A Last! Our Latest Project

Over a year ago we were contacted regarding our vintage shoe lasts. Would we be able  to provide a large quantity of them for display purposes to an international chain of high street stores?

After plenty of sourcing (on our part), much designing (on their part) and a lot of negotiation (on both parts) we were finally able to come up with an action plan. So over the last year we have been providing a steady quantity of vintage shoe lasts to be made into point of sale displays to go into their stores around the globe.

Just before Christmas we got an email - would we be able to provide 1,500 lasts by the end of January so that they could finish the project? Oh, and could they all be left feet and ladies shoe lasts?

So this week saw us doing a 450 mile round trip to deliver the lasts!

All packed and ready to go.......

So that's it, 1,500 lasts successfully delivered! We can't wait to see how the shoe lasts look on display in the stores.

A Load Of Old Cobblers!

At last (see what I've done there!) the vintage shoe lasts have arrived and I am so pleased with them that I just had to show them off.




I love the patina of old wood and have had a pair of vintage lasts displayed in my home for many years so I was really happy to source some for the shop.

They were made at a shoe machinery manufactures in Kettering and rescued from disused shoe factories some have been reworked to make doorstops.




The up stand of the doorstops is a vintage distaff. Distaffs were used in textile mills as a tool used in spinning. It is designed to hold the unspun fibers, keeping them untangled and thus easing the spinning process. It is most commonly used to hold flax, and sometimes wool, but can be used for any type of fiber. Fiber is wrapped around the distaff, and tied in place with a piece of ribbon or string.


Another vintage find has been these string and scissor holders.





These string holders are hand made from bobbins which were used in the textile mills of the Calder Valley near Manchester to hold thread prior to weaving. They are around 100 years old and have been reworked to make these individual string holders and come complete with string and scissors.

I have to confess that one of these has made its way into my kitchen as I can never find my string and scissors.


All of these are now available at http://www.homesanddreams.co.uk/