Beth Sprouts Handmade; you can't buy me...oh no wait, you can!

Launching my new shop!

Now you can have your own bit of BethSprouts in your home too. Lucky you.

I will add items as I make them. Who knows what they might be - keeping you on your toes aren't I!

First up are my 'Slug Lady' illustrations, hand painted originals, none of your multiple prints malarky just yet...

Beth Sprouts; Addicted

Found a new shop for you to have a peek at. I haven't actually bought anything from them yet, because the choice is just insane! Thai Handbags Etsy shop

If you haven't already found out about the joys of Etsy - it has been around since 2005 - then I urge you to browse. It can be a little overwhelming, again from a choice perspective, but it is a great place to start looking for designer/maker wears, illustrations etc. It is essentially an online craft fair, giving you an opportunity to support the small people when you need to get a birthday present for mum, rather than popping into town and giving the guys with the big bucks your well earned dough.

Beth Sprouts Handmade; blast from the past

I just found these photos in an old album, and they are truelly Beth Sprouts. From 2007/08 and were mostly going out on the tiles wear. I do believe all the fabrics are vintage, found in good ol' charity shops. 

Oh to be 21 again.

Beth Sprouts Purchases; Who likes long shorts

So I would love to think our minds are changing in relation to cheap cheap unethical or questionably ethical clothing, but alas alack, I don't. The same with anything like organic or locally sourced etc., a cohort of people choose to think about it and try their best to change but it is a definite minority. It is hard.

The funny thing is that it is so difficult to find things on the high street that make you look a little different now, it changes so fast and everyone catches on to things so quickly, especially with social media. To try and stay 'ahead' you would need to buy a LOT and then of course, it needs to be cheap.

My new little 'ethos' now I am a bit older and have experimented with style already is to;
1. Save up for very nice well made items (that are either wow out there, or very subtle )
2. Make the on-trend, or what I feel is on trend, pieces myself
3. Keep things for longer and thus HAVE to make sure that they are useful and will survive the cut throat world of the wardrobe
4. Still dip into vintage and charity shops
5. Buy from companies that have a bit more about them

So this year I wanted a pair of  board shorts, hip and cool, we will all be in them by 2016...or maybe 2015.
I picked up a leaflet on a market stall in Bristol for Continent Clothing, they work directly with the tailors so that they take a good income from the garments and the prices are still really really inexpensive - how could you choose Primani over that!
 
 Purple hands shorts £20, made by Allagi - thats the name of the guy who physically made them.

OR if you have the big bucks

  Ostwald Helgason 2013 £338

So yep, I chose the purple hands!

Beth Sprouts Home; Hook and Loop

Hello! Back after a bit, a big bit, of a break.

We have just bought our first home, and boy was it dirty, so all of my free time has been spent cleaning nicotine from anywhere and everywhere.

I then went to India...and found SO MUCH fabric. It is much more common to finish the edging of lengths of fabric on one of the selvage sides, because most clothing in India is tailored to fit you so the fabric is pre-finished for hemlines. OR curtains...ahh very suitable for new home.

So I set out to make a few 'nets' for our windows...trouble is, they are UPVC...now how in the world do you put in the holes to hang the nets...

You don't!

Here is my top tip - hook and loop fasteners!

More commonly known as VELCRO, but remember this is just a brand name. But I can say VELCRO because I used that!

So
Step One;

Choose jazzy fabric that will let the light through

Step Two;

Clean UPVC with white spirits or something like that, and apply sticky back HOOK SIDE in correct position on the furthest edge of the frame. The reason you put the hook side here is so if you want to wash your nets they do not get destroyed by the hooks in the washing machine, and they are a pain to sew.

Step Three; 

There should be a photo but it just wasn't working - bascially hem your fabric and sew in the LOOP SIDE  of the velcro to the curtain right in the corner.

Step Four; 

Stick 'em together!

Jobs a guddun'!

Posted on the unposted

Incase I have any avid fans who are crying alone, 'why why is there no new post!' I am making lots and lots for christmas, and I can't post about that just yet, or maybe not at all, so I am hibernating for winter. 

Beth Sprouts; Find me Flamboyancy!

Where are all our eccentrics?

We have entered a global, international, digital age of, well, blandness.

Last thing I can think of which was reasonably creative and expressive was our love for Harajuku kids.

Then we stopped reading books, and starting looking at blogs/social media sites/online retailers, and our individualism has drained away slowly down the plug hole.

It feels as if we cannot separate ourselves and sit in our own heads for a while anymore. We are thoroughly overexposed and overstimulated, and appear to be in constant demand of this. Is there too much choice? Growing up in small town North Wales I was thoroughly underexposed to exciting looks and styles. I reveled in 'The Clothes Show' and magazines. But the choice of mags were limited too, as it was small town Wales. You could develop your own style from snippets of things you have seen, and things you could afford, and generally things you could find.

I wonder if this caused more outlandish eccentric fashions and subcultures to develop. They could brew in their own good time. Now we would all be well aware of these, they may be documented and visible to all and many worldwide.

Now it is possible to trawl through mountains of images and select what you like, so we don't have to make many truly new and innovative decisions ourselves. And if someone has made this decision, we can all have a go.

Is it thus hard for new designers to break boundary's? Can they do this?

Where are we going? Ach, to go live in a log cabin with a few magazines subscriptions...

A selection of flamboyants for you. A lot of these developed their styles in the late 70s and 80s, was it important to be subversive in the time of Thatcherism. We are leaving a recession now, could this be a time of development for new eccentrics?

Adam Ant

Anna Piaggi

Boy George

Zandra Rhodes

Grayson Perry

Vivienne Westwood

A nice comparison, the late Isabella Blow and Lady Gaga.

Well done Gaga.