So now all that is left is a picture of the final product:

 

I am very much liking this one. Just in case I need some quick gifts, I can make 3 more just like it assuming I have enough threads for the fringe.

 

 

 

The Winner is...and Sharing My Lastest Second Hand Store Finds

First things first, I want to thank Vickie over at 2bagsfull for hosting this event. My number of followers has tripled. I like to hope that I will always have more followers than entries into my blog and now I have enough to last me, at the rate I post, well over 2 years. Thank you all for deciding to follow me. I hope you will not be disappointed in my output. I responded to many of you by going to your blog over the last couple of weeks. Life is very busy right now that when I have time to myself, it is creating something not reading things on line. Please keep commenting and don't feel like I am slighting you by not responding I enjoy reading everything you have to say.

Now for the second item. Random.org has spoken. There were 108 entries and the winner is ... Lynn Cockrell. I will try to contact you, but if for some reason I can not. please email me at jeanga6@gmail.com. I need an address so that your scissors will no longer be naked! 

Through the Grow Your Blog event, I have made the acquaintance of wonderful people who have blogs all over the world. One particularly I am getting the greatest hoot out of reading is the blog from Second Hand Rose.

I love the idea of photographing things in a second hand store. One has to wonder why someone bought some of this stuff the first time let along buying it a second. I could do the same in France. It is the same trash only different in some ways.

 

Last week I had visitors staying with me who wanted to visit one of the stores. Sometimes it is an expensive visit for me, sometimes not. This was an expensive visit. I always head for the room with the old linens, jewelry and funky clothing. Once again I passed up buying the 2 weasels biting each other's tail that is supposed to be worn as a scarf. No picture, sorry, I forgot. One day, one day, I will buy one, just not that day. There is a different one every visit. I think every French family must have one in their attic. What I did spend my Euros on instead was lace bits and vintage rayon ribbon:

 

A beautiful window curtain (bottom) and bed cover(top):

 

The bed cover has a little damage, but it was too pretty to pass and not buy. I had a hard time opening it since it was so musty smelling. I could see the dust rise from it as it was unfolded.  Even the sales lady had a problem when she unfolded it later. A trip in the washing machine and now it is shades lighter and so much better smelling.

In the front room I found a small Limoges trinket box:

 

Limoges as you might know gets the Limoges stamp from the name of the town it is produced not from a particular manufacturer. Just like Champagne having to come from the Champagne region of France, a Limoges item has to come from Limoges.

 

Here is a link to a website where there is a list many of the manufactures and what the stamp looked like from each company with years the stamps were used. I have been through all of the pages looking for my stamp and it is not there.

 

There is one that is close and it fits to what I would expect. The maker may be Louis Constant, Here is his stamp:

I have no signature on my box, but the Limoges France stamp is identical. If it is Louis Constant, I have no further information on him. He was a Décorateur. I could find no years of when his company operated.
 
My box is not of high quality, by any stretch, and was incredibility dirty.  I suppose it was mass produced in some way, although I have a hard time thinking that this church sold that many of them. I fell for the painting on the lid. It is a drawing of the Notre Dame Church in Melun France. It says so on the side of the box:

I have been to this church and this town. I am sure it was sold just like the metal religious trinkets I buy and use for my many sewing projects by the church by its little shop, normally located in a corner inside the church. Since it is a trinket box, it is going to house my church trinkets and whatever else I might have in trinket form that needs a place to reside.

If anyone finds out further information on this box let me know. I would love to try to date it.  If I were to guess, I would put it around 1950 due to the attic storage it must have gone through (aged dirt on it and lack of ease in dirt removal). One never knows. I have never seen boxes like these sold at any of the churches I have been in since moving here to France.

Thanks again for reading and if you are, following my blog.

This week I am linking with We Call it Junkin'

Linen and Lace Scarf

I don't know about you, but I look for inspiration for my projects everywhere. Recently I found two scarves made out of linen and lace on Pinterest. Of course I pinned them. As I was looking through my pictures the other day...

