January Highlights...

Hey Sweets,

What a lovely start to 2012 January was! Here's our highlights of this months' posts...

After wishing you all a Happy New Year we got stuck into Refreshing & Reviving our studio and She Dressed in Black as a blog...


Our Number 1 highlight was without a doubt making our very first silent film recipe for Chocolate and Violet Cupcakes!



We also really enjoyed showing our experiments from the studio and sharing tutorials for Fancy Pants and Chevron Patchwork Cushion.





Part of our 'Refreshing' was to bring in 'Vinyl Revival' to our After Dinner Dance Parties
Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4



Literature Love - Limehouse Blues and 1969 Playboy




We did a mini shoot to show off our favourite brands from our wardrobes. Rhi picked Jovonna London and Lola showed off her Alice Takes a Trip collection. Plus some behind the scenes snaps...


We reached 100 followers! YAY! So we gave a few somethings away to our followers :)


Lola showed some of her adorable illustrations in response to the question "If you could do anything tomorrow, what would you do?"


Rhi unleashed her inner geek...


We celebrated Twee Tower's regular Colour Wizard Chris' 24th Birthday with cocktails and northern soul...


We shared some more art from around Twee Towers by Rob Ryan


We announced the launch of Stitch n' Bitch


We had some blustery Twee Troubles


And another new feature - Friday Flicks, kicking off with An Affair to Remember, followed by Band A Part

Busy, busy, busy! February is going to be even more hectic here in the Twee Studio so we shall be bringing you some fabulous guest posts - can't wait to let our friends loose on the blog again, hope you'll enjoy them :)

Much love,
R&L xx

Sewing School // Chevron Scrap Cushion

Hey sweets,

This weeks Sewing School we've been dabbling in a little bit of patchwork! Had no idea it would be so much fun, we may become quilting addicts, seriously enjoyable and the results are just soo cute! So here it is, step-by-step, our chevron scrap cushion!





You will need:

Several different patterned fabrics cut into 10 - 2.5"x5" rectangles
Plain cotton 20 cut into - 2.5" squares
Plus plain cotton amount dependent on your cushion size.

sewing basics - measuring tape, pins, scissors, thread, machine (though could easily be hand-sewn if you have the patience!)



Step 1: Mark out your squares. There is probably a more sophisticated way of doing this, but we're just teaching ourselves as we go along... Once marked up, cut your squares and rectangles out...




Step 2: Lay your fabrics out in the order you want them so that you know the order & direction of your stiches (the significance of this will make sense in a moment)...



Step 3: Pin 2 squares to the front of your patterned rectangles. Repeat for all rectangles.



Step 4: Start sewing from corner to corner, in the same direction on each square (see pictures below)



See below - we used a yellow thread so that you can see the stitches. **Remember to alternate the direction of stitches to create the zig-zag effect.**



Step 5: Cut the corners of the pieces off just above the stitches.



Step 6: Open out the rectangle and press the seams flat like this:



Step 7: Layout in your order again, ready to start piecing your patches together?



Step 8: Place the pieces face to face and stich straight along the edge (as close as you can!)



Keep going until you've attached your entire row like below and press the seams (pressing addicts, like things to look neat as we go along!)



Step 9: Repeat with the second row, then fix the top and bottom (again by sewing along the edge, face to face, don't forget to press after!)



Step 10: Cut 2 strips of plain cotton the length of your panel (ours were 2.5" wide to fit on our cushion) - sew to the top and bottom.




Step 11: Repeat with cotton for the sides, cut to the height of your panel (again adjusting the width according to your cushion size.) and press (of course!)... So here is the panel, ours isn't perfect, but it sure is pretty!



Rather stupidly (blame our enthusiasm, we were so excited at how lovely it was looking we couldn't wait to finish!) we forgot to photograph the next steps so bare with us while we attempt to explain how to turn it into a simple envelope cushion.

Cut 2 panels for the back, to the size of your cushion panel and so that they will overlap, with a little extra for seam allowance. Hem the edges that will form the overlap. then pin to the panel, face to face and sew all round the edges, flip inside out - et Voilá - One super cute patchwork cushion!

