Suffragettes, Suffragists & the vintage style rosette...

Those of you who remember my Suffragette post will understand how excited I got recently when I heard that there was to be a re-enactment of the The Great 1913 Suffragist Pilgrimage from Lands End to London to celebrate it's centenary in a small town nearby! 

In the week or so leading up to the event in Corsham, Wiltshire there had been a display of Suffrage images, posters & fully dressed costume dummies in a couple of 'pop up' shops and I couldn't resist popping in to see it all.

Here's one of the fab dummies put out in the sunshine especially for the march!
(note the Suffragist colours)

I had a very interesting conversation with one of the ladies in the pop up shop who explained that there were two types of Suffrage supporters  - the more militant 'Suffragettes' who wore sashes of purple, white & green and had a tendancy to smash windows & generally cause mayhem and 'Suffragists' who also wanted the vote for women but who went about campaigning in a more peaceful way such as this pilgrimage and wore their own colours of red, white & green to distinguish themselves from their rowdier sisters-in-arms.

Apparently they had a good reception in some towns and in others they were shouted & booed at so it wasn't all plain sailing and at times they faced quite dangerous crowds.  In all the walk took around 6 weeks and they managed to collect something like 46,000 signatures for their petition on the way! The event has been organised alongside a play by a theatre group called Dreadnought South West which has been running in towns along the original pilgrimage route to celebrate their amazing, brave journey - you can find out more or buy tickets to see the play here 

So, with all the excitement this morning I grabbed my camera and went along to watch the re-enactment...

It all started at the Methuen Arms... banners at the ready!

Then it was time to march through the town!

A little singing & some rousing campaign speeches!

'Dr & Mrs J E Crisp' welcome the group to the town just like back in 1913..

We want the right to Vote !

A sea of Suffragists outside the town hall

I think it was really impressive - don't they look brilliant in their costumes?  It must also have been very hot dressing up during this current heatwave in all those long sleeves & skirts but at least they had hats on! 

It certainly looked like they had put tons of effort into making everything and I learnt that as well as a local knitting group helping to make lots of woolly flower corsages for the ladies to wear, that a local school had been involved in making banners which were dotted about the town.   

After finding out about the event last weekend I had immediately decided on my own little tribute make for the Suffragists with a campaign style rosette....

If you fancy catching up with the march and would like to make your own version of the rosette here's the step by steps...

1) Begin by drawing out 3 template circles on paper to use as the pattern.  You can make them any size you like for bigger or smaller rosettes but I used 10cm, 8cm, 6cm....

2) Pin & cut your circles out in your chosen fabrics (remember its red, white & green for the Suffragist)....

3) Then make a small running stitch along the outside edge of one of the circles...

4) Pull the ends of the thread so that it bunches up like this...

5) Then flatten out like this...

6) Repeat with the other two circles of fabric...

7) Then stack them on top of each other like this..

8) Find a nice large (vintage) button and a needle & thread.. 

9) Sew the button on top the fabric circles to secure everything then simply add a pin to the back and you are ready to join the march!

A big well done to everyone who helped prepare and take part in the march - I think it was a huge success and it got my vote!


Happy Making :-)

xxxx

Vintage jumble, button addiction & blue poppies...

I thought that this update I would tell you about my weekend adventure at the
 V & H Jumble Sale in a village called Box in Wiltshire....

I was quite excited to discover it was on because I do love a delve around in jumble, picking up lots of little bits 'n' pieces that inspire or delight me  so add the word 'vintage' and it's just about the perfect combination for a leisurely browsing session!

The venue 'Selwyn Hall',  is on a steep little road leading down to the beautiful expanse of Box Park and as it was quite a bright morning and the fair was only on between 11-2pm I set out early, safe in the knowledge there is a big (free) car park that is hardly ever full.....  except for, I soon learnt, this particular Saturday when I was lucky to just squeeeeeeze into the weeniest space left! 

Still, it was worth it because, having paid my 50p entry fee I stepped inside to see a room full of wonders and immediately found myself dreaming over things like this...

'oooh.... ahhhh.....lovely textiles...what could I make...hmmmm'

and these...

'oooh look...dolly bundles.. I love them...I want one!'
(from Lucia Collectables who you can find on www.RubyLane.com)

In fact there was tables laden down with all kinds of vintage-y things lining the walls of the whole place with a row of little tea tables down the middle.

