Toile de Jouy Bag

Toile de Jouy is a typical french  design printed on a cotton fabric that normally comes in red, blue and black.   It originated in Jouy en Josas, a small town southwest of Paris and was first produced in this little town known for its water quality towards the late 18th Century. Literally, these 3 words mean Toile = cloth, de= of, and Jouy= the name of the town where it was produced. The original designs depicted country & pastoral scenes, events and mostly about the rural life of the locals.. later, other designs were also added. In today´s modern times, this fabric is as popular as ever. Interior designers still love its effect in their decorating schemes and I think they are very classy in itself  evoking  the European feeling.

For this bag, I´ve chosen a blue toile fabric, adding  blue and white stripes for the  piping and bag straps. This bag is machine quilted.. all in all, it´s composed of  4 layers of material including the lining. 

I have added a lace with flower embroidery that matches the color of the bag. The bag will make a good statement as a stylish fashion accessory especially if worn as part of a blue jeans and white blouse/shirt outfit.

A Zipper is added for the closure as well as  2 pockets are available inside. It can hold many things and can also function as an overnight bag.. 

 Hope you enjoy today´s blog.... have a nice day!

A Stylish Bag for Tess

Today, we have a bright and cheery day as the sun spreads its rays all over my place. Can´t believe that it´s already Autumn. As bright as the sun, I´m sharing a stylish bag I made for a long-time friend Tess. After retiring from her corporate job, Tess is  nowadays ,a successful entrepreneur  and has been very busy with her wholesale business that has something to do with food.  We´ve been friends way back when we both  worked for the same group of  companies. After almost 35 years, we still communicate and see each other whenever I visit my family & friends in my home country.

This bag was especially made for her busy schedule and as  requested, I made it a bit bigger , sort of a carry all-bag for her daily needs. It can even be used as an overnight bag as it´s wide enough to hold lots of things for a one night stay anywhere.

For this bag, english style fabric was used and I think that the colors are wonderful and friendly. The bag is machine quilted and has about 4 layers of fabric including the lining...It has a zipper as closure.

 

And because the flower design is english,  I used a bluegreen tartan cotton fabric as trimming , pleated and sewn onto the top of the bag, just like my blue handquilted bag previously posted here on the blog a month ago.   I think, the pleated tartan trimming justifies the english rose print & color on this bag, don´t you think so?

 

 

From the looks of it, the new owner is happy with her new bag... here´s what she said and
I quote....  "yes ...am the proud owner of the this bag.. really like it... no duplicate copy ever..." .

And of course  being its maker, am happy and proud too that my bags are liked and enjoyed by its owner !

 

I hope that each of you are inspired to make crafts and explore your creativity. Thank you for dropping-by and reading my blog for today. I`m wishing everyone a brighter week-end  full of sunshine...Enjoy it!

Til next,

xoxo
Mercy



Turned, Chained & Hammered - Copper Jewelry

 

 

 

 

 

It´s amazing how a simple roll of wire can be  turned into a fabulous piece of jewelry. Copper is one wire I love working on. My first copper project below is a trial and error earring that til today needed finishing, in short,  it is still a work- in process...it really takes time when you want to do it perfectly.  I designed the above pendant making 4 coils swirled by fingers using a special plier. Some parts were hammered to give an artisan look..

 

 

 

 

Copper jewelry has good effects on one´s health. The fact that when it´s  worn around skin, they eradicate bacteria , fungus and other health hazards that might cause skin irritations.

 

 

 

 

In today´s posting, the  pendant above was  made last May 2011. I made the necklace out of

of sponge corals ( not endangered specie) and copper wire was used to chain-connect the mineral beads. The best care for  copper jewelry would be to wipe it with a wet cloth before and after wearing... to make it shiny, use car wax sprayed onto its surface then buff  with a dry cloth til it becomes shiny. One crafter was suggesting that another way to clean it is by soaking the jewelry in a cup ( just fully covered) with  fresh lemon juice a couple of minutes, using old toothbrush, brush-clean the difficult to reach areas of the jewelry, afterwards, wash with mild soap and rinse with water and buff with dry soft cloth.

