The Piece & Jam Collection Launches!

Well, we are delighted to announce the launch of our brand new, hard fought, hard won, 'Piece and Jam' and 'Stratford' Collections!

Now then, when Amanda and I decided it was time our Kids' Collection got some company on the site, we wanted to get back to basics and sew something from our hearts.  We agreed to go off and pursue our own stitchy little agendas and come up with a collection each, that we would then market.  This allowed each of us to do her own thing, and remain faithful to it.  Teamwork is essential in business, but sometimes you also have to let your own creativity spark fully into a great big fire too!

Piece and Jam is my fire, and Amanda's burning desire is Stratford.


When I was a nipper, I and my several other nipper siblings used to play outside. Of course, then we'd get hungry and hassle that lady who lived in the kitchen.  That's right, Mum, her name was.  Or rather "Mu-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-ummm....." which is what all self-respecting children call their mother.  Even when they're grownups with children of their own and want their mother to take up a hem or design a whole product for their vintage and recycled fabric homewares company.  Ahem.


Wanyhoo.....so, she would lob at us what she called a 'piece'n'jam' to shut us up and keep us outside.  I believe it is a Scottish phrase, or at least, that's where she found it, her parents being Scots.  A piece'n'jam is just bread and jam.  No butter or anything fancypants like that, oh no.  Just a piece of bread.

With jam on.

Now, although our Piece and Jam Collection is sort of, essentially, my baby - in the end it was actually Amanda who has made the products.  Lazy aren't I?  So I was sitting here with my free-motion embroidery head on, sketching vintage sewing machines or radios or socks or pants or shoes (well, go and look!) and thinking up phrases, and fiddling with embroidery threads and having enormous fun 'writing' in thread on bits of vintage fabric, and then I'd turn up in the school playground, and shove my makes at Amanda.  Kind of drop them at her feet, like a cat with a dead frog.
And say things like - "Um, fancy putting that on a pegbag?" or "Hey, you know how good you are at making Tea Cosies?" or "Oh you're so pretty and clever at making great big laundry bags.....ooooh look at this, wouldn't that look nice on one?" and then I'd run, run like the wind....
Poor woman.

So, in the end - Amanda pieces together the fabrics, linings, straps and templates to make the actual product and I supply the 'Jam'! Of course, our lovely stitchers will make them once we have sent them the patterns and they're ready for the jammin', and so when you order, you must still have a look at your OriginalStitch Tag to see which of our stitchers made your product.

What's great about Piece and Jam is that you can choose your piece, and your can choose your jam.  Want wholemeal with raspberry?  No problem.  Rye and Stoneground with Gooseberry?  Ciabatta with Fruits of the Forest you say?  Done.
Oh, no, hang on - that's actual bread and jam, sorry....

Let's try again, yes?
Want an Apron with a Radio on?  We're on your wavelength.
Want a Shoe-Bag with a Sewing Machine on? We're sew with you on that.
A Tea-Cosy with Bunting on? Just flag it up when you order.
A Laundry-Bag with Shoes on?  We'll toe the line...

Am I having a little too much fun with this?  Well, why not.  This is a fun collection of iconic shapes and phrases turned into mini-artworks on everyday things.

Coz why should your laundry bag be boring?  Get jammin'!

Lolly Put the Kettle On!

I am departing slightly from the main road here today, or rather going off-piste, to use a meteorologically inspired metaphor, and am going to do a blog post all about tea. 
I do this for two reasons - one, to show you a lovely Christmas present I received from my sister, who crocheted me a mug-warmer!  A mug-warmer!   Isn't that just fantastic?
And two as a Special Service Announcement for our American friends, inspired by a very daft conversation I have been having with LollyChops, that fabulous blogger from big old Texas, which I suspect is a good deal warmer than here...

Her latest blog post, which has a title of which she can be rightly proud - The Mad Tatter's Teabag Template (her sister is learning tatting, which in very basic terms is a form of lace-making using knots and loops; the post is all about teabag holders; Lolly's a bit mad etc and well I mean, it's all come together in a perfect headline hasn't it?  It's the stuff tabloids dream of, no?)...is all about tea. In my comment at the end of her blog I got rather over-excited, because I think it's fair to say we do like a drop of tea in this country.  There's no-one can say we ain't fond of a cuppa. 


And therein began a dotty email thread all about making tea, and the intricacies involved.  In which Lolly said "I have always heard about the English and their tea!  I would love to try it so I can see if it's any different from how we make it (I think we might boil it or something too long...)"


So, here it is - the definitive guide to making tea, as per MY method of making tea, which does not, you shoddy good-for-nothing teabaggy slatterns, you - involve putting a teabag in a cup.  Get a teapot people, get a teapot.  You know who you are.


How to make a Luvverly Cup of Tea


1. Find a beautiful teapot.  Swish some nice hot water into it to warm the pot.
2. Boil your kettle - now I interrupt myself here to ask a question....do you have kettles, you Americans??  You know, a thing you plug in to an electricity socket to boil water in?  Or one you put on the hob/cooker/stove?  One of these....

I'm not being rude, I promise,  it's just that I remember when I lived in France there was not a one to be had.  They were all about their coffee, and used other machiney things for that, percolators or whatever.  Failing that, they just boiled water in a pan.  So I boiled water in a pan for a year, and when I came back to England I was all "Ben, non!  Mais qu'est-ce que c'est que ca, hein?  C'est super ca, non?" - which translates as "...like oh my God!  What's that thing?  A kettle!  Oh my god, what a great idea!" 
Ok, so, getting back to the point then.  If you have no kettle, simply fill a pan-type vessel with um, say, 4 cups of freshly drawn water Although I'm not totally up on what a cup is, and equally I'm hopeless at pints, litres, fluid ounces etc.  Thank heavens I'm not a recipe writer, hm? and using heat of some description from a cooking type appliance, begin to boil the water.

