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I was lucky enough to work with the amazing photographer, Tina Sorensen, on a collaborative photoshoot for show casing the latest pillows I had created. The pillows are made using a combination of recycled, vintage fur and luxurious velvet remnants purchased from local interior shops.

The local interior shops I buy my remnants from are run by badass female babes and are within 18 miles of my workshop which keeps my fabric miles low and fabric out of landfill.

Now, back to the photoshoot….. I brought along a car full of props to Tina’s cosy studio in Dalkeith, where we worked together to style different lifestyle shots for each of the pillows. Tina had her own stash of eclectic props but my favourite has to be her antique tan leather sofa, which she bought in the Highlands a few years ago. All I had in mind were a couple of pins from Pinterest of old, dilapidated grand mansion houses with super boujee (is that how you spell that?!) furniture and furnishings. The shoot really was just a natural progression of us trying different props and textures to capture different moods with my collection of recycled fur & velvet pillows. We wanted to capture both a soft and a bold aesthetic with the images to show how versatile these recycled fur & velvet pillows can be.

Tina has such a brilliant eye for detail, she’s also a complete BABE with an amazing sense of humour and I’m very lucky that she has become one of my good friends. (Tina, love ya gal!) Check out more of her work on her website here www.tinasorensenphotography.co.uk and follow her on Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/tinasorensenphotography/

It’s such a joy to be able to transform something that’s been unloved and forgotten in a wardrobe into a beautiful, tactile, comforting piece that can be treasured daily. I’ll be adding more velvet and fur pillows to my online shop on 14th November 2020, keep an eye on my Instagram stories in the next week for sneak peaks of what’s to come. www.instagram.com/milliescottstudio.

If you would like to find out more about remodelling your vintage fur, please get in touch with me.

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing how we styled my recycled fur & velvet pillows. Let me know what you think in the comments below!

As it’s Second Hand September this month I thought I would share a photoshoot I styled back in the autumn of 2017, which was done using almost entirely second hand garments and accessories. All of the garments used for this shoot were preloved/second hand except the dusky pink satin skirt which I made as a sample using old fabric, the brown tights and the buckled boots. Everything else is preloved. The shoot was inspired by the stunning handmade hair combs made by vintage and antique shop Lovage & Lace. Helen, who is the co owner of Lovage & Lace (and also my lovely mum!) makes the hair combs using vintage and antique jewellery she collects from all over the UK. Each comb is uniquely created, due to using vintage items no two are the same, each vintage treasure is hand wired onto a new comb/tiara/hair pin base. You can buy her hair combs online or get in touch with Helen for a custom made piece at www.lovageandlace.com.

For the styling, I saw the lady as someone who had accidentally ended up in the future, having herself come from the early 1900s. I imagined her to be a debutant who ran away from home and she had packed all her loveliest things. We wanted to keep the vintage aesthetic but keep it softly, I absolutely love what Suzi did with the make up and hair. The rich earthy tones on the lids and eyes go perfectly with the garments and the natural backdrops and yet still ooze glamour. Photographer Jade has such an amazing eye for detail and Zoe the model was so lovely and braved the chill air! Enjoy x

Handmade hair pieces are by Lovage & Lace www.lovageandlace.com

Photography by Jade Starmore www.towzietyke.com

Hair and MUA Suzanne Christi www.suzannechristimakeupartistry.com

Model Zoe Gilchrist www.superiormodelmanagement.com

Styling by me www.milliescottstudio.co.uk

During the making process of a garment, you acquire lots of fabric offcuts, some are big enough to use again, some are too tiny to do anything with and then there are a load of scraps that are usable but are very small. If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know I hate to waste fabric, mainly because I’m trying to minimise my waste and my impact on the Earth. It’s also a rebellion against the current fast fashion giants who churn out cheap clothing with profit being more important than planet or people. Anyway, that’s another blog post for another day! I’ve been wanting to do patchwork experimentation for ages, and to some extent I do use this technique with some of the bags that I make. But this time I wanted to purely use my own waste/scraps to create something practical and beautiful.

Firstly, I begin by rifling through my scrap bags (I now have so many bags of differing offcuts and scraps that have been collated I truly am the bag lady) and pick out some colours/patterns I feel go well together. I decided to stick to three different colours/patterns as I felt this wasn’t too crazy and still gave the chosen fabrics their moment to shine.

Once I’m happy with the chosen fabrics scraps, I stitch them together and then top stitch each seam. I absolutely love top stitching as a feature, I think it adds an extra element and structure to a seam. I often use contrast colours for top stitching but as there are a lot of patterns and colours happening with these masks I decided to keep the stitch colour neutral and let the print/colour of the mask get all the glory.  

I then lay out my pattern piece on the patchwork fabric i’ve created and fiddle about until i’m happy with the placement. You don’t want too much bulk when cutting your next shape so you need to be mindful where your feature top stitched seams will be placed. What I love about the patchwork technique is you create such unique and interesting shapes on the fabric, it’s a very intuitive way of creating as you are literally creating as you go and feeling what is best as you make and develop the patchwork fabric. It’s also great to use fabric already in the loop, which prevents it from being sent to landfill, conserves energy and the Earths resources.

I’ve been blown away by the response to these masks and I’m so thrilled so many of you love them. Here are some of the patchwork masks I have made and one of my lovely customers in her one of a kind patchwork face mask! I will be adding more to my online shop on Friday 18^th September 2020.