In preparation for the festival season we always try to stock up on one of our staples, the upcycled acid smiler. We use 100% cotton salvage sweatshirts or high quality wool jumpers. Each circle, eyes and mouth are then hand cut from leftover jumpers and fabrics and machine stitched in place. No print here! Each one is hence a complete one off.
Equally loved by old rave dads as well as young and hip millennials like Satya here. You can have your very own made by sending us your jumper that you want embellished or get in touch to see what we currently have in stock.
Compare to last years nine, we kept the numbers lower this year. Four festivals in four months and the 2014 season is well and truly over for us! With the time now needed to run Shaboutique, we wanted to focus on a few key festivals instead.
SGP sunshine crew!
Pretty chuffed to be accepted to trade at the big and mighty Glastonbury considering how hard it is to get in. In a typical Glastonbury fashion, we had four seasons in one day, and then a lot of rain. Kept us on our toes all the time dragging the rails in and out. It was a good experience and we know what to bring/focus on for next year.
In July we did Secret Garden Party for the third year running. Oh we love it there! Even more so this year as it was an absolute scorcher! We had everyone in nipple tassels all day long. The secret sunflower field that you had to access through a porta-loo was an all time festival high for me. Genius idea SGP!
Sunflower field at Secret Garden Festival
The infamous Glastonbury mud
This year we also themed up with Crystal Vintage and the amazing Gloria Top-Up Shop to do Shambala Festival. I think we can both decided that it takes the number 1 spot in the festival charts. (Sorry SGP) It has everything you can ask from a festival. Not too big nor too small, groovy bands you have never heard of before, creative workshops, silly antics and pretty much everyone in fancy dress. Friday is cross dressing day aka Fruity Friday. Boys in dresses? Ah yeah!
Another newbie for this year was Festival Number 6. I have been wanting to go since day one as the DJ line-up is always great. I had never been to Wales either, so it became a lovely little road trip too. They say it always rain in Wales, well not this time. We had sunshine for the whole weekend. It’s pretty unique as festivals goes as its centered around the little “toy town” village Portmeirion. The view over the estuary and the woodlands with its six unique “pop-up raves” are probably the best bit. A perfect festival to end the season with we say.
These are very exciting news. We are getting a shop! We have teamed up with Shabitat to open up a boutique where Brighton based artists and makers can display and sell their upcycled products and wares. It will be within the newly developed Brighton Open Market situated between the Level and London rd. We got the keys on the 1st of July so less festivals and more DIY this month! Grand opening on the 19th of July.
Summer is here which also means festival season is here! So we have been busy making our best sellers; one off a kind sustainable kimonos ! We reuse vintage saris, cotton sarongs, silk scarfs and all sorts of other high quality that fabrics that come our way. We don’t buy new which obviously puts a strain on natural resources. The trims we source from end of roll haberdashery sales and from our travels.
Here we have the gorgeous eco warrior-poet-actress Amy Brangwyn modelling our first batch.
Available at our festival stall this summer. See our Facebook Page for dates.
Ysanne and Peter had these old armchairs that were left from Ysanne’s grandad. The armchairs were comfortable and structurally fine so they just wanted to give them a second life buy having the patchwork magic done to them. Peter had already painted the wooden parts in a nice mat white.
Ysanne showed me some photos of her patio and we also talked about the color-scheme she had in mind. They dropped them off to me in Brighton so it was left to me to sort out the rest. I mainly used off-cuts I had from other upholstery projects and vintage curtains I sourced form Shabitat.
Pretty pleased with the outcome I have to say. And so were Ysanne and Peter.
Do you have a family heirloom piece that needs a second life? Get in touch!