Feeling blue . . .

A beautiful Etsy treasury by Sara at teconlene full of European goodies (and featuring my Pleats bag in cyan).

This collection makes me long for summer.

Happy image browsing

( Item SC 68306
Collection Name Henry Bedford LemereCollection Date 1893Caption The shop floor of Redferns Ltd Ladies Tailor, Edinburgh, with spinning wheel, chairs, parasols and fireplace. Since demolished.

Notes SCRAN 2001
Category SCANNED IMAGESObject type Digital imageThis is a copy of BL 12136

Copyright © RCAHMS 
Role PHOTOGRAPHER

Person Harry Bedford Lemere )

I stumbled upon this photograph while browsing images of lost Edinburgh in the Canmore collection at the Royal Commission on the  Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. It shows a shopping floor in a ladies' tailor shop on Princes Street, Edinburgh. It conjures a world of elegant shopping totally at odds with our modern high street.

I especially like the portrait of Queen Victoria above the fireplace and the thistle motif wallpaper.

The wallpaper reminds me of the thistle design by Timorous Beastie. I wonder if the Victorian paper was coloured too . . .

Happy Hallowe'en

Ribbon eye candy

A beautiful corset posted to the livejournal corsetmaking community. Too gorgeous – I had to share!

It's not unusual to see underbust ribbon corsets but this is the first mid/overbust ribbon corset I've seen. Of note are the gathers in the ribbons at the bust to provide fit. Simply stunning.

Scottish Autumn

A fabulous Etsy treasury created by Jo at BlackbirdAlleyShop. 
My Muckle bag looks great alongside these lovely Scottish-made items.

Brighten a gloomy day

My middle daughter decided her bedroom needed a bit of brightening up, especially since the weather has been so dismal lately. So, following a raid on my fabric stash, an attack with some pinking shears and a rare use of her sewing machine later, the bunting emerged. I think it looks fab.
(Apologies for the poor photography – poor light and a bit fuzzy. Oops.)

A woolly week

This week we have British Wool Week, the Campaign for Wool and Knitting Week. All a good excuse to celebrate wool and get out the needles.

In Edinburgh we are lucky to have several wool shops; a couple in large department stores and a few independents. Between them they make available a decent range of yarns, suitable for most projects and budgets. It is evident too that there is a growing range of British wools (clearly labelled as such) in each of these shops and even one that prides itself in stocking 'a wide range of unique Scottish yarns from small independent producers'.

A few years ago I was traveling with my family (somewhere up north but I can't remember where!) when we stumbled upon a small shop selling their own hand spun and dyed wools, produced from their own small flock and some of the farms around them. I was smitten and proceeded to buy a few skeins in different colours. It was such an enjoyable experience, to see where the wool came from, where it was processed and finally to use it to make something my family could wear (lots of socks).

On another note, I'm failing massively on posting things to my Etsy shop. My aim to have an item a day has hit the snag of poor weather, poor light and a general lack of being able to get decent photos. Tomorrow we are forecast for overcast and rain arriving late afternoon. Maybe we'll get a nice surprise instead.