The Handmade Gang

Between The Buttons Handmade

REcycle REuse REwork RElove

We at BTB handmade are really proud to be supporting local talent! Our design team is made of both designer makers as well as Textile and Fashion students from surrounding universities and colleges. They Recycle and REwork original vintage garments into something new, and are joined in this venture by local Artists and Designers.

 Let me introduce the team ......

FrayedFrocks 

This label is owned and run by Designer Fee Ray. She specialises in recycling old vintage clothing as well as designing and producing fabulous hair accessories. Fee is the assistant manager here at Between the Buttons and is also the head designer of our in store BTBhandmade team, in doing so she works closely with the students from the surrounding colleges and universities offering work placement opportunities and permanent roles as a REwork designer.

Loula Designs

This cute vintage inspired label is run by designer Louise Brack. Having studied at University with Fee Ray she began stocking Between the Buttons with her products earlier in the year and they have been going down a storm!! 

Her collections range from jewellery to accessories and combine new fabrics with found objects and trimmings. 

LucysHappyPlace.com

This is brought to you by Designer and Illustrator Lucy Farfort. 

After having Fee work with her on placement during her degree, she was able to repay Lucy by inviting her to join the handmade team. 

Lucy is one of our newest designers but her fabulous style and use of colour brightens up the store a treat! 

Dolls&Molls Jewellery

Every item by this lovely label has been handmade by Emily. Her collections range from necklace to brooches and rings, all having that quirky edge that is recognisable to being a dolls&molls creation. 

Applique Originals

This beautiful range of handcrafted items are brought to us by Jane Smallcombie. A super talented lady who's eye for detail amazes us.

Her collections range from brooches to scarves and bags.

 Zanna Designs . . Artwork

Switzerland born Suzanne Homer joined the BTBhandmade venture early in 2010.

Her artwork depicts scenes from around Northumberland and are available in prints, cards and mugs. 

Zanna Designs ...  REcycle:REuse

Suzanne Homer is also an established Jewellery Designer as well as Artist.

She has recently developed a new line by recycling broken vintage jewellery and giving it a new life. This will soon be offered as a service in store, so dig out the family heirlooms  and let her work her magic so you can wear them and enjoy!

We hope to in the future have a variety of designers from all backgrounds join the BTBhandmade gang and help us spread the message that REcycle REuse REwork RElove is a moto we should all live by....

If you think you know someone who would be interested in joining us please email us on

fee@betweenthebuttons.com

jack@betweenthebuttons.com

BTB

x

Between the Buttons vintage clothing is part of the Steel Wheels music emporium on Vine Lane in Newcastle, so whether your after some new music or a new frock we really do have everything under one roof!  A family run business so no big bosses in suits, we are local people with our feet on the ground and here to go that little bit further than the other vintage shops in town.

We provide vintage clothing from across the eras for both men and woman as well a handmade clothing line, and stock collections by local designers. However unlike design boutiques where you need to be in your Sunday best before you even enter and take out a small loan to afford any of it ! we aim to have designs at affordable prices so you can treat yourself to more than just one item... and the reason we are able to do this is because we have our own in house design team.

I may be sat behind the till in store, but my background is in textile design, after graduating I was working as an artist and designer before I came to Between the Buttons. One of my trademarks is to recycle old clothing and vintage fabrics which is what I bring to the Business. Our in store clothing line is simply namedBTBhandmade, our moto is REcycle, REuse, REwork, REborn ... and it does exactly what it says on the tin. My design team is lead by myself, and made up of  2 fashion and textile graduates and together we recycle old clothing into something new and get great pleasure out of being able to breathe new life into forgotten garments. 

For example my signature piece is recycling old skirts into dresses, now baring in mind how much thought and effort goes into a piece from the original skirt, to working out how every inch of fabric can be reused,including the zip for it to end up as a dress with a price tag of £20 is pretty remarkable! 

We strongly believe is supporting the local universities and colleges and with the amount of creative fashion and textile courses in this city its nice to be able to give graduates the opportunity of an outlet. Having gone down this path myself i know how hard it can be! Why feel like you have to move to London if we can bring that vibe up here???

The business if ever growing and we have great plans to make it a creative haven. We are in the process of setting up a sewing area in the shop so customers can see us producing the clothing instead of hiding out the back, which will also enable us to start running an alteration service. So many people try on garments and we hear them saying ''oh it would be nice shorter'' or ''its a little big'' ''i don't like the sleeves'' ''the neckline doesn't suit me'' ... with our staff having the skills to be able to do something about it then why wouldn't we? This service ranges from simple hem alterations to bigger projects of totally customizing a garment to meet the requirements of the customer. 

As we all have a background and an interest in fashion, we are all aware of the current trends and how things repeat themselves on the catwalks and high street season after season and most are filtered down from an original vintage garment. So why by a reproduced item that more than one person will have when you can have an original?? 

We have a ''look book'' which in the trade is a book of all the key trends for upcoming seasons, and this has developed into a ''look book rail'' in store, which is where you will find all the hottest trends on the high street in its original form at affordable prices.

This then links into something briefly mentioned earlier. Keeping in the theme of handmade items we have started to stock products of local designers, most new graduates and some who have a few years of business behind them.

 

One of our most exciting projects at the moment is a recycled jewellery line with Northumberland based designer Suzanne Homer, of Zanna Designs. This very talented lady has turned remnants of vintage lace into beautiful earrings, buttons into stud earrings and odd earrings into necklace pendants! you name it she can do something with it!! 

She buys broken vintage jewellery and gives it a new life, again this is something we have developed into a service, where our customers are encouraged to bring in odd earrings, broken necklaces etc.. and either have them fixed for a small fee of around £5 or be a bit more experimental and have a consultation with Zanna and see what she can do with it and have something totally custom made.

We are taking on more and more designers which is really exciting for us!! Although the stock is only available in store for now we do plan to branch out into making this available on our online store too. 

We are currently under going a make over, so hang on in there, change does everyone good and we plan to come back bigger and better.

BTB xx