Trapeze Tree Dress

Always on the look out for another novelty tree print fabric, this beauty called to me across the floor at Chichester's C&H Fabrics shop. It's a lightweight polycotton, not a fabric I'd usually chose as I've an aversion to the poly, however the print is simply stunning and the price was a steal at £4 a metre.

I modified the Esme dress pattern into a trapeze shape and made a simple sleeveless cotton slip petticoat to wear underneath. I decided to give the dress a rising/falling hem so that the petticoat is visible peeking out underneath.

Trial and error with a contrasting patch pocket resulted in my unpicking a bold first attempt before settling on this camouflaged diagonal pocket, matching the trees as closely as I could.

The dress goes perfectly with my new green tree brooch from Etsy's fab You Make Me Design shop, a present to celebrate my 47th birthday!

Year of The Goat lavender bags in the Ivy Arch shop

To mark the imminent start of the Year of the Goat I have restocked my Etsy shop with some new Chinese zodiac goat lavender bags. They're made from Mini Moderns Stevie printed cotton which was inspired by an oriental postage stamp collection. Mini Moderns produced this wonderful fabric for Clothkits a few years ago and the fabric is now out of print, making these lavender bags very rare indeed! For the backs I used Carolyn Gavin's poppy design organic cotton.

In the Chinese zodiac the sign of the goat (ram or sheep) is thought to symbolise good things and represents creativity and calm. Wishing you these things and more for a Happy Chinese New Year!

To buy or for more info visit the Ivy Arch shop.

November ukulele appliqué bags handmade by Ivy Arch

I've been sewing a new batch of appliqué ukulele tote bags. They're all made from a combination of vintage furnishing fabrics with different front/back panels and have a contrasting appliquéd ukulele on the front. 

They're the perfect size for carrying A4 books or magazines and are ideal for transporting your ukulele songbooks. There are five new bags in total, all available to buy now from my Etsy shop. 

Telephones and Clocks: new lavender bags in the Ivy Arch shop!

These printed retro telephone and clock lavender bags are on sale in the Ivy Arch shop! They're made using fabric from Kokka's Ruby Star collection (designed by Melody Miller) featuring telephones in shades of blue, green and pink, and clocks in olive green and rust. Handmade by me, I've backed them with polka dot cotton fabric and stuffed them with highly fragrant dried lavender flowers from Provence.

To buy or for more information visit the Ivy Arch Etsy shop.

Summer sale: 20% off at Ivy Arch Etsy shop

I'm having a super summer sale in my Etsy shop - 20% off everything for 5 days using the coupon code IVYSUMMER20. Go to IvyArch Etsy shop here.

♥ ♥ ♥ Take advantage of this super soaraway special offer before the shop closes for the school summer holidays!  Enter the discount code at checkout using the 'apply coupon code' tab on the right hand side of your shopping cart page. ♥ ♥ ♥

Retro telephone lavender bags in the Ivy Arch Etsy shop

These red and pink old-fashioned telephone lavender bags would make perfect end of year gifts for hard-working teachers. Plumply stuffed with fragrant French lavender, they're made using 'Phones Go With Me' fabric from Melody Miller's Ruby Star Sparkle collection for Kokka.

Also making an appearance in the Ivy Arch Etsy shop today are some more Typewriter Love lavender bags – these ones in a delicious turquoise and blue colourway with green hearts. Both sets of handmade lavender bags are available to buy from my online shop now and are ready to ship straightaway. 

Hotchpotch ukulele tote bags by Ivy Arch

 

I dithered over what to call these new appliqué tote bags. Each bag is made from a medley of vintage fabrics. Hotchpotch is my favourite word for them but the dictionary also suggested melange (I think not), salmagundi (a new word for me, apparently also the name of a 17th century salad dish), gallimaufry (which I like but sounds as clunky as Gargiulo) and plain old mishmash - a lovely word but doesn't do these gorgeous fabrics justice.

So hotchpotch it is. These beautiful ukulele tote bags in exquisite vintage fabrics will be making an appearance in my Etsy shop over the next few days, starting with four of them listed today.

Eclectic Owls in the Ivy Arch shop

I've been busy sewing owls. They started off as birthday presents for my daughter's friends, then seemed the ideal thing to make for Donna's new retro-fantastic flower shop and have been so popular I've made some to sell in my Etsy shop too. Now, you may think the last thing Etsy needs is more owls (according to this highly unscientific study they're the fourth most plentiful creature on my favourite handmade marketplace), but I'm sure you'll agree these owls are particularly lovely.

They're available in two shapes and I made them using up some of the precious smaller offcuts of rare vintage fabric left over from bigger projects, combined with contrasting bold contemporary prints. Original fabrics used include designs by Peter Hall, William Morris, Naito Shoji, Lecien Japan and Robert Kaufman.

They're upcycled toys and I love making them as every different fabric combination seems to give each one a distinct personality. Ivy Arch vintage/modern owls are available to buy now.

Ukulele appliqué bags with apples, birds and flowers

Three new ukulele book bags are listed in my Etsy shop. There would have been four, but I love this wonderful Jane Foster fabric so much that I had to keep one for myself. You can snap one up here, but be quick - they won't be around for long!

Christmas ukulele gig bags

The month of Christmas is upon us and here are two new quilted ukulele gig bags with a festive theme made from fabric designed by Lotta Kühlhorn for Ikea. The pale blue one has a Scandinavian mountain landscape design with snow-capped mountains, winter berries and a mountain goat. The other is a rich bright retro 60s Scandi floral print which also seems perfectly Christmassy. Both are handmade in Worthing by me and are on sale now in my Etsy shop.

