Take The Seamless Pledge!

We've talked a lot about ethical clothing here on the Ears and Whiskers blog, and today Sarah is back with a new challenge for 2014...

I used to love to shop, but lately I've been feeling a pang of guilt every time I walk into Primark or window shop in Topshop. Ever thought that you'd love to spend less time in H&M and more time reworking vintage pieces or amazing finds from the charity shop but aren't sure where to start?

Perhaps you're starting to feel like if you can't guarantee the ethics of shop you'd rather not shop there? Or maybe you're just fed up with seeing people wearing the same clothes as you! (I know I am, always very embarrasing to spot someone else in the room wearing your favourite dress, right?)

If any of the above applies to you and you're looking for a change then why not try The Seamless Pledge!

The Seamless Pledge is all about encouraging people not to buy mass manufactured clothing, and to go out and either make your own or buy something second hand. Hubbard's Cupboard is all about vintage and one of a kind pieces, so I think it fits in with the pledge pretty well! :)

We spoke to Elena Cresci, the girl behind the Seamless Pledge to get an idea of why she started the project :)

How long have you been sewing?

I have been sewing since 2009 I think? I got started in my second year of university (I hand-sewed a wonky skirt), but it wasn't until the Summer I got started with proper patterns and the like. Then, I moved to Germany for a bit, got myself a second-hand sewing machine and tried to improve as much as I could.

What inspired you to create the Seamless Pledge? 

The blog itself actually started as a project for my postgraduate journalism course at university! I was already blogging about sewing at that point, but I kind of wanted to take it to the next level. When I first started sewing, there was a pledge called Wardrobe Refashion, but the woman who had started wasn't able to carry it on. I interviewed Zoe Edwards, another sewing blogger, and we were talking about how it was a shame there wasn't anything like that anymore... enter the Seamless Pledge!

After Zoe shared it, I got loads of people saying they were up for it, it was so surreal. I didn't quite expect it to hit the nerve it did. I think there are a lot of people thinking about the ethical and environmental implications of fashion these days.

How long have you been doing it now? 

I didn't buy any new clothes at all for at least a year, if not more, from October 2011. I'll hold my hands up, I have bought the odd thing since the "official" pledge came to an end in 2012, but I can honestly count on one hand the amount of new clothes I bought in 2013. And one was a Christmas jumper, which I figured was OK because I cannot knit so save my live AND it had a Home Alone reference... Whay!

What are the rules of the Seamless pledge?

The rules

• No buying new clothes for the duration of your pledge. New mean any new mass-manufactured clothes.
• You can buy second-hand manufactured clothes – so be prepared to get to know your local charity shops awfully well.
• Vintage clothing is a-ok!
• Anything you’ve made by hand is definitely allowed. Get your sewing machines and your knitting needles out, because handmade is definitely in!

What are you sewing goals for 2014? 

I had this whole 12-month challenge set out where I was going to pick one sewing project a month to concentrate on. Annoyingly, it's already come to pieces because a) I haven't had a sewing machine for about a month and b) my first challenge of sewing sequins turned out to be THE MOST TIME-CONSUMING THING EVERRR. Right now I'm drafting "the pain of sequins" post in my head - it's been traumatic. But I'm still going to squirrel away at that challenge because it's more about stretching my sewing abilities than meeting some arbitrary sewing target.

I have a 'Can't Jar' so I'm basically picking things out of that and going from there. I sewed my first pair of trousers recently, which was immense. Next on the list will be things like a bag, a coat... next month, I'd like to draft my own dress pattern. That'll be fun

What tips can you give to people who want to move away from mass market fashion? 

Charity shops are your friend. Seriously. They are the best places. And go to the ones in rich neighbourhoods - when I lived in Guildford, there were constantly designer clothes in the local charity shops. You'd be amazed what people chuck away. Also, you may think you can't sew, but it can be pretty easy to whip up a quick pencil skirt. It's having a big resurgence at the moment, so there are plenty of sewing classes around. That said, there is a plethora of material online from various sewing bloggers who are far better at this sewing lark than I am.