Oh, here they are:

From Lila pain d'épices' blog. I had a heck of a time tracing it back from the picture on Pinterest, I found the blog, but not the scarf. It is there somewhere.

The second inspiration is from Everyday Art design on Etsy and is a scarf made entirely out of  doilies. This one was easy to trace back to the source.

These two pictures made me start to think how I would make this sort of scarf.

I found a selection of linens folded neatly in my sewing room.  I cut them on grain and starched them so that the scarf would not go wonky on me as I was sewing it.

I pulled out of my stash my boxes doilies and lace bits. Here is a picture of what it looks like while I am messing up my sewing area creating. The box is full of lace bits, vintage pieces of lace that are less than a meter (yard) long. The hat box in the back is filled with doilies of all shapes and sizes. It is overflowing right now as I ran into a really good sale on them recently. You can see some of them next to the lace bit box in the dark round hat box.

The scarf construction was basic and pretty straight forward to do. The total length of the scarf when all linen pieces are sewn together is approximately 66 inches. The width was cut to 12 1/2 inches.

I liked the idea of the scarf done by Lili pain d'épices (love it. lili gingerbread,or as close as you can get to gingerbread in France. Yummy with fois gras),  but I wanted something more between the two inspirations. I wanted to use doilies like Everyday Art Design did, but not make the scarf completely out of doilies. Although, looking at that hat box, quite obviously I could.

I sewed the ecru handkerchief linen to the plaid linen at a 45 degree angle. Only having a fat quarter of the polka dot linen, it was cut straight. The seams are all flat felled so that there is no "wrong" side as far as the seams go. Using a serger, All sides of the scarf were then serged, awaiting the finishing of the edge seams.

The flat felled seams needed lace bits to help the transition to the next fabric. The bottom fringe is a little over 4 inch wide. None of the lace pieces are the same in ether size or color except for the "fringe", but even that is a little different at each end, really nothing quite matches adding interest to the overall look.

Now that all the lace bits and fringe were sewn on, it was time to complete the side seams by folding them over one more time and top stitching. Finished width is 12 inches. The lace bits were sewn into the final side seams and trimmed at this point.
Now for the doilies, here is picture of trying out different options:

After trying it on, anything in the ecru linen would not show when the scarf is worn so why waste the doilies?

The doilies were hand sewn on using an 80 wt thread. Finally it was complete and here it is:

Here are two ways it could be worn.

Now, there are two other scarves I found on Pinterest, I want to make something similar...Stay tuned.

 

 

A small sewing bag

At my French patchwork club this last week, we made small zipper bags. We were asked to bring fabric for the lining and outside of the bag, a batting of some sort and a zipper (not metal) longer than the shorter side of the rectangle of fabric we would be starting with. I could not decide which fabric I wanted to use so I brought along a small assortment. At the club it became clear that I make my bag the way I wanted it I would need to take the idea home with me and figure out exactly what I wanted and with what materials.

First the size - rectangle

 

Given that information, helpful, I know, I had to figure out what finished size I wanted. I made a paper model so that I would get the end result I desired. I ended up with a length of 13" and a width of 10".  Size includes a 1/2" seam allowance.

 

As usual all of the prospective materials were rounded up.

The fabric I wanted to use for the outside of the bag is a directional linen. I have 3 color choices of the same linen fabric. I fell in love with it and over the past year I have found it three times, each time in a different color combination. The fabric is Yuwa Live Life Collection Premium and is made in Japan. I own each of the three in 1/2 meter cuts. The lining is a cotton fabric covered with French writing. It is  "Paris Tea" by Holly Holderman for Lakehousedrygoods.com number LH10048. The laces are not vintage, I bought them last year and they are cotton.

 

Due to the directional linen, to make the bag work, I would have to seam the center bottom of the bag that way, the writing would be right side up on both sides of the bag.