3. While the water is heating up, place 2 teaspoonfuls of English Breakfast Tea leaves (if you're posh, but I won't pretend many of us actually do use tea leaves, even me - so teabags are allowed, because I say so, so we're talking 1 bag per person) and one teaspoonful for the pot. (We have an expression 'one per person and one for the pot', since presumably the pot is thirsty too.  This makes the kind of cuppa my grandad would have said is 'strong enough to get itself out the pot', ie, "Ahh lovely.  Can't stand tea that's not strong enough to get itself out the pot".  In this house, my 'one for the pot' is a cheeky little Earl Grey teabag.  Oh yes - I'm so fancy aren't I?)
3. Wait until the water is BOILING - actually BOILING; not just about to boil, or boiled, but BOILING, BOILING I say -  and then pour in to your teapot, and put the lid on.
4. Make a lovely tea-cosy, (or perhaps try and find one you made earlier, or your tea will be what we call 'stewed', in other words mighty strong and probably cold...) and place over your teapot to keep your tea hot, as demonstrated here.

4. Allow your tea to stand for a few minutes, and then with a teaspoon, stir 3 times round.
5. Find a dainty teacup, pour in a little milk - (ok, I'm prepared for the unleashing of a barage of disgusted tea-drinkers saying you should pour your tea in first and add the milk after, and I agree that in The Ritz and other lovely hotels you would do that, lest the waiter turn up his or her nose at you, you common little oik.  But look here; I think we have let it lie with the teabags; let's all admit we pour the milk in first, shall we, hm?   - and gently pour in your tea trying not to mutter and swear too much at the drips which will inevitably come off the spout on to your worksurface.  Get a cloth, and learn to live with it; that's what the British Stiff Upper Lip is for.
6. Add a spoonful of sugar if you wish, or 2 if you are very bad, and drink, sipping delicately.
7. Alternatively, use a dirty great mug so you get a big washdown of tea to keep you going, which is what most of us do. 
8. Go "Ahh!  Now that's a nice cup of tea..."

And there you have it, the definitive guide to making tea.  Many of us Brits would have to admit to drinking far too much of it, especially in these wintry climes, which have us racing headfirst to the kettle every hour, wishing we also had crumpets, teacakes, or scones....

But they really are beyond my culinary expertise to explain, so I leave you instead with a nice picture of the kind of Afternoon Tea you would have a right to expect at a London hotel, or indeed any self-respecting top hotel the world over.  When I worked in media, and was bored of expensive boozy lunches, I started instead taking clients out to Afternoon Tea, which was cheaper, but felt like such a treat.  Nothing quite like seeing a grown man who works in the computer industry picking up dainty sugar lumps with tongs.

And it is easily one of my all time favourite ways to spend an afternoon.  Ah, you lapsang suchong, you ceylon, you Russian Caravan tea...ah you little tiny cucumber sandwiches, oh the cakes....

Cosy up

In all the excitement of the febrile virus-ridden daughter and her visit to hospital, I entirely forgot to photograph my latest fabric incarnation - a tea-cosy, for my sister, whose birthday was on Thursday. Her birthday did not go quite according to plan, because over she came to spend the day with us, going to musical singing groups and swanning round the garden drinking copious amounts of tea, and instead found herself babysitting Niece no.1 whilst Niece/Goddaughter was chucking her guts up in her mother's loving arms in A&E. However, they had a lovely afternoon making muffins, which greeted me on my return, and were most welcome. At least we'd managed to give her the tea-cosy before the hospital dash, and once home she betook herself to her camera for an on-site shoot, where she rummaged in her cupboards and found, of all things, Foxes Party Rings, which match the tea-cosy beautifully. This is not good, because now she will have to eat them every time she uses the tea-cosy, because they match so well, and she will become as fat as a biscuit barrel.
This was a very nice thing to make - from Sewing In No Time by Emma Hardy. It was my first time sewing through wadding, the stuff they put in a quilt, and it was a nice mushy, fluffy, experience. A bit like eating mashed potato.
You may notice the purple fabric is distinctly bonkers. Very slightly, and a little alarmingly 80's ish. Isn't it? Not quite sure I like it, but it's a good piece of thrift and re-use because it came from a charity shop, a great swathe of the stuff, looking for a home for a whopping great £2.50. So now bits of it will crop up in all sorts of future projects, hidden at the sides, or on the inside, or lurking round the back, like a fugitive.
If you'd like some, please ask me - I'll happily cut out some fat quarters to send to people!

Anyway, enough of that - on to the Gift Horse Competition Winners!

After much consideration we have decided that my first attempt at a hobby horse made from a sock is to be called...(drum roll please)....Duffin the Mule! I think I actually snorted out loud when I read it. Very funny...this was suggested by Gareth and Petra, so congratulations - you have won him!

And out of the hat for the pretty fabric hearts was, well, first my Dad, who is disqualified for being rude, secondly my sister, who had already been given one for her birthday anyway, and thirdly Sam! Hoorah! May a few lonely doorknobs in your home be heartened by them.

So Sam and Petra/Gareth Combo, your prizes will be on their way to you in a post van soon. Enjoy!