Rags to Riches

Perhaps I’m making a huge assumption here but old people tend to horde stuff. Perhaps its because times were hard and they never liked to throw things away in case it was needed again one day. My parents had a loft full of age old paperwork, card board boxes, old toaster and kettles, jars in all shapes and sizes, you name it and it was probably up there.

However, once in a while you come across some gems. Last week we were looking for my Mum and Dad’s wedding album and during our search we came across some part knitted gloves that my Mum probably start at least 30 years ago. The knitting pattern is from the 1960’s and wool is a bright multicoloured pink/purple combination. I asked whether I could take it all back home and finish them as I know with her arthritic fingers she will not. I hadn’t knitted gloves before but they soon came together and I am planning to give them back to my mum. A bonus is that there is enough wool to knit another pair for me!

Over the last year or so I have rescued fabric and wool found at my Mum’s, put to one side for charity. A bright floral blue stiff cotton fabric is one of my favourites. It was probably bought by my mum in the 1970’s and has sat in her cupboard since. I make a fitted sleeveless top and A-line skirt which was my take on 70’s style. Next to be pilfered from the pile was a few balls of very soft snuggly wool which I knit into a snood to go with my winter coat. Another firm favourite is a length of floral needlecord which I made into a short pencil skirt to wear with boots and a jumper in the winter.

We are still looking for the wedding album so I could get lucky and find more fabric gems – fingers crossed.

Terri

Lockdown Lardiness

At the beginning of the first lockdown my husband and I had been on a juicing diet and exercising regularly at the gym; we felt good about ourselves. In lockdown we engaged with a personal trainer and when the restricted allowed, my husband, son and I took on his regime of kettle bells, ropes and gruelling ab crunches twice a week. The weather was glorious and we were tanned and body beautiful – well as beautiful as one gets for people in their fifties! New clothes were fitted and sewn to the now size 10 frame. Yippee.

That was over 8 months ago and the weather has taken its toll. Too many comfort food meals, G & T’s and homemade baked goods. Bad weather has dampened the enthusiasm for outside exercise and gyms are closed.

However, with Boris’s road map out of lockdown, optimism about the future has returned. Along with lighter evenings and the possibility of a summer holiday (flights booked the same evening as the announcement!) the lockdown tardiness has to go. New clothes sewn last summer have got to fit so its juicing from Monday, a 5km run every other day, and when allowed, the personal trainer will be on the scene to beat the abs back in shape.

I’m looking forward to getting out for long walks on the beach with the dog and enjoying a pub lunch. Simple pleasures which have been denied but that I will appreciate and not take for granted again.

I hope you can see the light at the end of the tunnel and can focus to the positive.

Take care, Terri

Jay Dog – not by design

I wish I could draw and capture the character of our Jay dog. Being half springer spaniel and half whippet/greyhound means he is funny, naughty, cunning, bonkers, crazy fast and many more traits besides. As a friend said watching Jay disappear over the horizon chasing a scent, “What did you expect putting a spaniel’s nose on greyhound legs!”

He is not one of those designer dogs breed to get the best bits out of two breeds, he’s just Jay; a lovely mix of gentleness and crazy. He makes our lives full in so many ways.

In this current covid climate he is an excuse to get out daily and look around us at the lovely Wiltshire countryside I am so lucky to live in. Rain or shine our excitable dog can’t wait to go out. I’m sure both my husband and I would be the size of a house if we didn’t go on daily walk, with gyms being closed and the bad weather not easing in to spring quite yet. It’s easy to make excuses not to exercise but not in our household. By midday I’m tripping over a dog at my heels with him wondering if I’m ever going to take him out. Getting out in the fresh air clears the head and I always feel in a better place when I get back.

Today is a 5km run for us and many more for Jay as he bombs around us. He must run at least double the distance and still has the energy to tear around the house with a toy in his mouth like a loon. Oh to have that energy.

As Jay settles down for a nap after breakfast, I’m off to seek inspiration in the sewing room for my project.

Terri

Be Brave

Fortune favours the brave.

I have dreamt of starting a crafting and sewing business on and off for years but was just not that brave. I have a steady job in the travel trade and very much enjoy the industry and the colleagues I work with. The thought of giving it up is just scary. It then dawned on me that actually I can do both of the things I love.

Since we moved house in 2016, we have had a spare room doing nothing but a horde for junk. You know what I mean – a bit of sports gear, an old sound system, my mother-in-laws old furniture and various other buts of past life paraphernalia. Two yeas ago I thought “Enough of this, I’m going to turn it into a sewing room.” I had kept my son’s old Ikea homework desk which was now obsolete; computers and art equipment require a much larger work space. It worked perfectly for my sewing machine. An old painted pine cupboard was given a revamp with white chalke paint, as was a dresser top I purchased second hand. Both worked brilliantly for storing away my sewing nicknacks, patterns and haberdashery items. Another white cabinet was purchased locally second hand and lastly a Fortnum and Mason’s hamper basket, previously used for toy storage, become home to my fabric horde. I was thrilled with my sunny sanctuary, tucked away to concentrate on making lovely things.

I started with making decorated pack away shopping bags. They were easy to make and sold to a few to friends and gave some as presents. Next I saw a great pattern for a dog doorstop and made this for our draughty banging ensuite door. I also had a friend commission one for her mother-in-laws new home.

life became busy with work and family, and sewing took a backseat. I had an Esty shop open to sell the bags and various items but it wasn’t working so I took the decision to close the shop with the idea to review it at a later stage.

It wasn’t until last year that I had time to dedicate to my sewing again. As with a lot of people in the first lockdown, my husband found himself having to work from home and needing an office. My sewing room was commandeered and I moved out in to our guest room. Although a much larger room, there was a kingsize bed in it so space to work was limited. Eventually I managed to persuade my husband that we could change the large bed to a single guest bed with a pull out bed underneath. I very rarely buy new furniture when I know there is so much good quality items to be found secondhand. I have been upcycling furniture since I bought my first flat and had no spare money. Now its part of being kinder to the environment that I purchase second hand items and I found what I was looking for on Facebook Marketplace. With everything moved over to the new room I now have a another sunny, calm space to think, create and sew.

Most days I can’t wait to finish my job working at the computer downstairs and get upstairs to my sewing room and complete the latest project I’m working on. In the last year my sewing skills have grown so much and I braved new projects that I would have never previously tackled.

I have a passion for sewing and hope to pass this to you by showing the items I have made, how and where I received my inspiration, where to shop for the fabrics and lots of helpful hints.

Be brave, take the plunge and follow the dream.

Take care

Terri

Why “Jay Dog” Designs

What’s in a name?

Shakespeare

Essentially it means what something is called can never fully capture the full meaning of what that something is.

In 2016 we bought a new member in to our family home. He was small, the runt of the litter but oh so cute and stole our hearts. This was our Jay dog. We searched for a name to call him through our favourite films and my son being 12, loved all the action and superheroes. Men in Black was our favourite family movie at the time and Will Smith’s character agent J was smart and funny. Our pup become agent J or Jay.

I wanted to put a name tag on the items make but ‘made by Terri’ or ‘homemade’ labels seemed a bit lame. I want them to be personal to me. I think my son and husband would agree that Jay is probably my dog more than anyone else’s. I walked him most in his first 4 years, I fed and trained him. He is unique and I love him dearly. To use his name for my business just seemed right.

Jay dog with his favourite toy – a squeaky G & T can!