What has been the most helpful resource in learning how to sew new things? 

See above - definitely the sewing blogosphere. You'll be hard pressed to find a kinder and more open community of people online. They are a constant source of inspiration and motivation. Some of my faves are Gertie's New Blog For Better Sewing, Tilly and the Buttons and Zoe (interviewed above). Karen of Did You Make That also has a blog on the Guardian fashion network because she is brilliaaaant. 

What kind of sewing seemed daunting when you started that you now feel you've mastered?

TROUSERS! I definitely haven't mastered them, but I'm going to brag about having made a pair forever and ever. Buttons are also becoming less daunting. What I've found is I can fudge things quite a lot so long as I remember that no one has to see how messy my stuff is on the inside...

-

Thanks Elena! :) Do you think you could give up buying new clothes for a month? Six months? ...*gulp* a year?

If the answer is a big fat YES! then here's how to join in:

 

It’s super simple to join up. Just comment on the site with your name, your blog (if you have one) and how long you’re signing up for. Once you’ve done that, you can also add the button to your blog using this code:

[a href="http://seamlessblog.wordpress.com/the-pledge/" target="_blank">[img src="http://seamlessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/button.png" alt="The Seamless Pledge" /][/a] (replace the [ ] with < >)

Replace brackets with < > and stick it in a textbox widget on your blog and/or post the following to your social network of choice:

"I (insert your name here) am taking the #seamlesspledge until (length of time here). http://bit.ly/tktV04"

& that's it! Do let us know if you sign up, and if you have a blog then leave the link in the comments, I love to read them! :)

Love

Sarah 

UK Handmade

Hola lovely readers! Sarah here again, bringing you some more handmade and ethical finds from around the web! :)

This week I found something super awesome - ever heard of UK Handmade? It's a new discovery to me but a very welcome one so I thought I'd share it with you all in case you hadn't discovered it yet either! :)

It's actually been running since 2008 so I'm not sure how I missed it (am I the last one on the boat?!) but that just means there's lots of lovely back issues to make my way through so I'm definitely not complaining.

They describe themselves as 

"a design-led online magazine committed to showcasing and promoting the best creative talent the UK has to offer."

Which sounds pretty great, right? They have a directory of bricks and mortar handmade shops across the UK (Hubbards Cupboard should totally be listed in there, right?)  as well as a directory of online shops, a magazine and a forum for creatives to discuss all things handmade (it currently has over 5000 members, which is crazy and awesome at the same time). They also have tips on running a business, as well as inspiration posts, reviews and showcases. Fab!

It's so nice to see people being proud of their work and proactive about pushing back against the commercial tide. There are so many options these days when it comes to buying hand made, quality, one of a kind goods - it's really wonderful to see!

You can read the latest issue of the magazine below, although I'd definitely recommend visiting the site to have a good nose around, there's a lot to discover! :)

Let me know if you check it out! :)

Love

Sarah

// Photoshoots

We recently teamed up with some amazingly talented companies to create a stunning styled shoot in the absolute best location!

The photos of the shoot are soon to be released on Gwen's Bridal Bazaar and we absolutely can NOT wait!

Without giving too much away, here's a sneaky peek at the amazing Laura Power's images from the day and a quick phone shot of the beautiful dress we had the pleasure of making...

I can't wait to tell you how i got all my inspiration for the dress once the shoot is released! Its a good un!

xoxo
♥

Eva...

My re-designed version of Eva! 

Eva is a chiffon and lace dress

The delicate lace bodice has capped sleeves and a full button opening down the back. 

Eye lash fringed edging is hand sewn to the neck line, sleeves and at the waist. 

There is a silk wrap around waist tie made to match the color of the under dress.

The chiffon is gathered and full at the bottom to give an elegant floating skirt.

Pair Eva with our champagne under dress for a vintage feel.

Eva...

A recent commission got me drawing...