 

 

Wishing you a nice begin for Thursday. I do hope you would come back and visit my blog again.

Til next,

Mercy

Vintage Duvet Covers - Recycled

 In the early days, only few people could afford to have the warmth of  duvet filled with goose feathers because they were very expensive. Nowadays, industrialized nations produce them in various materials from natural to synthetic fibers that come in various designs.

The type of duvet covers I´m sharing here are those common in the alpine regions of Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The above type of cases were so popular in the 60´s and they´ve had huge hole in the middle to easily slip in the duvet inside just like in pillowcases.. Some housewives  added & sew laces on the edges of the case so that they would look pretty and romantic when spread on top of the bed.

When the pillows and duvet were standardized in Central Europe, these type of cases almost became obsolete because the new sizes didn´t fit to them anymore. My husband´s grandmother made her own duvet covers and added nice laces on them too.

New modern standardized duvet covers swept the market in the 70`s but grandmother kept all her  cases of about a dozen or more. Some were made of fine egyptian cotton, some were made from damask fabric and some plain and her cases came in pair. It is common to have a double size bed with 2 single mattresses, so that explains the pair of cases.

Grandmother got tired of keeping her vintage duvet cases, so she finally gave them to me... frankly, I didn´t know what to do with them since they are shorter in size and didn´t fit our duvet.
But, giving them away was a waste, so I thought of an idea to cover the opening in the middle of each case with a nice flowery designed fabric to make it look romantic... then, to fit it to the standard size of the modern duvet, I added some white fabric either on both ends or sides as the case would be.

Then, I sew some pillowcases and added the same strip of fabric I used to cover the holes of the duvet cases.... and that´s it!...my cases instantly grew in  numbers! 

We always enjoy the freshness of cotton in our skin especially in cooler summer days, crisp and comforting, even if this means plenty of ironing activities...! Hope you enjoy today´s posting.

Thank you for dropping-by.

Til next,

Mercy

Shared at :

French Country Cottage

The Evening Bag Story

A couple of years ago, I needed something to wear for a formal gathering I was attending. Finding an evening jacket to match my dress had been a tedious task so I opted to make one myself.  I went to one fabric shop in Vienna called " Komolka"  that has every kind of fabric according to one´s budget. I found a black tafetta that surely matched my dress and an evening jacket was born out of a pattern I´ve  been using a couple of times.

I was lucky to have vintage buttons that were handed-down to me by my husband´s grandmother. One of the buttons  were black, so they fit perfectly to the style and fabric of the jacket. 

The above button has a twisted yarn in the center,  it´s  actually very rare & beautiful. It gave character to the button´s overall appearance as if it was meant for the fabric I found...

And then, there was the issue of the evening bag...... and so, I had to find a black bag that would match the dress. Luckily, I found  one that nobody wanted because it had a spot on its upper right corner. It had a bargain price of 5 Euros  ( around 7USD ) and so I thought what the heck, I´would be using it only for one time so I brought it home. With  a bit of imagination and using the remnants of the jacket frabric, I created a rose and using glue gun,  pasted it right onto the bag to cover the spot.
Then, because the strap wasn´t really that appealing, I took it off and replaced it with a golden one which was recycled from an old bag I kept. And as you can see in the above title photo, the evening bag turned-out to be a success.

Everyone in the party asked me where I had my evening bag custom-made since it matched my jacket.... well, I guess the bag started the small talk in that gathering and of course, I didn´t tell them my small secret!

Hope you got inspired by today´s blog. I´m wishing you a nice weekend, enjoy it.