 

Assembly was relatively easy. The backing, batting and top were spray adhesived together. The zipper was sewn on to each end of the shorter length. The top of the zipper flush with the side (length) seam, and the long end of the zipper allowed to hang off the end.

Top stitching was done to hold the lining and seam allowance in place and not get in the way of the zipper.. 

 

Before sewing the side seams, the lace next to the zip opening was added. I like to use my Bernina #10 Edge stitch foot (love this foot). The needle position was moved to one side and a small zigzag was selected. The middle guide of the foot while sewing rides right up next to the fabric and the lace was placed up against the guide as sewing was done. What comes out is beautifully applied lace right up against the edge of the fabric.

See?

 

 The bag was then folded so that the zipper was centered as shown.  The little pull tabs added, centered on the zipper and the side seams sewn.  I used a 3 1/2 inch piece of lace folded in half for the tab.

 

To get the box effect, a 1 1/2" triangle was sewn in each corner. The Triangles were trimmed. All the inside seams were finished with a zigzag stitch.

From the outside of the bag:

 

A peak into the inside:

 

Finished bag size: Height - 3", Width - 3 1/2" and Length - 5 1/2".


I am pleased with the results and I am glad I took the time to get the fabric placement correct.

I’ll be linking up with this great party:

 

Fabulously Creative Friday at Jennifer Rizzo

Grow Your Blog

Welcome to my blog and the Grow Your Blog event. To see who is participating click here.

 My name is Jean and I live in France.

 

When I tell people I live in France, they assume I live in Paris. Far from it, I live near the borders of Germany and Luxembourg. By train it is about 1 hour and 20 minutes to Paris on the high speed train otherwise known as the TGV.

Life is not bad here. Around Christmas my adopted town looks like this:

 

And in summer, more like this:

 
Living in this little corner of France has really opened the opportunity to become a serious collector of sorts. I now find I am addicted to collecting moldy smelling old lace, vintage fabric and threads of all sorts. If I am not collecting vintage, I am collecting modern fabrics manufactured by good hearted companies producing an end product with less than correct French grammar.

I am not satisfied with collecting. I want to use that Fabric with bad grammar.

http://frenchoddities.blogspot.fr/2013/03/un-sac-de-mauvais-francais.html

Not satisfied with just collecting lace, threads and fabric, when it comes to lace, I want to know how it was made. 

Battenburg Lace

http://frenchoddities.blogspot.fr/2012/10/battenburg-lace.html

 Thanks for stopping by, I know you have at almost 600 other blogs to look at. Before you go, register to win one of my latest project; Jewelry for your scissors.  Scissors not included, you have to supply your own naked pair of scissors.

It will be given away to some lucky person who leaves a comment below. Drawing is supposed to be on 15 February, but...hehe... I will be in Paris with, most likely not very reliable internet access. Ah C'est la Vie! Drawing will be on the 17th of February. Good luck!

Au Canada

Last year a friend gave me quite a quantity of linen fabric (thanks Teena). I have now, to date, made 2 shirts using this fabric. It is a little challenging to work with since it is linen plaid that requires a whole lot of matching.

I have auto delivery for Louis Cutting's patterns which means that patterns magically appear at my doorstep every so often. I have quite the collection of them now. Since I had this wonderful linen fabric, I perusing the patterns, deciding on the top from "Relax a Little".

 

From experience I know that for a top like this one, I need to add an inch to the length so that the top falls at a more flattering part of my body.

Making the shirt went well, except for the sewing of the sleeve area to the wrong side, but I digress... Shirt was finished awaiting buttons, I tried it on.

 

It was... it was....well, boring. I tried out on it all of the usual suspects for buttons, mother of pearl, brown, wood, nothing worked and certainly, nothing made the shirt pop. This was supposed to be an simple top, something for this summer. I put it away where it hung in my sewing room for a couple of days.

