Fabric from Laura Ashley (and what I did with it)

I just love finding nice fabrics at the car boot. Sometimes it's in the form of clothing and sometimes it's curtains. Sometimes it's just a fabric find like this time. I just loved the dotty fabric and as I bought it (for £3, no haggling) the stall holder informed me it was Laura Ashley.

There is yards and yards of both patterns. Although I'm not wild about the mushroom print I love the spotty print. I don't know what the original plan was for the material although it came with bias binding in green and some lining material too.

I have had this fabric for a few weeks now and used it in parts for various projects. The peg basket pictured is a present for a friend who has lime green as a kitchen accent so I'm going to try and source some lime pegs to put in it. I invented the pattern and design myself using scaps of fabric, ribbon, a few colour coordinating sequins, lime green thread and the dotty LA stuff. I went with squares as they are easiest to get right! (it's the same patchwork on the back too). I also used a padded coat hanger that came with my wedding knickers on inside, as it gives better shape and support.

My next project with more of this fabric is to back a green patchwork quilt and use some as squares within it. I already did a pink two sided quilt that used many fabrics found at the car boot and some of my daughter's clothes she has grown out of so it is a sort of memory quilt. I am currently on the look out for 100% cotton green items to include in this next project. This is the pink quilt (folded). I just love wrapping up in it as it has a fleece layer inside so gets quite cosy.

Back to the LA mushrooms, I'm not sure what to do with it. Any ideas? I might even put it on ebay as it's a large piece of material and great quality as you'd expect.

Speaking of fabric finds, I recently bought a pair of curtains in a lovely red print for £1 (this included a bag of curtain hooks too!) - I didn't need them as curtains, I just liked the material. I covered two old heart shaped cushions with them and have lots of the material left for other projects. I might do some bunting with them for valentine's day or something cute like that.

Looking forward to the weekend and hoping for some good weather for Sunday. I never made it last week as I was in hospital with my 10 month old daughter who had a bad eye infection. Glad to be home and mending now!

Thanks for reading.

All dressed up and nowhere to go

Hello and welcome to my car boot sale tales.

This week I found some fantastic Monsoon dresses in a cardboard box. Amazingly they were in the first stall I visited (which I would usually expect to be picked over). I only saw them because another lady was looking at them but she wasn't willing to pay the £4 asking price. I snapped them up knowing how much they would have cost in the shops.

The first one is called 'Gracie' and is a ballerina style net over a lovely bustier dress. Chocolate brown and just beautiful it was in mint condition.

The second one is possibly more pretty than the first. I don't know the name of the dress but one of my friends saw it hanging up and immediately asked 'How much do you want for it?' thinking I had it on ebay. I just said 'it isn't for sale' (so back off lady!!). The dress is a mink satin with applique flowers on it - I don't think the pic below does it justice but it is lovely. I am going to send it to be dry cleaned as there are a couple of really minor marks on it.

Why don't the sellers hang up things like this? They would get a better price for them if they are on show.

Later on in the day I found a couple more lovely clothes items. A black and red Nicholas Millington dress for £1.50. I know these retail in the Littlewoods Catalogue at over £100 and so this was a great bargain. Isn't it pretty? The centre of the flowers are silver sequins and the rest is embroidered. Just see what I got next to go with it!

This red jacket was from the same lady and for £1 you couldn't go wrong. It is a Matalan label but in unworn condition. I actually bought this for my auntie as she is a huge fan of this style and really suits red. I do like to look out for items for my family and friends when I can.

So, the theme of this blog is really turning out to be clothing isn't it! I will finish on a fun item that will probably amuse you. Yes, a cheerleading outfit... it was brand new with tags and was retailing on the tag for £29 but I got it for 3 pounds, complete with pom poms and matching pants. I think you'll agree that I got a bargain. It's an ann summers fancy dress outfit and I can assure you it won't look like that (below) on me but I love pink and it will probably eventually go on ebay!

Just to prove it wasn't a totally me day, I also got a lovely toy phone and drum for the baby both for £2 and (after a thorough clean) she loves playing with them.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading and happy hunting out there!

Hello Sailor!

My second post and just getting started... the pictures of the baby clothes were taken on my brand new bedroom carpet (fitted today) which has sparkly bits in it. I can't tell you how exciting it is for me to have a bedroom carpet with sparkly bits in it. No, my hubby didn't want it but I talked him round!

Wow what a lovely day it was last Sunday. The weather was lovely and perfect for going car booting.  I am so thrilled with some of my finds!

I've been looking for a 'sailor suit' outfit for my little girl since she's been born (almost a year ago now). This was the weekend I found it! She has had other new items from Debenhams with a nautical theme but this was just 50p and feels really vintage (mixed opinion on this one - I think it's old and Mum doesn't...). The label says hand wash but I put it in the machine as I do with all car boot sale clothes when I get them home and gave it a good wash.  There is no label to say the material but I think it's what used to be called 'garberdine' as it feels quite thick and almost waterproof. It certainly wahsed well and the white stayed white thank goodness. The sticker on the outfit that the seller handwrote said 1-2 years so here's hoping we get a full year's wear out of it!

