I haven’t photographed the big sewing project I’m working on, so instead of blogging about it, here is a cute simple tutorial to make your Thursday fun. As a historical seamstress, I have a massive stash of ribbons and lace.  When I buy ribbons and lace I buy them in at least 6 metre lengths – it takes a lot of ribbon or lace to trim an 18th or 19th century dress! Because I’m a historian, I’m also hopelessly sentimental: I hate throwing away all the bits of ephemera that come into my life, because I imagine how interesting they will be to someone in the future. My stash of ribbons and lace and fly fringe and trim and passimentaries, and my inability to toss things like birthday cards and thank you cards and invitations, could easily result in a big mess, but I have a clever way of using the latter to create beautiful storage for the former. I stack the cards, and then wind my ribbons and bits around them.  It’s much prettier …

My tutorial on how to dye fabric shoes has been one of the most popular posts on this blog, and I thought another post on shoe care might be of use. I recently acquired a pair of darling fabric shoes with fabric linings, but they were a bit grubby and needed cleaning. They came with a little strap and bow detail, but I didn’t like it and took it off. Once I took it off you could really see how grubby the shoes were, and how desperately they needed a clean: Clearly you can’t put leather-lined shoes through the wash, as most tutorials say to do for fabric shoes (they shouldn’t by the way, you should never wash any type of shoes in the washing machine as it will destroy the glue that attaches the sole to the fabric). Here is how to clean fabric shoes properly and safely, whether they are leather lined, or just full fabric. You will need: Your fabric shoes – this method works best for flat fabric shoes, it is …