The Tale of a Tea Towel

Occasionally you can go off-piste and find a map on something other than an Ordnance Survey sheet.  Postcards are one example.  Or the good old holiday souvenir tea towel. I have a couple of these stashed away – my Mum’s collection from our 1980s holidays in the south west that she didn’t like to spoil.

These geographical tea towels make ideal pillow covers – they are just the right size.  This means that you can put your old holiday memories to use without having to spoil them through wiping your pots on them. 

All you need to do is cut an old pillow case in half along the seams – then sew one of the pieces onto the back of the tea towel.  I hand back-stitched mine using my old Sylko cotton, leaving the bottom open to insert the pillow.

Now they make a comfy cushion for a bucket chair.

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A-Z Necklace

I recently found an old A-Z map of London, and thought that this would make an ideal resource for my crafts.  I’m currently working on a piece of mixed media art using the page showing the very heart of the city. But I have also made this silver necklace which features Piccadilly Circus.

Piccadilly Circus, with its iconic Eros statue will strike a note of fondness for any London lover or Anglophile. Even as I type this, I am humming to myself the line from the old wartime song…”goodbye Piccadilly, farewell Leicester Square…”  It’s an unusual name, resonant of flashing lights and seedy backstreets.  Apparently the name comes from a lacy collar – which a purchaser of the land in the 17^th century had made his fortune in producing.

From collar to necklace, it’s all quite appropriate.

The necklace is now on sale in my Etsy shop:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/288354133/london-a-z-necklace