Skip to main content

Haberdashery - Vintage Find

When I heard the theme for Tag Tuesday this fortnight is "Haberdashery", I rummaged in my sewing drawer to look for "vintage" items of haberdashery which I knew I had in my stash. I was particularly happy and surprised to find a number of cards of press studs, buttons and hooks and eyes. These brought back such great memories of the haberdashery shops which I used to frequent years ago when we lived in small country towns. They seemed to stock whatever you needed. You can tell the age of some of these items in my "habbie" stash as Australia changed to decimal currency on 14 February 1966, and the button card quotes a price of 1/3d... 

As I have been making little wearable pins for #the100dayproject, accompanied by a haiku, I thought that Day 30 had to be about haberdashery ... hence my tag within a tag for Tag Tuesday.... 
"Just a word recalls
Sewing notions long since used: 
Haberdashery" 
This is a cloth /mixed media collage with stitching, complete with its own haberdashery -  press studs, some of the packaging  and a safety pin 
I was so excited to find the cards of hooks and eyes and to see the range I had kept and their age.... one of the cards boasts by appointment to Queen Mary, and the others by appointment to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. My vague memory is of purchasing at least the oldest card in a general store in a small town in the 1970's - I remember it was "discounted old stock" but I can't remember how much I paid!  Thanks Tag Tuesday for this vintage rediscovery. 

 To see the whole series of wearable art pins - please follow the hashtag #100pinpoems on Instagram or on Facebook 
Labels:

Comments

  1. Valerie-JaelMay 7, 2020 at 6:26 PM

    I thought you would like this theme! Thanks so much for supporting us again. Hugs, Valerie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wilma Simmons (Empress Wu Designs)May 12, 2020 at 11:16 AM

      Thanks Valerie - Yes haberdashery is a good choice for me. Hope you are well.

      Delete
  2. Gillena CoxMay 8, 2020 at 1:10 AM

    OMG hooks and eyes, i still have some in my old sewing kits

    I am #5 on the linky

    Much💚🌎💙love

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wilma Simmons (Empress Wu Designs)May 12, 2020 at 11:18 AM

      Thanks Gillena - I will check our your blog. I haven;t yet had a look at the other haberdashery tags.

      Delete
  3. pinkyMay 11, 2020 at 3:58 AM

    Wow, you did well holding on to those!! I am loving your gorgeous tag. Thanks for joining us at Tag Tuesday.
    Pinky

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wilma Simmons (Empress Wu Designs)May 12, 2020 at 11:20 AM

      Thank you Pinky - yes I do hang on to a lot of things but only the useful (Ha ha).

      Delete
  4. WendyKMay 12, 2020 at 12:53 AM

    Fabulous tag, I still have some of those as well. Lovely to see you here again. Stay safe, hugs Wendy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wilma Simmons (Empress Wu Designs)May 12, 2020 at 11:21 AM

    Hi Wendy - Thank you... I thought many people might remember these. Hope you're well and coping with the current social restrictions.

    ReplyDelete
  6. MicheleMay 13, 2020 at 3:14 PM

    i love the tag! a unique style. you have some great stuff in your stash! thank you for linking to tag tuesday, wonderful to see you again! xo

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading my blog and please share your thoughts about my blog post by leaving a comment.Your comment won't appear immediately as comments are verified before publication in an effort to reduce the amount of spam appearing. Anonymous comments will not be published.

Popular posts from this blog

Giveaway - Gifts for You on My Birthday

Giveaway Gifts T his week is blog giveaway time! Last week I celebrated my birthday.  I’ve had far too many to count the candles, but I had a wonderful party on the weekend with my family - with an indulgent birthday cake, favourite foods cooked by my husband and great company. ( In case you were wondering about the writing on the cake , Por Por = Chinese grandmother)     I also got great gifts from  my family and friends. There seemed to be a bit of a theme this year – with many of my gifts and cards depicting matryshoka ( babushka) dolls and tea drinking.   As it is also winter here in Australia ,   it was easy for me to  decide what I could offer as gifts  in this birthday giveaway. All the gifts are handmade by me. Gift 1 - two little fabric matryshoka dolls  Gift 2- a little bag made from colourful teapot and teacup fabric . The design is called a jester bag, but it is suitable for carrying s...
24 comments
Read more

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks ....  The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and  message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or  my husband or from off cuts gifted to us  from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks.   Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt  or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as w...
3 comments
Read more

29 Faces

"29 Faces " is an online art challenge - blog and Facebook . The challenge is to create a face each day of September ( with one day for catch up) .... I decided to take up the challenge to practise drawing faces for my dolls and to practise techniques with coloured pencils.  I received a set of 60 pencils  from my daughter last Christmas so I wanted to be sure I used them before next Christmas! I love making tags so I combined tag making with "29 Faces", so I will also have some unique Christmas gift tags for gift giving  this year. Here are the first 9 faces for the first 9 days of September 
13 comments
Read more