Vegetable lavender bag bundles

Stuck for vegetarian-friendly Christmas gift ideas? Then look no further. The latest addition to my lavender bag line is a veritable vegetable bonanza. Bumper bundles of these 1920s seed packet lavender sachets tied up with satin ribbon are on sale in my Etsy shop.

With names as evocative as Kentucky Wonder, Livingston's Beauty, Snowball and Icicle (better known as beans, tomato, cauliflower and radish), these bags look and smell as good as they sound. Available now.

C30, C60, C90, Go!

It's rumoured that cassette tapes are making a comeback. Hard to believe in an age of digital media but I'm one of the people who love listening to music on cassette. Maybe it's the fact that it's a physical medium where sound is recorded directly onto an object that makes listening to a cassette feel more vital than an MP3 file. A well played cassette's sound may distort and sometimes the magnetic tape will snap, but it's so rewarding when you've fixed it with Sellotape (after a fashion), rewound it with a pencil and when played again in a tape machine you can still hear most of the sound!

     My collection of mix-tape treasures includes Lex Luther's Revenge - a gift from DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, and an untitled compilation of contemporary Czech and Slovak music from Heather Mount of Tamizdat. The inlay card is decorated with a hand painted swirly blob and the track listing is typed onto a folded piece of paper. Both have been played repeatedly over the years and are objects I'd never want to part with.

    So, my third batch of lavender bags this week is dedicated to cassette tape lovers everywhere. They're sachets made from MiniModerns C60 fabric which has images of retro cassettes printed in bright colours. The fabric was bought from Clothkits in Chichester who produce a wonderful sew-it-yourself skirt kit in this material.

Cassette tape lavender bags are available now in the Ivy Arch shop.

Perfectly punctual lavender bags

It's lavender o'clock in the Ivy Arch shop and here's the second batch of this week's new lavender bags. These beautiful retro clock designs are available for a limited time only. Go here for more views or to buy.

William Morris and Peter Hall ukulele gig bags

I've listed two more quilted vintage cotton ukulele gig bags in my Etsy shop. The one on the right is made from an original piece of William Morris Chrysanthemum fabric in muted browns and pale oranges.  The one on the left is cut from a stunning piece of Peter Hall's 1960s Candida screenprinted cotton in browns, black and white. I previously made a bag for a pocket uke in the orange colourway of this design.

Both of these gig bags are now available here.

Quilted ukulele cases in rare vintage fabrics

Five new ukulele gig bags have gone into my Etsy shop today. They're all made from original 1950s, 60s and 70s fabrics (a William Morris design, Bernard Wardle screenprinted cotton, Liberty prints and Heals fabrics).

     I've used a combination of channel quilting and free-motion quilting here. As a naive self-taught quilter I wasn't actually aware that was the name for what I was doing until my friend and sewing expert Leigh Otterson-Walter of Quilty Pleasures enlightened me!

Detail of channel quilting and free motion quilting on Ivy Arch uke cases

I love the look and texture of quilted fabrics and sometimes find the stitching on the back of the piece as interesting (if less colourful) as the pattern on the front. There's a secret work of art hidden away inside the lining of every ukulele bag I make. 

Hidden back view of an Ivy Arch quilted ukulele bag

These vintage fabric ukulele gig bags are on sale now in the Ivy Arch shop.

Autumn's tote bags in Dutch wax prints, lemons and daisies

Here are six new ukulele tote bags for autumn. Four of them are cut from different pieces of Dutch wax print fabric. I love the super bright colours found on this type of material and have a small collection of Dutch print fabrics bought variously at street markets in Shepherd's Bush and Worthing, as well as from African fabric shops in London's Petticoat Lane. I've used it to make everything from dresses to wall hangings for my home but thought a range of tote bags in these highly patterned prints with contrasting appliqued ukes would look fabulous.

The other two new bags in this collection are made from a Scandinavian style retro daisy print designed by Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman Fabrics. I've matched it with a cheerful lemon and lime print cotton by Ikea.

All these bags are on sale now in the Ivy Arch Etsy shop.

Ukulele cushions by Ivy Arch

Continuing the theme of ukulele appliqué (as seen on these tote bags), I've designed and made a range of ukulele cushions. They're all cut from original 50s, 60s and 70s fabrics and each has a ukulele motif appliquéd on the front in a contrasting material. My favourite is the 1950s green atomic leaf pattern cushion with a pink polka dot uke. They're available to buy online now from my Etsy shop. No ukulele lover's home is complete without one!

Not so Scary Monsters

I've added a new tribe of handmade monster toys to my Etsy shop. These beasties are a little bit smaller and a perhaps even a little bit cuter than the first lot. They're made from vintage fabrics and I think the barkcloth ones are especially covetable. A couple are in the same fabrics as two of my ukulele tote bags - also on sale now in the shop.

1920s seed packet lavender bags for the Spring Equinox

On the eve of the Spring Equinox, here's the new Ivy Arch range of lavender bags. They're cut from a piece of cotton printed with 1920s seed packets from the Card Seed Co. of Fredonia NY. This beautiful fabric was designed by Holly Holderman for Lakehouse Dry Goods. I've backed the pouches with olive green polka dot cotton and filled them with French lavender.
     Some of them are on sale now in my Etsy shop and I'll be adding more seed varieties in the next couple of weeks.