Yarn for the skirt guard!

I went shopping for yarn yesterday, and ended up getting something called Drops Muskat, which is a mercerised cotton. It has a lovely sheen to it, and I think it will make a very pretty skirt guard :)

Finally Improvement!

I am pleased and relieved to say that the arms are finally well on the way to recovery, thanks to this chap. I got his e-book on wrist tendinitis 10 days ago, and it was worth every cent.

Consequently I have been pondering what my first project will be, and I have decided to give a go at crocheting. This will not be done today or next week, but hopefully fairly soon. I'll be making these:

I have a very cute old bicycle from the 1960's, I think. It's a dark red/orange colour, and I'll be making my skirt guard in matching colours, so I can ride in style :)

Do's and Don'ts

I thought I'd share some of the experiences I have acquired in tendinitis land this last year, especially the do's and don'ts. First of all; rest. I have discovered that when the inflammation is at a peak, rest is essential. Pain killers and anti inflammatory medication might help with the pain, but my mistake always seemed to be believing in the results too quickly, using  my arms, and always without fail getting worse again. I've heard said that the very definition of lunacy is repeating one's actions expecting a different result, and having repeated this cycle again and again this fact started sinking in, and I finally decided trying something called manual therapy, primarily because my neck and shoulders also started to get sore and painful. The manual therapist have done wonders for my neck, shoulders and back these 4 times I've been to see him. Next week he'll have a look at my arms, so fingers crossed.

Vintage Skincare

For those of you who still pop by once in a while I am still recovering, very slowly but hopefully getting there. I am seeing something akin to a chiropractor/ physiotherapist/ acupuncturist and I hope he'll be able to sort out the arms eventually.

In the meantime I thought I'd share a rather wonderful discovery. I am one of those people who have been cursed with a very difficult skin type. Rashes, redness, spots; I've had them all, sometimes at once... This winter has been particularly cold (again), and about 2 months ago I was standing in front of the mirror cursing the cold and the dry skin it brought with it. I then remembered that my great aunt used Nivea Cream her entire life, and had the smoothest skin I've ever seen. I rummaged through the bathroom closet and found an old box, applied some, and I swear I saw improvement already the next day. I then decided to go all the way, and got cold cream and rose water. I use the cold cream as cleanser and moisturising mask, remove it with a moist towel ( to exfoliate the skin), apply the nivea cream, and follow with a cotton pad moistened with rose water to remove the stickiness. And my skin looks fab. It's smooth, soft and hydrated, and hardly a blemish in sight. All hale great aunt Gudrun :o)

Some laundry experiments

As my arms are slowly healing and I have had a self imposed sabbatical from blogging and sewing, I have spent some time experimenting with laundry techniques.

I managed to get hold of 2 beautiful dresses from the 1940's, both black. One made from silk crêpe and the other from wool crêpe. Both dresses smelled rather bad. The wool crêpe dress smelled of old sweat and musty awfulness, the silk dress had bad underarm odour. I am lucky enough to own a book from the 1930's which amongst other useful things also has a chapter on laundry and dry cleaning, and I decided to see if the tips listed in the book would work.

The book lists vinegar as the best solution on removing armpit stains. This did work on the salts which formed the stain, but the smell did not go away. In fact, the vinegar added a certain something to the existing smell which did nothing to improve it.

I then heard that rubbing alcohol might work, and decided to give it a try. So far I found that the alcohol kills just about any odour, be it sweat or the musty smell that sometimes clings to vintage garments. I have so far only tested alcohol on cotton, silk and wool, but it seems to work beautifully, and so far it looks as if the garments takes well to the treatment.

What I do is I use a spray can with alcohol to dampen the garments (or rather, I have my better half doing this part due to the wrists). Once the garment is dry it needs to be washed (I always hand was any garments pre dating 1950).

I also found that even though vintage wool crêpe shrinks, it can be returned to it's original size with some patience and an iron. Use a dry pressing cloth between the garment and the iron, and gently pull the garment into shape.

Still alive

Hello readers (assuming that some of you still pop in to check the blog). I am sorry about the long silence, this was due to tendinitis of both under arms and wrists. I have still not mended properly, but am now able to manage a little typing. I will most likely not update the blog on a regular basis again until I am healed, but at least now you know I'm still amongst the living.

Pleasures and Disappointments

I do love ebay, I have gotten hold of many a treasure there, and some of my most fabulously glamorous pieces, such as the fox stole was aquired through ebay, but lately I have had some disappointments too.

I decided to treat myself to some new dresses, and not just any dresses, but knitted dresses from the Per Una range of Marks and Spencer's. I got one which was perfect, one which was nice, but just didn't suit me (I'll give that one to my cousin) and one which was a total disappointment. I am usually good at estimating what a garment looks like in real life from pictures, and also how they are constructed, but in this case I just don't know what happened.

The dress in question is the one in the below picture:

The dress looks very different in person, and I suspect it must have been pulled down on the dummy quite a bit to make it appear longer. I am not very tall, 1.63 meters, but this ends mid thigh on me. It does appear to be longer, doesn't it?

It's also supposed to be a UK size 12. I think in US sizes that would be a size 10. But the dress looks more like a UK 8 to me. I can still wear it, but it is skin tight, and - ahem - rather revealing...

Not sure what to do with it yet, perhaps wear it when watching Marilyn Monroe films, to get in the proper diva mood, or maybe give it to charity.