A New Side of Lin & Lo...

Christmas time, of course, generates a lot of quality time with family and friends. What I didn't anticipate was my motivation to dive into projects while on vacation. I credit my great grandmother, "Meme", who I am certain passed down to me all my creative tendencies. Without her stock piling of materials that she could just never let go of, I wouldn't have access to an incredible supply of vintage buttons that have been sitting in the back of closets since I was a little girl.

I remember sitting on the floor with my sister, pulling all of the buttons out of the box and looking for the prettiest, sparkliest ones... And that familiar sound of plastic and metal bouncing off each other as I dug into the 24" box like sand. You are probably wondering why I am so fond of this box of buttons, and there may be few people who can truly understand, but seeing all of the different colors and patterns and possibilities... It just stirs something in me.

With that said, I woke up the day after Christmas, grabbed every possible craft supply in the house, and just started cutting and sewing little flowers and circles. I didn't have a clear concept at first of what I was making, but I quickly found myself sitting in the middle of a growing collection of intricately designed "things." A few days later, I bought hair clips and safety pins and decided that they should all be multipurpose accessories. What I love about them is they can go on anything that deserves a little design love. Pillows, scarves, boots, sweaters, and of course, hair.

This batch of the... "accessories" (I don't know what else to generalize them as)... Anyway, it includes exclusively vintage buttons. I saw some similar buttons at the craft store recently that retailed as much as $7-$13 each, so I'm assuming ones that are over thirty years old are pretty valuable... And on top of the intrinsic value of including family heirlooms, I wouldn't know what to charge for them. In the future, with storebought buttons, the accessories will be about $10 each, but these ones are special and may just be the original ones that I'll keep forever and ever. : )

Last night, I put the last pin backing on the last flower, and I have a total of twenty completely unique, handmade accessories.

The ones below are all crocheted with embroidery floss, which brings out a very delicate feel to them. The brown leaf on the bottom left one was actually cut out by my Meme- she had a whole bag of organic shapes cut out of felt, and after turning the house inside out, I still only found one! It is one of my favorites, especially because of the wood grain button.

These ones are all made entirely out of felt, which I was scared would end up looking very elementary... But with some extra hand stitching, I think they look just as intricate as the others.

I found some amazing blue flannel, and I wanted to make it into a scarf... But I loved the idea of turning it into a pin that I could add to any outfit... Because I need flannel readily available, haha.

The following three all include this amazing GOLD fabric. I have no idea how it exists. Even better, it's probably as old as I am, so it has a lot of character through cracking, exposing a white fabric underneath. It's super soft too, unlike glued on gold glitter, so your hair will just slide across it. Also, notice the amazing buttons on the bottom two. Ohhh if only I had an endless supply!

These two include a lot of crocheting- simple circles worked as a great base for the pins. Also, I found gold embroidery floss. It sparkles. My goodness.

These three are some of my favorites- I love browns and beiges, and blue looks so natural with them. The fabric is much softer than felt but as a lot of the same qualities with some light fraying to add character. I LOVE the button on the top one- it has a crocheted cover! My Meme was amazing. Oh, and so is the cerulean blue corduroy fabric.

These two include some more of the random fabric I found, rather than felt... The top one is more of a denim, and the sailor anchor pin gives it this adorable nautical look. The other pin has a button covered in red fabric, so the whole pin is very, very soft.

These two include a burgandy ribbon material I found, which paired nicely with both black felt and the softer white fabric. Another crocheted button cover... There were only two in the whole box! I need to figure out how to make them. Or how to have enough patience to make them.

So you can get an idea of the size... This is my favorite, favorite one.

And another great one, made entirely out of felt with a pretty pearly button.

Since they have both a hair clip and a broche pin, they can really go anywhere. I opted for my suede boot, just for randomness.

So that's what I've been up to, and I'm so excited to have them done! I leave for my niece's birthday dinner in an hour, then head up to Buffalo for my last night in NY, and then I'm off for more adventures that just don't allow for a week of accessory-making.

Can't wait to get back to my office (I prefer "craft lounge") in San Diego to spend my days basking in fabric, sewing machines, and 10-12 cups of coffee!

Much love!