Button Wednesday : Lederhosen Buttons

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

As I wrote on Monday, I am in a Bavarian mood :) And I will explain the reason for this later this week .... 

So, my Button Wednesday is also in a Bavarian mood. Did you know there exist special Lederhosen buttons ? The buttons on Lederhosen are to close the front flap that forms the closure of the Lederhosen and to hold the suspenders. They are typically sewn on, not by means of thread, but by means of a small leather strap. Therefore these buttons have 2 elongated holes for the leather straps to go through and a bar in between.

(German Wear)

They can be made of plastic, plain or to imitate deer antler buttons (like the ones above), of buffalo horn, or of real deer antler.

(Stoffcorner)

(Licht Imports)

(www.knopf-shop.com)

(Stoffcorner)

And here these lovely buttons in full action: 

(Amazon)

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 !!

Etsy : New Brooches & Industrial Sewing Machine

This week I made more pieces in my "double buttoned embroidered" jewelry line. But this time I used the small branches, so I made a type of toggle buttons. Embroidered them again with silk floss and a lovely button. I so like making these girly woodland pieces !

Most of the new creations are now in my Etsy shop: P8 Button Art, but there is more to come !

And I played the whole week with my industrial sewing machine, hubby bought it for me from an old man in Kiel who buys and repairs those monsters as his hobby. I had to get used to the speed of the machine and how to get it even, and learned a lot about threads, tension, and spooling. There's no tutorial handbook, so I had to find it out for myself. And I am still very careful for my fingers because it is a real monster, it goes easily through 2cm (almost 1") thick leather like butter....
Here some pics of my new playmate:

Hats : Mongolia

I just received a Mongolian hat I bought on Ebay. I am thrilled to add this beautiful creation to my traditional hat collection. It's made out of straw and leather; there are two knobs that hold the chin strap on to the hat, they look like some decorated nuts. I quickly took some pics to show you.

Challenges : Vikings

Every week the European Street Team at Etsy organizes a challenge to make something with a special theme.
The theme last week was organized by VknO and was called "Vikings".
She writes: "I was thinking of a challenge that has a connetion to my corner of the world. Ok, I'm from Norway where we have a lot of water, some snow and ice, semi-high mountains and a 'ugly' history. Water (Aqua) has been used, snow/ice is just too cold and mountains have to wait till next time.......... cause I have choosen a part of our 'ugly' history for this weeks challenge: the VIKINGS!
I would like to see items that are somehow related to Vikings or to the time when vikings raided and colonized parts of Europe.
In addition to a Viking-connection, there has to be some recycling or upcycling involved when creating the item. It's up to you to decide how much recycling/upcycling as long as it is involved somehow."

After scanning through my buttons, I found some old used bronze coloured ones which reminded me of shields. Then I remembered I had some pieces of leather laying around that once were a leather jacket. So the idea was born, it had to be a viking called Erik with his drakkar ship; the discoveror of America. Two brooches and they are for sale on Etsy !