The buttons have 'entente cordiale' printed on them, which is a 1904 series of agreements between the UK and French Republic.

Isn't it a beauty? I can't believe it was only 50p and no I  didn't haggle for that, I thought it was well worth it. I plan to team it with some white tights and will have to look out for a hat to go with it! If I get a nice photo of the little miss in it I will post in a future blog.  So what do you think? Is this a vintage label?!

So from something old to something new, I just loved this next item. Although this top is a George (ASDA) special, I loved it's puffball hem and practical long sleeves for winter. The applique flowers are really pretty and something I would like to try and do 'hand made' on some clothes for baby girl.  My favourite bit though is the little bird that you can see dangling from the empire line.

It's a little bit padded and just adds a little bit extra to  the top I think. I need to get some vanish on one of the sleeves as it's got a small stain but I'm sure it's nothing I can't shift.  Price paid: 20p ~ bargain!

Moving on from baby clothing, I had a real find for my comping hobby, it's not something most people will find exciting but I do. I got 1000 c3 envelopes for £3.

They are a bit plain white and boring for me so I like to customise them with stickers - I picked up some fab 'the little princess' stickers from Home Bargains for 99p which help me to jazz them up for some winning competition entries (hopefully) I will let you know if these happen to be lucky envelopes.

You can't go wrong for 0.3 pence each though. I do feel a bit iffy about some stationery you can buy at car boots in case someone's just raiding the stationery cupboard at work. But these had a 'staff sales' sticker on so I know they have been bought at this cheap factory shop in Barnsley. Probably for less than three quid but hey ho!

My other purchases included four ex M&S bras for £10. Big bras are hard to find so when you see them you have to snap them up. I am pleased to report they are wearing well and very comfy. Some of the bras on the stall had matching pants but nothing suitable in the sizes I was buying and some of them looked a bit uncomfy if you know what I mean. No pics as they don't photograph well!!

I will reflect on a few good recent past buys from the car boot in future posts. One such buy was a cheerleader outfit, all brand new with tags from Ann Summers for just £4 it was bright pink and came with matching pants - well it was pretty short - and pom poms. The price tag said it retailled at £28 pounds usually. It was also a large size (UK 14) which is better if you did want to sell it online. My thinking behind this is that skinny people can pick up bargains all the time but larger people (not that a size 14 is enormous) have to look a bit harder. Same with the bra theory really!

Well that's all from me for now. More car boot tales next week all being well! Thanks for reading, listening, commenting, hope you are all well and enjoying life.

xxx

Hello and welcome!

Hello and welcome to my first ever blog post.  It's been something I've wanted to do for ages and so here goes. The blog is all about my treasure hunts at the car boot sale. I have lots of interests and so am on the look out for things to do with my lifestyle and hobbies.

The added advantage of buying at car boots is the savings you can make from buying new. Although I have adequate money coming in, there's not a huge load of it in the mattress so I like to make what I've got go further. I love recycling, upcycling and refurbing things and giving them a new lease of life and love to give friends and family quality home made projects as presents (more on that later!).

I love getting up early on a Sunday, loading up the baby in the pram and having a nice walk to and around the car boot. Big items can be a problem when I go on my own due to carrying / pushing but I can always make a phone call for assistance if it's needed. I find when I go with other people they distract me (or compete for items I want - even worse) or make me rush so when I go with the baby it's just us to please.

The main themes I look for are

• clothes for me!
• clothes for my 10 month old daughter
• resources for my comping hobby (envelopes, unusual postcards etc)
• high end clothing and quirky things
• Sewing and upcycling projects but material mainly
• Toys for the little lady
• any items friends and family might like
• books*

..and then of course anything else that takes my fancy!

I'll mainly take photos of my buys to show you, tell you what I paid and what I plan to do with the stuff. I generally visit car boot sales but will go to the odd charity shop too on my travels.

I will build up courage as the posts go on and tell you a little more about me. My second post will be dedicated to last Sunday's finds which I am particularly pleased with!

Anyone reading this is welcome to comment but remember I'm a newby so go easy on me please. If you choose to follow me I'd be very honoured and it will encourage me to do some good posts if I know people are interested in my weekend pursuits.

* Books: I like to swap books on the site readitswapit - have you heard of it? It's a great online community of people and you just agree to swap books if you both have one that each other wants. I have got many wonderful books through this site and 'met' some lovely people. Sometimes I just look at the list of newly listed books and put a few swap requests out to keep my reading pile in a nice toppling-over state. A great recycling-concept website but only downside is the postage costs.