Vintage Fabric and Linens 2013 Round-Up

You may be wondering why I'm doing a 2013 round-up in September? Well, I find most of my vintage fabrics and table linens during the Spring/Summer period in charity shops and carboot's. So, as the summer season is winding down for the year I thought I would check in with you guys to share all the lovely things I've gotten so far!

I know a lot of my readers outside the U.K. will be bemused with my 'carboot' talk so I will get the explanation out the way - carboot sale's or fayre's are an organised event, usually on cricket or rugby pitches etc where people fill up their car's with things they wish to sell (also dealers) and sell it out the back of their car (trunk); which we call a boot in the UK - hence the name ;) It's great fun, and you never know what you're going to find! Over the summer I try to attend two a week in my local area, weather dependent of course. Sometimes it's great and I pick up a whole bunch of fabulous things, other times I walk away with nothing. Though I would have to say this year has been pretty good!

So today I thought I would share with you just the fabric and linens I've acquired. I've got a house full of other bits and bobs, so maybe I'll show you those in a later post ;) above is the actual fabric, mainly cotton but also a couple of silk and my favourite one on the right a bright red 'bri-nylon' (as my mum called it) apparently it was very popular in the 60s and 70s. I think it would make such a cute dress, so I've been saving it for just the right pattern once it comes along.

These are curtains I've come across on my travels. I love them so much! So much so, I won't cut into them. The bottom three I think, are 1940's - unfortunately I shredded the stripe green one in the washing machine :S so not usable for curtains anymore but I did whip up a piped pillow for my living room, phew! The top one is a lovely kitchen inspired print from the 50s and the checkered one is 60's - I'm guessing from the orangy/brown colour palette. 

Not many vintage sheets this year. Although I am getting fussier, and I have left behind 'vintage' one's I already own and other's I would have picked up in the past. I think people are realising how popular they are and holding out to sell them on Ebay perhaps? 

Now for the tablecloths! I've collected pretty tablecloths for a few years, but fully embraced the new collecting hobby this year :) I'm rather impressed with this stack! 32 so far! The cotton and linen printed kind from 50s/60s are my favourite :)

Though I also have a weakness for any with pretty embroidery on! and we don't seem to have a shortage of these in England, well at least in my neck of the woods anyway. I appreciate all the workmanship that goes into creating each one so I think I'm a pretty good home for them.

Did I mention I like checks and stripes too? Yeh, I know ... I'm one pile away from becoming a hoarder!! What do you like to collect? I'm always intrigued. Not that I need any more ideas! ...

My latest Instagram photos

I've been instagramming a lot lately, it's so quick and easy to keep up to date with everyone and share what I'm doing - with pictures! I'm a visual person, so I find it works better for me than Twitter. I realise there are lots of you who aren't on IG, so I thought it would be fun to share with everyone what I've been up to lately...

1. A while back my local charity shop had a 'vintage fabric sale' and although there was no vintage fabric? they had a stack of table linens, which I just go weak at the knees for - so I bought the lot! As you do ;) 

2. You know I always go on about our DIY projects each weekend, well here is one of them. My lovely partner Robin (pictured looking very pleased with himself) fitted these great shelves for us in the living room to house my growing collection of sewing reference books. 

3. With the haul that I got from Ikea recently, I also picked up this letter rack, I just love it! I will share some 'proper' pics and how I've arranged it on the blog soon :)

4. I just couldn't resist this boat in a bottle from my local antique shop, we don't really have 'stuff' in our living area so I'm slowly, slowy adding nice decorative objects when I see them. I had to sleep on this for a night, but couldn't stop thinking about it so I guess I made the right decision! 

5. I'm a list-making kinda' girl, I really can't function if I have a bunch of things to do and no plan. I need a plan!

6. Car-boot season is in full swing now so it give me more opportunities to buy the things I love, these are some sweet things I picked up on Sunday morning.

7. This is planning stages of a potential sewing project. I've wanted to make a mini quilt from one of my Japanese sewing books for so long, so I pulled some fabrics and got cutting!

8. Auction viewing day is one of my favourite times of the month! I love to nose around my local one to see what's on offer. There's always some treasure to be found, I don't bid all the time but it's fun just to look and wish :)

If you are on Instagram, you can follow my updates @messyjesse1 ! xo

My latest findings at car boot this week

Hi folks! happy wednesday! I hope you're having an enjoyable week so far. I hit my first car-boot of the season last week and picked up these gems. Pyrex divider dish, vintage fabric, embroidered tablecloth, thermos - minus the cap :( a dreamy butter dish to add to my prized Taunton Vale collection!! and what I thought to be a Pyrosil casserole dish but actually when I cleaned it I noticed it was Corning Ware, the U.S. version, yayy my first :) 

I also got round to finishing off my quilt top and basting it. I'm getting much quicker at sandwhich'ing my quilts these days, though it does still take quite some effort; moving rugs and furniture to clear some space ;) 
    I really love the traditional, vintage feel of this quilt I had an idea when making this quilt I would love to hang it on one of those display ladders I've been spying lately, perfect crafty addition to my living room.  Jessie, xo

Latest Vintage Finds

One of the things I enjoy most about the summer is car-boot season! I love venturing through the aisles of cars, peeking through boxes and eyeing up the candy on offer, most of the time it's not great stuff but I can usually always count on bringing one sweet thing home to treasure :) ... Unfortunately it's not summer here at the moment, so I have to look forward to that in the coming months and raid the local charity shops instead, which is exactly what I did last week! In my favourite local one I scored these little beauties. 