Last year I found this old glass milk jug with attached lid with raised lettering "La Lorraine" at a second hand store in Alsace. It was love at first site and the price made it a bargain. I washed the inside and over time have started filling it with buttons. As I find them in my sewing space I pop them into the jug so that they are all in one place and easier to find. While cleaning my sewing area, I found the perfect buttons.

 

Last year I was at a flea market in a small town nearby and there was a woman selling all sorts of brass buttons and lots of fun lace bits. I bought 3 sets of buttons from her and a stack of pieces of lace and embroidered pieces. As she tallied everything up, she grabbed a bag of brass buttons, one that I had passed over from buying, "with my complements" she said as she tossed them in with the rest of my purchases. Later I took them out , looking at them made me smile. I decided I needed to find someone from Canada to give them to.

 

-Just a little brief history -

In 1959, France under the presidency of Charles de Gaulle, withdrew its Mediterranean Fleet from NATO command. Over the next few years, NATO military aircraft were removed from France so that by 1967, France had taken back control of all air force bases.

 

Here is a map from Wikipedia showing the locations of the NATO Airbases in France prior to 1967:

Notice the number of them near the Luxembourg and German borders. So it should not  be a surprise that old military artifacts show up quite often at flea markets in my area of France.

 

-Now back to sewing-

You may have guessed by now that what I had been given was a set of Canadian heavy jacket brass military buttons. Dating them would place them as at least made in 1967, most likely earlier. They are in beautiful shape.

Buttons alone would not the shirt make. it needed, it needed....LACE!

 

YIPPY!

 

Digging through my stash I found the perfect lace edging to use. Heavy to match the buttons, but pretty to complement the shirt.

 

The lace was a breeze to sew on

 

Finishing it off are buttons to look almost like amulets on the shoulders. 

 

Love it!

 

 

 

bijoux pour mon sac

A couple of years ago I ran across a bag of wooden spools, the kind that would be used for thread. There were about 100 of them in the bag, in all sizes, from very small to a normal sized spool for sewing thread. They are modern not vintage and appeared to be made specially for crafting. Over the past few years, a couple of them have been used to hold lace or rickrack, but the bulk of them are sitting unused. I saw a pin cushion pattern once that used some of the medium sized ones. It was cute but somehow I never got around to making it.

Some months ago it came to me what to do with the little ones., I had acquired more of them on a trip to the States. I would make something pretty, a little bijoux pour mon sac. Putting an idea together was fast and easy.

 

Doing all of those projects with dry rotted lace has really helped in the thinking about the use of Decopatch ( Mod Podge ). As always first everything one might need was assembled in a box.

Not much required for this project. little spools, jewelry making supplies, beads, 12 wt thread, Decopatch and a something to wind thread on. That is the little toothpick sort of thingy at the bottom of the picture. They are used for appetizers here.

First things first, the spools need to be wound with thread. The larger size threads work better for this part, experience speaks here. at a minimum 30 wt thread. Anything smaller than that is hard to neatly wind.
Start by putting a little of the Decopatch on the spool.

Run the end of the thread through the Decopatch to get it sticky, lay the thread across the bobbin length wise and then start winding catching the first wind over the thread end.

Continue to wind 3 or 4 more round and cut the thread tail short. The hump it leaves is distracting to the final appearance. 

Continue to wind the entire length of the bobbin. paint a little of the Decopatch on the thread and with your fingers rub it in. Cut the thread end at the bottom of the spool and Decopatch the end so that the end is flush with the other wrapped thread windings. There is no need to go back up the spool for a second layer of thread, one layer looks just fine. Let it dry. That's it!

Now the fun begins! A couple of beads and jewelry supplies;

Make a thread matching tassel for the end loop, the wooden stick is great for making tassels:

A little work and soon you end up with this:

Or why not a little jewelry too?

Finally, how about a little jewelry for my scissors?