two crafty dames : deeply fabulous vintage-inspired handmade fashion

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We have added lots of lovely winter inspired brooches to our Big Cartel store. If you haven’t already, be sure to check them out here

Hello lovely readers, it’s been a while hasn’t it! Well I can assure you that the Dames have not been idle since our last post. VTEC Kalgoorlie have asked us to host a 6 week sewing workshop as part of their new exciting Artlife initiative,  so we have been busily sourcing our materials and preparing our patterns. Naturally vintage-inspired accessories are our theme for the workshop and the fabulous projects our students will be making include a domestic goddess gathered half-apron (with matching pot holder of course!), an eco friendly foldable shopping tote, beautiful buttons and embellishments, hand stitched fabric flowers,  and a fabulous floral headband and brooch. We are rather excited, and a little bit nervous too! It’s the first workshop the Dames have hosted so wish us luck!!

If you are interested in coming along to the workshops it’s not too late, it starts this Saturday so get in quick! Check out the artlife website for more details http://artlifevtec.com/courses/sewing/

I have always had a big soft spot for felt, however it wasn’t until I discovered 100% merino wool felt sometime last year that my love for the stuff really blossomed. I had only ever known the fuzzy acrylic stuff that all the local craft shops seem to stock here. It was with great joy that I found that the internet had a whole rainbow of lovely thick, smooth, wool felt available for my perusal and purchase. I find that I tend to work with felt in the colder months (and this year is no exception), it’s perfect for creating those winter accessories; felt flower brooches, headband embellishments, cloche hats and house slippers … oh my the possibilities are endless! Here are a few of the felt inspired goodies I have been making over the past few weeks:

Felt Urchin Nesting Bowls. Made with 3mm designer felt. You can buy the pattern here

Felt Feather Headbands using 100% Merino Wool Felt

Back: Felt Feather Headband. Front: Nanna Doily Brooch made with wool felt, a hand dyed doily, yarn and self covered button.

More Nanna Doily Brooches

Us dames are quite partial to a wee bit of afternoon tea, so naturally we were delighted to be invited to a rather scrumptious High Tea over the Easter Weekend. There were baked treats a plenty, plates and plates of delicious dainty finger sandwhiches and cup after cup of lovely piping hot tea. Suffice to say, we were rather happily stuffed by the end of it and treated ourselves further to a well earned nap once we had rolled on home. What better way to spend Easter Sunday? I’ll let the pictures do the talking…

Left: Darling little easter themed mini carrot cupcakes. Right: The cutest tea cosy you ever did see (you can buy one just like it here).

Lolly coloured macarons made by Miss Paula. Flavours included Vanilla and Rose, Lime and Jasmine Tea, Passionfruit and Milk Chocolate and White Chocolate and Cranberry.

Left: Tasty little Lime Meringue Pie morsels. Right: Strawberry and Cream Sponge Friands… these were to die for!

These retro little beauties are known as Sponge Lillies.

Phew! What a crazy few weeks it’s been! Whilst the Dames have been pretty quiet on the bloggy front, in the real world we have as busy as two long tailed cats in a room full of rocking chairs. A new exciting business venture has been on the cards for us for some time now and over the past couple of months preparation and planning to bring our little venture to fruition have consumed most of our spare time. Sooo…. Can you guys keep a secret??? Can you really??? Ok then, Guess what? The Two Crafty Dames are going to be opening up a shop! Woooooo! A real life shop with a cash register and customers and everything! We can’t divulge too much information right now but what we can tell you is that the shop is going to be called Fossick Handmade (cute huh!) and it’s going to be jam packed full of lovely handmade art and craft from designers around Australia. Joining us on this exciting new venture is the lovely Tina Bryce, who you might remember from an earlier post, was the powerhouse behind the art2go pop up shop held in September last year. More to be revealed later!

Last weekend the Dames, along with Tina and her two delightful girls, packed up our little crafty bags and trundled off to Esperance to join in the Festival of the Wind celebrations. The Sunday markets were a great opportunity to sell our wares under the Fossick Handmade banner and although the morning started of rather dreary, by the end of the day the sun was shining, the customers were ooing over our lovely goodies and kittens were being passed around for cuddles. As well as our own designs, we tempted customers with designs from Rebecca Roth, the Strutt Sisters, Liana Kabel, Chunky Timbers, Kitty Came Home and Only Midge.

A sumptuous selection of the handmade goodies that were on offer. Button Necklaces by 76 Tilly Lane. Prints by delightful dame Paula.

Vendor’s view. Lovely customers full of lovely compliments!

Aprons, aprons, aprons! Made by delicious dame Carly.



Front: Beautiful resin jewellery by Rebecca Roth. Back: Funky necklaces from the Strutt Sisters.

Jewellery by Mallee Girl Tina Bryce. How gorgeous is the Fossick Logo!