I decided to call this dress Eva and I'm going to include a similar version (editing some details in the back and adding sleeves) in my mini collection of versatile wedding dresses.

The lace is a beautiful corded open work lace and the skirt will be layered chiffon and floor length with a separate under dress that can be worn by itself too!

♥

xoxo

Beautiful Bride

One of our wonderful Brides Lucy got married today (Congratulations!), so we can officially release out photos of the stunning champagne and ivory dress we made for her. 

You may remember our post Here comes the Bride showing the preliminary sketches and designs for Lucy's dress. A champagne satin under gown with a beaded lace overlay and stunning keyhole feature in the back. As far as I'm concerned I'm still new at working with lace, especially of the beaded variety, but I'm so pleased with how this turned out!

Complete with a button up bustle train to dance the night away!

The sash is optional, appliqued over the champagne under satin with a tie back.

We hope Lucy had the best of days and wish her all the best for her future! Enjoy your beautiful dress

♥

xoxo

Here comes the bride

This week I'll be sharing one of my current projects with you guys - a 20s-inspired wedding dress!

The bride, just like so many others before her, couldn't find an off-the-peg dress quite as perfect as the one she imagined, so she contacted Ears and Whiskers and challenged us to create a unique gown.

Besides preferring the corset-free style and slinky cuts of roaring 20s fashion, the bride also had a special request: a "keyhole" cut-out back!

I set to work immediately, designing a few different styles which matched various fabrics for overlays and underskirts, and short-listing lace samples (I normally use this site for my research, because their vintage laces are just to die for!).

After a bit of testing and consulting with the bride-to-be, we decided on the final look: beaded lace overlaying a bias cut satin gown. Subtle but memorable, just as a truly dashing 20's dress should be!

For us the hard-work is yet to begin. Awaiting are long hours of cutting, pinning, fitting, sewing and hand-finishing all sorts of details, including a full row of beautiful pearl buttons and a scalloped edging to trim the keyhole back.

We'll keep you posted on our progress! :)

Flower Power!

Daffodils are almost gone from the fields but flowers are here to stay, at least til' the end of this fashion season! Shop windows everywhere are blooming with beautiful patterns, while on the catwalks florals have taken on a more tactile dimension, featuring on beautiful embroideries and appliqués.

This flower-power trend is music to E&W’s ears – excuse the pun - in fact one of our blossoming creations just got highlighted in this month’s edition of Cardiff Life! That got me thinking about my never-ending attraction to florals, and about some of my past creations, like that silk dress with yellow flowers, remember? And after a little stroll down memory lane I've concluded that this trend matches our personality and something tells me we'll stick with it for many seasons to come.

So, whenever you feel like spring or summer just get down to Cardiff's city centre, visit our store and try on our blossoming creations!

Easter tutorial - (upcycled garland)

This week I managed to work on some Easter decorations in my spare time. Inspired by these beautiful machine-stitched paper garlands, I've decided to put my scraps box to good use and create our first tutorial!

This embroidered paper garland is quite easy to make and the final result is seriously cute. If you're not that much into Easter, or would rather make a garland that will last you past the holiday, you can use flower or heart shapes instead of eggs.

(Click to enlarge.)

Here's the list of materials you'll need:

- scraps of card;

- scraps of ribbon;

- loose book pages or some kind of sketching paper;

- a drawing pin;

- a needle;

- some colourful embroidery thread;

- two meters of yarn;

- a few mini clothes pegs.

1. Draw a number of egg shapes on your card. The number of shapes will determine the length of your garland.

2. Draw the same number of egg shapes on the sketching paper and put them aside to use later.

3. Cut your egg shapes out of the card, place them over a soft surface (I placed mine over some sheets of felt) and use the drawing pin to trace your intended embroidery pattern. You can decorate your shapes with vertical, horizontal or zigzag lines like I did, or you can try more complex stitches.

4. When your Easter eggs are fully decorated, cut your ribbon into 5cm bits, fold them in half and secure them to the back of the egg using a bit of tape.

