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About Me




I'm Jan, from Southampton UK, and I'm delighted you've found me.
I really hope you find something you enjoy. You'll find this blog is centred around sewing; with a mix of humour, photography, craft, and life in general thrown in for a bit of variety. If you like what you see, why not follow my blog?   I update most days, and try to keep it as interesting as possible. As for comments.... I'd love to hear from you.

Sewing my way through life one stitch at a time

What can I tell you about myself?  I'm a caffeine fuelled fabric geek with typing tendancies, and a fetish for photography. I dream in fabric, creating my own unique designs and sometimes even get around to finishing them.   In recent years, I have been diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis which has taken a long time to come to terms with and changed my life completely.   Until recently I was working full-time doing shift-work which left me with no energy outside of work to enjoy life.   I've reached 50 and taken the decision to give up work. Now my aim is to attack the WIP box (huge), start using up my fabric supplies (make room for more) and perhaps the house will love more tidy too (doubtful).    

I used to blog regularly under the name Cajame Creations.  As it's now a new start for me, I've been attempting to re-vamp the blog so now it's simply me.

With an abiltity to devour books, chocolate and cheese in immense quantities.... I'm something of an aging rock-chick and can often be found with red or cerise streaks in my hair. I'm no follower of fashion, preferring my own little mix of boho and vintage.   A self-crowned car-boot sale queen, and charity-shop diva - I'm always on the look out for vintage fabrics that I can re-purpose with a new lease of life.  My favourite fabrics are cotton, linen, felt and velvet, and I am never happier than when I've found a pretty piece of aged embroidery or crumpled lace.  

 I love a laugh and have a quirky sense of humour.  I've recently been attempting to learn to play the Ukulele - oh boy, I am so rubbish at it.

 Happily married to Si with 5 lovely grown up children between us now doing their own thing, we live with our pets, two dogs and two cats.  A big fan of cooking, baking and cuddling up on the sofa to watch a movie.

 Sewing is my passion, in all forms.   Be it appliqué, quilting, dress-making or embroidery, I love it all.  Aside from sewing, I do enjoy others crafts and will try my hand at any artistic pastime with varying success.  I'm very much a "jack of all trades, master of none".  I would love to be better at painting and jewellery making, though I'm fairly competent at crochet.

  • Black coffee is my life-source
  • Rather partial to a G&T
  • Strong cheddar cheese makes me very happy
  • Not a natural at housework
  • Book worm

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Autumn Giveaway Time

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Shabby Chic? Definitely Shabby!

I did say I'd share my DIY disaster with you...... Brace yourselves - you may need sunglasses: Snort!  When I started the makeover I can assure you this wasn't my intention.  I had a 70's dressing table that was a nice shape, but a vile wood.  I thought I would transform it by painting it fuchsia to match my bedroom.  10 hours later (2 coats undercoat, 3 topcoat) it was looking good.  Until the top coat starting to flake off before my eyes.  I could have cried - indeed I think I did. Since then it's been sitting in the bedroom annoying me.  It's too heavy to lift out on my own, and anyways I've nothing else to replace it with.  The thought of starting to paint it again doesn't bear thinking about.  So in a DIY frenzy, I attacked it with wire wool. I think I got a bit carried away!  The result is something that gives a whole new meaning to shabby chic.  However, at least it looks intentional and boldly scruffy.  Anyone that dares to question my
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Don't get Shirty!

My blog posts have been lacking the last few weeks.  This is due to moving home and trying to sort out the chaos.  One of the things required was that hubby thin down his clothing, or there would be no room for any of mine in the fitted wardrobes.  At the last count he had well over a hundred shirts.  Ridiculous.  Under strict instructions to free up half the wardrobe space for me, he set to with bin bags, to turf some out for the charity shops. With a large selection of shirts ousted, I started looking at the fabrics and wondered if I could make use of them myself.  There's a surprising amount of fabric in a mans shirt, particularly an XL one. After cherry picking the ones that were all cotton and nice fabrics, I sat down and scratched my head for inspiration. My first of two makes is this pillow.  When I began I had no real vision of what it was going to look like.  I just knew that I wanted to use some of the front pockets, and make a feature of a cuff or two. After
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