Goodies Galore! Back: Big Button Badges by Paula Fletcher and Knitted Nanna Brooches by Kitty Came Home. Front: Knitted Bags by Mallee Girl Designs and funky jewellery by Liana Kabel.

Ziggy the leafy sea dragon thought our stall was tops!

Roses are red, Violets are blue
Dirndl skirts rock
And lovehearts do to!

Ok… so poetry isn’t exactly my forte, I think I’ll stick to sewing! As you are probably well aware, a certain lovey dovey day is just around the corner. For this weeks post I have taken inspiration from the classic valentines day poem and posted pictures of my recent creations themed in red and blue. Personally I’m not one to go out and buy lavish gifts for Valentine’s Day. A little handmade gift and a homecooked meal is a winner in my book! If you are a bit stuck on what to give your sweety for Valentine’s Day, why not bake them something delicious such as a batch of Paula’s Chunky Divine Chocoloate Chip Cookies (they are to die for!). You can download the recipe here

My first dirndl skirt in a vintage inspired romantic rose print

Sweetheart Brooch made from gorgeous 100% Merino Wool Felt (I LOVE this felt!)

Supercute heart cabochon earrings. Even our earring cards are red and blue!

Hello dear blog readers and a Happy New Year to You!! 2011 is already shaping up to be a very busy year for the Dames!

Unbelievably, this little Dame has been engaged for almost a year now! My how time flies! Seeing as I have been procrastinating for so long I have decided that my New Years resolution, other than the obligatory diet and exercise, is to start ‘seriously’ planning the big  ‘W’.  Whilst a date is yet to be set and a venue hasn’t really been discussed I am, however, very excited to announce that I have found THE DRESS, which of course is the most important thing of all right? I love my dress so much that I just had to share it with all you lovely people. Fortunately for me my sweety doesn’t read the blog so his groomly peepers won’t be seeing the dress before the ‘big day’. I purchased my dress from Timeless Vixen Vintage, a gorgeous Etsy store full to the brim with exquisite vintage delights.  Do you Carly, take this dress to be your fabulous bridal frock, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, honour, and cherish, ’til death do you part? “I DO!”

Vintage 1950′s cocktail gown. Isn’t it fabulous?

Gorgeous scalloped sweetheart neckline with even more gorgeous sage green embroidery.

Lovely from every angle!

Y’all might have noticed that the dames have been a little absent over the past couple of weeks. With organising a Frocktober Fundraiser, travelling to Perth to see the gorgeous Sarah Blasko in concert and doting on the new addition to the Dame’s family (more on that later) we have been very busy little bumblebees indeed! You might remember back in October we mentioned attending a delightful afternoon tea with the lovely Trish Little, where she bestowed upon the delighted dames a treasure trove of gorgeous vintage garments. WELL we have finally gotten around to photographing these fabulous frocks and have posted a selection of our favourites for you to feast your eyes upon. As most of the dresses are too tiny to wrap around our ample curves it is likely they will be lovingly re-purposed into something else (that is if we can bring ourselves to chop them up!).

This pink lace and satin beauty screams 80′s prom don’t ya think?

How gorgeous is the lace detail and pleating on the back of this apricot 70′s frock! *swoon*

Another 80′s party delight. The ruffled collar is rather sweet.

More pretty frocks, what a treat!

Until the 31st of October Hoola Hoop are getting right into the Frocktober spirit by offering very hard-to-resist specials on some of their beautiful frocks. A generous portion of sales from selected ‘Frocktober’  dresses will be donated to Ovarian Cancer Research, and 5% of sales from all full priced dresses will also be donated if you mention it’s for Frocktober.  So go ahead my lovelies and buy a super cute new dress guilt free, afterall it’s for a very good cause!

Left: The Diner Dress. Right: Fifi Gizmo Dress

Left: Gina Dress. Right: Fifi Ziggy Dress

The Dames looking super proud of our very first market stall

The Dames had a lovely time at the Goldfields Spring Festival, the weather was mostly glorious and it was fabulous to finally have our handmade delights on sale at our very first market stall. Hoorah! We had lots of lovely goodies for purchase including gorgeous aprons, cute fabric button jewellery, adorable tea cup cacti, tasty fruit butters, beautiful silk roses, funky felt flower pins and fabulous art prints…. just to name a few! If you missed us at the festival fear not, you will be able to purchase our handcrafted items online very, very soon so watch this space!

Left: Festival goers were enticed over to our stall with free tastings of our delicious fruit butters and preserves. Right: Ladybird Jewellery by Julia Sutton, raising funds for the Kids Cancer Support Group. Lots of real lady birds visited our stall throughout the day, how befitting!

A selection of our handmade goodies

Beautiful silk rose pins by Studio Olive our Spring Festival honorary dame.