Friday, July 20, 2012

haberdashery

Do you have favourite words?  Ones that give you a little tingle of delight every time you roll them around your mouth?  (Or is that just me?!)  There are a few words that I love to use…marvellous, pernickety, serendipitous, particularly, splendid…but my absolute favourite is haberdashery.

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I think Jasper may have inherited my love of words.  This morning he told me that his name was Ben Bickersnaff and that he would be back in a moment, “I just have to find a suitable hairstyle.”

Anyway.  Back to haberdashery!  (Or had-a-brash-er-y as Toby says)  Just the word immediately puts wonderful pictures in my mind…lots of small wooden drawers filled with jewel-coloured threads, baskets overflowing with ribbons and trims, boxes and tins crammed with zips, and patchwork pincushions stuffed with vibrant glass-headed pins.  And of course, buttons, my favourite item of haberdashery!

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Most of the vintage haberdashery that I have came from my grandmother, who was given it by her mother.  Those connections make it so special.  I think of them every time I use a piece of ric-rac or pull a zip out of the packaging that has held it for the last three or four decades.

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And how gorgeous is the packaging?!

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Glorious colours!

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I can’t write a post on haberdashery without mentioning a little shop which epitomises all my needlecraft daydreams…l’uccello, in Melbourne.  It’s tucked away behind a fabric-covered door on the second floor, overlooking Swanston Street.  It has a breath-taking array of ‘vintage haberdashery and fancy goods’ - gorgeous fabrics, threads, buttons, trims and all sorts of other splendid goodies.  Even their business cards are beautiful!

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