Miniature Handbag Earrings

Silk mini handbag earrings silver, a photo by b-a-boop on Flickr.

Dangle earrings in the shape of miniature purses, perfect for holiday or New Year’s Eve parties. In beautiful midnight blue silk or ultra-suede, each handbag is hand sewn and the chain handles are made from upcycled jewelry. Each pair is uniquely embellished with different kinds of beads. Some have silver findings, some gold. I hope to get more varieties made in the near future. Also great for gift giving.

New Flower Bobby Pin

A new flower bobby pin just listed at the Reformatory. I tried a little something different with this one. I put the flower at the open end of the bobby pin. That way if you are pulling back bangs or the front section of your hair, the flower is at the far end of the bobby pin. I like the way it looks, will be making more this way. This ones also eco friendly, all fabric is upcycled.

Treasure Our Veterans

A Veterans Day Treasury

Tribal Earrings

While working on ideas for the hoop earrings a few posts below, I started stringing together various beads from my collection. There was one set which I was quite happy with; in which I used some turquoise beads, red glass beads and various upcycled bali beads and bead caps. I had to put them to good use. I grabbed some silver hoop findings and hung them from the bottom of the hoops. I then had to string together one more dangle for the center of the hoop. So in no time flat, a birthday project also resulted in a new item for my ReFORMAtory Etsy Shop.

Pink Rose Hair Clip

In a previous post, my niece made her first sewing project, a tote bag. We decorated it with fabric flowers. At the time, I gathered a strip of the pink fabric to make a flower, but we ended up choosing an alternate flower method for her tote. That ruffled flower has been begging me ever since to do something with it. Since this is breast cancer awareness month and pink is everywhere, I finally got to making it into a hair clip, I added both white & pink tulle and a pearly button & attached it to a spring clip. Great for weddings, anniversaries, parties, etc.

Dreamcatcher Necklace

My niece commisioned me to make a necklace for her to give as a gift to one of her best friends. She came over to look through my collection of materials. She said her friend liked African and Tribal looking jewelry. She chose a few different beads for us to work with & then made some mention of feathers. I remebered I had recently recieved some dream catchers in the mail from some charity I'd never heard of. I went & found them & she decided she like them too. Here is the resulting necklace. Her friend loves it.

Etsy Listing Titles, Etsy’s new search settings, spelling & SEO

If you don’t subscribe to Etsy newsletters and are not aware, this week they changed the default setting for searches to finding ‘relevant products’ first. This means that items with your search terms will appear at the top, not necessarily in the order of most recently listed. I have also been trying to revise my listing titles and tags to optimize for searches. Yesterday, I was revising a set of pillows I have relisted numerous times. The pillows are fuschia in color. I changed the listing title and then did a search on “throw pillows fuschia”. To my surprise it didn’t find my pillows at all. After numerous tries at revising and searching on a few different terms, I discovered that my title had the spelling for fuschia as “fuchsia” because that is the correction that Microsoft word gave me & is the actual spelling of the color & flower (named after a man named Fuchs). On my search, I had spelled it the way I assumed it was spelled, which also seems to be the way the rest of the world prefers to spell it “fuschia”. After revising my listing for the pillows with the incorrect spelling, I finally found them on the search along with everyone else’s fushia pillows. I hope this helps them get more views now.

I guess the moral of the story is - it’s a good idea to find out alternate spellings on your titles. I wonder, if Etsy had a spell check in the search would everyone else’s pillows get lost.

Industrial Chic Necklace

I relisted my necklace made from a recycled auto part at my Etsy shop.

The curved piece in the middle is called a c-clip & I think it’s used mainly on the brakes, but you can find variations of these parts for other uses. I added some dangles made from agate stones and shells and put on some old vintage buttons with beaded centers, a gunmetal chain makes the length adjustable. My husband thinks it looks African.

Blue on Blue Ponytail Holder

Bright blue rosette fabric flower made of recycled t-shirt fabric. See it on Etsy.

Finally Sold

This was one of the first purses I made for my Etsy shop. After relisting so many times over the past 2 years, it finally found a buyer. I think it was mostly due to the fact that my pictures never did it justice. The white-on-white brocade made it difficult to photograph and even in this photo the color of the lining is way off.

It was made from a vintage 1930's McCalls pattern that was my mothers. I hope the buyer is please when she sees it. Thanks so much for your order.

New Summer Bloom Bobby Pin just listed on Etsy

I just listed this lovely summer fabric flower bobby pin on Etsy. It’s made from a vintage 70’s floral print shear voile fabric and a vintage orange button. Brighten your summer wardrobe with this sweet hair accessory.

Working on Display Ideas

I’m working on some ideas for my display at the Odd Duck Craft Fair. Excuse the lousy photo quality, my dining room has very poor lighting. And of course excuse the clutter in the background. Hope to see you on Saturday.

Upcycled Tommy Hilfiger Laptop Case

I finally got around to making another recycled shirt & tie laptop case. I’d had the shirt & ties hanging around for a while, but I let other projects get in ahead of it. The wonderful Tommy Hilfiger shirt & 2 neckties were found in thrift stores. I also lined the bag with an upcycled sweatshirt. I was happy to find an Oleg Cassini button in my collection that matched perfectly for buttoning it  closed. If it doesn’t get snatched up at the Odd Duck Bazaar this Saturday, then it will get listed on Etsy next week.

New Hair Bobbies

New Hair Bobbies a photo by b-a-boop on Flickr.

I’ve been working up a few new items for my upcoming craft show. Made some new bobby pins from some small vintage quilting squares and some buttons and some beads. I just love using up some of my old old fabrics, but the pile never seems to get smaller.
Yellow and blue now on Etsy

Visit The ReFORMatory in person

Don’t forget, this Saturday Dec. 4^th,  2010 the ReFORMatory will be setting up shop at the Pink Ghost Mini Market, 1888 Polk Street, Hollywood, Fl - 1 to 5 PM.

Check out some new hair accessories, fun new ball chain necklaces, pillows, handbags, totebags, and other handmade goodies.

Take I-95 to Hollywood Blvd. Head east into the downtown. Just before Young Circle turn left on 19th Ave. Go almost 2 blocks, at the end of the 2nd block, on the right is the entrance to a parking garage (the first 2 hours are free). Walk out of the garage and go left around the corner on Polk Street. The Pink Ghost is a few doors down.

Upcoming Event

On Saturday Dec. 4, 2010 the ReFORMatory will be setting up shop at the Pink Ghost Mini Market, 1888 Polk Street, Hollywood, Fl - Noon to 5 PM. Come shop for pillows, handbags, jewelry, accessories and other handmade recycled / upcycled crafts.

Gorgeous Fall Colors Wristlet Purse

I’ve created a new, OOAK wristlet from sample swatches of designer upholstery fabric. On the bottom, a gorgeous textured striped fabric in lovely fall colors. It is topped with a warm ruby colored worsted wool band & handle. I also added a lovely handmade fabric flower with a vintage button center, made from the wool and another small upholstery sample remnant. I used up almost every inch of my small sample fabrics.  Available now on Etsy & Artfire.

The Coral Rose Handbag

I made this elegant purse without a pattern. I used the coral color fabric sample just the size it was. I sewed up the sides and created a corner on each side to form the bottom. I thought it would look nice with a front pocket, so I looked thru my scraps & found the lovely floral fabric (left over from a round cushion I made). I cut out the pockets and flap and sewed them on. Then I realized I might have just enough scrap left to add a zipper closure across the top. My mother had recently given me a beaded necklace. I restrung one of its strands onto wire for the handle. Look for it in my Etsy shop.