manneqiuin obsession

from baileys home and garden

 a few weeks ago one of my trade accounts (the lovely maria from sugar and spice) emailed me to ask me had i seen Lucy's mannequin made from my paisley fabric.  Lucy owns a company called corset laced mannequins, and makes  these beauties in all sorts of fabrics, you can even send your own fabric and lucy will make one for you, have a look at her website which is lovely.

from corset laced mannequins

 since Jo and I have always had a thing for tailors dummies or mannequins as we should call them, i thought i would collate all of the pictures i have gathered over time and post them here.

 from etsy

  from ideal homes section of house to home

from corset laced mannequins

  from corset laced mannequins

 from corset laced mannequins

 from corset laced mannequins

 from pinterest

from urban outfitters via pinterest

 via pinterest

via pinterest

via pinterest

and if you feel like a DIY job heres one for you!

scrap bags

jo and i have been busy making hardaker & pope scrap bags for the forthcoming vintage handmade fair


















they are quite time consuming as we are both awful perfectionists and like them to be filled with the kind of delights that we love!!
anyway here are a few to wet your appetite and if you can't make it to vintage handmade (you should come it is a great day out - and a bit like being let loose in a sweetie shop) then contact us and we are happy to post them out.

the husbands just 'don't get it' they cannot appreciate little bags of loveliness and want to know the exact purpose for them....... we say they don't have to have a purpose, but their uses are endless ..................

dollmaking, scrapbooking, patchwork,  little gifts, heirloom treasures,  little pictures, cardmaking the list is endless,  what do you use your little bits of fabric for? let us know in the comments and go into a draw to win one of our lovely scrapbags .

vintage eiderdowns

As you may well have gathered from all the activity on our blog at the moment being snowed in with the internet isn't altogether bad! I've had plenty (but not enough) time to revisit some of my favourite blogs. I was amused by a HenHouse post about vintage presents. I too fell in love with and purchased a vintage eiderdown at the Handmade and Vintage Fair (above) as a birthday present for baby. It came from Country Cottage Chic and most of the time it looks lovely on her bed, though she thinks it's great for making bases out of.



But I don't feel that eiderdowns have to be on beds. I bought this one years ago. Although it's very fragile and full of little moth holes I fell in love with the pattern, particularly liking the very faded blue background with the dark pinky/red. The colours remind me of an old Jane Churchill design that our spare room was decorated in, when I was a child.

It lives oozing out of an old french panier on top of the wardrobe in our bedroom with the sole purpose of looking good. Which makes me realise I'm a true follower of the William Morris philosophy.

Back and exhausted

It's been a shattering weekend, camping with the children is not conducive to a good nights sleep and spending our days watching the racing and taking in the sights means that we're going to be recovering all week!

There were so many glamorous women dressed to the nines in period costumes but by the time I'd taken the camera out, checked I still had 3 children, then removed the lense cap and had the camera pointing in the right direction the women had disappeared into a sea of people. I did manage to get a few shots to share with you though.
And the shopping, there was so much 'vintage' stuff to buy I was glad I had the pushchair to prevent me from entering the shops and having a good rummage around, else I'd have spent a small fortune.


Anyway, there was plenty for me to do without having to spend money in the shops!

Glorious Goodwood

In fact that's not quite true, the weather is glorious and we're off to Goodwood for the weekend, but not for the horse racing, but the cars. It's the Revival weekend and it has been a much awaited event in the Pope household. You don't have to be a petrol head to enjoy a bit of classic car racing and lots of vintage goodies. They go all out to create a great, period atmosphere and I've had great fun over the last few weeks gathering old bits of clothing for our costumes. Meanwhile Hubby has hired himself an old RAF outfit for the weekend, much to the amusement of the children. During my search I came across this link to loads of vintage shops, mainly in London and the South East, some with websites - do take a look.

And, for a bit of a Friday afternoon pick-me-up click on the link above, make sure your volume is on. As I said, it's not just about the cars!

I was chatting this week to the lovely Michele from cowboys and custard, she was telling me about her new venture milly and dotties emporium. I absolutely love the homepage (below) the layout is great and I had to look in every room. If you are a vintage - a - holic, go and take a tour.

Also it was Michele who drew my attention to the Homespun fair in Portscatho this weekend. So if you are holidaying on the Roseland peninsula, go and take a look, I promise you will not be disappointed..... while you are there visit Christines amazing shop the sea garden.

vintage handmade fair

oh we did have a lovely day!!! 4 children offloaded on the lovely mr.h and off we skipped a carful of ladies to Chipping Sodbury town hall to the vintage hand made fair. Jo and I were like kids in a sweetie shop we didn't know where to look first, stripy sheets, paisly eiderdowns, vintage buttons, lovely crochet oh the list was endless. I managed to spend a small fortune, I will show you some pictures of my purchases later in the week (I am away printing new childrens range at the moment - more of that soon). It was so wonderful to put some faces to favourite names in the blog world. We were especially thrilled to see so many pinnys and we will be poting some photos of the lovely blog ladies in their pinnies soon as june is apron month here at hardakerandpope. Anyway for now heres a few pictures (I don't know how but I managed to take only a few - too busy chatting!!). And an apology to Harriet who after 3 hours looked like she had lost the will to live!!!!

vintage handmade

Jo and I are having a little outing to this rather lovely sounding vintage and handmade fair in Chipping Sodbury next weekend, we thought it might be up your street too, any local girls who feel like an escape at the end of half term are welcome to come along with us.

If you click on the link above you will go to a page with lots of blog links to the people who are selling there. There are alot of southwest bloggers - it will be nice to put some faces to names.