Cleaning vintage costume jewellery

First up I want to say I am not an expert but I just wanted to share my experience of cleaning vintage costume jewellery.

I'm not someone who owns much - if any! - very expensive vintage jewellery but I have a lot of very cute stuff, some of which I've had for a very long time. There is a lot of advise out there on how to clean silver or gold, but what if you have a piece of costume jewellery that is just grubby? Whether it be because it's been stored away forever, has had hairspray on it or perfume, or in fact you have it from a time when smoking in clubs was still going on, all these things can make jewellery grubby.

On Saturday I decided to clean a few items.

I have a really cute 50s charm bracelet with all manner of musical items on it a real trinket type of bracelet but cute! I really wish I'd taken a before picture of this, it was grey, really really grubby, I just never wear it as every time I look at it I just think it doesn't look nice.

I filled a bowl with washing up liquid and warm water, I popped the bracelet in, and used a very cheap soft toothbrush to give it a gentle scrub.

And here it is!

I know I took a lot of photos, sorry but I cannot tell you about the difference that cleaning has made! This bracelet was so grey I thought it was silver coloured and it's not it definitely has a gold tint, holy moly. If you have a piece of very grubby costume jewellery I can highly recommend this method!!

I got out a few of my lovely jangly 50s bracelets for a clean too. I rarely wear them these days but I really must, they are so lovely, I guess you go through phases I used to wear them all the time. They have come up so lovely and clean!

They are all super jangly, especially the top one, yes they are little bells!!

Then I got out a couple of my favourite brooches and a lovely vintage hair clip which was definitely grubby and had hairspray residue on it.

Again they all came up great with the washing up liquid and warm water solution. I had to be less aggressive with the toothbrush on the hair clip as it's pretty delicate but still gave it a very gentle going over.

I wear the brooches quite often but not so much the hair clip, I must wear that more, it's so beautiful and looks great with my red hair!!

Mid Week Love - All that glitters

As you'll have gathered by now I like to do a bit of mid week love to cheer us all up!

Up to now I've featured blogs, or websites, but this week I want to give a little love to one of my vintage obsessions, Confetti Lucite! I've talked about it before, but honestly I can't talk about it enough, so here are a few things to delight you from my collection.

I didn't even want to list examples from ebay and etsy all far too tempting for my liking! So excuse my laziness in using my things as an example, but it has saved my cash flow situation!!

Trousers Made by Me!

A couple of weeks ago I decided it was about time I got round to making myself some more trousers. Usually I just rattle a pair up, they don't look pretty inside but they're functional and look good on the outside.

However, since I got my overlocker I have got a bit more incentive to make things properly, previously I have always felt things were a little unfinished on the inside of garments. So with a renewed vigour I decided to do an entirely new pattern to me.

Ok well I tell a lie, I have made this pattern but I changed it this time, I also cut corners last time and didn't include the pocket.

So I embarked on my trouser making adventure. I widened the legs when I cut them out, I didn't have to make the legs longer as I'm really short so cutting them to normal length left me with plenty for the turn up but if you want to do this and you're a more normal height, add extra length for a turn up (cuff).

I'll be honest the journey wasn't easy, for some unknown reason, I put the pocket and zip on the opposite sides to where they should have been, I was tempted to leave them but thought nope I said I was going to do it properly. Then I put the turn ups in and the bloody legs were different lengths, I measured them before I did them but they were clearly not the same, so I took the turn ups down and did them again, same problem, took apart, did again, I was determined to get them right. The final time I did them I can still see a difference albeit a teeny one and I can only surmise that I actually must be cockeyed myself ha ha!

Anyway, here is a real rarity, an outfit post, I'm not very confident in how I look right now, but I'm working on it, so I thought dammit I will show off my trousers. Unfortunately as they are black you can't really see any detail at all!! I am also awful at posing AND this was the first time I'd used a timer, it doesn't bode well.....

And no I wasn't wearing sandals out but as I work from home, I can wear what I jolly well please.

I'm also wearing  a sweater my mum knit for me, I love the neckline, I must get her to make me some more of this style, so easy to wear, dressed up or down!

I've also been trying to wear a brooch a day, I want to quote whose blog I got the idea from but I can't remember I'm such a dunce sometimes.

Anyway my brooch of choice today is my Rhinestone poodle, she has a couple of teeny rhinestones missing, but who cares, she's gorgeous.

So there you have it my new trousers, they are super comfy but much wider than I'm used to and I'm not used to them flapping about yet but I'm so pleased with them I'm going to start on another pair shortly, whilst I can still remember all the stupid mistakes I made on these!!

It's a Jewellery Finding Saturday!

Every 1st Saturday of the month we have a little ritual, we get up early and go to Farnham Maltings Antique and Craft Fair. As with any regular event like this sometimes it can be good, sometimes you won't see a thing you're interested in.

Well today it was all about jewellery! First up I found a box of jewellery that was only £1 a piece, now that's a bargain in anyone's book and honestly she had  some ok stuff in there. I limited myself to 4 pieces a couple which I'm going to pass on to friends as they are not really me but at £1 each I couldn't pass them up!

This is gorgeous but not really me, so I'm giving this to a friend. Can you believe this was only £1?

Next is this very pretty necklace, again it's not really my thing so I will pass it on.

The next two are for me, I do love a bit of sparkly!

I also like this little brooch there is something very autumnal about it, lovely colours. (amended - I've been told this brooch is by Exquisite part of the Leaf Series and they regularly sell for £15-£20, so a superb bargain for £1)

However then I really did treat myself. I rarely find something I think oooooh I really like that, and to be honest I paid more than I usually would but I rarely treat myself to something and I really did like it. So this is my treat for the day!

Isn't it gorgeous? I love the colour, style and well just about everything!

If you live anywhere in the vicinity of Farnham they have a Vintage Fair on Sunday 6th May. I didn't go to the one last year but apparently it was fantastic, however I heard this from the traders side of thing so I'm assuming the prices are probably beyond me! I will probably go and check it out though.