Lederhosen Bags

Today I will disclose why I am in a Bavarian mood this week :) It all started two years ago, when I found two vintage kid's Lederhosen on a flea market. They were so cute ! I remembered my little brother wearing one in the sixties, although we were living in Holland, and not in Germany at all, quite apart from Bavaria. I think it was the fashion in those days :) I don't know if my brother liked it; next time I see him I will ask him if he remembers it ....

Well, I bought them, but without any idea what to do with it. So, I put them in my traditional costume collection (although only existing out of adult women clothing). But a few weeks later I suddenly thought that I could maybe use the leather for making leather bags, which I was longing to do already for quite some time. But then I would love to keep the cute pockets, and the stitched flap, and the beautiful special Lederhosen buttons....

So, I started to fiddle around and tried to sew it on my sewing machine. But my, otherwise splendid, sewing machine did not like it.... and simply refused to do it. OK, the leather is quite thick, I confess. Buying a special leather foot and leather sewing machine needles did not solve the problem. It wouldn't do the trick. Then I tried hand sewing, making holes and with special thick leather thread bought from a shoe maker on Ebay, I struggled on. My fingers became red, sore and with many pinholes after 60 cm of sewing, so I gave up. Till my hubby gave me some day an old sewing monster ! He had discovered an old man in a neighboring town who collected old sewing machines from the former GDR sewing industry and repaired them. And there he bought me this leather sewing monster.

I was pretty afraid for this monster to begin with; it made quite some noise and went at an enormous speed, with a giant needle through 3 cm thick layers.... And I was fearing for my fingers a bit :) So, it took quite a long time of practicing, and lots of fiddling around with machine parts by my hubby, to get it in a state that I could do my "thing". Three months ago, I finished my first Lederhosen bag, and started to wear it myself to see if everything was ok. Changed some bits and experienced this first bag as pretty practical, sturdy and stylish; got lovely comments on the streets too. 

So, I started to search for vintage Lederhosen on flea markets everywhere, on line and off line. I even found red and green ones ! And Lederhosen specially made for girls with little hearts on it. So, I was hooked. And this week I could finally start listing 5 Lederhosen bags in my P8 Accessories Etsy shop !!!! I invite you to go there and have a look how wonderfully variable and cool these bags have turned out.

So, this is the story of my Bavarian mood, and I am afraid it will hold on for some really long time too .....

Monday Mood Board : Bavaria

I am in a Bavarian mood. Why ? I am not living there, but at the other side of Germany, along the Danish border. So why ? Maybe because this month is the Oktoberfest ? And maybe because I love traditional costumes ? You will find out soon !!! Later this week I will explain my Bavarian mood :)

In the meantime, some lovely Bavarian items from four of our European Street Team members on Etsy.

For more monday mood boards see Estella and Esther's blog.

1. ancienesthetique

2. reevpapercuts

3. oraber

4. TheGreedyCrocodile

Button Wednesday : Flea Market Gifts

It is Wednesday again, so it's BUTTON DAY on my blog !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



I have a friend of a friend who likes strolling on flea markets, and when he heard of my button mania he decided to have a look around for buttons (which I did not know). Suddenly this friend of a friend sent me this huge button parcel ! I am so thrilled. Especially, the buttons on the cartons are splendid; they were sewn on by a German girl with the name Helga Meyer in 1965, when she was at a vocational school for seamstresses in southern Germany (the text is still readable). I give you lots of pictures !










Have you seen a lovely, beautiful, stunning, crazy button or button-related thingy, or did you make something with a button / buttons, or did you even make buttons yourself, blog about it on your blog on Wednesday, and give the link here in the comments so that everybody can enjoy it !!

Monday Mood Board: Shopping

Since a couple of weeks some of my creations are in a real shop here in the neighborhood and I pay my "commission" by being a shop attendant for a few days every month. And I found out that I like it; the customers are mostly very happy tourists and very talkative, and when there are no customers in the shop, I can craft at the enormous crafting table in the back of the shop (wish I had such a table at home ...). Therefore, here some real shop experiences from some of our European Street Team sellers on Etsy.

For more monday mood boards see Estella and Esther's blog.

1. nasoupo
2. shashamane
3. magalerie
4. IchaPhotography

And this is the real thing:

Etsy : Earrings

This week's earrings are these "green drops" by my friend and EST member Vanessa Kirsch from Kirschbits on Etsy. I got them from Vanessa on the first time we met, at the craft fair in Süderschmedeby in northern Germany. We did not know each other and had no idea how the other one would look like. So, hubby phoned with his mobile to Vanessa's husband's mobile when we were on the fair. The funny thing was that he somehow had the feeling that he got an answer in stereo; it turned out that they were standing next to each other without knowing they did !