Some amazing retro curtains with a cute kitchen print! (I loove anything kitchen design related!) I think they definitely date back to the 50s, but are in really good condition and have a great texture to them. I also got another great purple vintage sheet and matching pillowcases to add to the vintage fabric shop section. And not forgetting these pretty sewing patterns; vintage nightwear to channel my inner Doris Day and stuffed toys, just because ;)

Have you found any gems recently? p.s I've finished my Scrappy Trips quilt!! I'll be photographing it tomorrow so look out for a post very soon ;) Jessie, xo

Pyrosil and Bloomsbury Gardens Project

Hi friends, I wanted to share couple of fun things with you today. Firstly is this little project I'm working on with the Bloomsbury Gardens collection, oh the fabrics are so pretty! I was playing around with some simple HST designs and came out with this :) I like it when 'making it up as you go along' sometimes works :) 

    Although I'm currently undecided if it should be a new pillow for my living room (yes, another one!) or a mini quilt to hang? 

Also, I recently managed to finally complete my full set of Pyrosil! yay! I'm so happy! My local antique shop had the 1 1/2-pt saucemaker for a nice thrifty price of £4 so I snapped it up without any hesitation :) I've been collecting the others for a couple of years at various car-boot sales and charity shops. 
    If you haven't seen it before Pyrosil is the British equivalent to the well known American Corning Ware glass and ceramic cookware. It was produced in the Netherlands during the 1960's but sold in the U.K. and features a distinctive blue cornflower emblem and 'lock-on handles' - which fixes on and off with a simple twist! Perfect storage space saver.

Look, the whole set! :D minus the stand for the casserole dish - but I'm always on the lookout ;)

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, and as a final note I've got some new text prints from the Mama Said Sew collection in the shop this week, take a peek! ;)

Jessie, xo

Vintage Fabric

Hello! Firstly I just wanted to say thank you for all your helpful suggestions on finishing of my pinwheel quilt top. I will check in soon with an update for you ;) But today, I have these pretty vintage fabrics to show! My mum picked them up for me last week at the carboot for a £1 each! I know, amaze! Definately 1960s/70s era, I think some of them would make such cute dresses :)

I got yards and yards of the stuff, all 'brand new' and unused. It was funny looking at the prices, if only fabric was this cheap still! 

   Last month I also picked up some more vintage goodies. I went along to my local auction and managed to win a lot of paper peiced hexagons, (tons!) loads of fabric, and tapestry projects amongst other things. My favourite were the hexies the owner had already started to sew together, I would love to make my own and finish it off someday.

I hope you all had a good weekend. See you later in the week, yeh :) xo

Vintage Cabinet

Hello friends! It's nice to be back, it's been a while... I've been busy, busy with lots of DIYing at the house - such as this lovely cabinet below :) I've always dreamed of having one and now I am the official owner of a 1960s kitchenette yayy! I spyed it at the auction last month with mum, and after a looong and expensive bidding battle we got it!! Though it's taken quite a while to get it looking in this shape, which involved lots and lots of sanding and painting. Not to mention new hinges and door rollers (thanks Robin!) and plenty of scrubbing and cleaning. My instagram pals may remember what it looked like originally. 

It was painted a drab beige'y colour when I got it, though after stripping it back we found it was a really bright yellow so I got a good match for the original colour to bring it back to it's former glory :) it also matches the inside paper lining so well! It features a pull down drawer with red formica top designed for pastry making, and tilting glass panel to display where the food should be stored. It's now proudly displayed in my kitchen where my other green cabinet used to stand. This one is now been moved into the dining room, where I like it even more, the open shelving suits the room much better and it fits perfectly next to the double doors, ahhh don't you just love it when a plan comes together ;)

I'll hopefully be back in the week with some crafty updates! I've been neglecting my sewing machine of late. Jessie, xo

Aga Oven Mitts & Vintage Loot

I whipped up this oven glove for Robin's parents yesterday, they recently got an Aga and needed a mitt that had really long hand bits to reach right at the back of the oven. They have a black and white themed kitchen, so it was lucky that I had this pretty floral fabric, (from my lovely friend Clare) as I don't own any other black fabric! I used some white cotton canvas for the arm parts to make it more durable against the heat. The inside is quilted in simple straight lines, and the outer pockets in a criss-cross method. Think I may make another one for my kitchen too! :)

It was quite a good week for thrifting last week, I picked up these nice vintage sheets (plus one more, since this picture was taken!) and a bunch of childrens sewing patterns and knitting patterns - even though I can't knit! one day ... Obviously I have no use for these kids sewing patterns yet but I thought they were too cute to pass up. I think 50s/60s kids were definately best dressed era, don't you? such simple shapes, so sweet. 