As you can see - it was already getting busy and I couldn't get near to the first few tables I passed as most were 3-4 people deep!  In the end I had to weave my way back & forth around the room, getting a look in here and a peep in there where I could.  Luckily I didn't need to be anywhere in a particular hurry so quite enjoyed my indulgent little meanderings!

The BBC Homes & Antiques stand was there, manned by the lovely Alice Roberton (H&A ambassador and a familiar face at such events around these parts)...

And this little corner of gorgeousness was courtesy of the washerwoman.blogspot.co.uk from where I picked up a piece of black & white 'dogs tooth' tweed fabric and a jar of metal buttons..

Mmmmm buttons....

This little slice of curiosities tucked away in a corner was courtesy of Sue from 'Vintage to Victorian' 

And do you see that big china bowl the lady in the scarf is looking at? Can you guess what's in it....yes, that's right - more buttons!  

And yes, I bought a little paper bag full. Well, it would have been rude not too wouldn't it?

I think I might be a little bit addicted to buttons (I appear to be growing a rather large collection...).  Although I'm not sure it's possible to have too many because they are such useful crafting embellishments - for example, on my return home I immediately picked one of the metal ones for my crochet flower idea which I wanted to make with some gorgeous petrol blue cotton yarn I picked up from Lucia Collectables 

...have wool... just add hook & scissors!

Make a flower... add a button...

then pop it on a hair grip!

This flower is made using the same pattern I used for the poppy tutorial here (scroll down the page). I just fancied a blue one and I thought the old metal button topped it off nicely. I guess you could say that re-using the pattern and adding an old button gives this make the U factor! (U as in up cycling!) 

So, all in all a thoroughly enjoyable morning. Can't wait until the next one and I am sure I will translate my other purchases into other new makes soon too.  And yes, I confess, I maybe did buy a few other bits too (...bundle of dolls, books, a brooch..)

Want a last bit of jumble eye candy before I sign off? Oh go on then..

I bought a pretty brooch from the ladies on this table...

Happy browsing :-)

xxx

Flapper style earrings & all that jazz....

Hello Again,

Hasn't it been lovely to see that big yellow orb thing in the sky once again (in the UK at least!)  It really does seem to make a difference to everyone & everything -  although it also seems to gives me permission to just sit in the garden and bask in it whilst not getting much done.  Apart from these...

Recently I got very excited about the release of 'The Great Gatsby' movie (which everyone must surely be aware of by now?) It's just all the style & glamour of the era - fabulous!  It also brought back memories of an amateur stage production of  'Chicago' I took part in many moons ago.  I was in the chorus line and what fun we had...it was all neatly bobbed hair, feathered headbands, sparklies and all that jazz !

Here's one I made earlier...  1920's inspired fascinator
 (for Simply Homemade Magazine, issue 27)

As you know, many things that inspire me end up as some sort of project and being that I totally LOVE those glittery, jaunty flapper girls I simply couldn't resist making up a few pairs of earrings starting with those dangly fringed darlings at the top of the page!  I thought you might like to have a go too - they'd be great to wear to a summer party so  come on babe why don't we paint the town...

Or rather, perhaps just follow these steps!

1) First you will need to gather together some pliers, head pins, eye pins, earring findings, jump rings and lots of bugle beads (long & short) an a small sparkly rondelle...

2) Thread 6 x long bugle beads onto a head pin (this will be your centre pin)

3) Then turn a small loop on the end of the pin with your round nose pliers...

4) Repeat the above two steps until you have a total of 9 beaded headpins with the following number of bugle beads on them: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 (i.e. as shown in the picture from L-R)

5) Now thread up 2 x eye pins with around 10 x short bugle beads each, bend & trim the tops of the pins and turn a loop on each..

6) Pop your sparkly bead onto an eye pin and make a simple loop on the end of the wire..

7) Open the bottom loop on an earring finding and attach the wired sparkly bead to it..

8) Now use a small jump ring to attach the short bugle bead eye pins to the bottom of the sparkly bead...

9) Thread all the long bugle beaded head pins onto a new eye pin...

10) Bend the wire over at right angles, trim and turn a small loop (aim for this to hold all the beaded eye pins in place evenly)

11) Use a couple of small jump rings to attach the 'bar' of dangly bugle beads to each 'arm' of the earring...

12) ...and don't forget to make a second matching earring!

C'est complète!

                                           
Now you can mix a gin cocktail and go shimmy 'till your garters break....



                                             Enjoy xx

Oohh Velma.. did you hear that Addicted to Making is posting a delightful earring tutorial for us to make!