Where are they now....April & May edition

April 2012

May 2012

Where are they now...the March 2012 Edition

The map is filling up nicely, especially over North America, and through Europe. As expected though, South America and Africa are still elusive, who will be the first to put a pin in it?

It s been a month since the last post, but thats because I have actually had some time to make new hats (yay!) But I have been posting an insta.gram-a-day diary over on flickr but here's a sneak peek of a new bridal line I am working on alongside some new hats.

Finally finished!!!

Remember the Orange sinamay mini smartie hat I had blocked a looooong time ago which was one of those ongoing nemesis projects that never gets finished because it never looks "just right"?
Well inspiration struck this week! And now its finished - yay!

I've wanted to work on making curled feather flowers for a while now, but bridal season commissions and tax season have all gotten in the way.

I was originally planning on just using the turquoise coque feathers against the orange, complimentary colors and all that, which I spent a long time hand striping myself, and just swirling them round the base in a halo.

But as I was curling the pink feathers and starting the place them together in a flower shape, it struck me that they would make the perfect oversized stamen for the centre of the oversized flower and the color combination worked perfectly with this seasons neon and color blocking trends!

Also, I'm now totally obsessed with making feather flowers :)

Ingenious Vintage Hattiness

Whilst perusing Twitter today I found this awesomely practical 1950s "Puff" rain hat, from one of my favorite vintage Etsy sellers, who specializes in 1940s/1950s fashion Fab Gabs .

How IN-geeeenious?!?

Feel a drop of rain? Just had a fresh shampoo and set? Realize you left your umbrella at home this morning?

No problem!!

Just take your (deflated) "Puff - the sun or rain hat" out of your purse, inflate by blowing through the tab on the outer edge of the brim, and place on your head in seconds! :)

Once it stops raining you simple remove the stopper, deflate, fold back up, pop it back in your purse for the next unannounced downpour.

Simple, and far more stylish than those clear old lady tie around helmets you get today. And the inflated rings also help channel the rain away and off the back of the hat.

Anyway, she only has a few left in stock from NOS so get one now still in the original packaging!

-Photography by Lulu of Camerabandit

-Model: Solanah

Where Are They Now

January and February locations are now in.The map is filling up! US and Canada has busied up as well as the UK and Australia is starting to pull alongside.

Rolls and Rolls of Ribbon

A big box a ribbons arrived yesterday, grosgrains to match all the sinamays I have in stock at the moment, to edge, tag and detail.

Pretty Pretty Flowers

That went out today.......

Haaauuulllll!!!

Todays haul, mainly topping up little habby items like pins and fray check and stem tape. But I also picked up a few new tall flower buckets for holding tall things on my desk like hammers and rulers. I picked up some pearls, buttons, wire and some great vintage grosgrain ribbons and FINALLY managed to match a really hard to find turquoise to bind this one particular turquoise sinamay that I have. (waiting for a big stash of rolls of sinamay to arrive in the mail)

I've been away so loooong.....

It's been super busy round here! That time of year where spring and early summer and 2014 brides kick into high gear, and I start dream I'm making wedding dress button 24/7 for months on end.

But I have bought a few great vintage millinery pieces (pics to come) and I have a few interesting projects in the pipeline.

I'm really going to keep up with my "Where are They Now" map this year, as its interesting to see where products are going to.

Above is a map of just January 2012's orders, and quite honestly its very typical of my average entire years map. Africa, South America and Eastern Europe/Russia are places I never sell to (although I think I once sold to Brazil) But we'll see how this year pans out month by month :)

Customer Fabulousness!

September was super busy, gearing up for fall and winter weddings so the blog was on hiatus for a month. But heading into fall also means that knitwear season is also starting so everyone has been after wooden buttons and during the past month I have been receiving some great pictures of customers work using the buttons on their work.
Gina, from Delaware, who knits these fabulous lightweight lacework swing sweaters used the Turquoise Flower Bead Wooden Buttons to fasten it.

She also later knitted the same sweater but in red as a gift and used the Queen of Heart Silk Buttons in her own custom sizing.

And after providing me with her honest opinion of the wooden buttons, she now has a tagline in the wooden button listings so other buyers can see what she thought of how they were to use:
"They are SO lightweight! This is a real joy when using them on a hand-knitted item! They don't weigh down the garment or stretch out the knitting." - Gina, Delaware USA.

Anne, from Massachusetts, used the Spinning Butterflies Wooden Buttons and Hawaiian Flower Dome Buttons on her very first knitting project, and it turned out fabulously!

And Victoria, from California, placed her own specially sized request for some Prince of Wales Check Buttons to use on a new skirt pattern she was trying out. The original sizing of the buttons were WAY too big so we worked on getting the pattern placement of the fabric right on the small size that she needed.

She wrote all about how she made the skirt and where she got her supplies on her blog here. Check it out!

Thanks for the pictures everyone! It’s always great to see what people do with the buttons after they have bought them. So fee free to send over pics of your work!