Vanessa is concentrating on bag making at the moment, but she is also very crafty with polymer clay as you can see from my earrings. I am giving here some pictures of the great bags she is making, but for more wonderful bag creations visit her shop to see all these beauties !

Button Wednesday : Text on Metals

It is Wednesday again, so it's BUTTON DAY on my blog. It would be great if you could do the same; make your Wednesday a button day too. Have you seen a lovely, beautiful, stunning, crazy button or button-related thingy, or did you make something with a button / buttons, or did you even make buttons yourself, blog about it on your blog on Wednesday, and give the link here via Mister Linky at the end of this post.


I have quite some metal buttons in my collection, most of them not in the best condition, but if they have text I certainly keep them in. They are all very ordinary buttons, nothing special, but I love it when I see texts on buttons. I have buttons with brand names, buttons with text including the word "Paris", buttons only "For Gentleman", buttons with funny old fashioned German texts (like Deutsche Arbeit, Solide Neuheit, etc.), army buttons, jeans buttons, buttons with unreadable texts, buttons with only texts at the back, etc. etc. .....

Here some of the nicest; I hope you can read them. It is difficult to take decent pics from shiny metal buttons :)

And some military buttons at the end:



!!!!!!!!!! If you have something for The Button Wednesday, give Mister Linky your name and the link to your button post !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tidbits : Peggy at the Craft Market

Last sunday it was beautiful weather and we decided to attand the largest craft market in northern Germany. The market was in the village of Süderschmedeby and there were 150 participants from the whole of Germany and Denmark. It was really huge ! We (Pieter and I, at the left in the picture above) met there with Vanessa (you can see here at the extreme right in the picture above) and Matthias (with his parents, behind Vanessa in the picture)) from the European Street Team on Etsy, and that was so nice ! I always like to see the faces behind our team members. I got some lovely green earrings from Vanessa, and Matthias made some beautiful pictures of Peggy.



We decided that it would be great if we all could attend this market next year with a big Etsy group. You can see lots of gorgeous pictures Matthias made on the market on his photo blog.

Tidbits : Frozen Fjord

Finally the Schlei fjord is frozen; it's so gorgeous. It's white, silent and cold. I would love to go skating, but I have not seen a single skater on the fjord yet so I am afraid it is not safe enough. And I am not a young brave girl anymore that goes as the first one on the ice. I have to remember myself every time that this is actually salt water.....
But it looks nice, don't you think ?

Tidbits : Flickr Favourites

Inspired by a bonnet I made based on a traditional Dutch pattern, my flickr favourites of today are all about traditional headdresses.
For more flickr favourites see here.

1. Alsace girl (France), 2. the brelot (France), 3. Buckeburg (Germany), 4. Zeeland (The Netherlands)

Buttons : Antler Buttons

(from Fischer-Antics in Germany)

In many cultures lots of early buttons were made from antler (the "horns" of deer). Antler buttons were often manufactured by individuals working at home with simple tools. They are especially very beautiful and typical for the european Alp-countries. After the "Trachten-boom" in the 70s and 80s only a few manufacturers still make antler buttons by hand in the Alps.

(from Fischer-Antics in Germany)
Most of the antlers are collected by hunters in southern Germany, Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic. The stags throw their antlers each February and March; so they are not killed for their antlers, but their antlers are found left behind in the forest.

(from Inntaler Hirschhornknopf-Fabrikation)
Everything of the antlers is used. First the antlers are cut lengthwise into flat strips, then disks are cut as close to each other as possible to get as much buttons as possible; 1 kg antler produces about 100 buttons. The disks are then beaten out of the antler strips and the button holes are drilled. Finally they are polished and sometimes also carved. The antler tops are formed into toggle buttons and the rest, dust and chips, becomes biological fertilizer for gardeners.

(from Stephanie Hackstein. Buttons. History and Production.)
Every antler button is unique because every antler is unique. That makes these buttons so beautiful. There are lots of imitations made out of plastic on the market; they are all identical and they all have a snow white backside.

A: real antler buttons; B: plastic imitation buttons (from my own collection)
Some examples of beautiful handmade antler buttons I found on the internet:


(1 and 2 from Hirsch-Hornschnitzer & Hornschmuck-Erzeugung, 3 from Knopfparadies, 4 from rosenhexe31 on Ebay, 5 from ideenreichHandarbeitsbedarf on DaWanda, 6 from buchfink987 on Ebay and 7 from bokkerer on Ebay)

Based on:
Stephanie Hackstein. Buttons. History and Production. Markstein Verlag, Filderstadt 2007. ISBN 978-3-935129-40-4
Grüß Gott aus dem Raum Rosenheim: "Das Imitat ist unser größter Feind", Inntaler Hirschhornknopf-Fabrikation in der dritten Generation.