Les Miserables' Costumes and 'I Recognise those buttons!'.

 Les Miserables is one of my favourite musicals and I was so excited when I heard that part of it was being filmed in Portsmouth. Unfortunately I did not fit the type of extra they required - I was not a man.

They required lots of men for the convict scene near the beginning of the film, and this was filmed in the dry dock at the dockyard in Portsmouth.

Because of this connection, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard was given the wonderful opportunity to show some of the costumes from the film, and my sister, daughter and I went along (on one of the coldest days this year).

The entrance to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

 It was good to be able to see the costumes close up, only a few were behind glass.  I do admire the work of costume designers and makers. And on that subject I have to tell you that I was very lucky to be asked to make some of my dorset buttons for a costume.  This was over a year ago, and I was very excited and did scream a bit. However, I put on my professional hat and got on with the job as skilfully, and quickly as I could.  You will see which costume later.

Here are some of the costumes:

I think this is Gavroche's costume.  The waistcoat looks shiny but it was not. It was more of a hand blocked cotton print.

Eponine

 

Cosette

Cosette

As for the buttons I made...they were used on one of Anne Hathaway's  (as Fantine ) dresses. This is the one,  it is lilac. My buttons were used on the back.

Fantine

 I really must apologise for the poorness of the photographs that I took of my buttons. It was a very poorly lit area (no flash allowed) and I was using someone else's camera and I am obviously rubbish at this type of photography.

Here are my buttons.

This is another dress using my buttons on the back.  It is the same dress but distressed a bit more.

It was lovely to see all the costumes and the work that went into them.  The exhibition closes next week so hurry if you want to catch it.

Making Daisies and Teeny Buttons

I have been busy making lots of orders, especially in my most popular design which is
Daisy

I took a little time out to use the tiniest 'o' ring that I have to make a really tiny button. You can see it here, it is the pink and white one, in comparison with the other size buttons I make.



Fiddly, but fun.  Using spring colours, at this time of year does help lift the spirit.

Black Friday, Cyber Monday Sale

Pop over to my etsy shop where I am having a massive sale for Black Friday all though to Cyber Monday.

You can get a whopping 25% off everything. Just remember to quote BLACKCYBER when checking out.

Here are a few of the pieces you could be buying.

Honing My Craft

What an interesting word 'Honing' is.  Is sounds odd as it rolls on your tongue.

'Hone' means 'sharpen on a whetstone' - so it means giving a sharp edge to a tool.   My tool, I suppose, is my needle and my fingers. And if I 'give them a fine edge' it means I am making my skills better and better.

I was looking at my flickr page, this morning. I have a set 'Dorset buttons' and there right at the bottom is one of the first buttons I ever made.  Here it is:

It is off-centre and the stitches are wonky.  Compare it with these which are the same size, more or less:

and these which are much smaller:

I am getting better. I am honing my skills, sharpening the old metaphorical tool on the old metaphorical whetstone.

It is good to look back and then look forward.

Button Hair Snap Mosiac

I made this mosaic in Big Huge Labs, they have some great things to play with so pop along and have a look.

This is an example of some of the custom colour Dorset Button Hair snaps that I have made for people.  People ask for a colour, or colours, and I have fun looking for them, make a button, show them the finished button usually on flickr, and then when they are happy I made up the hair snaps.

So if you are thinking of getting your own hair snaps from me, then this is a good idea of the colours you can use. Of course as I use, Anchor or DMC thread, there are hundreds of colours you can choose from.

You can order from me here via etsy   or via folksy 

The Second in my new range..Shades of Purple Hoop Necklace

The other day I showed you the Patriotic necklace (see this post).  This time I have a Shades of Purple one, on a 18" Sterling Silver chain..

Available in my etsy shop here.

It is the second in my new range and it is a range that doesn't really have a name.  My new range of...?  I have been saying 'Hoop Necklaces' but if you have a better suggestion then please let me know.

I have also listed the buttons I showed you a while ago. This is a set of 3 but if you want more or less then let me know.  Available here.

Coming on to Rain or Rain Clearing?

Here are some views of the sky which will no doubt be familiar to those of you who are in the UK right now. 

These photos were taken yesterday evening but it is sky I have seen a lot recently.  That is unless the sky is grey all over and there is rain pouring from it.