Back to School

It’s that time of year again, and what better way to personalise your school sweater than with your name spelled out in wooden letter buttons?
I was commissioned this week to make 2 sets of buttons spelling out little boys names to go on their new sweaters.

These are going to Norway.

Halloween a Little Early

It’s still a little early for Halloween, but here’s a custom order I just completed for a Halloween day wedding. They are to go in the bridesmaids and maid of honors headpieces which is why they have added glitter sparkle and one has red eyes and three have black eyes.

Bridal Commission Piece

Working from this original design I was commissioned to make one in a colour to match the brides dress and use her own colours and flowers in a 1940s/50s style.

After matching the silk to her vintage dress, I blocked and wired a base, then pleated the top layer, stitched it down, covered the back in plain silk and edged it in bias tape made from the same silk.

As she has very short hair she decided she wanted some kind of small clip to hold it on as a big barrette would slip out and a headband or elastic would show on her head.

To make sure it stayed in place I put 2 strong small clips, but going in opposite directions. The idea is to clip the back one in place first then swing the front one downwards slightly to catch more hair and stop it moving on the head as the hair wouldn’t be pulled back in an updo creating natural tension.

Then we worked on placing the pieces from her own bouquet she had sent to be added, green calla lilies, wired rhinestones and peacock swords, and finished it off wrapped in loops of teal ribbon.

Finally topping it off with a big poof of Ivory English veiling, and a secret rhinestoned initial letter A brooch hidden in the back as a secret love note to her new husband.

Haauuullll!!!

I had to run into town for a few bits yesterday and finally managed to get the 1” round labels for my Brother labelmaker. I had had them on order from a store in town who took SEVEN weeks to finally tell me they were on indefinite back order with the manufacturer, even after they told me several times they would be receiving them to send out to me within 5-7 days. Funny that the manufacturer has them for sale on their own website the whole time. From now on we’ll only buy from that store if the item is physically on the shelf ready to buy as this isn’t the first time they have kept us hanging on an exorbitant amount of time with a pre-order item.

But now I have the nice neat little labels needed for my small bridal button looping packaging as well as Thank You stickers and web address stickers for tissue wrapped items and neat business return address labels – Yay!

Now this ‘stuff’ has be niggling at me to buy for a month or so now, and I needed to go to the florist supply store to pick up a tall pillar candle anyway so I finally gave in and bought some. It’s weird! But great! It kind of looks like silly string made into mesh, the receipt lists it as Sisal, but its definitely a man made foamy concoction. It does have some stiffness to it, but I’m going to gently steam it at some point, I do want to keep some of the stiffness in parts to create a cage type feel to the finished hat.

Haaauuullll!!!!!

Finally got into the city yesterday to pick up some much needed supplies. Replenishing the basic bridal looping stock as well as adding a brand new colour, Gold, PERFECT for eveningwear and alternative bridal colours.

I needed some wide White lace for another future project, and this one pretty closely matches my Black and Pink ones so it will be perfect.

Then I hit up the millinery store and scored some beautiful Tiffany Blue Starbright straw, which is for a very special top secret project! And some more basic black millinery wire. I found another unusual braid I might have to go back for to use in the top secret project.

Customer Fabulousness!

Photo Credit:  L. Scabrat 2011

So I have been super busy all week with some big intense custom orders, literally working til 10pm each night, not even time to consider a blog post, but I was taking pictures to post this week.
So it was a nice break to receive an email from one of my clients at the button shop earlier on this week with pictures of the dress she had designed and made herself and finished with a ‘necklace’ of buttons.
She had seen some buttons in my store, but she wanted them to be bigger and asked my opinion on what fabric to use after she explained she was using satin with a chiffon overlay, so I suggested the black silk charmuese, a satin effect but with a warm gauzy glow rather than a harsh sheen like poly satin, with would replicate the gauziness of the chiffon.
And here’s then end result, it looks rather fabulous! I hope she has a great time wearing it to her sons wedding.

Sketchbook

Just doodling with a glass of (red) wine, practicing sketching on the drawing tablet.

Sketchbook

“The” Orange mini base which has been sitting there for months waiting the thing that’s going to finish it, well its going to be finished with stripped bright turquoise coque feathers. Complimentary colours and all that.

Brides Across America

Recently I was asked to re-create some missing buttons from a dress donated to a military bride by Brides Across America.

This is one of the original buttonsAnd here are my copies work in progress, worked over an Ivory Silk Charmuese Bridal Button, then beaded with dozens of tiny clear cupped sequins, silver lined clear seed beads and centred with a bigger seed bead.
Brides Across America donates free wedding dresses to brides either serving in the military or marrying a serving soldier, as a way of saying thank you for their services. www.bridesacrossamerica.com

Mail Haauuuullll!!!!

Some goodies came in the mail today! Miyuki Drop Fringe Seed beads, in from L-R: Red Light Topaz, Matte White Pearl and Lavender.
They are tiny, only about 3mmx4mm, but they are perfect for what I need.
I’m going to wire them and use them as handmade glass flower stamen.