Re-purposed Vintage Linen Pillows

Zippers was not a favorite thing of mine, but in recent years I have learned to not fear them.  Thanks to various tutorials on Pinterest, I am much more comfortable working with zippers.  As a result of that, when I make pillows, they now have a zipper at the bottom.  This allows you to wash the pillow by simply removing the pillow form.

When I find vintage linens at estate sales, I like to see the possibilities with the items I purchase. Sometimes I am lucky to find some real unique and special finds.  Recently, I found two.  These were embroidered panels, very different but both stunning (in my opinion).  I knew immediately, these would become pillows.  These are large pillows.

The first one is a large vintage red-work embroidered  panel now a pillow with a zipper at the bottom.  Red fabric backing.

 The next one is a dimensional floral design on felted wool.  The flowers are all hand-cut felted wool flowers with lots of embroidered details.  Here is the pillow with a zipper at the bottom. Its a long rectangular shape.

Old Vintage linen calendars usually have very pretty illustrations.  These usually are destined to become pillows.  The upcoming fall and winter season inspired my selection in my vast vintage linen stash to create these old linen calendars into pillows.  Sizes vary.

Vintage Hankie Scarves Part 2 of 2 and CreativeGIRL class with Danielle Donaldson

I had planned on posting these vintage scarves weeks ago but as usual, there is always more to do than there are hours in a day.

Since my last blog posting, kids are back to school.  Alex is now in 6th grade, his last year at our neighborhood elementary school.  Next school year, he will be in middle school.

My daughter Laura is the one experiencing a major change in her life, and us along with her.  She is now living in a dorm at Colorado State University (CSU) in Ft. Collins.  Moving day was a family event.  We helped her get her dorm room furniture setup and she has since settled in.  We Skype regularly!  I love being able to see her when we chat.  Love watching her expressions and see her when she laughs.  She is happy!  We miss her and it's a huge adjustment for us but we are happy she is happy!

I also attended a class with Danielle Donaldson hosted by Jeanne Oliver at Old Glory Antiques.  It was the Creative Girl in Denver class.  We created a cover girl in watercolors.  I have loved to paint for more than 25 years but this was my first time painting in watercolors.  My challenge was in figuring out how much water I needed to have on my brush.  I think I was afraid of having too much water on my brush but learned I needed to load the brush with water and watch the magic happen.  I had a great day!   I learned so much!  I am going to make time to continue to play with watercolors.  Love Danielle Donaldson's new book, CreativeGIRL, Mix Media Techniques for an Artful Life.  You can find it on Amazon.com here.  Here is the picture of my girl, inspired by my daughter Laura.

I have been busy working on many new items, including re-purposed linen pillows and started work on an assortment of Halloween items.  A Paris Street Market is in only 1 week!  September 5th.  Next week will be busy making the final preparations for A Paris Street Market plus my dear friend, who is like a sister to me, June will be visiting from San Antonio, Texas.  She will be helping me at A Paris Street Market.  So looking forward to June's visit.

As promised, here all the rest of the vintage hankies:

Vintage Hankie Scarves Part 1 of 2

Working with vintage hankies has become a favorite of mine.  I love the colors, the florals, the fine embroidered lace edgings, the textures. 

Combining 5 vintage hankies that coordinate or complement each other takes time as

 I decide on the 5 vintage hankies that will be re-purposed into a

 one of a kind 

Vintage Hankie Scarf.

I have been posting one or several of these a day on my Instagram account - IsaCreationsVintage.

Here is my new collection of Vintage Hankie Scarves

Available September 5th at

A Paris Street Market 

in Aspen Grove

Littleton, CO

White vintage hankies with embroidery and lace details make a wonderfully unique scarf.

I have decided to keep this one for myself!

My friend Amy (Pink Attic Cat) loves eyelet embroidered details.  I needed to create a new display board for my vintage hankie scarves.  I traded this scarf for a vintage door used in my new display.  Love to barter with Amy, her shop always has vintage finds I must have.

And there is more vintage hankie scarfs,

I will post those next time.

Vintage Embroidered Linen Pin Cushions Summer 2015

During the summers, I typically struggle with having consistent productivity when it comes to Isa Creations. Although I have not even started on one of my summer goals - re-opening my Etsy shop - (That requires a certain "Administrative" frame of mind which I have not been able to find ALL summer).  

Moving on to better news, I have been very productive in other aspects of Isa Creations.  I have been in a "Creative" frame of mind and when I am in that place, I need to stay in that place because that is my favorite!  Most of my work has been accomplished late evenings and into the night. I am definitely a productive night owl.

I recently open an Instagram account, ISACREATIONSVINTAGE where I have been posting many photos of my work.    Here is the link.  Love using the various collage frames and grids to post on Instagram. 

In the last month, I have created  over 110 new vintage linen pin cushions which is a good thing because of those I have sold over 24 pin cushions to Carolyn  (The Barn in Castlerock) who buys them from me wholesale.  I also re-stocked my consignment supply of pin cushions at SEWN located at 18 South Broadway in Denver.  With my existing inventory plus the new ones my inventory, as of yesterday is at 120.  This year I want to make sure my inventory is healthy as I return to A Paris Street Market in Aspen Grove, September 5th, October 3rd and then on to the Holiday shows in November and December.  Last year I was so busy creating holiday inventory, my pin cushion inventory was sad but did I not have any time to create more pin cushions for the holiday shows.  This year, I should not have that problem!   My pin cushions are my #1 best sellers, so I am happy to have a very healthy inventory.

These are photos was my newest batch of over 30 vintage embroidered pin cushions created this past week:

The other area I have had success is with vintage hankies.  The last 4 or so months, I have been lucky to find so many great vintage hankies at various estate sales.  My dear friend Amy of the Pink Attic Cat gave me a wonderful gift a few weeks ago!  She gave me her portable Iron Mangle!   With that gift I took the tall pile of washed vintage hankies and started ironing ALL of them!  This lead to two areas of productivity.

First, I was able to re-stock my Vintage Hankie display boards (ready for shows).    My hankie boards has been looking a bit sparse so it was time to re-stock.  The second, is I have created many one of a kind Vintage Hankie Scarfs (more on that in my next blog post).

And finally, this area is still very much in progress and currently  most of my studio in the basement is a mess; however, I have been making slow progress is consolidating my vintage button collection.  Here is the progress made so far, photos posted on Instagram.

Love my collection of Black Glass, White Vintage, Mother of Pearl vintage buttons!