Hope you enjoy, it's really easy once you get into the swing of it, we've definitely caught the quilting bug, may have to set aside some time away from the collection to work on more patchwork projects!

Much love,
R&L
xx

Literature Love // Limehouse Blues

Throughout the literary canon, suburban writers have been captivated with notions of London as a ferocious all-consuming beast, a sordid infusion of poverty, oppression, misdemeanor and deathly, industrial fumes. Everyone is well aware of Dickens' fascination with the plight of the afflicted Working Class, imagining funereal occurrences in squalid alleyways to a nervous bourgious readership. Likewise, in his poem 'London', William Blake discovers nothing but "marks of weakness, marks of woe" in the faces of those that reside by the "chartered Thames".

London's underworld is also the topic of this week's lit love as we've been flicking through Thomas' Burke's collection of poetry, 'The Song Book of Quong Lee of Limehouse'.

Lola received this book as a beautiful Christmas gift from her parents, a wonderful 1st edition from the 1920s complete with a stunning hand-drawn illustration in black ink, depicting a post-war Limehouse and an amazing orange chevron cover (which fits right in here at Twee Towers!). So beaut.

For those that don't know, after the Great War the Limehouse district in London became heavily populated with Chinese immigrants and has since been associated with myths and stories of mysterious murders in riverside alleys, sleazy opium dens and tales of innocent English girls lost in a dangerous abyss controlled by an evil Chinese settlement.

Even before the war, Dickens implied that Limehouse was the "lowest statum of the international hierachy in the streets around the London dock". Although, it's probably more likely that these tales were the result of conjecture, fuelled and exaggerated by the fear of the unfamiliar as London's cultural diversity began to develop.

Despite the bleak subject matter and brash realism, Burke's tone is satirical, fanciful and endearing as he romanticises stories of lust and murder among the lower-classes. We won't spoil it too much, but it's definitely worth a read!

As we mentioned the other day, our Literature Love feature is now bi-weekly to allow us to relax and enjoy reading again rather than rushing to finish every Friday, so it'll be back in two weeks time folks! In the meantime, next Friday we'll be revealing an exciting new way of presenting a very silent, recipe ;)

'Till next time...

Much love,

L&R xx

Twee Towers Tour // The Hall

The Hall
As the entrance to our home, we wanted this room to be the perfect introduction to not only the rest of the house but also as a reference point to our style and our work.
Prior to moving day, we'd got really excited concocting plans for the hall and had absolutely, categorically set our hearts on it being a beautiful mix of vintage whites, blues with bright pops of yellow! We'd even made mood boards!
Cut to one month after moving in, we'd gradually started adding bits and pieces that we liked and slowly but surely... the colour scheme was green! S'always the way! We kind of ran with it now and love it even more so, have a look :) ...

Knock, Knock...After a LOT of deliberation, we decided to paint the front door a really delicate shade of lilac and used some ribbon in a brighter shade of purpler to embellish the bamboo heart and tie it together a little. As you may be aware by now, we're a little obsessed with combining cutesy girly colours with striking 60s graphic prints, which is why we had to have this chevron print door mat as soon as we saw it!

The hexagonal shape of the hall makes a great little alcove for cosy conversations on the telephone. We found these super cute chevron cushions from a shop on Etsy and the peacock chair was another amazingly good junk yard find. We're a little obsessed with candlestick style lampshades and especially loved this one in grass green against the white of the table!

Bowler hats & FAKE fur shawls.

Multi Stem print by Orla Kiely hung at the bottom of the stairs - which reminds me, have you seen how preeeetty her look book is for A/W 2011? My gosh, completely captivating... well done Orla,... want, want, want everything!


Chevron prints a go-go. Alongside, a reprint of an old newspaper informs us that "Elvis has signed up".

Original 60s cabinet - junk yard find of the century! One of our favourite items in the house, it looks amazing as the centrepiece at the top of the landing. Although we both like it in the dark wood at the moment, we're thinking of painting it white and finding more pretty knick knacks to fill it with!

Rule number one of Twee Towers ... One must always display Oscar Wilde plays & novels in pride of place of any room. 'A Picture of Dorian Gray' dominates another corner of the landing alongside pretty perfume bottles & dainty furnishings.
Until next time amigos...
Much love, L&R xx