Vintage Inspiration

Today was a really good day.  I started the morning with a quick and easy craft project: Putting together a gift bag using scrapbooking supplies and a paper shopping bag.  This is a great way to make good use of those good quality paper bags that some stores are using.  I think they are too nice to throw away, especially those that I pick up at Anthropologie: a simple off-white paper bag, with fun red handles.


All you need is the paper bag, double sided sticky tape, and scrapbook supplies.  I found this nice vintage-looking floral design paper with coordinating polka dot paper, letters, frames, ribbon and some fun old-fashioned dictionary page paper.  I use double sided tape because it sticks really well, is quick, easy and doesn't make a mess.

Next it was off to breakfast at one of my local haunts, and then to my favourite local quilt store - Snappy quilts - where they happened to have a sale on fat quarters.  So naturally I left with a handful :)  Some pretty Kaffe Fassett prints that I'm collecting to make a quilt for my Mum.  Speaking of this quilt store, I recently took a class there for the 'perfect skirt'.  We used McCall's pattern M5431 as the basis, and the very talented teacher showed us how to adapt for our shape and size.  I've fumbled through creating a couple of skirts now, and was thrilled that I learned so many new, and professional, techniques in this class - customizing the shape and the fit, grading seams to remove bulk, different hem options...  The fabric is from Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market fancy which she descibes as being inspired the vintage charm of some of her flea market finds.  Really happy with how this turned out - it is very wearable.  I especially love the big deep pockets.



And finally I spent the afternoon at Old Glory Antiques Fair.  Old Glory Antiques is a fabulous local store (I'll have to post the fun vintage swim locker I previously picked up - it now houses my yarn stash).  They'd pulled together a bunch of similarly wonderful vendors and put on a fair.  If funds were unlimited I could have gone crazy.  Soo many wonderful things to buy.  I oohed and aahed over many of the items displayed there, but was able to show restraint and only came away with some vintage threads, which I think will be a nice addition to my yet-to-be-created craft room. 

Hope you had a good day too,
Sam xxx