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 : Olympics

Completely under the spell of the Olympics here ! Therefore, some lovely sportive pictures from four of our European Street Team members on Etsy.

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

1. 11Compositions
2. LouisestArt
3. greengrass2
4. StudioBee

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:

Fabrics : hunting on Etsy

Are you also fabric hunting ? I always am.... See what I found under handmade fabrics on Etsy. I would love to touch those fabrics, feel them in my hands; so yummy !

1. summersville
2. greenolivetextiles
3. stitchindye
4. dyecandy
5. lcscottage
6. jacquedesigns
7. paintergenie
8. 1girl1boy
9. moonteaartwork

Buttons : Animals

I did an Etsy search for buttons with all kinds of animals: mammals, insects, amphibia, fish, birds, pets, etc. Found some terrific specimens. Have fun looking through them !

1. ceramic turtle from AcquadelleDonne
2. fabric sheep from mwendas
3. ceramic blackbird (pie) from siennaorlando
4. polymer clay bee from shandyscandy
5. beaded ladybug from thelonebeader
6. plastic giraffes from SpareButton
7. wood painted owl from stardogstudio
8. ceramic cat from MixedMediaByZehner
9. ceramic dragonfly from ButtonBliss
10. polymer clay mice from TinyArk
11. bronze clay dog from SRNdesigns
12. embroidered turtles from Beetastic
13. lampwork glass bird from belvedere
14. resin birds from buttonsbyrobin
15. ceramic fish from muddymuse
16. ceramic frogs from SandhraLee

Buttons : The PhatSheep Handmade Button Swap 2

Remember the button swap I participated in a few weeks ago ? This was the Handmade Button Swap organized by PhatSheep. We had to handmake a coherent set of 6 buttons. I am amazed about the variation ! Fabric, fimo, linen, velvet, crochet, painted, embroidered, ceramics, felted etc. Have a look at all the entries (even more pictures here):


1. Gemma Grace: starfish shell embroidered buttons
2. jennypepper: Nuno felt buttons
3. incywincystitches: embroidered fabric buttons
4. Phatsheep Textiles: Fimo buttons and fabric buttons
5. Jacqui: linen embroidered buttons and fimo buttons
6. tiptoptoppersbyruth: fimo buttons with seed beads pressed in
7. dhop76: embroidered leaf buttons
8. pyewacket42: linen buttons with silk french knots embroidery
9. namolio: Knitted poppies with velvet covered buttons as the centre
10. jennyflowerblue: Fimo pearl effect buttons
11. noisette handmade: linen painted buttons
12. P8 Accessories & Button Art: ceramic casted and painted buttons

Buttons : The PhatSheep Handmade Button Swap

For the first time I participated in a swap. This was the Handmade Button Swap organized by PhatSheep. We had to handmake a coherent set of 6 buttons and an item of our choice that's using a handmade button. And this all before the 14th of February. I found it very exciting !

I decided to make some buttons by casting ceramic powder (into chocolate forms), drilling holes into them and painting them with turquoise and silver mother of pearl glass colour. It was great fun !

The item I made was a brooch made of one large vintage grey button in the middle with lots of small vintage grey buttons sewn around it. Everything is topped of with one of the ceramic buttons I made for this swap, turning it into a blue-silvery flower.

This was the extra item I made, using a much larger specimen of the handmade buttons I made for the swap. It's a necklace made of a sheer grey-silvery fabric tube, filled with silver painted wooden beads and knotted together with the large ceramic shank heart button in the middle.


And this is what I received today from noisette handmade. She made me a set of 6 beautiful linen buttons painted with 6 different motives: ladybird, bird, leaf, heart, apple & mushroom. They are so sweet ! Her item was a linen pouch with a blue & white striped bottom and a large linen button sewed on it; it's so cute ! And I got an extra blue felt flower brooch from her too. Moreover, she gave me some lovely piece of fabric, some pieces of trims, some red buttons and chocolate (!).
Thank you so much noisette to make this first swap an unforgettable one ! You can see all the entries coming in here.

Fabrics : Painted & Printed

I did not realize for a long time that there are also great fabric designers on Etsy. Here some lovely unique painted and printed examples for all those who love fabric shopping !

1. 2DishDesigns
2. inkihandmade
3. jessalinb
4. maramiki
5. monkeyshinedesign
6. ofpaperandthread
7. RubyFantastic
8. pippijoe
9. thebluehare
10. cicadastudio
11. vansantdesigns
12. sewbettie