5. Cut the egg shapes you set aside in step 2, cover them with glue and place them over the back of the eggs. Wait for the glue to dry.

6. Slide the yarn through the each egg's ribbon loop and secure them using a mini clothes peg.

And your garland is ready to hang!

Shades of grey: beautiful bridesmaids

This week I've been working non-stop on these fabulous bridesmaids dresses. I love to design dresses that make bridesmaids feel beautiful rather than making them cry desperately for help!

However, not every bridesmaid in history has had the good luck of wearing an Ears and Whiskers creation, and I bet that a lot of you guys out there are hiding at least one unfortunate bridesmaid outfit at the back of your wardrobes. Here's a tip for all you brave BFF's: why not upcycle those ugly ducklings that have been occupying valuable storage space all this time? Just take a look at this Minneapolis-based upcycling fashion project called CounterCouture. Angie Arner, owner and founder, has created a collaborative movement to transform all those shiny, pleaded, and ruffled disasters into upcycled trendy fashion. Fabulously eco, just as we like it!

Say Hello to Ashley!

Ashley is our wonderful new bespoke designer in store, designing and making amazing crafted headpieces and veils for all you lovely brides…

‘With Love From… Bobbin’ is a luxury range of handmade bridal headwear and accessories for the modern vintage bride and bridesmaids. From the deco hair band to the 1940’s inspired cap with optional veil, Ashley uses fine silks, antique lace and embellishments to create a unique look for your big day. A bespoke design service is also offered where lace and trims are sourced specifically to match ‘the’ dress, incorporating heirlooms or trinkets for that truly personal touch.

Prior to establishing With Love From Bobbin, Ashley worked in fabric buying and sourcing for a number of high street brands including Coast and still designs textiles for the high street today. Now based in Wales, Ashley is rekindling her love for fine fabrics and antique trims to create a range which encompasses the glamour and romance of a bygone era.

Now available in store - bespoke items too!

A throwback to the beginning…

After a wonderful, inspirational chat with Catarina of Mrs.Crafting today, it’s a little post about our original inspiration point for E&W!

Having just started researching and guest posting for Something Kinda Cute’s new wedding blog (here) I loved the idea of Catarina giving us a helping hand with ours too! Seeing as I constantly complain about the lack of time and inspiration!

After our little chat about what we’d like the blog to revolve around - ethical fashion seemed to be the biggest presence. After all, that is what we’re all about! It got us thinking about a recent project that was done to discover people’s emotional attachments to their garments. Don’t pretend like you don’t have one - whether it’s a lucky pair of socks or your mum’s cardy, we’ve all got a special item of clothing that we just can’t seem to shake off.

The great thing about making clothes from old items (be it curtains or garments) is that they all come with a story…

When we first started E&W, piecing together bits and bobs to create our dresses we gave them their own identities. It started as a bit of a fun, but as it turned out people really loved reading about where their dresses story!

So, a throwback to the old it is! We’re heading back to our roots, letting you all know the stories behind your dresses, where they’ve come from so that hopefully you can add to it!

We’d love to hear about all your stories and attachments to your clothes!

Advent Art

We’re loving the Christmassy feel around Cardiff and with the temperatures dropping it’s time everyone else started feeling the Christmas spirit too! Alongside our Handmade Christmas Campaign, we’ve obviously made our Christmas a very Handmade one indeed. We’ve been busy making lots of little bits for the shop and we decided every shop needs an advent calendar!

Rolling with our very ‘natural’ Christmas theme, we’ve stuck to hessian, lace, cinnamon and flowers. The natural brown and cream colors aren’t necessarily associated with Christmas, but I think that’s what makes it look so special!

We covered a board with hessian, popped it in a vintage frame and strung some lovely vintage lace across. Each tag has been pegged onto the lace, individually done with numbers on the back ready to turn around each day!

Hope you like it! Would love to see your advent calendars this Christmas, who opts for something a little different (and less sugary!)?

