middleton hall courtyard

Sunday at Middleton

| Tiddleyworks

It’s always interesting arriving at Middleton Hall Courtyard for the Leather Ladies’ fortnightly pop-up shop.  We never know what we’ll have to contend with as we set up for the day.  Last Sunday 10th April was no exception and quite the most exciting so far – we ended up in a completely different shop!

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The Leather Ladies at Unit 14

Luckily we’re pretty resourceful so we’d soon re-jigged our display to fit our new surroundings and were ready to greet our visitors.  As the sun came out and moved round to our little corner Hazel suggested that it would be good to take our work outside.  Hazel has been making some super plaited leather bracelets and she wanted to fix the press stud fastenings on them.

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Hazel hammering – note the serious artisan expression
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Not so serious

I love the little line of completed bracelets.  Well the artisan-style hammering certainly got us noticed (that was part of the cunning plan).  Then it was time for me to have a go.

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More serious artisan expressions!

The little press studs we were using are also known as “Durable Dots” so we now have new aliases, “Durable Dot and Rosie the Riveter”.

I wonder where’ll we be in two weeks’ time?

New Leather Cushions

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This was the one that started it – the cushion I made for my daughter’s birthday.  I really loved these chevrons and how lovely the leather felt and looked.  So I set to and started coming up with some new ones. 

Because the leather I work with is usually offcuts, finding a whole cushion-sized piece is not easy.  I thought about making a simple patchwork and came up with this minimalist 3 patch look.

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I topstitched the seams on the front which helps the seams lie flat and adds firmness.  The back sections were overlapped and laced as before.

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I’m chuffed with this design.  I’d love to make patchwork with leather but the nature of the material means it looks best when shapes are kept simple.  Here are a few of the ones I’ll be taking with me to the pop-up shop tomorrow (Sunday 10th April 2016).

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Valentine’s Day at Middleton

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Leather Ladies’ pop-up 14th February 2016

The Leather Ladies “popped up” again this Sunday for Valentine’s Day at Brown’s Upholstery at Middleton Hall Courtyard, displaying and selling our wares.  It was the day of Middleton’s Snowdrop Walk.  A beautiful sunny day and plenty of visitors calling in to see us, very enjoyable.

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Tiddleyworks leather accessories on display

Hazel ran a “have a go” workshop for children (of all ages!) making leather heart keyrings using the wonderful Sizzix machine.

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Leather heart keyrings using the Sizzix machine
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Hazel inspecting the leather bunting

And yes, we put the flags out!  We’ll be popping up again on Sunday the 28th February, in Brown’s  and also as part of the monthly Food and Craft Fair.

News from the Workroom

| Tiddleyworks
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Bow leather small bag

I finished this little bag some time ago and was wondering whether to leave it as a simple clutch or to add handles to it.  I sat and thought about it and then my friend came over for the day.  She studied it and then announced that a bag this special deserved a handle.  So that was settled.

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Small bow bag interior

Last night I carefully prepared the leather strip for the chain handle and then spent ages threading it through the links of the chain.  This photo shows the interior of the bag.  It has a leather patch pocket and is lined with wine coloured heavyweight velvet, mmm!  (I try to make my bags as nice inside as outside).  Now it’s ready for our pop-up stall at Middleton Hall Courtyard Centre this Sunday 14th February.

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Leather bow bag finished!