So Scone has made some new additions to the family… for your new additions! Hand crocheted baby shoes for boys and girls make a lovely baby shower gift, or a nice present for baby’s first Christmas. Ballerina slippers for girls and booties in modern colours for baby boys, perfect for keeping little toes cosy this winter!
(They make my womb skip a beat).
I was lucky enough to win a lovely gift last month from one of my favourite bloggers (and people) Georgina Giles. Each month Georgina rewards her readers with a Present in the post, and in September my name was drawn! How exciting! I won a string of mini felt bunting in lovely shades of pink, teal and grey.
I put it up in my studio so I can be inspired by other peoples crafts everyday!
..the perfect length for my fabric shelves!
I was really pleased that I managed to get a last minute place at the All The Rage Craft Fair, which was organised to showcase artists from the NDG area of Montreal as part of the NDG Arts Week. The proceeds from the craft show will go to Head & Hands, which is an amazing local organisation that works with young people in our community.
Unfortunately, I had basically no stock, so spent the last two weeks busily sewing as many things as possible to fill my table. I didn’t really have much time to think about how I might set up my table, I was just hoping I’d have something to put on it! So I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t have a chance to make it look beautiful and appealing to possible customers. I was very inspired by the lovely Georgina Giles post about her table at a recent craft fair, which looked so amazing. I will aspire to this standard for all future fairs!
The table was so big, I didn’t quite have enough stock!
I’ve been trying out a few new things recently, and managed to take a couple of my new simple summer dresses for baby girls, some crocheted baby booties, crocheted heart garlands for nurseries or playrooms, and a couple of the baby beach balls that I mentioned here.
Simple Summer baby dresses made in vintage fabrics – part of my So Scone Retro Baby Range
I hope to make a bunch of these in bright modern colours for boys and girls, they are so cute it basically makes me cry!
It’s been more than a year since So Scone has been up and running properly. My website still needs badly updating and my Etsy is still closed for now. But I have definitely been bitten by the So Scone bug again, and think I could make it work here in Montreal, fingers crossed. Wish me luck!
I’ve been busy working away in my home studio making as much new stock as possible for a craft show this Sunday. I’d like to take lots of photos to show you all, but sadly the sun has decided to stay in bed today, so the light is not great. I’ve been trying out some new things this time round. I’ve made a new style of retro baby dresses and some lovely baby beach balls in vintage fabrics. Here are some old favourites that I managed to photograph before the sun went in.
Super Sixties Zip Case
Lovely vintage fabric for this little coin purse
I made this one as a trail, I think the hexagon needs to be bigger, or the ball needs to be smaller, back to the drawing board…
Sorry it’s been bit quiet the last couple of weeks. We’ve been on holiday to the Rocky Mountains in Alberta Canada. It was pretty bloody amazing. We camped most of the time and camping Canada-style is pretty fun – they let you have a fire! This would never be allowed in England (the health and safety police would arrest you). We drove from Calgary up to Banff, then up to Jasper and back down a few days later for a stop at Lake Louise. It was the most beautiful road trip I’ve ever taken.
This is the view from Sulphur Mountain in Banff National Park, very close to Banff town, we cheated though and took the cable car up this one
We were also lucky enough to see SEVEN bears, once three together – a mum and two cubs. We also saw a moose with a calf, which apparently is pretty rare, and lots of Elk. We did a lot of hiking, took a dip in the hot springs, went to see the Columbia Ice Field (one of the largest accumulations of ice and snow south of the Arctic Circle), and on our last day rented a canoe on Malinge Lake, which is the bluest lake the world has ever seen.
an incredible close-up encounter!
We took a bus with giant wheels to a Glacier at the Columbia Icefield and could walk around on it!
We teamed up with a nice French couple to do this 7 hour hike (we did it in only 4!), because there was a bear warning and you could only hike in groups of 4 or more by law! luckily we didn’t come across any bears on the hike.
We hired one of these canoes and had a lovely time canoeing on our final day in the beautiful Rocky Mountains
We have lovely vintage hexagon tiles in our bathroom. They are really small, about one centimetre across, and a bit battered and untidy from being so old, but I really like them.
They are a little grubby, but in a nice vintage kinda way.
We also recently painted our bathroom a bright happy blue (you can see it in the background of the first photo here), which got me thinking about what other nice things I do could to give the space a make-over. I’ve been dying to crochet something hexagon-shaped for ages now, so it seemed the perfect opportunity to take inspiration from these lovely little tiles. I decided to crochet a colourful bath mat to contrast with the happy blue walls.
Here is a sneak peak of my lovely new project:
I love the bright colours, choosing the yarn was a lot of fun!
I have been working on a few new ideas recently and I’d love to hear what you think.
I live near Villa Maria Metro Station in Montreal and it’s just about the happiest underground station I have ever seen. It’s like hanging out with Pac Man and all his friends every time you take the Metro.
Villa Maria Metro MTL
I have an Opus card (that’s like an Oyster card for you Londoners), and I used to keep it in my wallet ready to tap on the turnstile. That is, until it decided that my wallet was too thick and stopped connecting with the pad. SO, I took it out and put it in an old Southwest trains plastic wallet (not attractive). This gave me the idea to make a nice Metro card wallet for myself with some of my many many piles of vintage fabric. Here is what I came up with:
Retro Metro Card Wallet – handmade with beautiful vintage cotton
I made a plastic sleeve to put my Opus card in from recycled plastic bags. I learned how to do this from this Etsy tutorial. I’m really pleased with it, as I always try to be green and reduce waste wherever possible.
I fused a plastic bag together to make this strong transparent fabric for the sleeve
and, of course, no self respecting SO SCONE piece is complete without a vintage button!
A lovely vintage button!
I’m also working on some with two plastic sleeves – all you need to take out in this city is a Metro card and a Credit card, perfect!
It’s really hot here today – and muggy. I’m melting, so to remind me to be grateful of the lovely sunshine, I made this Etsy Treasury, ENJOY!
Recently I have put my sewing machine aside in favour of hook and yarn. Needless to say, I have been going crochet crazy. Here are just a couple of the projects I have finished recently…
Heirloom crochet blanket for my mum’s 50th birthday. It took so long to make – about 200 hours!
so lovely and soft!
I also made this nappy cover for a friend’s little one, made from beautifully soft alpaca silk aran.
This week has been Spring Break. This is the first week off since Christmas. It’s a bit of a shock coming from the ‘school-holiday-every-six-weeks’ culture of the UK. So, I have been trying to make the most of it.
I spent the beginning of the week whizzing around on the metro and doing a bit of shopping in Old Montreal and Downtown. It was amazing to be out in the city again, instead of stuck inside preparing lessons.
On Wednesday I volunteered my sewing skills at an old people’s residence. They needed someone who knew how to use a machine to sew labels into the clothes of the new arrivals. Everyone in the home has their clothes labelled so that nothing gets mixed-up in the laundry. It was nice to see the other side of life. I spend a lot of my week with young people. What I really mean by ‘nice’ is ‘pretty humbling and a bit sad’. All these people sitting around in chairs. Just sitting. It made me glad to be young. It’s a great home and they do have lots of activities for the residents, but I was just struck by the quietness of it all. Just sitting.
sewing station at the residency