Christmas at the Cupboard

In our little store, we can’t do anything but go all out and I’ve been SUPER excited about getting it all ready for the holiday season!

We have been running our ‘Handmade Christmas Campaign’ for about 2 weeks now, getting everyone involved and supporting the handmade scene in Cardiff as well as the wonderful charity Ty Hafan! So we decided to handmake our windows and pretty much all of our amazing decorations (except the lights - not sure I’d trust myself making the fairy lights!)

So here it is, our beautiful little store in all it’s Christmas glory!

Our windows are full of handmade snowflake decorations cut from your standard A4 white paper and some music paper mixed in! Also our pinwheels decoration add an amazing background to the display, I will be submitting my tutorial for them to the handmade Christmas campaign very soon! We have also made some super cute mini ones for the tree to sell in aid of Ty Hafan.

As well as these, we’ve adorned some re-cycled glass jars (anything from the fridge will do!) with hessian and lace to put in the front of the window with flickering (not real) tea lights!

I’m also in love with our vintage doily bunting and twig decoration over the counter! It looks amazing suspended with some beautiful decorations hanging from it.

I can’t wait for Amy Davies of ‘The Cardiff Arcade’s project’ to come back in and take some amazing photo’s.. Mine don’t quite do it justice!

Making-of

Our hanging sign for outside our store has been made from 100% re-cycled floorboards! We white washed the boards and painted our little HC logo on both sides ♥

Suzanne’s wedding collection.

Oh Alice

We finally got around to meeting up with Alice post wedding and was so happy to hear how everything’s going!

A lot of praise for the wonderful dress which I’m so happy to have done for her, it couldn’t have looked better on anyone else! With a little one on the way and a change of house, she’s kindly let us ‘foster’ the dress for a little while so we can show it off to all!!

Here are some beautiful photos from Alice and Matths big day!

Couldn’t have been happier with the sweet card she made us either - It’s so lovely to know how happy someone is with something you’ve made them!

It’s been lovely, and we definitely cannot wait to see her and the little one in the shop very soon!

Our very own Alice in Wonderland! (Wonderdress)

♥

A Grand Day Out…

Today was the last stall we’ve had lined up for the rest of the year! (devastating news I know) but on the plus side, we’re setting up online! Some consolation?

We turned up this morning after a 5am start from the E&W household and a 3 hour drive not knowing what to expect and apart from the weather (which did hold off) everything was amazing! Powis Castle is a beautiful place and we had a prime spot staring at it all day…

We took everything we could find from home and the shop that was red, white or blue to make a lovely rail of clothes and I finished off the Jubilympics dress just in time!

Yet another busy day ahead for the up-cycling combo… We have a dip dyed sheet ready to be transformed into King and Queen capes for the quirky Cowbridge Hub procession and then our celebrations are over.

Hope everyone’s had/has an amazing Jubilee long weekend , we saw some street parties on the way back that looked amazing but my camera had run out of battery :(

E&W

♥ 

Lots of love 

Project Jubilee…

The time is now! We’re currently under a little move about of the workshop due to my sister moving home and reclaiming her room for a month - so there's no better time to sort out the projects for the next few weeks!

I want to create the 3 main looks of the 50's to showcase at the Jubilee festival and to me that means the dress, the coat and the suit, all with a cute 50's eco look.

The box coat. The Chanel suit. The classic full skirted dress.

These 3 pieces, for me, exude the 1950’s look and although there are a lot more dresses that have the classic 1950’s look, I wanted to choose something a little different that I can experiment with…

Then to go with all of this we’re expanding the Famous 50’s collection - a whole load of circle skirts, little tops and cutsie dresses. All eco, all vintage, all amazing! And these are the fabrics…

And for once Ill show it as I’m going along - from start to finish.. (promise)

I’m also (finally) in the middle of uploading all our wedding dress stock to our web page! So if you want to see our amazing wedding dress collection from 1940’s to 1960’s, handmade and up-cycled gowns check out the website here

So much to do! With some time to settle in and do it! Bring on the week ahead.