 

I also finished up my mini quilt, so I'll work on getting some pictures this week! Jessie, xo

Quilted Pot Holders

I'm loving finding all sorts of kitchen related sewing projects at the moment. So these quilted pot holders were the perfect starting point. I discovered the tutorial via Pinterest, of course! I've found it's a great way to help me organise my 'sewing to do list' by creating a pinboard dedicated to tutorials. Perfect.
I love them hanging on my vintage peg rack I thrifted back in the summer. My kitchen is all coming together nicely now, yayy! (share some pics soon, promise!) 

I used a 1930's repro floral fabric and red gingham binding for a sweet, country kitchen feel.  Oh and do you like my vintage orange le creuset dish?? I inherited it (and some others) from my nana this Christmas - she has a collection of over 50 peices!! serious collector. I think I know where my Pyrex addiction come from now :)
So what have you been sewing lately, can you recommend any good kitchen sewing tutorials online?

Thrifty Tablecloths

Before we all head out for the weekend I just had to show you these cute vintage tablecloths I thrifted today. Aren't they so bright and cheery! They just jumped out at me amongst the piles of drab 80's bedlinen, so I couldn't say no. I think the yellow may be my fav? which is yours? It's making me eager to get my dining room finished now, I just have to wait for the boyf to fix the leaky roof (gggrrhh!) then I can work my magic with the paintbrush and get the job done at long last! I'm soo impatient, haha!

oh and I have just now signed up to Pinterest at long last!!! I have been trying to sign up for way over a year now, and it never accepted me! so yesterday I got Robin to sign up with his email instead and it worked straight away, duhhh! should have tried that ages ago... anyways you can find me @messyjesse1. A couple of questions about it first, how do I find people I know? and, I saw lots of pictures from my blog and etsy shop before I signed up now I can't seem to find them, any help would be much appreciated! 
Have a lovely weekend, Jessie xo

A Golden Hello!

Hello, hello friends! A long and overdue post. So, you may wondering what happened to Messy Jesse ... well, I have now left London and the big city living in exchange for a much slower pace of life back in Cornwall where I grew up. It was a big decision that me and my partner both decided upon, and I'm happy to say it's the right one! and the best news ... we are moving into our very own house in October!!! Our 1st home! I'm super excited, the whole house needs a biiigggg makeover so I have already been gathering inspiration and ideas for what we could do. Over the next few months I will be posting some of my interiors finds with you all :) Fortunately, I also now have a lot more time for my shop, which has been closed while we were moving etc but will be open soon with a much needed shop update! 

Since being back I have re-discovered the wonder of our local charity shops. They suprise me each and every time I go, and I never fail to leave empty handed. I'm always scouring for little bits and bobs for the house now, but frequently find myself picking up some crafty paraphernalia! On a recent thrifty trip, I was delighted to come across a complete set of Golden Hands books on knitting, dressmaking, and needlecraft. They are amazingly informative and feature some great projects which I will be undertaking - not to mention the kitsch fashions!! From what I understand they published alot of knitting, crochet and sewing books in the late 1960's and 70's, not sure what happened to them after that? I know they also published a weekly 'Craft' magazine during that time too, because I managed to score a stack of them at Oxfam recently!! (will share more pics soon).

Happy Mail!

It seems to have been raining non-stop in the U.K. recently, so receiving my super bright and cheery 'happy mail' after a long day at work was the perfect pick-me-up! I'm absolutely head over heels in love with my new pyrex :) I already have two other dishes in the goosebery design  but these were just too bright and colourful to pass up! (I think the official disease I have now can be described as 'pyrexia'! hehe) I also managd to snap up this amazing vintage sheet on Etsy, whoohooo! and how perfect do they all go together, it was definately a sign that I needed them all ;p

Have a great Monday everyone, I've got the day off today so I'm hoping to get some crafty sewing done :)

So 'Deerly' Loved

Yay I have finally found some cute little deers!! I'm so happy :)

I've been after some since the dawn of time it seems but now I have finally got my hands on not one, but four! These two are my favourites :) I'll show the others soon. What do you think I should call them?

I have also aquired some vintage sheets and pillowcases; I have certainly jumped on late with the granny chic craft trend but I can say the hoarding addiction has already begun! Already I'm planning lots of trips to local carboots and charity shops to scour for vintage bedding when I go back home to Cornwall for Christmas. I have to thank Tiff from Dottie Angel, Jeni from In Color Order and Danielle from Kitschy Digitals for their lovely crafty vintage inspiration they have given me through their wonderful blogs :)

I'm so excited to start playing with them, oh what to make first?! I feel my first quilt coming on with the lovely coordinating pinks and purple fabrics, what do you think?