Secret Santa, Sad News for Brixtonites, and Mancunian Treasure

Hello! It's been a week since I last posted and I have to confess I haven't really done much more than daydream and seek inspiration from other blogs rather than being too productive.

 I have some excuses; work is very busy and I tend to feel a bit zonked after a day hard at it. Also I had a flat tyre on my bike and have failed at fixing it despite some very messy and time-consuming efforts (I am pathetic, I know). Plus it's taken me far longer to get back from work without my bike.

Anyway I did have a great idea for some nice Christmas gifts- which I thought I could use for my Secret Santa at work and hopefully make more of for other friends if it turned out well. It's this lovely envelope clutch that I stumbled across on the Grainline Studio blog, from Designlovefest. Maybe the flashing '8 days a week' thing reminded me a bit of advent calendars too, who knows.

Here's the clutch in its 'Fancy' incarnation, perfect for Christmas parties! Image from Designlovefest

But after a quick recce to Brixton Market I discovered there was no way I could pull off one of these within my £5 Secret Santa budget as real leather is far more expensive than I'd realised and the fake stuff is still pretty pricey and, let's face it, pretty naff-looking, at least from the slim pickings on offer. However I made the even sadder realisation that Atlantic Silks, supplier of most of my fabrics for many of the projects I've turned my hand to over the years, is closing down! They tell me they have 3 weeks left. I wonder what will take its place.

In other news I am shortly to be moving house, from one end of the Victoria line to another - (and coincidentally another haven for fantastic fabric shops).  The process seems to be taking its sweet time, and although I'm keen to move in with my boyfriend and discover a new neighbourhood together, one of the main things that's making me impatient is that I can't get at all the amazing stuff that we salvaged from my boyfriend's gran's old house, which is now sitting gathering dust storage in Manchester instead of being played with by me! 

I basically inherited her entire sewing cupboard- a lifetime's worth of scraps, buttons, notions, a beautiful Bernina sewing machine (that I was so excited to find among the boxes that I dropped it on my toe) and some fabulous patterns. I regret not taking her dress form too, but our flat is tiny.

Here's a bad photo of one of the patterns I rescued but can't get at right now- and it's not even the best example of what there was!

I am so excited to get my hands back on all these outfit patterns, which range from elegant 1930s evening wear through to hilarious 1980s 'zoot suit-esque' ensembles.

Anyway, that's it for now. I need to get moving on my (rather more basic) Secret Santa project. Does anyone know of any tasteful faux leather or other durable interesting fabric I could use for this clutch?

Hasta luego (I've also been procrastinating wildly on new favourite game Duolingo)

NorseOtter xx