Learning about Leather

I have been on a quest to find the perfect leather to use with all the boho charms I have been collecting.  I want a nice medium weight leather that is both soft and sturdy.  The color should be rich, and the feel should be buttery.  I recently decided that my only hope was to buy a hide and cut it myself.

So I have been scouring Southern California and found some scraps, as well as full hides.

At first I made the mistake of buying leather that was nice and soft, but too thin.  But the heavier leather can look too much like a shoelace when it's cut.

I have been cutting it with a regular circular cutter and a self healing mat, which works surprisingly well.

I decided to make lemonade out of lemons, and use the soft thin leather to make tassels.  I LOVE tassels.  I have been scouring the internet nightly for cool tassels made out of anything: chain, pearls, leather, silver. So here is my attempt at making some out of the nice soft leather hide I bought at Save More Leather in Los Angeles.

The first one has a very nice sterling toggle clasp.  The second one has piece of turquoise and an old African trade bead.  I am going to attach them to necklaces made of hishi beads, wood beads, and leather.

Finally, here is a small sample of the vintage charms I have collected and turned into necklaces.  The first one uses some of the leather I cut.  The last picture is some pre-cut leather I just found that's actually pretty nice.  Sigh.

Aged or distressed t-shirts and sweatshirts

It turns out that those decades old t-shirts that your husband should have thrown out a long time ago are in.   The more threadbare and worn the better.  It took me a while to come to grips with this, but now I like it.  In fact, I just got this t-shirt for myself:

I believe this was washed for many hours in a Los Angeles wash house, and then silk screened.  But it started out as someone's undershirt.

David and I have been learning about distressing jeans and have discovered that there are places that will wash things for hours and hours and will also dye them, which is a way of fast-forwarding the aging process on t-shirts and denim.  Something about it is very appealing.  I love the old tags in the neck, especially if they are from some old manufacturer from the 50s or 60s.

I also picked up this old sweatshirt at a flea market,  that is now one of my favorites.

You can take new t-shirts and use sand paper and the sanitize setting on your washing machine, or you can search for a long time and find the perfectly aged and naturally-distressed item at a flea market or at a thrift store.  I like them both.

The old style sweatshirts often had the raglan sleeves set in.  I especially love hoodies, but pullovers are good, too.

I also love dyed garments.  The colors come out so vividly.  There's just something about a home-dyed garment that says it's special.  The black one above was dyed in a wash house.  I have some more things I will post that I have been dying , too.

Lastly, I have been collecting vintage t-shirts and have been experimenting with how to cut them to make them into tank tops.  I am still working on the details, like how low to cut the arm holes, and  whether or not to put darts in.  So far each one has been different.  I have some lace t-backs that I bought in downtown LA that I will try to add to the backs as well.  This is a big project I will try to finish before summer.

Denim

Denim is a big part of Twig.  We sold many many denim cutoff shorts last summer, and this summer the trend will probably continue.

The best denim (vintage) is soft and warn.  I am a big fan of distressing.  If the jeans are really old they have naturally distressed patches, such as knees, hips and elbows.  It took me a while to appreciate them, but I am now a fan of holes, and aged stains that just can't be bleached out.  A t-shirt worn by a mechanic or painter with the oil stains and paint still apparent is just fun.  Add a name tag, an old tag in the collar, especially if it's hand made by Peggy or sold be Sears or Penney's, and I am sold.

David and I have been working on techniques for distressing shorts that look like the jeans have been worn and washed for years.  David tried a drill with sandpaper, and a drummel, but these are my favorite tools:

This is a piece of pvc pipe, some sandpaper wrapped around a paint stick, and a bottle of wine.  That's all you need.

So, you stick the pvc pipe in the leg of the jeans, and start sanding.  The most important thing to remember is DON'T BREAK THE WHITE THREADS.  You want to sand across the leg of the jeans to break the blue threads, and keep the white threads intact.  I use my fingers to pull the threads apart to further break the blue threads.  After a bit of sanding I throw the jeans in the washer for 2-4 hours.  This washes out the broken blue threads, and softens the jeans up even more.

Here are some of the jeans we sell.  First, the cutoff shorts.  These are hugely popular, and we carry tons of them.  It's hard to keep them in stock because certain sizes are really popular and they're hard to find.

We also sell vintage Levi jeans, jackets, and denim shirts.

