festival Archives - Leftover Threads

Festivals Are Back In Full Swing 2022

Oct 10, 2022 | Festivals

After the covid years, being back in the fields for a full season felt good. It was obvious that people had really missed the festivals and were beaming with joy. The summer sun was on our side too, we got lucky and didn’t get rained on very much at all. Just to settle the dust!

We started the season with a new kid on the block. Kite Festival. You may assume like the name suggests that it’s a kite festival, confusing yes, but it’s not. It calls itself a festival of music and ideas and its set in the beautiful countryside of Oxfordshire that happens to have a lot of kites. The bird variety that is.. For a new comer we feel it did well and has potential to be something different. Grace Jones was headlining and as per usual she didn’t disappoint.

Next up was Glastonbury. The combination of the forced two year break and delayed 50th celebration made it extra special. Even the weather was well behaved. A truly magical weekend. One of the highlights was having Rajasthan Heritage Brassband flashmob our stall.

Straight after we had our local Love Supreme Festival. Conveniently only a 20 minute drive from home, we had a couple of days to restock and and shower then hit the fields again. With its jazzy groovy vibes its a much more chilled and compact festival compared to Glastonbury. Erykah Badu were amongst the headliners.

After a five-year hiatus, the Secret Garden Party returned to its usual magical spot in Cambridgeshire. It was as raucous and silly as it used to be with a few issues that will hopefully be ironed out for next year. SGP is never about the line-up, its more about discovering smaller acts and walkabouts. We got sited next to Small World Stage, one of our favourites.

First weekend of August is Wilderness As sites goes its our favourite. But this years line-up was weak. And with all festivals back and running, they had barely sold half of their tickets. So from a trading point it was below average. On the plus side there was never a queue to get down to “the valley”.

After a nice couple of weeks back in Brighton and one of our favourite little daytime events Brunswick Festival, we headed all the way to Lincolnshire. A new one for us this year, Lost Village Festival. Set in a beautiful woodland, it’s a dance music festival with a young crowd. Line-up is a great mixtures to explore. Our ring-pull clothing samples we have been working on with Purple Community Fund went down a storm. We are hoping to launch these as collection next spring.

To finish the season is our usual End Of The Road Festival Indie band heavy and family orientated its a chilled one to finish the season. Just how we like it.

Baroque Matador Jackets

Feb 28, 2019 | Jackets & Kimonos

I do love a good collaboration. These jackets were a joint effort with the super talented upcycling label Red Mutha. These guys have been doing it since the 90’s. They used have a shop in Brighton but now they focus on festivals and online sales instead.

The jacket pattern were designed, cut and sewn by the talented Red. She used old curtains and sweatshirts in washed out cream and gold. I can really appreciate how much work went into these. The mutton sleeves, the lining…

Cream Gold Teal Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket

Cream Gold Teal Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket Sequin Leopard

I continued the process by adding the embellishments to them. More is more after all! Plus a statement jacket is not complete without a leopard on the back, or maybe an owl or doily in some cases. Here is the outcome. Only 6 jackets in this collection and all of them completely unique. They will be listed in my Etsy shop.

Cream Gold Teal Pink Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket Gold Embroidery

Cream Gold Teal Pink Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket Sleeve

Cream Gold Navy Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket

Cream Gold Navy Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket Sequin Leopard

Cream Gold Teal Pink Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket

Cream Gold Teal Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket with Floral Lining

Cream Gold Navy Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket with Peter Rabbit

Cream Gold Teal Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket Sequin Owl

Cream Gold Teal Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket with Peter Rabbit

Festival Kimonos

Jun 25, 2018 | Jackets & Kimonos

The kimono. The perfect garment to throw over anything night or day to create a bit of va-va-voom. Well, these aren’t strictly kimonos. They are a much simpler cut that creates no waste fabric.

Here is a selection we made in preparation for the festival season. We use scarves, sarongs, saris, you name it. So all complete one of a kind as usual.

Festival Season 2017

Sep 1, 2017 | Festivals

After last years challenging one I was in two mind about doing another season. But as they say time is a great healer and I hadn’t come up with a grand plan to change career, plus I did think “can it be any worse than last year?” Not possible. So yes, we did pack our bags and van and made it to six(!) different festivals. How did that happen?

Well, I’m glad I did decide to do another season as the weather was (mostly) glorious! Especially Glastonbury. It was so dry people were complaining about the dust! (always something). We also finally got offered a pitch up in the Green Fields instead of down in the main market babylon. Yay! Its like a different festival up there…

Latitude, Wilderness and Shambala were sunny too, but sadly Secret Garden Party did get some rain. It was the last one ever too! It was still lovely and it did clear up.

I also went along with Red Mutha to Bestival that now have moved from Isle of Wright to the mainland. I wanted to check out the new site, but we had one dry day and it rained, and rained… Mud bath! Luckily I only had half of rail of stock to pack and de-mud the other end.

But all in all it was an great season in every aspect. Lots of new friend and happy clients.

Embellished Jackets

Aug 1, 2017 | Jackets & Kimonos

The world is overflowing with textiles! We buy them, wear for a bit, then get rid of them, either by donating to charity shop or putting it in the bin. Most of these clothes still got plenty of life left in them, but fashion changes or we have no space left in our wardrobe so we choose to throw out and make space for new.

Suit jackets are timeless pieces. However they can be a bit plain and boring if you want to wear the outside the office. Here are a few I customised for the festival season.

I bought these amazing trimmings in Mumbai exactly for this purpose. All painstakingly hand stitched with love.