Crafty holiday goodness

For the past week I've been in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales staying with the fella and the pooch in a wee cottage in lovely Sedbergh. If you're ever in the area I can highly recommend Farfield Mill if you want to get a sense of what the local crafters are all about. They actually still use the 80 year old looms in the mill to make all sorts of beauties such as rugs and textiles.

Anyway, as you would expect I did my own tour of the surrounding thrift stores and on the very first day of the holiday I had what can only be described as the shoe find of the century! Normally I only give the shoes in thrift stores the most cursory of glances before moving on to more interesting territory. After all, feet are very personal parts of the body and shoes are rarely given away in good condition. I nearly had a conniption in the Oxfam store in Penrith when I came across the glorious clogs you see below.

I'm going through a love affair with wooden shoes at the moment. The trick is to wear them in slowly over time I think and for the more fashion forward amongst us, you might brave wearing a cute ankle sock with a sandal like the one above.
Also in the weeks thrifty haul was the best part of Cumbria's supply of doilies and linens (apologies if anyone else wanted some!). Now although it's lovely just to look at these treasures and wonder what you'll do with 50 vintage tea towels and tray mats, it's also nice to use them in a crafty creation.

Recently I felt it was time to put some of my materials to use so I decided to make a skirt. With all the right tools, like a sewing machine, you can make this skirt in under an hour.

Materials:
I used a double sized flat bed sheet for this and I think the pattern is really delightful.
A length of elastic
Doily or any embellishment you have to hand.
 

How to do it:

•  Fold the sheet in half lengthways, right sides together. If you have the part of the sheet which was already hemmed at the bottom, you can cheat and use this as your skirt hem.
• The next step is to decide how long you want the skirt to be and then add approximately one inch to that for a waistband. Mark and cut across the sheet at that line.
• Now sew a line of straight stitching down the long side of your fabric so you have a tube. If you're a skinny minnie or want to have a less-full look to your skirt, you can simply cut a strip off the side before you start sewing.
• Now you've got your tube, still with right sides together, fold a half inch of fabric down and press all the way around the top of the skirt. Fold down another half inch and press again. This will provide the casing for your elastic.
• Sew a line of straight stitching all the way around the bottom of your casing leaving a small gap to thread your elastic through.
• Cut your elastic to fit around your waist (or wherever you want the skirt to sit) and add a couple of inches to that measurement.
• Thread your elastic through and had stitch the ends together. Close the gap you left in the casing either by hand or with your machine.
• Add any embellishment you fancy! I added a linen doily to this skirt so it had a pocket but anything goes. Enjoy!