Til next,

Mercy

  

A Gorgeous Day - Decorating A Sideboard

The sunshine makes the difference and  we are lucky to have enjoyed it today. Had a fantastic time biking and afterwards,  I thought of  picking-up fresh flowers in the field near our home.
So, I brought home gladiolas in beautiful vibrant colors. The gladiola and sunflower field is just next to the rowhouse we live in and that makes it easier and practical for me to get fresh flowers at any day I want. 

The fresh flowers gave me inspirations to do some decorating today. I have rearrange the sideboard that used to hold various favourite books and removed all the clutter that I had been planning to put in a box.

Here is the field where you can cut flowers on your own, cut and pay for what you get by simply putting the coins in a slot box, no questions ask...honesty is the best policy and you get to enjoy your own boquet of beautiful freshly cut inspirations.

In principle, Symmetry in designing plays an important role when adding objects in decorating. The cobalt blue jars were chosen because they reflect the colors of the pictures, whereas... the lampshades balance and strengthen the whole composition.

That wraps up for today, I hope you have enjoyed reading today´s blog. It´s weekend folks,
so I hope you´re all having a joyous time whatever you´re doing and wherever in parts of the world you are in right now!

Til next,

Mercy

A Love Affair with Oil Paints

    "Wasserpark"......30x40 cm oil on canvas, Vienna 2004

This is the beauty of the waterpark near our Vienna home....Here, we used to walk our dog AKO and he chased them all - geese, ducks, black swans, birds even squirrels.

I´m simply sharing my earlier works in today´s posting. Here I used, the wet on wet technique in oil painting, not waiting for the paints to dry but giving an overlapping strokes while canvas is still wet and thereby correcting what might be flaws or errors.

 

    30x40 cm , oil on canvas...Vienna, 2002

 The above alpine view was my very first oil done in 2002.  The first set of oil paints was a gift from my husband and at first, I was not into painting & didn´t really know what to do with them. Later, I became busy with researches and got books on oil for self study.

These days, as I´m a working wife, I seldom have time to paint...and because this hobby
requires time and concentration,  I opt for other activities in the meantime such as crocheting, bag making and other crafts that I love and that  also includes my gardening, baking adventures and culinary arts.

Thanks for  reading me and have a good Thursday everyone!


Til next,

Mercy

Pot Gardening 2012 - A Resumé



This year´s gardening season had been a fruitful one for me,  actually the same as every year except that  salad greens were a bit more in numbers as last year´s. Over the months, we have collected a few more containers of Skyflakes crackers that are very useful for the salad greens. It all began when I had the idea of using 3 containers to give color to a dull terrace top a couple of  years ago.






Salad Greens in Skyflakes containers

 

Salad greens are very easy and almost  maintenance free plants, just water everyday and a bit of fertilizer. My planting season began only during the first week of June when I came back from my holiday.
You can see in the the following pics below that they still grew abundantly as Vienna´s summer was particularly good this year.

 

A variety pf Paksoi/Pechays ( chinese cabbage) were also included in this seasons potted greens. 

The one and only potted cucumber that delivered 2 dozens of fruits, and we had  a supply the whole summer served as salad.



The seeds of ampalaya/bitter melon/bitter gourd came from the Philippines.    


 

These ampalayas are bitter in taste but very healthy, when I cut them for cooking, I squeeze the bitter taste by using salt, then wash away with water.


 

The aubergines /eggplants above were used as ingredients for my Imam Bayildi Recipe featured in this blog previously.

All in all, I´m quite satisfied with this season´s pot gardening. I still have the potted bell pepper bush and  Okras outside, they are still bearing fruits. But, as it get chilly in the night, I might as well bring them inside the house anytime from now.

Potted Lilies, planted as bulbs

Oh by the way, my space on the  top terrace is only about 6 sqm or around 65 square feet, but it´s protected from strong wind so it´s ideal for my organic pot gardening.

Thanks for visiting my blog today, I hope you are inspired to plant your own organic veggies too!

Til next,

Mercy