A truly beautiful Minxy mix of charm, inspiration, practical advice, and pretty projects to simplify and beautify your life and home. - Jane Brocket, The Gentle Art of Domesticity
Talking craft with the Sydney Morning Herald
With our ace photographer, Amanda Prior
A few weeks ago journalist Katrina Lobley visited to discuss the new book with Amanda & me. Click here to read her lovely article, featured in SMH’s Spectrum last weekend.
A few favourite images from the new book
Olive & her Princess & the Pea bedding
Last week we had a small shindig (at home, of course) to celebrate the launch of the new book. This was really so I could thank everyone involved for all their hard work and for being so supportive.
It was truly special working with the team we had on The Crafty Minx at Home. Here’s some of my favourite images – more to follow soon.
Camellia corsages: we’ll be making these at upcoming workshops
Birdy brooch
Lounging around: reupholstered cane sofas
Bell jar table sculpture
Boudoir dressing table
Beci Orpin’s Find & Keep
I popped into Calico & Ivy recently to source goodies for the event at Surry Hills Library on Monday (which went so well, btw – I had a ball!) and chat with the lovely Sarah Wheatley, my Girl Friday at the demonstration table for the evening. That’s where I found Designer Beci Orpin’s book, Find & Keep.
Now, I’m a little dyslexic when it comes to reading certain craft patterns but Beci’s book is a dream - totally gorgeous and inspiring and simple enough to undertake with kids. And yet the projects are all stylish enough for adults to be proud of, too. It’s easy to follow, with ideas for inspiration rather than prescriptive, tricky projects I would never bother attempting. Goodness, I just love this book.
Have a look at some of these projects. I’ve already made the mobile below (twice – one for us, and one for a friend who’s having a baby), Tiny Town, the succulent garden and Beci’s confetti. Olive and I spent almost the entire weekend crafting, and James even got in on the act chopping out bits & pieces for Tiny Town.
Her style is just so fresh and clean… did I mention how much I love it?
Grab yourself a copy post-haste, I’m sure you’ll adore it as much as I do.
And the good news is Ms. Orpin has a new one due out at the end of the year. Can’t. Wait.
From chintz to chic
Poncho mama, Ms Alocoque Dash
Ms. Dash here came along to one of my pre-xmas upcycling workshops. She snapped up a crochet tablecloth I’d brought in with a pile of other vintage fabrics and clothing for people to play with, and we had a chat about options for transforming it. This poncho is the result. I admired it so much, Alacoque won a copy of A Life in Frocks to keep for creating my favourite project of the day.
I’ll be hosting another of these free workshops with the City of Sydney in May. Stay tuned for dates and more events news to follow soon, and check out the pics below to see how it’s done. Alternatively, visit Alocoque’s blog for step-by-steps. Very seventies, non?
Cool workshops
How great do these workshops at Cloth Fabric look? Sign up here for Project Lucky Dip, and here for Project Lovely Home.
Do: Magical Hat Days
Take one vintage hat, and one four-year-old
This is the game in which we pretend to be Clara Button, going in for a bit of freestyle fixery on old hats and headpieces I’ve found at Rozelle Markets, otherwise beyond repair. Olive paints over the silk petals with watercolours, while I help sew on buttons and feathers and other bits and pieces for her amusement. We haven’t had a picture-worthy success yet, but it’s fun and I have to say, I do love a good piece of headgear (if you missed my Spring Carnival adventures with pompoms, click here for a tutorial).
Clara Button and the Magical Hat Day was a gift from our lovely friend, Sonia. It’s one of our favourites. Clara floats my boat – she’s a can-do gal, plus she loves the V&A, which makes her A-okay in my book.
Plucky Clara Button
And a headband we made, from scratch, modelled by Olive
A crafty Christmas
Hand-printed linen gift wrap
A few of you asked if I’ll be doing any Christmas craft this year, and I’ve certainly been working on decorations for magazines, even if my own home is looking decidedly un-festive so far.
Here’s a few projects I made for Australian Women’s Weekly’s December issue. Grab a copy from any newsagent for the instructions or create your own riff on these simple ideas: French linen and Liberty print fabric (torn into ribbon strips) from Calico & Ivy, old printer’s letters from Lawson’s Auctioneers, hessian sack from Reverse Garbage and pompom wool from Rozelle Markets.
My tips? Have fun, and keep it low-fi.
Child's hessian Santa Sack
Pompom wreath
Quilting for lazy girls
My Flower Garden quilt for Australian Women's Weekly
Yet another sneak peek at the next book with this quilt, similar to one appearing in The Crafty Minx at Home, which will be out early next year with HarperCollins (more to follow soon).
If you can’t wait till then, grab a copy of this month’s Australian Women’s Weekly for instructions. This took all of a day to create with vintage fabrics and beautiful new linen, Liberty print etc. from Calico & Ivy and Publisher Textiles. It’s my third quilt ever, and definitely my favourite.
Show us your half-hat
Pompom madness
So I didn’t post this in time for Melbourne Cup but hey, get your cocktail on every day, I say (I didn’t even see the race… had a group of girlfriends round for high tea & champers yesterday - we were all-a-twitter in our frocks and headpieces when one of us realised it was 3:45) .
I’ve fancied these pompoms for years. They’re made by Tibetan refugees in India, apparently – I love the bright dyes they’ve used. A few weeks back I turned my pretty jar full into this cocktail hat. I fully intended to wear it yesterday, but loaned it to my friend’s daughter, Lucy instead for her formal this weekend. I hope she rocks it – it looks great with the fifties prom dress I gave her to go with it, and her beaten-up brown boots.
Step-by-steps below. Easy peasy. Take one glue gun, a pile of pompoms and a simple hat form, available from Spotlight. Get sticking.
Ready to wear in about 10 minutes.
Simple hat form
Where to begin
You get the picture