Hot chocolate

I don't know for sure when I became a winter lover, it's not madness I suspect but nostalgia.

 The lovely old gothic style pile across the road from l'uccello, St Paul's Cathedral is always more beautiful in the rain and the fading light at the end of the day. Summertime may be more buoyant and fun, but it is not nearly so romantic as misty rainy winter, maybe it is madness after all.

l'uccello is filling the halls of The Nicholas Building with the scent of lavender, rose, cloves and secret spices, we are in the middle of a big production run of our Scented Pillows for Linen and our new Seed Packet linen sachets. We have been making mountains of lovely Heat Pillows with Lavender too, this year we have used lots of French General and William Morris fabrics. This batch are about to be shipped off to Kleins Perfumery over in Brunswick Street Fitzroy, so pop in if the city is too far, they are just the thing to warm up chilly toes.

I thought you may all be feeling a bit cold and out of sorts with all this rain and early cold snap, so here is a little hot chocolate to cheer you up.  

Deluxe vintage rayon millinery satin, it is so lustrous it almost looks like melted dark chocolate.

Delicious antique Bakelite and celluloid buttons and buckles, very special pieces waiting for the perfect coat or jacket to come along.

More lovely vintage buttons and buckles, made from casein, wood and plastic.

We have a large range of beautifully crafted vintage French horn and vegetable ivory buttons

Gorgeous civil war reproduction fabrics and lovely Kokka cotton/linen blends, perfect for a new cosy quilt.

More gorgeous colours from Valdani

A small selection from our collection of antique French silk and rayon ribbons, many of them date back to the beginning of the 20th century, the colours of these beautiful old girls are just superb.

Seriously hot chocolate! This great new book featuring iconic menswear pieces was supposed to be for the boys, but it seems to be very popular with the ladies too.

Finally we haven't had any words of wisdom from our Fortune telling dolls house in quite a while so we gave it a spin......

Have a fabulous week and stay toasty! x

Time to get cosy

How cold was it this week?! All of a sudden winter is here with chilly winds and down pours of rain, I must be mad because I quite like it. I love wearing my favourite coat, cooking big pots of soup and listening to the wind and rain when I'm cosy and tucked up in bed.

 l'uccello has been busy this last couple of weeks, we are still sorting things from the move of our production area upstairs. We have been unpacking exciting new deliveries of vintage trims, buttons and more millinery. And we are finally getting a big lot of fur felt hoods and capelines priced and out on display, we have also received a new delivery of milliners grosgrain fabric and stitched velvets. Other new deliveries included Valdani thread in beautiful new colours and a new range of their silk hand dyed threads, stunning! Unfortunately we are still waiting on the colour range muddy Monet, hopefully for those customers waiting for their arrival it will turn up soon.

So when the weather turns nasty the best thing to do is stay inside and get crafty, here are a few lovely things to get you inspired. 

Gorgeous big buttons perfect for coats and cosy knits

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We had lots to choose from.

We have very limited stock of this gorgeous vintage boucle wool in vintage coral pink

We now have Clover's fabulous bamboo knitting needles, soft touch crochet hooks and tatting shuttles. We also have a great range of vintage knitting needles and crochet hooks.

Another great book of patterns from the Made in France series, the cutest booties ever.

My new favourite book at the moment, the quilts in this book are stunning!, The fabrics in the background are from the new French General range Pom Pom De Paris.

We have some lovely vintage supplies for a little fancy work at the moment, in cotton, silk and linen.

We have lots of new supplies too, this lovely spread features Valdani 3 strand balls of hand dyed cotton and tubes of hand dyed silk. Sajou scissors, pretty thread winder cards, gorgeous reproduction needle cards with superb needles made in France and finest quality linen thread also made in France.

And of course a wide range of felts, including hand dyed wovens and European pure wool felt by the sheet (over 60 colours!), felt rope and a smaller range of colours by the metre.

So it is definitely time to get cosy and crafty, have a great week! x