a thing for tutus

I have a thing for tutus, and I don't care to limit them to only the young, but also the young old farts. It seems with my expansion of "Stars and Robots" into "Union Britt" I have been working predominantly on women's clothing and accesories.

But wait, I still make all these groovy stuffed pillows and things for kids! Hmmm... How to link the two?

So my new direction came to me late lastnight, and I've decided that my mission is:

Taking Mother/Daughter Wear to the Inspirational Edge.

Yes, that's it. So instead of making a smaller duplicate of the same item, I am going to take the fabrics and make something for Mom, something for babygirl, but not a twin set. For instance, I have this beautiful multicolor patterned vintage fabric, sheer as lace. For Mom, I am making a beach skirt which is stretch jersey in black on the top and the sheer fabric for the skirt. For baby, the sheer fabric will be the tutu ruffles on an acid wash denim base. Oh yes, that is what's happening.


Here are some fabrics:






I do still want to continue making clothing for adults, and a lot of the time, that's all I want to do. Not just for moms, but women, girls, men, dudes, chicas, whatever. But give up my Stars and my Robots, which started this whole love affair with etsy and craft fairs, blogging and tweeting, and opened the door to so much more? Naw. No, no way. The Polyfil in me runs deeeeep.

a note about see through skirts

I finished the first prototype for a skirt I designed for my new line. It is a see through skirt, black waistband with a blue, green, pink and purple printed vintage fabric which is completely see through. (whooo!)

This skirt is what I envision the skater girl or rollerderby queen would wear to the beach. Appropriate under garments for this item should include a bathing suit (while at the beach or pool, not while shopping), dancewear (great for throwing on after class), or leggings or tights.

Union Britt will in no way endorse the wearing of this item, or any see through item over a thong, panty or egads, nothing at all.

Ladies, I am not one to stifle someone's creative expression through clothing, but there needs to be a line drawn between sexy (good, go for it, yay! be hot!) and skanky (a "Starlet or Streetwalker" sighting on Fashion Police should not be your goal for your 15 minutes of fame.)

Remember, in regards to revealing too much, dressing for attention will not make you precious. Don't you want someone to find you precious? So keep it classy out there ladies! It's okay to have a sexy sexy dress on with high heels, but lets keep it to one super revealing zone at a time. Nothing should have anyone asking you if you work at a strip club, even if you do.

How to be a Muse

In fashion, you often hear about a designer using a collection to "tell a story." They should make this collection for a particular woman and her lifestyle. What does this woman do? Where is she going? Everyone should want to be her. I am of course basing this in depth knowledge of the fashion world on my extensive study of Project Runway, some podcasts and blogs, and The Fashion Police. I am obviously well schooled, so you should consider any information given here to be amazingly accurate.

Designers have also been known to find a muse. a particular woman, usually a model, who embodies the properties of this fantasy woman whom we would all like to be. And thus begins my tale of how I found my muse. (Facebook, of course)

I majored in Theatre Arts at ECU, then moved to Wilmington, NC to pursue acting using a stage name. I moved out to Hawaii for a bit then ended up in South Carolina. I now am a mother of two in Alabama. Living the dream. I never made it to LA or NY, but via Facebook, I found an old friend who did.

Christy and I did every musical together. She was the coolest girl I knew, and we were super BFFey. Of all the friends I lost touch with, she was the most sorely missed. (Kids, there used to not be email or social networking sites, it was a cold dark terrifying time)

Fast forward fill-in-the-blank years, and I found her on facebook. Yay! It was a beautiful reunion, phone call and all, and I vow never to lose touch again. So Christy moved to New York after graduation, where she held down such exotic jobs as hostess at Planet Hollywood and waitress/performer on a dinner cruise ship. She now lives in LA (actually, on Venice Beach or some beach) where she is an official failed actress (she went on real auditions for years sent out by a real agent and really got called back and almost got a bunch of parts) and has settled into her life as a professional dogwalker http://www.walkindoggies.com/. She works out at Gold's Gym, is covered in tatoos with her cute never ending array of awesome hairdos (yay! that never changed!) and is a Lindy-hopping, karaoke singing fool.

This my friends, is what I personally call "making it." If you don't want to be this girl, then my clothes are not for you. I immediately got a haircut (they only gave me half of what I wanted, I guess they wanted to babystep me from Soccer Mom to awesome fashion designer, grr.) made a meeting with a good friend to help me with a business plan, designed an awesome logo then paid a guy to make it purty, and bought some domain names and started designing my new collection to launch my line.

I have a houseful of fabric and am starting the first pieces. I am hoping to do a live launch party to coincide with a website launch. I am spending my life savings and have no idea what I am doing, but I am thrilled to finally be doing something that lives up to my last known whereabouts according to Christy and my other Theatre-alum long losties. Whenever asked "What ever happend to Brittany?" For all these years all they had to go on was "Last I heard, she changed her name to Winifred and moved to Hawaii." Awesome.

A morning treasure surprise

You know what is considered a nice thing to wake up to, from a crafter's perspective?

Having one of your handmade items chosen to display in a treasury by a complete stranger who appreciated looking at your work.

click here to see said treasury

Treasuries are collections gathered from items found on etsy to convey a particular theme, color scheme, or mood. It is a real feather in your cap to be featured, as they are usually put together by someone you've never met and who isn't otherwise familiar with your shop. It also brings traffic to your shop since people who like to look at treasuries might see your item in a different way.

So here, featured in a beautiful collection of sea related beachy items in colors of blue and green, is my Barracuda Beach Towel. A Stars and Robots original, naturally. Ahh, its great to be famous. (Just quoting the towel, I'd never say that about myself, far too humble.) ;)

to the Limit!

There comes a time when we should all test the boundaries of our comfort zone. Think about the amazing things humans have accomplished. Empires have been built.

Me? Pretty comfortable, not going to lie. That is a personal call to immediate action, there is nothing worse than boredom!

My theatre head in college used to tell us that if you want to be proud of something and do something great, you must try to do something really hard and then accomplish it.


So I hope you like these

and these

and I hope you are ready for this

Enough with the interesting stuff, I actually have to go put my creativity on a (prominent, easily viewed) shelf and get to work! Goodbye life savings, hello Scary Awesome World!