Late night shopping - the handmade edition

I love handmade, unique things.

I also love telling people where my handmade things come from. Mostly, because my experience with a lot of people selling their own creations is unbelievably positive and I want to pass that on to other people. But it’s also because I form a bit of a bond and attachment with the sellers, and want to make sure I'm spreading the word about how awesome they are.

So today’s late night shopping is about all things handmade, and will show off some of my favourite ladies!

Clothes:

Last year, I wanted something special for my Miss Cooly day wear, and I went straight to Pigtails and Pirates. Laura was the best, rushed her shipping time, chatted to me about my choices and made a ridiculously gorgeous Avengers dress for me. Laura seems to be going from strength-to-strength in the last year, and has some of the most wonderful pinups in the world wearing her gorgeous, unique creations. I'm adding my two cents and saying that you should definitely check her site out!

It’s no secret that my most favourite seamstress is Seams Nostalgic. I’ve written about her work with vintage, nerdy skirts that are the most well-made creations I’ve ever owned before, and I’ll likely write about them again. But my most recent acquisition is the fluffiest, softest, most comfortable petticoat I have ever had. It has 0 prickle-factor and holds its shape, unlike lots of other brands I’ve purchased in the past. I’m seriously considering switching all my existing pettis out for ones made by Abi!

I’ve also become a bit more fashion-flexible lately, and love the 60s style clothing that Closet Mod is creating. Jordan is an awesome designer, constantly coming up with new, drool worthy dresses! I just can’t wait for it to be a bit colder here so I can rock my new skirt!

Accessories
Honey Cub
I love Honey Cub hair wraps (and bows too, for that matter)! I’ve posted about these before, but seriously, the prints just keep getting better and better, and I love the fact that the wire insert makes the wraps stay on my head, no matter what style I want to wear them in. They're great at hiding dirty hair days, or adding some interest on days where my hair is too clean and won't hold any sort of style!

I'm pretty excited that Honey Cub will be selling at Cooly Rocks On this year! Make sure you look for their stand and pick up some of my favourite wraps.

Miss Maestro Designs
Miss Maestro is the lady to go to when you want something a bit different. She’s my first port of call for pageant items too because she'll talk over everything you’re looking for to make sure you’re both on the same page, but also puts an amazing, unique spin on everything. My recent Ariel starfish is a good example of this. I asked for a starfish with "shinies." After a bit of back and forth, this is what was sent to me and I LOVE it (and it got lots of compliments at Gold Coast Supanova).

Miz Smitten Kitten
Miz Von of Miz Smitten Kitten is one of the kindest, nicest people in the vintage scene and she also sells some truly lovely things. It’s hard to pinpoint my favourite things from her; I’ve got earrings and brooches, cardigan clips and necklaces, wallets and glasses, custom hair flowers… even kewpie dolls! But I do think that her do-rags are some of my favourites because they’re the large size, perfect for covering pin curls if I need to go out while my hair is being set. I wore my Wonder Woman one practically all weekend last week at Supanova! I also love that I can send Miz Von a picture of a dress and say 'please make me something to go with this,' and she whips up something perfect every time!

Daisy Jean Floral 
I've only got one piece from Daisy Jean Floral so far, but given the quality, the speed at which it was delivered and the buying experience, I know it won't be my last. I love following the Daisy Jean Instagram, and you should too!

Who are your favourite handmade sellers? I always want to find more, so make sure you let me know by leaving a comment below!

My wardrobe loves: Hair wraps

Hair wraps, hair scarves, do-rags – whatever you call ‘em, I can’t get enough of them. I told myself about a year ago that I didn't need any more, but I keep pulling outfits together and scrambling through my drawer, cursing myself for not having the foresight to match every top, skirt, dress, shoes, belt or bag in my wardrobe.

Wraps are wonderful because they cover up hair mistakes, add instant vintage flair to hairstyles even when you've done nothing to it and, probably best of all, they cover your hair when it's getting too far on the dirty side to do anything with.

To tell you the truth, I have a sewing machine and could be whipping these babies up myself, but there are a couple of reasons why I don’t, namely, that I keep being introduced to amazing amazing ladies who are making a steady stream of awesome wraps so consistently, that I’ve never had the need to seek out a pattern and make my own. As a girl who runs two teeny out of home businesses, I am big into loving on and sharing small Aussie businesses too, so here are three of my most favourite places to buy hair wraps (and other things) from.

Chickabilly
For me, the majority of my scarves have been purchased as a part of Chickabilly’s famous headscarf battles. Neety makes a range of scarves in pinup/rockabilly prints. I love them because they’re reversible, so you get double the bang for your buck. Neety is one of the craftiest people around and also makes incredible hair flowers, and bags. She also makes amazing smelling perfume oils and has just started producing some gorgeous confetti Lucite earrings (I am in love with the flamingos).

Chickabilly is closing later this year, so if I were you, I’d get in and buy all her scarves before they’re gone!

Miz Smitten Kitten
I met Von, the lovely lady behind Miz Smitten Kitten, through Miss Cooly Rocks On and let me tell you, she is one fabulous, generous person. She took one look at my Avengers dress and said she’d picked up some Wonder Woman fabric that she thought I’d love, I got super excited, and a couple of weeks later, Wonder Woman was in my possession. Von’s scarves are also reversible, and she does them in complementary colours so that little bit of the other side that pops up when you tie them ties in with the other side. Mine is a do-rag — a lot thicker than the standard scarf. This is awesome because I can either use it to dress up my hair when I've set it before going out, or I can use it to hid my (often) unbrushed/unstyled hair.

Miz Von is also a very crafty creature and makes the most incredible hair flowers you’ve ever seen, hair bows, wallets, jewellery and heaps of other amazing stuff.


HoneyCub
I found HoneyCub through Pigtails and Pirates. We got to talking over Instagram and then I found myself pining after basically every scarf that Manda makes. Again, these are made reversible with complementary colours and Amanda will discuss matching fabrics with you for custom orders, or provide ones that she’s already made. As well as wraps, she makes clips, bows and hair ties with button covered bobbles (I love these).

Honey Cub’s wraps come with a wire insert which means they wrap easily around your head and stay in place without slipping, or without the need for clips. I'll admit, I've walked away from scarves with the wire insert before and wasn’t sure about these wraps before they arrived, but I do know that I seem to have very slippery hair (clean or dirty) and the wire actually worked amazingly for me. Usually, I retie my scarf every time I'm in the bathroom, but I took these pictures at the very end of the day and the wrap had not budged an inch. Consider me converted, big time.

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All of these ladies are exceptional when it comes to customer service; they’re friendly, reliable, excellent crafts people who I will continue to support for a long time and would totally encourage you to check them out as well.