Hippystitch: vintage fabrics

Saturday, 11 March 2023

Annie Montgomerie - Hand Me Downs - Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Annie Montgomerie - Giraffe

Annie Montgomerie's anthropomorphic creatures capture a sense of nostalgic childhood when children played hide and seek, skipped along the pavement, explored the woods whilst wearing hand me downs from their siblings and couldn't keep their socks up.

Annie Montgomerie - Toftly the Dog

Annie Montgomerie
- Urshalla the Cat

Cats, dogs, foxes, alpacas, bears and more appear in her collection and often have a special "loved" toy with them.

Annie Montgomerie - Alpacas, Bombom the bear, Locka & Eztree the foxes

Her making starts with the face which she creates from muslin and glue until she has a hard outer shell whilst the body and clothes of her creatures are made from vintage finds. Annie says, "I use muslin, 100% wool felt, ‘up-cycled’ wool garments, velvet, leather, cotton, moleskin and blankets for wall hangings and figures. I then stitch on curious little things I find including vintage buttons, charms and jewellery."

Annie Montgomerie - Agny the Sun Bear

Annie Montgomerie - Blip the Mouse

They are skillfully made and spookily realistic. I found them rather unsettling but fascinating.

Annie Montgomerie - Fizzle the Owl

Annie Mongomery - Pidge the Pigeon

The Hand Me Downs exhibition has closed now but was at the wonderful Yorkshire Sculpture Park which is always a great day out.

Monday, 9 March 2015

A Day with Mandy James at Hope & Elvis

Did a fab workshop with Mandy James aka Daisy Moons Sewing Days at Hope & Elvis recently. Mandy uses vintage papers, fabrics and haberdashery to produce her collages. If you haven't seen Mandy's work then take a look here ...

After inspiration overload, Mandy talked us through various techniques with tips and demos. Then we were let loose to raid the supplies provided by the lovely Louise Presley from Hope & Elvis ...