New Bracelet from a Broken Vintage Piece

My 'new' gemstone bracelet. Nana would have been very happy to see this remake of a vintage piece!

Over the years Nana would help to pack up for her relations and always rescued bits and pieces that would otherwise be thrown out. Often she would hand over a small box or bag with things she thought I would like or could use. As I was growing up I loved gemstones and rocks and kept a collection in several shoe boxes under my bed! I never remember showing Nana, or even talking about my collection to her, but she always knew more about me than I would expect! Once she gave me an old jewellery box with a lot of broken bits in it including a bracelet of Australian gemstones. The chain was brass and broken but I liked the stones and and stored it away for years. Last year I noticed that gemstones had come back in fashion on pendants and bracelets and remembered the broken bracelet Nana had given me. I know her intention was for me to remake this into something newl. We had talked about it; she thought if I did not want to use the stones for a new piece of jewellery I could use it in a textile art piece. Nana was so interested in my studies in art and textiles even though I wondered where this interest came from as she was so practical and never did any 'fancy' work!

I took the broken bracelet to a local jeweller to see if I could learn more about the stones and if it was worth while making a good piece from the bits. How exciting it was to see the piece come together into a new bracelet with a gold chain. I love it and have been wearing it but I am going to look out for some other interesting bits to fill the gaps.

Learning to Sew

I was taught to sew on this machine by Nana and loved to stay for holidays and stitch away with Nana helping me. Nana gave this to me as a memento of my early sewing experiments and so that I could use it to teach my daughters to sew. It was not long before she was killed in the accident and in the drawers are still all the bits and pieces as she left them. This Singer treadle machine was made in Scotland at the Kilbowie factory Clydebank between January and June 1920. There were 50,000 of this model made. I know this as there is a serial number on the machine and it is possible to find out the year here and where the machine was made. Nana would have used this machine before she was married as it originally belonged to her Mother, my Great Grandmother. It still works and I can't wait to use it again, that is once I have the time. It has a lot of attachments I want to try. The design on it is Egyptian, a big trend at the time and the drawers are carved. Lots of memories for me with this machine! I made my first mini skirt on this treadle machine. It was white with box pleats to wear with white boots and a stripe skinny rib. Actually I still have that skirt, in my stash of projects to reuse one day! I was pretty proud of that skirt so how could I throw it away! Does anyone still sew on a treadle machine like this?

Doing the Mending

Nana mended something almost every week. Patches and stitches to cover a tear or a worn out knee or holes in socks. She did not hide her mending, it wasn't that invisible kind, you could see it and I think she was proud to show it off too. It was part of her "waste not want not" message but I do not think she would have thought up this style of mending, don't you love it? I do which is why I could not throw this card away. Tonight it became a new page in one of my art inspiration journals. The card came from a Selvedge Magazine subscription offer and I could not just shred it for the compost heap, it's too special, well I think so!

I love Selvedge there are so many pages in each issue to remind me of both my Grandmothers but I think there is a little more of Nana there.. This piece is all about mending being so obvious it becomes a decoration and I like that. It fits well with me today. We throw too many clothes out. Mend them remake them reuse them recycle them. That is what Nana did! I don't know if she had fun doing it, not like we can now. Nana would not have done an art journal would she? I do not think she would see that as practical. My journals are not all about experimenting with my ideas, some are and some pages can be, but a lot of my journals are really a scrapbook, a collection of my thoughts at the time or as this one is a scrap I wanted to keep. I look back on them use the ideas, develop the ideas, save the ideas! I need more time I know and that is what my life is about right now spring cleaning my head, getting rid of work overload and mending patches in my life. Nana would have approved of that. If she has seen this page she would shuffle around in her trunks and find me some old Broderie Anglaise dresses and petticoats for me to try this, yes she would! I might find one or two pieces in my stash that she gave me about thirty years ago when I was trying to make my own Ralph Lauren style western skirts as I could not afford to buy them. I remember showing her a picture in the 70s of blue chambrai skirts and lace petticoats, very USA country. Off she went, found just what I needed and I made that petticoat with a border of lace from an old piece she had saved from her Mother's petticoat! Now that is an amazing remake, in fact I still have the petticoat I made perhaps it could be used again!

Collecting Paisley Prints

Look what I found today! I cannot wait for it to arrive in the post. It was a very good deal a rare find on an ebay sale (yes I know my life is all about trying to SAVE and not spend but I can always use another bit of fabric) What I do like about collecting vintage fabrics is that it is using what could otherwise be thrown out. My cousins and I were having a chat about this very thought and wondered just how much good stuff was thrown out or put in the rag bag years ago that now would be so collectable. Nana never did though! She would never throw anything out that could be used again. She unpicked, cut down, remade, recycled and filled trunks and drawers with pieces that could be remodelled into a new outfit. I must get it from her and my studio is full of possible remakes and a growing collection of paisley fabrics.

I mean why wouldn't you want to collect paisley prints? I have so many and not one is the same! This piece is 60s or 70s vintage and such bright colours! Now what to make with that any ideas?

Not Another Blog

Nana, Poppy, My Father and Aunties on the Farm in the late Forties from a scrapbook page I did. the Buttons are from her old button tin (I still use this today) The image in the background comes from a view of the farm looking down the gully from the farm house.

Bit of a buzz today for me I had three cousins for lunch and we had not been together for 23 years! They are three of four sisters and were on their way back home and called to see me as the half way stop on a long drive. One of them walked into my office last year not knowing I was there and it has meant that for the first time in so many years I feel like I have an extended family again. Our Nana was taken suddenly in an accident, a terrible hit and run, and it left us without that important connector. Nana was the one to keep the cousins in contact and once she was gone our lives became far too busy and we lost most contact. Today was just wonderful lots of laughing lots of memories over lunch and a glass of wine. Out came some treasures I have kept, the flapper dress made by Nana for her 21st over 83 years ago, the old recipe book and file with her hand written notes and cuttings that she started to enter when she was a young girl and was still using at the time of her death and some photos. We moved around my home to look at some of her furniture I have been using all of these years (and my daughters already stake a claim on!) and there were lots of "I remember that" or OMG you still have that I wished I had not sold mine now!

At the end of a wonderful time we agreed to keep in touch and keep her memory alive. We are going to share our treasures, clips of information, stories and photos and I am hoping that I will be able to put all of this together in a book a copy for each to share with their children.

The best way for me to get on top of this task is to start another blog! This time I am going to keep it up! I love the idea of blogging and every day I have a quick read of my favourites and each day I say to myself OMG they are blogging about stuff I did in the 60s and 70s! This is my third attempt to keep up with blogging (okay so my other blogs are not dead just hibernating while I sort myself out and get my life back) I hope someone finds it interesting makes some comments and it will keep me blogging along. I am going to have to work at it my life still has too many demands. "Get on with it" as Nana would say so here goes!