Open Sesame

You may remember our post just before Christmas regarding this delightful door, and that in order to meet council regulations we must keep it shut for the time being. Despite it's awful appearance, and the fact that it makes us look closed, despite it being quite heavy and that it closes with a bang, usually frightening the uninitiated, most of our lovely customers have made it in anyway. But we have certainly being missing a few people who have thought we are closed or that it looks a bit intimidating, which is a shame because the shop is looking lovelier than ever. Some days this makes me very frustrated and a little cranky, so I decided this week I had to do something to make the door look a little more lovely.

So I patchworked it, what do you think?? I am quite pleased with my handy work, it certainly looks a little less institutional, I'll have to try and redo the signage tomorrow.

 One of our lovely customers was interested in a green ribbon that we have sold out of, and I decide to take a few pictures of our range of green ribbons for her. As usual I got a bit carried away and ended up with pictures of all things green.

Lovely dark forest greens, all of these ribbons are French silk and are about 100 years old. They include from the top left a satin picot, moire, satin boarded mousseline, satin faille wide and similar satin in the centre. The old satins are not highly shiny, rather they have a wonderful deep delustred sheen.

This picture features more Victorian silk and also some younger silk and cotton grosgrains. Starting top left is a spectacular silk moire, extra wide and a beautiful soft green, next are mint and olive green grosgrains, next is a luscious green very fine grosgrain or possibly a faille and finally a lovely deep emerald green satin with undertones of brown created by different coloured warp and weft fibres.

These ribbons are generally rayon and date from the 1930s through to the 1950s approximately.

These ribbons are also dated 1930s -1950s and are also mostly rayon. The bottom ribbon has different coloured warp and weft, one is white and the other is green. The centre ribbon is a magnificent moire with a woven check boarder. The top ribbon is a luxurious heavy delustred satin. it has wonderful body and is one of the heaviest weight ribbons that we have seen.  

Just for good measure, we have Valdani hand dyed 3 ply thread, in beautiful shades of green, solid colours and variegated.

Lovely piles of vintage stamens,

Gorgeous French and English vintage buttons,

Pretty pure cotton fabrics for various sewing projects

Millinery braids, Swiss straw and Italian trimming's.

Lots of shades of green in pure wool felt.

                                         And beautiful muted shades in hand dyed, woven felts.

So don't forget to check our hours before visiting the store, and don't be put off by the beast of a door. Thank you for your patience and have a splendid weekend x