We also sell redline Levis, which are somewhat rare.  They are from the 70's and are called redline because the inside seam is cut on the selvedge (the edge of the fabric) and they have a distinctive inner seam that has a red stitch in the white border.  

Redline jeans are costlier than other jeans that have an overlock seam, because they use more fabric, and are no longer made in large production.  New selvedge jeans are really pricey, but look great.

Here are some of the shorts I distressed recently, but I need to do a ton more for summer.

The top pair are really soft and nice.  They also have a button fly (501s) versus a zipper fly (505s).  Some people like one better than the other, depending on their preference for buttoning versus zipping.  Buttons seem more old school.

Here is a lovely model wearing a pair of Twig's jeans, as well as some examples of people on the street, including Kanye West, wearing vintage Levis.

I have some very cool old holey sweatshirts that I will post about next time.

Fun with mold and dye

Lagunatics needed some mold props for their show which opens this weekend.  The show was going to take place last October, but black mold was discovered in the theater, so they had to postpone while cleanup was done.  So of course they are doing a song about it, Blackmold, to the tune of Blackbird, by the Beatles.

Here's the mold:

I also made another pair of goat pants, and blinged a bunch of ruby slippers for the goats, who sing and dance to the tune of "If I Only Had a Heart" ("If I Only Didn't Fart").

Lastly, I am dying some vintage flannel shirts for Twig.  This one will have an ombre effect.  It's interesting how green separates into purple as the dye creeps up the shirt.

End of the year wrap-up 2013

This is the end of our second year!  David and I have learned a lot from the retail business during this time, as well as life, art, people, the economy, and business in general.  The best part has been meeting a lot of interesting people--many of whom come into the store from nearby and faraway places, and many of whom we meet at trade shows, antique stores, flea markets, showrooms etc.  I especially have loved meeting the really creative people who I didn't know existed until we started this thing.  There are thousands of people in the area collecting crazy old stuff, and sometimes making something new out of it, as well as people who make jewelry, candles, signs, t-shirts, decoupage, paper things, silk screening, letterpress, ceramics, oragami and more.  I absolutely love this part.  There are so many people that I have met that inspire me.  I was going to list them, but it's impossible.

There have been a couple of things that David and I made earlier this year that I want to add to this blog, too.  We have been helping to make costumes and props for No Square Theater for several years.  This is a skirt that Hannah, our piano teacher's daughter wore for "Lucky Stiff."  It's a roulette wheel skirt that she wore for a casino number.

In the same number a cast member dressed like the painting of Mona Lisa.  We cut out holes for her face and hands.

Then there were the things we made for "Lagunatics" which was scheduled to take place in October, but had to be postponed due to mold found in the theater.  It has been re-scheduled for January.  There is one number where the performers sing about the San Onofre power plant, which was taken offline years ago, but still can be seen when driving down PCH.  We made the replicas out of chicken wire and paper mache.

And then the actors wear these on their heads.

Lastly we made these head pieces that get worn again and again in various numbers about traffic, parking, etc that always seems to be a topic in Lagunatics.  The hole is for the character's face.

Vintage flatware

I am getting more and more obsessed with vintage silver plated flatware.  My friend Martha has be teaching me what to look for, where to find it, how to clean it, etc.  She also recently bought me several hundred pieces that I will sell at Twig.

Here is as sample.  And these are just the serving forks!

80's dresses and other inspirations.

The 80's weren't that long ago, right?  Except they were.  Remember big hair and shoulder pads?...yikes.  I have been collecting dresses from flea markets and updating them by throwing away the shoulder pads (far far away), making them shorter, and cutting out the backs in some cases.  Then, I remembered I had the centers from the lace vintage skirts, which I turned into HEARTS, and appliqued to the backs of the 80's dresses.  Turned out pretty cute, and I sold them both in no time.

Recently, Laguna Beach High School did and amazing production of "Hello Dolly."  David and I were called upon to make a FAKE TURKEY for a funny scene in a restaurant.  David got out the chicken wire, and I got out the newspaper, glue, and acrylic paint, and this is what we came up with.

We also made this banner for the parade scene, "Before the Parade Passes By."

Finally, I had this circa 1970's stretchy knit fabric with a fun, colorful print, that I made into this pull on skirt.  I LOVE it.  It's so retro.  You don't see fabric like this anymore.