Inspired by the colours, I have made a set of buttons, or at least I have made 3 of them so far.  These are them. I have altered the background colour slightly as it was coming up blue (for some reason the light is so bad at the moment!) but these are the colours of the buttons. Grey, blue, white.  Sometimes there is more blue sky, sometimes more white cloud, and sometimes more grey cloud. Rain clearing or coming on to rain?

My Buttons in Use - Regency Dress

I told you a few posts ago, about how I rarely have photos of my buttons on garments, and that my sister was making a dress for a fancy dress party and had commissioned some buttons from me.

Well, as promised here are the photos.

The back of the dress showing the buttons.

3 Green Dorset buttons on the back of the Regency Dress

My sister in her bonnet which is so lovely I wanted to show you all.

I am very proud of my sister as she made a lovely outfit.  I will have to get a photo of the whole thing to show you.

Work in Progress - Making Daisies

Working on an order for a set of Daisy buttons.

If you want your own daisies then go here. 

Buttons on a new Cardigan

I have just been reminded that I do not have any photos of buttons actually on clothes, in my etsy shop listings. The reason for this is that I have not had any clothes with my buttons on.  I keep meaning to but most buttons I make I put up for sale.

My lovely mum knitted my daughter this gorgeous cropped cardigan. She made one a couple of years ago in different colours and patterns and Mary loved it.  This one is so lovely too.

Mum asked me to make the buttons for it. So last night I did.  I was going to make just one colour but thought it would look nicer with one of each and  two of one.  Then I decided not to have the pink one on, then changed my mind.  So here is the cardigan with the button all sewn on.  And now I have a photo to put on all my listings.

Cardi with 4 buttons

Close-up of the purple button

My sister is making herself a regency dress for a costume party. I have made the buttons for it. So she needs to hurry up and finish it so I can take a photo!

Custom Dorset Button Hair Clips

A while ago I told you about a custom order I was doing. I couldn't show the photo then as they had not been received but now that they have...

My lovely customer asked for a colour that I did not have in stock at that moment but she was happy for me to surprise her but she did like orange and another colour I had mentioned.

So I decided to experiment and chose 3 colours. DMC embroidery thread has 6 strands. I took 2 strands from each of the colours to make a new 6 strand custom colour.   Mrs Lovely was very happy and I am too.   The colours remind me of Autumn.

I have done a mix like this before and will do again.

Remember - I do custom buttons, by themselves or on clips, so do let me know if you fancy something. 

Following the Pink and Green Theme

Day 9 of Make a Day (Wednesday)
My pink and green hair snaps proved popular. I had a darker version of both colours and decided to make another pair using those. The buttons are also different as I have done one more row of the inner colour mainly because I forgot how many rows I did in the original ones.



Day 10 Thursday
I thought I would continue the theme of pink and green and make a beaded button. I have made these before in the bigger sizes but this is the first one in the tiny buttons. The middle colour looks redder in this photo which gives it a Christmas feel.  I might stick this on a hair clip. I am still deciding.


You can see the size of the little beaded button in this photo where it sits next to hair clips using the bigger ring.

I also have been thinking about making new tags for items I send out. In tidying my fabrics I found this one and decided this will do very nicely for my first ones.

 I embroidered the 'Bigbluebed' on a ribbon some time ago using left over bits of embroidery thread. I thought that people could use bits of the tags in their own projects if they wish. I can see that the one on the left is over embellished, so I will just keep to the simple looking ones like on the right perhaps with one button.

I am In Popular Crafts Magazine!

Hello again.  It seems a while since I was here and you know what, I was going to do a post which wasn't about me. Looking back I realised that for a long time I have just written about me, me, me.  So I aimed to write a post about someone else.

Sorry, but that post will have to wait.  Because I am so excited to let you know that I am in the wonderful Christmas Bumper Issue of Popular Crafts magazine. I have a tutorial, my blog is mentioned, my buttons are shown and I have done a book review. It is all so lovely!

I am going to recommend that you go and buy this magazine. Go on then!  Not only I am in it, but seriously it is a great magazine. There is so much in it and lovely articles to read, competitions and more, more, more.

I am going to take it to work, as ok I want to show off. But I also know that the children at work will find so much fun stuff to make.

So pop out and try it. Now!!