Festive Vintage Button Decorations

After a short blog break, (thanks to mix of heavy work load and poorly/teething little ones) we are back and excited about the festive season! In between creating bespoke orders, I've been making Christmas decorations. I love the run up to Christmas, and have always been er, particular about how I decorate the house and tree! My sister will tell you that when I was in charge of decorating the tree as a child, I directed the placement of each bauble and drove her crazy. I have mellowed greatly, though may still 'rearrange' the tree when the girls are in bed! I would call the outcome 'eclectic mishmash' in style, and completely different each year. I think that putting out home made decorations year after year, combined with shop bought ones makes for a personal and unique feel. Since having Scarlett and Isla, I feel justified in putting the tree up at the beginning of December, rather than the week before Christmas as we used to, you know, for the kids (ahem). Making decorations is a great craft activity for them, and they love rediscovering their masterpieces year after year.

So far we've just put up garlands and adorned some corners of the house, while we wait for the tree to be delivered......then it's time to get serious!

Here is our hallway, with our beloved advent calendar and a few other bits. Hanging from the staircase are five ornaments I just made using felt and some of my vintage button stash. They are so easy!
1- Cut out two circles of felt, any size. I drew around a bowl. You could also do a different shape.
2- Stitch on buttons or beads to cover front of one felt circle. It doesn't matter what the back looks like as will be hidden. I grouped the buttons roughly by colour, but a mix would look great too.
3-Cut out a circle of card, about a centimetre smaller than felt circle.
4-Place card circle in between felt circles, and stitch around the edges. This could be a blanket stitch, or running stitch, in same coloured or contrasting thread.
5-Use ribbon, string or wool to hang

Let me know if you make any, I'll be sharing more home made decorations very soon!

Bespoke Cushion

Here is a bespoke cushion I created for a client just before Christmas. It was a last minute request, and certainly a challenge! The lion on the front represented the client and the cushion was a special gift for a relative living far away. The back contains a poem in Chinese, this was very difficult but I soon got the hang of it. The cushion is 50cm long, and the Chinese characters took a while!
I was very pleased with how it turned out, and more importantly so was the lovely client! So, I can now also stitch names in Chinese, should anyone need a gift for Chinese New Year later this month..............

Fabrication

People are often very interested to know what materials our products are made from. So, here are a few details! The base fabrics of our cushions are a soft, grey, hand loomed, organic cotton and for our new (coming soon) larger cushions we have sourced a cross weave organic cotton. These are gorgeous and have slight variations, which I believe adds to the hand made feel.

The felt used throughout our collection is eco-fi felt. This is becoming more readily available in the UK now. It is produced from waste plastic bottles. A perfect felt for interior and craft use. All the scraps are kept and used for cards or tiny pieces.

The leather details are made from scraps, which I order in bags from a leather factory. We never know quite which colours we will get, so colours may vary slightly in each design.

Every piece is lovingly finished with hand stitching!