I'm moving....

I’m finally getting close to launching my online shop and I’ve decided to call it Stars and Buttons. As I’m making lots of bibs and gifts for babies somehow having the word ‘beards’ in the title just felt a little bit wrong. (Or is that just me?) I’m launching a new blog so that all my social media offerings have the same name – it’s all about the brand baby!

So this is my last post on here, please subscribe to my new blog Stars and Buttons.
I’ll probably delete this one eventually but will keep it here for a short while so any stragglers know where I am now.

Thank you for reading and I hope you'll continue to follow my crafting adventures.

http://starsandbuttons.blogspot.com/

Pretty purses

So I had planned to post lots of photos of all the snap frame purses I made as Christmas pressies. I was very pleased with them, especially as I got lots of lovely material from Liberty and I think the finish was professional even if I say so myself.



Problem is I managed to lose my camera over the Christmas holidays and so I now don't have any photos of them! I will try to get some pics from the people I gave them to but in the meantime here's a different one I've made since. It's not Liberty fabric but I really like the bright colours anyway - especially as January is proving so gray.



I've been a bit slack with the blog as I'm busy trying to build up some stock of bib sets to sell on my (unlaunched) Etsy shop. Happily I'm selling stuff as soon as I can make it without even getting as far as the Etsy shop. But I will post some new pictures of the stuff I'm making soon.

Vintage Furniture Flea

There's finally snow in London (yay!) and there's definitely a festive feeling in the air. As I am firmly in the Christmas-loving camp I've already done lots of Christmas shopping and I've had the Christmas tunes on for a good few weeks already. I've also been busy sewing lots of Christmas presents which is why I haven't posted on the blog for a while. I can't post photos yet as it will ruin the surprise but I'll put some up after Christmas.

In other exciting news I've made my first official sale and I've sold four of my bibs. Admittedly it was to my sister but you have to start somewhere! And after my beautiful goddaughter has been modelling the bib I made her, I've had some very positive feedback from interested London mums as well. So I've been thinking more seriously about pricing, packaging and finally getting some on Etsy for sale in the new year.

However, I thought I'd share some photos from the first ever Vintage Fashion Flea held at York Hall in Bethnal Green London. (Thanks to Amy from Robin & Mould for the tip off.) I always seem to fall in love with things way out of my price range so it was brilliant to see such a great range of vintage furniture at genuinely reasonable prices. I've been looking for a vintage mirror for a while and there were at least three that I loved. I opted for a great deco style one which still has the original clasps. A total bargain for £30 I think. Now I just need to sweet talk my boyfriend into hanging it up in the bedroom.

Then I spotted this lovely 1970s coffee table which was a very reasonable £40. It looks great in our front room and now I finally have somewhere to store the ever-growing piles of magazines.

If only I had more money (and space); there were a couple of amazing bars from the 1950s and loads of beautiful vintage glasses that I wanted. One day I'll get to indulge my love of cocktails and Mad Men with my own bar *sighs wistfully*. I hope they do another Vintage Furniture Flea next year and I think I'll drag the boyfriend along so he can buy me some Christmas presents!

If you're interested there is a Vintage Furniture Flea happening in York soon. You can visit the Affordable Vintage Fair blog for more details.

An Early Halloween Treat

I wanted to share this photo as it makes me smile. My lovely friend Amber from The Broken Hearts DJ duo is hosting a Halloween themed dinner party this weekend. And a while ago, I was lucky enough to be invited over to test out the menu with my good friend and social media guru Rachael Castell. We had delicious homemade haddock pate with a ghoulish green topping presented in beautiful vintage tea cups (see above), a delicious Sicilian vegetable stew featuring some delicious pumpkin and a pumpkin pudding to finish. All washed down with some sparkling rose.

As Amber and Rachael are both two of my most creative and media savvy friends the conversation was all about blogging and getting your brand out there online. I'll share more about their new blogs when they launch them!

The Broken Hearts

Racheal Castell

Junk Shop Stool: Before & After

Last time I went down to Wiltshire to visit my lovely friends at Robin & Mould, they took me to the most amazing junk shop. I bought lots of vintage china teacups and a footstool that the guy in the shop threw in for free. Obviously it's taken me a few months to get round to covering it but I'm pretty pleased with the result.Huge thanks to my wonderful boyfriend who did most of the hard graft - sandpapering and varnishing. The material is from two Orla Kiely pillow cases that I unpicked, lined and then sewed back together. It's such a shame that you can't buy her fabric by the metre here but this probably worked out cheaper, and I'm going to use the leftover material to cover some chairs (I'll post photos when they're done).
Here's what the stool looked like at various stages along the way:

Fab purse making course

I spent a wonderful evening at the lovely Make Lounge in Islington London back in June and I learnt how to make this snap frame purse in just one evening. The course is run by the lovely Ariane Dreysse who has her own accessories label Peppermint Twist. If you live in or near London I'd totally recommend the Make Lounge. It was a great way to de-stress after a day at work complete with nibbles, wine and like minded people. I really felt like I learnt something useful and as these purses can be a little bit fiddly, actually being shown how to make it rather than struggling with an online tutorial was totally worth the money.

At the beginning of the class you get to chose your material for the outside and lining from the amazing selection in the on site shop at the Make Lounge. I was in heaven - there were soo many fabrics that were totally my kind of thing. I couldn't help buying a few more for the next lot of bibs on my way out. I even picked up some glue and purse frames determined to make sure I made some more at home so I didn't forget.

As I'm writing this a few months after the course I'm pleased to say I have actually made some bibs with the new fabric and another purse as a birthday gift. Images to follow...I'm very excited!
How cute are these prints?!




Links: Snap Frame Purse course
The Make Lounge

The first baby bibs

As one of my friend's has just had a baby and another one is due in a few weeks I wanted to make a unique present for the new arrivals. So I attempted to make some baby bibs with some vintage print fabric. I was pretty pleased and they are definitely more satisfying to make then fiddly curtains!


After drawing a half-bib template freehand, you simply cut out the fabric. Sew together leaving a side gap to turn out he fabric. I great tip I read online was to use a chopstick to help do this.


















Then after ironing it flat you sew around the edge again, this time joining the gap. Simple.
I'm looking forward to seeing some photos of the little ones dribbling down them. Will attempt some more styles once the first two have been road tested!